Ancient Greek theatre is a form of stage art, which, with its physicality, popular character, and poetry, crosses boundaries of time and culture, often with shocking immediacy, making eternal personal and public questions look fresh and relevant in all periods of time. The coexistence of the eternal-universal and the contemporary-local in Greek plays has often been framed in theory through the question of the autonomy of the work of art vs. the work’s close relationship with its social and historical context. Ancient Greek plays were universal, but at the same time intimately connected with the institutions and ideologies of the society that produced them. By focusing on selected tragedies and comedies, this module will explore the invaluable contribution of the study of ancient Greek dramatic production to our knowledge of the social and political history of ancient Greece; more specifically: political and social institutions, such as religion and cult, Athenian democracy and imperial ideology, tensions between the elite and the masses, gender and sexuality, the representation of the Other, the relationship between the domestic and the public, the individual and the communal.   

• Demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of the institutional and ideological framework of Greek drama of the classical period.
• Identify and critically discuss the historical and social context of the tragedies and comedies dealt with in the module, in terms of major political, social, moral and ideological questions, individual and communal concerns, and social and political institutions of the fifth century BCE, as these may be traced in tragedy and comedy.
• Draw and critically evaluate analogies and contrasts across specific plays included in the syllabus of the module and theatrical genres (tragedy and comedy).
• Explore and critically discuss the boundaries between the culturally specific and the universal in the Greek plays (with the question of audience(s) being a major one in this exploration).
• Discuss these issues in oral presentations and written work with coherent and logical arguments, clearly and correctly expressed.

Teaching: 10 2-hour teaching sessions (10 weekly meetings); film screening; independent study; 1 coursework feedback tutorial

The 2-hour teaching sessions will be interactive, comprising lectures and student activities based on material for study provided in advance.

The lectures provide an introduction to a particular topic, establishing the key points of major course themes, identifying important issues, and providing guidance for more in-depth reading. They aim to provide a basic framework for understanding, and should be thought of as a useful starting-point for further discussion and independent study. Slides and, where appropriate, handouts are used to illustrate the material discussed.

Student activities provide an opportunity for students to analyse and discuss key issues and topics in the module, and to get feedback on their ideas from the tutor and their peers. Material for study and suggestions for preparatory reading will be circulated prior to the sessions.

Film screening enables students to look at a film adaptation of a Greek tragedy; it will be followed by discussion on the reception of Greek drama and modern responses to it.

Independent study enables students to familiarise themselves with the primary source material and the most important modern approaches and debates on the subject. A reading list is provided, with guidance on key items of reading for major themes and lecture topics.

Coursework feedback tutorials provide students with an opportunity to get feedback and guidance on all aspects of their written work.

• analysis and critical evaluation of a variety of different types of historical evidence, such as literary texts and material evidence.
• assimilating and synthesising complex information and original ideas.
• evaluating research resources and methods and taking the responsibility of the design and delivery of the topic.
• clear, accurate and effective communication of ideas and arguments in writing and in debate.
• employing basic skills and conventions, such as bibliographic and referencing skills.
• using IT resources effectively.
• independent working and time management.
• initiating and leading tasks, as part of a team, taking responsibility, where relevant, for the work and roles of others.

The module will be assessed through: one group presentation of 10 minutes (25%); one individual report building on the material of the presentation (25%); and an exam consisting of one essay question and one source criticism exercise, weighted 70:30 (50%).

The oral presentation will be written and delivered by small groups within teaching sessions after week 5. Students will demonstrate: their ability to interpret and critically discuss questions relevant to the plays and their socio-political context, in the light of key primary and secondary sources, and their skills in public speaking, team-working and designing visual aids.

The individual post-presentation report will build on the group presentation in a critical and reflective manner. The post-presentation report and exam questions will require knowledge and critical deployment of evidence and an awareness of modern scholarship to answer questions and construct arguments relating to the historical context and interpretation of ancient Greek drama.

In the source criticism exercise, specific written or material sources relating to the syllabus and the main themes of the module will be set, and students will have to assess their significance, thus deploying their knowledge of the period and interpretations of it.

Students who fail the module will normally be expected to resit the failed component(s) in the summer resit period. In lieu of a group presentation resit candidates will be required to submit presentation notes.

• Aeschylus, Agamemnon
• Sophocles, Antigone
• Euripides, Andromache
• Euripides, Hippolytus
• Aristophanes, Lysistrata

• Topics to be examined in the course of the teaching sessions are the following

• Drama’s origins and its institutional, artistic and ideological framework (festivals, competition, performance, audience, didactic function).
• Big moral questions concerning the individual and the community, such as love, friendship, death, justice, retribution, hybris (arrogance, excess), kinship and family and loyalty to the state.
• Political institutions of the Athenian democracy and wider concerns of the Greek polis, such as democratic institutions, decision making and persuasion, state authority and individual freedom.
• War and peace in the turbulent fifth century BCE, Athenian tragedy as cultural export, and plays for non-Athenian audiences.
• Comic imagination and comedy’s engagement with current questions, political concerns and prominent individuals.
• Gender and sexuality in tragedy and comedy.
• Gods, cults, and religious beliefs in Greek tragedy.
• The role of myth in Greek tragedy and comedy.

Aeschylus, The Oresteia (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides), trans. By R. Fagles, Penguin, 1975.

Sophocles, The Three Theban Plays (Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus), trans. By R. Fagles, introductions and notes by B. Knox, Penguin, 1983.

