GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens ]. R. Green For Eric and Carol Handley ONE OF THE MORE MARKED DEVELOPMENTS in the study of classical drama in the last two decades has been the increasing consciousness that the plays were written for performance. Scholars as a result have become much more concerned with assessing the surviving plays in terms of the impact they can be thought to have made when performed on stage. A theatrical performance is of course a complex inter­ action of text, mise en scene, and audience. Any attempt to reconstruct this coalition must be seriously hampered by the irretrievable loss of a number of the key elements that went to make it up, but the possibilities for useful investigation are not yet exhausted. This contribution does not aim to carry things very far, although I hope that it will have something to say, inter alia, on the way that we should handle some of the evidence.1 I These observations follow on from "Dedications of Masks," RA (1982) 237-48, and have been prompted particularly by Oliver Taplin's "Fifth­ Century Tragedy and Comedy: A Synkrisis, " ]HS 106 (1986) 163-74, and its examination of the generic differences between tragedy and comedy, especially in terms of their relationship to the audience. Abbreviations: " Birds"=]' R. Green, "A Representation of the Birds of Aris­ tophanes", The J.Paul Getty Museum. Greek Vases 2 (Malibu 1985) 95-118; IGD=A. D. Trendall and T. B. L. Webster, Illustrations of Greek Drama (London 1971); M MCl= T. B. L. Webster, Monuments Illustrating Old and Middle Comedy), rev. J. R. Green (=BICS Supp1.39 [London 1978]); MTS2=T. B. L. Webster, Monuments Illustrating Tragedy and Satyr-Play 2 (=BICS Supp!. 20 [London 1967]); Pickard-Cambridge, Festivals 2=A.W. Pickard-Cam­ bridge, The Dramatic Festivals of Athens2, rev. J. Gould and D. M. Lewis (Oxford 1988); Taplin, Stagecraft=O. Taplin, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (Oxford 1977); Taplin, "Synkrisis"=O. Taplin, "Fifth-Century Tragedy and Comedy: A Synkrisis," ]HS 106 (1986) 163-74. 15 GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 16 DEPICTING THE THEATRE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Of the elements that go to make up a theatrical performance, it is worth observing that the text at the time of the original performance may not have been the finite thing that is sometimes assumed from modern analogy. The fifth-century playwright worked to stricter deadlines than many of his more recent counterparts, and often with less time between creations; but whatever one may conjecture about the speed with which he wrote, he certainly would have been foolish not to take the opportuni ty to improve his text if necessary after the experience of performance, before releasing it. 2 It would seem likely that the text was not public property before the performance, but something which the poet used in conjunc­ tion with the performers in rehearsal. 3 It follows that the gap between text and performance was not so great as in some modern situations where, for example, there can be con­ siderable lapses in time between composition and production 2 On speed of writing note recently C. W. Muller, Zur Datierung des sophokleischen Odipus (=AbhMainz 1984.5) 60-77, who argues for a normal two-year gap between tragedians' productions on grounds of observed practice and probable preparation time for a tetralogy (or a set of four plays). Comedians, who had only to create single plays, had an easier time of it in this respect, despite Cratinus fr.237 K.=255 K.-A. (although his "two years" might be no more than the interval between two festivals), and even if the evidence suggests that they continued to write after the award of a chorus, right up to the last moment: see most recently A. C. Cassio, "I tempi di composizione delle commedie attiche e una parafrasi di Aristofane," RivFil 115 (1987) 5-11 (with earlier references). 3 Aristophanes had to have the costume of his Birds very clear at least in his mind before completing the text. On the other hand, it would appear that he released the first version of the Clouds even though he was unhappy with substantial parts of it (see K. J. DOVER, Aristophanes, Clouds [Oxford 1968: hereafter 'Dover'] lxxxff). And one does not know how the second version entered the literary tradition, particularly if it was not performed, as Dover maintains: but see P. Fabrini, AnnPisa 5 (1975) 1-16; Taplin, Stagecraft 13 n.1. More generally, E. Pohlmann, "Zur Friihgeschichte der Oberlieferung grie­ chischer Buhnendichtung und Buhnenmusik," in his Beitrage zur antiken und neueren Musikgeschichte (Frankfurt 1988) 23-40. E. W. Handley points out to me the case of Theodorus, the distinguished tragic actor of the earlier half of the fourth century, who, according to Aristotle (Pol. 1336b27), would not allow any other actor to come on before him. I am not sure how to interpret this, but it could be taken to mean that even classic tragedies (he was famous for his portrayal of Sophocles' Antigone) could be altered to suit the occasion (contra, Pickard-Cambridge, Festivals 2 135). It is perhaps more likely that the reference is to the performance of extracts-since, according to Ephippus fr.16 K.=16 K.-A., Theodorus also gave dinner recitals. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 J. R. GREEN 17 and divergence in culture and/or social conventions. The involvement of the author in the production also meant that there was a much smaller gap than is sometimes presupposed in modern theory of the theatre. 4 The classical playwright seems to have composed for direct yerformance, and he could be argued not to have had much i any thought for posterity. He also wrote with the physical conditions of production in mind and was himself usually involved in the creation of the performance. In this respect he could be reckoned a counter­ part to the classical architect who was present to superintend the construction of a building in something of the role of a master-craftsman, rather than a figure who sat in an office and produced drawings. Similarly, one could reasonably argue that at this period the construction and detailing of the performance was as integral to the poet's activity as the writing of the script or text. (He was out to win a competition in front of a mass audience.) Some notable progress has been made in attempting to reconstruct aspects of performance on the basis of the texts. 5 What makes it difficult to go much further is the nature of the archaeological evidence. • On this question, see recently P. Pavis, Languages of the Stage (New Yark 1982) 18f, and the discussion at 28ff. See also S. Goldhill, Reading Greek Tragedy (Cambridge 1986) 284: "performance does not efface the textuality of drama." I am not convinced that fifth-century drama was 'textual', even if it came to be so later. The dangers of anachronism are very great here. See Taplin, Stagecraft 12-16, but note" Synkrisis" 168 n.26. Wiles has given a pertinent discussion in GaR 34 (1987) 136-51. 