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A Handbook to the Reception of Greek Drama

Wiley Blackwell Handbooks to Classical Reception

This series offers comprehensive thought‐provoking surveys of the reception of major classical authors and themes These Handbooks will consist of approxi-mately 30 newly written essays by leading scholars in the field and will map the ways in which the ancient world has been viewed and adapted up to the present day Essays are meant to be engaging accessible and scholarly pieces of writing and are designed for an audience of advanced undergraduates graduates and scholars

PublishedA Handbook to the Reception of OvidJohn Miller and Carole E Newlands

A Handbook to the Reception of ThucydidesChristine Lee and Neville Morley

A Handbook to the Reception of Greek DramaBetine van Zyl Smit

ForthcomingA Handbook to the Reception of Classical MythologyVanda Zajko

A Handbook to Classical Reception in Eastern and Central EuropeZara Martirosova Torlone Dana LaCourse Munteanu and Dorota Dutsch


Edited by

Betine van Zyl Smit

This edition first published 2016copy 2016 John Wiley amp Sons Inc

Registered OfficeJohn Wiley amp Sons Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK

Editorial Offices350 Main Street Malden MA 02148‐5020 USA9600 Garsington Road Oxford OX4 2DQ UKThe Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK

For details of our global editorial offices for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at wwwwileycomwiley‐blackwell

The right of Betine van Zyl Smit to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise except as permitted by the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 without the prior permission of the publisher

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Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names service marks trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book

Limit of LiabilityDisclaimer of Warranty While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom If professional advice or other expert assistance is required the services of a competent professional should be sought

Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names Smit Betine van Zyl editorTitle A handbook to the reception of Greek drama edited by Betine van Zyl SmitOther titles Wiley Blackwell handbooks to classical receptionDescription Chichester West Sussex John Wiley amp Sons Inc 2016 |

Series Wiley-Blackwell handbooks to classical reception seriesIdentifiers LCCN 2015047421 | ISBN 9781118347751 (cloth)Subjects LCSH Greek dramandashAppreciation | Greek dramandashHistory and criticismClassification LCC PA3133 H35 2016 | DDC 8820109ndashdc23 LC record available at

httplccnlocgov2015047421

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover image copy Tristram Kenton by Euripidesrsquo Bacchai at the National

Set in 1113pt Dante by SPi Global Pondicherry India

1 2016

Figure 01 Irene Papas and Costa Kazakos as Clytaemnestra and Agamemnon in Iphigenia (1976) directed by Michael Cacoyannis Source Greek Film CentreThe Kobal Collection Courtesy of The Picture Desk

Foreword x

List of Illustrations xi

Notes on Contributors xiii

Note on Nomenclature and Spelling xviii

Introduction 1Betine van Zyl Smit

Part I The Ancient World 11

1 The Reception of Greek Tragedy from 500 to 323 BC 13Martin Revermann

2 Greek Comedy and its Reception c 500ndash323 BC 29Alan H Sommerstein

3 Greek Drama in the Hellenistic World 45Sarah Miles

4 Greek Comedy at Rome 63Peter Brown

5 Roman Tragedy 78Gesine Manuwald

Part II Transition 95

6 Ancient Drama in the Medieval World 97Carol Symes

Contents

viii Contents

Part III The Renewal of Ancient Drama 131

7 The Reception of Ancient Drama in Renaissance Italy 133Francesca Schironi

8 Ancient Drama in the French Renaissance and up to Louis XIV 154Rosie Wyles

9 The Reception of Greek Drama in Early Modern England 173Claire Kenward

Part IV The Modern and Contemporary World 199

10 Greece A History of Turns Traditions and Transformations 201Gonda Van Steen

11 The History of Ancient Drama in Modern Italy 221Martina Treu

12 The Reception of Greek Theater in France since 1700 238Ceacutecile Dudouyt

13 Germany Austria and Switzerland 257Anton Bierl

14 The Reception of Greek Drama in Belgium and the Netherlands 283Thomas Crombez

15 The Reception of Greek Drama in England from the Seventeenth to the Twenty‐First Century 304Betine van Zyl Smit

16 Conquering England Ireland and Greek Tragedy 323Fiona Macintosh

17 The Reception of Greek Drama in the Czech Republic 337Eva Stehliacutekovaacute

18 Antigone Medea and Civilization and Barbarism in Spanish American History 348Aniacutebal A Biglieri

19 Greek Drama in the Arab World 364Mohammad Almohanna

20 The Reception of Greek Tragedy in Japan 382Kevin J Wetmore Jr

21 Greek Drama in North America 397Peter Meineck

Contents ix

22 Greek Drama in Australia 422Paul Monaghan

23 The Reception of Greek Drama in Africa ldquoA Tradition That Intends to Be Establishedrdquo 446Barbara Goff

24 Greek Drama in Opera 464Michael Ewans

25 Filmed Tragedy 486Kenneth MacKinnon

References 506

Index 552

This project has been four years in the making During that time some of the original contributors have had to withdraw because of illness or personal circum-stances One tragic loss was the death of Professor Ahmed Etman who was killed in a traffic accident in Cairo two years ago He leaves a great legacy of scholarship and creative writing The author who has taken over his chapter on the reception of Greek Drama in Arabic Mohammad Almohanna has included a section on Professor Etmanrsquos adaptation of Sophoclesrsquo Ichneutai as The Goats of Oxyrhynchus

The completion of this project would not have been possible without the hard work of all the contributors and the continuous support of Haze Humbert and Allison Kostka at Wiley‐Blackwell I would like to thank them all for their co‐operation I am grateful to the Copy-editor Susan Dunsmore who smoothed out some inconsistencies

Sincere thanks are also due to the Production editor Dilip Kizzhakekkara who was unfailingly courteous and capable in seeing the Handbook through the last stages Finally I would like to acknowledge the excellent work of Terry Halliday who compiled the Index

