Showing papers by "Edith Hall published in 2006"

The Theatrical Cast of Athens

Abstract: ions serves well to introduce another period when such complex metapoetic theatre and metapoetic personiWcations was enjoyed—the late Wfth century bc. This chapter was originally inspired by the conWgurations of gender in the parabasis of Aristophanes’ Clouds. The chorus consists of Athenian citizens costumed and masked as female Clouds, who temporarily assume the voice of the male poet who had created their own comedy (528–37): Years ago I won your applause in this very theatre with The Bugger and the Prude—and I may say it’s always a pleasure to present a play to you, successful or not—well, since I was still a virgin girl, and so could not bring it up myself, I gave it to another girl to adopt; and then you very generously looked after it and fostered it with your applause . . . Now here comes this present comedy, to look for an audience equally discerning. She’s just like Electra in that play; she’ll recognise the lock of her brother’s hair if she sees it. And you can see what a modest girl she is.3 In this striking passage, whatever it signiWes about Aristophanes’ earliest career as a playwright, the poet uses gender and metaphor in a series of related images. He imagines himself as a young unmarried mother, and his play as her baby. He also conceptualizes the present comedy, Clouds, as a young woman, a sister, and a tragic heroine, Electra. It is clear from this passage that Old Comedy’s tendency to oVer metapoetic comment on itself and its creators, and these creators’ capacity for talking about their own history and their rivals, found in the discourse of gender, the female body, and sexuality a rich seam of metaphor, allegory, and personiWcation.4 Aristophanes’ images in the parabasis of Clouds belong to the same broad category as the conWgurations of literary mimēsis in Thesmophoriazusae, which have been shown by Froma Zeitlin to be inseparable from their context in the discussion of the representation of gender.5 More particularly, the images in Clouds preWgure Frogs, 3 Translation adapted from Easterling and Easterling (1962). 4 Much has been published on the blurred distinction between allegory and personification. Following e.g. Maresca (1993), this chapter seeks to avoid confusion by henceforwards using only the term ‘personification’ and avoiding ‘allegorical figure’. 5 Zeitlin (1996). Female Personifications of Poetry 171

The Theatrical Cast of Athens: Interactions between Ancient Greek Drama and Society

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. The Theatrical Roles of Athens 3. Childbearing Women: Birth and Family Crisis in Ancient Drama 4. Visible Women: Painted Masks and Tragic Aesthetics 5. Horny Satyrs and Tragic Tetralogies 6. Metapoetic Females in Old Comedy 7. Recasting the Barbarian 8. The Scythian Archer in Aristohanes' 'Thesmophoriazusae' 9. Drowning Act: The Greeks, Swimming, and Timotheus' 'Persians' 10. Singing Roles in Tragedy 11. Casting the Role of Trygaeus in Aristophanes' 'Peace' 12. Lawcourt Dramas: Acting and Performance in Legal Oratory Afterword