Manuel Baumbach
Places of presentation were most important in the production and reception of Ancient Greek literature. In Archaic times almost all poetry (with the exception of epigram) was composed for oral performance, and specific places of presentation were established for different literary genres. Despite growing literacy from the fifth century BCE onwards, oral presentation was also widespread throughout Antiquity with regard to prose texts: we hear that Herodotus presented his Histories in public (Marcellinus, Vit.Thuc. § 54), some of the dialogues of the second-century CE satirist Lucian might have been composed for public performances, and the Greek novel seems to have been read to a wider audience in Imperial times (see Hägg 1994). Places of presentation were the first “setting in life” (Sitz im Leben) of large parts of Greek literature, and they influenced both its production and reception by opening space and setting a frame for literary presentation. Poets, who composed their works for specific occasions at specific places, had to take into account the expectations of their historical audience as well as the demands of the places of presentation. New places inspired new forms of literature, and new rites at established places fostered generic innovations. At the same time, by way of selecting and combining, literature can shape, encode and use actual places of presentation to create new fictitious ones. Thus we have to differentiate between places of presentation described in literature – which might not reflect reality but enact fiction – and the information about places of presentation, which can be taken from art, archaeological remains and non-literary texts (like scholia or inscriptions).
The following overview focuses on oral presentation in public places. Public is taken in the widest sense of the word, starting from a small group gathering in the private sphere of a symposium and ending with the Panhellenic audience at Olympia. At the same time literature was present and presented in the private sphere of individuals from Archaic times onwards, but we cannot single out important places of presentation or find links between specific places and the kind of literature presented. On the contrary, the range of examples is wide: in the Iliad (9.185–91) Achilles is singing the “glorious deeds of men” (klea andron) in his tent; in Aristophanes’ Frogs (52–3) Dionysos is reading the Andromeda of Euripides on a ship; and on a Red-figure cup of the Antiphon painter a single young man is depicted in the middle of nowhere singing “this young man is beautiful” (ho pais kalos; cf. Lissarrague 1990,133–4). Thus, literature in its oral (and written) form can be found at almost all places and presented by every kind of person regardless of his/her age, gender or social status – at least within the realms of literature. Apart from many examples of educated people reciting both prose and poetry – such as Phaedrus’s performance of a speech of Lysias on Eros in Plato (Phaedr. 230e–234c) – we hear of shepherds who compose their own hexametrical verses (Theocr. Id. 5) or recite songs (Theocr. Id. 10.51); the peasant Trygaios recalls to his daughters a fable of Aesop in Aristophanes’ Pax 129); and Lucian tells us about the inhabitants of Abdera, who were suffering from a fever that made them “mad with tragedy; … they mostly sang solos from Euripides’ Andromeda, rendering Perseus’s speech in song.” (Luc. Quomodo hist. conscr., § 1; trans. Kilburn). Although these fictitious performances of literature do not mirror reality, they reflect upon the usage of literature in the social sphere and discuss possible ways and limits of its reception. If we take into account the widespread ancient practice of reading aloud and look at the many places of presentation, which fostered the view of the “song culture” (Herington 1985, 39) in the Archaic period, we can, however, assume that larger parts of the ancient population had access to literature at least on a small scale.
The earliest place of presentation mentioned in Archaic literature is the Homeric dais, a common meal (Il. 9.487), to which one is invited, cf. Il. 4.343 and Il. 1.424 (gods). The dais is an early form of the Classical symposium (cf. Latacz 1990, 359–61). It took place in a palace, and the seating was probably in a hierarchical order (cf. Dentzer 1982, 444–5) reflecting the social hierarchies of the invited, mostly aristocratic participants (cf. Clay 2004, 38–9). In Homer there are only a few hints at the exact course of events or possible rites of a dais. After the meal (cf. Od. 8.72) music, dance and song played an important role (cf. Od. 9.2–11 and 21.428–30) and might have been the highlight of the dais (τα` γα´ρ τ’ ἀναθη´ματα δαιτo´ς, Od. 1.152). Aiming at the delight of the participants (cf. Od. 8.347), the singers could present both actual topics and historical deeds, either by improvisation or by alteration of orally transmitted poetry. The literature performed was primarily epic, as can be seen from the songs of the two aoidoi Phemias and Demodokos in the Odyssey (cf. Segal 1992; De Jong 2001, 191).
