Tragedy and Athenian ReligionStemming from Harvard University's Carl Newell Jackson Lectures, Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood's Tragedy and Athenian Religion sets out a radical reexamination of the relationship between Greek tragedy and religion. Based on a reconstruction of the context in which tragedy was generated as a ritual performance during the festival of the City Dionysia, Sourvinou-Inwood shows that religious exploration had been crucial in the emergence of what developed into fifth-century Greek tragedy. A contextual analysis of the perceptions of fifth-century Athenians suggests that the ritual elements clustered in the tragedies of Euripides, Aeschylus, and Sophocles provided a framework for the exploration of religious issues, in a context perceived to be part of a polis ritual. This reassessment of Athenian tragedy is based both on a reconstruction of the Dionysia and the various stages of its development and on a deep textual analysis of fifth-century tragedians. By examining the relationship between fifth-century tragedies and performative context, Tragedy and Athenian Religion presents a groundbreaking view of tragedy as a discourse that explored (among other topics) the problematic religious issues of the time and so ultimately strengthened Athenian religion even at a time of crisis in very complex ways_ rather than, as some simpler modern readings argue, challenging and attacking religion and the gods. |
Contents
Aeschylus Aitnaiai and Euripides | 40 |
Ritual Context Tragic Performance and Permeability | 50 |
The Ritual Context | 67 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aeschylean tragedies Aeschylus Agora altar ancient audience Anthesteria Apollo argued Artemis articulated assumptions Athenian Athens audience's choral chorus City Dionysia comedy complex cult cultic culturally determined Danaids Dareios deities Delphic Dionysos discourse discussion distance dithyramb divine appearances Electra elements epiphany Erinyes eschara Eteokles Eumenides Euripidean tragedies Euripides evoked fact festival fifth-century goddess Greek Hecabe Heracles Hestia Hippolytos human sacrifice hymns hypokrites images important interaction involved Iphigeneia Iphigeneia in Tauris ithyphalloi Ixion komos Mastronarde 1994 modality mortals myth Neoptolemos notion Oidipous oracle Oresteia Orestes Panathenaia parameters perceived perception performance Persai persona play polis present prophecy prototragedy prytaneion reality reception reclining reconstruction references relationship relevant religion religious dimension religious exploration religious problematization rite ritual dining ritual matrix role sanctuary satyr satyr play schema schemata significant skene Sophocles Sourvinou-Inwood stasimon statue stibades suggest Suppliants supplication theater things tion tragic tragos TrGF Twelve Gods vase women Zeus zoomed
References to this book
Nietzsche's Life Sentence: Coming to Terms with Eternal Recurrence Lawrence Hatab No preview available - 2004 |
Comic Business:Theatricality, Dramatic Technique, and Performance Contexts ... Martin Revermann No preview available - 2006 |