The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology

Author(s): Simon Goldhill

Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies , 1987, Vol. 107 (1987), pp. 58-76
Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/630070

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to The Journal of Hellenic Studies

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Journal of Hellenic Studies cvii (1987) 58-76

THE GREAT DIONYSIA AND CIVIC IDEOLOGY

THERE have been numerous attempts to understand the role and importance
Dionysia in Athens, and it is a festival that has been made crucial to varied and
characterizations of Greek culture as well as the history of drama or liter
scholarship, however, has greatly extended our understanding of the formation of
Athenian ideology-in the sense of the structure of attitudes and norms of behav
developing interest in what might be called a 'civic discourse' requires a reconsid
Great Dionysia as a city festival. For while there have been several fascinati
particular plays with regard to the polis and its ideology,3 there is still a consid
place the festival itself in terms of the ideology of the polis. Indeed, recent critics in
reaction away from writers such as Gilbert Murray have tended rather to empha
hand that the festival is a place of entertainment rather than religious ritual, an
hand that the plays should be approached primarily as dramatic performances. Th
following type of description:
For the Athenians the Great Dionysia was an occasion to stop work, drink a lot of w
meat, and witness or participate in the various ceremonials, processions and priestly d
part of such holidays the world over. It was also the occasion for tragedy and comedy;
any way in which the Dionysiac occasion invades or affects the entertainment.... To
way, there is nothing intrinsically Dionysiac about Greek tragedy.4

I hope to show in this article how such a characterization of the Great Dionys
fundamentally mistaken view of the festival and its historical context. While ther
certain similarities between the Great Dionysia and religious festivals the worl
demonstrate that there are specific ceremonials, processions and priestly doings
essential and unique context for the production of Greek drama and whi
importantly affect the entertainment.
There are two further arguments which often have been linked to the sort of
the festival that Taplin offers. The first is that dramatic criticism should concentrate
as pieces for performance-'in action'. I shall be attempting to demonstra
understanding of a play in performance requires an understanding of the com
context for performance which involves more than the technical details of the in
script in the fifth-century theatre. The second argument that has been thought
the nature of the Dionysia as described in the more generally read studies is that the
of performance before a mass audience preclude, or at any rate severely limit, th
complex, problematic or obscure expression in the tragic texts. I shall be arguing

grece
1 Particularly since Nietzsche's The birth of archaique (Paris 1967); M. Detienne and J.-
tragedy
(on which see M. S. Silk and J. P. Stern, Nietzsche on
Vernant, Cunning intelligence in Greek culture and socie
tragedy [Cambridge I98I] especially 90-131).
trans.Many
J. Lloyd (Brighton 1978); N. Loraux, L'invent
histories of Greek culture, or elements in Greek culture,
d'Athenes (Paris 1981) (hereafter L'invention); Les enfa
have extended discussions of tragedy, e.g. E. R. Dodds,
d'Athina (Paris I98I) (hereafter Les enfants). for t
The Greeks and the irrational (Berkeley 195 I)extensive influence of Vernant in particular, see Areth
or B. Snell,
The discovery of the mind trans. T. Rosenmeyerxvi (Oxford
I & 2 (1983).
1953). I have found especially interesting J.-P. 3Vernant
See for example N. Loraux, Les enfants, particular
and P. Vidal-Naquet, Myth and tragedy in ancient Greece
157-253. F. Zeitlin, Under the sign of the shield: semioti
trans. J. Lloyd (Brighton 198I) especially chapters I-3.
and Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes (Rome I9
2 I am thinking especially of the studies of Vernant,
particularly I5-51. H. Foley, Ritual irony: poetry an
Vidal-Naquet, Detienne, Loraux and theirsacrifice
followers.
in Euripides (Ithaca 1985). See also S. Goldh
See e.g. J.-P. Vernant, Myth and society in ancient
ReadingGreece
Greek tragedy (Cambridge 1986), especia
ch. 3. among
trans.J. Lloyd (Brighton I980), Myth and thought
the Greeks (London 1983); P. Vidal-Naquet, Le4 0.
chasseur
Taplin, Greek tragedy in action (London 1978)
noir: formes de pens&e etformes de societe dans le162.
monde grec
(Paris I98I); M. Detienne, Les maltres de verite dans la

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE GREAT DIONYSIA AND CIVIC IDEOLOGY 59
appeals in their dramatic criticism to criteria of a necessary clarity, simplicity or di
not only the readings of particular passages or plays, but also the fundamental
agonistic nature of Greek tragedy. This article is not, of course, meant to resusc
of Gilbert Murray and his followers, but rather to aid the understanding of Gr
social and political phenomenon.
What happened on the days immediately before the days on which plays wer
the least well known to us and it is also the part of the festival that interests
present purposes. I will, however, briefly summarize (with some added comm
Cambridge's account as emended by Gould and Lewis5 in order to provide
background of the main days of the Dionysia. The first part of the festival m
regarded as part of the festival-the EicaycyTyl xTr6 Tri EcydXpas.6 This is a ree
original advent of Dionysus from Eleutherai. The statue of Dionysus Eleuthereu
temple on the road to Eleutherai, sacrifice was offered there, and then the sta
back to the temple. It is interesting to note that second-century inscriptions in
leading part in this procession was taken by the ephebes.7 There is, however, no fift
century evidence for this--or indeed for the whole rite-and it is perhap
attractive, to assume that the ephebes played the same major role in fifth-centu
Pickard-Cambridge assumes).
The Eiaaywyfi &-r6 Trs oEXdpac is followed by the iropi-rfi,s which was a g
leading up to the sacrifice in the sacred precinct of Dionysus. In the second cent
was conducted by the ephebes, as Richard Seaford has recently discussed.9 There
of a Kavryp6pos, a bearer of a basket of offerings, and Pickard-Cambridge sug
and show were particularly important in making this a glorious occasion. The
perhaps followed by a KA~oos of which next to nothing is clearly known, even
KOLOS should be taken as separate from the rrolTrrio1 and the singing o
dithyrambic competitions which also took place at the Great Dionysia."1 F
famous inscription sometimes called 'Fasti' (IG ii2 23 18) with its list of victors
refer to the festival in general as KC'AO1 TC~0 AlOV'OCa.12
There is also a preparatory day for the festival on which a Proagon was held. Aft
held in the Odeion, but it is not known where or if it was held before that d
documents hint at what happened in the Proagon and an interesting account of
the Lenaia is to be found in Plato's Symposium (194aff). It would appear that each
temporary platform with his actors and chorus, and announced the subject of
about to present in the competition. It would also appear from Plato that this m
of as something of an ordeal, and a nice anecdote in the Life of Euripides relates tha
the death of Euripides Sophocles appeared for the Proagon in mourning and his p
without their customary garlands. The people observing burst into tears. The
relative dates of these various ceremonials is extremely vexed and I have noth
Gould's and Lewis' necessary corrections to Pickard-Cambridge (augmented by
Allen 15 who sets out clearly the evidence particularly with regard to the com
It is what happens in the theatre itself before the plays, however, that is my

s A. Pickard-Cambridge The dramatic festivals of assumes in his description of the festi

1946) 165-74
Athens2 (Oxford 1968) 58 if. 11 It is suggested plausibly (Pickard-Cambrid
6 See Pickard-Cambridge (n. 5) 59-61, with biblio-
[n. 5] 74-9) that the Dithyrambic competition t
graphy (especially 61 n. I). place in the two days before the dramas.
S7 IG ii2 028, IG ii2 Ioo8. The earliest reference
12 See toPickard-Cambridge (n. 5) 71-3, 101-4.
this is 127-6 BC (SEG xv Io04). 13 See (contra Miiller) Pickard-Cambridge (n. 5)
8 See Pickard-Cambridge (n. 5) 61-3. A 14 second-
C. Pe6lkedis, Histoire de l'Pphebie attique (Par
1962),
century inscription (IG ii2 00oo6) separates the especially appendix 3, 30o-6.
Eiaaycoyil
and the rroprrii. 15 J. T. Allen, On the program of the City Diony
9 R. Seaford, CQ xxxi (198I) 252-75. during the Peloponensian War, U. Cal. Publ. in Class. P
'o As G. Thomson Aeschylus and Athens2
xii (London
3 (1938) 35-42.

