The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology

The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology
Author(s): Simon Goldhill

Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 107 (1987), pp. 58-76
Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
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Journalof HellenicStudiescvii (1987) 58-76
THE GREAT DIONYSIA AND CIVIC IDEOLOGY

THEREhave been numerous attempts to understandthe role and importanceof the Great
Dionysia in Athens, and it is a festival that has been made crucial to varied and important
characterizationsof Greek culture as well as the history of drama or literature.' Recent
scholarship,however, has greatly extended our understandingof the formationof fifth-century
Athenianideology-in the senseof the structureof attitudesand normsof behaviour2-and this
developing interestin what might be called a 'civic discourse'requiresa reconsiderationof the
Great Dionysia as a city festival. For while there have been several fascinatingreadings of
particularplays with regardto the polis and its ideology,3 there is still a considerableneed to
place the festivalitself in terms of the ideology of the polis. Indeed,recent criticsin ajustifiable
reactionaway from writerssuch as GilbertMurrayhave tended ratherto emphasizeon the one
hand that the festival is a place of entertainmentratherthan religious ritual, and on the other
hand that the plays should be approachedprimarilyas dramatic
performances.This resultsin the
of
following type description:
Forthe Atheniansthe GreatDionysiawas an occasionto stopwork, drinka lot of wine, eatsome
in the variousceremonials,
andpriestlydoingswhichare
meat,andwitnessor participate
processions
It
of
the
world
over.
was
also
the
occasion
for
such
holidays
part
tragedyandcomedy;but I do notsee
in
the
or
the
To put it another
which
occasion
invades
affects
entertainment....
Dionysiac
any way
there
is
about
Greek
way,
nothingintrinsically
Dionysiac
tragedy.4
I hope to show in this articlehow such a characterizationof the GreatDionysia provides a
fundamentallymistakenview of the festivaland its historicalcontext. While thereare, for sure,
certain similaritiesbetween the Great Dionysia and religious festivals the world over, I shall
demonstratethat there are specific ceremonials,processionsand priestly doings which form an
essential and unique context for the production of Greek drama and which do indeed
importantly affect the entertainment.
There are two furtherargumentswhich often have been linked to the sort of descriptionof
the festivalthat Taplin offers.The firstis that dramaticcriticismshould concentrateon the plays
as pieces for performance-'in action'. I shall be attempting to demonstrate how the
understandingof a play in performancerequiresan understandingof the complexities of a
context for performancewhich involves more than the technicaldetailsof the instantiationof a
scriptin the fifth-centurytheatre.The second argumentthat has been thought to follow from
the natureof the Dionysia as describedin the more generallyreadstudiesis thatthe requirements
of performancebefore a massaudiencepreclude,or at any rateseverely limit, the possibilitiesof
complex, problematicor obscureexpressionin the tragic texts. I shall be arguing that scholars'
sinceNietzsche's
Thebirthof tragedygrece archaique(Paris 1967); M. Detienne and J.-P.
1 Particularly
on Vernant, Cunningintelligencein Greekcultureandsociety
(onwhichseeM. S. SilkandJ. P. Stern,Nietzsche
tragedy [Cambridge I98I] especially 90-131). Many
trans.J. Lloyd (Brighton 1978); N. Loraux, L'invention
The Greeksandtheirrational(Berkeley 195 or B. Snell,

I)
The discoveryof the mindtrans.T. Rosenmeyer (Oxford
extensive influenceof Vernantin particular,see Arethusa

xvi I & 2 (1983).
of Greekculture,
histories
orelements
inGreekculture, d'Athenes(Paris1981) (hereafterL'invention);Lesenfants
haveextended
discussions
of tragedy,
e.g.E.R.Dodds, d'Athina (Paris I98I) (hereafter Les enfants).for the
1953).I havefoundespecially
J.-P.Vernant
interesting
3 SeeforexampleN. Loraux,Lesenfants,
particularly
and P. Vidal-Naquet, Myth andtragedyin ancientGreece 157-253. F. Zeitlin, Underthesign of theshield:semiotics

trans.
J. Lloyd(Brighton
198I)especially
chapters
I-3. and Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes (Rome I98I)
2 I amthinking
of thestudiesof Vernant,
especially
particularly I5-51. H. Foley, Ritual irony:poetry and
in Euripides
Detienne,Lorauxandtheirfollowers. sacrifice
Vidal-Naquet,
(Ithaca1985).See also S. Goldhill,
Seee.g.J.-P. Vernant,Mythandsocietyin ancientGreece Reading Greek tragedy (Cambridge 1986), especially
trans.J. Lloyd (Brighton I980), Myth andthoughtamong
ch. 3.
noir:formes depens&e
etformesde societedansle mondegrec
(Paris I98I); M. Detienne, Les maltresde veritedans la
162.
theGreeks(London1983);P. Vidal-Naquet,Lechasseur
0. Taplin, Greek tragedyin action (London 1978)

THE GREATDIONYSIAAND CIVICIDEOLOGY
59
distort
appealsin theirdramaticcriticismto criteriaof a necessary
clarity,simplicityor directness
or
not only the readingsof particular
but
also
the
passages plays,
fundamentally
questioningor
nature
Greek
of
This
articleis not, of course,meantto resuscitate
the theories
tragedy.
agonistic
of GilbertMurrayandhis followers,but ratherto aid the understanding
of Greektragedyas a
socialandpoliticalphenomenon.
Whathappenedon thedaysimmediatelybeforethedayson whichplayswereperformedis
the leastwell known to us andit is alsothe partof the festivalthatinterestsme leastfor my
presentpurposes.I will, however,brieflysummarize(with some addedcomments)PickardCambridge'saccountas emendedby Gouldand Lewis5in orderto providea senseof the
backgroundof the maindaysof the Dionysia.The firstpartof the festivalmay not even be
Thisis a reenactment
of the
regardedaspartof the festival-the EicaycyTylxTr6Tri EcydXpas.6
of
from
advent
The
statue
of
Eleuthereus
taken
was
to a
Eleutherai.
original
Dionysus
Dionysus
sacrificewas offeredthere,andthenthe statuewas escorted
templeon the roadto Eleutherai,
backto the temple.It is interestingto note thatsecond-century
inscriptionsindicatethatthe
in
this
was
taken
the
There
is,however,no fifth-or fourthprocession
leadingpart
by ephebes.7
evidence
for
for
indeed
whole
rite-and it is perhapsincautious,if
the
century
this--or
to
assume
that
the
the
ceremonial(as
attractive,
ephebesplayed samemajorrolein fifth-century
Pickard-Cambridge
assumes).
The Eiaaywyfi &-r6Trs
whichwasa greatprocession
oEXdpac is followedby the iropi-rfi,s
in
to
the
sacrifice
the
sacred
of
In
the
secondcentury,thesacrifice
leadingup
precinct Dionysus.
wasconductedby theephebes,asRichardSeafordhasrecentlydiscussed.9
Thereis mentionalso
of a Kavryp6pos,
a bearerof a basketof offerings,andPickard-Cambridge
suggeststhatcolour
and show were particularly
in
a
this
occasion.
The Tron-riljwas
important making
glorious
followed
of
which
next
to
is
even
a
if, indeed,the
perhaps
by KA~oos
nothing clearlyknown,
should be taken as separatefrom the rrolTrrio1
and
the
of
singing choruses,the
KOLOS
dithyrambiccompetitionswhich also took placeat the GreatDionysia."1For example,the
famousinscriptionsometimescalled'Fasti'(IG ii2 23 18) with its list of victorsetc. appearsto
referto the festivalin generalas KC'AO1
TC~0
AlOV'OCa.12
Thereis alsoa preparatory
for
the
festivalon whicha Proagonwasheld.After444it was
day
heldin the Odeion, but it is not knownwhereor if it was heldbeforethatdate.13 Numerous
documentshintat whathappenedin theProagonandan interestingaccountof theProagonfor
theLenaiais to be foundin Plato'sSymposium
(194aff).Itwouldappearthateachpoetmounteda
with
his
actors
and
temporaryplatform
chorus,andannouncedthe subjectof the playshe was
aboutto presentin thecompetition.It wouldalsoappearfromPlatothatthismightbe thought
of assomethingof anordeal,anda niceanecdotein theLifeof Euripides
relatesthatshortlyafter
thedeathof Euripides
fortheProagonin mourningandhisperformers
were
Sophoclesappeared
withouttheircustomarygarlands.The peopleobservingburstinto tears.The questionof the
relative dates of these various ceremonialsis extremely vexed and I have nothing to add to
Gould'sand Lewis'necessarycorrectionsto Pickard-Cambridge(augmentedby P6l6kedis'4and
Allen 15 who sets out clearly the evidence particularlywith regard to the comedies).
It is what happensin the theatreitself before the plays, however, that is my main concern,
of the festival.
s A. Pickard-Cambridge The dramaticfestivals of 1946)165-74 assumesin his description
11It is
Athens2(Oxford 1968) 58 if.
plausibly
suggested
(Pickard-Cambridge
6 See
Pickard-Cambridge(n. 5) 59-61, with biblio- [n. 5] 74-9) that the Dithyrambiccompetitiontook
graphy (especially 61 n. I).
placein the two daysbeforethe dramas.
S7
IG ii2 028, IG ii2 Ioo8. The earliestreferenceto
12 See Pickard-Cambridge
(n. 5) 71-3, 101-4.
13 See (contra
this is 127-6 BC (SEG xv Io04).
Miiller)Pickard-Cambridge
(n. 5) 68.
8 See Pickard-Cambridge (n. 5) 61-3. A second14 C. Pe6lkedis,Histoirede l'Pphebie
attique(Paris
century inscription(IG ii2 00oo6)
separatesthe Eiaaycoyil 1962), especiallyappendix3, 30o-6.
and the rroprrii.
15J. T. Allen, On theprogram
of the City Dionysia
thePeloponensian
War,U. Cal.Publ.inClass.Phil.
9 R. Seaford,CQ xxxi (198I) 252-75.
during
'o As G. Thomson Aeschylusand Athens2 (London xii 3 (1938)35-42.