“To pour hymns like wine from left to right for you and us.” These verses from an elegy of Dionysius Chalcus quoted by 00391thenaeus (15.669a; trans. Olson) are characteristic not only for the typical drinking rites in a symposium but for the presence of song / literature at this specific place. In contrast to the Homeric dais with its epic performances, the symposium is the place of the presentation of Greek lyric (cf. Rösler 1990 and Lissarrague 1990, 123ff. with examples of lyrical performance on symposia on vase paintings). Regardless of a more pragmatic (cf. Rösler 1980) or literary reading (cf. Latacz 1986; Schmitz 2002), lyric in almost all monodic forms is performed primarily in and for sympotic contexts. The symposium took place in the men’s room (andron) of mostly aristocratic citizens or rulers and was organized along fixed rules (cf. Murray 1990 for an overview of form and function of the symposium). After the common meal and prayers with libation (cf. Athen. 11.462c–f) a symposiarch organized the drinking session, which was characterized by table-talk (cf. Plato’s and Xenophon’s Symposia), play, dance, music and song. With regard to the latter, the contents of the lyric often depended on the interest and configuration of the (male) addressees. It could be a group of like-minded young aristocrats (hetairia) with political aims, a gathering of friends (cf. Plat., Symp.) or representatives of a court (see below: court). As a consequence we find lyrical poetry with political themes, cultural reflections, individual praise, elegiac and sympotic topics (skolia). The kind of presentation could vary: apart from a monodic performance of a singer or a recitation we often find hints at improvisations of the participants, so that literary production and reception fall together. A driving force for the vast production and the high quality (cf. Latacz 1990, 245) of lyrical poetry in the Archaic period was the agonal and alternating singing, probably according to the arrangement of the seating. As Pindar’s Epinikia show, choral lyric, which was composed for a wider audience (cf. Most 1982), could also be presented in the symposium (Ol. 1, Nem. 9, Isth. 6). A specific place of presentation is occupied by the komos, a choral song often performed after the end of a symposium by a number of drunken men roaming through the streets. The komos marks the transition from a more private to a public place of presenting lyric. Its themes circled around love and wine and it ended up in yet another semi-public presentation of lyric, the paraclausithyron in front of the house of the beloved (cf. Plut. Amat. 8, 753b, Cummings 1996 and Copley 1956 for the Roman reception).
The most important places of presentation were religious festivals, from which many poetic genres such as drama, hymn, threnos, epithalamia or epinikia took their origin, or in which they were later embedded (epos, paian or the prose form of panegyric speech). The festival context explains not only the strong presence of gods and myth in these poetic genres but also much about form and function. Literature presented at festivals is shaped by the needs and expectations of the participants, the form/kind of festival (eortai, hierai hemerai, thysiai), the moment of presentation (procession, agon, ritual) and – especially in the Hellenistic period – the intention of the organizers. Depending on the importance of the festival, the presentation of literature could be highly prestigious, reach a wide audience, and significantly boost the reception of the work. The number of festivals steadily increased from Archaic to Hellenistic times, when they reached a peak in frequency, probably due to growing secularization (cf. Chaniotis 1995, 162–3). Festivals, and the literature presented as part of them, thus affected the public life of a polis year round (cf. Burkert 1987). Athens, for example, held as many as 122–144 festivals each year in the Classical period (cf. Cartledge 1985, 99), so many that Demosthenes even accused the Athenians of putting more effort into organizing festivals than into preparations for war (In Phil. I [or. 4] 26; 35).
