Literatura científica selecionada sobre o tema "Theater of Dionysius"

AbstractThis essay argues that Shakespeare drew on Plutarch's and Plato's representations of the Greek general Alcibiades in his representation of Prince Hal/King Henry V, and on classical and Renaissance representations of Socrates for his representation of Prince Hal's "tutor," Falstaff. Crucial to Shakespeare's adaption of these classical "characters" were the writings of Erasmus and Rabelais, which represented Socrates as both sophist and jovial Silenus. Shakespeare was also influenced by the association Symposium makes between Alcibiades and Dionysus, god of wine and of the theater. Consequently Hal/Henry emerges as a Dionysian Alcibiades, trained in sophistry by his Silenic Socrates, Falstaff, and able to dazzle his subjects with mystical rhetoric and to convert war to Dionysian play.

The article deals with the enigmatic return of Greek mysteries in the culture of the Silver Age : Dionysos, god of the vine, ecstasy and theater, is incarnated on the Russian stage in spite of his nature being alien to Orthodox spirituality. The spectator is invited to plunge into secret ancient rites «reconstructed» by Russian playwrights according to Nietzsche and to their own aesthetic programs (Liturgy to Me of Fёdor Sologub, The Dionysian act of the present day of Nikolaj Vaškevič, Thamyris citharoede of Innokentij Anneskij). In accordance with the spirit of experimentation common to the Russian milieu, those ideas take flesh equally in life, making Vjačeslav Ivanov’s flat («Tower») in Saint-Petersburg a vast stage to perform masked Dionysian mysteries. Regardless of the chaotic forces escaping outwards, leading to personal tragedies, it seems that Dionysos responds to the highest aspirations of Russian culture in seeking an art free of ideological and moral bonds, collective and syncretic, capable of transforming the world here and now.

„Im Gegenwartstheater, und hier meine ich dramatische Texte sowohl als Inszenierungen und Aufführungen, zeichnet sich die Kunst durch eine Bemühung um neuerliche Vergegenwärtigung des Menschlichen aus. Eine Vergegenwärtigung, die erst durch den Kontrast zu den elektronisch und seriell erzeugbaren Bildwelten und ihren Illusionstechniken in aller Schärfe deutlich wird: Theater situiert sich als das anthropologische Medium schlechthin.“ (9) Es gehört zum Schwierigsten in den Kunstwissenschaften, Gegenwartsphänomene über das Engagement der Tageskritik und Konsumentenlust hinaus auf ein Reflexionsniveau zu heben, das Evidenzmomente erzeugt, welche den Kunstdiskurs im theoretischen wie auch praktischen Sinne auf eine bleibende Weise zu inspirieren vermögen. Ingrid Hentschel hat sich einer solchen Herausforderung mit ihrem jüngst erschienen Buch Dionysos kann nicht sterben. Theater in der Gegenwart bewusst gestellt. Denn in gesteigertem Maße besteht diese Schwierigkeit für eine Kunst des Theaters, welche in den performativen Aspekten ihrer Praxis, Inszenierung und Aufführung, das Literarische, Sprachlich-Semantische des Texts bewusst zu überwältigen unternimmt. Hentschel weist zu Recht darauf hin, dass dies bereits auf gewisse avantgardistische Bewegungen des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts zutraf – man denke nur an Antonin Artauds grandiose Experimente zur Etablierung eines „Theaters der Grausamkeit“ – aber im Theater unserer Zeit und der jüngsten Vergangenheit, also in der Theaterszene der „Jahre vor ...

After centuries of study, an untold number of scholars have agreed that the City Dionysia of fifth-century Athens involved an animal sacrifice to the god Dionysos, and that this event took place in the theatre before the beginning of the play competition. The usual assumption has been that this sacrifice was offered upon an altar situated at the exact center of a circular orchestra.This placement fits well with the theory that tragedy grew from a dithyrambic chorus dancing in a circle around the altar of Dionysos. But now that the dogma of the originally circular orchestra has been questioned, some attention must also be given to the location of the altar, a supposedly standard piece of theatre furniture. The following pages will (1) discuss the origin of the concept of a centrally located altar; (2) examine the literary, artistic, and architectural evidence which relate to altar placement; and (3) suggest a possible alternative to the central location.