Betine van Zyl SmitNottingham

13 August 2015

Foreword

Figure 01 Irene Papas and Costa Kazakos as Clytaemnestra and Agamemnon in Iphigenia (1976) directed by Michael Cacoyannis v

Figure 21 One of the earliest West Greek vases depicting what must be an Athenian comedy since the characters are speaking Attic dialect 34

Figure 31 Water‐fountain spout in the shape of the Greek mask of a comic cook from the Hellenistic city of Ai Khanum modern NE Afghanistan 45

Figure 61 Euripidesrsquo Helen Ancient Transmission and Medieval Preservation (a) Fragmentary papyrus scroll (b) Page from parchment codex 98

Figure 71 Baldassarre Peruzzi (1481ndash1536) perspective for a theater scene 137

Figure 81 Charles Le Brunrsquos frontispiece engraving (two men fighting) in Corneillersquos Horace 1641 Trinity College Dublin Library 160

Figure 91 A facsimile of the front‐page to John Pickeringrsquos Horestes (1567) 176

Figure 111 Vincenzo Pirrotta as Ulysses in lsquoU Ciclopu by Luigi Pirandello 230

Figure 112 Chorus of Satyrs from lsquoU Ciclopu by Luigi Pirandello 230

Figure 121 Chorus of Les Bacchantes in Andreacute Wilmsrsquos staging at the Comeacutedie Franccedilaise in 2005 254

Figure 131 Mendelssohn sketch of the stage for the Potsdam performance of Sophoclesrsquo Antigone in 1841 262

Figure 132 Photograph of a scene from Klaus Michael Gruumlberrsquos staging of Bakchen in Berlin in 1974 at the Schaubuumlhne 269

List of Illustrations

xii List of Illustrations

Figure 133 The famous trial scene from the Eumenides with the chorus of Erinyes or Furies in diving suits and Jutta Lampe as Athena 274

Figure 141 Translations per ten‐year period 284

Figure 142 Productions per ten‐year period 285

Figure 143 Lysistrata directed by Walter Tillemans 1971 Female cast in silk crocheted dresses designed by Ann Salens 299

Figure 151 Steven Berkoff rsquos Oedipus production of 2011 showing Tiresias and the cast with Oedipus in the background 315

Figure 152 aodrsquos Helen adapted by Tamsin Shasha and with Tamsin Shasha as Helen 319

Figure 171 Vlastislav Hoffmanrsquos design for the stage set for Oedipus the King 339

Figure 211 Photo of Will Powerrsquos 2007 adaptation of Aeschylusrsquo Seven Against Thebes as The Seven 417

Figure 221 Queenie van de Zandt Natalie Gamsu and Jennifer Vuletic with Robyn Nevin in Sydney Theatre Companyrsquos Women of Troy 2008 437

Figure 231 From the 2012 performance at the Arts Theatre University of Ibadan of Women of Owu by Femi Osofisan 456

Figure 241 Astrid Varnay as Klytaumlmnestra and Leonie Rysanek as Elektra in Goumltz Friedrichrsquos 1981 film of Richard Straussrsquo Elektra 475

Figure 251 Michael Cacoyannis directing Vanessa Redgrave in The Trojan Women (1971) 490

Notes on Contributors

Mohammad Almohanna is Assistant Professor in the Department of Criticism and Drama at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Kuwait He obtained an MA and PhD in the Classics Department at the University of Nottingham He teaches Greek and Roman drama at undergraduate level including elements of reception of ancient drama in contemporary theater popular media film and fiction His publications include ldquoTragedy and Satyr Play Diversity in ancient Greek Dramardquo Classical Papers Issue XI Cairo 2012

Anton Bierl is Professor for Greek Literature at the University of Basel He served as Senior Fellow at Harvardrsquos Center for Hellenic Studies (2005ndash2011) and is a member of the IAS Princeton (201011) He is director and co‐editor of Homerrsquos Iliad The Basel Commentary and editor of the series MythosEikonPoiesis His books include Dionysos und die griechische Tragoumldie (1991) Die Orestie des Aischylos auf der modernen Buumlhne (1996) Ritual and Performativity (2009) and the co‐edited volumes Literatur und Religion I‐II (2007) Theater des Fragments (2009) Gewalt und Opfer (2010) and Aumlsthetik des Opfers (2012)

Aniacutebal A Biglieri teaches Medieval Spanish literature at the University of Kentucky He is the author of Medea en la literatura espantildeola medieval and Las ideas geograacuteficas y la imagen del mundo en la literatura espantildeola medieval He also studies the reception of Classical authors in Argentine literature

Peter Brown is an Emeritus Fellow of Trinity College Oxford University and a member of the Advisory Board of the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama He has published extensively on Greek and Roman drama and his translation of Terencersquos Comedies appeared in the Oxford Worldrsquos Classics series in 2008 He is co‐editor with Suzana Ograjenšek of Ancient Drama in Music for the Modern Stage (Oxford Oxford University Press 2010 paperback edn 2013)

Thomas Crombez is a lecturer in Philosophy of Art and Theatre History at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and at Sint Lucas Antwerp As a member

xiv Notes on Contributors

of the research group ArchiVolt he focuses on the history of avant‐garde and performance art Further interests are new methodologies for doing research such as digital text collections and data visualization Crombez also works as a researcher at the Research Centre for Visual Poetics of the University of Antwerp At the same institution he initiated the Platform for Digital Humanities (httpdighumuantwerpenbe) Recent books include The Locus of Tragedy (2009) and Mass Theatre in Interwar Europe (2014)

