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Travel to Athens’ Dionysia: Ἑλλὰς Ἑλλάδος and the Centripetal Politics of the Athenian Dionysia

  • Eric Csapo
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Departing the Polis
This chapter is in the book Departing the Polis

Abstract

Many Greeks departed their poleis to attend the Athenian Dionysia. A still dominant trend in scholarship views the composition of the audience at the Dionysian dramatic competitions as predominantly Athenian (often ‘Athenian male citizens’). This chapter reviews the evidence of inscriptions, literary and dramatic texts, even art, that indicates the presence of significant numbers of foreign visitors to the Dionysia, especially at the time of the first performance of most of our extant plays. Far from broadcasting Athenian superiority, as cold-war scholarship maintained, the Dionysia and its drama was an exercise in outreach and panhellenic inclusion. There are good reasons to believe that, from ca. 430–390, foreign visitors comprised at least half of the audience of the Dionysia. Together with metics, they far outnumbered the citizens. This in turn gives some insight into the process that made the Athenian model of dramatic production the panhellenic standard for centuries to come.

Abstract

Many Greeks departed their poleis to attend the Athenian Dionysia. A still dominant trend in scholarship views the composition of the audience at the Dionysian dramatic competitions as predominantly Athenian (often ‘Athenian male citizens’). This chapter reviews the evidence of inscriptions, literary and dramatic texts, even art, that indicates the presence of significant numbers of foreign visitors to the Dionysia, especially at the time of the first performance of most of our extant plays. Far from broadcasting Athenian superiority, as cold-war scholarship maintained, the Dionysia and its drama was an exercise in outreach and panhellenic inclusion. There are good reasons to believe that, from ca. 430–390, foreign visitors comprised at least half of the audience of the Dionysia. Together with metics, they far outnumbered the citizens. This in turn gives some insight into the process that made the Athenian model of dramatic production the panhellenic standard for centuries to come.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Maps and Figures IX
  5. Introduction: On Departing the Polis 1
  6. Part I: Theatrical Journeys and Travellers
  7. Travel to Athens’ Dionysia: Ἑλλὰς Ἑλλάδος and the Centripetal Politics of the Athenian Dionysia 19
  8. Travel beyond Athens: Pilgrims and Sanctuaries in Greek Tragedy 43
  9. An Archetypical Traveler: Strangers in Distress and Suppliants in Greek Tragedy 89
  10. Mapping the Cosmos: The Cosmological Imagination of Travelling in Aeschylus’ Persians and the Oresteia 107
  11. Part II: Travel and the Tragic
  12. Sophocles’ Triptolemos and other Tragic Globetrotters 141
  13. Travelling Through Nemea in Euripides’ Hypsipylē 153
  14. Euripides’ Melanippē Plays and the Politics of Travel 167
  15. Part III: Comic Travels
  16. The Voyage of Eternal Return: Extraordinary Travel in Aristophanes and Old Comedy 185
  17. Perceptions of Travel in Greek Comedy: Exploring some Examples from Middle Comedy 209
  18. The Importance of Overseas in Menander 225
  19. Abbreviations
  20. Bibliography
  21. List of Contributors 265
  22. General Index
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112210109-002

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Maps and Figures IX
  5. Introduction: On Departing the Polis 1
  6. Part I: Theatrical Journeys and Travellers
  7. Travel to Athens’ Dionysia: Ἑλλὰς Ἑλλάδος and the Centripetal Politics of the Athenian Dionysia 19
  8. Travel beyond Athens: Pilgrims and Sanctuaries in Greek Tragedy 43
  9. An Archetypical Traveler: Strangers in Distress and Suppliants in Greek Tragedy 89
  10. Mapping the Cosmos: The Cosmological Imagination of Travelling in Aeschylus’ Persians and the Oresteia 107
  11. Part II: Travel and the Tragic
  12. Sophocles’ Triptolemos and other Tragic Globetrotters 141
  13. Travelling Through Nemea in Euripides’ Hypsipylē 153
  14. Euripides’ Melanippē Plays and the Politics of Travel 167
  15. Part III: Comic Travels
  16. The Voyage of Eternal Return: Extraordinary Travel in Aristophanes and Old Comedy 185
  17. Perceptions of Travel in Greek Comedy: Exploring some Examples from Middle Comedy 209
  18. The Importance of Overseas in Menander 225
  19. Abbreviations
  20. Bibliography
  21. List of Contributors 265
  22. General Index
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