The essay starts from the figure of the poet-gynnis, Agatone, with whom Aristophanes opens the Thesmophoriazusae’s seemingly conventional plot, that heightened the men/women historically binary opposition in the Athenian polis. The elusive and metamorphic figure of the effeminate-asexual poet, who explicitly recalls an Aeschilean representation of Dionysus, the god of the theatre, strongly confirms the familiarity of Aristophanes with the Orphic-Dionysian sphere also attested in his masterpiece The Birds and in Plato’s Symposium. Aristophanes’ attention for the reasons of this line of thought, an alternative to the dominant thought in the city, has obvious implications of political and social criticism towards the historically established order and, at the same time, poses the topic of theatre and poetry. The gynnis is a poet’s ambiguous portrait and, in this particular comedy, it also questions the reasons and working of dramatization between mimesis and fantastic deformation.

The tradition of the holidayswhich dedicatedtotheendof the grape harvest, was born in Hellada in ancient times, in the countryside and gradually moved to the cities. This process began in the VIII century BC. Holidays were dedicated to God Dionysus, he was responsible about the natural forces of the earth and vegetation, the mastery of viticulture and winemaking. The holiday started to name Dionysuy. One of the most important action –dance around a circle. Then it becamenational, it conducted in cities, where was taken the new forms. Actors or other free citizens of the city performed on the level of the round plan as a symbol (similar to the village dance in a circle) citywide holiday, the audience were also residents of the city, seats for which came down to the playground of actors in the form of a semicircular funnel. Initially, such places were arranged on artificial sub-constructions of wood. Such structures were prefabricated and were used many times. There have been cases of their collapse. Only after being in Athens to the second part of VI century BC such structures collapsed during the performance, it was decided more of this type of sub-exercise not to be used. From the end of the VI century BC, places for spectators were cut downin the natural hills. And the theaters themselves turned into stationary facilities, which contributed to many spectacular innovations and conveniences of actors -all this increased the visual efficiency of performances. From a simple place of national celebration gradually theaters turned into city-wide centers of state-political information (where the words of the actors conveyed to the audience the general provisions of state policy). For example, in the time of Pericles (444-429 BC), the poor free citizens of Athens were given theatrical money from the state treasury, which they had the right to spend solely on watching theatrical productions. Taking into account the fact that the theaters gathered several thousand spectators at the same time, the performances contributed to the dissemination of state information at a time for a large number of residents of the city. The Theatre of Deonis in Athens under the acropolis of the Acropolis accommodated 17,000 spectators from the total number of citizens in the heyday of 100,000. In addition, it was noticed that certain performances contribute to the optimistic mood of the ISSN 2519–4208. ПРОБЛЕМЫ ТЕОРИИ И ИСТОРИИ АРХИТЕКТУРЫ УКРАИНЫ.2020. No 20142audience, and this has a beneficial effect on their health. Therefore, it is no coincidence that theatrical productions (late classics of Hellas) were provided among the medical and recreational procedures in the “Asclepius” treatment and health procedures at VI C. in B.C.). The “Asclepius” architectural ensemble has a theatre as part of a medical and recreational center.Theatrical actions carried to the masses the state lines of ideology and politics, increased the general culture of the population while influencing the audience as wellness procedures. Theatrical performances were more effective than temple services. This is the need for the construction of theaters throughout Hellenism, where there was no city within Hellenistic borders, where there would be no theater. By the end of the III century BC, when the entire East Mediterranean world was subordinated to the Roman Republic, the type of theatrical construction of Hellas was completely formed. This was accepted by the Romans for their theatrical productions, gradually adapting it to the features of their mass-entertainment culture.

