Research program
Ancient Greek theatre: text, staging, reception
University Co-ordinator
Università degli Studi di FOGGIA -
TRADIZIONE E FORTUNA DELL'ANTICO - FOGGIA(FG)
Research Unit Leader
Francesco DE MARTINO
Description
The knowledge, the repertory of the Muses is limitless. A common formula qualifies it as "the things which are, which will be, which have been", that is to say the present, the future, the past. The poets, however, are not allowed to do so. They must choose their time soon after they have chosen their genre. The ancient heroines' and heroes' feats will be assigned to one of them; both noble and ignoble contemporary events will be allotted to another of them. These poets of the present are either the lyrical poets when they sing of the present connected with existence (love, enjoyment) or the elegiac poets when they sing of recent sorrows. Also the negative heroes of the iambic metre are contemporaries. It is the so-called committed current (Archiloco, Ipponatte) which will be inherited by the committed current of comedy. The committed comic theatre is first of all militant. Its main representatives are the comedians of commitment accustomed to attack real personages by their name: Pericles, Cleone, Iperbolo. The representatives of this militant theatre are not only Cratino, Eupolo, Iperbolo, but also Plato in his early days. Some of his comedies were even entitled to and picked on his contemporary politicians: Iperbolo, Pisandro, Cleofonte, to whom they were dedicated. We should also add Alessi to them. His work Dropide was entitled to the politician with the same name and probably to Filippide (fr. 25 K).This picture is not so stiff, as it might seem. Sometimes the elegy tells about ancient history, preferably about the foundation of a city. So does lyrical poetry exceptionally (e.g. Symonide): There is also a non-committed current of iambic metre which will flow into the non-committed current of comedy. At the same time epics is engaged in choosing from recent history as it is with Cherilo of Samus and the following various Hellenic poets. The tragic Greek theatre may also be considered as committed, along with satirical drama. In this kind of drama the characters may have been chosen among the contemporary historical personages. It is the so-called historical drama, which was born at the beginning of the 5th century B. C. with Frinico, the author of two or three historical plays, later on resorted to by Aeschilus for the Persians. It is the only historical Greek drama still extant. What changes in relation to the committed comedy is the quality of the political commitment. While comedy is mostly addressed to the enemies in the polis, tragedy is addressed mainly to the enemies outside the polis. The favourite characters in the historical drama are the contemporary personages from abroad. In the 5th century B. C., the historical drama is monothematic. It is dedicated to the clash between the Western Civilization and the Eastern Civilization, the Greeks and the Persians. Being Persian the central theme, also the other genres, from epics (Cherilo) to lyrical poetry (Simonide, Timoteo) and comedy (Epicarmo, Chionide, Ferecrate) are under its influence. We should also mention the mythic dramatic plays which have enjoyed a certain relevance in the history of the polis in the 5th century B. C.. From an enquiry carried out on Euripides' Ion, just to give an example, there fundamentally seems to emerge that the myth of the Ionians as an autochthonous race, has played a celebrative role of the grandeur of Athens in the very roaring years of the Peloponnesian War apace with its gradual decline. In the following years, the development of the historical play is interesting and variegated. Satirical tragedies and dramatic plays were entitled to political personalities or to kings of the glorious past (Temistocle, Gige, Moses) or to contemporary tyrants (e.g. Mausolo). This production, though fragmentary, deserves being studied for its relationship with historiography, a genre often in competition with tragedy. The historical drama is a significant chapter not only in the Greek theatre, but also in the Latin theatre: the best known cases are Nevius' Clastidium, the praetextata on the historical contemporary autobiographical theme mentioned by Pollione (cf. Cicero Fam. 10.32.3) staged in the provincial theatrical performances in Cordova in 43 B. C. by L. Cornelius Balbus, quaestor ; Accius' and Cassius' Brutus; Pseudo-Seneca's Octavia. This is the only extant Latin historical play. As to this topic, the research aims at reconstructing the spiritual profile of the female character of Octavia, both to evaluate the weight of the rhetorical apparatus in the way her position as uxor is characterized, and to see the observance of particular anthropological categories which were surely dominant during the imperial age. This first phase of the research will be soon followed by the points of contact between this historical character and the figures of the heroines of the myth to be met along Seneca's plays.A specific up-to-date study in the Greek and Latin historical dramatic plays is missing, specially in the minor ones: they lack in a punctual analysis of the remnants of the historical dramatic plays of the years after the 5th century B. C.. They are interesting indeed in the way they show the development of tragedy from a democratic genre to a court genre. The aim of the research is:1. The Greek and Latin historical dramatic play a. a census of the historical dramatic plays, both certain and hypothetical, by known and unknown Greek and Latin dramatists.b. translations of all the fragments.c. analytical commentaries 2. Comparison between the historical dramatic plays and the comedies entitled to contemporary politicians . 3. Reconstruction of the history of the historical drama fron Frinico to Ezechiel, from Nevius' Clastidium to Pseudo- Seneca's Octavia, with short references to the modern development of the historical dramatic play in the European literatures (e.g. Racine's Bajazet, or Shakeaspeare's historical plays). A special mention deserves Fortblen in the historical dramatic play in German Literature, in reference to German Classicism (Schiller) and to late Austrian Neo-Classicism (Grillparzer). This part of the plan will be treated by Prof. Stefan Niemhaus.
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