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Agamemnon Reconstructed

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Aeschylus

• playwright, librettist, composer, choreographer, producer, and chief actor

• born 525/4 BCE, member of Athenian nobility

• fought Persians under Darius at Marathon, Salamis, and Platea

• author of about 70 plays• first victory 484• 13 wins (52 plays in 13 trilogies

with satyr plays)

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Aeschylus's Subjects• like Phrynichus used

historical subjects, closely related to public issues

• particularly etiological subjects which explain origins of social, political, religious customs

patrilinyfoundation of a system of justice under law

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Other Features• early user of prologue• added new features:

female characters, 2nd actor, trilogy?

• Made use of 3rd actor, added first by Sophocles

• simple plotslittle intrigue

little concealed identity

thus few recognition scenes

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Emphasizes theatrical effects• processions• magnificent

costumes• men-at-arms• chariots, cars• trumpets• gods, demons,

ghosts• graves, altars• later plays:

machines, stage devices

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Agamemnon• first play of Orestia, trilogy

about Orestes• written, performed 458 BCE at

Athens• only surviving Greek trilogy• tragedies of Libation Bearers,

Eumenidies followed• day ended with Proteus, a satyr

playMenelaus consults the old

man of the sea• focus is (initial) consequences of

Agamemnon's error

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Agamemnon a typical tragedy• Plot of exceptional

suffering and calamity

• Characters ones-like-ourselves

• Thought nature of human natureconditions of human lifeconsequences of wrongdoing or sin

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Plot• serious threat to

life or well-being of protagonist

• carried out• usually death of

tragic protagonist

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Characters• one like ourselves, basically

good, but prone to error• own error contributes to his

disaster• internal conflict• often a fatal tendency to pride

or one-sidedness--blind on other sides

• highly placedfate bound up with that of polisso consequences extend beyond protagonist and/or family

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(Almost) Typical in form: • Prologue• Parados• Episodes divided by choral odes• No Exodos

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Performance Circumstances• festival situation of

City Dionysia (others Lenea, Rural Dionysias)

• state support• also support of

wealthy patrons (choregoi)

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State support• theatre• prizes• poets' honoraria• actors fees,

costumes

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Choregos• civic, religious duty

and privilege• chorus fee,

training, costumes• flute player• extras, as for the

procession

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Production Process• festival controlled by chief civil

magistrate• choregoi chosen by lot in July• poet

cast actors (until 449)trained chorus, including choreography and singing

conducted rehearsalsplayed lead

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City Dionysia of 458 BCE • March or early April• procession of cult

statue from temple to Academy

• sacrifices, rituals• two days of

dithyrambs, ending with processions and revels

• five comedies• three days of

tragedies with satyr plays

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Audience• 15-17 thousand, mostly males, citizens in

citizens’ meeting place, aware of civic responsibilty to evaluate conduct of others

of population 155,000

• privileged had honored seats, with backs,• others merely stone benches• admission free• participants in a religious rite• spectators at an entertainment• citizens at a civic festival, excitable,

voluble, volatile, and knowledgeable

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Chorus• predates actors• citizens, acting citizens• same entrance as citizens• primary locus orchestra, formerly agora,

a meeting place for citizens• shared light• shared in evaluation of officials and

audience• so actor/chorus/audience are in essence

same, with different and temporary practical tasks

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Actors and Acting• amateurs, citizens, but

increasingly dominant performance element

• highly trained, especially vocally

emphasis enunciation, resonance, flexibility

• doubling, even tripling• males played all roles• praised for naturalness,

not to be confused with naturalism

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Likely only 3 actors• Clytemnestra• Herald and

Cassandra, perhaps Aegisthus

• Agamemnon and Watchman, perhaps Aegisthus

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Style likely formal, rather than realistic• masks• huge space• doubling• speech, recitative, and song• actors admired for vocal

beauty, virtuosity; skillful handling of poetry; appropriate gestures skillful movement

• situations far from domestic, present

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Prologue: monologue prologue of watchman (protatic)