The Theater Is always Dying traces the resilience of live theatrical performance in the face of competing performative forms like cinema, television and contemporary streaming services on personal, hand-held devices and focuses on theater’s ability to continue as a significant cultural, community and intellectual force in the face of such competition. To echo Beckett, we might suggest, then, that theater may be at its best at its dying since its extended demise seems self-regenerating. Whether or not you “go out of the theatre more human than when you went in”, as Ariane Mnouchkin suggests, or whether you’ve had a sense that you’ve been part of, participated in a community ritual, a Dionysia, or whether or not you’ve felt that you’ve been affected by a performative, an embodied intellectual and emotional human experience may determine how you judge the state of contemporary theater. You may not always know the answer to those questions immediately after the theatrical encounter, or ever deliberately or consciously, but something, nonetheless, may have been taking its course. You may emerge “more human than when you went in”.

In this thesis I investigate the theoretical or philosophical notion/archetype of the Dionysian in relation to the transgressive female body in performance. I do so through 1) an investigation into the theories behind the Dionysian and the transgressive; 2) an examination of the performative practice of the transgressive female body; and 3) a personal exploration of the theatrical practice. 1) In the first chapter I introduce and thoroughly explore the archetypal concept of the Dionysian, and identify its significance because of its intrinsic association with the transgressive. I associate it with its oppositional force, the Apollonian, which is similarly significant because it is through the Dionysian disruption of the Apollonian from which the very notion of the transgressive springs. Through a review of Camille Paglia's seminal text on the subject of the Dionysian¹, this chapter provides a historical, mythological and theoretical context for the schism between the two archetypal aesthetics, starting from the description of the mythology of the ancient Greek gods, Dionysus and Apollo, and unpacks the transgressive nature of the Dionysian. Drawing on concurring theories of Friedrich Nietzsche and Julia Kristeva, as well as Hans Thies-Lehmann's writings on post-dramatic theatre², Chapter One attempts to firmly establish the inherent link between the Dionysian and theatre and performance, as well as the Dionysian and the transgressive, and provide a thorough theoretical framework for the rest of the thesis. 2) The second chapter investigates the work of two female performance artists³ who (re)present⁴ their bodies as transgressive in performance, namely Marina Abramovic and Karen Finley. It critically examines specific performance works of theirs, and through this examination it explores how they (re)present their bodies as transgressive in performance, and why they do so. This chapter furthermore establishes the connection between the transgressive female performing body, as (re)presented by Abramovic and Finley, and the Dionysian. In so doing it explores how they negotiate this ancient aesthetic or practice in a contemporary performance context. I believe that these performance artists are in fact striving to celebrate and reclaim the Dionysian within their work, and I attempt to establish this within this chapter. 3) The third chapter of this thesis analyses my own practical exploration of the transgressive female body in performance in a piece entitled Bleeding Mermaid (2008). It examines this exploration in the context of the theory of the Dionysian, as well as investigating how and why I (re)presented my body as transgressive in the performance. The analysis furthermore questions how I understand my work on the (re)presentation of the transgressive female body in relation to, and within the context of, Finley and Abramovic's work on the same subject. Through this investigation, I aim to establish a link between the Dionysian and the transgressive female performing body; and investigate the motivation(s) behind the (re)presentation of the transgressive female body in performance. I hope to open up a pathway to the reclamation of the Dionysian, both in performance practice and research. ¹Paglia, Camille. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. England: Penguin Books, 1990. ²Lehmann, Hans-Thies. Postdramatic Theatre. Trans. and Intro. Karen Jürs-Munby. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. ³Performance Art began around the 1960s in Europe and America. It is performance with a sense of immediacy – in that it is hard to replicate as it interacts with each unique audience – it is thus effectively a fresh/new experience each time. It breaks the boundaries of traditional theatre (form, structure, venue, time etc) and is often shocking or provocative in nature. It mixed the aesthetics of theatre and art, often taking place in installation settings. Performance Art has developed and morphed throughout the years, and is also referred to as Live Art in Britain. A performance artist is someone who produces performance art. It is possible that Performance Art no longer exists/is possible because it no longer shocks or affects the audience. ⁴My use of the brackets in (re)presented/(re)present throughout this thesis is because I would like to make simultaneous reference to the words/connotations of "presentation" and "representation", without being bound to the connotations of illusion/falseness/non-reality as is associated with the word "representation" (in opposition to the concept of the "real"), and thus be left only with the one-dimensional approach/meaning of "presentation".