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 6o S. GOLDHILL

and I want to look in particular

even mentioned in the context
of Cimon (Cim. 8.7-9):

?TpCo-rTlv yap 818aoKca iaV TOO Zoq)OKrpAoUs E8rl v8oU KaeOVTos, 'AIEypicov 6 &PXOv, (piOVEIlKias obOa's
Kai - TaparaT68S T"-rCV OEarCTOv, KplTr slPV OOK XKA?ipcOaE Toi &'cyvos, cas 8 KipCov IIETa TCv
ovarpaT~tilyv TUpoEACo&v Els -rO6 OPa-rpov taiCao "T 0e8 VEVO1 avtolaVas oov86, ofK ai9(KEV
acTro S&TEXOEEiV, &XX' 6pK<o'aaS lvayKaOE KaOifal Kal KpiVai 8 Ka orVTaS, &'rr6 qpuvx;S plaS 'KaraTov. 6
PyV o0v &ycVv KaiSi1X TO T-r V KplTrOV &Cicopa T"IV qfoikOT-liaV OrrEpE'3aNE.
When Sophocles, still a young man, entered the lists with his first plays, Apsephion the Archon,
seeing that the spirit of rivalry ran high among the spectators, did not appoint judges of the contest as
usual by lot, but when Cimon and his fellow-generals advanced into the theatre and made the
customary libation to the god, he would not suffer them to depart, but forced them to take the oath
and sit as judges, being ten in all, one from each tribe. So, then, the contest because of the unusual
dignity of the judges, was more animated than ever before.

Plutarch describes how in 468 the archon by a bold stroke set aside the regular procedure in
the theatre by appointing the generals as judges. Pickard-Cambridge notes that the probable
point in the proceedings was just before the performances of the tragedies when thejudges were
about to be chosen.'7 What the passage indicates is that the libations before the tragedies were

poured by the ten generals. The nature of the offerings is unclear-vEvoptayvas, 'customary', is
the only description we have-but it is interesting that for the beginning of the tragic festival's
days of drama it is the ten most powerful military and political leaders, the strategoi, who were
actively involved before the whole city. A, fourth-century inscription (IG ii2 1496) confirms that
the generals were involved religiously in the dramatic festivals, but also suggests that the number
of occasions in the calendar on which all the generals acted 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
occasion more obviously linked to their civic functions. The inscription mentions, for example,
offerings to 8rlPOKpaTria, to Eipnivrl, and to 6yaeil rTXTrl.'8 On the major state occasion of the
Great Dionysia it is, then, the most influential and important representatives of the state who are
involved in the opening religious ceremony.
The second element of ceremonial can be seen directly in a scholion to Aristophanes'
Acharnians (ad 504):

Els T-r Aiovoa'a TiTE'aKTO "'AiOva3E KOPi3EIV TaX5 T'o60Els T"obs n6pous, CbS E'rroM prlo'V V E6v rEAiv.
In the Great Dionysia, the tribute of the cities of the Athenian empire was brought into the
theatre. This ceremonial is outlined in more detail by Isocrates (de Pace 82):

0T-ro yap dKplIp3S E plvKOV J OpOoTrol 1AlCT' 6V 1pirOE1T8EV, GcoaT -r ipi(aaVT-o - T

rEplylyv61pvov T-rCv p6pcov pyOpiov, 8tEX6VTES KaTr& rTaXcaVTOV, EIS Tr~V 6PX"raTpaC Trois Aiovvaiots
EiaoqpEtv EWrrEtlxv rrhipes - TO 0a-rpov Kal -roOT' ErroiOUV, Kal Trpatoyov TOiS "rraitaS T-CV Ev T -
TroOlCpCT TETE-EUT-lK6TCOV, &ApIOT-PO1s ETrI5EIKVJOVTIES TOTs pIV oUpIpXots -s Tl-pas Tiis Obioas
16 There is no mention of these ceremonies in Taplin overall effects of the festival.
(n. 4), Vernant and Vidal-Naquet (n. I), nor, for 17 Pickard-Cambridge (n. 5) 95-6.
example, in P. Arnott An Introduction to the Greek theatre
18 The fragmentary state of the inscription makes
(London 1959), A. Lesky, Greek Tragedy trans. H. A. certainty here finally impossible. There is for example a
Frankfort, (London 1965), and, most recently, M. J. surprising reference in one year (333 Be) to a sacrifice by
Walton, The Greek sense of theatre (London 1984). They the generals at the temple of Ammon. It is not known
are mentioned briefly without any analysis by H. L. when or why Ammon became part of state religion in
Baldry, The Greek tragic theatre (London 1981) 27, and Athens, but Foucart, noting this inscription and the
Loraux, L'invention 26-31 discusses the orphans briefly name Ammonias given to a sacred galley as mentioned
in terms of the ephebeia but not in terms of the theatre. P in Aristotle Ath . Pol. 61, suggests that 333 was the year
Cartledge, in Greek religion and society ed. P. E. of the inauguration of the temple of Ammon in Athens,
Easterling and J. V. Muir (Cambridge 1985), briefly and hence the sacrifice by the generals: P. Foucart, REG
mentions the possible political significance of three of vi (1893) 6-7, and see SIG1 580.
the ceremonials, but does not consider the plays, or the

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE GREAT DIONYSIA AND CIVIC IDEOLOGY 61

ai-r'Tv 0CITO p0clac-rC4v Eia(pEpoPlvVS, ToTi 8' &Xotis "E~Ela~ar

aCuppop&s Tas 8ih -riv orXLE avEcv Tra'rTv yqyvopvaS. Kc Tai-r
E68ap6v130ov ...
'For so exactly did they gauge the actions by which human being
passed a decree to divide the funds derived from the tributes of the
to the stage, when the theatre was full, at the festival of Dionysus; a
same time they led in upon the stage the sons of those who had los
to display to our allies, on the one hand, the value of their own
hirelings, and to the rest of the Hellenes, on the other, the mul
misfortunes which result from this policy of aggression. And in so

Here, following Raubitschek's generally accepted analysis,19

sentence that the tribute was divided into talents and displa
rhetorical use of this event is interesting, however. As Pearson
aselgeia of their ancestors in having the tribute publicly pre
ceremony, Isocrates claims, was a precise way to become
presumably was not the actual aim of such an event. Rogers
Acharnians 'the tribute brought by the allies was spread out ta
orchestra in the sight of the assembled Hellenes',22 that is,
pomp and splendour, nor as Isocrates rhetorically supposes, to
the property of the allies. Rather, it was a demonstratio
international visitors of the power of the polis of Athens, its r
was a public display of the success in military and political te
festival to glorify the state.
That this ceremony involved such a projection of self-ima
may be hinted at in Aristophanes' Acharnians 496 ff:

At. pi 1po0t peoviral-r' &v8pES o 01 0EpEVOl,

El T-rCO'rXS X Vb ETrE VAr' iv "AOvaiot SMyEIV

pEchho Trepi r~s T6hAECS, TrpuyC)8iav wTrolv.
-r6 y#p 6KatOV oTSE Kia -rpUycC8ia.

Ayc% 6bi X EE 8vd pV SiKalta aE.

