28951 - History of Performing Arts in the Ancient World (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

Upon a successful completion of this course students will know the Greek and Roman theatre as a whole (places of performance, festivals and dramatic competitions, poets and preserved works; directors, chorus, players; relationship with public and institutions; the different dramatic genres and their history) and will develop a critical attitude towards the main issues concerning the Greek and Roman theatre. Furthermore, they are expected to know the examined pieces thoroughly.

Course contents

The course aims to provide, through the reading of a model text, a broad and critical understanding of ancient theatrical production, with special focus on 5th-century BCE Attic tragedy.

The chosen text for the academic year 2026/2027 is Euripides' Medea.

In the first part of the course (approximately 18–20 hours), we will read various passages of Medea together, paying close attention to textual-critical, stylistic-literary, and dramaturgical issues. Whenever useful and necessary, Euripides' passages will serve as a baseline to address broader themes related to the great Attic "theater industry" (staging, conditions of production and reception, socio-political context) through relevant parallels and testimonies.

In the second part of the course (approximately 10–12 hours), and in any in-depth seminars to be agreed upon with the class, we will tackle three questions that have long challenged past and recent Euripidean scholarship:

1. Is Medea's "great monologue" (lines 1021–1080) largely the result of interpolation?

2. Did Euripides plagiarize an earlier Medea composed by Neophron of Sicyon, as some ancient sources claim?

3. Can we hypothesize the existence of a first version of Medea that treated the motif of infanticide differently?

As we will see, these three questions are interconnected and shed light on the ancient reception of such a disturbing drama.

Readings/Bibliography

For Euripides' Medea, the reference text will be the edition by J. Diggle. The critical text will be provided by the teacher along with pages from the main reference commentaries.

Scholarly articles dedicated to the specific issues addressed in class will be made available dynamically throughout the course within the teaching materials. By the end of the course, each student will be required to choose a selection of these articles (approximately 3 to 5) to critically discuss their content during the oral exam.

The course will adopt a decidedly non-textbook-centered approach and, therefore, does not require the reading of a standard manual. Specific pages or chapters from manuals will be pointed out and discussed during lectures. For general matters, a core reference point will be the classic work by A. Pickard-Cambridge, The Dramatic Festivals of Athens.

Teaching methods

Lectures; optional in-depth seminars agreed upon with the students; collective translation of particularly problematic passages

Assessment methods

Oral exam based on the passages discussed in class (a reference list will be made available at the end of the course) and on the selected readings (a list for these will also be provided at the end of the course).

Teaching tools

During lectures, all major research tools currently in use will be utilized (ranging from lexicons to digital tools). All materials used in class (primary and secondary literature, slides, images of manuscripts and papiri) will be progressively made available online. We will occasionally make use of video material (contemporary performances of Medea).

Office hours

See the website of Federico Condello