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French Scenes in Greek Tragedy: The Scenic Structure of Classical Drama
Author(s): Mark Damen
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Theatre Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, Ancient Theatre (Mar., 2003), pp. 113-134
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25069183 .
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French                            Scenes    in Greek Tragedy:
        The Scenic                           Structure    of Classical Drama

                                                             Mark     Damen



    In 19881 played Dionysus    in a production of Euripides' Bacchae. Though I had acted
many     times before?even   that very role?the   director of the play did something  that
 took me by surprise, not because I lacked prior experience with it but because I had
never thought about it in terms of ancient drama. For practical purposes she broke the
play down into "French scenes," sequentially numbered           sections of the script demar
cated by the movement       of characters on and off the stage, a system often used today in
facilitating the organization    of rehearsals and technical matters. Though well aware of
 this practice, it had never occurred tome to think about its application to Greek tragedy.

  As a basic tool in preparing a play for performance,      this means of analyzing a play's
scenic structure led me to wonder    if the classical tragedians had not done something
similar themselves   since they surely oversaw       the rehearsal process at least to some
extent. Obviously,    as playwrights    they could construct and organize         characters'
entrances   and exits, so it seems likely they could also have articulated      the same to
 themselves and others. That inevitable self-consciousness   in the disposition    of scenes
in tragedy led  me to wonder whether      ancient dramatists  intentionally manipulated
 the frequency with which their characters moved on and off stage and, if so, how and
why. The following article is the result of that inquiry.

                                      I. Introduction:            The Question          of Scenes

   Over  the course of the fifth century there is a manifest  evolution  in Athenian
 tragedy toward a style of dramatic action featuring more complex character move
ment imbedded within more intricate plots.1 Even in spite of the paucity of tragedies



Mark        Damen        is an Associate            at Utah   State University       where he teaches Classics,     ancient
                                       Professor
 history,      theatre       and playxvriting.
                         history                  He has published       articles   in Transactions      of the American

Philological    Association,       Phoenix,     Antichthon,      Classical    World      ana Theatre              Recently
                                                                                                         Journal.
his translation       Hrotswitha's     Dulcitius      and Callimachus         was                 in The Journal   of The
                   of                                                               published
             Mountain           Medieval      and       Renaissance     Association,      with   a             in   the forthcoming
Rocky                                                                                                reprint
Women Writing                   in Latin.



   An       earlier   version      of this paper    was                at the American                 Association.          Iwish       to
                                                           presented                      Philological
 thank       those    who       commented      there,     Sherry Keller,   David   Rom?n,     Sun Hee   Teresa      Lee,     and      the
anonymous             reviewers     of this article     for their help and insight. Their efforts have                       the piece
                                                                                                           improved
 immeasurably.
   1
                                       scene
     Inmodern          scholarship,            length as measured     by entrances  and exits has not been             addressed        as
 such, but       the disposition    of entrances    and exits in Greek   tragedy, and stagecraft  in general,          has   received



                  TheatreJournal55 (2003) 113-134 ? 2003 by The JohnsHopkins University Press
114          /      Mark Damen


preserved,   this trend is evident. So, for instance, when compared to the relatively staid
sequence   of exits and entrances called for in Aeschylus'     Persians (472 BCE), Euripides'
Bacchae (406 BCE) evidences well the dynamism         characteristic of classical tragedy in its
final stages, a quality achieved not only through radical treatment of characters and
the addition of plot elements but also by the disposition          of the action into a greater
number of what would         be termed today "French scenes."2 Aristotle          in The Poetics
seems to have been aware of this: "And further [there was in later classical tragedy] a
plurality          of episodes."3

   Nor               to imagine reasons why fifth-century
                 is it hard                                      tragedy evolved this way. The
division   of tragic plots into a higher number of discrete units in the stage action leaves
behind an impression that the play's action ismoving             faster, that more is happening.
This effect is likely to have pleased audiences demanding              ever more from theatre in
general    and growing better accustomed          to following    increasingly    complicated    dra
matic constructs, as surely the celebrants at the City Dionysia had become by the end
of the classical age. And in the same way that late- and post-classical              Greek theatre
witnessed     advances     in stage machinery      (e.g.  the mechane, the keraunoskopeion, the
 bronteion), Sophocles      and Euripides     exhibit a capacity       to utilize more     elaborate
 character movement       in the unfolding of more complex stage action, while at the same



much        attention,              back     at least a century,        cf. E. Bodensteiner,     "Szenische               ?ber   den Ort      des
                            going                                                                              Fragen
Auftretens         und                       von                         und Chor      im griechischen      Drama,"     Jahrb. f?r      cl. Phil.,
                            Abgehens               Schauspielern
           19 (Leipzig   1893): 637-808.             among    the works    on which      this study                rests is Oliver
Suppl.                                     Primary                                                                                      Taplin,
The Stagecraft     of Aeschylus:   The Dramatic    Use of Exits and Entrances         in Greek Tragedy       (Oxford:                   Oxford

University     Press,   1977). The significance    of his book    to this investigation      is self-evident    from
                                                                                                                  the title,

though Taplin's     exploration    of "the handling     of exits and entrances"       (1) and "the relation     of text to
action and of action to dramatic meaning"           (3) does not coincide with my         focus here. Likewise,     David
Seale, Vision and Stagecraft    in Sophocles (London: Croom Helm,          1982) and Michael    R. Halleran,    Stagecraft
 in Euripides (Totowa: Barnes & Noble,       1985) have informed much         of my assessment      of stage movement
in Sophocles    and Euripides.    My central aim, however,       is different    from Seale's who     seeks to explicate
"the intricacy    of [Sophocles']                  (12), and Halleran's     intention  of elucidating     a "grammar        of
                                     stagecraft"
dramatic    technique"     (1). Joe Park Poe, "The Determination          of Episodes    in Greek Tragedy,"       AJP 114
                                      a solid foundation
 (1993): 343-96,    has provided                             for assessing     stage movement        in classical   theatre,
          as with    the others, his work     does not bear directly     on the central premise      of this study.    Iwill
though,
                             to these works                         name alone. Other works      have also contributed     to this
henceforth          refer                      by the author's
 study,   in particular,         T. B. L. Webster,     Greek Theatre Production     (London: Methuen,       1956), Walter    Jens,
ed., Die Bauformen              der griechischen                  (Munich: Wilhelm    Fink,   1971), David    Bain, Actors    and
                                                     Trag?die
Audiences      (Oxford:         Oxford    University      Press,    1977), and Arthur    Pickard-Cambridge,        The Dramatic
Festivals                     2nd ed., ed. John P. Gould         and D. M. Lewis   (Oxford: Oxford University       Press, 1988).
               of Athens,
    2                                                                                                                                       in the
     The      term "French          scene"    derives    from      classical   French   theatre where    the ostensible     divisions
 structure          of plays  rests on the entrances    and exits of speaking     characters.    In employing    the term
 "scene"         I do not mean     to invoke any of the critical terminology discussed    or introduced    by Poe in "The
Determination,"          e.g. "unit of action"       (349), nor even to tie my argument            to his, since his and others'
                                                                                                            on issues such as the
 investigations       of the "formal     structure"      (348) of classical     tragedy have centered
 internal structure       and organizing      principles      of scenes    in tragedy,  aspects  of dramatic      construction      I do
not address        in this study; cf. Walther      Kranz,      Stasimon    (Berlin: Weidmann,      1933). In this study, "scene"
                                                                             or exit of any major                                      or
connotes        "a dramatic       unit defined      by the entrance                                       speaking      character
characters."
    3                                                              on the same, D. W. Lucas,        in Aristotle   Poetics
      eti de epeisodion plethe (1449a28). Remarking                                                                           (Oxford:
Oxford University           Press, 1968), 86, notes       that "a longer play would       use more     incidents."    There he cites
also     the "general        sense of augmentation"             in plethe. Elsewhere      in The Poetics      (1459b30),    Aristotle
                  the tragedian's      need    to avoid monotony             in the way                      can "with       countless
 recognizes                                                                                 epic readily
 episodes."
THE SCENIC        OF        DRAMA
                                               STRUCTURE CLASSICAL                                                                   /       115

time keeping   their plots unified and focused. The heightened     dramatic tension that
comes as larger and larger ensembles       of characters move      across the stage and
cumulative   complications  are introduced into the plot contributes   to a more compel
 ling theatre experience                 for viewers          interested          in pyrotechnics           of that sort.

                                                   are not hard to suppose either. Besides
   The mechanisms      enabling this evolution
audiences who provided       the tragedians after Aeschylus with an environment     condu
cive to a less static mode of drama, it is clear that later classical playwrights  had the
benefit of building    on their predecessors'     work. So, for instance, with Aeschylus'
Oresteia as guide, Euripides was able to telescope many of the plot elements spread
over an entire trilogy composed        fifty years earlier into only one play, Orestes, by
moving     the stage action along much more rapidly.4 Surely, however,    this capacity for
accelerating the plot   was not the product of the poets' genius alone. They would have
needed players who could feasibly enact dramas of such a sort and whose perfor
mances were of interest to audiences. This was, no doubt, the case, at least to judge
 from the awarding of prizes to actors at the Dionysia     for the first time in the early 440's
and    the later domination     of theatre in the fourth century by star performers          like
Neoptolemos      and Polos.5 It seems likely, then, that the theatregoing public by the later
classical period had already begun showing a heightened          interest in performance    arts
as such, engendering       a fertile climate for versatile players capable of carrying out
 successfully   the rigors entailed in a more action-oriented mode of drama, one highly
demanding          of both physical             and vocal              stamina.

    Thus,     it is possible    to posit within  the larger evolution of fifth-century Athenian
 tragedy      a              sophistication   on the part of playwright,  player, and playgoer
                growing
                  more       and   more                           character       movement         within       a drama        and       result
embracing                                    vigorous

 ing in more dynamic stage activity. None of this is in question. The question       is how
 this evolution    took place. Was it, for instance,   as we are accustomed    to expect, a
gradual sort of development        toward increasing complexity,   or did it follow a less
direct route? In other words,      how much     convolution was there to this evolution?
Likewise,    do the individual    author's works     adhere to the same general scheme,
gravitating    slowly over the course of their careers toward plays with swifter turnover
of scenes as they learn from practice and observing others' work how tomanage           ever
more intricate stage action? If so, when and how did they acquire this skill?

  To answer these questions,   it is necessary  first to find a consistent means by which
tomeasure  the degree of character movement       in Greek tragedy (i.e. how long "scenes"
are or how quickly they change), for only       then can the reasons underlying     this be
explored.  Thus, it is the purpose     of this paper, first, to devise an equitable and
universal method of determining     scene length in Greek tragedy; second, to ascertain in
as much detail as the data permit the nature of the evolution of scene structure over
the course of the classical age; third, to examine the possible reasons underlying      any
detectible patterns of change; and, finally, to investigate the larger ramifications                                                     of the
data collected here in our general appreciation of classical Greek theatre.


    4
     Euripides'    Orestes    includes     several   plot    elements         reminiscent  of Aeschylus'      trilogy: horn. Agamemnon,
a                                                            from       The   Libation-Bearers,     Electra's      lamentation,  Orestes'
   lyrical   Trojan     (Cassandra/Phrygian);
murderous       assault   on an older      female           relative     effected    with                assistance;     from Eumenides,
                                                                                            Pylades'
Orestes'   vision of Clytemnestra's            Furies,      his    last-second       rescue                 and his   trial.
                                                                                              by Apollo
   5
    Pickard-Cambridge,      Dramatic           Festivals,     72,126.
116          /       Mark Damen

       II. A Methodology                      for Assessing          Average         Scene      Length           in Greek         Tragedy
                     from the outset to establish some method
       It is essential                                             of analyzing  the evidence
quantitatively    and uniformly      across the corpus of ancient Greek tragedy. This can
happen only by establishing         firm criteria that can be applied to all the tragedians'
works and used        to measure   the speed at which    the stage action of any such drama
moves.    Therefore,     if we construe a "scene" in the simplest possible      terms as the
interval between      the entrance and the exit of any speaking    character (including
choruses),  it is possible to determine the number of scenes in a play by enumerating
the entrances and exits which distinguish      them, thus creating in modern    terms a
succession            of      "French         scenes."6     From      that may       be    calculated        a                               scene
                                                                                                                 play's     average

length ifwe divide the number of lines in the play by the number of scenes.7 This clear
cut, albeit arbitrary, determiner makes the collecting and processing of data relatively
easy   to execute and will produce a rough indication of the frequency at which        the
scenes of a play turned over in the ancient Greek theatre.