O ydap PE V'V YE 8tiaPaET- KA'cIv 0T1
MAvcv Trap6vT-rc Av 6lV Trov KKCKS yACO.
aOrol ydap EpyEV oVrrri ATvawic -r' TyCOv,
KOVITCA) ?EVO1 TaPE1a1VV oVTe yap 6opoi
ifKOUalV oO-rT K T-rV Tr6hECOV O Oppaxoi-
&WA' EaoPEv a0oroi vtv yE TrEplETr-rTapEvor
TrosS yap OKO roiKO SjXvpca TCv aTC'v My

Dikaiopolis is preparing to speak to the city as city, to 66tSOKE

now at any rate Cleon won't slander me, that I foul-mouth the cit
For we're just ourselves and it is the Lenaian contest, and there ar
tribute hasn't arrived, and the allies are away from the city
Lenaia is a more private affair. Unlike the Great Dionysia,
problem about speaking home truths to the city.
A further passage from the Acharnians makes this example
chorus--also speaking to the city as city--remark in the para

19 A. Raubitschek, TAPA lxxiiin(1941) 356-62.

leather bags, similar to those seen
20 Raubitschek (n. 19) 358-9 (referring
fragment ofto B. D. that surmounted a d
a relief
Merritt, Documents on Athenianing
tribute [Cambridge
the collection of Athenian tribute.
21 L.
1937] 50, n. 3) goes so far as to suggest Pearson,
that CP xxxvi (1941) 228.
each talent
was carried in a terracotta vessel of 22the
B. sort knownThe
B. Rogers, to Archarnians of
(London
have been used to store and transport 1910
money, ) 76.
or perhaps

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 62 S. GOLDHILL

Ta-ra a woi as woAAC ov

Kal "roei 8ip'lOUV ~v -rai
Trolydp-rol vVv K -r0Cv w
iouoiv iiv 18iTr eplOv-rE
6e-rtS apiv6ivESuo' E'Ier
Oi"TCO 8' auOroG TrEpi Tr
6"re Ka tPaai E1es AaKESa
1pcbrloaEv "rrpW"ra pEv oTroVJs ITOTEpOl Tais vaucrl KparoTo'IV,
Elra 8i To-oTroV TOV wo01rTTiv w0rrpouVS EiTrOI KaKa "rrohAa'
-ro-Trouv yap E(pQ v T-ot &VepcbTouts "Tro0 VP-riouv yEYEV'o'aOa
Kai -rC TCO 1TOh~CO 1T"O V1KfioEIV TOO'TOV Ot/1p OAvo EXOVras.

Again the subject of the speech is the opportunity and license to speak out freely in the
democracy. The allies bringing the tribute are said to come because they want to see the best
poet-the one who's prepared to speak out -rTa iKaia among the Athenians. The Persian King,
indeed, in order to test the Spartan embassy would want to know who had the best navy and
who had the best ... poet for speaking KaKa ' rodka against the city. 'That's what gives strength
for fighting'. It is always difficult to evaluate the balance ofjoke and serious comment even in the
parabasis of an Aristophanic play, but it is interesting that once more Aristophanes seems to be
defending the right to free and scurrilous speech, and once more the context for his defence is the
occasion of the Great Dionysia when all the xenoi are there. Many passages from Aristophanes
and elsewhere could be used to show the commonplace that poets are the educators of the
citizens-les maitres de verit6, as Detienne puts it-but these two passages suggest a more
specific awareness of the connection of the Great Dionysia, the ceremony of bringing in tribute
in the presence of the xenoi, with the city on display, the city aware of its role and image as
international power.
This ceremonial moreover can have been introduced only at a relatively late date-after the
transfer of the treasury from Delos-and it shows how with the development of Athenian
democracy the power of the polis as such becomes increasingly emphasized in public ritual and
display. (The ceremonials I am discussing are not merely organizational relics from an earlier
era.) The public funeral of the war dead and the establishment of the casualty list stelai which I
will discuss below, also appear to have been introduced no earlier than the 470s.23 In both cases,
the development of civic ideology is seen in the development of ritual.
The third moment of ceremonial I want to discuss is also clearly linked to the authority of
the polis. Before the tragedies the names of those men who had greatly benefited Athens in some
way were read out in front of the whole city, and the honours that had been bestowed on them
in the form of a crown or garland were specified. It was a great honour to be singled out in this
way before the city, but a passage from Demosthenes, where such crown giving is being
discussed, suggests a different kind of reasoning behind such a ceremony (De Cor. 12o):

xa p TrrpOs OE8V O-roTCo oxal65 El Kai &vaiCriyros, AicaXivr, ?crT' o0i 80vaocl Aoyiaaeaa &r- -rc~S t~v
oer avou liv & ra6vr YEXElt 3i9ov 6 o-rTEavos 6rrou i&v &vapprOi, To0 86~ TCOv a rEavolvrcv EVEKa
oUl.qppov-roV T v TV T) OE-TpC yiyvEral T6 KPf~YpLta; OiL yap aKOiOavTES a &TaVTE~S 815 Ti TO1olEV E~ TV
Tr6Alv Ttporpr'ovral, Kali TOt/S Tro886v-rag -rv Xpylv p&aov Traolvoo TOt 00ET(pavoupIVOU"
8lt6werrp Tr6v v6pov ToIrov rr6xhl ybypapEv.

But, really now, are you so unintelligent and blind, Aeschines, that you are incapable of reflecting
that a crown is equally gratifying to the person crowned wheresoever it is proclaimed, but that the
proclamation is made in the Theatre merely for the sake of those by whom it is conferred? For the

23 On the date of the hTrrrdtcpto Ayoi and public questioned by D. W. Bradeen, CQ xix (1969) 145-59.
grave stelai, see C. W. Clairmont, Patrios nomos: public In general, see also R. Stupperich, Staatsbegrabnis und
burial in Athens during the fifth and fourth centuries BC Privatesgrabmal im klassischen Athen (Diss. Westfilische
(London 1983) 16-45; Loraux, L'invention 28 ff. F. Wilhelms-Universitit zu Miinster 1977).
Jacoby, JHS lxiv (I944) 37-66 has been tellingly

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE GREAT DIONYSIA AND CIVIC IDEOLOGY 63
whole vast audience is stimulated to do service to the city, and applauds the ex
rather than the recipient; and that is the reason why the state has enacted this

The whole audience is stimulated by such a ceremony to do service to the po

'pour encourager les autres'. Indeed, Demosthenes suggests further that the
applauding the exhibition of thanks rather than the person being c
&-rroSti6v-ras T-rv X6(pi xAov Trratvo0caI TO ~T o-rEcpavPVO. Demosthe
here to a fundamental and well-known tenet of democratic ideology, nam
and should act to benefit the city; so the individual himself and his succe
important but it is the city recognizing and thanking a contribution to the city
such a ceremony. For Demosthenes, this ceremony of announcing the names
is fundamentally connected to a projection and promotion of civic duties an
If Demosthenes' rhetoric appeals to the fervour of democratic ideology,
Aeschines (Against Ktesiphon 41-56) hints at ways in which this ceremony
straightforward and that vying for this honour, as for others, was something t
competed in vigorously. Aeschines argues at length both on the technicali
giving a crown in the theatre, and also on the possible justification of
Demosthenes receiving a crown, but none the less, like Demosthenes, he take
the announcement of the crown before the people in the theatre is closely
authority and status of the demos, and moreover, that the presentation w
Hellenes', EVVTlvrov 6arrdVTrV TrCov 'EAAMhvov (43.8; cf. 49-3). Even wit
rhetorical overkill in Aeschines' speech (against Demosthenes as much as ag
course) and the specific technicalities of his argument, it is clear that this cerem
as an important public occasion. The proclamation of the names of those wh
city is another way of asserting the ties, connections and duties between individ
Above all it stresses the moral and social imperative of doing good for the
defining behaviour in the democratic polis.
The fourth ceremonial aspect of the tragic festival is also closely linked t
of the Athenian democratic polis. Again, the orators provide an importan
occasion. The first piece of evidence is again Isocrates de Pace 82, the passa
Isocrates says that the children of those who died in war were brought on
was to show the other Greeks how many orphans and what disasters result
aggression. The de Pace is, as its title suggests, something of an anti-imperia
and there can be few better examples of a misrepresentative use of a past
further a rhetorical argument. For as we will see, the ideology of this even
different attitude from that of Isocrates.24 I wrote 'past historical event' becaus
fascinating passage of Aeschines, this ceremony was already no longer perfo
the speech Against Ktesiphon (330 Bc):