• antecedent events, particularly since departure of Agamemnon

• characterization of the king

• hints of secrets, tales stones could tell, fear, decline of royal house

• ends with beacon: end of war

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Parados• Chorus of old men,

elders, sages, visionaries

• somber, dirge-like poetic rhythm

• danced in same vein• sets mood, ethical,

social, historical framework for events

wrongs and vengeance

horrors of war

anger of gods

transcience of human life

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Very brief transition• Chorus addresses

Clytemnestra• who doesn't answer

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First Ode• antecedent events

• introduces thought "bitterness in the blood""secret anger"transcience of greatness"wisdom comes alone through suffering

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Episode 1• Clytemnestra

announces fall of Troy

• characterizing• fear of violations by

conquering army• "Let there be no

fresh wrong done!"

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Ode 2• prayer to Zeus,

thanks for victory• awful conditions of

war• sin of Paris,

"mortals who trample down the delicacy of things inviolate"

• sin of Helen, "daring beyond all daring”

• extends thought

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Thought on Multiple Levels• domestic level:

Menelaus's grief • social level: "now in

place of the young men / urns and ashes are carried home"

• political level: "slow anger creeps below their grief"

• ethical level: curse on daring, injustice, "the man fortunate beyond all right"

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Episode 2• actor speaks (sings?) to

actor • messenger, a soldier

context of Agamemnon's earlier mistakesfresh wrongs: "twice over the sons of Priam have atoned their sin"terrible voyage homeend to unhappiness

• Clytemnestra claims wifely virtue

"May he find a wife within his house as true as on the day he left her."

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Ode 3• Causes of evil and

wrongdoing: pride, ruthlessness

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Episode 3• halfway into play, title

character appears• train of returning soldiers,

Cassandra• chorus welcomes, but recalls

cost of war• Agamemnon straightforward,

contrast Clytemnestra's appeal to pride

• "treading down lovely things"• request to treat Cassandra

well

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Ode 4• Chorus's fear• excess, limitation,

nets and snares

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Episode 4• Cassandra's silence

drives Clytemnestra to fury

• Cassandra's vision of sin within the house

• Her own sin, word broken with Apollo

• Agamemnon's death cries

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Ode 5• Chorus hesitates to

respond

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Episode 5• bodies disclosed• Clytemnestra threatens Chorus• Chorus recollects history of doomed

house• Aegisthus justifies self, to control by

power and money• Clytemnestra hopes that all will be

well, house brought into order

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The Citadel of Mycenae

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No Exodos, but a brief forward link

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Thought• Any highly placed

person must err• Sin leads inevitably

to retribution

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None who undertakes a duty for the god can do so without error• antecedent: ancient blood

wrongs within family• position, pride require

return of straying Helen• sacrifice of Iphigenia• decade of inattention to

marriage and family• failure to take

Clytemnestra sufficiently into account

• conquering Troy overmuch

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Sin leads inevitably to retribution

• Agamemnon's sins already committed, his character irrelevant

• fear dominant emotion

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Theatre Buildings• evidence• important theatres• general features• Theatre of Dionysus at Athens

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Evidence• few records of theatre buildings• architectural remains • theatres frequently remodeled and

reconstructed during and after the fifth century

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• Theatre at Thorikos (oldest, 6th c.)• Theatre of Dionysus in Athens most

frequent performance site (stone theatre late 5th-4th c.)

• Theatre of Epidauros (late 4th c.) especially well-preserved

Important Theatres

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General Characteristics• sacred shrines• located all over the

Greek worldincluding Greek colonies in Asia Minor

• built in natural bowls

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three elements• Orchestra (dancing place)

circle?• skene or scene house• theatron (hearing place)

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Theatre at Epidauros

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Theatre of Dionysus in Athens• first performances of tragedy in 534