6o
S. GOLDHILL
and I want to look in particularat four specificmoments of ceremony that arerarelydiscussedor

even mentionedin the context of tragedy.16The evidence for the firstcomes from Plutarch'slife
of Cimon (Cim. 8.7-9):
iaV TOO
yap
Zoq)OKrpAoUs
E8rlv8oU KaeOVTos, 'AIEypicov 6 &PXOv, (piOVEIlKias
818aoKca
?TpCo-rTlv
obOa's
Kai - TaparaT68S
slPV OOK XKA?ipcOaEToi &'cyvos,
cas 8 KipCov IIETa TCv
T"-rCVOEarCTOv, KplTr
ovarpaT~tilyvTUpoEACo&v
Els-rO6
OPa-rpov
VEVO1
avtolaVas oov86, ofK
ai9(KEV
taiCao "T0e8
S&TEXOEEiV,
&XX'
lvayKaOE KaOifal Kal KpiVai 8 Ka orVTaS,
plaS'KaraTov.6
6pK<o'aaS
&'rr6qpuvx;S
V
PyVo0v &ycVvKaiSi1XTO
T-r KplTrOV
&Cicopa
qfoikOT-liaV
T"IV
OrrEpE'3aNE.
acTro
When Sophocles,still a young man, enteredthe listswith his firstplays,Apsephionthe Archon,

did not appointjudgesof the contestas
seeingthatthespiritof rivalryranhighamongthe spectators,
usualby lot, but when Cimon and his fellow-generalsadvancedinto the theatreand made the
customarylibationto the god, he wouldnot sufferthemto depart,but forcedthemto takethe oath
andsit asjudges,beingten in all, one fromeachtribe.So, then,the contestbecauseof the unusual
dignityof thejudges,was moreanimatedthanever before.
Plutarchdescribeshow in 468 the archonby a bold strokeset asidethe regularprocedurein
the theatreby appointing the generalsasjudges. Pickard-Cambridgenotes that the probable
point in the proceedingswasjust before the performancesof the tragedieswhen thejudges were
about to be chosen.'7 What the passageindicatesis that the libationsbefore the tragedieswere
pouredby the ten generals.The natureof the offeringsis
'customary',is
unclear-vEvoptayvas,
the only descriptionwe have-but it is interestingthat for
the beginning of the tragic festival's
days of dramait is the ten most powerful military and political leaders,the strategoi,who were
activelyinvolved beforethe whole city. A,fourth-centuryinscription(IG ii2 1496) confirmsthat
the generalswere involved religiouslyin the dramaticfestivals,but also suggeststhatthe number
of occasionsin the calendaron which all the generalsacted together in such a way were very
few-no more than four occasions are attested for any one year-and usually it is for some
occasionmore obviously linked to their civic functions.The inscriptionmentions, for example,
to Eipnivrl,and to 6yaeil rTXTrl.'8On the major state occasion of the
offeringsto 8rlPOKpaTria,
GreatDionysia it is, then, the most influentialand importantrepresentativesof the statewho are
involved in the opening religious ceremony.
The second element of ceremonial can be seen directly in a scholion to Aristophanes'
Acharnians(ad 504):
ElsT-rAiovoa'a TiTE'aKTO"'AiOva3E
TaX5
KOPi3EIV
T'o60Els
T"obs
n6pous, CbS
E'rroM prlo'V
VrEAiv.
E6v
In the GreatDionysia, the tributeof the cities of the Athenianempire was

brought into the
theatre. This ceremonialis outlined in more detail by Isocrates(de Pace82):
J
1AlCT' 6V 1pirOE1T8EV,
0T-ro yap dKplIp3SE plvKOV
GcoaT
ipi(aaVT-o -T
-r
OpOoTrol
T-rCvp6pcov pyOpiov, 8tEX6VTES
KaTr&
EIS
Tr~V
TroisAiovvaiots
rEplylyv61pvov
rTaXcaVTOV,
6PX"raTpaC
TOiS
EWrrEtlxv
rrhipes TO0a-rpov Kal-roOT'ErroiOUV,
Ev T
EiaoqpEtv
KalTrpatoyov
"rraitaST-CV ETrI5EIKVJOVTIESTOTs
TroOlCpCTTETE-EUT-lK6TCOV, &ApIOT-PO1s
16 There is no mention of these ceremonies in

Taplin
(n. 4), Vernant and Vidal-Naquet (n. I), nor, for
in
P.
Arnott An Introduction
to theGreektheatre
example,
(London 1959), A. Lesky, Greek Tragedytrans. H. A.
Frankfort, (London 1965), and, most recently, M. J.
Walton, The Greeksenseof theatre(London 1984). They
are mentioned briefly without any analysis by H. L.
Baldry, The Greektragictheatre(London 1981) 27, and
Loraux, L'invention26-31 discussesthe orphans briefly
in terms of the ephebeiabut not in terms of the theatre.P
Cartledge, in Greek religion and society ed. P. E.
Easterling and J. V. Muir (Cambridge 1985), briefly
mentions the possible political significance of three of
the ceremonials,but does not consider the plays, or the
pIV
oUpIpXots
-s
Tl-pas
Tiis
Obioas
overall effects of the festival.

17 Pickard-Cambridge(n. 5) 95-6.
18 The fragmentary state of the inscription makes
certaintyhere finally impossible. There is for example a
surprisingreferencein one year (333 Be) to a sacrificeby
the generals at the temple of Ammon. It is not known
when or why Ammon became part of state religion in
Athens, but Foucart, noting this inscription and the
name Ammonias given to a sacredgalley as mentioned
in Aristotle Ath . Pol. 61, suggests that 333 was the year
of the inaugurationof the temple of Ammon in Athens,
and hence the sacrificeby the generals:P. Foucart,REG
vi (1893) 6-7, and see SIG1 580.

61
Trieos T-rv 6pcpavcv Kai T

p0clac-rC4vEia(pEpoPlvVS, ToTi 8' &Xotis "E~Ela~arTx
T
8ih
Tas
avEcv
Kc
-riv orXLE
Tai-rOTa 8pcvrES XJroi TE "r7v 67rhAv
Tra'rTv yqyvopvaS.
aCuppop&s
ai-r'Tv
0CITO
E68ap6v130ov...
'Forso exactlydid they gaugethe actionsby whichhumanbeingsincurthe worstodiumthatthey
of thealliesintotalents
a decreeto dividethefundsderivedfromthetributes
andtobringit on
passed
wasfull,atthefestival
of Dionysus;
to thestage,whenthetheatre
andnotonlywasthisdonebutatthe
sametimetheyledinuponthestagethesonsof thosewhohadlosttheirlivesinthewar,seekingthus
whichwasbroughtin by
to displayto ourallies,on theonehand,thevalueof theirownproperty
on
the
the
multitude
of
the
of the fatherless
andthe
and
to
the
rest
other,
Hellenes,
hirelings,
whichresultfromthispolicyofaggression.
misfortunes
Andinsodoingtheycountedthecityhappy.'
it is evidentfromthe opening
Here,followingRaubitschek's
generallyacceptedanalysis,19
sentencethat the tributewas dividedinto talentsand displayedin the orchestra.20
Isocrates'
useof thiseventis interesting,however.AsPearsoncomments,'Isocrates
rhetorical
deploresthe
aselgeiaof theirancestorsin havingthe tributepubliclypresentedat the Dionysia'.21Sucha
ceremony, Isocratesclaims, was a preciseway to become hated by other people. This
presumablywas not the actualaim of suchan event. Rogerscommentsin his editionof the
'thetributebroughtby the allieswas spreadout talentby talentover the theatrical
Acharnians
orchestrain the sightof the assembledHellenes',22thatis, the displaywas notjust a pieceof
supposes,to showhow the Atheniansvalued
pompandsplendour,noras Isocratesrhetorically
the propertyof the allies. Rather,it was a demonstrationbefore the city and its many
visitorsof thepowerof thepolisof Athens,its roleas forcein the Greekworld.It
international
was a publicdisplayof the successin militaryandpoliticaltermsof the city. It usedthe state
festivalto glorifythe state.
Thatthisceremonyinvolvedsucha projectionof self-image,sucha projectionof power,
Acharnians
496 ff:
may be hintedat in Aristophanes'
peoviral-r' &v8pESo01 0EpEVOl,
At. pi 1po0t
VAr'
iv "AOvaiotSMyEIV
X Vb ETrE
T-rCO'rXS
pEchhoTrepi r~s T6hAECS,TrpuyC)8iavwTrolv.
-r6 y#p 6KatOV oTSEKia-rpUycC8ia.
aE.
pV
Ayc%
6biXEE 8vd
SiKalta
El
O ydap PE V'V YE 8tiaPaET- KA'cIv 0T1

MAvcvTrap6vT-rcAv Trov
6lV KKCKSyACO.
aOrol ydap EpyEVoVrrriATvawic TyCOv,
-r'
KOVITCA)
oVTe yap 6opoi
?EVO1 TaPE1a1VV
O OppaxoiifKOUalVoO-rT K T-rV Tr6hECOV

&WA'
EaoPEv
a0oroi vtv yE TrEplETr-rTapEvor
TrosSyap
roiKO
OKO SjXvpca TCv aTC'v My
Dikaiopolis is preparing to speak to the city as city, to 66tSOKEV

ilV
Ti Tr6AV.He goes on 'For
now at any rate Cleon won't slander me, that I foul-mouth the city when there are xenoi present.
For we're just ourselves and it is the Lenaian contest, and there are no strangers here yet. For the
tribute hasn't arrived, and the allies are away from the city'. Unlike the Great Dionysia, the
Lenaia is a more private affair. Unlike the Great Dionysia, there's no tribute, no allies, no
problem about speaking home truths to the city.
A further passage from the Acharniansmakes this example seem less straightforward. The
chorus--also speaking to the city as city--remark in the parabasis (641 f):
A. Raubitschek, TAPA lxxii (1941) 356-62.
Raubitschek (n. 19) 358-9 (referring to B. D.
Merritt, Documents on Athenian tribute [Cambridge
n.
so
1937] 50, 3) goes far as to suggest that each talent
was carried in a terracottavessel of the sort known to
have been used to store and transportmoney, or perhaps
19
20
in leather bags, similar to those seen in an extant
fragmentof a reliefthatsurmounteda decreeconcerning21the collectionof Atheniantribute.

22
L. Pearson, CP xxxvi (1941) 228.

B. B. Rogers, The Archarniansof Aristophanes
(London 1910 ) 76.

S. GOLDHILL
62
Ta-ra woi as woAAC

ov &yaOOcv
catrioSCiv YEYEviral,
a
Cbs
~v -rai
Kal "roei 8ip'lOUV
8TlPoKpac-roivrai.
wrT6EoIV8Eia6
vVv K
Trolydp-rol
w6AEcOv
T-rvp6pov"piv&Tr&yovT-rE
-r0Cv
iouoiv iiv
18iTr
wol7-riv -r6v&poi-rov,
eplOv-rE;-rTOv
9v 'AOnvaois -r( 8iKala.

6e-rtS apiv6ivESuo' E'Ierriv
8' auOroGTrEpiTr1iTC6AphT
KE1I,
ISl
n6ppco KAEOS
Oi"TCO
tPaai E1esAaKESaiLOVicov
Ka
rV
pacaviSov
Tr'v TpEaopEIav
6"re
pEvoTroVJsITOTEpOlTais vaucrl KparoTo'IV,
1pcbrloaEv "rrpW"ra
TOVwo01rTTiv
KaKa
Elra
w0rrpouVS
EiTrOI
8i To-oTroV
"rrohAa'
v &VepcbTouts
-ro-Trouvyap E(pQT-ot
VP-riouv
"Tro0
yEYEV'o'aOa
TCO
Kai-rC
1TOh~CO
OAvo EXOVras.
Ot/1p
TOO'TOV
1T"OV1KfioEIV
Againthe subjectof the speechis the opportunityandlicenseto speakout freelyin the