5 I think, for example, of Taplin's Stagecraft and Greek Tragedy in Action (London 1978) or his investigation of the use of stage-space by Sophocles in Entretiens Hardt 29 (Vandreuvres/Geneva 1983) 155-74. For these reasons, it seems highly unlikely that a classical playwright wrote plays that could not readily be staged, and while one can see the intellectual point of an argument such as that of Goldhill (supra n.4: 278-86), Euripides must have had a clear idea of how he would stage the 'palace-miracle' scene of the Bacchae, whether or not a modern scholar chooses to take any notice of the problem. Carcinus' bungle, having Amphiaraus resurrected from a temple rather than a tomb (Arist. Poet. 1455a22), presumably implies that his text had earlier told the audience that the central door was a temple and that their belief had not been changed in the meanwhile: I find it hard to believe that this could have happened had there been scenery-indeed this is perhaps a good argument against scenery of such a type. We do not know if Carcinus produced the play himself, but it is strange that the omission was not picked up (whether by producer or actors) unless there had been a last-minute change to the script: see my note in GRBS 31 (1990) 281-85. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 18 DEPICTING THE THEATRE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS I am not much concerned here with the physical features of the Theatre of Dionysus in the fifth century: it would be foolish to try before one learns the results of the new programme of investigation and conservation at present under way.6 We may simply note that, as Gebhard pointed out some years ago, there is "no incontrovertible evidence for an orchestra circle before the theater at Epidauros was built at the end of the fourth cen tury B.C." 7 She also suggested that the rectilinear orchestra is not a design of itself but a function of the early form of the cavea: the orchestra is simply a space between the seating and whatever lay behind, whether terrace or building. Pohlmann's re-examination of the prohedriai in the Theatre has shown that they must have been in a straight line, and he concurs in thinking that the form of the orchestra must have been like those at Thorikos and Trachones. 8 He points out that the 6 See W. W. Wurster, "Die neuen Untersuchungen am Dionysostheater in Athen," Architectura 9 (1979) 58-76, who points out that such a programme had been been urged by Broneer as long ago as 1935 (AJA 39, 418). 7 E. Gebhard, "The Form of the Orchestra in the Early Greek Theater," Hesperia 43 (1974) 428-40. Winter (Phoenix 37 [1983] 41) argues that Athens, as the centre of drama, should have had a high stage and circular orchestra before Epidauros, but not necessarily by very much. Polacco has recently suggested that Athens was later: Dioniso 57 (1987) 267-79. Whether one agrees with Gebhard's interpretation of the evidence or not, it is surprising how many scholars continue to assume without question a large circular orchestra. For other work on non-circular orchestras, see in the first instance C. Anti, Teatri greci arcaici da Minosse a Pericle (Padua 1947), and then G. Butterweck, "Das Dionysostheater. Neue Rekonstruktion des Grundrisses des Dionysostheaters und der theatralischen Architekturdarstellungsformen in Athen im 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr.," Maske und Kothurn 20 (1974) 105-47; F. Kolb, Agora und Theater. Volks- und Festversammlung (=A F 9 [Berlin 1981]), and his "Polis und Theater," in G. A. Seeck, ed., Das griechische Drama (Darmstadt 1979) 504-45; for the (hypothetical) early trapezoidal orchestra at Syracuse, L. Polacco and C. Anti, Il teatro antico di Siracusa (Rimini 1981), and Polacco, "Le assimetrie del teatro antico di Siracusa," NumAntCI 13 (1984) 85-93. Compare too the early theatre at Metapontum, best published in D. Mertens and A. De Siena, "Metaponto: il teatro­ ekklesiasterion, I," BdA 16 (1982) 1-57. R. Rehm's discussion in GRBS 29 (1988) 276-83 was accessible to me only after my article was essentially written. 8 E. Pohlmann, "Die Proedrie des Dionysostheaters im 5. J ahrhundert und das Biihnenspiel der Klassik," MusH elv 38 (1983) 129-46; see also his «Biihne und Handlung im Aias des Sophokles," AuA 32 (1986) 20-32. On Thorikos T. Hackens, AntCI 34 (1965) 39-46. On Trachones see O. Alexandri, Ergon (1980) 24f, Praktika (1980) 64~7, Ergon (1981) Hf. Note also W. R. Biers and GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 J. R. GREEN 19 playing area at Trachones must have been ca 15 x 7 m., that at Thorikos ca 25 x 12 m., and the one at Athens not much larger. On this interpretation, the stage was about 25 m. long and formed a finite boundary to the activity. What is striking about this new reconstruction, especially for those brought up on a more traditional view, is the very short distance between the actors and the front rows of the audience. It not only makes for closer interaction between actors and audience (and at a practical level makes it easier for comic actors to throw nuts and figs into the audience),9 but it affects our view of the style of acting at this period: the style could be more restrained, more subtle, its gestures reliant on hand-signals as much as arm­ signals-by contrast with the more extravagant style that develops in the larger theatres of the fourth century.l0 Such a reconstruction of 'intimacy' may also lend credence to the stories of interruption by members of the audience-as Socrates standing up to be compared with his stage-version, or the more doubtful one of Socrates calling for the repetition of the first three lines of Euripides' Orestes. ll The estimated length of the stage relative to the distance from the audience is quite large. Producers must have avoided the effect of a tennis- T. D. Boyd, "Ikarion in Attica: 1888-1981," Hesperia 51 (1982) 1-18. The views of Gebhard and Pohlmann have recently been attacked by N. G. L. Hammond, G R BS 29 (1988) 5-9. I remain convinced that the line of stones claimed by Dorpfeld to mark the edge of an orchestra 25 m. in diameter (R in his plan, more often called SM 1 from Fiechter's) was never as regular as it was made to appear in the drawings, despite Hammond's stout defence of Dorpfeld and suggestion that they have suffered considerably since excavation: compare the early photographs. 9 Cf Ar. Wasps 58f, Plut. 797ff; also Peace 960-66. 10 See B. Marzullo, "Die visuelle Dimensionen des Theaters bei Aristoteles," Philologus 124 (1980) 189-200; on Aristotle's reaction to contemporary acting styles, see also Taplin, Stagecraft 477ff, and S. Halliwell, Aristotle's Poetics (London 1986) 337-43, esp. 342f. It is worth adding that, without the analogy of later theatres to help us, the usual estimates of the size of the audience have little basis. Although not specfically concerned with the absolute size of the Theatre of Dionysus at any given point in the fifth century, L. Gallo has made some good points of methodology on the problem of relating population size and theatre capacity: "La capienza dei teatri e il calc 010 della popolazione. II caso di Atene," in 1. Gallo, ed., Studi salernitani in memoria di R. Cantarella (Salerno 1981) 271-89. 