Using a sampling of surviving plays and other kinds of evidence, we will
investigate the earliest western theatre from a culture-specific perspective.
Our primary objective is to understand what the performance of tragedy and comedy
meant to the people who originally wrote, acted, and attended classical Greek
theatre.  This survey will neither idealize nor denigrate ancient Athenian
culture; instead, it will try to achieve a more accurate, multifaceted, and
intricate understanding of this contentious and innovative people.  We will raise
more questions than we can answer:  Can generalizations about performance practices
be made from the small number of extant plays and scanty evidence of physical
production?  What are the ideological structures inherent to these texts?  How
were women represented in tragedy and comedy and how did this representation
resonate with the status of women in public and domestic life in Classical
Athens?  How did the tragedians shape the mythological material they used?
How much of the social and political context of Athenian culture is crucial
to the understanding of the plays?  What do we mean by understanding, especially
since the culture in question thrived 2500 years ago?

Background and Introduction
   Homer
   Intro to Tragedy
   Origin theories and alternative approaches

City, Festival, Myth
   Outline history of Athens, the physical environment
   Dramatic festivals
   The Curse of the House of Atreus

Theatre and Myth I
   The metaphysical environment
   AGAMEMNON by Aeschylus
   THE LIBATION BEARERS by Aeschylus (Aeschylus' Electra play)

Theatre and Myth II
   ELECTRA by Sophocles
   ELECTRA by Euripides
   Comparison of the three Electra plays

Theatre and Democracy
   Athenian democracy and imperialism
   THE EUMENIDES by Aeschylus
   ORESTEIA wrap-up

Sex, War and Protest
   Outline history of Athens; Peloponnesian War
   LYSISTRATA by Aristophanes
   Gender and sexuality

Marriage, Magic, Medea
   Athenian society
   MEDEA by Euripides

Boundaries
   ANTIGONE by Sophocles
   Student Presentations:  (Topics:  Nomos and Phusis; Other Antigones; 
      Aristotle's Poetics; Freud and Oedipus, Modernist versions)

Consequences and Redemption
   OEDIPUS TYRANNOS by Sophocles
   OEDIPUS AT COLONUS by Sophocles
   GOSPEL AT COLONUS

Satire and Satyrs
   CYCLOPS by Euripides; Lecture on Old Comedy, Satyr play etc.
   THE BIRDS by Aristophanes
 
Gender, Shame and Honor
   Student Presentations (Topics:  Amazons, Hippolytus cult; Similar myths)
   HIPPOLYTUS by Euripides
   Student Presentations (Topics:  Hippolytus I and Seneca's PHAEDRA; Racine's
      PHEDRE; O'Neill's DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS

Sacrifice
   IPHIGENIA AT AULIS by Euripides
   ALCESTIS by Euripides
   THE BACCHAE by Euripides

Captives
   WOMEN OF TRAXIS by Sophocles
   TROJAN WOMEN

Comedy about Tragedy
   THE FROGS by Aristophanes
   Comparison of Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles

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