democracy.The alliesbringingthe tributearesaidto come becausethey want to see the best
poet-the one who'spreparedto speakout-rTaiKaiaamongthe Athenians.ThePersianKing,
indeed,in orderto testthe Spartanembassywould wantto know who hadthe bestnavyand
'rodka
who hadthebest... poetforspeakingKaKa
againstthecity. 'That'swhatgivesstrength
is
difficult
to
evaluate
thebalanceofjoke andseriouscommentevenin the
forfighting'.It always
of an Aristophanic
seemsto be
play,butit is interestingthatonce moreAristophanes
parabasis
to
and
scurrilous
and
once
more
context
the
free
the
for
his
is the
defence
speech,
defending right
occasionof the GreatDionysiawhen all the xenoiarethere.ManypassagesfromAristophanes
and elsewherecould be usedto show the commonplacethat poets are the educatorsof the
citizens-les maitresde verit6,as Detienneputs it-but thesetwo passagessuggesta more
of theconnectionof theGreatDionysia,the ceremonyof bringingin tribute
specificawareness
in the presenceof the xenoi,with the city on display,the city awareof its role andimageas
international
power.
Thisceremonialmoreovercanhavebeenintroducedonly ata relativelylatedate-after the
transferof the treasuryfrom Delos-and it shows how with the developmentof Athenian
in publicritualand
democracythepowerof thepolis as suchbecomesincreasingly
emphasized
ceremonials
I
am
are
not
relics
from an earlier
display.(The
discussing
merelyorganizational
The
funeral
of
war
the
deadandthe establishment
of the casualtyliststelaiwhichI
era.)
public
will discussbelow,alsoappearto havebeenintroducedno earlierthanthe 470s.23 Inbothcases,
the developmentof civic ideologyis seenin the developmentof ritual.
The thirdmomentof ceremonialI wantto discussis alsoclearlylinkedto the authorityof
thepolis. Beforethetragediesthenamesof thosemenwho hadgreatlybenefitedAthensin some
way werereadout in frontof thewholecity, andthehonoursthathadbeenbestowedon them
in the formof a crownor garlandwerespecified.It wasa greathonourto be singledout in this
way beforethe city, but a passagefrom Demosthenes,where such crown giving is being
discussed, suggests a different kind of reasoning behind such a ceremony (De Cor. 12o):
xa
oer
p
TrrpOs
OE8VO-roTCo
oxal65 ElKai &vaiCriyros, AicaXivr, ?crT' o0i 80vaocl Aoyiaaeaa
avouliv
&
&r- -rc~St~v
EVEKa
To0 86~TCOva rEavolvrcv
YEXElt
3i9ov 6 o-rTEavos 6rroui&v &vapprOi,
Ti TO1olEV
yap
E~ TV
OiL
aKOiOavTES&TaVTE~S815
OE-TpCyiyvEral T6 KPf~YpLta;
ra6vr
v T)
oUl.qppov-roVTV
Tr6Alv Ttporpr'ovral, Kali TOt/S Tro886v-rag-rv Xpylv p&aov
8lt6werrp
Tr6vv6pov ToIrov
rr6xhlybypapEv.
a
Traolvoo TOt
00ET(pavoupIVOU"
But, really now, are you so unintelligent and blind, Aeschines,that you are incapableof reflecting
that a crown is equally gratifying to the person crowned wheresoever it is proclaimed, but that the
proclamationis made in the Theatre merely for the sake of those by whom it is conferred?For the
23 On the date of the hTrrrdtcpto
and public
Ayoi
grave stelai, see C. W. Clairmont, Patriosnomos:public
burial in Athens duringthefifth andfourth centuriesBC
(London 1983) 16-45; Loraux, L'invention28 ff. F.
Jacoby, JHS lxiv (I944) 37-66 has been tellingly
questioned by D. W. Bradeen, CQ xix (1969) 145-59.
In general,see also R. Stupperich,Staatsbegrabnis

und
imklassischen
Athen(Diss.Westfilische
Privatesgrabmal
zu Miinster1977).
Wilhelms-Universitit

63
whole vast audienceis stimulated to do service to the city, and applaudsthe exhibition of gratitude
rather than the recipient;and that is the reason why the state has enacted this statute.
Thewholeaudienceis stimulatedby sucha ceremonyto do serviceto thepolis.Theceremonyis

les autres'.Indeed,Demosthenessuggestsfurtherthatthe audienceis actually
'pourencourager
exhibition
of thanks rather than the person being crowned: Kai Tro1S
the
applauding
Demosthenes' rhetoric appeals

~T
TOo-rEcpavPVO.
&-rroSti6v-rasT-rvX6(pi xAov Trratvo0caI
here to a fundamental and well-known tenet of democratic ideology, namely, that a man acts
and should act to benefit the city; so the individual himself and his success are not what are
important but it is the city recognizing and thanking a contribution to the city that is enacted in
such a ceremony. For Demosthenes, this ceremony of announcing the names of civic benefactors
is fundamentally connected to a projection and promotion of civic duties and civic self-image.
If Demosthenes' rhetoric appeals to the fervour of democratic ideology, a long argument in
Aeschines (Against Ktesiphon 41-56) hints at ways in which this ceremony was sometimes less
straightforward and that vying for this honour, as for others, was something that the Athenians
competed in vigorously. Aeschines argues at length both on the technicalities of the laws of
giving a crown in the theatre, and also on the possible justification of the specific case of
Demosthenes receiving a crown, but none the less, like Demosthenes, he takes it for granted that
the announcement of the crown before the people in the theatre is closely connected with the
authority and status of the demos, and moreover, that the presentation was 'before all the
Hellenes', EVVTlvrov6arrdVTrV TrCov
(43.8; cf. 49-3). Even with allowance for the
'EAAMhvov
rhetorical overkill in Aeschines' speech (against Demosthenes as much as against Ktesiphon, of
course) and the specific technicalities of his argument, it is clear that this ceremony was perceived
as an important public occasion. The proclamation of the names of those who had benefited the
city is another way of asserting the ties, connections and duties between individuals and the city.
Above all it stresses the moral and social imperative of doing good for the city as a key way of
defining behaviour in the democratic polis.
The fourth ceremonial aspect of the tragic festival is also closely linked to the civic ideology
of the Athenian democratic polis. Again, the orators provide an important insight into the
occasion. The first piece of evidence is again Isocrates de Pace 82, the passage quoted earlier.
Isocrates says that the children of those who died in war were brought on stage. This, he says,
was to show the other Greeks how many orphans and what disasters resulted from a policy of
aggression. The de Pace is, as its title suggests, something of an anti-imperialist, anti-war tract,
and there can be few better examples of a misrepresentative use of a past historical event to
further a rhetorical argument. For as we will see, the ideology of this event may imply a quite
different attitude from that of Isocrates.24 I wrote 'past historical event' because as is clear from a
fascinating passage of Aeschines, this ceremony was already no longer performed by the time of
the speech Against Ktesiphon (330 Bc):
TiSykp OIJK
8aVcyflaOElEV
&vOpcoiroS
"E3'7Qlv
KatTal6EuOEi~e
Elv
E7EuOEpiwo,
avaI~vflVOEiS
"r.T OEatpC
EKElv6 yE, El Tl68V
-rEpov, 6-T TaUT-r
rTOTE T-r
i5lIpQ IlEQ6VT-r0V
coTrEp
VUVi
T-rV
Tpayc?6cov
yiyvE0al,
6 Kfpu Kai
G rrapatoT-roa6Tr'EUVOIEtiro
lan&7ovfi Tr6hlSKat1E-rio'al TrpooT-raTalS
EXp-ro, rrpoE70cbOv
a rohic
1?rpespE i'av
pEvoSTojS 6p<pavois Cov of
TErEhE-rr
VEaviOKOUS
o "pTC)
ITlK6TE,
"rravoirrhi
TO
Kal?UaGTOV K pUyIpa KaI TrpoTpESWTTKcbTOTOV

EKflpUTTE
"rp65 ap-ETfV, OT- TO'T6E
KEKOOaI.IfLiVOUS,
ot
TojS VEaVio(KOUs, C~V
&v6pE~ &yac0oi
L"XPI Clv i13r
"rcTpTE ETEhEETr(f-av Ev TCZ)
-ri~i Tp
-roh7iic.
6 8fjploS j-rpEp, vuvi 8
-r~j
&yaOiaYEV6I.Evo,
iTIT rex
Kco'-io'acx
"?&
T"rrcxvo'-Xra,
&pfl'rlo'tv
EK1
Aaur-TCv,
KalKa7'Ei
EiS"TpOESpiaV.
&AA
O0VJV.
TrTElIIVTaUT- pUTTEV,
p'-aCat
For what Greek nurturedin freedom would not mourn as he sat in the theatreand recalledthis, if
24 See for discussion and
of themeaning
bibliography, e.g. P. thefifth-century
polis),theconstruction
Harding CSCA vi (1973) 137-49. Isocrates'treatment of the ceremonialsdependsalso on the viewer. The
of the ceremonialis particularlyimportantin emphasiz- relationsof individuals
in andto anideologycannotbe
determinedor univocal.
ing that while one may talk of the expected norms of an consideredas necessarily
ideology, (even in the complex, developing world of

S. GOLDHILL
64
nothing more, that once on this day, when as now the tragedieswere about to be performed,in a time
when the city had better customs and followed better leaders, the herald would come foward and
place before you the orphanswhose fathershad died in battle, young men clad in the panoply of war;
and he would utter that proclamationso honourableand such an incentive to valour: 'These young
men, whose fathersshowed themselvesbrave men and died in war, have been supportedby the state
until they have come of age; and now clad thus in full armourby theirfellow citizens,they aresent out
with the prayersof the city, to go each his way; and they are invited to seatsof honour in the theatre.'
Such was the proclamationthen, but not today.
This passage of Aeschines-as rhetorical as Isocrates, for sure-gives us, however, a much
clearer view of what happened and of its relation to the expected norms of a civic discourse. The
young men whose fathers were recognized as heroes of the city because they had died in
battle,24b were brought up and educated at the expense of and by the city. Now that they have
reached the end of maintained childhood, they are paraded in full military uniform, again
provided by the demos;and they are sent forth to whatever good fortune they may find, and are
honoured with special places in the theatre. The herald proclaimed what the city had done for
the boys and what as men they would do for the city.
Each of the four ceremonials which opened the days of the tragedies in the Great Dionysia,
then, is closely linked to a sense of the authority and dignity of the polis. But before I turn to
consider the relations between these ceremonials and the tragedies, I want to focus briefly on the
parade of orphans, a ritual which seems to have flourished with democracy and disappeared at
the time when the certain evidence for the institution of the ephebeiaitself starts to appear. For it
is certainly possible to specify in considerably more detail the way in which this ceremonial
relates to civic ideology; and such analysis will be important for our understanding of the festival
and its plays.
I begin with the well-known statement of Vernant, recently quoted by Lloyd-Jones in his
discussion of Artemis and the transition from girlhood to womanhood: 'Marriage is to a girl
what war is to a boy'.25 Marriage and childbirth provide the telos of a woman's life when she is
clearly and completely separated from the male sphere and she adopts the role by which she is
essentially defined.26 In the word yuvvi it is difficult to separate the senses of woman and wife.
For the man, the telos is to stand in the hoplite rank as a fully accepted citizen.27 It is a moment
by which his role in society is essentially defined. It is the parallels in achievement between
childbirth and fighting that give a peculiar force to Medea's famous remark that she would
rather stand in the battle-line three times than give birth once.28
The parallels between war and marriage as states defining male and female roles in society
have been discussed at length by Vernant, Vidal-Naquet, Loraux and others.29 I want in
particular to look here at the notion of war and fighting as the role into which a man is initiated.
Now cross-cultural parallels for initiations connected with fighting and manhood are
numerous.30 The notions of first blood, first kill and taking up a role with a specifically male
24b On &v8pEs
see Loraux L'inven&ycxoi'yEv6pEvot,
de laguerreen
(ed.), Problkmes
ancienne(Paris1968),
grace
tions.v. 'agathoi',especially99-1oI.
and the sensible comments of K. Davies, Democracy
25J._p. VernantMyth andsocietyin ancientGreece and classicalGreece(Hassocks J. 31
1978) ff.
(Brighton1980)23, quotedby H. Lloyd-Jones,JHS
28 Medea 250-1. See the excellent study of N.
ciii
Loraux, 'Le lit, la guerre', L'hommexxi I (1981) 37-67.
(1983) 99.
SeeVernant(n. 25) 19-70. Seealsoe.g. F. Zeitlin,

29 See e.g. the workscitedin n. 25, n. 26, n. 27.
Arethusa
collectionsof
xv (1982)129-57.Forinteresting
30 A vast bibliography could be given. A. Van
essayson this and relatedtopics, see H. Foley, (ed) Gennep, Les rites de passage (Paris 19o8) remains
26
Reflections of women in antiquity (London, Paris, New
York 1982); Arethusa vi (1973) and xi (1978); A.
Cameron and A. Kuhrt (edd) Imagesof womenin

antiquity(London and Melbourne 1983). A good
generalintroductionisJ. P. Gould,JHSc (1980)38-59.
I havediscussedthismaterialwith regardto tragedyin
Goldhill(n. 3) ch. 5.
27 See Vernant(n. 25) 19-70;see alsoJ.-P. Vernant
standard. For a standard case study (and further

bibliography on cross cultural parallels), see V. W.
Turner, Theforestofsymbols(Ithaca,N.Y. 1967)and The
ritualprocess(Rochester 1969). For the classicalmaterial,
see H. Jeanmaire, Couroi et Couretes(Lille 1939); A.
Brelich, Paidese Parthenoi(Rome 1969);C. Calame, Les
choeursdejeunesfilles en Greicearchaique(Rome 1977).