Ceacutecile Dudouyt is Assistant Professor at Paris 13 (Villetaneuse) where she teaches French‐English Translation and Translation Studies Since 2011 she has also been Research Associate at the APGRD working on the database ldquoFrench Translations of Greek and Roman Dramardquo the first stage of a wider APGRD research project on translations of ancient drama in European vernaculars from the Renaissance onward Her earlier research focused on the reception of Sophocles in France and England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

Michael Ewans is Conjoint Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle Australia and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities He has published ten books three of them on opera and his new book Performing Opera A Practical Guide for Singers and Directors has recently appeared from Bloomsbury Methuen

Barbara Goff is Professor of Classics at the University of Reading She has p ublished extensively in the field of Greek drama and its reception with particular reference to African rewritings of Greek tragedy Her most recent book is Your Secret Language Classics in the British Colonies of West Africa (London Bloomsbury 2013) With Michael Simpson she is currently researching the role of Classics in the British Left for a co‐authored book entitled Working Classics

Claire Kenward is the Archivist and Researcher at the University of Oxfordrsquos Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD) Clairersquos forth-coming publications reflect her research interests in the interplay between Classics and early modern drama and also the reception of Classics in science‐fiction and fantasy She is currently co‐editing a book on performances inspired by Epic

Fiona Macintosh is Professor of Classical Reception Director of the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD) and Fellow of St Hildarsquos College University of Oxford She is the author of Dying Acts (1994) Greek Tragedy and the British Theatre 1660ndash1914 (2005 with Edith Hall) and Sophoclesrsquo Oedipus Tyrannus (2009) She has edited a number of APGRD volumes most recently Choruses Ancient and Modern (2013) and The Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas (2015)

Kenneth MacKinnon was awarded an MA in Classics by the University of Edinburgh in 1965 a B Litt in the same subject by Oxford in 1969 and a BA in Film by the University of London in 1978 He became a professor of London Metropolitan University from which he retired in 2005 after being subject leader

Notes on Contributors xv

of Classical Civilization and subsequently of Film Studies His published works include Misogyny in the Movies The Politics of Popular Representation Representing Men and several articles on Classical tragedy and epic poetry

Gesine Manuwald is Professor of Latin at University College London Her research mainly concerns Roman drama Roman epic Roman rhetoric and the reception of the Classical world especially in Neo‐Latin poetry She has published extensively on Roman drama including most recently Roman Drama A Reader (Duckworth 2010) Roman Republican Theatre (Cambridge University Press 2011) and an edition of Enniusrsquo tragic fragments (Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht 2012)

Peter Meineck is a Professor of Classics at New York University and Founding Director of the Aquila Theatre Company He has held fellowships at USCS Princeton and the Center for Hellenic Studies and is Honorary Professor of Classics at the University of Nottingham He studied at University College London and Nottingham and has published widely on ancient drama including several volumes of translations with Hackett Publishing He has also directed andor p roduced over 50 professional classical theater pieces at venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall the Ancient Stadium at Delphi Brooklyn Academy of Music Lincoln Center and the White House He lives in New York and is also a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician with the Bedford Fire Department

Sarah Miles lectures and teaches on Greek drama Greek literature and language at the University of Durham while researching on ancient receptions of Greek drama She has published on Greek comedy (Old and New Comedy) comic fragments and Greek comedyrsquos engagement with tragedy (paratragedy) She is preparing a book on Ancient Receptions of Greek Tragedy in Old Comedy From Paratragedy to Popular Culture

Paul Monaghan is a Theater and Classical Studies academic as well as a professional theater maker director and dramaturg He holds a PhD in Theatre StudiesClassical Studies and lectured in Theatre (theory and practice) at the University of Melbourne from 1999 to 2012 including a four‐year period as Head of Postgraduate Studies and Research in that universityrsquos School of Performing Arts Paulrsquos teaching and research areas include Greek tragedy in performance (in antiquity and in the modern world) dramaturgy and the dramaturgical intelligence and philosophy and theatrical practice He is currently working on a book‐length study of the reception of Greek tragedy in Australia

Martin Revermann is Professor in Classics and Theatre Studies at the University of Toronto His research interests lie in the area of ancient Greek drama (produc-tion reception iconography sociology) Brecht theater theory and the history of playgoing He is the author of Comic Business Theatricality Dramatic Technique and Performance Contexts of Aristophanic Comedy (Oxford 2006) He has also edited Performance Iconography Reception Studies in Honour of Oliver Taplin (with

xvi Notes on Contributors

P Wilson Oxford 2008) Beyond the Fifth Century Interactions with Greek Tragedy from the Fourth Century BCE to the Middle Ages (with I Gildenhard BerlinNew York 2010) and The Cambridge Companion to Greek Comedy (Cambridge 2014)

Francesca Schironi is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan Her research interests include Hellenistic scholarship and reception of the Classics She has published on the contemporary reception of Aristophanes in Italy on Pasolinirsquos film Edipo Re and on the servus callidus in Renaissance commedia erudita and commedia dellrsquoarte She is working on Lodovico Martellirsquos Tullia (1533) and on a monograph on the reception of Greek drama in Italy

Alan H Sommerstein is Emeritus Professor of Greek at the University of Nottingham He has edited or translated complete and fragmentary plays by Aeschylus Sophocles Aristophanes and Menander and has written widely on Greek drama and also on the oath in Greek society

Eva Stehliacutekovaacute is Professor in the Department for Theater Studies Masaryk University in Brno She is the author of books including The Greek Theater of the Classical Period (1991) The Roman Theater (1993) The Theater in the Time of Nero and Seneca (2005) The Ancient Theater (2005 in English 2014) and a book of Czech productions of ancient drama titled Whatrsquos Hecuba to Us (2012)

David Stuttard is a freelance writer Classical historian dramatist and founder of the theater company Actors of Dionysus