  What    difficulties may arise in the course of assessing    the average scene length of
 specific plays   can be surmounted when strict rules are applied.8 So, for instance, if a
 character enters unannounced,     itmay not be immediately evident at what line number
 to assign the entrance, thus when      the scene begins.9 It is necessary,  then, to devise
methods     for measuring   scene length uniformly;   they are as follows:10



    6                                a vital role in all classical                                                                  an essential
     Because        choruses   play                                 tragedies,   their movements                     constitute

 component          of this study; see Appendix       1 at the end of the article.
    7                           a random
    While         admittedly                and often variable     criterion,  the conventional        disposition       of tragedies
                                                                           over other                means
 into "lines" brings with     it several   important      advantages                     possible                of calculating       the
             a                                    or                            the meters    used in classical drama are far
"length" of play (e.g., counting words                syllables).   Though
from equal     in syllable               their variety       across    and within      Greek                                level   their
                              length,                                                             tragedies      helps
                                                                  tetrameter    were                                              more
differences. Also,    the longer meters        like trochaic                             likely to have been           spoken
quickly, whereas     the shorter ones such as choral lyrics were              sung, thus extenuating           the words       in actual
                All in all, poetic    "meter"    is inmany ways                     a "measurement"          of sorts, and as such
performance.                                                            just that,
constitutes  some indication       of the passage      of time on stage. So, if not a perfect            criterion,     it looks to be
 the best        indicator at hand, certainly     adequate     enough    for giving   a general  impression   of a play's    run
                                                     a succession     of scenes on the ancient
time and how           long it took to perform                                                     stage.
   8
    To succeed,          this study must      build primarily       from an equitable      measurement      of average     scene
            as attested    for particular                This requires     that strict and clear rules govern    the collection
 length                                    tragedies.
 of the necessary    information    in order to ensure a balanced    assessment of all plays under consideration.
 In that case, matters                 the changes  effected in a drama by the entrance     or exit of a character                                   or
                          involving
                        a new                                on            (see M. Pfister,
what       entails                    "configuration"             stage                         The Theory and Analysis                 of Drama
                                                                                                    can follow
 [Cambridge:         Cambridge            University      Press,  1988], 171-76 and 291-94)                    only after             the orderly
                  of data. Even          if that means                what     are                and complex   "scenes"              such   as The
 gathering                                                 equating                clearly  long
 Libation-Bearers            22-585    with    much      less weighty     dramatic    passages       such   as Trachinian    Women        813-21,
 the     rules must          be                                to achieve    credible    results.    Moreover,                tend     to have    a
                                  applied      uniformly                                                            plays
                       of     shorter   and                scenes,   thus                  out the   statistics,    as The Libation-Bearers
 complement                                      longer                     balancing
 demonstrates        well;    it has the single longest     scene           in Aeschylus?indeed           in all of Greek                   it
                                                                                                                              tragedy?but
 is also    his                       drama     in terms of scene change. As                    for those dramas          that have no such
                  fastest-moving
               such as the static Prometheus       or the                         that is the very information   we seek.
balance,                                                    briskly paced Rhesus,
    9
     For     the most     part, slight variations     in line assignments  do not affect the calculation   of the average
 scene              a                                         Entrances      in Greek                                       HSCP        82 (1978):
        length in play. Richard Hamilton,     "Announced                                                      Tragedy,"
 63-82  and Joe Park Poe, "Entrance-Announcements         and Entrance-Speeches                                in Greek    Tragedy,"  HSCP
 94 (1992): 121-56,   review the nature of announced    entrances.    It is, however,                            unannounced     movement
 that poses, in general,              more     problems    for this study.
    10                                                                           scenes              character movement      and the
     A fuller discussion                 of  the enumeration       of specific             through
                             used     in the article for measuring     scene            is contained    in Appendix  2 at the end of
methodologies                                                                  length
 the article.
THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL
                                                                  OF        DRAMA                                                                                      /         117

        1. All      announced   and unannounced    movements    that are necessitated    by the
              plot,   are to be counted, and if it matters   in the enumeration       of scenes,
              characters are assumed    to enter at or about the time they first speak or are
              announced,                  addressed,                     or    said      to be       on
                                                                                                             stage.
        2.    Simultaneous                  movements                          of     characters            on or off                    count          as one         entrance
                                                                                                                               stage
              or     exit,     and                   those           movements                      that    are                  discrete          as     two.
                                          only                                                                     clearly
        3. No movement                           that is not strictly necessitated                                    by the action or the plot                            is to be
              counted.

        4.     In accordance                with           the           three-actor              restriction,       when           there        is a clear       need          for a

              performer  to make   an offstage   change of mask     and costume, we must
              suppose that one of the characters on stage has exited earlier, whether or not
               there     was         an                         announcement                        of     that    character's          movement,                 so     that     the
                                           explicit
              actor who              is to play the new                             role is provided                suitable           time to effect the change
              and       re-enter           as      that     character.11

        5.     In    the     same          vein,          an                            voice         counts         as   an      "entrance"              since        all      such
                                                                    offstage
               intrusions         into the stage action are significant                                                    and involve                  speaking             actors
             whose           disposition must be carefully managed                                                        and designed                  by playwrights
                                     the        three-actor                   restriction.12
               following
        6.    Characters                                                     mute       actors,          however          central        in the                   action,         do
                                       portrayed                    by                                                                                  stage
              not      serve         to demarcate                        a                   of     scene.13
                                                                              change
        7.    Finally,          if a character                        is silent at first but speaks later in the play without
              having           left the stage,                       the entrance is counted from when       the character first
                                     -                .         .
                                      .
              appears.14




    11
     The     swift                    of mask             and        costume           and      the role-sharing             required       of   the actors     performing
                       changes
Rhesus?e.g.,    Odysseus/Alexander           (626/642),   Diomedes/Odysseus             (633/668)?are                                                     further evidence
that it is a post-classical     tragedy, not Euripides';
                                                              see below,    note 27.
   12
     This is justifiable    insofar as offstage    voices   nearly    always    represent    a
                                                                                                sharp  disruption      and new
                  in the stage action, much      as entrances    do. In any case, they do not                    often enough
development                                                                                         happen
 to affect          conclusions                        and, by being applied    across the board,       introduce     no undue
           general                   substantially
bias into the overall      analysis    of scene     length   in different authors.    It is necessary,      then, to treat all
           voices  as discrete    entrances,     even in those instances when       the same character         as the
offstage                                                                                                                offstage
voice    enters                    e.g. Ajax     (Aj. 333/348),    Nurse      (Trach. 862/871),    Medea      (Med. 96/214),
                  subsequently,
Polymestor       (Hec. 1035/1056),   Dionysus      (Ba. 576/604),    Old Man       (IA 855/864).   Adopting      this criterion

actually   facilitates   the compilation      of the data at certain        junctures,    such as the movements          of the
Servant    at LB 657: whether          taken as an onstage         presence     or an
                                                                                         offstage   voice,   this character's
"entrance"     into the play demarcates       a new scene                   to the parameters     of this study; see Taplin,
                                                              according
The Stagecraft,    341. For an overview      of offstage    voices  and their general    use in Greek
                                                                                                        tragedy,    see
Richard Hamilton,       "Cries Within     and the Tragic Skene," AIP 108 (1987): 585-99.
    13
      For example,     "Citizens"   (Seven 35), Antigone/Ismene        (OT 1470), Children    (Med. 1081), Athenian
Herald    (exits at Eur. Supp. 394). The movements          of mute  characters  frequently  coincide with    those of

 speaking   characters,    which    greatly decreases        their impact on this study. When              they do not, the exact
 timing of their exits and entrances           is often difficult    to determine      precisely;    e.g. Hermes      (Eum. 64-93),
Handmaid       (Hec. 484-628),     Athenian      Herald     (Eur. Supp. 381-94). Moreover,            rarely does     their passage
on or off stage betoken         a scenic              as                     to the drama       as when     a              character
                                            change        consequential                                        speaking
enters or exits. All in all, omitting         the movements        of mute     characters     from the enumeration         of scenes

 simplifies matters     without    distorting      the data significantly.
    14
      For example,      Cassandra        (Ag. 783/1072),      Child     (Ale. 244/393),                       (Heraclid. 928/983),
                                                                                             Eurystheus
Adrastus     (Eur. Supp. 1/113), Chorus           (Eur. Supp. 1/42), Menoeceus             (Phoen. 834/977).
118           /   Mark Damen


   By applying      these criteria to the assessment   of scenes in tragedy and comparing
plays    across time, it will be possible    to detect patterns, if any exist, in the overall
disposition    of scenes in Greek tragedy as it unfolds across the fifth century. All in all,
what is really being enumerated here are not episodes or "scenes'' by any conventional
definition,       but the movements            of actors on and off stage through                 their various      roles.15


                                             III. Overview        of   the Data

   First, the evidence validates   the general impression    that Greek                           tragedy evolved
 toward plays comprised      of shorter scenes (Table 1). The average                              scene length of
Aeschylus'   plays is notably higher (95.5) than that of his successors,                           Sophocles   (72.3)
and Euripides          (67.8). While the range for the individual                  plays  of all three playwrights
is quite wide,         a general tendency toward accelerating                      stage action over time clearly
exists.


                                             IV. Aeschylus'        Tragedies

   Contrary to the prevailing   trend, however,   the data for Aeschylus' surviving plays
dispel any  notion that the evolution of average scene length in Greek tragedy toward
a faster turnover of scenes proceeded      in any gradual or even rectilinear fashion, at
least prior to 456 BCE (Table 2). Though it is true that classical tragedy on the whole
gravitated          toward
                     decreasing   average  scene length and that Aeschylus'        fastest
moving play (The Libation-Bearers) falls among his last, at the same time the evidence is
 clear that his drama in general cannot be taken to entail any demonstrable      progress
 toward shorter scenes over time. In particular, when The Oresteia (Agamemnon, The
Libation-Bearers, Eumenides) embodies within    a single trilogy both his play with the
 lowest average scene length (The Libation-Bearers) and that with the second highest



                       Table    1. Overall    Scene              for   the Classical
                                                      Length                            Tragedians16

                                                Averages       Range

                                                                                         95.5     136.9-59.8
Aeschylus
                                                                                           72.3    98.1-54.1
Sophocles
                                                                                           67.8    93.5-58.2
Euripides
 [with Rhesus                                                                              67.0     93.5-52.4]




     15
      Graham        Ley, "A Scenic Plot of Sophocles'    Ajax and Philoctetes,"  ?ranos 86 (1988): 106, notes      the
                   of entrances  and exits in Greek   tragedy: "It is clear that in a form of this kind especially
 significance
                                                    the very creation   of what we understand      as drama   came
 (i.e. Greek      tragic drama), where    perhaps
                 from the manipulation         of the arrivals    and departures    of characters,  there is unlikely    to be
 explicitly
                co-incidental    about     the introduction    or removal    of an actor into or from the presence        of a
 anything
 fixed and partly defining           chorus/7
      16                                                                       as determined                                  is
        The full data for the breakdown               of plays   into scenes                     by entrances    and exits
 contained        in Appendix     3 at the end of the paper.
      17                                                                              scene                         the range
        Since     the authorship     of Rhesus      is debated    and its average            length  falls below
  attested    for Euripides,     I exclude    it from the data here; see below,       note 27.
THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL
                                                             OF        DRAMA                                                  /     119

                                                            Table      2. Aeschylus


                                             Entrances-Exits/                      Position                in
Play                                              Lines                      Average            Trilogy                 Premiere


Prometheus Bound                                     8/1095                   136.9              first (?)             uncertain

  Persians                                          10/1077                   107.7            uncertain                472 BCE

Seven Against                Thebes1*               12/1078                    89.8               467BCE
                                                                                                   third

Suppliants                                          11/1073                    97.5                first            post-467       BCE

Agamemnon19                                         13/1673                   128.7                    458
                                                                                                   first                     BCE

Libation-Bearers                                    18/1076                    59.8                458
                                                                                                 second
                                                                                                     BCE

Eumenides                                           13/1047                    80.5                third458                  BCE

 [Oresteia trilogy                                  44/3796
                                                          86.3]

        TOTAL                                       85/8119                    95.5




 (Agamemnon), it is hardly possible        to credit Aeschylus with anything but masterful
flexibility     in this regard. Moreover,    if Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus' play with   the
highest     attested average scene length, is to be dated among his later works, as some
 scholars assert, the notion of smooth and continuous progress in this regard over the
course of time is hopelessly      undercut.20

   To the contrary, what drove Aeschylus   tomodulate    scene length was evidently not a
growing mastery of this aspect of the art form or a search for the best means possible by
which to enact a complex nexus of scenes. From at least the last decade of his career on,


   18
     Questions     of authenticity    and interpolation      bedevil the end of Seven Against     Thebes; see Taplin, The
Stagecraft,   169-70.   In the play as transmitted,      there are two scenes after 821 (Antigone       and Ismene enter
at some point between         861 and 961; the Herald       enters at 1005). Omitting    the entire passage   along with
these entrances                                scene
                      changes    the average            length of Seven Against     Thebes only somewhat        (82.1) and
does not alter its position    relative              to the other  plays of Aeschylus      (between    Suppliants    and Eumenides).
    19                                                                     on and off stage are
      In Agamemnon,    the movements                 of Clytemnestra                                                                 see
                                                                                                  notoriously     problematical;
J.R. Wilson,   "Unsocial Actors               in Agamemnon,"      Hermes     123 (1995): 398-403,   and Thomas G. Rosenmeyer,
The Art of Aeschylus    (Berkeley:            University     of California   Press, 1982), 70-74. If the minimalism         presumed
 in this study distorts  the reality of Aeschylus7     staging   in which   Clytemnestra     may be supposed         to have
entered     and exited  several more      times    in the course     of the drama,       the advantages      provided      by
 reducing  character movements       to a minimum        in order to assert as much                    as possible    across
                                                                                         uniformity
 the data more   than compensate      for any misconstructions        of what may have actually         transpired    on the
classical        stage.     It is worth              in mind    that this     is not                  a          in the uses to which
                                          bearing                                     fundamentally     study
 the Greek                                                                    an            to assess
                   tragedians        put entrances      and    exits   but        attempt             only    the general    picture   of
character        movement           therein. Thus,
                                             equalizing                the criteria comes at a higher premium           than deliberat

ing the nature   of scene transitions       in specific plays.
   20
     Taplin,  The Stagecraft,    460-69    (Appendix     D), discusses  the notoriously                         question               of
                                                                                             problematical
the authorship     of Prometheus        Bound    as it relates    to the issue of stagecraft,                                            its
                                                                                                      arguing    against
               However,       even if Prometheus       Bound is not by Aeschylus,       it is certainly
authenticity.                                                                                              "Aeschylean"?
after     all,    it bore
                     enough     hallmarks     of his style to warrant               included   among   his works?and,
                                                                            being
whether              or derivative,    itmust    constitute    evidence  of a sort about the typical Aeschylean    mode
                 original
of crafting plays. Since average       scene
                                               length    is a generality of just that type, I have included Prometheus
Bound among       the plays   taken into consideration          here.
120           /     Mark Damen

he                      knew    how      to move   scenes               on            when     the    situation   demanded.
      clearly                                                 quickly         stage
Rather, itwas what the story type and plot elements of individual plays required. That
 is, if Prometheus Bound is a slow-moving  drama, it is not because Aeschylus    did not as
yet grasp     how to accelerate dramatic action through a succession      of rapid-moving
scenes; neither is it because he did not have at his disposal performers capable of such
or even was hesitant to include a sequence of characters
                                                             entering and exiting the stage
quickly     in that it might confuse the audience. The drama moves       slowly primarily
because this part of the Prometheus myth requires that the hero be "bound," leaving
him immobile on stage, which by necessity      slows down the stage action.