65
Athensoffers
groupof huntersor fightersoccuragainandagain.Butthecultureof fifth-century
a particularly
view
of
a
attitude
to
warfare.
The
Homeric
warrior
is a man
changing
interesting
who fights primarilyas an individual,for his KAXOS.
When he meets or challengesanother
of victimsin anaristeia,
warrior,theexchangingof namesandboasts,thenamedcatalogues
point
to the connectionof individualmilitaryprowessandthe perpetuation
of an individual's
The herois supreme.The narrativeof the Iliadrevolvesaroundthe claimsof
andKAeS.
Tlrip,
KAEO;
Achilles'needfor Tnl1i,theexternal,visiblesignsof
and
Ko'80S,thatmakeshim withdraw
KAO; forcethatAchilles,the bestof the
fromthe battle.It is anessentialdynamicof the Iliad's
tragic
is alsotheonewho takesthelogicof a heroicethosto anextremein thathe is prepared
Achaeans,
an
knowinglyto go to hisdeath,to chooseanearlydeath,in partat leastin orderto perpetuate
The
notion
of
a
of
the
search
for
the
everlastingKAoSe.
single combat, hierarchy warriors,
of a nameareessentialstructurings
of the heroicethosof the Homericpoems.
perpetuation
The Homericpoemsremainedthroughoutthe fifth centuryin a positionof considerable
authority.Despitethe attacksof Xenophanes,say, or from a differentviewpointStesichorus,
Plato'sjudgementof Homeras the bestandmostdivineof the poetsremainedthecommonest
aestheticandmoralevaluation.31
Indeed,Plato'shostilityto thepoetsis to a largedegreedueto
the statusof authorityheldby poetsas teachersor controllersof knowledge-the role which
Platowishesto appropriate
for philosophyalone.But one of themoststrikingpointsof tension
betweenthe poetryof Homerandits usein the fifthcenturyis in the sphereof militaryvalues.
Of course,certainstandards
areretained:
appealsto bravery,strength,courage,appeTiasmilitary
valuesare as commonin fifth- and fourth-century
generals'mouthsas they arein Homeric
leaders'speeches.Buttheinventionanddominanceof thehoplitephalanxintroducea new series
of valuesalso.Forthenatureof thephalanxrequiresnot individualexpression
of prowessbutthe
valuesof groupco-operation.The phalanxis only asstrongasits weakestmember-a phalanx
brokenis easilyroutedanddestroyed.Unlikethe Homericview of the Trojanwar whereso
muchof thefateof bothsidesdependson thebehaviourof its strongestindividuals,
Achillesand
Hector,in warfaredominatedby thehoplitephalanx,it is asa groupthatthephalanxfightsand
winsandloses.It wouldbe a banalview of culturalchange-indeed,it wouldbe simplyfalse-to suggestthatthereareno signsof co-operativeor groupethicsin Homer.Similarly,it is quite
incorrectto supposethat desirefor individualhonour disappearsin the fifth and fourth
in a
century.32But it is alsothe casethatthe qualitiesrequiredof a fightingmanarechannelled
differentdirectionin fifth-centuryAthensand aregiven a differentemphasis.Whatis more,
these differentrequirements
of militaryinvolvementare closely linked to the idea of the
democratic
as
well
as
its
polis
history.Forin thefifthcenturythearmyis trulya citizenarmy.To
be a citizenonemustplayone'srolein thehopliterankandto takeone'splacein thehopliterank
one mustbe a citizen.WhenVernantsaysthatwaris anessentialdeterminant
of a man'srolein
society,in parthe is referringto theway in whichcitizenshipandmilitaryvaluesareinherently
intertwinedin fifth-centuryAthens. Moreover, as Finley writes, there were very few yearsand
almost no years in successionwithout some military engagements for Athens in particular.33
When war was debatedby the citizens in the assembly,it was debatedby the men who would
follow the decision into battle. The involvement of Atheniansin war and militaryvalues is not
only deeply embeddedin the myths and storiestold as exempla, but in the actualrunningof the
city.
One of the most interestingrecentworks on this connectionof Athenianmilitaryvaluesand
the democraticpolis is Loraux'sL'inventiond'Athtnes(Paris 1981). In this exhaustive study of
funeralorations,she has superblyilluminatedboth a major state event and the way the Greeks
conceptualizedthe city and a person'sinvolvement in it. I want briefly to use some ofLoraux's
findingsto outline some furtheraspectsof Athenianideasof militaryservice,becausethe funeral
31 Plato Ion 53ob9-Io. See Detienne (n. 2), and
Goldhill (n. 3) especially ch. 6.
32 See the comments of K. Dover, Popular
moralityin
the time of Plato and Aristotle (Oxford 1974) 229-34.

33
M. I. Finley, Politics in the ancientworld (Cam-
bridge 1983) 60.

66
S. GOLDHILL
speech as an institution offers a fascinatingcomparisonwith the tragic festival.34The Funeral

Speechfor those who had died in war was deliveredyearly by a man appointedby the stateand,
of course, for the first year of the Peloponesianwar the speakerwas Pericles.The speech was
delivered specificallyfor those who had died fighting for the city. The ceremony involved a
procession,and then the speechat the burialsite. What is particularlyinterestingis the content of
the speech itself, and the restrictionsapparentlysurroundingthe event. Individual rites and
offerings were allowed on the two days before the speech, but on the day of burial,everyone,
citizensand foreigners,men and women together followed a line of wagons in which the bones
of the deadwere arrangedtribeby tribe. At the cemetery the speakeraddressesthe crowd, but he
does not deliver what one might at first expect from a funeral speech. For the subjectof the
speechis not exactly the gloriesand valourof the men who died, but ratherthe gloriesof the city
itself. Indeed, the names of those who have fallen are not even mentioned. The speechglorifies
the city and, as I earlierquoted Demosthenes saying, it is a way of applaudingthe act of giving
thanksratherthan applaudingthe individuals.The most famous example of a funeralspeechis
Pericles'in Thucydides,and this speechhascertainlybeen usedagainand againto explain,prove
or determineAthenianattitudesto their city. For Pericles'speechconcentrateson the glories of
the city of Athens-in the firstyear of the war which will destroythe city's power. Thucydides'
placing of that particularspeechin that particularplace in the narrativeof Athens'riseand fall is
certainlya composition of rhetoricalartfulnessby the historian,but it also helps us formulatea
senseof the importantchange of attitudewith regardto fighting. For now men are saidto fight
not for individualKAeosnor for the perpetuationof their names through the retellingof acts of
individualprowess.Now fighting is for the city. One may fight to free a land, to protecthomes,
women, children,as in Homer, but successis measuredin terms of the city's fortunes,and each
individual'ssuccessis subsumedto the TirXrlof the city. So in the FuneralSpeechit is the city that
is discussed and a citizen's role in democracy. Pericles' soldiers are a class, a group, not
individuated.Military values are separatedfrom individualsand individualism.No names are
given in a funeralspeech-the reverseof Homeric name-filledbattlenarratives,where thereare
no anonymous heroes.
Closely linkedwith the developmentof the I~arrt'rdtot
6yot and the publicburialof the war
dead, however, is the establishmentof the Athenian casualty list stelai,which certainly must
qualify the sense of the anonymity of the democratic war dead.35 Although it is at present
impossibleto discoverthe precisechronologicalconnectionbetween the institutionof the public
funeraladdressand the erection of the casualtylists (except that the addressis probably a later
innovation),36scholarsaregenerallyagreedthat as with the funeraloration 'erectingof casualty
lists .
. .
is contemporary with the rise of Athenian democracy'.37 These lists certainly record the
names of those who die for the city but here too in a fascinatingway we can see the influenceof
civic ideology. For the individual names are given in lists according to the Cleisthenic tribal
divisions, without patronymic,without demotic, without, in other words, the normal markers
ofa Greek male's position in society.38 Loraux writes: 'La liste officielle proclame l'Cgalite de
34 I am aware that in the availablespace I will not be
able to do justice to the subtlety of Loraux's argument
or the wealth of her material. Since Loraux, a further
long study in English has been published-Clairmont
(n. 23)-which sets out the evidence usefully but lacks
Loraux's grasp of the issues. For a good correction of
Clairmont on Herms, see R. Osborne, PCPS xxxi
(1985) 47-73.
35For descriptionsof these stelai, see in particular
Bradeen (n. 23); Clairmont (n. 23) 46-59; also D. W.
Bradeen, Hesperia xxxiii (1964) 16-62; and Hesperia
xxxvi (1967) 321-8; and Hesperiaxxxvii (1968) 237-40.
Loraux L'invention3I ff has an interesting discussion.
36 See Thuc. ii 35. For bibliography on the
question,
see Clairmont (n. 23) 250 n. 17. For the important role
of the Marathon victors and their memorial see
Clairmont (n. 23) 10 f, and particularlyLorauxL'invention s.v. 'Marathon' especially I57-73. For contrasting
views on the reference to Marathon in Thuc. ii 35, see
H. Konishi, AJPhci (1980) 35 ff, especiallyn. 19;and M.
Ostwald, Nomosandthebeginningsof Atheniandemocracy
(Oxford 1969) 175.
37 Clairmont (n. 23) 20.
38 See N. Loraux, 'Mourir devant Troie, tomber
pour Athenes:de la gloire du heros 'al'id6e de la cite' in
La mort,les mortsdansles anciennessocietis eds. G. Gnoli
and J.-P. Vernant (Cambridge and Paris 1982) 28.

67
tous les citoyens Atheniens... les citoyens disparusn'ont-ilspas d'autrestatut que celui
Thereare,it mustbe added,certaintitleswhichappearveryoccasionally
d'Atheniens.'39
in these
even
these
but
are
civic
roles
such
asstrategos,
taxiarchos
etc.40The
lists,
trierarchos,
only military,
casualtylists show how the democraticegalitarianethos attemptsto 'int6grerles valeurs
de la gloire',41in thateachmanis offereda degreeof immortalKAEoS,
butat the
aristocratiques
sametimethevaluesof democraticcollectivityandthe primacyof thecity arestressedin a new
formof memorial.AsThucydidessays,'We do not needthepraisesof a Homer'(2.41);thecity
providesits own honours.The institutionof thepublicfuneralspeech,the collectivememorial
of thosewho diedforthecity,markmostclearlytheshiftsin militaryideologyfromHomerto
the fifth-centurydemocraticpolis.
Theimportanceof theduties,obligationsandaffiliations
betweenindividuals
andthestateis
one of thestrongesttenetsof thedevelopingdemocraticideology,despite--orperhapsbecause
of-the factof thecontinuingstrengthof affiliation
to theoikos.Fordespitetheevidentchanges
in ideologyin fifth-century
one
of
the
most
markedcontinuitiesof ethicalnormsis
democracy,
the beliefin the needfor the continuityof the oikosthroughboth economicstabilityandthe
generationalcontinuityof children.42But even in the sphereof the family,an areaof great
traditionalityand conservatism,the city makes inroads.Importanttensionsbetween the
of civic dutiesand the requirementsof the oikos have been outlinedby, for
requirements
example,HumphreysandFinley-both of whomseetensionsbetweenthenormsof publicand
of directdemocracy
privatelife.43Fighting,leitourgia,
jury duty,andthe otherappurtenances
canall be seenas a possiblechallengeto the economicandgenerational
continuityof the oikos.
But I want here to focusratheron the way in which the city increasinglyappropriates
the
of
the
For
the
the
citizens
are
the
'children'
of
the
'nourishes';
laws;the
vocabulary
family.
city
becomes
a
a
'mother'.
The
term
'father-land'
is
in
extended
its
connotations.
'father',
To
city
attackone'scity is like patricide,to rejectthe laws is to rejectthat which gave one life and
The emotionallyandmorallychargedterminologyof thefamilyis appropriated
upbringing.44
in civicideologyto expressthe citizen'srelationsto thecity anditslaws,andthisappropriation
may be viewedas a productof the tensionsbetweenpublicandprivatefelt in the (sometimes)
competingclaimsof the democraticcity andthe moretraditionaloikos.
This attitudeto civic involvementinfluences,then, the attitudeto childhoodand in
particularthe attitudeto the momentof transitionfrom childhoodto adulthood.The most
in which the childwas
importantmomentof this transitionis almostcertainlythe dokimasia
the
deme
as
a
citizen
and
fit
to
be
enrolled
as a citizen.Common
recognizedby
(Eyypd&qEoat)
or
phraseslike 8OKIp&
&vSpaytyVEOatI,or 0&v6paETvat8OKlpaol-ivati,or
3EcOatEiS&v8pS,
EK
KTraiScov
or
emphasizethatthisis notjust a questionof
E?EAGEIv
TraiScov,
an
rather
the notion of being a
or
citizenshipbut also of aTraAia'r'TTEcrOati
being &vip--or
s
875p6-rw
-rrotirrls
an
and
a
To
a
and
start
impliesbecoming &vTvp stoppingbeing ralTs. stopbeing TraTs
beingan
xvilp in fifth-centuryAthensmeansa radicalchangein role and responsibility,
in that the
immediate requirementsand obligationsof a citizen in a direct democracydevolve on a person
when he changes eKTrai8covand becomes an
It is the statusof ephebe that provides the
&v1lp.
notional and ritual separationbetween the two
classes.
39 LorauxL'invention
22-3
Convenientlylistedin Bradeen(n. 23) 147, with
references.
Therearealsoxenoimentionedon somelists.
For the evidence, see Bradeen(n. 23)
for
discussionsee LorauxL'invention
149--5I;
concludes
33-5, who
(35);'pourles astoicommepourles 6trangersles regles
d'inscriptionont probablementvari6 au cours de
l'histoireath6nienne:oscillantentre l'exclusivismeet
l'ouverture,entreune conceptionlargeet une conception 6troitedu statutd'Ath6nien.'
40
41 Loraux
(n. 38) 28.
42
See e.g. W. K. Lacey, Thefamily in classicalGreece

(London 1968);G. Glotz, La solidarit?de lafamilledansle
droitcriminalen Grkce(Paris 1904).
43 S. Humphreys, The family, women, and death
(London 1983), especially 1-32; M. I. Finley, Economy
and societyin ancientGreece(London 1981) 77-94; see
also Dover (n. 32) 301-6.
44 A good example of this shift in
vocabularyis to be
found in Plato's Crito, especially 5oc3 ff.

68
S. GOLDHILL
In the light of this necessarilysomewhat impressionisticview of the sense of a self in fifthcentury democraticAthens, it is interestingto look back to that ceremonialwhich is part of the
opening of the tragic festival, the parade of young men in full military uniform, and to
investigatehow it relatesto the normsof the civic discoursethat I have been discussing.It is quite
clearlya moment in which the full weight of civic ideology is felt. Here are the childrenof men
who have died fighting for the city, now preparingto take theirplacein the hoplite-citizenbody
as men. The city haseducatedthem, the city hastakenthe place of parentsor family, the city has
provided the armourin which they stand. Before the whole city in the theatre,the young men
areparadedand the ties and obligationsof city and individualsare proclaimed.Not only do the
boys at the point of becoming men reaffirmtheirties to the city but also theseties areconstructed
markedly in a military sense. The young men appearin full military dress,and the reasonfor
their state educationand upbringingis that their fathersdied in war for the city. Moreover, in
pointing out that the city has brought them up and paid for and directed their education, the
involvement of the city in a traditionalareaof privateconcernis strongly marked.(Educationis
often thought of as a community matter, for sure, but not in terms of the effacementof the
family's interestshere enacted.) The fact that the festival of the Great Dionysia, a major civic
occasion, is chosen for the moment of this expressionof the city's relation to its young men
endows it with considerableforce. Childhood, the moment of leaving childhood and becoming
a man, what it means to be a man, are all influencedby democraticpolis ideology. The city's
claim on the citizen as man affectsthe status of the child.
What I hope to have shown so far is this: the four moments of ceremonialpreceding the
dramaticfestival are all deeply involved with the city's sense of itself. The libationsof the ten
generals,the displayof tribute, the announcementof the city's benefactors,the paradeof stateeducatedboys, now men, in full militaryuniform, all stressthe power of the polis, the dutiesof
an individualto the polis.The festivalof the GreatDionysia is in the full senseof the expressiona
civic occasion, a city festival. And it is an occasion to say something about the city, not only in
the plays themselves.The GreatDionysia is a public occasion endowed with a specialforce of
belief. This is fundamentallyand essentiallya festival of the democraticpolis.
After such preplayceremonials,the performancesof tragedyand comedy that follow could
scarcelyseem-at first sight-a more surprisinginstitution (at leastif one judges from modern
examples of state occasions with a particularlystrong nationalisticor patriotic ideology). For
both tragedy and comedy in their transgressiveforce, in their particulardepictionsand uses of
myth and language,time aftertime implicatethe dominantideology put forwardin the preplay
ceremonialsin a far from straightforwardmanner;indeed, the tragic texts seem to question,
examine and often subvert the language of the city's order.
Before I turn to justify these generalizationswith more detailedexamples, I want to make
clear certain things I am not claiming and certain ways in which I do not think that tragedy
questionsthe city. First,I do not think that the polis is seriouslyquestionedas the necessarybasis
of civilization. To be &rrou&is regarded as a state beyond civilization, and Aristotle's
expressionsthat the city is logically prior to individualsand family, or that man as an animalis
essentiallypolls based, are enshrinedin tragedy as well as in the prose writing of the fifth and
fourth centuries.45Second, I do not think Athens is seriouslychallenged as the home of that
civilization of the polls. Not only is Athens the subject of several well-known passagesof
eulogistic writing-and the patriotismof plays such as the Persaehas rarelybeen questionedby
critics-but also recentresearch,particularlyby Vidal-Naquetand Zeitlin, hasbegun to outline
a senseof the differencesin the conceptualizationof the citiesof Argos and Thebesand Athensin
the tragic texts-a system of differences in which Athens seems positively constituted in
of Finley(n.33) 122 ff, e.g. 125 nearly all of them would have accepted as premises,one
45 Seetheremarks
'Not all Atheniansheld the same views and not all might say as axioms, that the good life was possibleonly
GreekswereAthenians,buttheevidenceis decisivethat in a polis.'

69
to thenegativeaspectsof thetragiccityof Thebes.46It is importantthat
oppositionparticularly
thetragicnarratives
aremostoftensetin citiesotherthanAthensin timesotherthanthepresent.
Third,I am not seekingto makeany contributionon the alwaysvexed questionof reading
specificallusionsto contemporarypoliticaldebatesin the tragic drama.When I write of
questioninga dominantpoliticalideology,I do not meanto implya topicsuchas whetherthe
waswrittento commenton the zeugiteadmissionto thearchonship.47
Oresteia
Fourth,I do not
wantit thoughtthatI am claimingto explicatethe way all audiencemembersrespondedat all
timesto the tragediesandcomediesof the GreatDionysia.We cannotexpectto know how an
Athenianaudiencewouldreactto anytragedy,and,moreimportantly,it is anintolerablynaive
ideato supposethatanaudienceof a dramahasonlya uniform,homogeneouscollectiveidentity
or response,or thatsucha supposedcollectiveresponse(howeverdetermined)
shouldbethesole
I
criticism.
am
of
not
that
member
of
an
audience
leftthetheatre
properobject
suggesting every
deeplyperplexedandreflectingon thenatureof civicideology-but thepictureof an audience
is equallybanal.WhatI hopeto
uniformlyandsolelyinterestedin 'pleasure','entertainment',
describehereis a tensionbetweenthe festivalof dramaasa civicinstitutionanda readingof the
textsof thatinstitution.How differentAtheniansreconciledor conceivedthattensionis simply
not known.
Withtheseprovisos,I wantnow to investigatethe senseof thistensionbetweenthetextsof
tragedyandthe ideologyof the city-which I shallapproachfirstthrougha generalexample
andsecondthroughtwo morespecificcases.
In the last twenty-fiveyearsmuch excellentwork has been done on the natureof the
of thisSophocleantypehasbeentakenup by
Sophocleanhero.Knox'swell-knowndescription
who
has
Winnington-Ingram,
carefullyattemptedto see how a figurelike Ajaxextendsand
a
Homeric
Now
it is not difficultto seethatthe Sophocleanhero,with fierce
model.48
perverts
demandsfor his or her individualism,his or her commitmentto his or her own needsand
demandsin the face of societyor socialpressure,is scarcelya figurewho would sit easilyin
democraticideology,and it is indeedrelevantthatfigureslike Ajaxand Antigoneareset in
conflictwith figureswho use standardargumentswith a contemporaryideologicalslant.
Antigoneis facedby a manwho attempts-at least,at one level-to enforcethe notionof the
cityhavingsupremeclaimon anindividual's
allegiance.Ajax,orratherthedeadbodyof Ajax,is
facedby triteargumentsof Menelausand Agamemnonwho requirecooTppovETv
as a political
virtuein theformof obedienceto therulersof thestate.Itis alsosignificant
thatbothCreonand
the Atreidsdescendto lower forms of argumentand appealunder the pressureof their
Thepointis this:atonelevel,it mightbeneatandconvenientto think
opposition'sdisobedience.
of the Sophocleandepictionof heroeslikeAntigoneor Ajaxasmoraltalesthatdemonstrate
the
Afterall,bothAjaxandAntigonedie in lessthangloriousways,and
dangersof individualism.
the actionsof both leadto socialupheavalandthe disastrous
violenceof tragedy.Thiswould
that
the
offer
a
sort
of
in
common
the
'sacred
time'49of festivals:as,for
reversal,
imply
tragedies
example, men about to become warriors may be dressed as women; and ephebes are often
describedas reversingthe values of the hoplite rank they are to join.s0 But it is clearly not as
simple as that. The problem of evaluatingAjax, particularlyin comparisonwith the men who
46 P. Vidal-Naquet,'Oedipe entre deux
cites', in Oresteia(Cambridge 1984) ch. 3.
deux(Paris1986);F. Zeitlin'Thebes: 48 B. M. W. Knox, Theheroictemper(Berkeley 1964)
Mytheet tragedie
theaterof self and societyin Atheniandrama'in J. P. passim;R. I. Winnington-Ingram,
aninterpreSophocles:
Euben(ed.),Greektragedy
andpoliticaltheory(Berkeley tation(Cambridge1980) iff, and especially,304 ff.
i
1986 Io2), who suggeststhat 'We look at Thebesas a Andon Ajaxspecifically,
seenow P. E. Easterling,
'The
toposin bothsensesof theword:asa designatedplace,a tragic Homer', BICS xxxi (1984) I-8.
geographicallocale, and figuratively,as a recurrent 49 A common notion in anthropologydeveloped
conceptor formula,or what we call a "commonpla- fromvanGennep(n. 30).Seee.g. E.R. Leach,'On time
ce" . . . This ... canalsoilluminatetheideologicaluses and false noses' in Rethinkinganthropology
(London
of the theaterin Athensas it portraysa city on stage 1966).
whichis meantto be dramatically
"other"thanitself'.
50Seee.g. Vidal-Naquet
(n. 2);Jeanmaire
(n. 30);
the Brelich(n. 30);Calame(n. 30).
47 See S. Goldhill,Language,
sexuality,narrative:

