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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
The appearance of two new editions of the Choephoroi in 1986 has prompted me to reexamine the theatrical logic of the recognition scene. Anthony Bowen's student edition (Bristol, 1986) offers a curious contrast. Bowen is alert to the music of the choruses, and describes them as ‘a feast in themselves’ (p. 43). He remarks with reference to the strophic verse that ‘it is surprising how well these works have come down to us’ (p. 41). When he discusses the staging, however, he no longer finds the text well preserved, and follows Fraenkel in disposing of the footprints. Three interpolations, a total of nine lines, have to be struck out (pp. 177–81). A. F. Garvie's scholarly edition (Oxford, 1986) broadly accepts the extant text, but does not – I wish to argue – yet grasp the theatrical logic of the writing.
1 Arnott, P. D., Greek Scenic Conventions (Oxford, 1962), pp. 59–61Google Scholar.
2 See Simon, Erika,The Ancient Theatre, tr. Vafopoulou-Richardson, C. E. (London, 1982), p. 9Google Scholar.
3 See Trendall, A. D. and Webster, T. B. L.,Illustrations of Greek Drama (London, 1971), fig. III. 1. 1–6Google Scholar;Prag, A. J. N. W., The Oresteia: Iconographic and Narrative Tradition (Warminster, 1985), plates 34–6Google Scholar.
4 Aeschylus' Choephoroi (Oxford, 1884), p. 47Google Scholar.
5 Pickard-Cambridge, A. W., The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens (Oxford, 1946), p. 131Google Scholar.
6 There is no firm archaeological evidence. A pre-Aeschylean dithyramb by Pratinas (Athenaeus 617c), perhaps incorporated in a satyr play, seems to allude to the flautist positioned on the thymelē of Dionysus.
7 Taplin, Oliver, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (Oxford, 1977), pp. 335–6Google Scholar.
8 The Greeks normally wore shoes in the street but removed them for worship. See Morrow, K. D., Greek Footwear and the Dating of Sculpture (Madison, 1985), p. xxiiiGoogle Scholar.
9 There is some uncertainty about the relationship between the agyieus bōmos (altar) and the agyias. The former, according to Pollux 4. 123, stands in front of the central door on stage. The latter was normally conical or tapered in shape. Harpocration and Hesychius nevertheless describe it as a type ofbomōs. I presume that the conical stone vanished from the Hellenistic theatre, and a regular altar was substituted for it. See Pearson's, A. C. note on Sophocles, fr. 370 in The Fragments of Sophocles, ii (Cambridge, 1917)Google Scholar. Aeschylus used a brelas or ‘wooden statue’ of Apollo in Seven Against Thebes and Suppliants, but these statues are part of a group gathered at a common altar (Suppl. 222). Aeschylus' use of the skēnē was innovative in the Oresteia, and he seems to have introduced the agyias to complement the now prominent doorway.
10 Quoted by Lloyd-Jones, Hugh in ‘Some Alleged Interpolations in Choephoroi and Electra’, CQ II (1961), 175Google Scholar.