Carol Symes is Associate Professor of History Theatre and Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Educated at Yale and Oxford she subsequently trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and pursued an acting career while earning the PhD at Harvard She is still a member of Actorsrsquo Equity Association in the United States

Martina Treu is Associate Professor in Greek Language and Literature at the IULM University (wwwiulmit) in Milan where she teaches Ancient Drama and Classical Reception She is a member of the Imagines Project (wwwimagines‐projectorg) and of the Research Centre on Ancient Drama at the University of Pavia (httpcrimtaunipvit) She has been Visiting Assistant Professor of Ancient Drama at the University of Venice and at the Catholic University Brescia She has worked in European theaters and cooperated as a Dramaturg to adaptations of Classical plays for the stage Her main research and publications deal with Aristophanesrsquo Chorus and Satire in ancient and modern performance the adaptation and reception of Greek drama and Greek mythology in modern theater and literature

Gonda Van Steen holds the Cassas Chair in Greek Studies at the University of Florida She is the author of four books Venom in Verse Aristophanes in Modern Greece (2000) Liberating Hellenism from the Ottoman Empire (2010) Theatre of the Condemned Classical Tragedy on Greek Prison Islands (2011) and Stage of Emergency Theater and

Notes on Contributors xvii

Public Performance under the Greek Military Dictatorship of 1967ndash1974 (2015) Her current book project tentatively entitled Heirs to Trauma Adoption Postmemory and Cold War Greece is taking her into the new uncharted terrain of Greek adoption stories that become paradigmatic of Cold War politics and history

Betine van Zyl Smit has been Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Nottingham since 2006 Her research interests include the tragedies of Seneca and the reception of ancient literature especially drama She has published extensively on the reception of Classical drama in South Africa

Kevin J Wetmore Jr is Professor and Chair of Theatre Arts at Loyola Marymount University as well as the author of numerous books including Athenian Sun in an African Sky Black Dionysus and Modern Asian Theatre and Performance 1900ndash2000

Rosie Wyles studied Classics as Oxford and completed her London doctorate in 2007 She has held posts at Oxford Maynooth Nottingham and Kingrsquos College London and is currently a lecturer at the University of Kent Her research inter-ests and publications gravitate around ancient Greek drama and its reception

Note on Nomenclature and Spelling

There are very many different spellings for Greek names and titles Our policy has been to use the names as they appear in the texts translations and adaptations

A Handbook to the Reception of Greek Drama First Edition Edited by Betine van Zyl Smit copy 2016 John Wiley amp Sons Inc Published 2016 by John Wiley amp Sons Inc

Reception studies has become a central part of the syllabus of Classics departments at both undergraduate and postgraduate level in Anglophone countries Just as the study of Greek drama is an essential part of the study of traditional Classics so the study of the reception of Greek drama lies at the heart of most courses on Classical Reception Although much research on the reception of Greek drama has been published in scholarly journals and various books in the past three decades there is currently no handbook suitable to introduce students to the area and to give them an overview of the field

The publication in 2003 of Reception Studies Lorna Hardwickrsquos overview of the theory of and practice in Classical reception in general in the series New Surveys in the Classics was an acknowledgment of the importance of this part of the study of the ancient world in contemporary research and teaching This Handbook aims to provide an introduction to the study of the reception of Greek drama from antiqshyuity to the present It also aims to indicate the extraordinarily wide geographical spread and influence of Greek drama In spite of the Handbookrsquos wide scope in time and geography we are aware that we have not been able to cover all aspects of the reception of Greek drama In a sense every study of the reception of Classical drama is incomplete Greek drama is alive and continues to change into new works and shapesndashndashtherein lies much of its challenge and fascination

Before the term ldquoreception studiesrdquo was widely used it was common to speak of the Classical tradition as Gilbert Highet called it in his well‐known study The Classical Tradition first published in 1949 Highet traced the influence of certain Greek and Roman texts and ideas over the centuries but did not generally engage in detail with the ways in which those who had been ldquoinfluencedrdquo interpreted the ancient texts and ideas and what role the new context played

IntroductionBetine van Zyl Smit

2 Betine van Zyl Smit

Highetrsquos work represented to a certain extent German studies of the Nachleben or ldquoafterliferdquo of ancient texts The theoretical underpinning of most contemposhyrary studies of reception is derived from the work of German scholars of the 1960s and the 1970s An intellectual framework more suitable to the kind of analysis u tilized in modern reception studies was that developed from the work of Hans‐Georg Gadamer and H R Jauss respectively Gadamerrsquos (2004) theory that the meaning of a text is constructed by a fusion of horizons between the present and the past implies that later interpretations of Classical texts by subsequent authors will affect onersquos understanding of the ancient texts Jaussrsquo (1982) esthetics of r eception explored the interaction of the creator of the new work and its audience His concept of a ldquohorizon of expectationrdquo suggests that the response of the a udience or readers will inevitably be guided by their experience and their context

Another theoretical framework for the investigation of ancient texts and their later versions is that of ldquohypertextualityrdquo developed by the French scholar Geacuterard Genette especially in Palimpsestes La literature au second degreacute (1982) As the title indicates he uses the notion of the original text or hypotext as the underlying manuscript which is later covered by a subsequent text or hypertext but leaves the original text to be partially discerned underneath Genette examines different types of hypertextuality such as transposition which includes translation into a different language changing a text from poetry to prose or creating a parody of it These are some of the tools used by scholars who study the reception of Classical drama Gender studies have been influential in Classical studies in the last few decades especially in the discussion of Greek drama These theories as well as those applied in the field of theater studies also underlie the approach of some scholars of Classical reception Not all authors in this volume subscribe to these theories but several have been influenced by them