11 Ael. VH II.l2 (cf Dover xxxiii); Cic. Tuse. 4.63. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 20 DEPICTING THE THEATRE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS match-bouncing dialogue from end to end-but they must equally have enjoyed the possibilities of groupings of figures, the presentation of the entry and approach of new characters, or the ready ability to ignore a figure present on another part of the stage. 12 A long stage would also account for the phenom­ enon in tragedy pointed out by Jebb and, following him, P. D. Arnott: the four- or five-line introduction to the audience of figures appearing on the crane. They are an instruction to look to one end of the stage area.13 This seems to be the sort of background against which we should set our surviving representations of fifth-century theatre. My main concern, however, is with establishing the iconographic tradition of these representations and relating it to the way Athenians regarded theatre and theatrical performance. I start from two basic suppositions, first that the vase-painter (or the coroplast) can to a large degree be regarded as an ordinary member of the audience. He was, however skilled, an artisan and does not seem to have possessed the level of cre­ ativity, individuality, inventiveness, and desire to interpret that we associate with modern creative artists. His function within society was a different one, just as the conventions of fifth- 12 On this line see now E. Pohlmann, "Sucheszenen auf der attischen Biihnen des 5. und 4. Jhs. Zur Biihnentechnik der Eumenides, des Aias, der Acharner und des Rhesos," in W. Dahlheim et al., edd., Festschrift Robert Werner (=Xenia 22 [Konstanz 1989]) 41-58=L. De Finis, ed., Scena e spet­ tacolo nell' antichita (=Atti del Con'llegno lnternazionale di Studio, Trento, 28-30 marzo 1988 [Florence 1989]) 89-109. 13 Greek Scenic Con'llentions (Oxford 1962) 73. It is normally supposed that the crane was situated on the stone base T in the Theatre of Dionysus: e.g. C. W. Dearden, The Stage of Aristophanes (London 1976) 75-85. For the reasons just stated, I would prefer to have it towards the right-hand end of the stage as the audience saw it; one could add that the right was the favourable side and therefore appropriate for the appearance of gods, and that it would be a more credible fantasy for Trygaios to fly near Peiraeus at Peace 164f. Pollux (4.128), for what it is worth, says it was situated by the "left" parodos at a height above the skene. On the crane see more recently A. L. H. Rabkin, "That Magnificent Flying Machine. On the Nature of the 'Mechane' of the Theatre of Dionysos at Athens," A rchNews 8:1 (1979) 1-6, although he continues the suggestion that it was located on the platform T at the centre of the stage. Newiger gave an excellent survey of the evidence for its use in Dioniso 59 (1989) 173-85=Wiirzjbb 16 (1990) 33-42. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 J. R. GREEN 21 century Athenian society were different from ours.14 It is there­ fore reasonable to regard him as reacting like an ordinary mem­ ber of the audience. The second point is a self-evident one, but one which constantly seems to need repetition: Athenian vase­ paintings are not sketch-books, let alone photographs. 1s The whole question of scenes of so-called everyday life is an extremely difficult one, but what does seem increasingly clear is that these scenes are fairly limited in number and type, and that they fall wi thin certain conventions and categories. 16 Think of what one does not find in Athenian vase-painting. The vase­ painter was certainly not concerned with recording society and its habits in the sense of a later nineteenth-century painter in Paris, a 'painter of modern life'. His work falls within quite a strict conventional framework, and we need to remember that, as Schefold succinctly puts it, «griechische Bilder sind Symbole, keine Naturkopien. n 17 This does not mean that a vase-painter could not develop a degree of inventiveness within his in­ herited traditions, or that he could not expand them-indeed this is what classical Athens is about, in both art and literature. I Scenes that concern Comedy go back as early as the middle of the sixth century and run as a continuous series, without break or change in arproach, past 486, the stated date of the official introduction 0 Comedy at the Dionysia. We have no means of knowing what this involved-whether an existing activity was simply recognized as an existing activity, whether official contests and/or records of contests merely began at this point, or something already existing at the Lenaia was admitted to the 14 One could add that he was much more bound by market forces than a modern artist, and his product was the more likely to abide by (and be created within) the conventions of society, conventions that were much more restricted then than now. For a useful study of the traditional character of Greek society and literature, see G. M. Sifakis in EpistEpet Thess 12 (1973) 453-70. 15 The point is made graphically by the New Yorker cartoon used as the first illustration in Gombrich's Art and Illusion (London 1960). 16 See, for example, the articles in Beitrage zum antiken Realismus. Schriften der Winckelmann-Gesellschaft III (Berlin 1977). 17 Die Gottersage in der klassischen und hellenistischen Kunst (Munich 1981)127. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 22 DEPICTING THE THEATRE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Dionysia. 18 Certainly the vase-paintings make it clear that Com­ edy was a pre-existing genre, and they exhibit no change in style of presentation such as might suggest a modification in the nature of Comedy at that date. 19 The scenes at this period depict choruses and in only one case, the skrphos in Boston, is there a figure who could by any stretch 0 the imagination be con­ sidered an actor or proto-actor. 20 The convention crystallized from the initial stage: a chorus of figures, normally with a piper.21 The piper can stand at the head of a row of figures, or in the middle with those on each side facing toward him, as on the lekythos from the Kerameikos (PLATE la, b).22 When the piper is in the middle, it is difficult to be sure if he is thought of as facing or leading the others, but in some cases he clearly leads, and if one were forced to make a decision, this may well be the general rule. One possible exception seems to reinforce the case. On the skyphos in Thebes (PLATE 2a, b), we have, on one side, old men wearing cloaks rushing on with torches. 23 This is 18 See E. Capps, The Introduction of Comedy into the City Dionysia (Chicago 1903) and Hesperia 12 (1943) 10f; Pickard-Cambridge, Festival?