The Dithyramb
• First composed by Arion of Methymna (Hdt. i.23)
• A song, sung by a chorus at the Dionysia to recount the stories of
the life of Dionysus.
• Choregia
• Bands of performers who sang and danced at various festivals, most
especially that of Dionysus.
• In the city they sang the Dithyramb
• In the country they sang the more raucous komodia (Comedy).
The Dionysia
• Instituted at Athens in 534 BC.
• A celebration of the various stages of wine production
• Four Dionysia at Athens:
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•
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Little (Rural) Dionysia – December, to celebrate the harvest (disputed)
Lenaea – January, to celebrate the pressing (theatrical presentations)
Anthesteria – February/ March, to open last years casks
Great Dionysia – March/ April, with the main procession and contests.
• Celebrants dressed as Dionysus, Maenads or Satyrs
• The Procession:
• Women (drunk, of course) carried an Ithyphallic statue
• Men (drunk as well) dressed as women followed
Theatre
Aeschylus
• 525 – 465 BC
• He claimed that it was Dionysus, appearing to him in a dream,
who compelled him to write tragedy (Paus. i.21.2).
• Credited as the father of modern theatre, but his first dramatic
entry was in 499 BC – the city Dionysia was already well
established.
• Served at the Battle of Marathon in 490
• The only personal fact mentioned on his grave-stone.
• Won his first Dionysia in 484. Title unknown.
Aeschylus
Only 7 of 70 plays extant
• 472: The Persae
• 469/8: Seven Against Thebes
• 459: Suppliants
• Victory at the Dionysia over Sophocles.
• 458; (last production) Oresteia
• Agamemnon / Libation Bearers / Eumenides
• Prometheus Bound
• may have been composed by his son Euphorion
Aeschylus, Agamemnon
• First play of the Oresteia, produced in 458 BC
• Set at Mycenae, Clytemnestra awaits the return of Agamemnon from
Troy
• When he arrives, she lays out a purple carpet for him to walk from his
chariot to the palace.
Fatalism?
• The Chorus:
• “Zeus, who sets mortals on the path to understanding, Zeus,
who has established as a fixed law that “wisdom comes by
suffering.”
• “Harsh, it seems to me, is the grace of gods enthroned upon
their awful seats.” (Agamemnon 179 – 80)
Hubris
• [375] The penalty for reckless crime is ruin when men breathe a
spirit of pride above just measure, because their mansions teem
with more abundance than is good for them. But let there be
such wealth as brings no distress, enough to satisfy [380] a
sensible man. For riches do not protect the man who in
wantonness has kicked the mighty altar of Justice into
obscurity.
Nemesis
• As Agamemnon enters the palace,
Clytemnestra and Aegisthus kill him
• Punishment for the murder of Iphigenia
• Punishment for the crime of Atreus
• But is it just? Does murder requite
murder?
Piere-Narcisse Guerin 1817
The Death of Agamemnon
Inherited Sin?
• “…an old Hubris tends to bring forth [765] in evil men, sooner
or later, at the fated hour of birth, a young Hubris and that
irresistible, unconquerable, unholy spirit, Recklessness, [770]
and for the household black Curses, which resemble their
parents.” Agamemnon
Aeschylus, Libation Bearers
• Second play in the Oresteia
• Orestes, son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra
• Raised at Athens (or other places)
• Returns 8 years later
• Charged by Apollo to avenge his father
• Kills Aegisthus and his own mother
• Driven mad by the Furies
Charles Auguste van den Berghe
Aeschylus, Eumenides
• Orestes seeks refuge at Delphi
• Apollo purifies him but cannot stop the Furies
• Apollo advises Orestes to find justice with Athena
• Orestes is pursued to Athens
• Seeks sanctuary on the Hill of Ares, the Areopagus
Eumenides
• The Trial:
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•
•
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Athena acts as judge
Appoints a jury of elders
The Furies prosecute… Apollo defends
Orestes acquitted
• Athena:
• Orders the Furies to become the Eumenides
• The Areopagus to be a court of justice
• Sophocles
• Electra: The sister of Orestes
• Ajax: Another revenge story
• Euripides
• Andromache: The captivity of the wife of Hector
• Electra: The killing of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus
• Hecuba: The wife of Priam – revenge again.
• Helen:
• Heraclidae:
• Orestes:
• Trojan Women: All about sins against women.
Blood Feud
• Family members obligated to avenge the death of kin.
• Vendetta
• Retribution came either by death or compensation
• Blood money
• Wergild
• See ‘The Shield of Achilles’ Iliad 18. 478 – 608.
• No system of state prosecution or state sanctioned punishment
Heraclidae
• 80 years after Troy (ca. 1104 BC)
• Sons of Heracles seek sanctuary at Marathon
• Pursued by officers of Eurystheus
• Demophon, son of Theseus, protects the Heraclidae
• Eurystheus captured and executed
Heracles
4 generations
Polynices
4 generations
Arsitodemus = Argeia
• Aristodemus was one of the Heraclidae who fought
Eurystheus at Marathon
Arsitodemus = Argeia
Eurysthenes
Procles
• The two royal families of Sparta are descendants of the two houses
of Eurysthenes and Procles.
The Heraclidae
Agiad:
Eurypontid:
• Eurysthenes
• Procles
• 3 kings
• Eunomus – Lycurgus
• 8 kings?
• Ariston [550 – 515]
• Demaratus [515 – 491]
• 12 kings
• Leon [590- 560]
• Anaxandrides [560-520]
• Cleomenes [520 – 490]