Examples of the reception of Greek drama by authors of the Handbook include translation from one language to another translation to the stage and adaptation of the text to create what is in effect a new play It is sometimes difficult to draw the line between translation and adaptation as will be evident in the discussion in the different chapters Other modes of reception include adaptation to a different genre such as opera or film Examples of these are discussed in the last two c hapters Lynda Hutcheonrsquos (2012 8) theory of adaptation that it is an acknowshyledged transposition of a recognizable other work a creative and interpretative act of appropriation and an extended intertextual engagement with the adapted work seems to describe the process best She concludes with a statement that echoes aspects of Genettersquos theory ldquoTherefore an adaptation is a derivation that is not derivative ndash a work that is second without being secondary It is its own palimpsestic thingrdquo (2012 9)

Some of the contributors to this volume are Classical scholars some specialize in theater studies and its practice some combine the disciplines of Classics and the theater and others specialize in later and modern history and literature Inevitably the background of each has shaped their contribution

Introduction 3

The Structure of the Book

The Handbook starts with the study of reception of Greek drama within the ancient world Martin Revermann (Chapter 1) explores the early reception of Greek tragedy from the time of Aeschylus to the death of Alexander focusing in particular on the kind of insights that are provided if reception is seen as a complex act of ongoing negotiation over cultural value Four landmark items of reception are discussed in detail (i) Aristophanesrsquo Frogs (ii) Lycurgusrsquo law court speech Against Leocrates (iii) tragedy‐related vase paintings and (iv) Aristotlersquos Poetics Aristotlersquos work on drama was to have a significant influence also in the early modern approach to drama as is evident in several later chapters

Alan Sommerstein (Chapter 2) shows how comedy became immensely popular first in Athens and then across most of the Greek world in the fifth and fourth centuries BC as both literary and artistic evidence testify especially in Italy and Sicily with a prestige and appeal that nearly equaled those of tragedy Quite early in the period at least in Athens it became both an important part and an important subject of public civic discoursendashndashin which however its status was to some extent ambivalent at any rate in the eyes of eacutelite intellectuals it could be seen (sometimes by the same persons) both as a genre whose main characteristics were frivolity obscenity and irresponsible slander and as a highly valued part of Athenian and later of Hellenic culture bringing pleasure to thousands and also serving ethical purposes

Sarah Miles (Chapter 3) presents the reception of Greek drama in the Hellenistic world via two modes performance‐based reception and textual reception She focuses on the reception of Greek drama in the textual record through both ancient scholarship and early Hellenistic literature This is presented as the pivotal moment in the reception of Greek drama during the Hellenistic period An overview of the changing contexts for performing Greek drama notes the state of modern scholarshyship and the lack of survival of Hellenistic drama This provides a vital contextual setting for discussing the textual reception of Greek drama in the Hellenistic world After an examination of ancient scholarship on Greek drama and modern scholarsrsquo recent attempts to place this within the reception of Greek drama Miles discusses the reception of Greek drama in Hellenistic literature with examples taken from Apollonius Herodas Lycophron and Ezekiel

Peter Brown (Chapter 4) discusses the reception of Greek comedy (particularly Greek New Comedy) at Rome in the form of Latin adaptations The comedies of Plautus (written c 205ndash184 BC) are the earliest surviving works of Latin literature the other surviving comedies are those of Terence written in the 160s The q ualities of these authorsrsquo works are discussed as well as the depth of their a udiencesrsquo interest in Greek drama and the development of comedy at Rome is traced together with the evidence for knowledge of Greek comedy in the Latin‐speaking West until at least the fifth century AD After playwrights had ceased to adapt Greek comedies for Roman theaters Menander continued to be a cultural


reference point for readers poets and orators Brown argues that in providing the stimulus for Roman Comedy Greek New Comedy played a seminal role in the creation of the European comic tradition

Gesine Manuwald (Chapter 4) assesses the influence of Greek tragedy upon Roman tragedy of the Republican and imperial periods She shows that Roman tragedy came into existence by building on the available structures subject matter and motifs of Greek tragedy At the same time Greek plays were not translated word for word but rather adapted and transformed according to Roman convenshytions and thereby made relevant for Roman audiences She compares Senecarsquos Oedipus to Sophoclesrsquo Oidipous Tyrannos and concludes that the Roman playwright adapted the Greek tragedy by creatively engaging with it This illustrates that identity of title or even basic plot need not imply more than a superficial similarity That this is the case becomes clear throughout the Handbook where time and again playwrights use familiar titles but produce plays that reflect their own context and themes

Carol Symes (Chapter 6) argues that the most crucial era in the trajectory of Greek dramarsquos transmission was the Middle Ages She maintains that medieval understandings of ancient texts and generic conventions have been misrepresented for hundreds of years and calls for a new history of the Classicsrsquo creative reception and revival in both Western Europe and Byzantium She demonstrates the imporshytance of Terentian comedy as a bridge between Classical antiquity and the early Middle Ages by briefly outlining the history of its manuscript tradition

Francesca Schironi (Chapter 7) surveys the development of neoclassical drama in Renaissance Italy A brief review of the rediscovery of the Classics by Italian Humanists is followed by an analysis of the sixteenth‐century theoretical debate on tragedy and comedy that developed on the basis of the rediscovery of Aristotlersquos Poetics and Donatusrsquo commentary on Terence Discussions first of tragedy and then of comedy focus on the different types of reception of Classical drama (transshylations adaptations and original dramas molded on Classical models) as well as on the main themes of neoclassical tragedy and comedy The aim is to provide an introduction to Italian Cinquecento neoclassical drama as well as to show the importance that it had for the development of more mature neoclassical dramas in other European countries