- 82. The date rests on the statement in the Suda that Chionides won the first victory eight years before the Persian invasion. Of course official recognition at the Lenaia did not happen until 442. 19 I attempted to collect and illustrate all the surviving scenes of this type in "Birds," and I give that as the primary reference in what follows. Add to the list the black-figure skyphos, B. Fedele et al., Antichita della collezione Guarini (Galatina 1984) 45f, pI. 43; it has dancers with helmets, striped mantles, dotted chitons, and hotala (very like those of the Wiirzburg and Brooklyn vases: "Birds" nos. 9f, figs. 12f). Another example of the second series of dolphin-riders (" Birds" nos. 13-17) is to be found on the tondo of a black-figure cup of the Leafless Group in Los Angeles: K. Hamma, ed., The Dechter Collection of Greek Vases (San Bernardino 1989) 42f no. 22 (ill.). I am most grateful to Mr and Mrs Dechter for inviting me to examine this and others of their vases. 20 Boston 20.18; M. Bieber, The History of the Greek and Roman Theater2 (Princeton 1961) fig. 125;" Birds" no. 17, fig. 20B. 21 The iconography seems to owe something to the earlier representations of padded dancers, but the latter tend to be less formally organized-as perhaps the performances themselves were. For a full and analytical treatment see A. Seeberg, Corinthian Komos Vases (=BICS Suppl. 27 [London 1971]). For eighth-century pipers leading dancers or playing in front of them see e.g. M. Wegner, Musik und Tanz (=ArchHom 3 [Gottingen 1968]) pis. 3ff. 22 Athens, Kerameikos 5671; "Birds" no. 13, fig. 16A-B, ABV 518 (Theseus Painter). 23 Thebes B.E. 64.342; "Birds" no. 12, fig. 15A-B. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 ]. R. GREEN 23 surely the entry. On the other side of the vase, we have what seem to be these same old men doing hand-stands, having put their cloaks aside. 24 For the spectator this was presumably a remarkable dance, and, if this interpretation is right, the depiction is permissible iconographically because we have already had the standard representation on the other side of the same vase. On the psykter by altos decorated with a chorus of dolphin-riders, the figures sing btl 8EAq>lVO~, and Sifakis has argued that the words should be from their anapaestic entry­ song. 25 The first entry was, of course, the point at which the chorus usually made its greatest visual imract, at least in terms of costume. Old Comedy was a type 0 theatre in which, to judge by both representations and titles, the character of the chorus could be repeated over the years. Within such a convention, any poet aiming to win the competition would want to appear original and inventive, and would therefore want to give the appearance of his chorus a new twist, particularly if copying was not well regarded.26 Thus our three surviving representations of Birds are all quite differentF 24 On "stripping" see e.g. R. C. Ketterer, "Stripping in the Parabasis of the Acharnians," GRBS 21 (1980) 217-21. 25 "Birds" no. 6, fig. 9; ARV2 1622.7 bis; Paralipomena 259,326; Sifakis in BICS 14 (1967)36f. 26 Although the analogy is not entirely a safe one, it is perhaps worth comparing Aristophanes' comments on the lack of originality of his competitors, or theirs about him: see Knights 400 (on Cratinus), Clouds 553-59 (on Eupolis, Phrynichus, and Hermippus), Frogs 12-15 (on Lycis and Ameipsias), fr.333 K.=347 K.-A. (on Krates), or (on Aristophanes) Eupolis fro 78 K.=89 K.-A. (Baptai, saying he helped Aristophanes compose the Knights) and Cratinus fro 200 K.=213 K.-A. These lead into the implied comparisons with other poets, such as Clouds 537-43, Lysistrata 1217-20, Wasps 56ff (on Megarian jokes), Frogs 1 ff, Plutus 797ff, but their function can be different, for example as an amusing way to introduce low or slapstick humour. See K. J. Dover, Aristophanic Comedy (London 1972) 214. 27 (1) Berlin F 1830; Bieber (supra n.20) fig. 124; "Birds" no. 11, fig. 14; (2) London B 509, Bieber fig. 123, "Birds" no. 8, fig. l1A--C; (3) Malibu 82.AE.83; "Birds" figs. 3, 22. Note also the matching bird-man terracottas, one in the Schimmel collection (0. W. Muscarella, ed., Ancient Art. The Norbert Schimmel Collection, New York [Mainz 1974] no. 49 [ill.], and J. Settgast, ed., Von Troja bis Amarna. The Norbert Schimmel Collection, New York [Mainz 1978] no. 89 [ill.]) and the other formerly in the Zewadski collection, Tampa, Florida, and given by him to the Emory University Museum, Atlanta, Georgia (1988.34.10; Charles Ede Ltd., Greek and Roman Terracottas VIII [London 1985] no. 18 [ill.]; Emory University Museum Newsletter 2.3 [1989] 5). GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 24 DEPICTING THE THEATRE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS The perception of the importance of this first entry seems to have survived a long time. It is the entry that seems to be shown in the early vase-paintings. It looks as if Cratinus made much of it in their song. 28 And it remained as a convention even after the chorus had lost most of its place in the action of the drama. Sifakis has given a convincing demonstration that Aristotle, in that notorious passage in the Nicomachean Ethics where he comments (unfavourably) on comic choruses and the use of purple, must be referring to the wearing of purple cloaks at the initial entry.29 Again, it seems certain that the com­ memorative reliefs from the Athenian Agora, probably of soon after the middle of the fourth century, also show the entry of the chorus. 3o They have a piper leading a chorus that dances, as usual, with a uniform step. The reliefs are important because they are public monuments and show how one represented and identified a comedy at a public, quasi-official level. By this date it was a traditional, old-fashioned convention and one that was very soon to be replaced,3! but the very survival of the tradition shows how strong it must have been in the fifth century, when the chorus mattered. Even in the comedy of Menander, the one point at which the chorus is referred to is the initial entry.32 On this issue, the interpretation of both the archaeological and the literary evidence seems to point in the same direction. An interesting feature of the depictions of Comedy is that they are literal in their approach. The vase-painter seems almost to take a delight in showing the detail as it was in the orchestra. At one level, this must reflect the importance of the visual element in the production of Comedy, and the effort that the poet put into this side of the production-in that the costuming 28 As pointed out by Taplin, Stagecraft 251 n.3, 425. 29 G. M. Sifakis, "Aristotle, E.N., IV, 2, 1123Aa9-24, and the Comic Chorus in the Fourth Century," AJP 92 (1971) 41 (}-32. 30 See M M C 3 118f, AS 3-4 with references. 31 By an appropriate selection of masks: cf the Aixone relief, MMC3 118, AS 2 with references; H. J. Mette, Urkunden dramatischer Auffuhrungen in Griechenland (Berlin 1977) 136, III B 5, 2. D. Whitehead's suggestion (The Demes of Attica [Princeton 1986] 218f) that it records a contest between five pairs of choregoi since there are five masks on the relief, seems highly unlikely: the masks represent the cast of a play. 32 Asp. 245-48, Dysk. 230ff, Epitr. 