   At the same time, however,      the data for average scene length in Aeschylus      suggest
 there was perhaps another factor at play, the position of a tragedy in its trilogy. To a
greater degree than with Sophocles or Euripides,         the essential unit of performance     in
Aeschylus   is the "connected trilogy," three tragedies linked by narrative, which were
originally designed    to be performed    together. Two of Aeschylus'    four slowest-moving
dramas as determined by scene length are known to have stood first in their trilogies:
Agamemnon      (128.7) and Suppliants     (97.5). Another,   Prometheus (136.9), was almost
 certainly designed  to lead off. The position of the fourth, Persians (107.7), is not known.
Next come the two known third plays in trilogies: Seven Against Thebes (89.8) and
Eumenides (80.5). And finally, the fastest-paced        of Aeschylus'   extant plays is The
Libation-Bearers (59.8), the only certain middle play.

     With                    that firm conclusions
                   the allowance                        cannot be grounded        on such slight
evidence,     the data suggest that, besides the particular story, the average scene length
of a play   is to some extent affected by its position in a trilogy, i.e. a relatively slow pace
for the first play, accelerated action during the second drama, and a moderate              tempo
 in the concluding     tragedy. Nevertheless,   in light of how little evidence underlies      this
hypothesis,     it seems inadvisable   to speak in conclusive   terms about this?or      itwould
be more so if there were not sound and compelling principles of dramatic construction
evident            in    such   a                  of   the   action.   In                               scenes   and   slower
                                    disposition                              particular,     longer
action early on allow a more static and rhetorical posture at the outset of a trilogy,
when    the audience's    curiosity and attention are naturally high and the exposition of
 the plot calls for careful delivery of the underlying        situation to the viewers. Later,
however,    during     the second play, when        audience   focus is at a greater risk of
wandering    and as the complications      of the plot are unfolding but must by definition
 remain unresolved,     a faster pace suits better. The final play affords the opportunity      to
 slow the pace again, as the plot reaches closure and the playwright brings his themes
home.    So, whether      or not it was     typical of Aeschylus,      the largo-allegro-andante
performance     tempo    attested in The Oresteia makes good general sense in the larger
context           of his theatre and is supported by the data derived                         from his other remaining
dramas             that appear to accord well with such a notion.21




      21          same
        The         is, of course,    impossible   to determine    in Sophocles        and Euripides    since there is not

 enough         known about   the relative positions    of their plays    in trilogies    to do a comparative     analysis.
Moreover,      when     the plays   in a trilogy are unconnected       in plot, one must       ask whether    the order     in
which                 were                would   have mattered     at all in the structuring     of scenes.
          tragedies          produced
OF        DRAMA
                                    THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL                                                        /      121

                                V. Sophocles'             and Euripides'             Tragedies
   In Greek tragedy after Aeschylus,   a clear pattern in average scene length does, in
fact, emerge, but once more not the one which       the general tendency towards faster
stage action over the course of the classical age would    lead one to expect. Among   the
data for Sophocles' and Euripides' plays, there is again neither a gradual decrease in
average scene length visible, nor even regular progress       toward a faster turnover of
scenes.      In fact, the opposite          appears       to be true.

    Contrary to the dominant        trend, Sophocles'     extant plays gravitate toward longer
average     scene length (Table 3). While      the dating of Antigone and Oedipus Tyrannus is
debatable at best?most        critics, however, would not situate these plays in the final
                                                             reason to posit Oedipus Tyrannus in
phase of Sophocles' career, and there is some good
 the early 420s?Philoctetes    and Oedipus at Colonus can be securely fixed among his last
works.22 Just that alone, however, makes            it clear Sophocles'   drama could not have
gradually evolved      over time toward plays with shorter scenes, since his two slowest
moving      tragedies are among the last he wrote. If there is any pattern deducible        from
 the   scant data at hand, Sophocles'     style  of composing     scenes must have evolved in a
manner      almost directly opposite     to the way scene length was changing during his
 lifetime. That is, from the late 440s up until nearly the end of his career, Sophocles was
braking, not accelerating     the pace of his dramas. Only with his last tragedy, Oedipus at
Colonus, is it even possible      to say he wrote a play with a faster rate of scene change
 than one before it. It constitutes the only evidence this playwright         ever accorded with
 the general      pattern      of quicker       stage action        in his day.

   It is important to recognize, however,   that we cannot rely too much on these data
because they are problematical    inmore ways than one. First, very little of Sophocles'
total dramatic output survives?less     than ten percent, in fact?which   is a weak basis



                                                    Table 3. Sophocles

                                       Entrances-Exits/

Play                                           Lines                       Average                     Date of Premiere

Antigone                                     25/1353                          54.1                        441(?)BCE
Ajax                                         25/1420                          56.8                            (?)
Trachinian     Women                         19/1278                          67.3                            (?)
Electra                                      19/1510                          79.5                            (?)
Oedipus Tyrannus                             19/1530                          80.5                      429^25(?) BCE
Philoctetes                                  15/1471                          98.1                           409 BCE

Oedipus at Colonus                           21/1779                          84.7                           405 BCE
       TOTAL                               143/10341                          72.3




    22
      The    precise   dating    of Oedipus   Tyrannus      is problematical,      but likelihood     and consensus       accord    in

 setting    its premiere    after 429 BCE, most        probably     at some point      shortly    thereafter.  R. G. Lewis,       'An
Alternative       Date   for Sophocles7     Antigone,"     GRBS 29 (1988): 35-50,          reviews      the evidence     for dating

Antigone       and suggests     438 BCE as an alternative.         If so, it would    not affect the data here
                                                                                                                     significantly.
122          /       Mark Damen

 for                                conclusions         of             sort.   Second,   what      evidence    there   is   runs
         drawing        general                               any

 inexplicably           counter
                          to the known course of progress     in scene structure across the
 century,  which makes      it seem all the more suspect. Thus, these conclusions may be
 easily dismissed?or     they would be, if the comparable data for Euripides' work which
 is relatively better attested did not conform to much the same pattern.

    Just as with Sophocles,    the datable plays deriving     from Euripides' earlier career
 (Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus) slowly climb in average scene length, reaching a crescendo
with    those tragedies produced      in or shortly after 415 BCE (Trojan Women, Helen,
Phoenician Women) (Table 4). Following       that, the average scene length drops dramati



                                                      Table         4. Euripides

                                                                                                   Date of Premiere

                                   Entrances-Exits/                                                               Projected
Play                                        Lines                   Average                Known                 (Zielinski)23

Alcestis                                20/1163                        58.2               438 BCE
Medea                                   23/1419                        61.7               431 BCE
Heraclidae                                 17/1055                     62.1                                     430?4 BCE

Hippolytus                              22/1466                        66.6               428 BCE
Andromache                              20/1288                        64.4                                     426?4 BCE

Hecuba                                  21/1295                        61.7                                     424?4 BCE

 Suppliants                                17/1234                     72.6                                     422?4 BCE
Electra                                 22/1359                        61.8                                     416?4 BCE
Trojan Women                               18/1332                     74.0               415 BCE
Heracles                                   18/1428                     79.3                                     414?4 BCE

 Iphigenia (T)                             16/1496                     93.5                                     413?4 BCE

Helen                                   24/1692                        70.5               412 BCE



       23
        Zielinski's   analysis   of iambic   trimeter  in Euripides       (T. Zielinski,                      II, De Trimetri
                                                                                            Tragodoumenon
              Evolutione                                 a                            on the
 Euripidei                  [Cracow,   1925]) suggests     growing      tendency              playwright's   part to resolve
 the meter     over the course of his career, i.e. to substitute     other poetic      feet for iambs. Using    this, Zielinski
was      able to infer when     the undated                         most                           see T. B. L. Webster,
                                              plays of Euripides             likely premiered;                                The

Tragedies     of Euripides   (London: Methuen,       1967), 2-9, who      recaps Zielinski's      conclusions.     Zielinski's
work has      also been reviewed     and largely confirmed      by A. M. Dale, Euripides Helen         (Oxford: Clarendon
 Press, 1967), xxiv-xxviii,     and more    recently Martin            and Gordon      Fick, Resolutions       and Chronology
                                                              Cropp
  in Euripides:    The Fragmentary     Tragedies,   Bulletin   Supplement       43 (London:                       of London,
                                                                                                 University
 Institute   of Classical   Studies,  1985). Thus,    I have  included    his suggested      dates as a guideline         to the
              order    in which                       were          first produced,  but neither Zielinski's     conclusions nor
 general                          Euripides'   plays
 any chronology    which          the analysis    of scene      length      here may   seem   to betoken     can serve as a firm
 foundation   for assigning        dates    to Euripides'     dramas.
THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL
                                                        OF        DRAMA                                                       /      123

                                               Table     4   (continued).        Euripides

                                                                                                        Date of Premiere

                                   Entrances-Exits/                                                                       Projected
Play                                       Lines
                                                                    Average                     Known                     (Zielinski)

Phoenician            Women24:          23/1766                       76.8                   411-409    BCE

 Ion                                    20/1622                       81.1                                              410?4 BCE
Orestes                                 28/1693                       60.5                     408 BCE
 Bacchae25                              23/1392                       60.5                     406 BCE

 Iphigenia (A)26                        27/1629                       60.3                     406 BCE
  [Rhesus27                                 19/996                    52.4]
          TOTAL                       359/24329                       67.8


 [with Rhesus                         378/25325                       67.0]



cally (Orestes, Bacchae, Iphigenia inAulis). Thus, Euripides'   later plays follow the same
pattern  as Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus in                  a long, slow upward      trend
                                                   reversing
encompassing     the majority of his career until very late when his style suddenly shifts
toward a more rapid turnover of scenes. The evidence also hints that Euripides began


    24
     How        the additions    made       after Euripides'      lifetime    affect     the average      scene
                                                                                                                  length of Phoenician
Women        is notclear, but it appears         there is enough      genuine material                         in the play that we can
                                                                                               remaining
       a sense of                                                of scenes.
 gain                 Euripides'     original     disposition
    25
      The lacuna before          Bacchae 1330 is estimated            to be about
                                                                                        fifty lines. Adding        it into the total line
 count increases       the play's                 scene length                                      =
                                     average                       only slightly       (23/1442        62.6).
    26
      Poe,    "Entrance-Announcements,"                  122 (n. 4), reviews          salient                       and addresses       the
                                                                                                bibliography
 complications      of dealing with        the purported      interpolations,        textual corruptions        and general   questions
 of authenticity      surrounding      the texts of                   in Aulis and Phoenician Women. His                    there is
                                                      Iphigenia                                                 analysis
 a model    of sage counsel                      the difficulties      that these plays present    to the wider    assessment      of
                                  concerning
 Euripides'     stagecraft.  For instance,     if the beginning        of Iphigenia  in Aulis represents   alternative    versions
 of the opening       scene, each should be enumerated                                         so, fortunately,    does not affect the
                                                                      separately.     Doing
 data   for the play's       average   scene length      in any significant       way.    Both reduce      the play's                scene
                                                                                                                         average
           a little: the                                    (49-114)    to 59.0 (26/1533)       and the "dialogue"
 length                     "monologue"      prologue                                                                     prologue       (1
48, 115-63)        to 60.1 (26/1562).
    27
      To judge by scenes, Rhesus             is the fastest-moving                  in the Euripidean      corpus.    In this way      and
                                                                           play
others,     it defies easy analysis,      and, as such, its authenticity          has been much       debated. While       the evidence
here suggests         the play we have is not Euripides'            inasmuch       as no other extant classical
                                                                                                                      tragedy exhibits
so             a turnover      of scenes,   it should     be noted      that the data do not preclude             the possibility      that
     rapid
Rhesus derives          from Euripides'     period    of playwriting                        the rest of his surviving                   see
                                                                            pre-dating                                       corpus;
William      Ritchie,   The Authenticity       of the Rhesus of Euripides                                                         Press,
                                                                                 (Cambridge:     Cambridge        University
 1964),    361; and more      recently,    Luigi Battezzato,       "The Thracian      Camp     and the Fourth Actor           at Rhesus
 565-691,"      CQ 50 (2000): 367-73.         In spite of that, however,         it seems more       likely
                                                                                                              our
                                                                                                                   play    is a fourth
 century namesake         of Euripides'      original    in that, following     the last tendency       visible   in Greek     tragedy,
 it is reasonable      to presume       average     scene             in tragedy     continued     to drop after the end of the
                                                            length
 classical    age. If so, fourth-century        tragedy would       have conformed        with   comedy which,          to judge from
Menandrean      drama,   also shortened     scenes and accelerated    the stage action   in general     over the course
of the generations     succeeding    the fifth century.   Thus, Rhesus   fits well  into a post-classical              of
                                                                                                             pattern
dramatic                                more
           evolution    encompassing              rapid scene change   and other broader      stage effects.
124        /    Mark Damen

this change a little earlier than his older rival. To wit, Sophocles' Philoctetes in 409 BCE
still has a high average scene length (98.1), while         Euripides' Orestes, which was
produced   in the following year, changes scenes much more rapidly (60.5).

    The timing of this volte-face implies some correlation in the tragedians' work. That
both follow the same general pattern is significant               inasmuch as each bolsters    the
evidence     for the other and hints there was some common factor at play, an agency
 independent     of their often divergent     tastes in drama. What that factor or factors might
have been is not immediately          clear, but the coincidence      in timing shows it was not
 likely to have been a matter of their personal preferences                alone. While for many
historians    a date in the late 410s raises visions of the calamitous Sicilian Expedition,
 the reason that disaster might have influenced              average scene length in Athenian
 tragedy    is not readily apparent.         If any connection      at all exists between    these
phenomena,       it can only have been indirect, part of the larger program of change visible
 in the arts at and around this time.