S. GOLDHILL
70
follow him, and the difficultyof evaluatingAntigone and her actions have resultedin some of
the most polarizedand aggressivelydebatedjudgements in the criticismof tragedy. Sophocles
himself was actively involved in the cult worship of the heroes-a religious phenomenon of
growing importance in the fifth century. The question of the evaluation of Ajax both in his
qualitiesas a warriorand in his behaviouras a man is problematicin Sophocles'play becausethe
negative exemplum of Ajax is touched with a certain glory. It is an essential dynamic of
Sophocles' tragedy that Ajax should seem both an outstandinghero and also unacceptablein
society. The hero does not simply reverse the norms of what it means to fit into society but
such integration.
problematizes
But this problematizingof the evaluationof Ajax is particularlyinterestingin terms of the
tragic festivalitself. For after the preplayceremonialsof civic displaywhich expressthe role of
man aswarriorin civic terms,andthe city's claimsof allegianceandobligation on the individual,
a tragedy like Ajax depicts a man who transgressesthose qualitiesand those obligations, and
achieves his greatness,his superhumanstatus, precisely by such transgression.Ajax acts in a
mannerwhich goes againstall the tenets of contemporarydemocraticcivic ideology, but this
going-too-far leads him to a sort of awesomeness. Few today think of Sophocles as 'turning
away in disgustfrom a degenerateworld to enjoy the congenial company of heroes';51 in their
tensionsand paradoxes,his plays are markedby their genesisin the fifth-centuryAthenianpolis.
In particular,it is the way that Sophocles'plays echo againstthe developing civic ideology, so
forcibly representedin the preplay ceremonials,which makes his dramasconsiderablymore
radical and questioning than the image of 'pious Sophocles' sometimes allows. Indeed, the
Sophocleanhero is the paradoxicalfigure so well describedby Knox and Winnington-Ingram
particularlybecauseof the interplayof such a figure with the dominantideology of the city. It is
the way in which the hero can find only an uneasy place in the city's order that makes
problematicboth the hero's statusand the security of the civic discourse.
This difficultstatusof the Sophocleanhero can be seen more preciselythrough an analysisof
a key passageof Sophocles'Ajax where the hero speaksfor the final time to Eurysaces,his son
(545-82). In this speech which echoes the famous Homeric scene of Hector, Andromacheand
theirson at the Scaeangates, Ajax turnsto his child and expressesthe valueshe expectshis son to
follow, and how he shoulduse his fatherasa model. He assertsthat if his son is truly of his father's
blood he will not fear the sight of the slaughtered sheep:

v 6vSE
-rappioaE
o0, vEoocpayifirou
ycp
p6vov, EiTrEp81KaiCO
o-Sr' clg Tr -rra-rp6oEv(545-7). It is necessary that
TrpoaEaacov
Eurysaces learns to form his nature in the wild, savage, ways of his father: &XA'
CaoTIK cAio01
ar-rbv Avv6poit Tra-rpbs6S Trco6aOlapvivK&6opoioi00aoa
qiclaiv (548-9). Indeed, the child
should use his father as a model in everything but his fortune:
cB Tral, yivolo
Tnrarpbo
his
6poiS0(55o-I). When his time comes, the child will have to show
Ei-rvXEaTrEpoS,
T&r6' &AA'
birth and breeding (556 if). Ajax furtherclaims that he will ask Teucer to be the
boy's guardian
(561-4) and asks the chorus too to look out for him (565-6) and make sure Teucer gets the
message to have the boy sent to Telamon and Eriboia, his grandparents (507-9). As for weapons,
Ajax leaves his son his shield, but announces that he will himself be buried with the rest of his
armour (574-6). For sure, this scene raises the problem of Ajax as r6le model, the question of
how to evaluate the hero. What sort of example does he provide for his son? The question is set
up in this scene in terms of passing on from father to son of material and spiritual inheritance,
and, in particular, in terms of military values. For sure, the echoes of the Homeric scene of
Hector and Andromache do not merely mark the difference between Hector and Ajax, but also
stress the values and attitudes of the world of epic in which tragedy is rooted but from which it is
being permanently sundered.52 But these important elements in the construction of this scene
must also be viewed in terms of the discourse offifth-century Athens in which the play finds its
51
Winnington-Ingram (n. 48) 307.
52
See Goldhill (n. 3) ch. 6 for discussion and

bibliography.

71
genesis. And the differencebetween Ajax's attitudes and the fifth-century democracy could
hardlybe betterexpressedthan thejuxtapositionof Ajax'sadmonitionsto his child, Ajax'ssense
of military and social behaviour, Ajax's heroic extremism, and that preplay ceremonialof the
orphans, state-educatedand armed, professing their allegiance to the polis and taking their
proper place in the hoplite rank. The inheritanceAjax hopes to leave and leaves stands in a
significanttension with the fifth-century city's representationof his action and attitudes.
Such a juxtaposition is not, of course, a dramaticjuxtaposition in the normal sense of a
grammarof theatricalpractice:it is ajuxtaposition of values that would be in play without any
ceremonialprecedingthe drama.But the specific events in the theatrewhich mark so strongly
the festivalas a polis occasionbring into sharpand vivid highlight the contemporaryworld and
valuesagainstwhich Ajax'sdepictionand indeed the whole tragedyresounds.The sceneof Ajax
with his child, juxtaposed to the preplay ceremony of the orphans in military uniform,
significantlyaltersthe way we look both at Sophocles'tragedy and at the notion of a child, at
offeringadviceanda r61emodel to a child. The context for understandingthis scenegoes beyond
its instantiationin a performancein the theatre,beyond its interrelationswith Homer. This scene
cannot be fully appreciatedor understoodwithout realizingthe complex interplayof its writing
with the ideology of the fifth-centurypolis of Athens.
A similaranalysiscould be applied to several Sophocleanheroes,53but I wish to consider
brieflyhere anotherexample which furtherdemonstratesthe range and complexity of relations
between the tragic texts and the civic ideology of the preplay ceremonials.In Philoctetes,the
question of the integrationof the hero into society is certainlyraised,indeed it is essentialto the
play-in which Sophocleshasmade Lemnosdeserted,54Philoctetesbereftof all humancontact,
and Odysseus'plana temptationfor Philoctetespreciselyto returnto the civilisedworld. Critics
have concentratedextensively on Philoctetes as a hero, on the tension between culture and
wildernessin the play, and on the complex plotting which revolves around luring Philoctetes
and his bow to Troy.55 But for my presentpurposes,it is on the figure of Neoptolemos that I
wish to focus. For Neoptolemos is the orphanedson of a greatmilitaryhero who had died nobly
in war.56He is also at the point of committing himself to the Trojanexpedition-a young man
about to take his place in the male military group. Moreover, from the beginning of the play
Neoptolemos' attitudesand behaviour are being put to the test (5o-1):
' oTS
'AXAicas rraT,
6ETo'
iuOaveac
phip6vovTrcoacrpccri...
yEvvaiovETval,
In the dialogue which follows Odysseus'instructions,Neoptolemos questionswhether he
can adopt a policy of deceit and be 'noble'.57He would prefer,he claims,to fail acting in a right
way than to succeedby wrong doing (po\'hopai 8', &va?,KahcOS/8p'0V
?i
p&AXov
ap'ap-ravEiv
when the young
(95). Surely, he asks (ios), it is disgraceful(aioXp6v)to lie? Even
VIKKVKaKGOS
man acceptsOdysseus'instructions,it is with a recognition that he is about to compromise his
values (120):
iTrco1Tol1l?o,Trcaarvaixxivnlv &qEis.
When Philoctetes realizes that Neoptolemos has deceived him--at the same time as
Neoptolemos hesitatingly confesses his part in the deception (895
Philoctetes and
-f)-both
in particular
53 I havediscussed
O. T. andAntigone
in suchtermsin Goldhill(n. 3) chh. 4, 6, 8.
54 Thescholiasuggestit is only partof theislandthat
is deserted-presumablyto reconcileSophocles'description with Homeric and indeed contemporary
Lemnos.BothAeschylusandEuripides
in theirplayson
Philoctetesseemto haveusedchorusesof Lemnians.
ICS
ss Fora good criticalsurvey,seeP. E. Easterling
iii (1978) 27-39. Since that article, two important
studies have appeared,Winnington-Ingram (n. 48) and

C. P. Segal, Tragedyand civilization:an interpretation
of
Sophocles(Cambridge, Mass. 1981).
56 Emphasized often-e.g.
336 &AA''
ESyevT'Spliv6
T
KTr&VCov
r XcO6Bcavv.See P. W. Rose, HSCP lxxx
(1976) 5o--o5, especially 97 n. 97.
57 On the changing senses of
yEvvcxioin this play,
see H. C. Avery, Hermesxciii (1965) 289.