TiS ykp OIJK 8aV cyflaOElEV &vOpcoiroS "E3'7Qlv Kat Tal6EuOEi~e E7EuOEpiwo, ava
EKElv6 yE, El Tl68V -rEpov, 6-T TaUT-r rTOTE T-r i5lIpQ IlEQ6VT-r0V coTrEp VUVi T-rV
6Tr' EUVOIEtiro lan&7ov fi Tr6hlS Kat 1E-rio'al TrpooT-raTalS EXp-ro, rrpoE70cbOv 6 Kfp
pEvoS TojS 6p<pavois Cov of 1?rpespE a i'av o "pTC) rohic TErEhE-rr ITlK6TE, V
KEKOOaI.IfLiVOUS, EKflpUTTE TO Kal?UaGTOV K pUyIpa KaI TrpoTpESWTTKcbTOTOV "rp65 ap-ETfV, OT- TO'T6E
TojS VEaVio(KOUs, C~V ot "rcTpTE ETEhEETr(f-av Ev TCZ) -roh7iic. &v6pE~ &yac0oi YEV6I.Evo, L"XPI Clv i13r
6 8fjploS j-rpEp, vuvi 8 Kco'-io'acx "?& -r~j T"rrcxvo'-Xra, &pfl'rlo'tv &yaOia -ri~i Tp p'-aCat iTIT rex
Aaur-TCv, Kal Ka7'Ei EiS "TpOESpiaV. TrTE lIIV TaUT- EK1 pUTTEV, &AA O0 VJV.
For what Greek nurtured in freedom would not mourn as he sat in the theatre and recalled this, if

24 See for discussion and bibliography, e.g. P. the fifth-century polis), the construction of the meaning
Harding CSCA vi (1973) 137-49. Isocrates' treatment of the ceremonials depends also on the viewer. The
of the ceremonial is particularly important in emphasiz- relations of individuals in and to an ideology cannot be
ing that while one may talk of the expected norms of an considered as necessarily determined or univocal.
ideology, (even in the complex, developing world of

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 64 S. GOLDHILL

nothing more, that once on this d

when the city had better custom
place before you the orphans who
and he would utter that proclam
men, whose fathers showed them
until they
have come of age; and n
with the prayers of the city, to go
Such was the proclamation then,

This passage of Aeschines-as

clearer view of what happened
young men whose fathers w
battle,24b were brought up and
reached the end of maintained
provided by the demos; and they
honoured with special places in
the boys and what as men the
Each of the four ceremonials
then, is closely linked to a sens
consider the relations between t
parade of orphans, a ritual whi
the time when the certain eviden
is certainly possible to specify
relates to civic ideology; and such
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 &ycxoi 'yEv6pEvot, see Loraux L'inven- (ed.), Problkmes de la guerre en grace ancienne (Paris 1968),
tion s.v. 'agathoi', especially 99-1oI. and the sensible comments of J. K. Davies, Democracy
25 J._p. Vernant Myth and society in ancient Greece and classical Greece (Hassocks 1978) 31 ff.
(Brighton 1980) 23, quoted by H. Lloyd-Jones,JHS ciii 28 Medea 250-1. See the excellent study of N.
(1983) 99. Loraux, 'Le lit, la guerre', L'homme xxi I (1981) 37-67.
26 See Vernant (n. 25) 19-70. See also e.g. F. Zeitlin, 29 See e.g. the works cited in n. 25, n. 26, n. 27.
Arethusa xv (1982) 129-57. For interesting collections of 30 A vast bibliography could be given. A. Van
essays on this and related topics, see H. Foley, (ed) Gennep, Les rites de passage (Paris 19o8) remains
Reflections of women in antiquity (London, Paris, New standard. For a standard case study (and further
York 1982); Arethusa vi (1973) and xi (1978); A. bibliography on cross cultural parallels), see V. W.
Cameron and A. Kuhrt (edd) Images of women in Turner, Theforest ofsymbols (Ithaca, N.Y. 1967) and The
antiquity (London and Melbourne 1983). A good ritual process (Rochester 1969). For the classical material,
general introduction isJ. P. Gould,JHS c (1980) 38-59. see H. Jeanmaire, Couroi et Couretes (Lille 1939); A.
I have discussed this material with regard to tragedy in Brelich, Paides e Parthenoi (Rome 1969); C. Calame, Les
Goldhill (n. 3) ch. 5. choeurs dejeunesfilles en Greice archaique (Rome 1977).
27 See Vernant (n. 25) 19-70; see also J.-P. Vernant

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE GREAT DIONYSIA AND CIVIC IDEOLOGY 65
group of hunters or fighters occur again and again. But the culture of fifth-century A
a particularly interesting view of a changing attitude to warfare. The Homeric wa
who fights primarily as an individual, for his KAXOS. When he meets or challe
warrior, the exchanging of names and boasts, the named catalogues of victims in an ari

to the connection of individual military prowess and the perpetuation of an ind

The hero is supreme. The narrative of the Iliad revolves around the claims of KAE
Achilles' need for Tnl1i, the external, visible signs of KAO; and Ko'80S, that ma
from the battle. It is an essential dynamic of the Iliad's tragic force that Achilles, the
Achaeans, is also the one who takes the logic of a heroic ethos to an extreme in that he
knowingly to go to his death, to choose an early death, in part at least in order to
everlasting KAoSe. The notion of single combat, a hierarchy of warriors, the se
perpetuation of a name are essential structurings of the heroic ethos of the Hom
The Homeric poems remained throughout the fifth century in a position of
authority. Despite the attacks of Xenophanes, say, or from a different viewpoint
Plato's judgement of Homer as the best and most divine of the poets remained th
aesthetic and moral evaluation.31 Indeed, Plato's hostility to the poets is to a large
the status of authority held by poets as teachers or controllers of knowledge-th
Plato wishes to appropriate for philosophy alone. But one of the most striking poi
between the poetry of Homer and its use in the fifth century is in the sphere of milit
Of course, certain standards are retained: appeals to bravery, strength, courage, appeTi
values are as common in fifth- and fourth-century generals' mouths as they ar
leaders' speeches. But the invention and dominance of the hoplite phalanx introduc
of values also. For the nature of the phalanx requires not individual expression of prow
values of group co-operation. The phalanx is only as strong as its weakest memb
broken is easily routed and destroyed. Unlike the Homeric view of the Trojan w
much of the fate of both sides depends on the behaviour of its strongest individua
Hector, in warfare dominated by the hoplite phalanx, it is as a group that the phal
wins and loses. It would be a banal view of cultural change-indeed, it would be s
to suggest that there are no signs of co-operative or group ethics in Homer. Simila
incorrect to suppose that desire for individual honour disappears in the fift
century.32 But it is also the case that the qualities required of a fighting man are
different direction in fifth-century Athens and are given a different emphasis.
these different requirements of military involvement are closely linked to the
democratic polis as well as its history. For in the fifth century the army is truly a cit
be a citizen one must play one's role in the hoplite rank and to take one's place in the h
one must be a citizen. When Vernant says that war is an essential determinant of
society, in part he is referring to the way in which citizenship and military values are
intertwined in fifth-century Athens. Moreover, as Finley writes, there were very
almost no years in succession without some military engagements for Athens in
When war was debated by the citizens in the assembly, it was debated by the m
follow the decision into battle. The involvement of Athenians in war and military
only deeply embedded in the myths and stories told as exempla, but in the actual r
city.
One of the most interesting recent works on this connection of Athenian military values and
the democratic polis is Loraux's L'invention d'Athtnes (Paris 1981). In this exhaustive study of
funeral orations, she has superbly illuminated both a major state event and the way the Greeks
conceptualized the city and a person's involvement in it. I want briefly to use some ofLoraux's
findings to outline some further aspects of Athenian ideas of military service, because the funeral

31 Plato Ion 53ob9-Io. See Detienne (n. 2), and the time of Plato and Aristotle (Oxford 1974) 229-34.
Goldhill (n. 3) especially ch. 6. 33 M. I. Finley, Politics in the ancient world (Cam-
32 See the comments of K. Dover, Popular morality in bridge 1983) 60.