Literature presented at festivals had many different addressees: gods, heroes, kings and officials, polis inhabitants and strangers/visitors, people familiar with the cult/festival and newcomers, youth and sometimes also slaves. This literature, then, became a crucial part of the cultural and collective identity of a polis or cult community (cf. Nilsson 1957 for an overview of religious festivals outside Athens with their literary performances). Apart from the mediation and reflection of cult aspects, its functions were the memory of cultural traditions, the representation of the polis, the transmission of political ideas, the creation of social identity, and last but not least the entertainment of the participants. In this regard, in some festivals the agon was established as a mode of presentation, so that different poets and singers competed against each other; a growing specialization of the arts and literature can be observed along with an increasing number of agones in Hellenistic times (cf. Chaniotis 1990).
The most important festivals in Athens were the Great Dionysia and the Panathenaia (cf. Schenker, ch. 20, pp. 314–5, and Hose, ch. 21, pp. 329–31 in this volume). The latter was held each year in autumn and every four years (the Great Panathenaia) as a Panhellenic festival. Beginning in the second half of the sixth century BCE, rhapsodes competed in musical agones at the Panathenaia, reciting from Homer’s Iliad (cf. Kotsidou 1991). The recitations were opened by short monodic (hexametrical) hymns, i.e. prooimia (Pindar, Nemea 2,3), with the pledge for inspiration (cf. the short Homeric Hymns). The Great Dionysia (Pickard Cambridge 1988, 57–125) was the place of origin and presentation both of ancient Greek drama, in all three of its subgenres: tragedy, comedy and satyr play; and also of the dithyramb. Both genres were presented in the form of a musical agon. The dithyramb was a cult song for Dionysus organized by each of the ten Athenian tribes and performed as choral lyric; apart from fragments, only six dithyrambs of the fifth-century BCE poet Bacchylides have survived. In the dramatic agones, three tragedians competed, each with three tragedies and one satyr play; and five comic playwrights, each with a single comedy, competed in the comic contest (Latacz 1993, 45). Only plays by the three canonical tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and two writers of comedy, Aristophanes (old and middle comedy) and Menander (new comedy), have been preserved.
The actual place of the presentation and performance of both drama and dithyramb was the theater of Dionysus in Athens, which dates back to the late sixth century BCE and hosted up to 17,000 spectators (Plato’s account of 30,000 spectators, Symp. 175 E, is much too high). The whole city, including slaves, women (Seidensticker 2010, 32–37), and foreigners were allowed to take part. Before the building of the theater, contests in the Dionysia and also the Lenaia, another festival of Dionysos with dramatic agones on a smaller scale, were held in the marketplace (agora) and a dancing area (orchestra). The Rural Dionysia, a festival organized by the demes, also occasionally involved dramatic performances (Pickard-Cambridge 1988, 45).
The presentation of literature in theater as a place of performance shows that literature was staged together with dance and music – two aspects that have been widely lost in the course of tradition. For many works presented in the sixth and fifth century on stage in Athens the first performance also was the last, as plays were only rarely performed more than once (see e.g. Aristophanes, Ran.). Outside Athens, however, and from the fourth century onwards, the circulation of written copies and the activity of organized guilds of artists (technitai) allowed for the performance of both old and new plays all over Greece (Pickard-Cambridge 1988, 279–305) either in theaters or on transportable wooden stages (ikria).
The genre of epinikion is closely linked to the four Panhellenic games, in Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and on the Isthmus of Corinth. Epinikia were songs, either monodic or choral (Heath and Lefkowitz 1991), written for the winners of horse races, athletic and musical contests. They were performed both immediately after the end of the festival at the place of the contest and at the home of the winner, either in a procession (Pindar, Ol. 9, Pyth. 6; 10) or at a symposium (cf. Athanassaki 2009, 266–73). Thus, epinikia could have been composed for a double audience (cf. Gelzer 1985) and their early commitment to written form allowed for performance at different places and times. The contents of epinikia were linked to the place of performance by praise of the actual victory as well as the deity worshiped at the festival. In addition, the place of origin of the winner, which is also the second place of performance, often influences the choice and presentation of myth in epinikia. The function of these songs is to preserve the memory of the victory (Pindar, Pyth. 3.114–15) and for that purpose – according to Pindar, