Tragic Fate: The Oresteia and the Performance of Tragedy in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

Ameila Brown - University of California, Berkeley

In this paper I examine the controversial evidence for the performance of Classical Greek tragedy in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (3rd-9th centuries C.E.), and contribute some new evidence to the question by a careful examination of the textual and artistic history of the Oresteia. Departing from the relatively well-documented state of Greek and Roman theater in Seneca's day, I piece together the story of the decline of traditional theatre during the next few centuries by stringing together evidence from Egyptian papyri, medieval manuscripts, Christian plays and cantos, and writers from Isidore of Seville and Procopius to Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim. This broad-based approach yields some surprising survivals in scattered places, and some contrasts and connections between east and west in the Early Middle Ages. Finally, the textual tradition of the Oresteia hints at developments in the text in Late Antiquity or afterwards that are consistent with a tradition of performance.