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 66 S. GOLDHILL

speech as an institution offer

Speech for those who had die
of course, for the first year
delivered specifically for th
procession, and then the speech
the speech itself, and the re
offerings were allowed on th
citizens and foreigners, men
of the dead were arranged trib
does not deliver what one m
speech is not exactly the glorie
itself. Indeed, the names of t
the city and, as I earlier quot
thanks rather than applaudin
Pericles' in Thucydides, and t
or determine Athenian attitu
the city of Athens-in the fir
placing of that particular speec
certainly a composition of rh
sense of the important change
not for individual KAeos nor
individual prowess. Now fight
women, children, as in Home
individual's success is subsumed
is discussed and a citizen's
individuated. Military values
given in a funeral speech-the
no anonymous heroes.
Closely linked with the deve
dead, however, is the establi
qualify the sense of the ano
impossible to discover the pr
funeral address and the erect
innovation),36 scholars are ge
lists . . . is contemporary wit
names of those who die for t
civic ideology. For the indiv
divisions, without patronym
ofa Greek male's position in

34 I am aware that
see Clairmont (n. in the
23) 250 n. 17. available
For the important role
of the Marathon
able to do justice to victors the and theirsubtlety
memorial see o
or the wealth ofClairmonther
(n. 23) 10 f, and material.
particularly Loraux L'inven- Sin
long study in tion
English has
s.v. 'Marathon' especially I57-73. been p
For contrasting
(n. 23)-which sets out
views on the reference the
to Marathon in Thuc. iievidenc
35, see
Loraux's grasp H.
of the
Konishi, AJPh issues.
ci (1980) 35 ff, especially n. 19; and M. For a
Clairmont on Ostwald,
Herms, see R.
Nomos and the beginnings of Athenian democracy
Osb
(1985) 47-73. (Oxford 1969) 175.
35For descriptions of these stelai, see in particular 37 Clairmont (n. 23) 20.
Bradeen (n. 23); Clairmont (n. 23) 46-59; also D. W. 38 See N. Loraux, 'Mourir devant Troie, tomber
Bradeen, Hesperia xxxiii (1964) 16-62; and Hesperia pour Athenes: de la gloire du heros 'a l'id6e de la cite' in
xxxvi (1967) 321-8; and Hesperia xxxvii (1968) 237-40. La mort, les morts dans les anciennes societis eds. G. Gnoli
Loraux L'invention 3 I ff has an interesting discussion. and J.-P. Vernant (Cambridge and Paris 1982) 28.
36 See Thuc. ii 35. For bibliography on the question,

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE GREAT DIONYSIA AND CIVIC IDEOLOGY 67
tous les citoyens Atheniens... les citoyens disparus n'ont-ils pas d'autre s
d'Atheniens.'39 There are, it must be added, certain titles which appear very occa
lists, but even these are only military, civic roles such as strategos, trierarchos, taxia
casualty lists show how the democratic egalitarian ethos attempts to 'int6g
aristocratiques de la gloire',41 in that each man is offered a degree of immortal KAEo
same time the values of democratic collectivity and the primacy of the city are s
form of memorial. As Thucydides says, 'We do not need the praises of a Homer'
provides its own honours. The institution of the public funeral speech, the colle
of those who died for the city, mark most clearly the shifts in military ideology fro
the fifth-century democratic polis.
The importance of the duties, obligations and affiliations between individuals
one of the strongest tenets of the developing democratic ideology, despite--or p
of-the fact of the continuing strength of affiliation to the oikos. For despite the evi
in ideology in fifth-century democracy, one of the most marked continuities of
the belief in the need for the continuity of the oikos through both economic st
generational continuity of children.42 But even in the sphere of the family, a
traditionality and conservatism, the city makes inroads. Important tension
requirements of civic duties and the requirements of the oikos have been outl
example, Humphreys and Finley-both of whom see tensions between the norm
private life.43 Fighting, leitourgia, jury duty, and the other appurtenances of di
can all be seen as a possible challenge to the economic and generational continuit
But I want here to focus rather on the way in which the city increasingly app
vocabulary of the family. For the city 'nourishes'; the citizens are the 'children'
city becomes a 'father', a 'mother'. The term 'father-land' is extended in its co
attack one's city is like patricide, to reject the laws is to reject that which gav
upbringing.44 The emotionally and morally charged terminology of the family
in civic ideology to express the citizen's relations to the city and its laws, and th
may be viewed as a product of the tensions between public and private felt in t
competing claims of the democratic city and the more traditional oikos.
This attitude to civic involvement influences, then, the attitude to chi
particular the attitude to the moment of transition from childhood to adultho
important moment of this transition is almost certainly the dokimasia in which
recognized by the deme as a citizen and fit to be enrolled (Eyypd&qEoat) as a c
phrases like 8OKIp& 3EcOat EiS &v8pS, or &vSpa ytyVEOatI, or 0&v6pa ETvat 8 O
E?EAGEIv EK TraiScov, or aTraAia'r'TTEcrOati K TraiScov emphasize that this is not just a question of
citizenship but also of being an &vip--or rather the notion of being a -rrotirrls or 875p6-rw s
implies becoming an &vTvp and stopping being a ralTs. To stop being a TraTs and start being an
xvilp in fifth-century Athens means a radical change in role and responsibility, in that the
immediate requirements and obligations of a citizen in a direct democracy devolve on a person

when he changes eK Trai8cov and becomes an &v1lp. It is the status of ephebe that provides the
notional and ritual separation between the two classes.

39 Loraux L'invention 22-3 41 Loraux (n. 38) 28.

40 Conveniently listed in Bradeen (n. 23) 147, with 42 See e.g. W. K. Lacey, The family in classical Greece
references. There are also xenoi mentioned on some lists. (London 1968); G. Glotz, La solidarit? de lafamille dans le
droit criminal en Grkce (Paris 1904).
For the evidence,
discussion see Loraux see Bradeen33-5,
L'invention (n. 23)
who149--5I;
concludesfor 43 S. Humphreys, The family, women, and death
(35); 'pour les astoi comme pour les 6trangers les regles (London 1983), especially 1-32; M. I. Finley, Economy
d'inscription ont probablement vari6 au cours de and society in ancient Greece (London 1981) 77-94; see
l'histoire ath6nienne: oscillant entre l'exclusivisme et also Dover (n. 32) 301-6.
l'ouverture, entre une conception large et une concep- 44 A good example of this shift in vocabulary is to be
tion 6troite du statut d'Ath6nien.' found in Plato's Crito, especially 5oc3 ff.

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
68 S. GOLDHILL

In the light of this necess

century democratic Athens
opening of the tragic fes
investigate how it relates to
clearly a moment in which
who have died fighting for t
as men. The city has educate
provided the armour in wh
are paraded and the ties an
boys at the point of becomin
markedly in a military sen
their state education and u
pointing out that the city
involvement of the city in
often thought of as a comm
family's interests here ena
occasion, is chosen for the
endows it with considerab
a man, what it means to b
claim on the citizen as man
What I hope to have show
dramatic festival are all de
generals, the display of tri
educated boys, now men, in
an individual to the polis. Th
civic occasion, a city festiv
the plays themselves. The
belief. This is fundamental
After such preplay cerem
scarcely seem-at first sigh
examples of state occasion
both tragedy and comedy
myth and language, time af
ceremonials in a far from
examine and often subvert
Before I turn to justify t
clear certain things I am n
questions the city. First, I do
of civilization. To be &rr
expressions that the city is
essentially polls based, are
fourth centuries.45 Second
civilization of the polls. N
eulogistic writing-and the
critics-but also recent rese
a sense of the differences in
the tragic texts-a system

45 See the remarks

nearlyof
allFinley
of (n
them
'Not all Athenians
mightheld
say the
as sa
axiom
Greeks were Athenians,
in a polis.' but the

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE GREAT DIONYSIA AND CIVIC IDEOLOGY 69

opposition particularly to the negative aspects of the tragic city of Thebes.

