The Theatricality of Greek Tragedy: Playing Space and Chorus by Graham Ley

Abstract

BOOK REV1EWS/COMPTES RENDUS 163 an erection becomes paradoxically associated with female concerns of the body. It would be interesting to consider Nussbaum's conclusions in the context of Aristophanic comedy in general, since only Acharnians and Lysistrata are discussed here. In Aeschylus' Suppliants, the Danaids strive to avoid the transition from maidenhood to marriage, and Sheila Murnaghan (183-198) compares their position with that of other female choruses inGreek literature and culture, which often stress that a single individual must become separated from the group through marriage. Murnaghan suggests that Hypermestra follows this pattern of separation, by moving from a role as a member of the chorus in the Suppliants, to that of protagonist in the final play of the trilogy. In addition Murnaghan cites Aristotle's claim that tragedy was created when the leaders of the dithyramb stepped out of the chorus, and suggests that Aeschylus' trilogy replicates this movement from the centrality of a chorus to that of an individual protagonist. Froma Zeitlin (199-226) offers an excellent double readingofLphigeneia in Tauris both interms of psychological realities and as a textwith its own theatrical and literary history, arguing that Orestes and lphigeneia are simultaneously haunted and damaged personalities, and literary creations whose "past" is as textually based in the theatre, especially the Oresteia, as it is in the narrative details of their family's history. She also makes some perceptive observations on thecultaetiologiesat theend of theplay. In a discussionofIA 1148-56, John Gibert (227-250) argues, likeMurnaghan, that myth explores in a concentrated form the stresses of the everyday lives of women: here we see Clytemnestra's experience?yielding to male guardians, having interchangeable husbands and children?as a more extreme version of what ordinary Greek women must undergo. Karen Bassi (251-270) uses theories of tragic performance and of visual representation to discuss two scenes inAeschylus' Agamemnon, and argues that we cannot be sure, from what we have in our scripts, what the ancient audience themselves saw, and that, to a surprising degree, the reader is expected to visualise action beyond what happens on stage. Simon Goldhill (271-290) takes a thirteen-letter supplement of theNew Posidippus 58 and, in a meticulous unravelling, shows that it is unlikely to be correct, because it depends on many unexamined suppositions about hellenistic society. Finally, Page duBois (291-306) discusses the history of classical scholarship in the USA, and specifically how Segal and others rejected a Germanic model for classical studies in the USA in favour of the French school of Vernant and others. While much of this essay is fascinating, it assumes .a rather rigid polarity between German and French traditions whereby allegiance to German scholarship is equated with being conservative, racist, and sexist, and any criticisms of tendencies in French scholarship are summarily dismissed (301). This essay sets up an either/or model when talking about the two traditions inAmerican Classicism, which seems a pity for a volume honouring someone who preeminently melded philology and theory. University of North Carolina, Asheville Sophie J.V. Mills The Theatricality of Greek Tragedy: Playing Space and Chorus. By Graham Ley. Chicago: The UniversityofChicago Press. 2007. Pp. xix,226, 5 halftones,14 line drawings. Graham Ley, professor of drama and theory at the University of Exeter, is best known to classicists for his useful small handbook, A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater (Chicago 1991). His newest book arouses high expectations. It is aimed, as the 164 PHOENIX dustcover states, at "anyone interested in literature, theater, or classical studies" and, after the "Preface," is divided very simply, as the title forecasts, into two big chapters of about 100 pages each, "The Playing Space" and "The Chorus," with a brief "Conclusion" (plus "References" and "Index"). Each of the main chapters has multiple sections, and a list of their headings gives a good idea of the ground Ley wants to cover. For Chapter One, theyare: "The Scriptsand thePlayingSpace," "The Surviving Tragedies of Aeschylus and Early Tragic Performance," "Choros, Actors/Characters, and Playing Space in the Earlier Tragedies of Aeschylus," "Composition for the Playing Space in Aeschylus's Oresteia," "Realizing theTragic Playing Space after Aeschylus," "AltarsandTombs in thePlaying Space after Aeschylus," "Performers and...