Euripides, Electra and Other Plays (Andromache, Hecabe, Electra, Trojan Women), trans. J. Davie, introduction and notes by. R. Rutherford, Penguin, 1998 (2004 reprinted with updated Further Reading).

Euripides, Medea and Other Plays (Alcestis, Medea, The Children of Heracles, Hippolytus), trans. J. Davie, introduction and notes by. R. Rutherford, Penguin, 1996 (2003).

Allan, W. The Andromache and Euripidean Tragedy, 2000

Baldock, M. Greek Tragedy: An Introduction, 2011

Bosher, K. (ed.) Theater outside Athens: Drama in Greek Sicily and South Italy, 2012

Burkert, W. ‘Greek Tragedy and Sacrificial Ritual’, GRBS 7: 87-121, 1966

Butler, J. Antigone’s Claim: Kinship between Life and Death, 2000

Cairns, D. Sophocles: Antigone, 2016

Carey, C. ‘Comic ridicule and democracy’, in Osborne, R. and S. Hornblower (eds.) Ritual, Finance, Politics: An Account of Athenian Democracy, 1994, 69-83

Carter, D. M. The Politics of Greek Tragedy, 2007

Csapo, E. and W. J. Slater (eds.) The Context of Ancient Drama, 1994

Easterling, P. E. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, 1997

Foley, H. P. Female Acts in Greek Tragedy, 2001

Goff, B. (ed.) History, Tragedy, Theory: Dialogues on Athenian Drama, 1995

Goldhill, S. ‘Representing Democracy: Women at the Great Dionysia’, in Osborne, R. and S. Hornblower (eds.) Ritual, Finance, Politics: An Account of Athenian Democracy, 1994, 347-69

Goldhill, S. and R. Osborne (eds.) Performance Culture in Athenian Democracy, 1999

Goldhill, S. Aeschylus: The Oresteia, Sec. End. Cambridge, 1992, 2004

Goldhill, S. D. Reading Greek Tragedy, 1986

Gould, T. F. and C. J. Herington (eds.) Greek tragedy. Yale Classical Studies. Vol. XXV, 1977

Gregory, J. (ed.) A Companion to Greek Tragedy, 2005

Griffin, J. ‘The Social Function of Greek Tragedy’, CQ 48 (1998), 39-61

Griffiths, A. Stage Directions. Essays in Ancient Drama in Honour of E. W. Handley, 1995

Hall, E. Inventing the Barbarian, 1989

Hall, E. Greek Tragedy: Suffering Under the Sun, 2010

Henderson, J. Aristophanes, Lysistrata, edited with introduction and commentary, 1987

Henderson, J. ‘Women and the Athenian Dramatic Festivals’, TAPA 121 (1991), 133-47

Konstan, D. ­Greek Comedy and Ideology, 1995

Macleod, C. ‘Politics and the Oresteia’ in Lloyd, M. (ed.) Oxford Readings in Aeschylus, 2007, 265-301

MacKinnon, K. Greek Tragedy into Film. Third Edn., 2013

Michelakis, P. Greek Tragedy on Screen, 2013

Mikalson, D. Honor Thy Gods: Popular Religion in Greek Tragedy, 1991

Mills, S. Euripides: Hippolytus, 2002

Parker, R. Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Ancient Greek Religion, 1983

Pelling, C. Greek Tragedy and the Historian, 1997

Pelling, C. Literary Texts and the Greek Historian, 2000

Revermann, M. and P. Wilson (eds.) Performance, Iconography, Reception: Studies in Honour of Oliver Taplin, 2008

Revermann, M. The Cambridge Companion to Greek Comedy [especially Part III ‘Central Themes’ and Part IV ‘Politics, Law and Social History’], 2014

Rhodes, P.J. ‘Nothing to Do with Democracy: Athenian Drama and the Polis’, Journal of Hellenic Studies (2003) 123, 104-19

Rutherford, R. ‘Tragedy and History’, in J. Marincola (ed.) A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography, 2007, 504-14

Saïd, S. ‘Tragedy and Politics’, in D. Boedeker and K. Raaflaub (eds.) Democracy, Empire, and the Arts in Fifth-Century Athens, 1998, 275-95

Scodel, R. Theatre and Society in the Classical World, 1993

Scodel, R. Introduction to Greek Tragedy, 2010

Seaford, R. Reciprocity and Ritual, 1994

Segal, C. P. Interpreting Greek Tragedy: Myth, Poetry, Text, 1986

Segal, C. P. Antigone, 2003

Segal, E. Oxford Readings in Aristophanes, 1996

Sidwell, K. C. Aristophanes the Democrat: The Politics of Satirical Comedy during the Peloponnesian War, 2009

Sommerstein, A. H. and others, Tragedy, Comedy and the Polis, 1993

Sommerstein, A. H., Greek Drama and Dramatists, 2002

Sourvinou-Inwood, C. Tragedy and Athenian Religion, 2003

Steiner, G. Antigones, 1984

Stuttard, D. (ed.) Looking at Lysistrata, 2010

Taplin, O. Greek Tragedy in Action, 1978

Taplin, O. Comic Angels: and other Approaches to Greek Drama through Vase Paintings, 1992

Taplin, O. Pots and Plays, 2007

Vernant, J.-P., Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece, 1988

Walcot, P. Greek Drama in its Theatrical and Social Context, 1976

Winkler J. J. and F. I. Zeitlin (eds.) Nothing to Do with Dionysus?, 1990

Winkler, M. M. Classical Myth and Culture in the Cinema, 2001

Zeitlin, F. Playing the Other: Gender and Society in Classical Greek Literature, 1996