Production
The person who supervised and financed the presentation of drama was called
a choregos. Serving as a choregos was just one of the various
public services called liturgies (literally ‘work on behalf of the people’),
required of wealthy Athenians as a kind of income tax. Some citizens even
undertook this duty voluntarily or if compelled, they were generous and
spent more than the legal minimum. One author quotes an anonymous
Spartan who was dismayed by excessive Athenian expenditures on trivial
matters like drama instead of on serious affairs like the military (Plutarch,
On
the Glory of Athens 348d-349b):
If the cost of the production of each drama were reckoned, the Athenian
people would appear to have spent more on the production of Bacchaes
and Phoenician Women and Oedipuses and the misfortunes
of Medeas and Electras than they did on maintaining their empire and fighting
for their liberty against the Persians.
The responsibilities of the choregos were the following:
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Provide a place to train chorus.
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House and feed chorus and actors.
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Pay for costumes and props.
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Pay for extra actors (mutes).
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Choose poet and aulos player from the archon’s list.
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Hire a chorus director (didâskalos, literally ‘a teacher’),
if poet didn’t do this himself.
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Pay for dedication to Dionysus, if he won.
On street leading to the entrance into the sanctuary of Dionysus in Athens,
victorious choregoi set up bronze tripods to commemorate their victories
in dramatic and other choral performances. The tripods were sometimes
supported by small buildings. Below we see the best preserved choregic
monument dedicated by a certain Lysicrates in 335/4 BC. Some winning
choregoi made less expensive dedications like masks and costumes,
or tablets on which a dramatic scene had been painted.
The choregos might also take it upon himself to distribute wine
and food to the audience, no doubt to win their good will. Aristotle
mentions that he noticed a significant increase in eating when the acting
was bad (Nicomachean Ethics 1175b). The Athenian audience
seems to have been anything but polite, expressing loud approval or disapproval
of the performances. The disapproval could involve shouting, hissing,
clucking, and heel banging. Sometimes they even threw food.
Because of the unruliness of the audience, theater police, called “rod
holders” (rhabdouchoi), were present.
There is much more that could be said about the performance of tragedy,
but this presentation probably is sufficient to get you started.
You can look forward to an exciting adventure in your exploration of Greek
tragedy.
Bibliography
-
Burkert, Walter, "Greek Tragedy and Sacrificial Ritual," GRBS 7 (1966)
87-121.
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Csapo, E. and Slater, William J., The Context of Ancient Drama (Ann
Arbor 1995).
-
Green, R. and Handley, E., Images of the Greek Theatre (Austin 1993).
-
Harsh, P.W., A Handbook of Classical Drama (Stanford 1963).
-
Simon, E. (trans. by Vafopoulou-Richardson, C.E.), The Ancient Theatre
(London
and New York 1982).
-
Taplin, O., Greek Tragedy in Action (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1978).
-
West, M.L., Ancient Greek Music (Oxford 1992).
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