This volume was published one month after its Latin counterpart, namely G. Petrone (ed.), Storia del teatro latino (2020), Carocci publishing house providing a fresh new history of theatre both in Greece and at Rome in two volumes. Written in Italian, the book follows the footsteps of G. Mastromarco and P. Totaro, Storia del teatro greco (2008), providing, however, a wider perspective on Greek theatre through the inclusion of chapters on often neglected areas, such as dithyramb, mime and reception studies.
Di Marco, a leading expert in ancient Greek theatre, states at the beginning of the introduction the scope of the volume, which is not limited to specialists, but rather aims at engaging a wider audience (p. 15). This aim is brilliantly achieved by the book, whose clear purpose and breadth of vision offer both non-specialist readers and experienced scholars a thoughtful synthesis of current debates and the recently blossoming attention not only to the major poets and genres, but also to ones previously considered uninteresting mainly because of the lack of textual evidence and unsystematic primary research. The accessibility and the balance of approaches make the book useful to a wider audience, and non-specialist readers will not need any other support beside the volume itself. For example, there are several sections devoted to plot summaries of tragedies and comedies (pp. 85–90 for Aeschylus; pp. 108–19 for Sophocles; pp. 137–68 for Euripides; pp. 276–98 for Aristophanes; and the whole Chapter 18 ‘Gli intrecci dei drammi’, pp. 461–508); the didascalic approach does not always summarize all previous voices of research but presents the essential contents. Nevertheless, the book is thorough in its approach to theatre lato sensu, not only devoting space to tragedy and comedy, but also dwelling on genres that have hitherto been given less consideration (e.g. the chapter on mime) and considering, perhaps for the first time in an Italian book on the history of theatre, reception as an important chapter (E. Rossi Linguanti's ‘Sulle tracce di Medea’). In addition, the profusion of commentaries on intact and fragmentary dramas of the last decades is to some extent rewriting the history of theatre, and a comprehensive volume including and benefiting from recent publications was undoubtedly a desideratum. This is especially true in the case of comic authors considered in the past of minor importance: not only the KomFrag project (‘Kommentierung der Fragmente der griechischen Komödie’) which, since 2013, has been providing a large number of commentaries on fragmentary Attic comedy published in the series Studia Comica, but Doric comedy has also received more in-depth studies in the last few years (F. Favi, Fliaci. Testimonianze e frammenti [2017] and F. Favi, Epicarmo e pseudo-Epicarmo [frr. 240–297] [2020]), as well as the broader concept of fragmentation in ancient Greek drama (see the recent collection of essays edited by A. Lamari, F. Montanari and A. Novokhatko, Fragmentation in Ancient Greek Drama [2020], dealing both with tragedy and comedy).
A.M. Belardinelli, in ‘Il teatro in Grecia’, provides an overview of the institution of theatre, festivals and reperformance in antiquity. Every single component is taken into account: the chorus, the actors, the audience, the poets and the spaces they moved in, namely the physical theatres and their structures. The chapter is both lucid and profound, reference to the ancient sources offering the information is always in first place, which helps readers to contextualise the information given.
B. Zimmermann, who already mastered the genre in his monograph Dithyrambos (2nd ed. 2008), offers in ‘Il ditirambo’ a detailed account of dithyramb and its evolution, the importance of which is crucial in such a book, in view of the mutual intersections with fifth-century tragedy and the allusions in comic texts.
P. Mureddu, in ‘La tragedia: dalle origini a Eschilo’, ‘Sofocle’ and ‘Euripide e la tragedia posteuripidea’, provides fascinating insights into the history of tragedy until the Hellenistic age. A rich diachronic perspective is adopted, considering not only single authors, but also the functions and scope of the genre, with a focus on the catharsis as described by Aristotle (pp. 78–80). The section on Aeschylus condenses the main information on the author's life and dramatic production, providing a summary of each play. Further chapters on the structure and the general features of Aeschylus’ tragedies follow. The structure of the chapters on Sophocles and Euripides is similar. The ancient sources are taken into relevant account (Aristotle in the first place and, whenever they are reliable, the Vitae) and are extremely well balanced with modern interpretations of the authors’ art and craft. Space is also devoted to fifth- and fourth-century ‘minor’ tragedians, although several commentaries on the surviving fragments saw the light after the publication of the book (besides V. Pacelli, Teodette di Faselide – frammenti poetici [2006], see V. Pacelli, Astidamante di Atene. Testimonianze e frammenti [2020], A. Boschi, Crizia tragico. Testimonianze e frammenti [2020] and B. Gavazza, Agatone e la tragedia attica di fine V sec. a.C. Studio delle testimonianze e dei frammenti [2021]).
Di Marco, editor to the volume, also provides the chapter ‘Il dramma satiresco’, having previously authored a book on satyr drama (Satyriká. Studi sul dramma satiresco [2013]) and numerous relevant articles. The chapter is rich and detailed, considering not only the extant production of the three canonical authors, but also the features of the genre and its important relationships with tragedy and comedy.
M. Napolitano, a renowned expert on fifth-century comedy (with a number of publications on Aristophanes and on fragmentary texts), discusses the origins of the comic genre and the main representatives of Old Comedy in ‘La commedia antica: il problema delle origini’, ‘La farsa dorica e la commedia megarese’, ‘Epicarmo e la commedia siciliana’, ‘I poeti della commedia attica antica’ and ‘Aristofane’ while L. Bruzzese, who published an excellent study on the new-comic-poet Philemon in 2011 (Studi su Filemone comico [2011]), offers ‘La commedia di mezzo’ and ‘Menandro e la commedia nuova’. These chapters are among those that were most in need of an updated overview, given the number of recent publications and commentaries on single comic poets. Napolitano's account is exhaustive in this sense and engages with a vast amount of bibliography. Each poet, even if ‘minor’ or fragmentary, finds an adequate space in the exposition. Most importantly, readers are always informed where to find additional information and detailed studies. As for the tragedians in the previous chapters, Aristophanes’ plots are summarised and interpreted in their contemporary contexts. All aspects of his poetics are extremely well documented, even those that, for reasons of space, could not find a place in the discussion (for instance, Aristophanes’ metrics, to which a long note with bibliography is devoted [p. 311 n. 59]).
L. Bruzzese provides a significant discussion of the quite obscure periods of the history of comedy such as Middle and New Comedy. He opens with the discussion of the perennial concern for scholars of Greek comedy about the validity of the label ‘Middle Comedy’, whether the genre had enough distinctive features of its own to set it apart from the times of Aristophanes on the one hand and of Menander on the other hand (see now H.-G. Nesselrath, ‘Middle Comedy’: an Outdated Term or Still a Useful Notion?, in A. Fries and D. Kanellakis [edd], Ancient Greek Comedy. Genre, Texts, Reception [2020], pp. 69–84). The distinctive features of the genres are taken into account, namely mythological comedy, the beginning of love-plots, the stock-characters, political comedy (or lack thereof), philosophical parody and a brief overview of metrics. The resulting picture is balanced and informative. Two chapters on Menander, New Comedy and their legacy follow. In addition to the overview of Menander's career and comedies, the section elucidates to what extent the label ‘New Comedy’ has been based almost entirely on Menander. Bruzzese maintains the importance of also considering the ‘others’ (Philemon, Diphilus and further contemporary authors). Interestingly, the chapter ‘La fortuna della commedia nuova’ provides a glimpse of the paths that New Comedy took after the plays’ performance, from books to the Roman stage, from schools to villa mosaics.
L. Di Giuseppe's ‘Il teatro fuori da Atene. I fliaci’ and M. Sonnino's ‘Il mimo’ are both highly enlightening sections on often neglected topics of Greek theatre and a pleasant surprise for readers. In particular the chapter on mime, in earlier books on Greek theatre often considered nothing more than a chapter on costume history, provides rich documentation in terms both of ancient sources and of modern bibliography.
Rossi Linguanti's ‘Sulle tracce di Medea’ stands out for the same reason, reception studies having been a neglected field for a long time. The author chooses Euripides’ Medea and investigates a selection of later versions of the play, from Apollonius of Rhodes to Christa Wolf.
V. Zanusso's ‘Gli intrecci dei drammi’ closes the book, providing summaries of all complete works by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides as well as comedies by Aristophanes and Menander (the Dyskolos and the other five plays we can reconstruct almost in their entirety).
The bibliography wisely collects the main critical editions, organised and brought together under the name of each ancient author. The index collects names of ancient authors, plays’ characters, historical figures and divinities.
Given its affordability and breadth, this is a good book to have. Di Marco has managed to bring together an impressive cast of specialists on ancient Greek theatre, who challenged themselves with the arts of conciseness and effectiveness in reaching a broader public without failing to present the novelty of the research and a reassessment of important topics concerning Greek theatre. The book is especially suitable for students wishing to learn about the history of Greek theatre, but it will not fail to engage the interests of more learned readers too.
