The Reception of Greek Tragedy from 500 to 323 BC

• Published in: A Handbook to the Reception of Greek Drama pp. 11 - 28
• Main Author: Revermann, Martin
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, NJ John Wiley & Sons, Inc 28.04.2016
• Subjects: Against Leocrates; Aristophanes; Aristotle; Frogs; Lycurgus; Poetics; reception of Greek tragedy; theater‐related art; tragedy‐related vase paintings
• DOI: 10.1002/9781118347805.ch1
• ISBN: 9781118347751; 1118347757

This chapter discusses four landmark items of reception of Greek tragedy while attempting to situate these individual landmarks within the wider cultural landscape. The first of these, Aristophanes' comedy Frogs, was first performed in early 405 and is a response to a traumatic experience, the death of Euripides a few months prior in 406. The use of tragedy as a moral institution is also at the core of the second major item, Lycurgus' speech Against Leocrates which was held in the year 330, i.e., towards the end of the period under scrutiny. While the topic of theater‐related art of the fifth and fourth century, especially as far as tragedy‐related vase paintings are concerned, has been a major area of productive and stimulating research over the past 20 years. Aristotle's Poetics is, of course, one of the ancient texts with the most momentous and influential reception history of its own.