Martina Treu (Chapter 11) describes how after the first performance ever of a Classical drama in modern Europe Oedipus Rex at Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza in 1585 ancient drama was revitalized in eighteenth‐century Italy by Vittorio Alfieri and others and definitively rediscovered in the twentieth century Greek tragedy in particular has been regularly performed since 1914 at the Greek theater of Syracuse and after World War I in archeological sites and historical theaters either at summer festivals or in regular seasons After World War II and particularly since the 1960s ancient drama gained in popularity and impact thanks to new interpreshytations and adaptations by playwrights and directors such as Vittorio Gassman and Pier Paolo Pasolini and to adaptation to other forms of entertainment such

Introduction 5

as musicals and movies Nowadays Classical plays are frequently staged also in unconventional places in schools and at fringe festivals by independent directors such as Vincenzo Pirrotta and by research companies such as Teatro delle AlbeRavenna Teatro

Gonda Van Steen (Chapter 10) describes how long the reception of ancient Greek theater in modern Greece was in the making it took until the early years of the nineteenth century for Classical tragedy and until the 1860s for Attic comedy to make their mark When after the first discussions and studies of ancient t heater the earliest translations and stage adaptations appeared they supported Greek autonomy and the emergence of the modern Greek nation‐state The first modern Greek productions which anticipated the 1821 War of Independence exemplified the ldquorevolutionary turnrdquo of Classical drama Nationalism ldquophilologismrdquo and didacticism ruled the nineteenth‐century Greek reception of revival tragedy and these trends made reappearances as late as the 1970s by which time the Greek ldquonationalist turnrdquo was perceived as badly out‐of‐date and postmodernist reapproshypriations of ancient Greek theater set a new tone The Greek reception of Attic comedy experienced a ldquodemocratic turnrdquo far sooner than the tradition of revival tragedy but the former had also been excluded from the nineteenth‐century nation‐building project and its educational value had long been contested Aristophanes was however at the center of the Greek ldquomodernist turnrdquo which came to a head in the 1959 Birds of the avant‐garde director Karolos Koun Kounrsquos Persians of 1965 broke with the tradition of nationalist‐patriotic performance and with the formalist conventions that had long inhibited the stagings of the Greek National Theater Van Steen argues that the ldquoperformative turnrdquo of Greek theater must be credited to contemporary plays of the early 1970s The years 1974 and 2009 proved to be decisive turning points the former toward the ldquoreperformative turnrdquo whose intensity has been unique to Greece the latter toward the unknown of a Greece in moral and social as well as political and economic crisis

Rosie Wyles (Chapter 8) shows that the works of the ancient playwrights Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides and Aristophanes had a major impact on the development of French literary production and cultural identity from the Renaissance to the early modern period The rediscovery and response to ancient texts invited the exploration of issues culminating in the famous seventeenth‐century literary debate between ancients and moderns The reception of ancient drama depended on influences from Italy and individual talents such as those of members of the Pleacuteiade Buchanan Muret Racine Corneille and Dacier literary theory royal support religion and historical circumstances Tensions in this r eception can be traced between the original language and the vernacular performance and the printed page and playwrights and pedants Wylesrsquo chapter invites reflection on the range of responses that engagement with ancient drama created in France from the Renaissance to the seventeenth century

Ceacutecile Dudouyt (Chapter 12) relates how in 1700 French neoclassical theoretishycians had considered that Racine and Moliegravere had won the competition with


antiquity but that from the 1860s onward a joint rediscovery of Shakespeare and the Greeks shattered neoclassical conceptions of Greek drama Pierre Brumoyrsquos translations into French prepared the ground for a philological and archeological rediscovery of Greek theater in the nineteenth century and that led to the restorashytion of ancient theater venues in the 1860s Dudouyt notes that from the early twentieth century the literary and theatrical scene in France was marked by a significant rise in the number of adaptations translations and rewritings of Greek drama Greek tragedies were used to express concerns about war and peace b etween 1914 and 1969 Since the 1970s there has been an exponential upsurge in the number of ancient plays and adaptations performed in the twofold context of an unprecedented expansion of mass entertainment and the ascendancy of stage directors in contemporary French theaters

Claire Kenward (Chapter 9) asserts that far from a pristine rebirth the Renaissance ldquorediscoveryrdquo of ancient Greek drama was more akin to a ldquoreturn of the repressedrdquo as well‐known classically‐inspired characters and plots inherited from the traditions of medieval England were forced into dialogue with their long‐lost textual forbears The lamenting female voice central to Greek tragedy epitoshymized by Hecuba radicalized the medieval tales of Troy becoming both a spur to theatrical innovation and a pervasive cultural presence Looking beyond student performances of Aristophanes Euripides and Sophocles in the university towns her chapter celebrates the elaborate hybrids and dizzyingly complex layers of intertextuality that appear in Londonrsquos playhouses Such dramas are not dismissed as wilful or ignorant ldquocorruptionsrdquo of the Classics but rather essential components in early modern Englandrsquos reception of ancient Greek drama

Betine van Zyl Smit (Chapter 15) presents an overview of some trends plays and productions prominent in the translation and performance of Greek drama in England over the last four centuries Examples include the Oedipus (1678) of Dryden and Lee the influence of the Potsdam Antigone in 1841 Classical burlesque in the late nineteenth century and Gilbert Murrayrsquos contribution in the twentieth century Attention is paid to the poetic translations of Hughes and Harrison as well as Berkoff rsquos engagement with Sophoclesrsquo Oedipus Tyrannus She concludes with information on some of the institutions that regularly stage Greek drama and on the Actors of Dionysus theater company

Anton Bierl (Chapter 13) shows how after a brief prehistory the modern German staging of ancient drama as a subgenre started with the Antigone in Potsdam in 1841 During the avant‐garde movement around 1900 Oberlaumlnder and Reinhardt tried to instil new life into ancient drama After World War I the emphasis shifted to portraying the inner life of characters and the role of fate The Nazi period brought an attempt by Muumlthel to assert the new ideology but this was followed post World War II by a phase of existential fusion of horizons especially by the director Gustav Rudolf Sellner Bierl locates the origin of the modern style of staging in Brechtrsquos design for his Antigone in Chur in 1948 Bierl shows that from the mid‐1960s there was a search for Dionysian liberation influenced by Brecht