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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES
The Theater of Cruelty is an Artaudian artistic manifestation that shook the representative Western aesthetic bases by returning the ritual, magic and life suppressed by Western theater to the performing arts, also highlighting controversial subjects / themes silenced by a ruling class, similarly as Friedrich Nietzsche and Gilles Deleuze did with their philosophical thoughts. In view of this, it is proposed with this Master's Dissertation, to (un)fold this Theater of Cruelty having as a theoretical subsidy, besides the studies of Antonin Artaud, the investigations of Nietzsche, Deleuze and some other rebellious thinkers. Through this unfolding, one studies the possible cruel plot given by the Philosophy-Art-Life conjunction and of that, the link between Tragedy, Dionysus and the Artaudian Theater. In view of this panorama, one wonders: what unites these cruel-artist thinkers? What do Nietzsche's Tragedy and the god Dionysus lend to the Theater of Cruelty of Artaud? To this end, the theoretical clause presented here rests on the attempt to account for a study that shows the rhizomatic agreement between these three thinkers and subversive thoughts having as central axis the Theater of Cruelty. Therefore, this theater is staged to propose a connection between Artaudian Cruelty and the revolutionary powers of the Nietzschean and Dionysian tragic.
O Teatro da Crueldade é uma manifestação artística artaudiana que estremeceu as bases estéticas representativas ocidentais devolvendo às artes cênicas o ritual, a magia e a vida suprimida pelo teatro ocidental, evidenciando, também, assuntos/temas polêmicos silenciados por uma classe dominante, similarmente como fizeram Friedrich Nietzsche e Gilles Deleuze com seus pensamentos filosóficos. Diante disso, propõe-se com essa Dissertação de Mestrado, (des)dobrar esse Teatro da Crueldade tendo como subsídio teórico, além dos estudos de Antonin Artaud, as investigações de Nietzsche, Deleuze e alguns outros pensadores rebeldes. Por intermédio desse desdobramento, estuda-se a possível trama cruel dada pela conjunção Filosofia-Arte-Vida e, a partir dessa, o enlace entre Tragédia, Dioniso e o Teatro artaudiano. A partir desse panorama apresentado, pergunta-se: o que une esses pensadores artistas-cruéis? O que a Tragédia de Nietzsche e o deus Dioniso emprestam ao Teatro da Crueldade de Artaud? Para tanto, o recorte teórico que aqui se apresenta repousa na tentativa de dar conta de um estudo que mostre o acordo rizomático entre esses três pensadores e pensamentos subversivos tendo como eixo central o Teatro da Crueldade. Logo, esse teatro se faz palco para propor uma ligação entre a Crueldade artaudiana e as potências revolucionárias do trágico nietzschiano e do dionisíaco.