169ff, Perik. 191 ff. Professor Sommerstein reminds me of the herald's command to bring on the chorus at Ar. Ach. 11. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 J. R. GREEN 25 of a chorus was inextricably bound up with the character he created for it. 33 Indeed he cannot have produced a definitive version of his script before he thought out the costume. One could even argue that in the earlier periods of Old Comedy, the creation of the character of the chorus was the first step in the creation of a comedy. Aristotle (Poet. 1449b5-9) implies that the introduction of coherent plots in comedy occurred quite late (since he names Crates, perhaps after 450), and so it is not only permissible to see the chorus as the original core of comedy, but, in a traditional sense, the play. That is why comedies were so often named after their choruses. For the vase-painter and his public, the appearance of the chorus was how one identified the play. No titles are preserved on the vases.34 Just as it is argued that the fifth-century Athenian was aurally aware and had an acute sense of the spoken (as distinct from the written) word, so, in a period before one was bombarded with visual images, he must have been very visually aware.35 In a depiction of a chorus, he must have had no trouble in identifying the play from the drawing, and versions of a single chorus by different painters show the drawings to be remark­ ably similar to each other and, one would therefore suppose, accurate.36 33 See MacDowell's comments on the importance of the production, as distinct from the words, CQ N5. 32 (1982) 25, even though his concerns are dif­ ferent (Callistratus and Philonides), and, more generally, Taplin, Stagecraft 12ff. Also my comments in "Birds" 118. H Of some relevance here is A. L. Brown's point (C Q N.s.34 [1984] 268f) that firm titles for plays may well not have been applied until some considerable time after the event (although Aristophanes seems to have had the title for the Knights already at Ach. 301, and Thes. 850 seems to refer to the Helen). See also O. Taplin,IHS 95 (1975) 184ff; M. L. West, IHS 99 (1979) 131; A. Sommerstein, Aeschylus, Eumenides (Cambridge 1989) 12. 35 M. Robertson (History of Greek Art [Cambridge 1975] 63-66, 90-93, 162f, 299) makes this clear with regard to terror-symbols in the sixth century. The fifth-century viewer of a picture was probably more sophisticated in reading pictures, but still not jaded. As a possible analogy one may note writers' (and especially Aristophanes') awareness of the appearance and characteristics of wild animals and birds, a fact which for some reason continues to amaze modern commentators. 36 There is no hint that the vases showing a single comic performance were produced over any noticeable length of time. The depictions would seem to have been made near the time of performance only and not to have entered into any pictorial tradition. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 26 DEPICTING THE THEATRE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS At another and arguably more important level, this approach to the depictions of comedy coincides with what we know of the way Comedy was treated in the theatre. The question of 'dramatic illusion' now has a large literature and there is no point in reiterating the details hereY Although Sifakis' view that there is no dramatic illusion in Old Comedy has not met with general acceptance, he has a strong point, and there is in any case no doubt that it was part of the convention of Old Comedy that the audience remained aware of the artificiality of what took place. 38 Apart from the self-referential aspects of the texts, the costume of the actors with their phalloi and grotesque padding (padding which was used for those playing women as well as those taking male roles) is of itself far from naturalistic. 39 Old Comedy was always playing a game and the audience saw it for what it was. This attitude is reflected in the 'literal' treatment we see in the vase-paintings. They show the costumes of the choruses in all their details. As always, it is the exceptions that are interesting. Both the Dolphin-Riders represented by altos and the Dolphin-Riders of the later play (PLATE Ib) fail to show how the costume actually worked in the orchestra. One assumes that the players' legs must have come down within and below the dolphins and that the legs we see were artificial, just as the intended feet of the London Birds were at the players' knees but there shown literally (see" Birds" 109). In these cases 37 Fundamental is G. M. Sifakis, Parabasis and Animal Choruses. A Contri­ bution to the History of Attic Comedy (London 1971) 7-14; see also R. Crahay and M. Delcourt, "Les ruptures d'illusion dans les comedies antiques," Melanges Henri Gregoire IV (=AnnPhiIHist 12 [Brussels 1952]) 83-92; T. Gelzer, RE Suppl. 12 (1970) 1538ff; Dover (supra n.26) 55-59; F. Muecke, "Playing with the Play: Theatrical Self-Consciousness in Aristophanes," Antichthon 11 (1977) 52-67; A. M. Wilson, "Breach of Dramatic Illusion in the Old Comic Fragments," Euphrosyne 9 (1978-79) 145-150; G. Roux "Aristophane au theatre," in Stemmata. Melanges Labarbe (=AntCI Suppl. [Liege 1987]) 91-100; and the survey of examples by G. A. H. Chapman, "Some Notes on Dramatic Illusion in Aristophanes," AJP 104 (1983) 1-23. There is also much useful comment in Taplin, "Synkrisis"; see too T. Kowzan, "Les comedies d' Aristophane, vehicule de la critique dramatique," Dioniso 54 (1983) 83-100. 38 N. Slater's "Play and Playwright References in Middle and New Comedy", LCM 10.7 (1985) 103ff, gives some useful leads on the changes in the periods after Old Comedy. 39 The artificiality of satyr-costume with its tights and phalloi is not relevant, since satyrs are not supposed to be people. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 J. R. GREEN 27 the painters were to this extent persuaded by the characters created. One may note in parallel that, with the important exception of the parabasis, where the chorus could conven­ tionally speak on behalf of the poet, ruptures of the 'illusion' tend to concern the actors or the play itself as a piece of theatre. The chorus keeps its integrity. In reading the language of Athenian vase-paintings relating to comedy, the presence of a piper means that we have a chorus, and the chorus shown represents a specific comedy.40 Among the characteristics of the figures one may note that they dance with a uniform step and that they are uniformly dressed. (The same applies to the later Agora reliefs.) It is this latter aspect, their uniform appearance, that students of literature seem to find hardest to accept.41 Nevertheless the evidence of the depic­ tions is clear and there are, so far at least, no exceptions. As a matter of principle, it seems to me dangerous to reject direct contemporary evidence in favour of what is, after all, modern interpretation of texts for which we have no stage directions or instructions from the playwrights.42 Two other points also seem relevant. The first is that within this uniformity of dress, minor variation was allowed, even exploited. This is clear on the dress of the sixth-century dancers on the hydria formerly in the collection of Henning Throne­ Holst (PLATE 3),43 and on the corselets of the five stilt-dancers on the amphora in Christchurch ("Birds" no. 4, fig. 7). On the former the men's dress is (a) yellow with red bands, (b) in yellow and black quarters, (c) black and yellow with red and with black trim, and (d) red with black trim: that is the colours are varied within a range of yellow, red, and black but the style and cut of the dress is the same throughout. The corselets of the Christchurch dancers are similarly varied within a standard 40 For the piper in tragedy see below and Beazley (n.61 infra). 41 See the reaction of O. Taplin, "Phallology, Phlyakes, Iconography and Aristophanes," PCPS 213 (1987) 92-104, and his more recent, revised version, "Classical Phallology, Iconographic Parody and Potted Aristophanes," Dioniso 57 (1987) 95-109. 42 See O. Taplin, "Did Greek Dramatists Write Stage Instructions?" PCPS 203 (1977) 121-32. On the use of evidence note Dover vii: "If I have to choose between a dogma of Apollonios Dyskolos and what is inscribed on a fragment of stone from Aristophanic Athens, I choose the latter." 4J "Birds" no. 2, fig. 5. Add Christie's (London), Sale Catalogue, 8 June 1988, no. 37 (colour ilL). GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 28 DEPICTING THE THEATRE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS scheme. There are hints in the literary sources too, for example in Aristophanes' Birds, that colour could add variety within an otherwise standardized series of costumes. The chorus was a group, and it took its identity from being a group. Second, when a comic poet has a character point up differen­ ces within the group, he could be using and exploiting these small differences, or he could be doing it as a joke when the audience could quite clearly see that there was no difference, 44 or on occasion he could be verbally enhancing what is there. From the Nesoi, variously attributed to Archippus and Aris­ top hanes, we have a fragment that seems to describe the over­ cast, cloudy appearance of what one takes to be a single island, but the words can hardly describe the dress or appearance of an individual chorus member in the orchestra (fr.395 K.=410 K.­ A.). This last phenomenon, verbal enhancement, occurs more often in tragedy, and we shall discuss it again in that context, but we are used to it at a simple level when we are told, often early in the play, what the stage represents-palace-court, sanctuary, countryside, urban street, etc. 45 One can be persuaded to see tears quite often, or, on one occasion, gore dripping from the faces of Aeschylus' Erinyes.46 The latter are in fact a useful example. The vases nearest in time to Aeschylus' play represent comparatively simple costumes; and unless they are totally misleading, they strongly suggest that the words of the text not only emphasized features of costume and mask but developed 44 As a parallel to this sort of case, one could think of occasions when a male calls a female attractive (or acts as if she were), but the audience can see that she is not only grotesquely padded but wears an unattractive mask. Cf the ugly nymphs on Apulian bell-krater in London, F 151; A. D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou, The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia I (Oxford 1978) 100, no. 252 (in the Eumenides Group among the followers of the Tarporley Painter), and A. D. Trendall, Phlyax Vases2 (=BJCS Suppl. 19 [London 1967]) no. 37, or the hag called Charis on the Moretti bell-krater: Trendall, Ph/yax no. 45, pI. 2; JGD IV.18. Both belong fairly early in the fourth century and are most likely Athenian -inspired. 45 See supra n.5 on Carcinus and the temple. 46 On such questions as the representation of weeping on stage, see the useful article by F. L. Shisler, -The Use of Stage Business to Portray Emotion in Greek Tragedy," AJP 56 (1945) 377-97, esp. 381,392,394. On the Erinyes see P. G. Maxwell-Stuart, -The Appearance of Aeschylus' Erinyes," GaR 20 (1973) 81-84, although he is mainly concerned with interpreting the text. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 ]. R. GREEN 29 their appearance in the imagination of the audience. 47 Given the nature of the genre, this verbal enhancement is much more common in tragedy, but it must (despite involving something we might call dramatic illusion) have happened to some degree in comedy. In Frogs, one may doubt that Dionysus was made to look completely like Heracles, or in his turn, Xanthias, when they exchanged roles, and it is highly unlikely that they exchanged masks. Dionysus still had to look recognizably like Dionysus for the sake of the audience. Yet, for the purposes of the drama, the audience could be persuaded to believe that Aeacus thought that Xanthias was Heracles and Dionysus a slave. Superficially, of course, this transformation must have been carried out by the exchange of identifying items such as lion-skin, club, and baggage, but Dionysus-masks and slave­ masks do not look like Heracles-masks, and the basic slave costume seems to have differed from that of a god. 48 That is, beyond the symbolic identifiers, the audience was persuaded by the words. It is of course an extremely common technique even in relatively illusionistic theatre to have a transparent but dramatically successful change of costume. To look at the question of so-called verbal enhancement the other way round, there seems to be little point in having choruses of river-gods such as we have on the London hydria or the Oxford CUp49 unless they were at some stage distinguished by words (we do not seem to have much evidence for river-gods as a generic). But they were all dressed the same way. Such individualization, created by words more than appearance, seems to me possible as a quite frequent occurrence. And so far as one can tell, this individualization of chorus-members was never maintained for very long in the play. 47 See, for example, the hydria in Berlin (F 2380; ARV2 1121.16; J.-M. Moret, L'Ilioupersis dans La ceramique ita/iOle (Rome 1975) pI. 44.2; K. Schauenburg, Festschrift fur Frank Brommer (Mainz 1977) pI. 69.2 (in a survey of Erinyes); or later, and seemingly more interpreted, the column-krater London 1923.10-16.10; AR V2 1112.5 (Orestes Painter); ICD III 1.8. 48 This sort of question is well discussed by L. M. Stone, Costume in Aristophanic Comedy (New York 1981). 49 London B 308, "Birds" no. 5, fig. 8; Oxford 1971.903, " Birds" no. 7, fig. lOA-B. I was mistaken in "Birds" in calling them minotaurs or bull-men, as Carola Weiss has shown in Criechische Flussgottheiten in vorhellenistischer Zeit (=Beitrage zur Archa%gie 17 [Wurzburg 1984]) 109ff, esp.118ff and pI. 10.2. I am most grateful to Heide Froning for bringing this to my attention. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 30 DEPICTING THE THEATRE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS It is for all these reasons that I cannot accept Taplin's view, well as it is put, that the Getty Birds vase (PLATE 4) shows the Just and Unjust Arguments dressed as fighting cocks from the first version of Clouds. 50 Leaving aside the absence of their cages, they are not dressed as actors, and, more importantly, the language of the vase-painting, the construction of the com­ position-piper with dancers-says that what we have is a chorus, not actors (Cf PLATE 3), and their identity of dress is no objection to their being from Aristophanes' Birds .51 If we use the material objects as a source of evidence for audience reaction, the lack of depictions of comic actors until the later part of the fifth century is a potentially useful piece of information. It is of course negative evidence with all its inher­ ent dangers, and in attempting to use it, we have to recognize that the accepted mode of depicting comedy had been by the chorus. The chorus convention had been little used during the middle and third quarter of the century, but nonetheless, given that a convention existed-and continued to exist, as the Getty Birds vase and the later monuments show-one could argue that it would take an important development to upset that convention. It is probably for this sort of reason that our earli­ est depictions are of actors on their own, without clear context even from other figures let alone the sort of scenes one finds on South Italian vases. The Agora cup fragment unfortunately does not preserve the head of the figure, so we cannot say if he wore a mask or carried it. 52 He is, however, shown on his own, and he does not seem to have been doing very much. It may 50 See supra n.4t. It should be added that he has now modified his view, both in public lectures and in his forthcoming book Comic Angels and Other Approaches to Greek Drama through Vase Paintings. 51 His point that some of the birds are female, not male, is answered ef­ fectively by E. G. Turner's discussion of the satyrs of Sophocles' Ichneutai, in J. H. Betts et aL, edd., Studies in Honour of T. B. L. Webster (Bristol 1988) II 156, where he points out that a number of the indubitably male satyrs of the chorus bear female names-because, in this case, they are a hunting pack and packs of hounds in classical Athens were normally bitches. It may be worth emphasizing again the connexion with satyr-play in the staging of Birds. 52 Athens, Agora P 10798, M MCl 31, AV 3 (with references). I have omitted here the red-figure column-krater by the Syriskos Painter in Tarquinia (RC 8261; ARV2 260.12; G. Ferrari, La ceramica a figure rosse [=Materiali del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Tarquinia 11 (Rome 1988)] no. 27 with full references) because I am still not quite convinced by Ferrari's arguments that the vase shows three comic actors. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 J. R. GREEN 31 date to about 430. From about the same date or a fraction earlier is the Cyclops on a red-figure lekythos in Athens. It has not been possible for me to examine the vase and I know it only from the rather inadequate published photograph. 53 I am not quite sure either if he has to do with Comedy. He is shown as a balding figure with straggly hair and bushy beard; his face is satyr-like with squat nose and apparently pointed ear; his 'normal' eye is shown as closed but there is another (open) eye on the upper part of the forehead. He wears a dotted costume (animal skin?) with narrow sleeves to the wrist and a short skirt; below that it is difficult to tell if he has a phallos (which would be very low) or if what we see is the flap of a long boot on the advanced left leg (the right leg is missing). He holds uncertain objects in his right and left hands. If he is a figure from Comedy, one may be tempted by the idea of Cratinus' Odysseis, but an origin in satyr-play can by no means be ruled out. Next chronologically comes the Vlasto chous with a comic Perseus on stage, and then the imaginative Louvre vase with a comic actor leading a centaur-chariot. 54 Three small choes of much the same date have children playing at being actors, again Comedy off the stage.55 But then there is the set of plain-ware choes with polychrome decoration which seem to be fairly directl y related to stage performances and were probably celebratory in function. 56 For the moment, two points may be made about this sequence: first, the steady emergence of actor­ figures and subsequently actors acting; second, that these acting­ scenes are not yet standardized into a convention of depiction. Indeed so far as Athens is concerned, this creation of a convention never seems to have occurred (or at least we have no evidence for it beyond the polychrome jugs). That was left to other centres such as Corinth and, most notably, the vase­ painters of Metaponto and Taranto, with their so-called phlyax vases. 53 ADelt 25 (1970) Chron. 47, pI. 51D (0. Alexandri). 54 Athens, ColI. Vlastos, M MC3 31, A V 4 (with references); Paris, Louvre N 3408, M Me3 32, A V 6. 55 Paris, Louvre CA 2938, M MC3 31, A V 5; Leningrad Pha. 1869.47, M MC3 32, A V 8; Athens 17752, M MC3 32, A V 9. 56 London 1898.2-27.1, Athens, Agora P 23856, P 23900, P 23907, P 23985; MMC3 33f, AV 10-14. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 32 DEPICTING THE THEATRE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS What does happen in Athens is the creation of terracotta figurines. After a few seemingly casual attempts, apparently of individual inspiration, we suddenly, at the end of the century or a fraction earlier, have the New York Group of terracottas (M Me) 45ff with references). They form a coherent series, and the idiosyncracy and consistency of style surely imply that the archetypes were made by a single coroplast. On present evi­ dence, the Group comprises some 15-20 types, and others may be posited from copies made in other centres. Not only are these pieces remarkable as terracottas, but they have other features that are important in the history of theatre. They are no longer of individual inspiration, as one may guess both from their appearance and from their reproduction in quantity over a long period. Versions have turned up in the destruction context at Olynthos (348), others have appeared in tomb-groups over much the same period. Copies were made over a wide area outside Athens, and local versions and re-interpretations con­ tinued to be made well into the third quarter of the fourth cen­ tury and even beyond. No single play or set of plays could have been that popular or had so much re-play. They reflect stan­ dard types of the comic stage in standard situations. They were applicable to contemporary