In brief, this project deals with the political and social issues Athenian drama raised and how playwrights dealt with those issues in a way that was ‘safe’ for the audience but at the same time challenged them and resonated with their anxieties and doubts about war and other issues confronting them in the later 5th century. You’ll compose an audience member’s reaction to either Euripides’ Hekabe (performed in 427 BCE) or Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (411 BCE). 4-5 pages.
Read one of the two plays (Hekabe or Lysistrata, posted under ‘course materials’>’supplemental readings’>
What perspectives on these issues does the playwright take that were impermissible in a political forum? Remember that there wasn’t room for anti-war sentiment in the assembly, for example, so how do Euripides and Aristophanes bring it up in drama? (Same goes for sympathy for slaves, admitting that women weren’t weak and submissive all the time, and so on.) Why do you think Athenians were willing to watch and enjoy such apparent heresy in the theater but not in the assembly? Crucially, why were these plays popular even though they directly contradicted Athenian orthodoxy? If you want more guidance, refer to the study questions also included in the ‘peloponnesian war’ folder
Links:
watchman’s prologue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-XEcvDjcDo
first choral ode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dALZh4IVyK4
Clytemnestra’s entrance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fri__P6hYHQ
Agamemnon’s entrance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSgwN8QuauI
take an oath https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfkmY3ZDJoo
chorus of men https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFTtYrcqw9w
peace conference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc1WT8evhcs