S. GOLDHILL
72
Neoptolemos himself refer to his 'true nature' (qpJalS902; ~v oaavrTcyEvo 950; cf. 971) as
militating against the deceit. None the less, at first Neoptolemos rejects the possibility of
returning the bow with an appeal to his duty (925-6):
oo oT6v TCAv
TTAEl
a&X'
TrE" y&p v
K?,EIV
-r6 T' EV1K6VVEKal T"rOOpPEpoViTOlE.
What is right (iv81Kov)

and what is expedient (aopCpEpov)
constrainNeoptolemos to listento
those in command (which is both a general point about obedience and a specific indicationof
whose instructionshe is still following here). Obedience towards ol Ev rEAE1is a standardly
expressedrequirement,of course, for the maintenanceof the bonds of a democraticas well as a
more hierarchicalsociety. This value, however, along with the more pragmaticvaluesespoused
by Odysseus, is put at stake first by Neoptolemos' confession of pity (965-6) and anguished
question olpot -ri pd&aco
(968), and then by the act of returningthe bow. As he had previously
claimed to be willing to fail (alapp-r&valv94) nobly rather than to succeed basely, now he
rejects his deception precisely as failure (iAilpaprov 1224; T-ilV pap-riav/altXpav&pap-rov
1248-9); as he had previously fearedbeing disgraceful(aiaxp6s), and claimed to do Ov1KOV,
now he claims his actions have been both disgracefuland without right (1234): "r6
a a-c~v EX0.
KOp
aloxpos aory
y&p
6iK1
At the moment of handing over the bow, however, Neoptolemos is forcibly remindedof
what he had previously called his duty, as once again Odysseus entersat the decisive moment
(I293-4):58
iyc
y',
8'
S&rrTavG
cs Oeoi orvvioTropES,
01TErpr' 'A'rpElI6Sv ToO-rEarplTravTroSTrrpaTrov.
It is precisely his obligations to the Atreids, to the army at Troy, and indeed even to divine
oracleson his partin the fall of Troy which Neoptolemos is rejectingin favour of a differentset
of values. Indeed, the young man is essentiallypreparedto desert from the army59and return
home with Philoctetes(despitesome misgivings, 1403-4). His new found relationwith the hero
seems to outweigh what had before seemed to be his duty. Neoptolemos is turninghis back on
his part in the Trojan war as he prepares to leave the stage at 1407. 'Neoptolemus
cannot ... both maintainhis standardof honour and win martialglory'.60
The appearanceof the deusex machina(or perhapsratherthe herosex machina),who redirects
Philoctetesand Neoptolemos back towardsTroy, has given riseto one of the most controversial
debatesin Sophocleancriticism.Heraklescertainlyresolvesthe tension between Neoptolemos'
decision and the standardversion of the fall of Troy. It is certainly a coupde theatre,a 'second
ending', as it is often called, which must be read in the light of the 'first ending'. But what is
implied by the re-establishment of the expected pattern of myth? Does it mean that
Neoptolemos' adherenceto a sense of honour and pity and his observationof the duties of his
relationofphilia with Philoctetesare to be rejectedor transcended?If this is the gods reordering
the passage of events, how does it relate to the human values implicated in the drama?Is
Sophoclesin a Euripideanmannercynicallyshowing how his charactersmust sacrificetheirtrue
nature and best feelings to live out myths, or divine commands, that they inherit? Is this
Sophocles questioning whether Philoctetes and Neoptolemos are right to have rejected the
Trojan expedition?Perhapsone can conclude only that in the tension between the 'first' and
'second'ending one can specifythe constituentfactorsin the criticalproblemwithout necessarily
58
Compare 974 where Odysseus enters to echo

Neoptolemos' question Tri 8pcapE, &v8pes; with c
K5 TI-r"
&vp fv,Ti"EpBp;
59 The threatof desertionrecallshis fatherat Troy, as
well as, say, Agamemnon's different plight in Aeschylus' Oresteia, where he asks ~os
rc Atr6vavs yhwcopca/
guppaxiaxs
laprcbv; Ag. 212-3.
60
Winnington-Ingram (n. 48) 298.

73
ever being sure of its resolution?61As Winnington-Ingram
concludes,'It is unlikelythat
will
about
the
ever
tone
of
the
precise
agree
play'sclose.'62
interpreters
of
But what Neoptolemosin this? The playhasraisedquestionsabouthis education(in a
generalsense),63abouthow he shouldactin a specificdifficultsituation.Butaboveall,it hasset
in tension,on the one hand,the possibilityof his simplytakingpartin the Trojanexpedition,
simplyobeyinghisleaders,simplyadoptingthecoursethatwill leadto militarysuccess,and,on
theotherhand,hisconceptionof whatisright,whatis noble,whatis thecorrectway to behave.
It is the tensionbetweentheseaspectsthat leadsto the archetypicaltragicquestionolpol ri
8pd'co. Vidal-Naquethas describedNeoptolemos'decisionas a rejectionof collectivecivic
valuesin favourof thevaluesof thehousehold:'Hechoosesthevaluesof thefamilyasopposedto
thecity.'64Thisdecision,followedby itseventualreversalin favourof theexpeditionto Troy,is
to be seen,arguesVidal-Naquet,aspartof Neoptolemos'transitionfromthestatusof ephebeto
the statusof hoplite.While it is clearthat the materialVidal-Naquethas collectedon the
of the ephebeis extremelyimportantand providesan interestingrangeof
conceptualization
ideasagainstwhich to view this play in particular,it seemsdifficultto see Neoptolemosas
conformingabsolutelyand completelyto the patternof initiationVidal-Naquethas so well
delineated.The valueswith whichNeoptolemosis concernedarenot merelythe valuesof the
family-one mustalsoconsiderconflictingaspectsof heroicduty with regardto fifth-century
changingattitudes-and,asothercriticshavepointedout, theimageryof wildnessandculture
in theplaydoesnot conformsimplyto theclearpatternVidal-Naquetrequires.65
Perhapsmost
the
use
of
the
model
can
be
to
lead
to
an
underestimation
importantly,
anthropological
thought
of the uncertainty
of the doubleendingof the play,particularly
with regardto Neoptolemos.
This uncertaintycanbe clearlyseenin the light of the preplayceremonials.The heraldat the
paradeof orphansproclaimsthe city'seducationandsupportof the boys,andthe boys'future
of commitmentto the collective
supportof the city as hoplitesandcitizens.The requirement
ethos of a fifth-centurydemocraticmilitaryideology is firmly established.The individual's
involvementin such an ethos is unquestioninglyassertedin the ritual.Yet Neoptolemos'
involvementin the Philoctetes
dramatizesa conflictbetweenmoral and socialvaluesand a
commitmentto thecollectiveneedof theTrojanexpedition.Neoptolemosisputin theposition
of refusinghis militaryrole in orderto maintainhis notionsof what is right. Neoptolemos'
andawareness
of a conflictin hissystemof beliefscontraststrikinglywiththeopening
uncertainty
ritual'sassuredness.
Intheephebicoath,theyoungAthenianpromisedto standby hiscolleague
whereverin thelinehe wasstationed;66
Neoptolemosshowsthatit is not alwaysclearwhatthis
involve.
One
cannot
see
might
Neoptolemos,then, as offeringeithera straightforwardly
in
his
positiveexemplum
nobility,or a straightforwardly
negativeexemplumin hiswillingness
to desertthearmyandhisrolein thefallof Troy.Herakles'
commandsto Philoctetesattheclose
of the dramamay be thought to reconcilethe developmentof Sophocles'plot with the
expectationsof myth but do not resolvethe tensionthatled to Neoptolemos' anguishedquestion
as to what he should do. Both the basis and the evalution of Neoptolemos' decision remain
problematic(even if the deus ex machinaremoves the need for Neoptolemos to follow through
the implicationsof his choice). The text of Philoctetesseems to question, then, and set at risk the
direct assertionof ideology that the preplay ceremonialsseem to proclaim. As with Ajax, the
61 Eachof these
positionshas been adopted.For a
surveysee Easterling(n. 55).
62
Winnington-Ingram
(n. 48) 301. C. Gill, G&R
xxvii (1980)137-45andK. Mathiessen,Wurz.Jahr.vii
(198i) 11-26, both haveinterestingcommentsparticuof Philoctetesas hero
larlyon the senseof reintegration
and man, but both underestimatethe problematic
natureof Neoptolemos'dilemmafor the endingof the
play.
63 See Rose (n. 56)passim.
64 Vernantand
Vidal-Naquet (n. i) I85--6. See also
Vidal-Naquet(n. 2) 125-207.
65 See Segal (n. 55) 292-361; Winnington-Ingram

(n. 48) 301 and BICS xxvi (1979) io-ii; Easterling(n.
55) 36-9; and the highly polemicalV. di Benedetto,

xxxiii (1978)191-207.
Belfagor
V roxiyoo.
66 oi,8
TOV lTcaparTaTcV6rTov crv
Ae)CO
On the date
of the ephebeia and the ephebic oath, see
below 74-75.

74
S. GOLDHILL
relation between the ritual of the festival and the dramais complex. Rather than the negative
exemplum, a reversalof the norm, we see the farmore unsettlingprocessof an investigationof a
possible conflictin the system of belief that is instantiated in the preplay ceremonials.
Neoptolemos does not merely representor reflecta fifth-centuryAtheniannotion of the ephebe,
but raisesquestionsabout it.
I have focusedhereon two playsthatcan be directlyrelatedto the fourthof the ceremonialsI
discussedearlier.There are, of course, numerous other examples of varying complexity that
could be investigated.For as much as the paradeof orphansbefore the city is partof a system of
belief, so numerous other scenes or themes or conflicts of the tragic texts can be properly
appreciatedonly in terms of the pervasivepower of this civic discourse(so much in evidence in
the preplay ceremonials).Again and again, for example, as has been discussedby critics from
Hegel onwards, tragedy dramatizesconflicting obligations of household and state-especially
emphasized, for example, in the Septem, the Antigone or the Oedipus Tyrannus.67The
hierarchicalorder of family and state is depicted in tragedy as a locus of tension and conflicttension and conflict between members of the same family and between the duties of civic and
familialroles. Again and again, as has been the subjectof numerousimportantstudies,tragedy
investigatesand undercutsthe securemeaningsof key words in the discourseof social orderetc.-and depicts tensions and ambiguities in their sense and
aco&ppovEiv,
coqT6s, 1iKrl,KpaTOS
and
usage.68Again
again, tragedyportraysthe dissolutionand collapseof socialorder, portrays
man reachingbeyond the boundsand norms of socialbehaviour,portraysa universeof conflict,
aggression,impasse.In part, it must be in the relation between the proclamationof civic ties,
dutiesand obligationsin the civic festivalof the GreatDionysia and the questioning,challenging
plays produced in the festival that an understandingof the tragic moment69 will lie.
Rather than simply reflecting the culturalvalues of a fifth-century audience, then, rather
than offering simple didactic messages from the city's poets to the citizens, tragedy seems
deliberatelyto problematize,to make difficultthe assumptionof the valuesof the civic discourse.
And it is preciselythis unsettling force of the tragic texts that make certaincritics'assertionsof
the necessarilysimple, clear and straightforwardnature of texts for performance quite so
insufficient.Indeed, it would seem more appropriateto claim that it is exactly the refusalto
acceptthe simple,clearand straightforwardthat constitutesthe extraordinaryforce of the tragic
dramasof Athens.
This discussionof the nature of the questioning of civic language and ideals in the tragic
theatre could certainly be extended and treated in greater detail; but I wish to conclude this
articleby looking brieflyat the questionof the ephebeia,which I have mentioned with regardto
Philoctetes.I want here merely to make some generalobservations.The firstis this:it is clearthat
a great many of our extant plays are explicitly concernedwith young men at the key times of
taking up a role as a man in society-all the Orestes plays, Philoctetes,Bacchae,Hippolytus
immediatelyspringto mind. Vidal-Naquet,Zeitlin and Segalhave eachwritten studiesin which
the connections between those dramasand the institution of the ephebeia are drawn outparticularlythe significanceof the imagery of hunting and warfare,and also the elements of
ritualreversalin the ephebeiathat are paralleledin many initiationritualsaroundthe world.70
One of the most common criticismsbrought againstthis work is the lack of evidence for the
institutionof the ephebeiain the fifth century, although it may be assumedthat the oath of the
67 A vast bibliography could be
given; see e.g. on
Septem,Zeitlin (n. 3); on Antigone,see Segal (n. 55) 152206; V. Rosivach, ICS iv (I979) 16-36; J. Hogan,
Arethusav (1972) 93-1oo; on the OedipusTyrannus,see
Segal (n. 55) 207-48.
68 A vast bibliographycould be given. In general, see
Vernant and Vidal-Naquet (n. i) chapters 1-3; on
Aeschylus, see Goldhill (n. 47); Zeitlin (n. 3); on
Sophocles, see Segal (n. 55) 52-9, and his index under
'Language'; on Euripides, see on e.g. Hippolytusfor

discussion and bibliography Goldhill (n. 3) ch. 5.
69 'Tragic moment' is Vernant's
phrase;see Vernant
and Vidal-Naquet (n. i) chh. 1-3.
70 Vidal-Naquet (n. 2) passim;F. Zeitlin, Arethusaxi
(1978) 149-84; C. Segal, DionysiacpoeticsandEuripides'
Bacchae (Princeton 1982) 158-214.
47) 193-5.