the tragic narratives are most often set in cities other than Athens in times ot
Third, I am not seeking to make any contribution on the always vexed q
specific allusions to contemporary political debates in the tragic dra
questioning a dominant political ideology, I do not mean to imply a topic
Oresteia was written to comment on the zeugite admission to the archonsh
want it thought that I am claiming to explicate the way all audience mem
times to the tragedies and comedies of the Great Dionysia. We cannot ex
Athenian audience would react to any tragedy, and, more importantly, it i
idea to suppose that an audience of a drama has only a uniform, homogene
or response, or that such a supposed collective response (however determin
proper object of criticism. I am not suggesting that every member of an audien
deeply perplexed and reflecting on the nature of civic ideology-but the pi
uniformly and solely interested in 'pleasure', 'entertainment', is equally
describe here is a tension between the festival of drama as a civic institutio
texts of that institution. How different Athenians reconciled or conceived
not known.
With these provisos, I want now to investigate the sense of this tension between the texts of
tragedy and the ideology of the city-which I shall approach first through a general example
and second through two more specific cases.
In the last twenty-five years much excellent work has been done on the nature of the
Sophoclean hero. Knox's well-known description of this Sophoclean type has been taken up by
Winnington-Ingram, who has carefully attempted to see how a figure like Ajax extends and
perverts a Homeric model.48 Now it is not difficult to see that the Sophoclean hero, with fierce
demands for his or her individualism, his or her commitment to his or her own needs and
demands in the face of society or social pressure, is scarcely a figure who would sit easily in
democratic ideology, and it is indeed relevant that figures like Ajax and Antigone are set in
conflict with figures who use standard arguments with a contemporary ideological slant.
Antigone is faced by a man who attempts-at least, at one level-to enforce the notion of the
city having supreme claim on an individual's allegiance. Ajax, or rather the dead body of Ajax, is
faced by trite arguments of Menelaus and Agamemnon who require cooTppovETv as a political
virtue in the form of obedience to the rulers of the state. It is also significant that both Creon and
the Atreids descend to lower forms of argument and appeal under the pressure of their
opposition's disobedience. The point is this: at one level, it might be neat and convenient to think
of the Sophoclean depiction of heroes like Antigone or Ajax as moral tales that demonstrate the
dangers of individualism. After all, both Ajax and Antigone die in less than glorious ways, and
the actions of both lead to social upheaval and the disastrous violence of tragedy. This would
imply that the tragedies offer a sort of reversal, common in the 'sacred time'49 of festivals: as, for
example, men about to become warriors may be dressed as women; and ephebes are often
described as reversing the values of the hoplite rank they are to join.s0 But it is clearly not as
simple as that. The problem of evaluating Ajax, particularly in comparison with the men who

46 P. Vidal-Naquet, 'Oedipe entre deux cites', in Oresteia (Cambridge 1984) ch. 3.

Mythe et tragedie deux (Paris 1986); F. Zeitlin 'Thebes: 48 B. M. W. Knox, The heroic temper (Berkeley 1964)
theater of self and society in Athenian drama' in J. P. passim; R. I. Winnington-Ingram, Sophocles: an interpre-
Euben (ed.), Greek tragedy and political theory (Berkeley tation (Cambridge 1980) i i ff, and especially, 304 ff.
1986 Io2), who suggests that 'We look at Thebes as a And on Ajax specifically, see now P. E. Easterling, 'The
topos in both senses of the word: as a designated place, a tragic Homer', BICS xxxi (1984) I-8.
geographical locale, and figuratively, as a recurrent 49 A common notion in anthropology developed
concept or formula, or what we call a "commonpla- from van Gennep (n. 30). See e.g. E. R. Leach, 'On time
ce" . . . This ... can also illuminate the ideological uses and false noses' in Rethinking anthropology (London
of the theater in Athens as it portrays a city on stage 1966).
which is meant to be dramatically "other" than itself'. 50 See e.g. Vidal-Naquet (n. 2); Jeanmaire (n. 30);
47 See S. Goldhill, Language, sexuality, narrative: the Brelich (n. 30); Calame (n. 30).

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 70 S. GOLDHILL

follow him, and the difficulty of

the most polarized and aggressive
himself was actively involved in
growing importance in the fifth
qualities as a warrior and in his b
negative exemplum of Ajax is t
Sophocles' tragedy that Ajax shou
society. The hero does not simply
problematizes such integration.
But this problematizing of the e
tragic festival itself. For after th
man as warrior in civic terms, and
a tragedy like Ajax depicts a man
achieves his greatness, his superh
manner which goes against all th
going-too-far leads him to a sort
away in disgust from a degenerat
tensions and paradoxes, his plays ar
In particular, it is the way that
forcibly represented in the prep
radical and questioning than th
Sophoclean hero is the paradoxica
particularly because of the interplay
the way in which the hero can
problematic both the hero's statu
This difficult status of the Soph
a key passage of Sophocles' Ajax w
(545-82). In this speech which ech
their son at the Scaean gates, Ajax t
follow, and how he should use his f

blood he will not fear the sight of the slaughtered sheep: -rappioaE ycp o0, vEoocpayifi rou v 6vSE
TrpoaEaacov p6vov, EiTrEp 81KaiCO o-Sr' clg Tr -rra-rp6oEv (545-7). It is necessary that
Eurysaces learns to form his nature in the wild, savage, ways of his father: &XA' CaoTIK cAio01
ar-rbv Av v6poit Tra-rpbs 6S Trco6aOlapviv K&6opoioi00aoa qiclaiv (548-9). Indeed, the child

should use his father as a model in everything but his fortune: cB Tral, yivolo Tnrarpbo
Ei-rvXEaTrEpoS, T&r 6' &AA' 6poiS0 (55o-I). When his time comes, the child will have to show his
birth and breeding (556 if). Ajax further claims 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.

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE GREAT DIONYSIA AND CIVIC IDEOLOGY 71
genesis. And the difference between Ajax's attitudes and the fifth-centur
hardly be better expressed than the juxtaposition of Ajax's admonitions to h
of military and social behaviour, Ajax's heroic extremism, and that prepla
orphans, state-educated and armed, professing their allegiance to the poli
proper place in the hoplite rank. The inheritance Ajax hopes to leave and
significant tension with the fifth-century city's representation of his actio
Such a juxtaposition is not, of course, a dramatic juxtaposition in the n
grammar of theatrical practice: it is a juxtaposition of values that would be
ceremonial preceding the drama. But the specific events in the theatre whi
the festival as a polis occasion bring into sharp and vivid highlight the cont
values against which Ajax's depiction and indeed the whole tragedy resound
with his child, juxtaposed to the preplay ceremony of the orphans in
significantly alters the way we look both at Sophocles' tragedy and at the n
offering advice and a r61e model to a child. The context for understanding this
its instantiation in a performance in the theatre, beyond its interrelations with
cannot be fully appreciated or understood without realizing the complex int
with the ideology of the fifth-century polis of Athens.
A similar analysis could be applied to several Sophoclean heroes,53 but I
briefly here another example which further demonstrates the range and com
between the tragic texts and the civic ideology of the preplay ceremonial
question of the integration of the hero into society is certainly raised, indeed it
play-in which Sophocles has made Lemnos deserted,54 Philoctetes bereft of
and Odysseus' plan a temptation for Philoctetes precisely to return to the ci
have concentrated extensively on Philoctetes as a hero, on the tension bet
wilderness in the play, and on the complex plotting which revolves aroun
and his bow to Troy.55 But for my present purposes, it is on the figure of
wish to focus. For Neoptolemos is the orphaned son of a great military hero
in war.56 He is also at the point of committing himself to the Trojan exped
about to take his place in the male military group. Moreover, from the beg
Neoptolemos' attitudes and behaviour are being put to the test (5o-1):
'AXAicas rraT, 6ET o' ' oTS iuOaveac
yEvvaiov ETval, phi p6vov Trco acrpccri...

