Inscriptions on the Attic Stage

Over the last twenty years, the semantics and dramatic significance of references to writing in Athenian drama, on the one hand, and the importance of space articulation, on the other, have been the subjects of various fruitful studies. Drawing upon both approaches, this chapter explores the role of inscriptions in defining dramatic space, looking both at inscriptions that are physically present on stage and those that are simply imagined or alluded to by characters. Any writing implies a medium or object on which the words are inscribed, but the correlation between the type of writing and the type of object varies. Some media, such as papyrus rolls or wooden tablets, can be used for virtually any record; the medium or sub-stratum that carries these texts is often of little significance by itself. Other inscribed objects, however, have significance independent of their inscriptions, such as tombs or votives to the gods. Between these two poles, there are types of inscriptions that are usually associated with certain kinds of objects, and it is this customary linkage which allows the object to become a metonymy for the text. The text's accessibility and the accepted practice of its circulation also affect this interchange. Concentrating on the plays of Aristophanes and Euripides, the chapter demonstrates the wide range of connotations afforded by inscriptions on stage, from the physical instruments of governance that a comic hero manipulates to enduring records against which the fleeting actions of a tragic character are measured. It also examines the correlation between the inscriptional landscape of Athenian drama and that of the city of Athens.

Art · Drama · HERO · Inscribed figure · Linguistics · Literature · Object (grammar) · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Mathematics · Philosophy