Na contemporaneidade nenhum deus da Grécia antiga exerce tanto fascínio quanto o deus do vinho, Diônisos. Filho de Zeus e de Sêmele, perseguido por Hera, protegido por Hermes e duas vezes nascido, estranho estrangeiro, veste máscaras, é coroado de hera, senhor da videira, impera nas Antestérias e nas Lenéias, está representado nos textos antigos, em vasos, frisos, frontões e nos legou o lugar de sua identidade, o teatro. O teatro é por excelência o espaço de Diônisos. Livre e libertador, o deus a céu aberto, com o passar do tempo tem para si um espaço singular. A presente pesquisa se detém na arquitetura teatral como uma tecnologia simbólica e sua disposição na paisagem para tentar compreender os códigos implícitos que denotam indícios de uma comunicação não verbal, presente no ambiente construído. Entendemos lugar como um conceito relacional, repositório de sequências e ações que se torna parte da tradição de um povo. Aliamos documentação textual às fontes materiais e, para desenvolver nosso tema, selecionamos um repertório com dezesseis teatros do mundo grego. Na Grécia situam-se nas seguintes cidades: Atenas, Argos, Delfos, Delos, Dodona, Epidauro, Mileto, Priene e Sicione. Na Itália eles estão localizados em Heracleia Minoa, Lócris, Metaponto, Morgantina, Segesta, Siracusa e Taormina. Utilizamos o nosso corpus documental como um registro a revelar aspectos do culto dionisíaco na pólis grega do séc. VI ao III a.C.
In the contemporary world, there is no other ancient Greek god who is found as fascinating as Dionysus, the god of wine. Son of Zeus and Semele, pursued by Hera, protected by Hermes and twice-born, strange foreigner, wearer of masks, crowned with ivy, lord of the vines, he is represented in ancient texts, vases and friezes, and he bequeathed to us the home of his identity: the theatre. The theatre is the Dionysian space par excellence. Liberated and liberating, the god of the open sky, with the passing of time he comes to possess a singular space for himself. This research project focuses on theatrical architecture as a symbolic technology, and on its use within the landscape, with the aim of understanding the implicit codes that denote the indices of a non-verbal communication present in the built environment. Space is understood as a relational concept, a repository of sequences and actions that become part of a people\'s tradition. We will link textual documents to material sources and, in order to develop the subject further, we have made a selection of sixteen theatres in the Greek world. In Greece, they are situated in the following cities: Athens, Argos, Delphi, Delos, Dodona, Epidaurus, Miletus, Priene and Sicione. In Italy, they are located in Heracleia Minoa, Locri, Metaponto, Morgantina, Segesta, Syracuse and Taormina. We will use our body of documents as a register through which to reveal aspects of the Dionysian cult in the Greek polis during the period VI-III BC.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the actor's process in tackling the roles of Harry Dalton in Equus by Peter Shaffer, Duke Senior in As You Like It by William Shakespeare, and Dionysus in The Bacchae by Euripedes. Each production is assigned its own chapter, respectively. The chapters explore each role vocally, psychologically, and physically, including the examination of the Alexander Technique. Reflection on the experience of portraying the character and an evaluation of the actor's growth also transpires. The fourth chapter, Finding My Light, summarizes related observations and analysis as a result of performing all three roles. Finally, the fifth chapter, Curtain Call: A Tableau of Contemplation, deliberates on three years of graduate education. It features the benefits and shortcomings realized as a result of participating as one of the first students the Professional Studio Acting Track of Virginia Commonwealth University.

