The Greek theater and its dramaFlickinger, Roy C. (Roy Caston)
History
The Greek theater and its drama
Flickinger, Roy C. (Roy Caston)
Drama -- Technique; Greek drama -- History and criticism; Theater -- Greece -- History -- To 500
Such, then, is the penultimate stage in the evolution of the satyric
chorus, and many authorities are content to stop here. But there remains
evidence for a still earlier stage. A British Museum psykter by Duris
(Fig. 10)[77] represents ten “choreutae” and a herald, and a British
Museum cylix by Brygus contains two scenes, in one of which three
“choreutae” are attacking Iris before Dionysus and his altar and in the
other Hermes and Heracles are protecting Hera from four “choreutae.”[78]
These vases belong to about 480 B.C., and the “choreutae” upon them have
human feet, no horns, no loin-bands, and equine ears and tails. Reisch
is undoubtedly correct in recognizing in these scenes at least the
indirect influence of the satyr-play.[79] Furthermore, a similar figure
appears upon a Würzburg cylix of about 500 B.C. (Fig. 11).[80] This bears
the inscription ΣΑΤΡΥΒΣ, a manifest mistake for σάτυρος. Here we have
the earliest representation of a satyr in Attica. And though it does
not belong to a theatrical scene, its divergence from contemporaneous
satyrs of the Peloponnesus and from Attic satyrs of a later period can
be explained only on the basis of the appearance of the choreutae in
contemporaneous satyr-plays. The Duris psykter and the Brygus cylix show
that this type did not at once disappear.
To my mind the meaning of all this is fairly clear. When Pratinas
attempted to restore the Dionysiac element to contemporaneous drama at
Athens, he kept the Peloponnesian name but did not venture to shock
conservatives still further by disclosing to their eyes creatures so
foreign and strange as the Dorian goat-men would have been. Accordingly,
he transformed his satyrs so as to approximate the sileni of native
tragedy.[81] After fifty or sixty years, however, satyric drama had
become so thoroughly at home in Athens that the experiment was tried of
imposing the Peloponnesian type unchanged upon the Attic choruses. But
the reaction could not and did not endure. In two or three decades the
final type had emerged, such as we see it in the Naples crater. Except
for the goatskin about the loins, which is often highly conventionalized,
the native sileni are at every point victorious.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.—A Satyr upon a Würzburg Cylix of About 500 B.C.
See p. 31, n. 6]
[Illustration: FIG. 12.—A Comus upon a Berlin Amphora
See p. 38, n. 2]
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