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Stagecraft and the Stage Building in Rhesus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2012

SIMON PERRIS
Affiliation:
SIMON PERRIS is Lecturer in Classics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Simon.Perris@vuw.ac.nz

Extract

In many respects, Rhesus is an unparalleled oddity. Attributed to Euripides, it was (probably) composed in the fourth century BC by a now anonymous poet, and thus (probably) constitutes our only extant fourth-century tragedy. Unlike any other surviving tragedy, it dramatizes an episode narrated in the Iliad and is set wholly at night. It features a fourth speaking actor. Other highlights include a chase scene, Athena imitating Aphrodite's voice, and the only singing goddess (the Muse) in extant tragedy. Such is Rhesus, the strangest, most maligned, least understood of tragedies. In this article, I reconsider one comparatively neglected anomaly among many: the use or otherwise of the stage building.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2012

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