Opening the text

The Attic theatre : $b a description of the stage and theatre of the Athenians, and of the dramatic performances at AthensHaigh, A. E. (Arthur Elam)

History

The Attic theatre : $b a description of the stage and theatre of the Athenians, and of the dramatic performances at Athens

Name: The Attic theatre : $b a description of the stage and theatre of the Athenians, and of the dramatic performances at Athens
Author: Haigh, A. E. (Arthur Elam)

Haigh, A. E. (Arthur Elam)

Athens (Greece) -- Intellectual life; Greek drama -- History and criticism; Theater -- Greece -- Athens -- History -- To 500

The character of the Athenian audience as a whole is well exemplified by
the stories of their treatment of individual poets. Although they were
willing to tolerate the utmost ribaldry upon the stage, and to allow
the gods and sacred legends to be burlesqued in the most ridiculous
fashion, they were at the same time extremely orthodox in regard to the
national religion. Any atheistical sentiments, and any violations of
their religious law, were liable to provoke an outburst of the greatest
violence. Aeschylus on one occasion was nearly killed in the theatre
itself, because he was supposed to have revealed part of the mysteries
in the course of a tragedy. He was only saved by flying for refuge to
the altar of Dionysus in the orchestra.[1071] Euripides also caused a
great uproar by beginning his Melanippe with the line, ‘Zeus, whoever
Zeus be, for I know not save by report,’ &c. In a subsequent production
of a revised version of the play he altered the line to ‘Zeus, as is
reported by truth’,[1072] &c. In the same way sentiments which violated
the moral feeling of the audience were received with intense indignation,
and sometimes resulted in the stoppage of the play. The Danaë of
Euripides is said to have been nearly hissed off the stage because of
a passage in praise of money.[1073] On the other hand, wise and noble
sentiments excited great enthusiasm. Aristophanes was rewarded with a
chaplet from the sacred olive because of the splendid passage in which
he counsels mercy to the disfranchised citizens. Sophocles is said to
have been appointed one of the generals in the Samian expedition on
account of the excellent political wisdom shown in certain passages of
the Antigone.[1074] The partiality of the Athenians for idealism in art
is shown by the reception which they gave to Phrynichus’s tragedy of
the Capture of Miletus, an historical drama in which the misfortunes of
the Ionians were forcibly portrayed. So far from admiring the skill of
the poet, they fined him a thousand drachmas for reminding them of the
miseries of their kinsfolk, and passed a law forbidding the reproduction
of this particular play.[1075]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Attic theatre : $b a description of the stage and theatre of the Athenians, and of the dramatic performances at AthensHaigh, A. E. (Arthur Elam)

History

The Attic theatre : $b a description of the stage and theatre of the Athenians, and of the dramatic performances at Athens

Haigh, A. E. (Arthur Elam)

Athens (Greece) -- Intellectual life; Greek drama -- History and criticism; Theater -- Greece -- Athens -- History -- To 500

The character of the Athenian audience as a whole is well exemplified by
the stories of their treatment of individual poets. Although they were
willing to tolerate the utmost ribaldry upon the stage, and to allow
the gods and sacred legends to be burlesqued in the most ridiculous
fashion, they were at the same time extremely orthodox in regard to the
national religion. Any atheistical sentiments, and any violations of
their religious law, were liable to provoke an outburst of the greatest
violence. Aeschylus on one occasion was nearly killed in the theatre
itself, because he was supposed to have revealed part of the mysteries
in the course of a tragedy. He was only saved by flying for refuge to
the altar of Dionysus in the orchestra.[1071] Euripides also caused a
great uproar by beginning his Melanippe with the line, ‘Zeus, whoever
Zeus be, for I know not save by report,’ &c. In a subsequent production
of a revised version of the play he altered the line to ‘Zeus, as is
reported by truth’,[1072] &c. In the same way sentiments which violated
the moral feeling of the audience were received with intense indignation,
and sometimes resulted in the stoppage of the play. The Danaë of
Euripides is said to have been nearly hissed off the stage because of
a passage in praise of money.[1073] On the other hand, wise and noble
sentiments excited great enthusiasm. Aristophanes was rewarded with a
chaplet from the sacred olive because of the splendid passage in which
he counsels mercy to the disfranchised citizens. Sophocles is said to
have been appointed one of the generals in the Samian expedition on
account of the excellent political wisdom shown in certain passages of
the Antigone.[1074] The partiality of the Athenians for idealism in art
is shown by the reception which they gave to Phrynichus’s tragedy of
the Capture of Miletus, an historical drama in which the misfortunes of
the Ionians were forcibly portrayed. So far from admiring the skill of
the poet, they fined him a thousand drachmas for reminding them of the
miseries of their kinsfolk, and passed a law forbidding the reproduction
of this particular play.[1075]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Attic theatre : $b a description of the stage and theatre of the Athenians, and of the dramatic performances at Athens

The Attic theatre : $b a description of the stage and theatre of the Athenians, and of the dramatic performances at Athens

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