Introduction 7

and Houmllderlinrsquos translation work The two Antikenprojekte in Berlin involved new approaches In parallel with the performative turn Gruumlber created a visual esthetic in his 1974 Bakchen Steinrsquos Orestie of 1980 revealed the political dimension of Greek tragedy and put the text back at the center After 1989 there was a shift to a postdramatic style which also emphasized the role of the chorus

Thomas Crombez (Chapter 14) has compiled a new bibliography of Dutch translations of Greek drama and a theaterography of performances produced in the Netherlands and Flanders and uses this as a basis to examine the reception of ancient Greek tragedy and comedy in the Low Countries The data demonstrate that the cultural presence of Greek drama became established only from 1880 onwards During the twentieth century both Dutch‐language translations and theatrical productions become increasingly common This historical overview indicates how modern writers and directors have time and again used the Greeks through a five hundred‐year‐old struggle over their legacy in order to solve the theatrical problems of their own time

Fiona Macintosh (Chapter 16) shows that since the 1980s there has been a proshyliferation of versions and productions of Greek plays by Irish writers beginning with versions of Antigone that responded in various ways to the Troubles in Northern Ireland She then traces the pre‐history to these 1980s Greek plays and to the regular twinning of Irish and Greek that persists to this day Macintosh argues that however dominant the metropolitan centers remain the rise in the production of Irish adaptations of Greek plays is no belated attempt to reinstate parochial national literary traditions in a global cultural economy In contrast she offers explanations for the continued cultural contribution of Irish writers to the recepshytion of Greek tragedy and provides examples of the various ways in which Irish theater itself has been shaped in turn by an engagement with the ancient plays

Eva Stehliacutekovaacute (Chapter 17) notes that the first Czech performance of a Greek tragedy in the territory of the present Czech Republic took place in 1889 and that since then ancient drama has become a permanent part of the repertoire of professional and amateur theaters She argues that Greek drama has always been considered part of the European humanist tradition in her country This made it possible that in times when freedom was restricted ancient drama could be staged instead of modern plays that would be controlled for political reasons Consequently the presence or absence of productions of ancient plays especially tragedies from Czech theater has become a sensitive barometer of the political situation Stehliacutekovaacute maintains that some of these productions went beyond a utilitarian or merely representative purpose and left a permanent mark on the history of Czech theater Examples are the work of directors Karel Hugo Hilar and Jiřiacute Frejka in the 1930s In addition to great acting performances the distinctive features of their productions included innovative stage design which more recently has also become a significant factor in the work of Josef Svoboda

Aniacutebal A Biglieri (Chapter 18) analyzes the adaptations of Antigone by Sophocles and Medea by Euripides in the works of Argentine dramatists Leopoldo Marechal


(1900ndash1970) Alberto de Zavaliacutea (1911ndash1988) and David Cureses (1935ndash2006) The plays he examines are situated in different sites and times La cabeza en la jaula (The Head in the Cage) by Cureses in Guadas (Colombia) in the eighteenth and nineteenth century El liacutemite (The Limit) by Zavaliacutea in Tucumaacuten Argentina during the political rule of Rosas and Antiacutegona Veacutelez by Marechal and La frontera (The Frontier) by Cureses in the pampas (or prairies) of the province of Buenos Aires during the decades of 1820 and 1870 respectively For these authors the history of Latin America revolves around the opposition between civilization and barbarism which is a type of megatext or master narrative (meacutetareacutecit) that serves as its foundation and gives meaning to the past

Mohammad Almohanna (Chapter 19) shows that drama and theater activities were unknown in Arab‐speaking countries for centuries before they were imported from Western culture during the first half of the nineteenth century He describes how especially from the early twentieth century when Arab culture was opening to the Western world theater was gradually adopted He maintains that Arabs were interested in exploring Classical drama especially Greek drama Almohanna surveys the possible reasons why Arabs especially Muslims ignored the theater for centuries Then he investigates the growing interest in Greek drama among Arabs from the end of the nineteenth century up to recent years He concludes with an analysis of Ahmed Etmanrsquos adaptation of Sophoclesrsquo fragmentary satyr‐play The Trackers (Ichneutai)

Kevin J Wetmore Jr (Chapter 20) describes how Greek tragedy entered Japan during the Meiji era (1868ndash1912) alongside the works of Shakespeare and simulshytaneous to the evolution of naturalism and realism as pioneered by Ibsen and Chekhov As a result it remained a presence in university classrooms rather than on the stages of Japan The second phase of reception of Greek tragedy began in the 1960s when a new generation of artists rejected naturalism embraced myth and had experienced democracy under the American Occupation creating a p roclivity for using Greek tragedy to critique Japanese society and American cultural dominance Finally a third phase emerged in the early 1980s aimed at a more international audience in which the presumed underlying universalism of Greek tragedy was combined with experiments in performance techniques to develop contemporary intercultural adaptations that appeal as much to internashytional audiences as to Japanese ones while still maintaining a social critique of Japan through the Greek text

Peter Meineck (Chapter 21) focuses on eight North American productions of Greek tragedy and adaptations of Greek drama spanning more than two h undred years and examines their reception in American and Canadian culture They are the Boston Haymarketrsquos Medea and Jason in 1798 The Boweryrsquos Oedipus in 1834 Vandenhoff rsquos Antigone in 1845 Acharnians in Philadelphia in 1886 Margaret Anglinrsquos Antigone at Berkeley in 1910 Guthriersquos Oedipus Rex at Stratford Ontario in 1954 Richard Schechnerrsquos Dionysus in lsquo69 in 1968 and Will Powerrsquos The Seven in 2006

