The Texts, Translations, Documents, and Visual Remains of Ancient Athenian Satyr Drama

FAIN: FT-60800-13

Carl Shaw
New College of Florida (Sarasota, FL 34243-2146)

Although satyr plays were a crucial part of the Athenian theatrical experience during the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, and were composed by some of the most celebrated Greek tragedians, there is no single volume in which all ancient satyric material is collected. This project will be a comprehensive study of the genre, making available for the first time in English the texts, translations, and visual evidence of the ancient Greek satyr play.

Associated Products

Euripides: Cyclops. A Satyr Play (Book)
Title: Euripides: Cyclops. A Satyr Play
Author: Carl Shaw
Abstract: With its ribald chorus of ithyphallic, half-man / half-horse creatures, satyr drama was a peculiar part of the Athenian theatrical experience. Performed three times each year after a trilogy of tragedies, it was an integral part of the 5th- and 4th-century City Dionysia, a large festival in honor of the god Dionysus. Euripides: Cyclops is the first book-length study of this fascinating genre's only complete, extant play, a theatrical version of Odysseus' encounter with the monster Polyphemus. Shaw begins with a look at the history of the genre, following its development from early 6th-century religious processions up to the Hellenistic era. He then offers a comprehensive analysis of the Cyclops' plot and performance, using the text (alongside ancient literary fragments and visual evidence) to determine the original viewing experience: the stage, masks, costumes, actions and emotions. A detailed examination of the text reveals that Euripides associates and distinguishes his version of the story from previous iterations of the myth, especially book nine of Homer's Odyssey. Euripides handles many of the same themes as his predecessors, but he updates the Cyclops for the Athenian stage, adapting his work to reflect and comment upon contemporary religious, philosophical and literary-musical trends.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/euripides-cyclops-9781474245791/
Primary URL Description: Publisher's webpage.
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9781474245791
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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