See also Goldhill (n.
75
ephebesgoesbackintothefifthcentury.71Itmaybeworthpointingout thattheexistenceof the

oathatanearlystage,thetreatmentof theorphanephebesin thetheatrein thefifthcentury,and
the key role playedby ephebesin the tragicfestivalat a laterdate, may indicatea certain
connectionbetweentragedyand malesat the age of manhood(in termsof adoptionand
definitionof a socialrole),evenif thereis no formalinstitutionof theephebeia
atthetimeof fifthfact
in
itself
neither
or
centurytragedy-a
finallyproven disprovenyet.72I do not wish to
reviveMathieu'sthesisthatthe ceremonyof the orphansat the GreatDionysiais actuallythe
institutional
butI do stresstheconnectionbetweentragedyasa didactic
originof theephebeia,73
and a questioningmediumand the affirmation
of the dutiesand obligationsof a citizen.As
Mathieucomments,the ephebicoathis a civicoath,concernedfundamentally
with expressing
andupholdingthe tenetsof 8TrlPoKpa-ria74-and,
Reinmuth
comments
on
the
at a
as
ephebeia
laterdate:'Everyopportunitywastakento fostertheir[theephebes']civicconsciousness."'7
In
otherwords,anysuggestedrelationsbetweentheinstitutionof tragedyandtheinstitutionof the
itselfmustbe too delimiteda tool to outlinethe complexrelationsbetweentragedy,its
ephebeia
attitudeto pastandpresentvalues,andthetransgressions
enactedon stage,butit is importantto
in
mind
the
connections
between
of
times
transition
intoadulthood,
transition,
keep
particularly
andthe educativerole of poetry,andthe complex,oftenparadoxical
examplesofferedby the
of theyoungmenaffirmingtheircivic
stagingof mythin thetragicfestival.76Thejuxtaposition
dutiesandaffiliations
in the theatreand the young Orestes,forcedto lie, deceiveandkill his
mother,andyet to be vindicated,seemsto me to be of someimportanceto theway we thinkof
theAtheniansconceptualizing
themove fromchildhoodto adulthoodandtheroleof themoral
exemplaof myth.
To conclude:I outlinedfirstsome momentsof ceremonialfrom the daysof the drama
festival.TheseI showedwereindicativeof the festival'sproductionin the democraticpolis.In
theseceremonials
wereconcernedwith the relationsof an individualto the city, his
particular,
ties andobligations,andhow thesewere expressedin termsof militaryinvolvementand the
recognitionof theman'sdutyassoldierin thecity,whichaffectstheviewof youthasyouth-his
placein society.But thetragediesandcomedieswhichfollow-both tragedyandcomedymay
be describedas 'genresof transgression'-constitute
in someimportantsensesa questioningof
the terms of that civic discourse.Tragedyagain and again is concernedwith competing
obligationsof householdand state.Tragedyagainand againfocuseson young men whose
behaviourin society puts society at risk. Tragedyagainand againtakeskey termsof the
normativeandevaluativevocabularyof thecivicdiscourse,anddepictsconflictsandambiguities
in theirmeaningsanduse.
How does this relateto Dionysus,the god in whose namethe festivaltakesplace?The
Athenianshadan expression'Nothingto do with Dionysus'.Weretheyrightto applyit to the
City Dionysia?Dionysusis the divinefigureof the ancientworldmoststudiedin the modern
71 See P. Siewart,JHS lxxxxvii (I977) 102-I I; H. Y.
McCulloch and H. D. Cameron, ICS v (1980)
1-I4.
72 See O. Reinmuth, The Ephebicinscriptions
of the
BC
fourth century
(Leiden 1971); P6l"kedis (n. 14),
especially 7-17.
73 G. Mathieu, 'Remarquessur l'ephebie attique' in
MilangesDesrousseux(Paris1937) 3 11-18. Mathieu had
been anticipatedby A. A. Bryant, HSCP xviii (1907) 87
and n. 4. It is important that this ceremonial constitutes
for the orphans the conclusionof ephebic status, as they
now take their place in the hoplite rank. Their
assumption of full armour, therefore, is a significant
gesture in marking this conclusion, since the ephebe is
conceived of as lightly armed specifically in contrast
with the panoply of the hoplite. In the theatre, they
for the first time (in full
appear as cv8pes
armour).
74 Mathieu (n. 73) 3I3. Wilamowitz, who admittedly did not have the inscriptional evidence now
available, is nonethelessimportantly mistaken particularly when he argues that the ephebeiacould not be a
fifth-centuryphenomenon becauseof its 'anti-democratic' nature (Aristotelesund Athen i [Berlin 18931 191,
193-4). Wilamowitz
8-14.
75
0.
is criticized by Pel1kedis (n. 14)
Reinmuth, The foreigners in the Athenian
Ephebeia (Nebraska 1929) 6.
76 For an attempt to show how closely linked

tragedyandephebesmaybe, seenowJ.J.Winkler,'The
ephebes' song: tragdidaand polis', Representationsxi

(1985)
26-62.
iTr"oATral

S. GOLDHILL
beginsby outliningfour
age.77Henrichsin hisrecentsoberstudyof thegod andhisinterpreters
mainareasof influencefor the god, namely,wine and vitality,ritualmadness,the maskand
theatre,a happyafterlife.'"But he quicklybeginsto qualifyandredefinetheseareas('godof
wineandvitality'[205] becomes'god of wineandescapefromeverydayreality'[209]), andhe
finallywrites 'Virtuallyeverybodywho has an informedopinion on the subjectseemsto
concedethata balancedandunifiedview of Dionysusandhisplacein historyis not onlydifficult
to achievebutis essentiallyincompatible
with thecomplexityof the god andwith hisdisparate
...
defies
manifestations Dionysus
definition'(209). Henrichsgoeson to suggest,however,that
perhapsthemostprofitableway foranalysisis openedby Otto, who 'summedup Dionysusasa
god of paradox'(234).Thisview findsanechoin Daraki'srecentstudy.Shewrites:'Toutesces
jonctions d'oppos6srepetentsur divers registresce qui dej~ s'annonqaitdans l'identit6
du dieumortel';and' "Dionysos"est uneautrefagon
contradictoire
depenser'.79
So, too, Segal
writesthat'Dionysusoperatesastheprinciplethatdestroysdifferences',s80
andhe hasattempted
at lengthto describe'themultipleinversionsandcontradictions
of Dionysus'81in theBacchae
in
with
the
and
illusions
of
the
theatrical
with
particular.
Along
transgressions
experience,along
thereleaseof maenadicecstasyor wine,Dionysus'spherewouldseemto encompass
preciselythe
senseof paradoxand reversalI have been describingin the relationsbetweenthe preplay
ceremonialsandthe playsin the City Dionysia.It is the interplay
between
normandtransgression
enactedin the tragicfestivalthatmakesit a Dionysiacoccasion.
The specialcircumstances
of the City Dionysiafestivalbringthe speciallicenseof comedy,
with its obscenityandlampoons,andthe speciallicenseof tragedy,with its imagesof society
collapsing.The two facesof Dionysusformthe one festival.The tensionsandambiguitiesthat
tragedyandcomedydifferentlyset in motion,the tensionsandambiguitiesthatarisefromthe
transitionfromtragedyto comedy,allfallundertheaegisof theone god, thedivinityassociated
with illusionandchange,paradoxandambiguity,releaseandtransgression.
Unlikethe displays
of civicrhetoricwe haveseenin suchset piecesas Pericles'FuneralSpeechor in Demosthenes'
politicalrhetoric,the GreatDionysia,Dionysus'festivalfor the city, offersa full rangeof
from the intellectuallyand emotionallypowerful and dangerous
Dionysiac transgression,
ironic
and
subtlequestioning,to theobscene,scatalogical,
tragedy,through
uproarious
comedy.
Thedramafestival,playsandceremonials
together,offersnotjustthepowerandprofundityof a
greatdramaticliteraturebut also the extraordinary
processof the developingcity puttingits
and
structureof thought at risk underthe sway of the smilingand
developinglanguage
dangerousDionysus.
Tragedymustbe understood,then,in termsof the festivalof whichit is a constituentpart
andthe silenceof criticson the preplayceremonialsis indicativeof a generalunwillingness
to
considerboththe extendedcontextof the tragictextsandthe particular
difficulties
involvedin
andimpasse.The tragicfestivalmayat firstsightseemto
readingthisliteratureof transgression
havelittleto do withourexpectations
of theDionysiacreligionunderwhosenameit takesplace.
76
But in the interplayof norm and transgressionenactedin the festivalwhich both laudsthe polis
and depictsthe stressesand tensionsofa polis society in conflict, the great Dionysia seems to me
an essentiallyDionysiac event.82
SIMON GOLDHILL
King's College, Cambridge

77 For an interestingsurvey and bibliography, see A.
Henrichs, HSCP lxxxviii (1984) 205-40.
78 Henrichs (n. 77). See alsoJ. N. Bremmer, ZPE Iv
(1984) 267-86; A. Henrichs,HSCPlxxxii (1978) 14-65;
and most recently M. Daraki, Dionysos (Paris 1985).
79 Daraki (n. 78) 28; 232.
80
Segal (n. 70) 234.
81
Segal (n. 70) 266.
82 A draftof this
paperwasfirstwrittenfora seminar
at CorpusChristiCollege,Oxford.Thanksareduefor
the invitation,and to all who offeredgenerousand
helpfulcomments,especiallyE. Bowie, A. Bowie, C.
and 0. Taplin.Thanks,too, to J.
Sourvinou-Inwood,
HendersonandR. Osbornewith whom I discussedand
andto the
improvedthispaper,to MrsP. E. Easterling,
editorandreadersof HS for comments.


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The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology

Author(s): Simon Goldhill

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Journalof HellenicStudiescvii (1987) 58-76