Introduction 9

Paul Monaghan (Chapter 22) describes how Australia was first introduced to the performance of Greek drama by touring productions of Medea in the second half of the nineteenth century Late‐nineteenth‐century original‐language productions of both tragedy and comedy in educational settings then set the scene for the d ominance of university‐based productions of Greek drama in Australia well into the 1970s But professional productions andndashndashfrom late in the twentieth centuryndashndashadaptations of tragedy (and to a lesser extent comedy) gradually became more frequent until from the 1970s onwards professional companies have more and more frequently looked to Greek drama to gain inspiration for contemporary t heater Many early productions especially those in the original Greek were archaizing and throughout the period of reception the most common p roduction style has been realism But more poetic imaginative and vigorous styles have increasingly become common A significant physical trend in the 1990s has been followed in the new century by a strong tendency towards post‐dramatic adaptashytions of tragedy Monaghan observes that at the time of writing the number and variety of productions of Greek drama in Australia are almost too vast to be a dequately recorded

Barbara Goff (Chapter 23) notes that since the mid‐twentieth century there have been numerous performances and published adaptations of Greek drama by African artists They generate a paradox whereby the legacy of colonialism offers a cultural resource to the formerly colonized She looks at the background to the phenomenon of African adaptation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth c enturies traces some of the chief characteristics of the adaptations and surveys critical responses to them

Michael Ewans (Chapter 24) starts with an outline of the circumstances in which opera was first created and then surveys operas based on Greek tragedy from 1660 to the 1780s He then discusses major works by Gluck (Iphigeacutenie en Tauride) Cherubini (Meacutedeacutee) Wagner (The Nibelungrsquos Ring) Strauss (Elektra) Enesco (Oedipe) Szymanowski (King Roger) and Henze (The Bassarids) before concluding with a brief survey of operas from 1966 to the present day

Kenneth MacKinnon (Chapter 25) argues that the tenacity of the belief in realism as cinemarsquos true destiny clearly affects critical reception particularly by Classicists of films of ancient Greek drama Yet those films which are believed to be realist and thus praised for demonstrating fidelity to the spirit of tragedy may be superficial in their allegiance to the tragic concept as formulated by Aristotle MacKinnonrsquos chapter explores productions not only cinematic but also theatrical some of which appear to be realist while others seem to counter aspects of realism The question is raised whether the former should be regarded as more authentic than versions which do not aim to represent Greek tragedy as originally conceived

It is noteworthy that the history of the reception of Greek drama reflects not only the history of how the Greek plays were adapted and performed over the


centuries but also that they are part of the wider history of the theater of the time The trend evident in all the contributions is for Greek drama to be initially treated as an elevated genre which has to be regarded with deference and has no direct links with the everyday life of the audience However just as contemporary plays increasingly began to reflect the daily life of audiences in a realistic way so too Greek plays were adapted to embed them in the contemporary world But this process was not exclusive and while some modern versions such as Berkoff rsquos r evolutionary rewriting of Sophoclesrsquo Oedipus as Greek in 1980 challenged the t raditional respect paid to the Classics other productions such as Peter Hallrsquos masked Oresteia at the National Theatre also in London in 1981 strove to p reserve many elements of an authentic ancient Greek production These different strands of the reception of Greek drama continue to co‐exist and expand while somewhere in the world a playwright or director is working on a new way of p resenting an ancient drama to reflect a contemporary theme another director is attempting to stage as authentic a representation of the performance of ancient drama as possible based on the latest knowledge derived from scholarship on Greek drama

References

Gadamer Hans‐Georg 2004 Truth and Method Trans J Weinsheimer and DG Marshall 2nd rev edn London Continuum

Genette Geacuterard 1982 Palimpsestes La literature au second degreacute Paris SeuilHardwick Lorna 2003 Reception Studies Oxford Oxford University PressHighet Gilbert 1949 The Classical Tradition Greek and Roman Influences on Western

Literature Oxford Oxford University PressHutcheon Lynda 2012 A Theory of Adaptation 2nd edn London RoutledgeJauss Hans Robert 1982 Toward an Aesthetic of Reception Trans Timothy Bahti Brighton

The Harvester Press










Edited by

Betine van Zyl Smit

















1 2016


Foreword x













Contents

viii Contents


















Contents ix





References 506

Index 552





13 August 2015

Foreword










































































Introduction 3












Introduction 5










Introduction 7











Introduction 9








References




The Harvester Press

















1 2016


Foreword x













Contents

viii Contents


















Contents ix





References 506

Index 552





13 August 2015

Foreword










































































Introduction 3












Introduction 5










Introduction 7











Introduction 9








References




The Harvester Press


Foreword x













Contents

viii Contents


















Contents ix





References 506

Index 552





13 August 2015

Foreword










































































Introduction 3












Introduction 5










Introduction 7











Introduction 9








References




The Harvester Press

viii Contents


















Contents ix





References 506

Index 552





13 August 2015

Foreword










































































Introduction 3












Introduction 5










Introduction 7











Introduction 9








References




The Harvester Press

Contents ix





References 506

Index 552





13 August 2015

Foreword










































































Introduction 3












Introduction 5










Introduction 7











Introduction 9








References




The Harvester Press





13 August 2015

Foreword










































































Introduction 3












Introduction 5










Introduction 7











Introduction 9








References




The Harvester Press










































































Introduction 3












Introduction 5










Introduction 7











Introduction 9








References




The Harvester Press







Introduction 5










Introduction 7











Introduction 9








References




The Harvester Press






Introduction 7











Introduction 9








References




The Harvester Press






Introduction 9








References




The Harvester Press



References




The Harvester Press

thumbnail · 2016. 3. 5. · comic cook from the hellenistic city of ai khanum, modern ne...

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