| Vendor | |
|---|---|
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C.H.BECK
Anna-Sophia Mäder |
| Original language | |
| German | |
| Categories | |
| Weblink | |
| https://www.chbeck.de/meier-poli … | |
The Political Art of Greek Tragedy
If you are looking for an understanding of Attic democracy, this is your source: Christian Meier’s masterpiece on Greek tragedy
Performances of tragedy at the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens were predominantly political affairs. Audiences were there not to be entertained or simply to fill the hours but to sit back and watch while the burning social issues of the day were dealt with through drama. As many as fourteen thousand spectators could be in attendance at one time. With this new publication, Christian Meier has taken his research into this key element in Greek culture, history and religion yet further and now presents his findings. His years of work bring us the most impressive conclusions on classical antiquity.
It’s true that certain voices of the Athens elite were heard in such performances and yet this higher echelon of society couldn’t always convey its ideas to the wider population. All the more fascinating, then, to see political and social themes transformed into performance and how their lyrical treatment creates the material for the tragedy – all the way from new political orientation in the wake of the successful Persian Wars as seen in Aeschylus, the retreat of politics in Sophocles’ later tragedies, through to the despair seen in the work of Euripides at the dwindling opportunities for political communication as the 5th century BC moved forward.