The PhD dissertation here presented concerns the political significance and function of the theatre and the sanctuary of Dionysos Eleutherios in Athens in a chronological period which runs from the fifth to the first century B.C. Its primary aim is to investigate the practice of displaying inscriptions in the area of the theatre, in order to recognize the ideological value of the documents there exposed and, consequently, to understand the socio-cultural and political meaning of this specific site as an appropriate place for the publication of official texts within the city. This problem is the focus of the first part of the dissertation, which comprises a classification of all the inscriptions displayed in the area of the sanctuary of Dionysos during the Classical and Hellenistic periods. The selection and identification of the documents has been carefully conducted on the basis of the excavation data (fundamental for this research, though not always accurate in recording the precise provenance) and an analysis of their content (in those cases where the texts are not too fragmentary). It should be noted that we are dealing with texts which are often incomplete while other inscriptions which may once have been displayed in the area of the theatre have not survived. However the study of all the surviving inscriptions located in the site – together with an appreciation of each of them in its proper cultural and historical context – has enabled me to investigate in depth the political use and value of the theatre. I drew up a catalogue deploying categories to classify the different inscriptions (for example, decrees, catalogues, dedications, etc…) before arranging the texts within each section into chronological order. The most represented categories are honorific decrees and dedications, exhibited in the area to express gratitude to benefactors or citizens whose activities were linked in various ways to the sacral or theatrical practice of the site and whose behavior served as a model for Athenians. This catalogue provides the following information for each inscription: physical description, provenance, conservation status, dating, text with apparatus, current published editions, brief comment on the most remarkable aspects (concerning palaeography, language, chronology and content) of the document. The readings have been verified thorough autopsy of the texts at the Epigraphical Museum or at the Archaeological Site of the Acropolis. This compilation is complimented by two more sections concerning other inscriptions found in the area of the sanctuary whose original setting in the site is either plausible (section VI) or has to be definitively excluded (section VII); the reasons for the inclusion of each document in these two last sections are detailed in the accompanying notes. Some of the decrees collected in the catalogue explicitly indicate that the decisions handed down by the city were taken during an assembly held in the theatre of Dionysos. This theme lies at the heart of the political significance of the theatre and is the central concern of the second part of the dissertation. The political use of the theatre is attested for in many cities of the Greek world and must be analyzed with an understanding of the diverse values and functions which typified theatrical buildings in Greek society. However, this phenomenon becomes more complex in Athens, because of the presence in the city of a dedicated ekklesiasterion on top of the Pnyx, whose construction saw three different phases between the fifth and the fourth century B.C. and whose activity is documented in the written sources. The custom of assembling in the theatre – seldom documented in the fifth century before becoming more frequently attested to from the second half of the fourth century – is testified not only for the theatre of Dionysos, but also for that of Munichia at Piraeus, which was similarly used for the meeting of the ekklesia in this period. Therefore the second part of the thesis provides a detailed, diachronic examination of all the literary and epigraphic Greek texts mentioning the use of these two theatres as assembly places. Here the purpose is to investigate which factors determined why Athenians chose these sites for assemblies over the Pnyx and to understand how across time the theatre gradually came to supplant the role of the ekklesiasterion. In this regard, particular attention has been paid to the political use of the theatre in the fifth century – a time when the Pnyx was still in use as an assembly place, and the theatre had yet to assume its current monumental form in stone. The literary passages are analyzed individually, while the inscriptions are tabulated according to the formula used to indicate the place of the meetings. The evidence examined include a far more up-to-date survey than previous studies – which though few remain essential – thanks especially to the excavations conducted in the area of the Agora by the American School of Classical Studies in Athens from the 1930s. These sources are analyzed in parallel with an appreciation of the archaeological data pertaining to the Pnyx and the theatre of Dionysos: these data complement the evidence of the written sources, providing information about the shape and size of these sites and, consequently, on the number of people who could be accommodated there. In conclusion, the analysis of the broader material evidence together with historical sources suggests that – while political and ideological contexts remained always significant – changing practical needs after the fifth century were crucial to the changing location of political assemblies.
