Nothing to Do with Dionysos?: Athenian Drama in Its Social Context

by John J. Winkler (Editor), Froma I. Zeitlin (Editor)

These critically diverse and innovative essays are aimed at restoring the social context of ancient Greek drama. Theatrical productions, which included music and dancing, were civic events in honor of the god Dionysos and were attended by a politically stratified community, whose delegates handled all details from the seating arrangements to the qualifications of choral competitors. The growing complexity of these performances may have provoked the Athenian saying "nothing to do with Dionysos" implying that theater had lost its exclusive focus on its patron. This collection considers how individual plays and groups of dramas pertained to the concerns of the body politic and how these issues were presented in the convention of the stage and as centerpieces of civic ceremonies. The contributors, in addition to the editors, include Simon Goldhill, Jeffrey Henderson, David Konstan, Franois Lissarrague, Oddone Longo, Nicole Loraux, Josiah Ober, Ruth Padel, James Redfield, Niall W. Slater, Barry Strauss, and Jesper Svenbro.

Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, History, Literary Criticism

440 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Linniegayl]

This is a DNF for me. I was reading this in preparation for a class but am getting nothing out of the essays at this point. I suspect it will be useful as a reference later.

[gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zeitlin’s essays in this anthology are immaculate. The entire book is a great aid for my thesis work!

[Kim Matheson]

I only made my way through a handful of essays, but they were very interesting and well-written. I appreciated looking at the Dionysia through the lens of *social* context, and generally doing away with the myth/ritual tendencies that have dominated ancient studies beginning in the 1950s.