In the dialogue which follows Odysseus' instructions, Neoptolemos ques

can adopt a policy of deceit and be 'noble'.57 He would prefer, he claims, to

way than to succeed by wrong doing (po\'hopai 8', &va?, KahcOS/8p'0V ap'ap-ravEiv p&AXov ?i
VIKKV KaKGOS (95). Surely, he asks (ios), it is disgraceful (aioXp6v) to lie? Even when the young
man accepts Odysseus' instructions, it is with a recognition that he is about to compromise his
values (120):

iTrco 1Tol1l?o, Trcaarv aixxivnlv &qEis.

When Philoctetes realizes that Neoptolemos has deceived him--at the same time as

Neoptolemos hesitatingly confesses his part in the deception (895 -f)-both Philoctetes and
53 I have discussed in particular O. T. and Antigone studies have appeared, Winnington-Ingram (n. 48) and
in such terms in Goldhill (n. 3) chh. 4, 6, 8. C. P. Segal, Tragedy and civilization: an interpretation of
54 The scholia suggest it is only part of the island that Sophocles (Cambridge, Mass. 1981).
is deserted-presumably to reconcile Sophocles' de- 56 Emphasized often-e.g. 336 &AA'' ESyevT'S pliv 6
scription with Homeric and indeed contemporary KTr&VCov r T Xc O6Bcavv. See P. W. Rose, HSCP lxxx
Lemnos. Both Aeschylus and Euripides in their plays on (1976) 5o--o5, especially 97 n. 97.
Philoctetes seem to have used choruses of Lemnians. 57 On the changing senses of yEvvcxio in this play,
ss For a good critical survey, see P. E. Easterling ICS see H. C. Avery, Hermes xciii (1965) 289.
iii (1978) 27-39. Since that article, two important

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 72 S. GOLDHILL

Neoptolemos himself refer to h

militating against the deceit.
returning the bow with an app

a&X' o o oT6v TrE" TCAv y&

-r6 T' EV1K6V VE Kal T"r OO

What is right (iv81Kov) and wh

those in command (which is bo
whose instructions he is still fo
expressed requirement, of cours
more hierarchical society. This
by Odysseus, is put at stake fir
question olpot -ri pd&aco (968),
claimed to be willing to fail (al
rejects his deception precisely a
1248-9); as he had previously fe
now he claims his actions have
aloxpos y&p aory a KOp 6i

At the moment of handing ov

what he had previously called h
(I293-4):58
iyc 8' S&rrTavG y', cs Oeoi orvvioTropES,
01TErp r' 'A'rpElI6Sv ToO -rE arplTravTroS TrrpaTrov.

It is precisely his obligations to the Atreids, to the army at Troy, and indeed even to divine
oracles on his part in the fall of Troy which Neoptolemos is rejecting in favour of a different set
of values. Indeed, the young man is essentially prepared to desert from the army59 and return
home with Philoctetes (despite some misgivings, 1403-4). His new found relation with the hero
seems to outweigh what had before seemed to be his duty. Neoptolemos is turning his back on
his part in the Trojan war as he prepares to leave the stage at 1407. 'Neoptolemus
cannot ... both maintain his standard of honour and win martial glory'.60
The appearance of the deus ex machina (or perhaps rather the heros ex machina), who redirects
Philoctetes and Neoptolemos back towards Troy, has given rise to one of the most controversial
debates in Sophoclean criticism. Herakles certainly resolves the tension between Neoptolemos'
decision and the standard version of the fall of Troy. It is certainly a coup de 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' adherence to a sense of honour and pity and his observation of the duties of his
relation ofphilia with Philoctetes are to be rejected or transcended? If this is the gods reordering
the passage of events, how does it relate to the human values implicated in the drama? Is
Sophocles in a Euripidean manner cynically showing how his characters must sacrifice their true
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? Perhaps one can conclude only that in the tension between the 'first' and
'second' ending one can specify the constituent factors in the critical problem without necessarily

58 Compare 974 where Odysseus enters to echo well as, say, Agamemnon's different plight in Aeschy-
Neoptolemos' question Tri 8pcapE, &v8pes; with c lus' Oresteia, where he asks rc ~os Atr6vavs yhwcopca/
K5 TI-r" &vp fv, Ti" EpBp; guppaxiaxs laprcbv; Ag. 212-3.
59 The threat of desertion recalls his father at Troy, as 60 Winnington-Ingram (n. 48) 298.

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE GREAT DIONYSIA AND CIVIC IDEOLOGY 73

ever being sure of its resolution?61 As Winnington-Ingram conclude

interpreters will ever agree about the precise tone of the play's close.'62
But what of Neoptolemos in this ? The play has raised questions about
general sense),63 about how he should act in a specific difficult situation. B
in tension, on the one hand, the possibility of his simply taking part in t
simply obeying his leaders, simply adopting the course that will lead to mi
the other hand, his conception of what is right, what is noble, what is the cor
It is the tension between these aspects that leads to the archetypical tra
8pd'co. Vidal-Naquet has described Neoptolemos' decision as a rejectio
values in favour of the values of the household: 'He chooses the values of th
the city.'64 This decision, followed by its eventual reversal in favour of the ex
to be seen, argues Vidal-Naquet, as part of Neoptolemos' transition from th
the status of hoplite. While it is clear that the material Vidal-Naquet
conceptualization of the ephebe is extremely important and provides an
ideas against which to view this play in particular, it seems difficult to
conforming absolutely and completely to the pattern of initiation Vidal
delineated. The values with which Neoptolemos is concerned are not mer
family-one must also consider conflicting aspects of heroic duty with reg
changing attitudes-and, as other critics have pointed out, the imagery of
in the play does not conform simply to the clear pattern Vidal-Naquet req
importantly, the use of the anthropological model can be thought to lead t
of the uncertainty of the double ending of the play, particularly with re
This uncertainty can be clearly seen in the light of the preplay ceremoni
parade of orphans proclaims the city's education and support of the boys,
support of the city as hoplites and citizens. The requirement of commitm
ethos of a fifth-century democratic military ideology is firmly establis
involvement in such an ethos is unquestioningly asserted in the ritu
involvement in the Philoctetes dramatizes a conflict between moral and
commitment to the collective need of the Trojan expedition. Neoptolemos
of refusing his military role in order to maintain his notions of what i
uncertainty and awareness of a conflict in his system of beliefs contrast strik
ritual's assuredness. In the ephebic oath, the young Athenian promised to
wherever in the line he was stationed;66 Neoptolemos shows that it is not
might involve. One cannot see Neoptolemos, then, as offering either
positive exemplum in his nobility, or a straightforwardly negative exempl
to desert the army and his role in the fall of Troy. Herakles' commands to Phi
of the drama may be thought to reconcile the development of Soph
expectations of myth but do not resolve the tension that led to Neoptolem
as to what he should do. Both the basis and the evalution of Neoptole
problematic (even if the deus ex machina removes the need for Neoptolem
the implications of his choice). The text of Philoctetes seems to question, then,
direct assertion of ideology that the preplay ceremonials seem to proclai

61 Each of these positions has been adopted. For a

64 Vernant and Vidal-Naquet (n. i) I85--6. See also
survey see Easterling (n. 55). Vidal-Naquet (n. 2) 125-207.
62 Winnington-Ingram (n. 48) 301. C. Gill,
65 See G&R
Segal (n. 55) 292-361; Winnington-Ingram
xxvii (1980) 137-45 and K. Mathiessen, (n.
Wurz.
48) 301 Jahr. vii (1979) io-ii; Easterling (n.
and BICS xxvi
(198i) 11-26, both have interesting comments
55) 36-9; andparticu-
the highly polemical V. di Benedetto,
larly on the sense of reintegration of Philoctetes
Belfagor xxxiiias hero
(1978) 191-207.
and man, but both underestimate the problematic
66 oi,8 Ae)CO TOV lTcaparTaTcV 6rTov V crv roxiyoo.
nature of Neoptolemos' dilemma for the
On ending ofephebeia
the date of the the and the ephebic oath, see
play. below 74-75.
63 See Rose (n. 56) passim.