La tesi di dottorato qui presentata riguarda il significato e la funzione politica del teatro e al santuario di Dioniso Eleutereo ad Atene in un lasso cronologico intercorrente tra il V e il I secolo a.C. Scopo principale della ricerca è quello di analizzare la consuetudine di esporre epigrafi nell’area del teatro, al fine di comprendere il valore ideologico dei documenti ivi pubblicati e, di rimando, di approfondire il significato socio-culturale e politico che tale sito acquisì nel tempo in quanto spazio scelto all’interno della città per la pubblicazione di testi ufficiali. Questo tema costituisce il fulcro della prima parte della dissertazione, che comprende una catalogazione di tutte le iscrizioni pubblicate nell’area del santuario di Dioniso durante le età classica ed ellenistica. La selezione e l’identificazione dei documenti epigrafici raccolti è stata meticolosamente effettuata sulla base dei dati di scavo (fondamentali per questa ricerca, ma non sempre precisi nel registrare con esattezza il luogo di rinvenimento) e l’analisi del loro contenuto (nei casi in cui il testo non è troppo frammentario). È necessario porre l’attenzione sul fatto che tali testi documenti sono spesso lacunosi e che costituiscono un campione certamente limitato rispetto all’insieme di tutte le iscrizioni che potrebbero essere state pubblicate nell’area del teatro nel periodo in oggetto. Ad ogni modo, lo studio complessivo di tutte le epigrafi superstiti collocate nel sito – associato ad un riesame di ognuno di questi testi nel contesto storico-culturale che gli è proprio – ha consentito di approfondire l’uso e il significato politico del teatro. Le iscrizioni sono classificate nel catalogo in base alla tipologia epigrafica dei testi in diverse sezioni (decreti, cataloghi, dediche ecc.), all’interno delle quali i documenti sono organizzati in ordine cronologico. Le categorie epigrafiche più rappresentate sono i decreti e le dediche onorarie, ivi esposti per esprimere gratitudine verso personaggi legati a vario titolo all’attività teatrale o cultuale svolta nel sito e il cui lodevole comportamento nei confronti della città diventa modello per gli Ateniesi. Per ogni epigrafe inserita nel catalogo si forniscono le seguenti informazioni: descrizione e tipologia del manufatto, provenienza, stato di conservazione, datazione, testo con apparato critico, edizioni, commento puntuale sugli aspetti paleografici, testuali, linguistici e storico-cronologici ritenuti più rilevanti per l’esegesi del testo. Le iscrizioni, conservate nel Museo Epigrafico di Atene o nel sito archeologico dell’Acropoli, sono state riesaminate tutte autopticamente. Il catalogo è inoltre completato da due sezioni, in cui sono riunite altre epigrafi trovate nell’area del santuario, la cui pertinenza ad esso è tuttavia solo ipotizzabile (sezione VI) o da escludere (sezione VII); le ragioni che hanno determinato l’inclusione di tali iscrizioni in queste due ultime sezioni sono chiarite nelle note che corredano i singoli testi. Alcuni dei decreti raccolti nel catalogo indicano esplicitamente che la decisione varata dalla città e registrata per iscritto sulla stele fu presa durante un’assemblea tenuta nel teatro di Dioniso. Questo aspetto è molto significativo per l’indagine sulla valenza politica del teatro e rappresenta il tema centrale della seconda parte della tesi. L’uso assembleare del teatro è attestato per molte città del mondo greco e deve essere analizzato alla luce di quella pluralità di valenze e funzioni che contraddistinsero la natura stessa dell’edificio teatrale. Tuttavia, l’analisi di questo fenomeno per il caso ateniese è particolarmente interessante, poiché la città era di fatto dotata di un proprio ekklesiasterion sulla collina della Pnice, la cui costruzione vide tre diverse fasi edilizie tra il V e il IV secolo a.C. e la cui attività è documentata dalle fonti. La consuetudine di riunirsi nel teatro – raramente attestata nel V secolo a.C. e poi sempre più di frequente a partire dalla seconda metà del IV secolo a.C. – è testimoniata non solo per il teatro di Dioniso, ma anche per quello di Munichia al Pireo, che fu analogamente usato per le riunioni dell’ekklesia in quel periodo. Dunque la seconda parte della tesi è dedicata ad un dettagliato esame diacronico di tutti i testi letterari ed epigrafici che menzionano l’uso di uno di questi due teatri come luogo di assemblea. Il fine è di indagare sui fattori che determinarono la scelta di questi luoghi per le riunioni al posto della Pnice e di comprendere in che modo nel tempo il teatro arrivò a sostituire il ruolo dell’ekklesiasterion cittadino. In questo senso, è analizzato con particolare attenzione l’uso politico del teatro nel V secolo a.C., periodo in cui la Pnice era ancora in uso come luogo di assemblea e il teatro doveva ancora assumere una forma monumentale. I passi letterari sono analizzati individualmente, mentre le iscrizioni sono catalogate in base alla formula utilizzata per indicare il luogo di svolgimento dell’assemblea. La quantità dei documenti epigrafici che attestano lo svolgimento di riunioni politiche nel teatro è notevolmente più consistente rispetto a quella presentata negli studi precedenti – che non sono numerosi, ma restano essenziali per questa ricerca – grazie soprattutto al consistente incremento di materiale dovuto agli scavi condotti nell’area dell’agorà dall’American School of Classical Studies in Athens dagli anni Trenta del Novecento. Le testimonianze epigrafiche e letterarie sono esaminate parallelamente ai dati archeologici che riguardano la Pnice e il teatro di Dioniso, dati che completano le notizie desumibili dalle fonti scritte, fornendo informazioni su forma e dimensioni dell’auditorium della Pnice e del theatron e, di conseguenza, sul numero di persone che poteva essere ospitato in tali spazi. In conclusione, l’analisi delle fonti e dei dati archeologici induce a concludere che – pur essendo rilevanti i motivi politici e ideologici – si deve dare il giusto peso a diversi fattori di ordine pratico che, dopo il V secolo a.C., furono senz’altro determinanti per il cambiamento del luogo di svolgimento delle assemblee.

Es gibt Situationen, in denen das Leben seine Glaubwürdigkeit verliert. Lukian erfährt dies am eigenen Leib. Er kann nicht glauben, dass sein Großvater gestorben ist. Und dann liegt da auf einmal diese geheimnisvolle Papierrolle unter seinem Bett. Ihr Inhalt stellt all das in Frage, was Lukian bisher selbstverständlich erschien. Was ist der Mensch – nur eine Marionette in einem großen Theaterstück? Die Suche nach Antworten treibt ihn auf eine abenteuerliche Reise zu den Wurzeln unserer Kultur. Er trifft auf die großen Denker der Vergangenheit und diskutiert mit ihnen über die Freiheit des Willens und die Existenz des Ichs. Ein kleiner, unscheinbarer Spiegel begleitet ihn dabei. Zunächst erscheinen in ihm nur rätselhafte Umrisse. Doch nichts bleibt, wie es ist – auf dem Weg zum Ende der Welt.

Depuis plus d'un siècle, la Grèce antique ne cesse d'éblouir philosophes et hommes de lettre en Occident. La tragédie occupe une place éminente dans cet émerveillement venu de l'Athènes du Ve siècle avant Jésus-Christ. C'est pour matérialiser cette fascination que ce théâtre a donné lieu à des interprétations de tout genre : philosophique, humaniste, politique et morale... Il s'agit de lectures idéologiques dont la tragédie en général et Sophocle en particulier a fait l'objet. Dans cette perspective, il importait d'effectuer un panorama des lectures de cette tragédie devenue un mythe contemporain. L'oeuvre de Sophocle a servi d'illustration à la visée idéologique d'un théâtre qui s'intégrait à l'origine dans le cadre des manifestations culturelles en l'honneur de Dionysos à Athènes. Y avait-il lieu d'universaliser et d'immortaliser ces interprétations, fruits de l'imaginaire occidental ? Fallait-il continuer la réincarnation des personnages de Sophocle qui aurait avec son Antigone et son OEdipe-roi réussi à élaborer des modèles inimitables de la tragédie et de l'existence de l'homme ? C'est pour questionner cette vision de Sophocle qu'il semble nécessaire d'exploiter les éléments esthétiques (chant, musique) de cette tragédie qui offrent de nouvelles pistes de réflexion en porte-à-faux avec la lecture idéologique observée dans la critique contemporaine.

This chapter looks at Richard Schechner's production of Dionysus in 69, which is a reworking of Euripides' Bacchae. Dionysus in 69 remains a landmark in the history of the reception of Greek theater in the twentieth century. It demonstrates not only the degree to which each era chooses the interpretations that correspond to its own preoccupations, but the degree to which those preoccupations regulate even the choice of a particular drama itself. The themes of the Bacchae—violence, madness, ecstasy, release of libidinal energy, relations between extremes of group and individual, challenges to authority, transgressions of taboos, and freedom of moral choice—are precisely those which found quite uncanny analogues in the cultural conflicts of the day. At the same time, experiments with different lifestyles and attitudes went hand in hand with artistic experimentation in theater, which challenged both actors and audience in new and unsettling ways. Ultimately, Dionysus in 69 proved to be the perfect vehicle for testing the principles of Schechner's theatrical vision as a communal experience.

Abstract After vase painting, Euripides’ Bacchae is the richest source of Dionysian imagery to survive from fifth-century Athens. When the play was pro duced, Dionysian narratives had already appeared on Attic vases for more than a century and a half, and the death of Pentheus itself had appeared on them for nearly a century. Presumably an Athenian attending the performance would have been familiar with other images connected with the god and might also have seen other versions of the Pentheus story in the theatre. He might recently have attended the performance of Aristophanes’ Frogs where Dionysos was also a central character.