   Evidence    indeed suggests     tragedy, and Athenian          art in general, underwent      a
dramatic    transformation     as Athens'     fortunes declined        over the course of the
Peloponnesian    War (431-404 BCE). In particular, those tragedies dating to and after
the late 410's exhibit distinct changes in tone, notably the addition of comic elements
as seen in several of Euripides'        later plays, especially      those resolving  in "happy
endings" (Helen, Iphigenia among     the Taurians, Ion). It is likely these "untragic" tragedies
served several purposes,      one of which was to bolster the spirits of a despondent
populace. Helen, for instance, exhibits quite a few elements traditionally employed             in
                                                      sudden                                even      an   obnoxious
comedy:          trickery,       disguise,                          recognition,                                             gate-keeper.28
Analysis   of the scene length of this play shows, however,        that there is another
 important  comic element present: relatively short scenes constituting   a faster pace of
action. This is almost certainly a product of the influence comic drama brought to bear
on tragedy at this most tragic of times in classical Athenian history.

                  it is often                 difficult        to determine         exact             movements           over       the   course
  Though                              very                                                    stage
of Aristophanes' plays, a glance at two inwhich exits and entrances are relatively easy
to determine, The Acharnions and The Clouds, demonstrates,   as few would doubt, that
the pace       of action        in                              comic    drama       as measured                the    turnover       of   scenes
                                     Aristophanes'                                                         by
is significantly quicker than that of tragedy (Table 5). The data for the only satyr play
preserved     entire, Cyclops, which   represents another sort of comic drama popular         in
this age, also support this assertion: 17/709 = 41.7. Thus, it is warranted         to surmise
that, along with the appropriation      of other comic features, Euripides' later plays reflect
the sort of dramatic action typical of comedy that was as a rule disposed         into shorter,
faster-changing      scenes. Hence,  the importation of comedie elements may be invoked
 as at least one way of explaining       the inversion in average scene length among late
 classical tragedies. And that comedy is the most likely culprit here opens, in turn, the
possibility    that it also figured into the earlier lengthening of scenes, a process under
way by      the late 440's, nearly three decades prior.




   28
    Dale,                    Helen,      xi-xvi,                  with    clarity   upon      the comic     elements     in Helen.
               Euripides                             expounds
THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL
                                                        OF        DRAMA                                                      /      125

                                                     Table    5.
                                                                   Aristophanes29

                                  Entrances-Exits/
                                          Lines Play                            Average          Date               of Premiere
Acharnians                             37/1234                                33.4
                                                                            425
                                                                             BCE
                                 Clouds
                                      30/1511                                    50.4
                                                                                  423
                                                                                    BCE




                                               VI. Tragedy            and Comedy

   At present, our picture of fifth-century Greek comedy, and in particular                   its early
 evolution,    is cloudy at best. Nevertheless,    some benchmarks         in the general develop
ment of the art stand out. The first complete comedies                surviving date to the 420s,
giving   witness     that the popularity of this art form had risen to a certain level of public
 awareness by that point in time. It is also clear that
                                                                  comedy had been growing              in
             as a dramatic medium well before this time. For instance,
visibility                                                                           initially it was
produced      only at the Dionysia,      but in the late 440s a second festival, the Lenaea,
 inaugurated      the performance     of comedy as well. Thus, by the middle          of the century
 comedy had evidently begun to stand alongside             tragedy as a popular genre of drama,
 even if historical records give us no sense that audiences             at the time deemed        it the
 counterpart or rival of tragedy, or that it even as yet stood in the mainstream             of public
arts. After all, the new festival showcasing
                                                     comedy was strictly a local affair?only
Athenians     and their close neighbors attended the Lenaea?and              at the Dionysia     comic
poets were given much less "air time" than their tragic agnates in celebrating the god
who was their common forebear. Indeed, all evidence suggests that until quite late in
 the classical age the attention of theatre-goers       in Athens was directed largely toward
 the tragedians' work over the comic playwrights'.               So at least on the surface, the
 frenetic sideshow of comedy, even if building            in popularity,   should have given the
 tragic poets little to worry about. Certainly, the historical data from the time give no
 credible reason to believe comedy would ever eclipse tragedy in the public mind, as in
 fact it later did in the fourth century.

    But the Greek tragedians vied not only with each other for
                                                                prized honors but also
with all other art forms for public attention and acclaim. While we in
                                                                        retrospect may
 see little ground for concern, tragic dramatists may not have watched       the rise of
              with      serene                                           was,       in   fact,                 on    an   arena      the
 comedy                             dispassion.30        Comedy                                   intruding
 tragedians had once owned exclusively     and were now having       to share. Outright
humor, the sort that Aeschylus   uses when he has Clytemnestra    say to Cassandra,   "If
you're stupid  and don't understand what I'm saying/Instead    of your voice, talk with



    29
      The movements         of characters       in                              are                                     to reconstruct,
                                                   Aristophanes'      plays          notoriously     problematical
 and   thus I do not mean         to posit the calculations      of the average       scene
                                                                                               length of these plays as in any way
definitive,      only   suggestive       of how     quickly    scenes    rolled     over    in Old                 For instance,     it is
                                                                                                      Comedy.
possible      to construe     as many     as eleven more      scenes   in The Acharnians,        which would        lower the average
 scene              to 25.7 (48/1234).       Likewise,     The Clouds may         be seen to have        at least four more
          length                                                                                                                 scenes,
             its average     scene
making                                length 44.4 (34/1511).
    30
      C. W. Marshall,          "Alcestis and the Problem          of Prosatyric       Drama,"       CJ 95 (2000): 229-38,      adduces
 another way        in which                and comedy may have             interacted      in the 430s BCE.
                                 tragedy
126          /      Mark Damen

your barbaric hand!" (Ag. 1060-61),31 had after Aeschylus'    lifetime come to look less
like the stuff of tragedy and ever more like the property of comic poets, at least to
judge from the relative rarity of comparable moments       in the early extant works of
Sophocles  and Euripides.32 Though still far from it, tragedy was beginning  to assume
the modern   sense of the word,   in no small part because     it had now an antonym,
 comedy.

    This shift could not have pleased        the tragedians. Dealing with comic drama in
ascendance meant either creating distance between             the genres by excluding    comical
 elements from tragedy or competing        for public attention in one important arena with
an eager, emergent
                        prot?g?. On the flip side of the Dionysia,       however,   the opposite
was true. The comic poets were more than                  to acknowledge
                                                willing                     openly their debt to
 tragedy   and use its popularity with       the audience     in their own behalf, a fact well
demonstrated       in Aristophanes'   frequent citation of tragedy and impersonation            of
 tragic celebrities on stage. Similar echoes from the other wing of the festival are
                                                                                          hardly
ever heard, at least in the tragedies dating to the 430s and 420s. All in all, it seems
 likely in more ways       than one that from a tragedian's perspective       this was not very
 funny.

   Later, however,      changes in the political and social situation of Athens   rendered a
very   different audience and dramatic climate. Especially     in the wake of the Athenians'
misfortunes     during the later phases of the Peloponnesian       War, the aura of gravity
haloing tragedy      for much of its existence had, as time passed, begun to reflect all too
well the sense of gloom and despair hanging over the city, ever more so as the sad
 outcome of the age unfolded.   So, while  the tragedians still commanded      center stage,
 the comic poets dashing    about in the background        had been making      substantive
progress in winning  the public's attention?and,      no doubt, their affections also. And
because comic poets had borrowed so much from the tragic arts, it amounted to hardly
more than collecting on debts owed, when the
                                                   tragedians began to increase the share
of     comic         elements        in   their         later                                                        on     the               and
                                                                  plays,     capitalizing          essentially                     growth
popularity             of Old Comedy. Those in the tragic arts who remembered                                                       the liberties
Aeschylus             had enjoyed inmixing comedy and tragedy may even have                                                       reasoned this
was                                  what         had      once      been     theirs.
          only       recovering

      But itwas by that day much more. Artists                                     like Aristophanes             and Cratinus        had,    in the
meantime,             made        advances          in      the                             of   drama      and                      humor      on
                                                                    presentation                                    especially
stage, with the result that along with heroes-in-disguise      and obnoxious  gate-keepers
came the comic playwrights'      tendency   to dispose    the action on stage into shorter,
faster-moving  scenes, not something    typical of tragic drama composed     in Aeschylus'
day even when he was going after a laugh. Of course, a quicker pace of stage action

      31
       Rosenmeyer,             The Art
                                  of Aeschylus,    69, points  to comic                in Eumenides:    "Eumenides,    of all
                                                                           qualities
Aeschylus'    plays,     is closest    in diction,    tone, and spirit     to the comic model."        The                 of
                                                                                                             fragments
Aeschylus'    drama      also hint at his use of comedy,            including
                                                                                   an
                                                                                      Odysseus     in The Bone-Gatherers
                                                                 a
 (Ostologoi) who     recounts   being hit in the head with         chamberpot.
    32
      This is not to assert      that tragedies     composed    in the 430s and 420s eschew          humorous     elements

 entirely.        Characters     like Heracles      in Alcestis,     the Guard       in Antigone       and the Nurse     in Hippolytus
 constitute        notable                where                          an               role in the tragedians'     work.   But these
                             exceptions              comedy      plays        important
 characters          are
                         just that, exceptions         in a general       climate   of "tragic"      tragedy. Ajax, Medea,      Oedipus
 Tyrannus,          and Trojan Women        certainly     provide      audiences    with    relatively     few moments      of levity or
 reasons   to laugh.
THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL
                                                              OF        DRAMA                                                                        /           127

was more    complicated     to integrate into tragedy than adding a slapstick porter-scene    to
Helen {fiel. 437-82)  or having Ion rebuff Xuthus' apparent come-on (Ion 517-26), which
explains why comic characters show up in tragedy before average scene length begins
 to drop. The latter involves a more comprehensive         investment    in the comedie mode,
and itwas, all in all,   a monumental                                   one not without
                                           change to effect in the art,                  effort
or     risk.


    But for all it entailed, the change turned out to be well worth           the investment of
genius   and energy. Importing comic elements proved in the end an inspired move, at
 least when measured      by its results. It stimulated the last bloom of classical tragedy, in
particular, Euripides'     final flourish of masterpieces:     Orestes, Iphigenia in Aulis, and
Bacchae. Nor did Sophocles        fail to rise to the challenge as Oedipus at Colonus shows,
though he seems not to have thrived in the new tragicomic climate as heartily as
Euripides.            Comedy,          after all, had never                    been        Sophocles'           forte, and by now                        he was
almost         ninety.


     Ultimately,            the tragedians'            adoption          of comic elements                  betokened              things to come. In
 the    next                     humorous              drama      rose      to                                               the    dramatic              arts    in
                   century,                                                       pre-eminence               among
Attica,   and Euripides     in retrospect ruled the tragic stage, winning         among other
posthumous      titles the distinction    of being hailed "the forefather of New Comedy."
Surely, one element in the formulation           of that opinion was the comfort those who
nurtured Menander?and           later were nurtured on him?could      feel as they watched the
 late Euripides' accelerated stage action. A comparatively       brisk pace of scenes was, by
then, what the Greek audience expected and enjoyed.

                                                               VII.      Conclusion

     The record of Greek    theatre demonstrates well that, despite the newness of the art
form and technical      barriers like the three-actor rule, ancient playwrights    as early as
Aeschylus    possessed     the skill to move    stage action through a quick succession      of
scenes when     the dramatic situation called for such a disposition     of action. Unfortu
nately, the data do not reveal how that skill was acquired, amonumental          achievement
given   that the first Greek playwrights   had no prototypes of complex drama to imitate.
At     the     same      time,                 affords         some      evidence           about     the    later     classical            tradition.       The
                                 history
dramas          composed by Sophocles and Euripides, Attic tragedians writing inAeschylus'
wake,          show a growing disinclination to engage in plays with a rapid turnover of
scenes,                          to   the                                 of                            faster                     action        evidenced
                 contrary                    general       pattern                increasingly                       stage
across   the century. If not what we might      expect on first inspection,  this pattern of
evolution   in scene length is not intrinsically chaotic either. Indeed, it proves remark
                                                           toward          a                     of                  not      shorter           scenes?in
ably         rectilinear?only               moving                               pattern              longer,
response not to some simple, prescript norms but to its passage                                                            through           the dynamic
environment  housing  it and complex channels of unforeseeable                                                             social change.

   In sum, close analysis of the evidence shows that, while uniform
                                                                         change in Greek
          could and did happen progressively    over a long period of time
tragedy                                                                      (e.g. metrical
resolution in Euripides),  in terms of scene length this art exhibits more the leaps and
starts, bumps   and backwashes      that typify real life, exemplifying     that model   of
evolution  in which    change proceeds    in bursts and pauses with                      of
                                                                          long periods
stagnation punctuated    by sharp and significant crises. In retrospect, this is indeed the
very thing to be expected, not a gradual pattern of transformation but a series of swift
128          /      Mark Damen

and       dramatic                                                 which                           and          common               sense       dictate         are
                              metamorphoses,                                    experience
 inherent                                  the growth of classical tragedy toward a more
                   in any living biosystem. Thus,
 frequent                                  a tale of fluctuation
                    turnover of scenes is at heart                and sudden progress, of
 indecision and conflict, of concerted resistance but eventual surrender to an alluring,
encroaching outsider who is really an insider, a story so dramatically human it seems
worthy     of Greek tragedy itself.


                                                    Appendix                 1. The    Exclusion            of
                                    Choral          Movements                  and Odes           From          the Data

  From the vantage point of modern     theatre, which for the most part does not utilize
choruses, it is natural to ask whether the data for scene length might be brought into
sharper focus ifwe exclude choral activity and focus only on the "dialogue" sections
of Greek            tragedy (episodia, or "episodes"). That, however, entails an unrealistic and
 infeasible         view of the use of the chorus in Greek tragedy. The point at which a chorus
enters                        the   course          of    a                     even     sometimes              exits      and      re-enters,          cf. Eum.
             during                                            play?and
234/244, Aj. 814/866,           385/515?and  Hel.    long choral odes last are issues as
                                                                                      how
important    to the pacing of drama in classical Athens as the movements        and words of
any single  character. Furthermore, while tragedy may seem to have a basic structure of
alternating episodes and choral sections, the reality is, in fact, farmore complex, as Poe
articulates well (see note 1). Thus, to separate choruses from episodes not only violates
a fundamental premise of this genre but is very difficult to effect with any consistency,
                                                       are put to in the classical tragedies.
especially given the imaginative use that choruses

  So, for instance, when Euripides' Medea first cries out near the beginning of the play
(Med. 96) and the Chorus enters in response (Med. 131), the ensuing lyrics (Med. 131
213) are then divided    among the Nurse, Medea,      and the Chorus.    Is the Chorus's
entrance,            then,      to be     seen           as                        a                     scene?and                 it is well         to bear        in
                                                               demarcating             separate
mind        that at this juncture                         the audience           first encounters               the Chorus with Medea,                            an
                                                 in      the           which      marks           this     as     a     critical         transition         in   the
 important            relationship                               play,
                    should      it be        seen         as    a "choral    ode,"    since        it encompasses                    a
play?or                                                                                                                                   strophic         parodos
 ("entrance song"), and thus grouped along with the other lyrics which belong to the
                                                                                              or
Chorus     entirely? The same could be asked of the parodoi in either Euripides'
Sophocles'    Electra. In general, if a character interacts in song with the chorus, is it to be
counted as dialogue or discounted         as ode? All in all, choral activity is too often fully
 integrated    into other characters' activities, making      it impossible  to distinguish  be
 tween           it and                       movements.
                             "dialogic"


    Fortunately, as difficult as it is to engineer, the removal of choral activity appears to
make little significant impact on this study, because omitting the odes and movements
of choruses shifts the numerical outcomes only slightly. As demonstrated          below, if the
 statistics for scene length are recalculated      so as to overlook all independent    choral
 activity,         i.e. actions
                     and words   that do                                       not    immediately     involve other characters, it
speeds up Aeschylus'   drama by only a                                           fraction (less than 3%) since his choruses by
nature tend to run long. For the other                                          two surviving     tragedians,  it slows down the
turnover of scenes in their plays more                                            substantially   (by around 10%), because     the
 choruses           of their dramas                   usually        constitute        less of the drama                  than the episodes.
THE SCENIC        OF        DRAMA
                                          STRUCTURE CLASSICAL                                                       /          129

                 Overall      Scene                                 Choral      Odes    and Movements
                                        Length     Excluding

                                  Averages                     <Averages (with choruses)>                Difference

                                       93.5                                  <95.5>                         -2.0
Aeschylus
                                       80.7                                  <72.3>                         +8.4
Sophocles
                                       74.2                                  <67.8>                         +6.4
Euripides
 [with Rhesus                          73.3                                  <67.0>                         +6.3]




                                                        Aeschylus

                               Entrances-Exits/

Play                                   Lines                   Average                 <With choruses>       Difference

Prometheus Bound                       7/1001143                                           <136.9>                  +6.1

Persians              8/740                                       92.5                     <107.7>                 -15.2

Seven Against Thebes                    8/681                     85.1                      <89.8>                  -4.7


Suppliants           8/676                                        84.5                      <97.5>                 -13.0


Agamemnon                              9/1085                    120.6                     <128.7>                  -8.1

Libation-Bearers                       12/806                     67.2                      <59.8>                  + 7.4

Eumenides                              10/810                     81.0                      <80.5>                  +0.5

 [Oresteia                            31/2701                     87.1                      <86.3>                  +0.8]
       TOTAL                          62/5799                     93.5                      <95.5>                  -2.0




                                                        Sophocles

                                Entrances-Exits/

Play (Date)                              Lines                  Average                <With choruses>       Difference

Antigone     (441)                     19/1081 56.9                                         <54.1>                      +2.8

                               Ajax 20/1214                          60.7                   <56.8>                      +3.9

Trachinian Women                          82.5
                                    13/1073                                                 <67.3>                 +15.2

Electra                                14/1411                      100.8                   <79.5>                 +21.3

Oedipus T (429^25?)                    16/1307                       81.7                   <80.5>                      +1.2

Philoctetes (409)                            98.8
                                       14/1383                                              <98.1>                      +0.7


Oedipus C (405)                        16/1569 98.1                                         <84.7>                 +13.4

       TOTAL                          112/9038                      80.7                    <72.3>                      +8.4
130         /     Mark Damen

                                                          Euripides
                                    Entrances-Exits/

Play (Date)                                 Lines                  Average   <With choruses>    Difference
Alcestis         (438)                      15/983                    65.5       <58.2>               +7.3

Medea        (431)                         18/1215                    67.5       <61.7>               +5.8

Heraclidae                                  13/933                    71.8       <62.1>               +9.7

Hippolytus          (428)                  18/1250                    69.4       <66.6>               +2.8

Andromache                                 16/1112                    69.5       <64.4>               +5.1

Hecuba                                     16/1111                    69.4       <61.7>               + 7.7


 Suppliants                                12/1018                    84.8       <72.6>           +12.2

Electra                                    18/1224                    68.0       <61.8>               +6.2

Trojan Women             (415)             15/1104                    73.6       <74.0>               -0.4

Heracles                                   12/1121                    93.4       <79.3>           +14.1

 Iphigenia (T)                             13/1307                  100.5        <93.5>               +7.0

Helen (412)                                19/1494                    78.6       <70.5>               +8.1

Phoen. W. (411-409)                        18/1503                    83.5       <76.8>               +6.7

 Ion                                       15/1398                    93.2       <81.1>           +12.1

Orestes (408)                              23/1583                    68.8       <60.5>               +8.3

Bacchae (406)                              17/1053                    61.9       <60.5>               +1.4

         (A)
 Iphigenia (406)                           21/1291                    61.5       <60.3>               +1.2

 [Rhesus                                     15/836                   55.7       <52.4>               +33]
         TOTAL                           279/20700                    74.2       <67.8>               +6.4

 [with Rhesus                            294/21536                    73.3       <67.0>               +6.3]




           Appendix          2. Enumeration            of Scenes   Through   Character    Movement:

                              Methodologies             for Measuring    Scene Length

 1. Unannounced              Movements


   Entrances: Antigone/Ismene       (Seven 861 or 875 [or 961?]), Herald     (Aes. Supp. 836/
872), Theseus    (Eur. Supp. 381, 838, 1165; contra Halleran,       21, who    is correct that
standard practice would      call for Theseus   to enter at, for instance, 1123, but for the
purposes of this study the exigencies of uniformity      and simplicity militate otherwise),
Theoclymenus                (Hel. 1165).

   Exits: Pedagogue     (Med. 106 or 111; escorts children inside the house), Handmaid
 (Hec. 894; delivers Hecuba's message       to Polymestor), Messenger        (Eur. El. 858; exits
after his report of Aegisthus'   death has been completed), Talthybius        (Tro. 1155; exits to
dig Astyanax'    grave,  returns at 1260), Theoclymenus     (Hel. 1440; exits because he must
not overhear what Menelaus        or the Chorus says, then returns at 1512).
French scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damen
French scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damen
French scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damen
French scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damen

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French scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damen

  • 1. French Scenes in Greek Tragedy: The Scenic Structure of Classical Drama Author(s): Mark Damen Reviewed work(s): Source: Theatre Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, Ancient Theatre (Mar., 2003), pp. 113-134 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25069183 . Accessed: 23/09/2012 12:18 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . 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 support@jstor.org. . The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Theatre Journal. http://www.jstor.org
  • 2. French Scenes in Greek Tragedy: The Scenic Structure of Classical Drama Mark Damen In 19881 played Dionysus in a production of Euripides' Bacchae. Though I had acted many times before?even that very role?the director of the play did something that took me by surprise, not because I lacked prior experience with it but because I had never thought about it in terms of ancient drama. For practical purposes she broke the play down into "French scenes," sequentially numbered sections of the script demar cated by the movement of characters on and off the stage, a system often used today in facilitating the organization of rehearsals and technical matters. Though well aware of this practice, it had never occurred tome to think about its application to Greek tragedy. As a basic tool in preparing a play for performance, this means of analyzing a play's scenic structure led me to wonder if the classical tragedians had not done something similar themselves since they surely oversaw the rehearsal process at least to some extent. Obviously, as playwrights they could construct and organize characters' entrances and exits, so it seems likely they could also have articulated the same to themselves and others. That inevitable self-consciousness in the disposition of scenes in tragedy led me to wonder whether ancient dramatists intentionally manipulated the frequency with which their characters moved on and off stage and, if so, how and why. The following article is the result of that inquiry. I. Introduction: The Question of Scenes Over the course of the fifth century there is a manifest evolution in Athenian tragedy toward a style of dramatic action featuring more complex character move ment imbedded within more intricate plots.1 Even in spite of the paucity of tragedies Mark Damen is an Associate at Utah State University where he teaches Classics, ancient Professor history, theatre and playxvriting. history He has published articles in Transactions of the American Philological Association, Phoenix, Antichthon, Classical World ana Theatre Recently Journal. his translation Hrotswitha's Dulcitius and Callimachus was in The Journal of The of published Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, with a in the forthcoming Rocky reprint Women Writing in Latin. An earlier version of this paper was at the American Association. Iwish to presented Philological thank those who commented there, Sherry Keller, David Rom?n, Sun Hee Teresa Lee, and the anonymous reviewers of this article for their help and insight. Their efforts have the piece improved immeasurably. 1 scene Inmodern scholarship, length as measured by entrances and exits has not been addressed as such, but the disposition of entrances and exits in Greek tragedy, and stagecraft in general, has received TheatreJournal55 (2003) 113-134 ? 2003 by The JohnsHopkins University Press
  • 3. 114 / Mark Damen preserved, this trend is evident. So, for instance, when compared to the relatively staid sequence of exits and entrances called for in Aeschylus' Persians (472 BCE), Euripides' Bacchae (406 BCE) evidences well the dynamism characteristic of classical tragedy in its final stages, a quality achieved not only through radical treatment of characters and the addition of plot elements but also by the disposition of the action into a greater number of what would be termed today "French scenes."2 Aristotle in The Poetics seems to have been aware of this: "And further [there was in later classical tragedy] a plurality of episodes."3 Nor to imagine reasons why fifth-century is it hard tragedy evolved this way. The division of tragic plots into a higher number of discrete units in the stage action leaves behind an impression that the play's action ismoving faster, that more is happening. This effect is likely to have pleased audiences demanding ever more from theatre in general and growing better accustomed to following increasingly complicated dra matic constructs, as surely the celebrants at the City Dionysia had become by the end of the classical age. And in the same way that late- and post-classical Greek theatre witnessed advances in stage machinery (e.g. the mechane, the keraunoskopeion, the bronteion), Sophocles and Euripides exhibit a capacity to utilize more elaborate character movement in the unfolding of more complex stage action, while at the same much attention, back at least a century, cf. E. Bodensteiner, "Szenische ?ber den Ort des going Fragen Auftretens und von und Chor im griechischen Drama," Jahrb. f?r cl. Phil., Abgehens Schauspielern 19 (Leipzig 1893): 637-808. among the works on which this study rests is Oliver Suppl. Primary Taplin, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus: The Dramatic Use of Exits and Entrances in Greek Tragedy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977). The significance of his book to this investigation is self-evident from the title, though Taplin's exploration of "the handling of exits and entrances" (1) and "the relation of text to action and of action to dramatic meaning" (3) does not coincide with my focus here. Likewise, David Seale, Vision and Stagecraft in Sophocles (London: Croom Helm, 1982) and Michael R. Halleran, Stagecraft in Euripides (Totowa: Barnes & Noble, 1985) have informed much of my assessment of stage movement in Sophocles and Euripides. My central aim, however, is different from Seale's who seeks to explicate "the intricacy of [Sophocles'] (12), and Halleran's intention of elucidating a "grammar of stagecraft" dramatic technique" (1). Joe Park Poe, "The Determination of Episodes in Greek Tragedy," AJP 114 a solid foundation (1993): 343-96, has provided for assessing stage movement in classical theatre, as with the others, his work does not bear directly on the central premise of this study. Iwill though, to these works name alone. Other works have also contributed to this henceforth refer by the author's study, in particular, T. B. L. Webster, Greek Theatre Production (London: Methuen, 1956), Walter Jens, ed., Die Bauformen der griechischen (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1971), David Bain, Actors and Trag?die Audiences (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), and Arthur Pickard-Cambridge, The Dramatic Festivals 2nd ed., ed. John P. Gould and D. M. Lewis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). of Athens, 2 in the The term "French scene" derives from classical French theatre where the ostensible divisions structure of plays rests on the entrances and exits of speaking characters. In employing the term "scene" I do not mean to invoke any of the critical terminology discussed or introduced by Poe in "The Determination," e.g. "unit of action" (349), nor even to tie my argument to his, since his and others' on issues such as the investigations of the "formal structure" (348) of classical tragedy have centered internal structure and organizing principles of scenes in tragedy, aspects of dramatic construction I do not address in this study; cf. Walther Kranz, Stasimon (Berlin: Weidmann, 1933). In this study, "scene" or exit of any major or connotes "a dramatic unit defined by the entrance speaking character characters." 3 on the same, D. W. Lucas, in Aristotle Poetics eti de epeisodion plethe (1449a28). Remarking (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968), 86, notes that "a longer play would use more incidents." There he cites also the "general sense of augmentation" in plethe. Elsewhere in The Poetics (1459b30), Aristotle the tragedian's need to avoid monotony in the way can "with countless recognizes epic readily episodes."
  • 4. THE SCENIC OF DRAMA STRUCTURE CLASSICAL / 115 time keeping their plots unified and focused. The heightened dramatic tension that comes as larger and larger ensembles of characters move across the stage and cumulative complications are introduced into the plot contributes to a more compel ling theatre experience for viewers interested in pyrotechnics of that sort. are not hard to suppose either. Besides The mechanisms enabling this evolution audiences who provided the tragedians after Aeschylus with an environment condu cive to a less static mode of drama, it is clear that later classical playwrights had the benefit of building on their predecessors' work. So, for instance, with Aeschylus' Oresteia as guide, Euripides was able to telescope many of the plot elements spread over an entire trilogy composed fifty years earlier into only one play, Orestes, by moving the stage action along much more rapidly.4 Surely, however, this capacity for accelerating the plot was not the product of the poets' genius alone. They would have needed players who could feasibly enact dramas of such a sort and whose perfor mances were of interest to audiences. This was, no doubt, the case, at least to judge from the awarding of prizes to actors at the Dionysia for the first time in the early 440's and the later domination of theatre in the fourth century by star performers like Neoptolemos and Polos.5 It seems likely, then, that the theatregoing public by the later classical period had already begun showing a heightened interest in performance arts as such, engendering a fertile climate for versatile players capable of carrying out successfully the rigors entailed in a more action-oriented mode of drama, one highly demanding of both physical and vocal stamina. Thus, it is possible to posit within the larger evolution of fifth-century Athenian tragedy a sophistication on the part of playwright, player, and playgoer growing more and more character movement within a drama and result embracing vigorous ing in more dynamic stage activity. None of this is in question. The question is how this evolution took place. Was it, for instance, as we are accustomed to expect, a gradual sort of development toward increasing complexity, or did it follow a less direct route? In other words, how much convolution was there to this evolution? Likewise, do the individual author's works adhere to the same general scheme, gravitating slowly over the course of their careers toward plays with swifter turnover of scenes as they learn from practice and observing others' work how tomanage ever more intricate stage action? If so, when and how did they acquire this skill? To answer these questions, it is necessary first to find a consistent means by which tomeasure the degree of character movement in Greek tragedy (i.e. how long "scenes" are or how quickly they change), for only then can the reasons underlying this be explored. Thus, it is the purpose of this paper, first, to devise an equitable and universal method of determining scene length in Greek tragedy; second, to ascertain in as much detail as the data permit the nature of the evolution of scene structure over the course of the classical age; third, to examine the possible reasons underlying any detectible patterns of change; and, finally, to investigate the larger ramifications of the data collected here in our general appreciation of classical Greek theatre. 4 Euripides' Orestes includes several plot elements reminiscent of Aeschylus' trilogy: horn. Agamemnon, a from The Libation-Bearers, Electra's lamentation, Orestes' lyrical Trojan (Cassandra/Phrygian); murderous assault on an older female relative effected with assistance; from Eumenides, Pylades' Orestes' vision of Clytemnestra's Furies, his last-second rescue and his trial. by Apollo 5 Pickard-Cambridge, Dramatic Festivals, 72,126.
  • 5. 116 / Mark Damen II. A Methodology for Assessing Average Scene Length in Greek Tragedy from the outset to establish some method It is essential of analyzing the evidence quantitatively and uniformly across the corpus of ancient Greek tragedy. This can happen only by establishing firm criteria that can be applied to all the tragedians' works and used to measure the speed at which the stage action of any such drama moves. Therefore, if we construe a "scene" in the simplest possible terms as the interval between the entrance and the exit of any speaking character (including choruses), it is possible to determine the number of scenes in a play by enumerating the entrances and exits which distinguish them, thus creating in modern terms a succession of "French scenes."6 From that may be calculated a scene play's average length ifwe divide the number of lines in the play by the number of scenes.7 This clear cut, albeit arbitrary, determiner makes the collecting and processing of data relatively easy to execute and will produce a rough indication of the frequency at which the scenes of a play turned over in the ancient Greek theatre. What difficulties may arise in the course of assessing the average scene length of specific plays can be surmounted when strict rules are applied.8 So, for instance, if a character enters unannounced, itmay not be immediately evident at what line number to assign the entrance, thus when the scene begins.9 It is necessary, then, to devise methods for measuring scene length uniformly; they are as follows:10 6 a vital role in all classical an essential Because choruses play tragedies, their movements constitute component of this study; see Appendix 1 at the end of the article. 7 a random While admittedly and often variable criterion, the conventional disposition of tragedies over other means into "lines" brings with it several important advantages possible of calculating the a or the meters used in classical drama are far "length" of play (e.g., counting words syllables). Though from equal in syllable their variety across and within Greek level their length, tragedies helps tetrameter were more differences. Also, the longer meters like trochaic likely to have been spoken quickly, whereas the shorter ones such as choral lyrics were sung, thus extenuating the words in actual All in all, poetic "meter" is inmany ways a "measurement" of sorts, and as such performance. just that, constitutes some indication of the passage of time on stage. So, if not a perfect criterion, it looks to be the best indicator at hand, certainly adequate enough for giving a general impression of a play's run a succession of scenes on the ancient time and how long it took to perform stage. 8 To succeed, this study must build primarily from an equitable measurement of average scene as attested for particular This requires that strict and clear rules govern the collection length tragedies. of the necessary information in order to ensure a balanced assessment of all plays under consideration. In that case, matters the changes effected in a drama by the entrance or exit of a character or involving a new on (see M. Pfister, what entails "configuration" stage The Theory and Analysis of Drama can follow [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988], 171-76 and 291-94) only after the orderly of data. Even if that means what are and complex "scenes" such as The gathering equating clearly long Libation-Bearers 22-585 with much less weighty dramatic passages such as Trachinian Women 813-21, the rules must be to achieve credible results. Moreover, tend to have a applied uniformly plays of shorter and scenes, thus out the statistics, as The Libation-Bearers complement longer balancing demonstrates well; it has the single longest scene in Aeschylus?indeed in all of Greek it tragedy?but is also his drama in terms of scene change. As for those dramas that have no such fastest-moving such as the static Prometheus or the that is the very information we seek. balance, briskly paced Rhesus, 9 For the most part, slight variations in line assignments do not affect the calculation of the average scene a Entrances in Greek HSCP 82 (1978): length in play. Richard Hamilton, "Announced Tragedy," 63-82 and Joe Park Poe, "Entrance-Announcements and Entrance-Speeches in Greek Tragedy," HSCP 94 (1992): 121-56, review the nature of announced entrances. It is, however, unannounced movement that poses, in general, more problems for this study. 10 scenes character movement and the A fuller discussion of the enumeration of specific through used in the article for measuring scene is contained in Appendix 2 at the end of methodologies length the article.
  • 6. THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL OF DRAMA / 117 1. All announced and unannounced movements that are necessitated by the plot, are to be counted, and if it matters in the enumeration of scenes, characters are assumed to enter at or about the time they first speak or are announced, addressed, or said to be on stage. 2. Simultaneous movements of characters on or off count as one entrance stage or exit, and those movements that are discrete as two. only clearly 3. No movement that is not strictly necessitated by the action or the plot is to be counted. 4. In accordance with the three-actor restriction, when there is a clear need for a performer to make an offstage change of mask and costume, we must suppose that one of the characters on stage has exited earlier, whether or not there was an announcement of that character's movement, so that the explicit actor who is to play the new role is provided suitable time to effect the change and re-enter as that character.11 5. In the same vein, an voice counts as an "entrance" since all such offstage intrusions into the stage action are significant and involve speaking actors whose disposition must be carefully managed and designed by playwrights the three-actor restriction.12 following 6. Characters mute actors, however central in the action, do portrayed by stage not serve to demarcate a of scene.13 change 7. Finally, if a character is silent at first but speaks later in the play without having left the stage, the entrance is counted from when the character first - . . . appears.14 11 The swift of mask and costume and the role-sharing required of the actors performing changes Rhesus?e.g., Odysseus/Alexander (626/642), Diomedes/Odysseus (633/668)?are further evidence that it is a post-classical tragedy, not Euripides'; see below, note 27. 12 This is justifiable insofar as offstage voices nearly always represent a sharp disruption and new in the stage action, much as entrances do. In any case, they do not often enough development happen to affect conclusions and, by being applied across the board, introduce no undue general substantially bias into the overall analysis of scene length in different authors. It is necessary, then, to treat all voices as discrete entrances, even in those instances when the same character as the offstage offstage voice enters e.g. Ajax (Aj. 333/348), Nurse (Trach. 862/871), Medea (Med. 96/214), subsequently, Polymestor (Hec. 1035/1056), Dionysus (Ba. 576/604), Old Man (IA 855/864). Adopting this criterion actually facilitates the compilation of the data at certain junctures, such as the movements of the Servant at LB 657: whether taken as an onstage presence or an offstage voice, this character's "entrance" into the play demarcates a new scene to the parameters of this study; see Taplin, according The Stagecraft, 341. For an overview of offstage voices and their general use in Greek tragedy, see Richard Hamilton, "Cries Within and the Tragic Skene," AIP 108 (1987): 585-99. 13 For example, "Citizens" (Seven 35), Antigone/Ismene (OT 1470), Children (Med. 1081), Athenian Herald (exits at Eur. Supp. 394). The movements of mute characters frequently coincide with those of speaking characters, which greatly decreases their impact on this study. When they do not, the exact timing of their exits and entrances is often difficult to determine precisely; e.g. Hermes (Eum. 64-93), Handmaid (Hec. 484-628), Athenian Herald (Eur. Supp. 381-94). Moreover, rarely does their passage on or off stage betoken a scenic as to the drama as when a character change consequential speaking enters or exits. All in all, omitting the movements of mute characters from the enumeration of scenes simplifies matters without distorting the data significantly. 14 For example, Cassandra (Ag. 783/1072), Child (Ale. 244/393), (Heraclid. 928/983), Eurystheus Adrastus (Eur. Supp. 1/113), Chorus (Eur. Supp. 1/42), Menoeceus (Phoen. 834/977).
  • 7. 118 / Mark Damen By applying these criteria to the assessment of scenes in tragedy and comparing plays across time, it will be possible to detect patterns, if any exist, in the overall disposition of scenes in Greek tragedy as it unfolds across the fifth century. All in all, what is really being enumerated here are not episodes or "scenes'' by any conventional definition, but the movements of actors on and off stage through their various roles.15 III. Overview of the Data First, the evidence validates the general impression that Greek tragedy evolved toward plays comprised of shorter scenes (Table 1). The average scene length of Aeschylus' plays is notably higher (95.5) than that of his successors, Sophocles (72.3) and Euripides (67.8). While the range for the individual plays of all three playwrights is quite wide, a general tendency toward accelerating stage action over time clearly exists. IV. Aeschylus' Tragedies Contrary to the prevailing trend, however, the data for Aeschylus' surviving plays dispel any notion that the evolution of average scene length in Greek tragedy toward a faster turnover of scenes proceeded in any gradual or even rectilinear fashion, at least prior to 456 BCE (Table 2). Though it is true that classical tragedy on the whole gravitated toward decreasing average scene length and that Aeschylus' fastest moving play (The Libation-Bearers) falls among his last, at the same time the evidence is clear that his drama in general cannot be taken to entail any demonstrable progress toward shorter scenes over time. In particular, when The Oresteia (Agamemnon, The Libation-Bearers, Eumenides) embodies within a single trilogy both his play with the lowest average scene length (The Libation-Bearers) and that with the second highest Table 1. Overall Scene for the Classical Length Tragedians16 Averages Range 95.5 136.9-59.8 Aeschylus 72.3 98.1-54.1 Sophocles 67.8 93.5-58.2 Euripides [with Rhesus 67.0 93.5-52.4] 15 Graham Ley, "A Scenic Plot of Sophocles' Ajax and Philoctetes," ?ranos 86 (1988): 106, notes the of entrances and exits in Greek tragedy: "It is clear that in a form of this kind especially significance the very creation of what we understand as drama came (i.e. Greek tragic drama), where perhaps from the manipulation of the arrivals and departures of characters, there is unlikely to be explicitly co-incidental about the introduction or removal of an actor into or from the presence of a anything fixed and partly defining chorus/7 16 as determined is The full data for the breakdown of plays into scenes by entrances and exits contained in Appendix 3 at the end of the paper. 17 scene the range Since the authorship of Rhesus is debated and its average length falls below attested for Euripides, I exclude it from the data here; see below, note 27.
  • 8. THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL OF DRAMA / 119 Table 2. Aeschylus Entrances-Exits/ Position in Play Lines Average Trilogy Premiere Prometheus Bound 8/1095 136.9 first (?) uncertain Persians 10/1077 107.7 uncertain 472 BCE Seven Against Thebes1* 12/1078 89.8 467BCE third Suppliants 11/1073 97.5 first post-467 BCE Agamemnon19 13/1673 128.7 458 first BCE Libation-Bearers 18/1076 59.8 458 second BCE Eumenides 13/1047 80.5 third458 BCE [Oresteia trilogy 44/3796 86.3] TOTAL 85/8119 95.5 (Agamemnon), it is hardly possible to credit Aeschylus with anything but masterful flexibility in this regard. Moreover, if Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus' play with the highest attested average scene length, is to be dated among his later works, as some scholars assert, the notion of smooth and continuous progress in this regard over the course of time is hopelessly undercut.20 To the contrary, what drove Aeschylus tomodulate scene length was evidently not a growing mastery of this aspect of the art form or a search for the best means possible by which to enact a complex nexus of scenes. From at least the last decade of his career on, 18 Questions of authenticity and interpolation bedevil the end of Seven Against Thebes; see Taplin, The Stagecraft, 169-70. In the play as transmitted, there are two scenes after 821 (Antigone and Ismene enter at some point between 861 and 961; the Herald enters at 1005). Omitting the entire passage along with these entrances scene changes the average length of Seven Against Thebes only somewhat (82.1) and does not alter its position relative to the other plays of Aeschylus (between Suppliants and Eumenides). 19 on and off stage are In Agamemnon, the movements of Clytemnestra see notoriously problematical; J.R. Wilson, "Unsocial Actors in Agamemnon," Hermes 123 (1995): 398-403, and Thomas G. Rosenmeyer, The Art of Aeschylus (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 70-74. If the minimalism presumed in this study distorts the reality of Aeschylus7 staging in which Clytemnestra may be supposed to have entered and exited several more times in the course of the drama, the advantages provided by reducing character movements to a minimum in order to assert as much as possible across uniformity the data more than compensate for any misconstructions of what may have actually transpired on the classical stage. It is worth in mind that this is not a in the uses to which bearing fundamentally study the Greek an to assess tragedians put entrances and exits but attempt only the general picture of character movement therein. Thus, equalizing the criteria comes at a higher premium than deliberat ing the nature of scene transitions in specific plays. 20 Taplin, The Stagecraft, 460-69 (Appendix D), discusses the notoriously question of problematical the authorship of Prometheus Bound as it relates to the issue of stagecraft, its arguing against However, even if Prometheus Bound is not by Aeschylus, it is certainly authenticity. "Aeschylean"? after all, it bore enough hallmarks of his style to warrant included among his works?and, being whether or derivative, itmust constitute evidence of a sort about the typical Aeschylean mode original of crafting plays. Since average scene length is a generality of just that type, I have included Prometheus Bound among the plays taken into consideration here.
  • 9. 120 / Mark Damen he knew how to move scenes on when the situation demanded. clearly quickly stage Rather, itwas what the story type and plot elements of individual plays required. That is, if Prometheus Bound is a slow-moving drama, it is not because Aeschylus did not as yet grasp how to accelerate dramatic action through a succession of rapid-moving scenes; neither is it because he did not have at his disposal performers capable of such or even was hesitant to include a sequence of characters entering and exiting the stage quickly in that it might confuse the audience. The drama moves slowly primarily because this part of the Prometheus myth requires that the hero be "bound," leaving him immobile on stage, which by necessity slows down the stage action. At the same time, however, the data for average scene length in Aeschylus suggest there was perhaps another factor at play, the position of a tragedy in its trilogy. To a greater degree than with Sophocles or Euripides, the essential unit of performance in Aeschylus is the "connected trilogy," three tragedies linked by narrative, which were originally designed to be performed together. Two of Aeschylus' four slowest-moving dramas as determined by scene length are known to have stood first in their trilogies: Agamemnon (128.7) and Suppliants (97.5). Another, Prometheus (136.9), was almost certainly designed to lead off. The position of the fourth, Persians (107.7), is not known. Next come the two known third plays in trilogies: Seven Against Thebes (89.8) and Eumenides (80.5). And finally, the fastest-paced of Aeschylus' extant plays is The Libation-Bearers (59.8), the only certain middle play. With that firm conclusions the allowance cannot be grounded on such slight evidence, the data suggest that, besides the particular story, the average scene length of a play is to some extent affected by its position in a trilogy, i.e. a relatively slow pace for the first play, accelerated action during the second drama, and a moderate tempo in the concluding tragedy. Nevertheless, in light of how little evidence underlies this hypothesis, it seems inadvisable to speak in conclusive terms about this?or itwould be more so if there were not sound and compelling principles of dramatic construction evident in such a of the action. In scenes and slower disposition particular, longer action early on allow a more static and rhetorical posture at the outset of a trilogy, when the audience's curiosity and attention are naturally high and the exposition of the plot calls for careful delivery of the underlying situation to the viewers. Later, however, during the second play, when audience focus is at a greater risk of wandering and as the complications of the plot are unfolding but must by definition remain unresolved, a faster pace suits better. The final play affords the opportunity to slow the pace again, as the plot reaches closure and the playwright brings his themes home. So, whether or not it was typical of Aeschylus, the largo-allegro-andante performance tempo attested in The Oresteia makes good general sense in the larger context of his theatre and is supported by the data derived from his other remaining dramas that appear to accord well with such a notion.21 21 same The is, of course, impossible to determine in Sophocles and Euripides since there is not enough known about the relative positions of their plays in trilogies to do a comparative analysis. Moreover, when the plays in a trilogy are unconnected in plot, one must ask whether the order in which were would have mattered at all in the structuring of scenes. tragedies produced
  • 10. OF DRAMA THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL / 121 V. Sophocles' and Euripides' Tragedies In Greek tragedy after Aeschylus, a clear pattern in average scene length does, in fact, emerge, but once more not the one which the general tendency towards faster stage action over the course of the classical age would lead one to expect. Among the data for Sophocles' and Euripides' plays, there is again neither a gradual decrease in average scene length visible, nor even regular progress toward a faster turnover of scenes. In fact, the opposite appears to be true. Contrary to the dominant trend, Sophocles' extant plays gravitate toward longer average scene length (Table 3). While the dating of Antigone and Oedipus Tyrannus is debatable at best?most critics, however, would not situate these plays in the final reason to posit Oedipus Tyrannus in phase of Sophocles' career, and there is some good the early 420s?Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus can be securely fixed among his last works.22 Just that alone, however, makes it clear Sophocles' drama could not have gradually evolved over time toward plays with shorter scenes, since his two slowest moving tragedies are among the last he wrote. If there is any pattern deducible from the scant data at hand, Sophocles' style of composing scenes must have evolved in a manner almost directly opposite to the way scene length was changing during his lifetime. That is, from the late 440s up until nearly the end of his career, Sophocles was braking, not accelerating the pace of his dramas. Only with his last tragedy, Oedipus at Colonus, is it even possible to say he wrote a play with a faster rate of scene change than one before it. It constitutes the only evidence this playwright ever accorded with the general pattern of quicker stage action in his day. It is important to recognize, however, that we cannot rely too much on these data because they are problematical inmore ways than one. First, very little of Sophocles' total dramatic output survives?less than ten percent, in fact?which is a weak basis Table 3. Sophocles Entrances-Exits/ Play Lines Average Date of Premiere Antigone 25/1353 54.1 441(?)BCE Ajax 25/1420 56.8 (?) Trachinian Women 19/1278 67.3 (?) Electra 19/1510 79.5 (?) Oedipus Tyrannus 19/1530 80.5 429^25(?) BCE Philoctetes 15/1471 98.1 409 BCE Oedipus at Colonus 21/1779 84.7 405 BCE TOTAL 143/10341 72.3 22 The precise dating of Oedipus Tyrannus is problematical, but likelihood and consensus accord in setting its premiere after 429 BCE, most probably at some point shortly thereafter. R. G. Lewis, 'An Alternative Date for Sophocles7 Antigone," GRBS 29 (1988): 35-50, reviews the evidence for dating Antigone and suggests 438 BCE as an alternative. If so, it would not affect the data here significantly.
  • 11. 122 / Mark Damen for conclusions of sort. Second, what evidence there is runs drawing general any inexplicably counter to the known course of progress in scene structure across the century, which makes it seem all the more suspect. Thus, these conclusions may be easily dismissed?or they would be, if the comparable data for Euripides' work which is relatively better attested did not conform to much the same pattern. Just as with Sophocles, the datable plays deriving from Euripides' earlier career (Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus) slowly climb in average scene length, reaching a crescendo with those tragedies produced in or shortly after 415 BCE (Trojan Women, Helen, Phoenician Women) (Table 4). Following that, the average scene length drops dramati Table 4. Euripides Date of Premiere Entrances-Exits/ Projected Play Lines Average Known (Zielinski)23 Alcestis 20/1163 58.2 438 BCE Medea 23/1419 61.7 431 BCE Heraclidae 17/1055 62.1 430?4 BCE Hippolytus 22/1466 66.6 428 BCE Andromache 20/1288 64.4 426?4 BCE Hecuba 21/1295 61.7 424?4 BCE Suppliants 17/1234 72.6 422?4 BCE Electra 22/1359 61.8 416?4 BCE Trojan Women 18/1332 74.0 415 BCE Heracles 18/1428 79.3 414?4 BCE Iphigenia (T) 16/1496 93.5 413?4 BCE Helen 24/1692 70.5 412 BCE 23 Zielinski's analysis of iambic trimeter in Euripides (T. Zielinski, II, De Trimetri Tragodoumenon Evolutione a on the Euripidei [Cracow, 1925]) suggests growing tendency playwright's part to resolve the meter over the course of his career, i.e. to substitute other poetic feet for iambs. Using this, Zielinski was able to infer when the undated most see T. B. L. Webster, plays of Euripides likely premiered; The Tragedies of Euripides (London: Methuen, 1967), 2-9, who recaps Zielinski's conclusions. Zielinski's work has also been reviewed and largely confirmed by A. M. Dale, Euripides Helen (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967), xxiv-xxviii, and more recently Martin and Gordon Fick, Resolutions and Chronology Cropp in Euripides: The Fragmentary Tragedies, Bulletin Supplement 43 (London: of London, University Institute of Classical Studies, 1985). Thus, I have included his suggested dates as a guideline to the order in which were first produced, but neither Zielinski's conclusions nor general Euripides' plays any chronology which the analysis of scene length here may seem to betoken can serve as a firm foundation for assigning dates to Euripides' dramas.
  • 12. THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL OF DRAMA / 123 Table 4 (continued). Euripides Date of Premiere Entrances-Exits/ Projected Play Lines Average Known (Zielinski) Phoenician Women24: 23/1766 76.8 411-409 BCE Ion 20/1622 81.1 410?4 BCE Orestes 28/1693 60.5 408 BCE Bacchae25 23/1392 60.5 406 BCE Iphigenia (A)26 27/1629 60.3 406 BCE [Rhesus27 19/996 52.4] TOTAL 359/24329 67.8 [with Rhesus 378/25325 67.0] cally (Orestes, Bacchae, Iphigenia inAulis). Thus, Euripides' later plays follow the same pattern as Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus in a long, slow upward trend reversing encompassing the majority of his career until very late when his style suddenly shifts toward a more rapid turnover of scenes. The evidence also hints that Euripides began 24 How the additions made after Euripides' lifetime affect the average scene length of Phoenician Women is notclear, but it appears there is enough genuine material in the play that we can remaining a sense of of scenes. gain Euripides' original disposition 25 The lacuna before Bacchae 1330 is estimated to be about fifty lines. Adding it into the total line count increases the play's scene length = average only slightly (23/1442 62.6). 26 Poe, "Entrance-Announcements," 122 (n. 4), reviews salient and addresses the bibliography complications of dealing with the purported interpolations, textual corruptions and general questions of authenticity surrounding the texts of in Aulis and Phoenician Women. His there is Iphigenia analysis a model of sage counsel the difficulties that these plays present to the wider assessment of concerning Euripides' stagecraft. For instance, if the beginning of Iphigenia in Aulis represents alternative versions of the opening scene, each should be enumerated so, fortunately, does not affect the separately. Doing data for the play's average scene length in any significant way. Both reduce the play's scene average a little: the (49-114) to 59.0 (26/1533) and the "dialogue" length "monologue" prologue prologue (1 48, 115-63) to 60.1 (26/1562). 27 To judge by scenes, Rhesus is the fastest-moving in the Euripidean corpus. In this way and play others, it defies easy analysis, and, as such, its authenticity has been much debated. While the evidence here suggests the play we have is not Euripides' inasmuch as no other extant classical tragedy exhibits so a turnover of scenes, it should be noted that the data do not preclude the possibility that rapid Rhesus derives from Euripides' period of playwriting the rest of his surviving see pre-dating corpus; William Ritchie, The Authenticity of the Rhesus of Euripides Press, (Cambridge: Cambridge University 1964), 361; and more recently, Luigi Battezzato, "The Thracian Camp and the Fourth Actor at Rhesus 565-691," CQ 50 (2000): 367-73. In spite of that, however, it seems more likely our play is a fourth century namesake of Euripides' original in that, following the last tendency visible in Greek tragedy, it is reasonable to presume average scene in tragedy continued to drop after the end of the length classical age. If so, fourth-century tragedy would have conformed with comedy which, to judge from Menandrean drama, also shortened scenes and accelerated the stage action in general over the course of the generations succeeding the fifth century. Thus, Rhesus fits well into a post-classical of pattern dramatic more evolution encompassing rapid scene change and other broader stage effects.
  • 13. 124 / Mark Damen this change a little earlier than his older rival. To wit, Sophocles' Philoctetes in 409 BCE still has a high average scene length (98.1), while Euripides' Orestes, which was produced in the following year, changes scenes much more rapidly (60.5). The timing of this volte-face implies some correlation in the tragedians' work. That both follow the same general pattern is significant inasmuch as each bolsters the evidence for the other and hints there was some common factor at play, an agency independent of their often divergent tastes in drama. What that factor or factors might have been is not immediately clear, but the coincidence in timing shows it was not likely to have been a matter of their personal preferences alone. While for many historians a date in the late 410s raises visions of the calamitous Sicilian Expedition, the reason that disaster might have influenced average scene length in Athenian tragedy is not readily apparent. If any connection at all exists between these phenomena, it can only have been indirect, part of the larger program of change visible in the arts at and around this time. Evidence indeed suggests tragedy, and Athenian art in general, underwent a dramatic transformation as Athens' fortunes declined over the course of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE). In particular, those tragedies dating to and after the late 410's exhibit distinct changes in tone, notably the addition of comic elements as seen in several of Euripides' later plays, especially those resolving in "happy endings" (Helen, Iphigenia among the Taurians, Ion). It is likely these "untragic" tragedies served several purposes, one of which was to bolster the spirits of a despondent populace. Helen, for instance, exhibits quite a few elements traditionally employed in sudden even an obnoxious comedy: trickery, disguise, recognition, gate-keeper.28 Analysis of the scene length of this play shows, however, that there is another important comic element present: relatively short scenes constituting a faster pace of action. This is almost certainly a product of the influence comic drama brought to bear on tragedy at this most tragic of times in classical Athenian history. it is often difficult to determine exact movements over the course Though very stage of Aristophanes' plays, a glance at two inwhich exits and entrances are relatively easy to determine, The Acharnions and The Clouds, demonstrates, as few would doubt, that the pace of action in comic drama as measured the turnover of scenes Aristophanes' by is significantly quicker than that of tragedy (Table 5). The data for the only satyr play preserved entire, Cyclops, which represents another sort of comic drama popular in this age, also support this assertion: 17/709 = 41.7. Thus, it is warranted to surmise that, along with the appropriation of other comic features, Euripides' later plays reflect the sort of dramatic action typical of comedy that was as a rule disposed into shorter, faster-changing scenes. Hence, the importation of comedie elements may be invoked as at least one way of explaining the inversion in average scene length among late classical tragedies. And that comedy is the most likely culprit here opens, in turn, the possibility that it also figured into the earlier lengthening of scenes, a process under way by the late 440's, nearly three decades prior. 28 Dale, Helen, xi-xvi, with clarity upon the comic elements in Helen. Euripides expounds
  • 14. THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL OF DRAMA / 125 Table 5. Aristophanes29 Entrances-Exits/ Lines Play Average Date of Premiere Acharnians 37/1234 33.4 425 BCE Clouds 30/1511 50.4 423 BCE VI. Tragedy and Comedy At present, our picture of fifth-century Greek comedy, and in particular its early evolution, is cloudy at best. Nevertheless, some benchmarks in the general develop ment of the art stand out. The first complete comedies surviving date to the 420s, giving witness that the popularity of this art form had risen to a certain level of public awareness by that point in time. It is also clear that comedy had been growing in as a dramatic medium well before this time. For instance, visibility initially it was produced only at the Dionysia, but in the late 440s a second festival, the Lenaea, inaugurated the performance of comedy as well. Thus, by the middle of the century comedy had evidently begun to stand alongside tragedy as a popular genre of drama, even if historical records give us no sense that audiences at the time deemed it the counterpart or rival of tragedy, or that it even as yet stood in the mainstream of public arts. After all, the new festival showcasing comedy was strictly a local affair?only Athenians and their close neighbors attended the Lenaea?and at the Dionysia comic poets were given much less "air time" than their tragic agnates in celebrating the god who was their common forebear. Indeed, all evidence suggests that until quite late in the classical age the attention of theatre-goers in Athens was directed largely toward the tragedians' work over the comic playwrights'. So at least on the surface, the frenetic sideshow of comedy, even if building in popularity, should have given the tragic poets little to worry about. Certainly, the historical data from the time give no credible reason to believe comedy would ever eclipse tragedy in the public mind, as in fact it later did in the fourth century. But the Greek tragedians vied not only with each other for prized honors but also with all other art forms for public attention and acclaim. While we in retrospect may see little ground for concern, tragic dramatists may not have watched the rise of with serene was, in fact, on an arena the comedy dispassion.30 Comedy intruding tragedians had once owned exclusively and were now having to share. Outright humor, the sort that Aeschylus uses when he has Clytemnestra say to Cassandra, "If you're stupid and don't understand what I'm saying/Instead of your voice, talk with 29 The movements of characters in are to reconstruct, Aristophanes' plays notoriously problematical and thus I do not mean to posit the calculations of the average scene length of these plays as in any way definitive, only suggestive of how quickly scenes rolled over in Old For instance, it is Comedy. possible to construe as many as eleven more scenes in The Acharnians, which would lower the average scene to 25.7 (48/1234). Likewise, The Clouds may be seen to have at least four more length scenes, its average scene making length 44.4 (34/1511). 30 C. W. Marshall, "Alcestis and the Problem of Prosatyric Drama," CJ 95 (2000): 229-38, adduces another way in which and comedy may have interacted in the 430s BCE. tragedy
  • 15. 126 / Mark Damen your barbaric hand!" (Ag. 1060-61),31 had after Aeschylus' lifetime come to look less like the stuff of tragedy and ever more like the property of comic poets, at least to judge from the relative rarity of comparable moments in the early extant works of Sophocles and Euripides.32 Though still far from it, tragedy was beginning to assume the modern sense of the word, in no small part because it had now an antonym, comedy. This shift could not have pleased the tragedians. Dealing with comic drama in ascendance meant either creating distance between the genres by excluding comical elements from tragedy or competing for public attention in one important arena with an eager, emergent prot?g?. On the flip side of the Dionysia, however, the opposite was true. The comic poets were more than to acknowledge willing openly their debt to tragedy and use its popularity with the audience in their own behalf, a fact well demonstrated in Aristophanes' frequent citation of tragedy and impersonation of tragic celebrities on stage. Similar echoes from the other wing of the festival are hardly ever heard, at least in the tragedies dating to the 430s and 420s. All in all, it seems likely in more ways than one that from a tragedian's perspective this was not very funny. Later, however, changes in the political and social situation of Athens rendered a very different audience and dramatic climate. Especially in the wake of the Athenians' misfortunes during the later phases of the Peloponnesian War, the aura of gravity haloing tragedy for much of its existence had, as time passed, begun to reflect all too well the sense of gloom and despair hanging over the city, ever more so as the sad outcome of the age unfolded. So, while the tragedians still commanded center stage, the comic poets dashing about in the background had been making substantive progress in winning the public's attention?and, no doubt, their affections also. And because comic poets had borrowed so much from the tragic arts, it amounted to hardly more than collecting on debts owed, when the tragedians began to increase the share of comic elements in their later on the and plays, capitalizing essentially growth popularity of Old Comedy. Those in the tragic arts who remembered the liberties Aeschylus had enjoyed inmixing comedy and tragedy may even have reasoned this was what had once been theirs. only recovering But itwas by that day much more. Artists like Aristophanes and Cratinus had, in the meantime, made advances in the of drama and humor on presentation especially stage, with the result that along with heroes-in-disguise and obnoxious gate-keepers came the comic playwrights' tendency to dispose the action on stage into shorter, faster-moving scenes, not something typical of tragic drama composed in Aeschylus' day even when he was going after a laugh. Of course, a quicker pace of stage action 31 Rosenmeyer, The Art of Aeschylus, 69, points to comic in Eumenides: "Eumenides, of all qualities Aeschylus' plays, is closest in diction, tone, and spirit to the comic model." The of fragments Aeschylus' drama also hint at his use of comedy, including an Odysseus in The Bone-Gatherers a (Ostologoi) who recounts being hit in the head with chamberpot. 32 This is not to assert that tragedies composed in the 430s and 420s eschew humorous elements entirely. Characters like Heracles in Alcestis, the Guard in Antigone and the Nurse in Hippolytus constitute notable where an role in the tragedians' work. But these exceptions comedy plays important characters are just that, exceptions in a general climate of "tragic" tragedy. Ajax, Medea, Oedipus Tyrannus, and Trojan Women certainly provide audiences with relatively few moments of levity or reasons to laugh.
  • 16. THE SCENICSTRUCTURE CLASSICAL OF DRAMA / 127 was more complicated to integrate into tragedy than adding a slapstick porter-scene to Helen {fiel. 437-82) or having Ion rebuff Xuthus' apparent come-on (Ion 517-26), which explains why comic characters show up in tragedy before average scene length begins to drop. The latter involves a more comprehensive investment in the comedie mode, and itwas, all in all, a monumental one not without change to effect in the art, effort or risk. But for all it entailed, the change turned out to be well worth the investment of genius and energy. Importing comic elements proved in the end an inspired move, at least when measured by its results. It stimulated the last bloom of classical tragedy, in particular, Euripides' final flourish of masterpieces: Orestes, Iphigenia in Aulis, and Bacchae. Nor did Sophocles fail to rise to the challenge as Oedipus at Colonus shows, though he seems not to have thrived in the new tragicomic climate as heartily as Euripides. Comedy, after all, had never been Sophocles' forte, and by now he was almost ninety. Ultimately, the tragedians' adoption of comic elements betokened things to come. In the next humorous drama rose to the dramatic arts in century, pre-eminence among Attica, and Euripides in retrospect ruled the tragic stage, winning among other posthumous titles the distinction of being hailed "the forefather of New Comedy." Surely, one element in the formulation of that opinion was the comfort those who nurtured Menander?and later were nurtured on him?could feel as they watched the late Euripides' accelerated stage action. A comparatively brisk pace of scenes was, by then, what the Greek audience expected and enjoyed. VII. Conclusion The record of Greek theatre demonstrates well that, despite the newness of the art form and technical barriers like the three-actor rule, ancient playwrights as early as Aeschylus possessed the skill to move stage action through a quick succession of scenes when the dramatic situation called for such a disposition of action. Unfortu nately, the data do not reveal how that skill was acquired, amonumental achievement given that the first Greek playwrights had no prototypes of complex drama to imitate. At the same time, affords some evidence about the later classical tradition. The history dramas composed by Sophocles and Euripides, Attic tragedians writing inAeschylus' wake, show a growing disinclination to engage in plays with a rapid turnover of scenes, to the of faster action evidenced contrary general pattern increasingly stage across the century. If not what we might expect on first inspection, this pattern of evolution in scene length is not intrinsically chaotic either. Indeed, it proves remark toward a of not shorter scenes?in ably rectilinear?only moving pattern longer, response not to some simple, prescript norms but to its passage through the dynamic environment housing it and complex channels of unforeseeable social change. In sum, close analysis of the evidence shows that, while uniform change in Greek could and did happen progressively over a long period of time tragedy (e.g. metrical resolution in Euripides), in terms of scene length this art exhibits more the leaps and starts, bumps and backwashes that typify real life, exemplifying that model of evolution in which change proceeds in bursts and pauses with of long periods stagnation punctuated by sharp and significant crises. In retrospect, this is indeed the very thing to be expected, not a gradual pattern of transformation but a series of swift
  • 17. 128 / Mark Damen and dramatic which and common sense dictate are metamorphoses, experience inherent the growth of classical tragedy toward a more in any living biosystem. Thus, frequent a tale of fluctuation turnover of scenes is at heart and sudden progress, of indecision and conflict, of concerted resistance but eventual surrender to an alluring, encroaching outsider who is really an insider, a story so dramatically human it seems worthy of Greek tragedy itself. Appendix 1. The Exclusion of Choral Movements and Odes From the Data From the vantage point of modern theatre, which for the most part does not utilize choruses, it is natural to ask whether the data for scene length might be brought into sharper focus ifwe exclude choral activity and focus only on the "dialogue" sections of Greek tragedy (episodia, or "episodes"). That, however, entails an unrealistic and infeasible view of the use of the chorus in Greek tragedy. The point at which a chorus enters the course of a even sometimes exits and re-enters, cf. Eum. during play?and 234/244, Aj. 814/866, 385/515?and Hel. long choral odes last are issues as how important to the pacing of drama in classical Athens as the movements and words of any single character. Furthermore, while tragedy may seem to have a basic structure of alternating episodes and choral sections, the reality is, in fact, farmore complex, as Poe articulates well (see note 1). Thus, to separate choruses from episodes not only violates a fundamental premise of this genre but is very difficult to effect with any consistency, are put to in the classical tragedies. especially given the imaginative use that choruses So, for instance, when Euripides' Medea first cries out near the beginning of the play (Med. 96) and the Chorus enters in response (Med. 131), the ensuing lyrics (Med. 131 213) are then divided among the Nurse, Medea, and the Chorus. Is the Chorus's entrance, then, to be seen as a scene?and it is well to bear in demarcating separate mind that at this juncture the audience first encounters the Chorus with Medea, an in the which marks this as a critical transition in the important relationship play, should it be seen as a "choral ode," since it encompasses a play?or strophic parodos ("entrance song"), and thus grouped along with the other lyrics which belong to the or Chorus entirely? The same could be asked of the parodoi in either Euripides' Sophocles' Electra. In general, if a character interacts in song with the chorus, is it to be counted as dialogue or discounted as ode? All in all, choral activity is too often fully integrated into other characters' activities, making it impossible to distinguish be tween it and movements. "dialogic" Fortunately, as difficult as it is to engineer, the removal of choral activity appears to make little significant impact on this study, because omitting the odes and movements of choruses shifts the numerical outcomes only slightly. As demonstrated below, if the statistics for scene length are recalculated so as to overlook all independent choral activity, i.e. actions and words that do not immediately involve other characters, it speeds up Aeschylus' drama by only a fraction (less than 3%) since his choruses by nature tend to run long. For the other two surviving tragedians, it slows down the turnover of scenes in their plays more substantially (by around 10%), because the choruses of their dramas usually constitute less of the drama than the episodes.
  • 18. THE SCENIC OF DRAMA STRUCTURE CLASSICAL / 129 Overall Scene Choral Odes and Movements Length Excluding Averages <Averages (with choruses)> Difference 93.5 <95.5> -2.0 Aeschylus 80.7 <72.3> +8.4 Sophocles 74.2 <67.8> +6.4 Euripides [with Rhesus 73.3 <67.0> +6.3] Aeschylus Entrances-Exits/ Play Lines Average <With choruses> Difference Prometheus Bound 7/1001143 <136.9> +6.1 Persians 8/740 92.5 <107.7> -15.2 Seven Against Thebes 8/681 85.1 <89.8> -4.7 Suppliants 8/676 84.5 <97.5> -13.0 Agamemnon 9/1085 120.6 <128.7> -8.1 Libation-Bearers 12/806 67.2 <59.8> + 7.4 Eumenides 10/810 81.0 <80.5> +0.5 [Oresteia 31/2701 87.1 <86.3> +0.8] TOTAL 62/5799 93.5 <95.5> -2.0 Sophocles Entrances-Exits/ Play (Date) Lines Average <With choruses> Difference Antigone (441) 19/1081 56.9 <54.1> +2.8 Ajax 20/1214 60.7 <56.8> +3.9 Trachinian Women 82.5 13/1073 <67.3> +15.2 Electra 14/1411 100.8 <79.5> +21.3 Oedipus T (429^25?) 16/1307 81.7 <80.5> +1.2 Philoctetes (409) 98.8 14/1383 <98.1> +0.7 Oedipus C (405) 16/1569 98.1 <84.7> +13.4 TOTAL 112/9038 80.7 <72.3> +8.4
  • 19. 130 / Mark Damen Euripides Entrances-Exits/ Play (Date) Lines Average <With choruses> Difference Alcestis (438) 15/983 65.5 <58.2> +7.3 Medea (431) 18/1215 67.5 <61.7> +5.8 Heraclidae 13/933 71.8 <62.1> +9.7 Hippolytus (428) 18/1250 69.4 <66.6> +2.8 Andromache 16/1112 69.5 <64.4> +5.1 Hecuba 16/1111 69.4 <61.7> + 7.7 Suppliants 12/1018 84.8 <72.6> +12.2 Electra 18/1224 68.0 <61.8> +6.2 Trojan Women (415) 15/1104 73.6 <74.0> -0.4 Heracles 12/1121 93.4 <79.3> +14.1 Iphigenia (T) 13/1307 100.5 <93.5> +7.0 Helen (412) 19/1494 78.6 <70.5> +8.1 Phoen. W. (411-409) 18/1503 83.5 <76.8> +6.7 Ion 15/1398 93.2 <81.1> +12.1 Orestes (408) 23/1583 68.8 <60.5> +8.3 Bacchae (406) 17/1053 61.9 <60.5> +1.4 (A) Iphigenia (406) 21/1291 61.5 <60.3> +1.2 [Rhesus 15/836 55.7 <52.4> +33] TOTAL 279/20700 74.2 <67.8> +6.4 [with Rhesus 294/21536 73.3 <67.0> +6.3] Appendix 2. Enumeration of Scenes Through Character Movement: Methodologies for Measuring Scene Length 1. Unannounced Movements Entrances: Antigone/Ismene (Seven 861 or 875 [or 961?]), Herald (Aes. Supp. 836/ 872), Theseus (Eur. Supp. 381, 838, 1165; contra Halleran, 21, who is correct that standard practice would call for Theseus to enter at, for instance, 1123, but for the purposes of this study the exigencies of uniformity and simplicity militate otherwise), Theoclymenus (Hel. 1165). Exits: Pedagogue (Med. 106 or 111; escorts children inside the house), Handmaid (Hec. 894; delivers Hecuba's message to Polymestor), Messenger (Eur. El. 858; exits after his report of Aegisthus' death has been completed), Talthybius (Tro. 1155; exits to dig Astyanax' grave, returns at 1260), Theoclymenus (Hel. 1440; exits because he must not overhear what Menelaus or the Chorus says, then returns at 1512).