Greek Satyr Play: Five Studies (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781939926043)

With a new introduction and some revisions, these reprinted essays on Classical Greek satyr plays suggest new critical approaches to this important dramatic genre. Griffith argues that satyr plays presented audiences with sophisticated, multilayered narratives of romance, escapist adventure, and musical-choreographic exuberance, amounting to a "parallel universe" to that of the accompanying tragedies in the City Dionysia festival. The class and status distinctions between heroic/divine characters and the rest (choruses, messengers, servants, etc.) that are so integral to Athenian tragedy are shown to be present also, in exaggerated form, in satyr drama, with the satyr chorus occupying a role that also inevitably recalled for the Athenian audiences their own (often foreign-born) slaves. The satyr plays' stylistic fusion of adventure and romance, elegant sophistication and rustic na vet , anticipates in many respects the later developments of Greek pastoral and prose romance.

Author: Mark Griffith
ISBN-10: 1939926041
ISBN-13: 9781939926043
Publisher: California Classical Studies
Language: English
Published: 08/23/2015
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.74lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.51d