The Dramatic Festivals of Athens

Greek tragedy was essentially Athenian tragedy. All of the works of ancient Greek drama that have survived till today were written by Athenians, and performed for the benefit of the citizens of Athens at the Festival of Dionysos, all in the golden age of Tragedy, 470 BC to 400 BC. During this period Athens was undergoing a revolution of social, political and cultural change. It saw the invention of democracy; it is critical to appreciate that Athenian tragedy was written  in a city which was a democracy, the world's first democracy, Tragedy as drama evolved as a full part of this new political system and of the cultural innovations that concurrently taking place. To understand this it is necessary to appreciate how Athenians watched tragedy.

All tragedies were originally composed for performance at a single event in the Athenian calendar - The Great Dionysia, a spring festival, a celebration in honour of the god Diónysos Eleuthereús ("Dionysus the Liberator") , one of the great gods of the earth [the other was Demeter],  held annually over 4 consecutive days at approximately the end of February. and beginning of March in a single competition, a time when the sailing season had just opened and trade and intercourse with far off lands around the Mediterranean was made possible after Winter. If Dionysos was a god about anything, he was the god of spectacle and entertainment. The Great Dionysia was perhaps the most important cultural festival in the Athenian calendar.

At a time somewhat later these plays and their playwrights became so famous that the best ones were re-performed not only in Athens but elsewhere in The Ancient Greek World, and became taught in schools, read and studied by philosophers like Aristotle.

The Great Dionysia was not just a theatrical spectacle: it was a musical one as well. Each tragedy featured, in addition to three actors, a chorus consisting of twelve or fifteen Athenian citizens accompanied by an instrumentalist, a player of a double-reed pipe called the aulos. Between intervals of speech and dialogue performed by the actors, the chorus would sing and dance for the audience.

The Great Dionysia was a festival which allowed Athens to demonstrate to its colonies, allies, members of its empire, trading partners that it was a huge cultural centre. It took place at the time of the re-opening of the sailing season, when ships could set sail from their harbours at the end of winter. The Great Dionysia allowed it to put on a huge show, a performance for the benefit of all these other peoples. Where the Olympics were Pan-Hellenic, the Great Dionysia was international.

Eric Csapo says "The Dionysia took place mid to late March, the beginning of Greek Spring. By popular reckoning the Dionysia marked the opening of the sailing season. Sailors, like farmers, used the stars as a guide: both the agricultural year and the sailing season began with the evening setting of the Pleiades (late March/early April) and ended with their morning setting (late October/early November): hence the ancient etymology of Ancient astronomers and mythographers liked to connect the Pleiades with Dionysus, stressing their corporate persona as a chorus and their location between the horns of Taurus (the bull)."

References

Greek Theatre in Context: Dugdale, Eric Kari - Internet Archive

The Dramatic Festivals Of Athens : Chapter II The City Dionysia pp. 57-125 : Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur - Internet Archive

Festivals of the Athenians : Parke, H. W. - Internet Archive

E. W. Handley (9 May 1985). The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 1, Greek Literature. Cambridge University Press. pp. 265–. ISBN 978-0-521-21042-3.

The Dramatic Festivals of Athens ... Second Edition. Revised by John Gould and D. M. Lewis. [With Plates.]. Oxford. 1968.
The Dramatic Festivals Of Athens : Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur.

Johanna Hanink. “The Great Dionysia and the End of the Peloponnesian War.” Classical Antiquity, vol. 33, no. 2, 2014, pp. 319–346. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/ca.2014.33.2.319

Arthur Elam Haigh; Sir Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge (1968). The Attic Theatre: A Description of the Stage and Theatre of the Athenians, and of the Dramatic Performances at Athens (Third Edition). Ardent Media.

Rush Rehm (2 September 2003). Greek Tragic Theatre. Chapter 2: The Festival Context: Routledge. pp. 12–. ISBN 978-1-134-81413-8.

Erika Simon (2002). Festivals of Attica: An Archaeological Commentary. Univ of Wisconsin Press.  ISBN 978-0-299-09184-2.
Festivals of Attica : an archaeological commentary by Simon, Erika - Internet Archive


Peter Wilson (14 June 2007). The Greek Theatre and Festivals: Documentary Studies. OUP Oxford.  ISBN 978-0-19-927747-6.

A companion to Greek studies §346 (p.331-) Dramatic Festivals: Whibley, Leonard - Internet Archive

Eric Csapo (2013). The Dionysian Parade and the Poetics of Plenitude: UCL Housman Lecture. Department of Greek and Latin, University College London.

Edward Capps (1903). The Introduction of Comedy into the City Dionysia. A Chronological Study in Greek Literary History. Chicago.
https://archive.org/details/investigationsre00univ/page/259/mode/1up?view=theater

Professor Eric Csapo (University of Sydney) - 'The Dionysian Parade and the Poetics of Plenitude' - YouTube

The Dionysian Parade and the Poetics of Plenitude
[PDF] academia.edu

The Earliest Phase of 'Comic'Choral Entertainments in Athens: The Dionysian Pompe and the 'Birth'of Comedy
E Csapo - … History of Greek Comedy. Heidelberg: Verlag Antike, 2015
PDF - academia.edu

The Attic theatre (pdf)

Athenian festivals - Wikipedia

Thargelia - Wikipedia

Lenaia - Wikipedia

Anthesteria -Wikipedia

Eleutherae - Wikipedia

Dionysia - Wikipedia  [City and Rural Dionysia]

Dionysia (Rural Dionysia) - Wikipedia

Ancient Athenian & Attic Festivals - Greek News Agenda

Simon Hornblower; Antony Spawforth; Esther Eidinow (29 March 2012). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Homonoia [Consensus]: OUP Oxford. p. 700. ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8.

Homonoia - Wikipedia

Homonoia (mythology) - Wikipedia

Homonoia - Mythology Wiki - Fandom

HOMONOIA - Greek Goddess of Concord & Unanimity (Roman Concordia) -Theoi Mythology

Jonathan M. Hall (2013). A History of the Archaic Greek World, ca. 1200-479 BCE. Ancient Chronography: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 50–. ISBN 978-1-118-34046-2.

Herbert William Parke (1977). Festivals of the Athenians. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-1054-3.

City Dionysia - Prologue

The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology
Author(s): Simon Goldhill
Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 107 (1987), pp. 58-76
Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/630070

The Great Dionysia and the End of the Peloponnesian War
Author(s): Johanna Hanink
Source: Classical Antiquity, Vol. 33, No. 2 (October 2014), pp. 319-346
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/ca.2014.33.2.319

Rural Athens Under the Democracy
Nicholas F. Jones
Copyright Date: 2004
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhf98

Nicholas F. Jones (2011). Rural Athens Under the Democracy. Chapter 4: Dionysia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 124–. ISBN 0-8122-0237-6

DEME THEATERS IN ATTICA AND THE TRITTYS SYSTEM
Jessica Paga
Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Vol. 79, No. 3 (July-September 2010), pp. 351-384
Published by: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40981054
Van Looy Herman. Arthur Pickard-Cambridge, The Dramatic Festivals of Athens. In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 37, fasc. 2, 1968. pp. 669-671. url : /web/revues/home/prescript/article/antiq_0770-2817_1968_num_37_2_1530_t1_0669_0000_2

Reviewed Work: The Dramatic Festivals of Athens by A. W. Pickard-Cambridge
Review by: W. Beare
The Classical Review
New Series, Vol. 4, No. 3/4 (Dec., 1954), pp. 225-227
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/703747

The social value of Dionysiac ritual
G. N. Belknap
Revue de l'histoire des religions
Vol. 106 (1932), pp. 575-591
Published by: Armand Colin
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23664842

Religion in the Attic Demes
Jon D. Mikalson
The American Journal of Philology
Vol. 98, No. 4 (Winter, 1977), pp. 424-435
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: 10.2307/293807
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/293807

David M. Pritchard (2015). Public Spending and Democracy in Classical Athens. Chapter 2: Cost of Festivals: University of Texas Press. pp. 27–. ISBN 978-0-292-77203-8.

Greek Inscriptions: A New Fragment of the List of Victors at the City Dionysia
Edward Capps
Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Vol. 12, No. 1, The American Excavations in the Athenian Agora: Twenty-Third Report (Jan. - Mar., 1943), pp. 1-11
Published by: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/146979


The Influence of Festival Arrangements upon the Drama of the Greeks. Part II
Roy C. Flickinger
The Classical Journal
Vol. 10, No. 4 (Jan., 1915), pp. 155-163
Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3286676

Erika Simon (2002). Festivals of Attica: An Archaeological Commentary. Rural Dionysia and City Dionysia: Univ of Wisconsin Press. pp. 101–. ISBN 978-0-299-09184-2.

David Whitehead (2014). The Demes of Attica, 508/7 -ca. 250 B.C.: A Political and Social Study. Rural Dionysia: Princeton University Press. pp. 212–. ISBN 978-1-4008-5768-5.

Nicholas F. Jones (2011). Rural Athens Under the Democracy. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 124–. ISBN 0-8122-0237-6.

Peter Wilson (14 June 2007). The Greek Theatre and Festivals: Documentary Studies. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-927747-6.
(PDF) Chapter 5 Choregic Monuments and the Athenian Democracy | Hans R. Goette - Academia.edu
The Greek Theatre and Festivals: Documentary Studies by Peter Wilson

Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood (2003). Tragedy and Athenian Religion. The Ritual Context: Lexington Books. pp. 67–. ISBN 978-0-7391-0400-2.

David Kawalko Roselli (1 June 2011). Theater of the People: Spectators and Society in Ancient Athens. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-74477-6.

Benjamin Millis; Douglas Olson (17 August 2012). Inscriptional Records for the Dramatic Festivals in Athens: IG II2 2318–2325 and Related Texts. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-22912-4.

Nancy Evans (2010). Civic Rites: Democracy and Religion in Ancient Athens. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-26202-7.

Athenian myths and festivals : Aglauros, Erechtheus, Plynteria, Panathenaia, Dionysia : Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane - Internet Archive

Rural Dionysia - Wisdom of Hypatia

City Dionysia - Wisdom of Hypatia

Anthesteria - Wisdom of Hypatia

Dionysian Meditations: The Lenaia