Preface The Giants drag down everything from heaven and the invisible to earth, grasping rocks and trees with their hands … and if anyone says that anything else, which has no body, exists, they despise him utterly, and will not listen to any other theory … Therefore the Gods who contend against them strike cautiously from above, and they use noetic weapons from an invisible world,… Read more
Acknowledgments This book was written almost entirely at the Center of Hellenic Studies: I owe to the Center much more than I can put down in words. I loved the place and I adored the people. In the Phaedrus, Socrates says that trees, unlike people, have nothing to teach him, but the dialogue belies him. I suspect I cannot thank places, but I remember them with gratitude… Read more
Introduction. Plato’s Self-Disclosing Strategies Why dialogues? Readers of Plato have asked this question again and again over the centuries, and there is no sign of them relenting. [1] Scholars in particular struggle to understand why Plato wrote dialogues as opposed to philosophical treatises, as if he had deviated from the natural course of things in some way. [2]… Read more
Chapter 1. Terpsichore To Terpsichore, the cicadas report those who have honored her in the choral dance (τοὺς ἐν τοῖς χοροῖς τετιμηκότας), and make them dearer to her Phaedrus 259c–d From the third frieze of the François vase, ca. 570 BC. The frieze depicts the procession of the gods to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, including nine… Read more
11. The Performance of Drama and Epic in Late-Classical Athens 11.1 The Reforms of Lykourgos The convergence between rhapsodes and actors was in evidence toward the end of the fourth century BC. Just as rhapsodes were relying increasingly on scripted rehearsal and memorized performance—with a drastically reduced extemporaneous creativity and textual variation between successive performances and competing performers—so also at the revival of the old plays actors… Read more
12. The Performance of Homer after Ⅳ BC Although the homēristēs whom I have already considered [1] takes us decisively into Roman imperial times, I now return more broadly to the performance of Homer during and after the Hellenistic period by professionals who did not concern themselves more narrowly with the acting of Homeric scenes. 12.1 The Τεχνῖται of Dionysos The… Read more
13. Rhapsodic hypokrisis and Aristotelian lexis 13.1 Why Aristotle on Ὑπόκρισις Matters As I noted in the Introduction to this book, [1] the term ὑπόκρισις is not connected solely with oratorical delivery but, more broadly, with the general notion of ‘performance’. Aristotle’s Rhetoric Ⅲ.1–12 stands as a central witness to its conceptual development. [2] But before considering… Read more
14. The Aristotelian tekhnē of hypokrisis 14.1 Technical hypokrisis We come at last to Rhetoric 1404a12–19, the section where Aristotle makes clear what approach to λέξις and ὑπόκρισις he intends to take in the rest of the treatise: ἐκείνη μὲν οὖν ὅταν ἔλθῃ ταὐτὸ ποιήσει τῇ ὑποκριτικῇ, ἐγκεχειρήκασι δὲ ἐπ’ ὀλίγον περὶ αὐτῆς εἰπεῖν τινες, οἷον Θρασύμαχος ἐν τοῖς Ἐλέοις· καὶ ἔστι φύσεως τὸ ὑποκριτικὸν εἶναι,… Read more
Conclusion The study of Homeric poetry, Milman Parry and A. B. Lord have taught us, [1] must necessarily consider its performance, for it was in performance that it was orally composed. And yet the times between Hellenistic Greece and our own were bridged not by sound recordings of recitations but by written artifacts like papyri and codices. How then are we to reconstruct and… Read more
Appendix. The Origin of the Term hypokritēs If one accepts that the Panathenaia was reorganized ca. 560 BC—as seems likely not only from later reports but also from the material record of Athenian vases [1] —it is not unreasonable to assume that the rules instituted at the time for the rhapsodic competition may have sought deliberately to enhance the challenging artistry of hypoleptic performance. Read more
