Agamemnon Reconstructed

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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
• patriliny
• foundation 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 plots
• little 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 play Menelaus
  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 nature
• conditions of human life
• consequences 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 placed
• fate bound up with that of polis
• so 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 rehearsals
• played 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 mistakes
• fresh wrongs "twice over the sons of Priam have
  atoned their sin"
• terrible voyage home
• end 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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Important Theatres

• 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

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General Characteristics

• sacred shrines
• located all over the Greek world
• including 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, occupation
• Actors 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 ethnicity
• various hair colors
• shorn hair for mourning
• covered entire head
• appropriate hairstyle, beard, ornaments

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Masks Evidence

• experiments of Thespis
• little contemporary evidence
• Fragment of about 470
• no 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.officene
  t.co.jp/yoji/
• Skenotheke Images of the Ancient Stage.
  http//www.usask.ca/antharch/cnea/skenotheke.html