comedy in general, and, pace Bieber and Webster, there is no evidence that they were de­ signed as sets of figures from particular plays, even if there were nothing to prevent a buyer from putting some together to make a set. 57 The other important element in this series is the standardiza­ tion of mask-types. The paucity of depictions of actors earlier than this makes it difficult to say much about earlier comic masks, but what we do have suggests a much less rigorous standardization. The terracottas and their continued popularity reflect a new style of comedy, that called Middle Comedy. They seem to have been current before the turn of the century. The picture presented by the archaeological evidence is 57 I pointed out in M M C 3 that the different colours of the clays of the figurines in the grave-group in New York could derive from their positioning even in a single firing, and that when sold the figurines would in any case have been covered with slip and paint. Dorothy Thompson has since been so good as to give me a copy of some notes of an examination of the pieces by F. Matson demonstrating that the classification into 'yellow' and 'red' sets according to the supposed character of the clay was itself faulty. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 GREEN PLATE 1 (a) (b) Black-figure lekythos by the Theseus Painter, ca 490-480 B.C. (Kerameikos 5671) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 PLATE 2 GREEN (a) (b) Black-figure skyphos, ca 480 B.C. (Thebes B.E. 64.342) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 GREEN PLATE 3 Black-figure hydria, ca 560 B.C. (formerly Swedish private collection) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 PLATE 4 GREEN Red-figure calyx-krater, ca 414 B.C. (Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum 82.AE.83) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 G REEN PLATE 5 Red-figure pelike by an Earlier Mannerist, ca 470 B.C. (Berlin inv. 3223) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 PLATE 6 GREEN Red-figure column-krater, ca 490 B.C. (Basle BS 415) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 GREEN PLATE 7 (a) (b) (a) Red-figure askos, ca 480-470 B.C. (Boston 13.169) (b) Black-figure lekythos of the Cock Group, early fifth century B.C. (Munich 1871 inv. 6025) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 PLATE 8 GREEN Red-figure calyx-krater by the Kleophon Painter, ca 440 B.C. (Basle BS 403) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 GREEN PLATE 9 (a) (b) (a) Fragment of a skyphoid krater, ca 410 B.C. (Wiirzburg) (b) Red-figure kylix by the Codrus Painter, ca 420 B.C., interior (Cambridge GR 2.1977) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 PLATE 10 GREEN Cambridge G R 2.1977, exterior (side A) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 GREEN PLATE 11 Cambridge GR 2.1977, exterior (side B) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 PLATE 12 GREEN Red-figure calyx-krater by the Altamura Painter, ca 470-460 B.C. (Vienna IV 985) GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 J. R. GREEN 33 therefore rather different from that of the literary remains in the form of the preserved plays. It raises the question of the principles of selection of our surviving plays, and one is tempted by Handley's idea that our plays of Aristophanes were chosen for their historical/political content rather than for reasons of their form. 58 Erich Segal has argued that Aristophanes was slower than some of his contemporaries to move towards something we would call Middle Comedy.59 The terracottas, of course, continue to show comic figures literally, and demonstrate that the audience continued to see the comic theatre for what it was, without any intervening illusion. In this sense, as well as in their costume, masks, and style, they are indistinguishable from the figures seen on the so-called 'phlyax' vases of South Italy. Indeed the popularity of these terracottas in, say, Taranto, as well as the manufacture of local copies, is in itself a strong argument that those vases represented a theatre that was essentially Athenian in origin, and it should be added to the more commonly presented ar­ guments such as the identity of mask-types, the presence of Attic dialect, and so on. (,0 Indeed we at last seem to be approaching a major reassessment of the literary background to 'phlyax' vases. II The tradition of the depiction of tragedy in Athenian vase­ painting is very different. We have no surviving fifth-century representation of tragic actors acting, or even of chorusmen per­ forming in the orchestra shown as chorusmen in the literal way that comic chorusmen are. The closest we come is on the well­ known pelike in Berlin (PLATE Sa, b) dating to about 470, near 58 Cambridge History of Classical Literature I (Cambridge 1985) 391H, and, as Professor Sommerstein has pointed out to me, in his introductory notes to P.Oxy. L 3540. 59 HSCP 78 (1973) 129-36. 60 Taplin (supra n.41), Comic Angels (supra n.50); E. Csapo, "A Note on the Wiirzburg Bell-Crater H 5697 (,Telephus Travestitus')," Phoenix 40 (1986) 379-92; and my own comments in Lustrum 31 (1989) 75-78, and more par­ ticularly, "Notes on Phlyax Vases," NumAntClass (1991). C. W. Dearden, "Phlyax Comedy in Magna Graecia-A Reassessment," in Betts et aL (supra n.51) II 33-41, takes a less committed position though arguing that at least some vases must depict Athenian comedies. GREEN, J. R., On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:1 (1991:Spring) p.15 34 DEPICTING THE THEATRE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS the beginning of a series of depictions that can be taken to rep­ resent or derive from tragedy.61 It is an instructive piece. On each side of the vase, there is on the right a piper in his normal elaborate costume. He provides the context for the figure on the left. The latter is a maenad, shown with a sword in the right hand and a half fawn or kid in the left. The maenad is shown as 'real'. Yet the piper (like those in comic scenes) signifies that the figure is a chorusman, and as such he should have footwear and cannot have had a naked feminine breast. And one may ask, with Beazley, if the half fawn or kid is a literal depiction of a piece of stage property, or is an insertion by the vase-painter as something that maenads normally have (to emphasize that this is a maenad), or (I would add) if it is something that the painter was persuaded to see by the words of the poet. Certainly the blood pouring from it goes beyond the performance in the theatre. There are only two other hints that the figures derive from the theatre. On one side the frontal face (PLATE Sa): this is the way one sees a mask. 62 The face of the similar figure on the other side (Sb) is shown in profile; in this case it has long been suggested that the curious treatment of the hair above the forehead may represent the artificial hair of a mask. 63 And, as Beazley pointed out, on the side with frontal face, the painter wrote K