Overview

This is a new take on the topic with considerable new scholarship about how the ekkyklema worked semiotically, dramaturgically and politically within Greek tragedy. In this fascinating and well-documented cultural study the author explores the proposition that the success of Greek tragedy was connected to the pre-mediated use of religious tropes in the drama, thus triggering profoundly ancient and effective traditional loyalties. Specifically the book lays out a well-documented argument that these devices, within both the form and content of the drama, were encouraged - if not required - for propagandistic purposes by the sponsors of the dramatic contests held in Athens as part of the Festival Dionysiad. This work explores the connections to the very earliest aspects of Dionysic worship and borrowed cultural features and builds these into the construction we know as the Greek Tragedy. Several important scholars note that this book explores the workings of this standard stage device, apparently used in a least one third of the extant plays, in more depth than any previously study ever undertaken.

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9780773435278

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Reviews

For a theatre designer to write a scholarly appraisal of ancient Greek theatrical techniques and equipment such as this is a rare bonus for classical studies...[it] is an opportunity for a far more imaginative exploration of Greek theatrical techniques, of the visual aspects of the productions and therefore the responses of the audience and thereby the relevance of the theatrical to the life and politics of the day. (Sir John Boardman, Oxford University) This study is much more than an account of theatre. It emphasizes the importance of theatre as part of the construction that was the political and religious life of the ancient Greek polis. Professor Eis presents a fair amount of new material, but offers his research and its implications not as facts cast in stone, but ideas to be further exployed... a well-supported, fresh view of theatre. (Dr. G. Ray Thompson, Professor of Greek and Roman History, Salisbury University)

"""For a theatre designer to write a scholarly appraisal of ancient Greek theatrical techniques and equipment such as this is a rare bonus for classical studies...[it] is an opportunity for a far more imaginative exploration of Greek theatrical techniques, of the visual aspects of the productions and therefore the responses of the audience and thereby the relevance of the theatrical to the life and politics of the day."" (Sir John Boardman, Oxford University) ""This study is much more than an account of theatre. It emphasizes the importance of theatre as part of the construction that was the political and religious life of the ancient Greek polis. Professor Eis presents a fair amount of new material, but offers his research and its implications not as facts cast in stone, but ideas to be further exployed... a well-supported, fresh view of theatre."" (Dr. G. Ray Thompson, Professor of Greek and Roman History, Salisbury University)"

Author Information

Professor Joel D. Eis has taught design at five universities. He has written dozens of articles on sceneography, theatre history. He is the author of a text on stagecraft and a previous monograph for Edwin Mellen Press. Professor Eis has produced over three hundred theatrical designs for professional and academic theatre including the setting for many of the Greek plays, addressing the conundrums discussed in this book. He currently designs in the San Francisco area and owns the Rebound Bookstore in San Rafael, California.

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