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
74 S. GOLDHILL

relation between the ritual of t

exemplum, a reversal of the norm
possible conflict in the syste
Neoptolemos does not merely repr
but raises questions about it.
I have focused here on two plays
discussed earlier. There are, of
could be investigated. For as mu
belief, so numerous other scen
appreciated only in terms of th
the preplay ceremonials). Again
Hegel onwards, tragedy dramat
emphasized, for example, in
hierarchical order of family an
tension and conflict between m
familial roles. Again and again,
investigates and undercuts the
aco&ppovEiv, coqT6s, 1iKrl, Kpa
usage.68 Again and again, traged
man reaching beyond the bound
aggression, impasse. In part, it
duties and obligations in the civ
plays produced in the festival t
Rather than simply reflecting
than offering simple didactic m
deliberately to problematize, to m
And it is precisely this unsettling
the necessarily simple, clear an
insufficient. Indeed, it would s
accept the simple, clear and straig
dramas of Athens.
This discussion of the nature
theatre could certainly be exten
article by looking briefly at the
Philoctetes. I want here merely to
a great many of our extant play
taking up a role as a man in s
immediately spring to mind. Vi
the connections between thos
particularly the significance of
ritual reversal in the ephebeia t
One of the most common critic
institution of the ephebeia in the

67 A vast
bibliography
'Language';couldon be giv
Eurip
Septem, Zeitlin
(n. 3); on Antigone,
discussion see
and biblio
206; V. Rosivach, 69 ICS iv moment'
'Tragic (I979) 16
Arethusa v (1972)and Vidal-Naquet
93-1oo; on the Oedip (n
Segal (n. 55) 207-48.
70 Vidal-Naquet (n.
68 A vast bibliography
(1978) could beC.
149-84; given
Seg
Vernant and Vidal-Naquet (n. i) 1
Bacchae (Princeton c
Aeschylus, see47) Goldhill
193-5. (n. 47); Z
Sophocles, see Segal (n. 55) 52-9, and

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE GREAT DIONYSIA AND CIVIC IDEOLOGY 75

ephebes goes back into the fifth century.71 It may be worth pointing out that
oath at an early stage, the treatment of the orphan ephebes in the theatre in t
the key role played by ephebes in the tragic festival at a later date, may
connection between tragedy and males at the age of manhood (in te
definition of a social role), even if there is no formal institution of the ephebeia
century tragedy-a fact in itself neither finally proven or disproven yet
revive Mathieu's thesis that the ceremony of the orphans at the Great Dio
institutional origin of the ephebeia,73 but I do stress the connection between t
and a questioning medium and the affirmation of the duties and obligat
Mathieu comments, the ephebic oath is a civic oath, concerned fundament
and upholding the tenets of 8TrlPoKpa-ria74-and, as Reinmuth comments
later date: 'Every opportunity was taken to foster their [the ephebes'] civ
other words, any suggested relations between the institution of tragedy and th
ephebeia itself must be too delimited a tool to outline the complex relation
attitude to past and present values, and the transgressions enacted on stage, bu
keep in mind the connections between times of transition, particularly tra
and the educative role of poetry, and the complex, often paradoxical exa
staging of myth in the tragic festival.76 Thejuxtaposition of the young men af
duties and affiliations in the theatre and the young Orestes, forced to lie
mother, and yet to be vindicated, seems to me to be of some importance t
the Athenians conceptualizing the move from childhood to adulthood and
exempla of myth.
To conclude: I outlined first some moments of ceremonial from the d
festival. These I showed were indicative of the festival's production in the
particular, these ceremonials were concerned with the relations of an indiv
ties and obligations, and how these were expressed in terms of military
recognition of the man's duty as soldier in the city, which affects the view of
place in society. But the tragedies and comedies which follow-both trage
be described as 'genres of transgression'-constitute in some important se
the terms of that civic discourse. Tragedy again and again is concer
obligations of household and state. Tragedy again and again focuses o
behaviour in society puts society at risk. Tragedy again and again tak
normative and evaluative vocabulary of the civic discourse, and depicts con
in their meanings and use.
How does this relate to Dionysus, the god in whose name the festi
Athenians had an expression 'Nothing to do with Dionysus'. Were they rig
City Dionysia? Dionysus is the divine figure of the ancient world most st

71 See P. Siewart,JHS lxxxxvii (I977)armour).

102-I I; H. Y.
McCulloch and H. D. Cameron, ICS v (1980)74 Mathieu (n. 73) 3I3. Wilamowitz, who admit-
1-I4.
72 See O. Reinmuth, The Ephebic inscriptions
tedly did notof the
have the inscriptional evidence now
fourth century BC (Leiden 1971); P6l"kedis (n. 14),importantly mistaken particu-
available , is nonetheless
especially 7-17. larly when he argues that the ephebeia could not be a
73 G. Mathieu, 'Remarques sur l'ephebie attique' in fifth-century phenomenon because of its 'anti-democra-
Milanges Desrousseux (Paris 1937) 3 11-18. Mathieu had tic' nature (Aristoteles und Athen i [Berlin 18931 191,
been anticipated by A. A. Bryant, HSCP xviii (1907) 87 193-4). Wilamowitz is criticized by Pel1kedis (n. 14)
and n. 4. It is important that this ceremonial constitutes 8-14.
for the orphans the conclusion of ephebic status, as they 75 0. Reinmuth, The foreigners in the Athenian
now take their place in the hoplite rank. Their Ephebeia (Nebraska 1929) 6.
assumption of full armour, therefore, is a significant 76 For an attempt to show how closely linked
gesture in marking this conclusion, since the ephebe is tragedy and ephebes may be, see nowJ.J. Winkler, 'The
conceived of as lightly armed specifically in contrast ephebes' song: tragdida and polis', Representations xi
with the panoply of the hoplite. In the theatre, they (1985) 26-62.
appear as cv8pes iTr"oATral for the first time (in full

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 76 S. GOLDHILL

age.77 Henrichs in his recent sobe

main areas of influence for the
theatre, a happy afterlife.'" Bu
wine and vitality' [205] becomes
finally writes 'Virtually every
concede that a balanced and unifie
to achieve but is essentially inco
manifestations ... Dionysus defie
perhaps the most profitable way
god of paradox' (234). This view
jonctions d'oppos6s repetent
contradictoire du dieu mortel';
writes that 'Dionysus operates as t
at length to describe 'the multip
particular. Along with the illusi
the release of maenadic ecstasy o
sense of paradox and reversal
ceremonials and the plays in the C
enacted in the tragic festival t
The special circumstances of th
with its obscenity and lampoons
collapsing. The two faces of Dio
tragedy and comedy differently
transition from tragedy to comed
with illusion and change, parado
of civic rhetoric we have seen i
political rhetoric, the Great Dio
Dionysiac transgression, from
tragedy, through ironic and sub
The drama festival, plays and ce
great dramatic literature but al
developing language and struc
dangerous Dionysus.
Tragedy must be understood, t
and the silence of critics on the
consider both the extended cont
reading this literature of transgre
have little to do with our expect
But in the interplay of norm and
and depicts the stresses and tens
an essentially Dionysiac event.8
SIMON GOLDHILL
King's College, Cambridge

77 For an interesting survey and bibliography, see A.82 A draft of this paper was first written for a seminar
Henrichs, HSCP lxxxviii (1984) 205-40. at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Thanks are due for
78 Henrichs (n. 77). See also J. N. Bremmer, ZPEthe
Iv invitation, and to all who offered generous and
(1984) 267-86; A. Henrichs, HSCPlxxxii (1978) 14-65;
helpful comments, especially E. Bowie, A. Bowie, C.
and most recently M. Daraki, Dionysos (Paris 1985).Sourvinou-Inwood, and 0. Taplin. Thanks, too, to J.
79 Daraki (n. 78) 28; 232. Henderson and R. Osborne with whom I discussed and
80 Segal (n. 70) 234. improved this paper, to Mrs P. E. Easterling, and to the
81 Segal (n. 70) 266. editor and readers of HS for comments.

This content downloaded from

76.64.165.149 on Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:02:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms