This volume takes the now well-established analytical category of ‘performance’ as its focus; this produces a collection of discussions communally aware of the importance of this academic trend and yet various in their approaches in applying it to ancient drama. Contributions range across tragedy, comedy and satyr drama, and collectively offer close textual readings of plays as well as dramatic, generic, social/political, institutional and historical contextualisation of Athenian drama.
In the first section, ‘Performance as Meaning and Action’, Marshall proposes the understanding of Trojan Women's three central encounters through reference to Hecuba and Homer's Iliad. He explores the ‘diptych effect’ created through the structural comparison of Trojan Women with the earlier Hecuba and argues that the ending of the Iliad informs the order of the central encounters, the decisive victory by Helen and the burial of Astyanax. Griffiths applies J.L. Austin's theory of the performativity of the speech act to add a further layer, and fresh approach, to discussion of the workings of the language in Sophocles' Electra. This densely argued chapter focuses on the language used between Clytemnestra and Electra and its manipulation by both of them: language becomes a source of weapons for Clytemnestra and a space of resistance for Electra. To complete the section, Love explores Euripides' manipulation of the relationship between emotional sympathy and moral judgement in the Hecuba, suggesting that the audience is led into a collusive relationship with the protagonist only to be faced with an emotional, disruptive and morally confusing ending to the drama. The bleakness of the drama, Love concludes, is in the collapse of an emotional framework which makes moral judgements possible and the creation of a world without meaningful human relationships.
The second section explores ‘Texts as Fragments of Performance’. Sommerstein, in an academic u-turn (to which he openly admits), makes a case for an Aeschylean ‘Persian War Tetralogy’ (connecting the plays performed with Persians in 472 b.c.). Through some clever footwork, he suggests that Phineus, Persians and Glaucus Potnieus together foretell the Persian war in temporal sequence (the storm at Cape Serias foretold in Phineus and battles of Salamis, and possibly Plataea, in Glaucus). The satyr drama Prometheus Pyrphoros (Fire-bearer) rounds off the set with links to the Persian sacking of Athens. Xanthakis-Karamanos attempts, for the first time, a full reconstruction of the plot of Euripides' Archelaus, including fragments previously not located in the action of the play. Notable is the support for the suggestion of the participation by Cisseus' daughter in the plot. It is argued that the mythical Archelaus (based on the mythical Caranus) is used to express the Hellenic character of Macedonia and that the Pan-Hellenic idea embedded in this play anticipates the shift in cultural identity to come. Caspers considers the implications of Iphigenia in Aulis and Bacchae being performed together and considers their relationship with one another as ‘companion plays’. Caspers argues that the pairing draws attention to the sheer diversity of dramatic treatment in Euripides' work. The discussion goes further to suggest that Euripides conceived the two as companion plays and that the Iphigenia in its transmitted form should be accepted as entirely his work.
The next section focuses on ‘Genre and Performance’. In a carefully argued chapter, Swift puts Euripides' Alcestis into lyric context by exploring its paeanic and epinician elements, arguing for the progression during the drama from Apollo's paean to Heracles' epinician. This test case is used to show tragedy's ability to overturn the conventions of lyric in order to achieve dramatic effects. O'Sullivan considers the dramatic significance of Sicily as the setting of Euripides' Cyclops. He argues that the island is presented as a ‘barbarous backwater’, a negative paradigm, used to emphasise the savagery of Polyphemus, the isolation of the satyrs from Dionysus and to add to the sense of exuberance typical to the genre. Torello looks at the representation of astrateia (‘draft-dodging’) and lipostration (‘desertion from the army’) in Old Comedy. Both military offences are, it is argued, associated with femininity and carry the potential to attribute sexual ambiguity to male comic characters engaged in them.
In the fourth section, ‘Dramatic Performance as Interrogation’, Hamstead argues for the centrality of the theme of liminality in Sophocles' Trachiniae and considers the ways in which the transgression of boundaries between god/human/beast; male/female and life/death enhance our understanding of Heracles' character and the play's ending. Next Fletcher explores the way in which Euripides' Hecuba raises important issues about the Athenian legal system and conflates the themes of vision and justice to implicate the audience as law-making citizens and spectators of tragedy. Finally Wohl argues that the world of Orestes is one in which the category of enemy becomes ‘hopelessly confused’ and that the play dramatises what Derrida describes as ‘a form of political madness’ following the loss of enmity. The exploration of this theme is related to the Athenian political situation in 408 b.c.
In the final section, ‘Political Contexts of Dramatic Performance’, R., challenging Rhodes's and Griffin's position, argues that both tragedy and comedy are inextricable from Athenian democratic political culture. The case is made on the basis that the emotions (pity, fear, anger and indignation) elicited by both dramatic genres were also fundamental to Athenian political culture.
In the final chapter, Wilson and Csapo, with trademark rigour, take a fresh look at the evidence for the shift from choregia to agonothesia and challenge the accepted view of its simple and sudden institution by Demetrius; suggesting instead that it was a prolonged, tumultuous and complex process.
This is a handsome and well-edited volume addressing a usefully inclusive range of plays and topics. One of its greatest strengths is that it deals with performance across all ancient drama, not simply one genre; the juxtaposition of chapters dealing with different genres invites broader reflection on the ancient experience of drama collectively. R.'s beautifully accessible introduction not only sets up the volume well but also offers an overview of recent developments in the field which will prove of huge value to students who are new to this area of study. Overall, to this reader at least, some discussions appeared more persuasive than others, and some approaches more fruitful, but this is to be expected in a collection of this sort and all contributions are of a high quality; doubtless the individual persuasion or appeal of each chapter will be a matter of personal taste and interest for each reader. Anyone with an interest in Greek drama will certainly find it worthwhile to consult this collection and it is sure to become an essential addition to any postgraduate or undergraduate reading list for courses on ancient drama.