BCE• earliest, audience seated on hillside• flat dancing place supported by

retaining wall, backfill• perhaps altar South side, opposite

audience• small temple of Dionysus

Eleuthereus

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Conjectural reconstruction

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Auditorium of mid-fifth century• wooden benches (early

century)• separated from skene by

paradoi• curves around orchestra • audience, chorus entered

through paradoi

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Stone auditorium (330 BCE)• Divided into 13

blocks by 12 stairways

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Orchestra or dancing place• perhaps rectangular in earliest

theatre• likely circular by time of Agamemnon• 66' diameter

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Skene or scene building. • earliest, hut or tent for changing • no building required prior to 458 BCE, Orestia• probably temporary wooden structure at one

side of orchestra• different from festival to festival? • set in stone after 430

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Temporary skene for Orestia• possibly paraskenia • unknown number

of doors, perhaps 3-5

• roof for watchman• later stone theatre

(about 330 B.C.) had paraskenia and 5 doors.

• perhaps 2 stories, permanent or temporary

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Acting place or "stage"• possibly none other than the

orchestra• possibly broad steps in front of skene• no evidence of raised stage prior to

late 4th century BCE• no evidence of high raised stage

prior to mid-2nd century

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Scenery• no attempt to conceal the skene• no evidence of changing scenery

3 other plays produced following Agamemnon

• perhaps pinakes, but not periaktoi• ekkyklema necessary for bodies• mechane available, not needed here

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Properties• Altar

always present?needed to suggest tomb of Agamemnon in Choephoroi

• chariot for Agamemnon, Cassandra

• no attempt to use all the furnishings of daily life.

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Costumes• essential to identify

characters and their status

huge theatre, doubling

• chorus all alike• long robe or short

tunic, with or without sleeves

• cloak short or long• soft boots• appropriate

accessories: armor, staffs, crowns, sceptres

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Costume: Evidence• late 5th c. evidence

only• Oinochoe from the

Agora• Pronomos and

Andromeda vases• Texts

choruses differentiated by ethnicity, occupationActors distinguished by ethnicity, poverty in rags, mourning

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Masks worn by all, actors and chorus• use in rituals• text references

differentiation of coloring by ethnicityvarious hair colorsshorn hair for mourning

• covered entire headappropriate hairstyle, beard, ornaments

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Masks: Evidence• experiments of

Thespis• little contemporary

evidence• Fragment of about

470no onkos, no gaping mouth, eyes painted in

• Andromeda vase

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Lighting• daylight• torches indicate night, possible in

Prologue

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Bibliography• Allen, James T. Stage Antiquities of the

Greeks and Romans. New York: Cooper, 1963.• Arnott, Peter D. Greek Scenic Conventions in

the Fifth Century, B.C. Oxford: Clarendon, 1962.

• Ashby, Clifford. Classical Greek Theatre: New Views of an Old Subject. Iowa City: U Iowa P, 1999.

• Bieber, Margarete. History of the Greek and Roman Theatre. 2 ed. Princeton UP: 1961.

• Butler, James H. Theatre and Drama of Greece and Rome. San Francisco: Chandler, 1972.

• Flickinger, Roy C. Greek Theatre and Its Drama. 4 ed. Chicago UP, 1936.

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Bibliography, continued• Harsh, Philip Whaley. Handbook of

Classical Drama. Stanford UP, 1944.• Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur W.

Dramatic Festivals of Athens. Oxford: Clarendon, 1953.

• ----------. Theatre of Dionysus in Athens. Oxford: Clarendon, 1946.

• Winkler, John J. and Froma I. Zeitlin, eds. Nothing to Do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in Its Social Context. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1990.

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Web Sites

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Web Sites“Classics and Mediterranean Archaeology.”

http://rome.classics.lsa.umich.edu/welcome.html

“Didaskalia: Ancient Theatre Today.” http://didaskalia.berkeley.edu/

“Dr. J/s Illustrated Mycenae.” http://nimbus.temple.edu/%7Ejsiegel/sites/mycenae/mycenae.htm

“Greek Art and Architecture.” http://www.officenet.co.jp/~yoji/

Skenotheke: Images of the Ancient Stage.” http://www.usask.ca/antharch/cnea/skenotheke.html