Theater outside Athens
Drama in Greek Sicily and South Italy

The first collection of essays on the development of Greek theater in ancient Sicily and South Italy.

Kathryn Bosher (Edited by)

9781107527508, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 September 2016

492 pages, 45 b/w illus. 9 maps
24.5 x 17 x 2.5 cm, 0.84 kg

'… the volume is important for research on ancient Greek theatre …' Kostas Valakas, The Classical Review

This volume brings together archeologists, art historians, philologists, literary scholars, political scientists, and historians to articulate the ways in which western Greek theater was distinct from that of the Greek mainland and, at the same time, to investigate how the two traditions interacted. The chapters intersect and build on each other in their pursuit of a number of shared questions and themes: the place of theater in the cultural life of Sicilian and South Italian 'colonial cities;' theater as a method of cultural self-identification; shared mythological themes in performance texts and theatrical vase-painting; and the reflection and analysis of Sicilian and South Italian theater in the work of Athenian philosophers and playwrights. Together, the essays explore central problems in the study of western Greek theater. By gathering a number of different perspectives and methods, this volume offers the first wide-ranging examination of this hitherto neglected history.

Introduction
Part I. Tyrants, Texts, and Theater in Early Sicily: 1. Early Greek settlement in the West: the limits of colonialism Jonathan Hall
2. A prolegomenon to performance in the West Kathryn Morgan
3. Challenging authority: Epicharmus between epic and rhetoric Andreas Willi
4. On Epicharmus' literary and philosophic background Lucia Rodríguez-Noriega Guillén
5. Hieron's Aeschylus Kathryn Bosher
6. Aeschylus' Aetnaeae and the identity of Xouthus: poetic appropriation of Sicily from Stesichorus to Euripides David Smith
7. A Theseus outside Athens: Dionysius I of Syracuse and tragic self-presentation Anne Duncan
8. Dionysius I and Sicilian theatrical traditions in Plato's Republic: representing continuities between democracy and tyranny S. Sara Monoson
Part II. Stone Theaters, Wooden Stages, and Western Performance Traditions: 9. Between performance and identity: the social and cultural context of theaters in late Classical and Hellenistic Sicily Clemente Marconi
10. Montagna dei Cavalli: a new Greek theater in early Hellenistic Sicily Stefano Vassallo
11. How was Athenian drama played in the Greek West? Oliver Taplin
12. Myth and tragedy: images on vases and oral transmission between Central and Northern Apulia in the second half of the fourth century BC Luigi Todisco
13. Whose line is it anyway? 'Phlyax' comedy repossessed Chris Dearden
14. Comic vases in south Italy: continuity and innovation in the development of a figurative language J. R. Green
15. The grave's a fine and funny place: chthonic rituals and comic theater in the Greek West Bonnie MacLachlan
Part III. Hellenistic Reflections: 16. In pursuit of Sophron: Doric mime and Attic comedy in Herodas' Mimiambi David Kutzko
17. 'Nor when a man goes to Dionysus' holy contests' (Theoc. 17.112) - outlines of theatrical performance in Theocritus Benjamin Acosta-Hughes.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Theatre studies [AN], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]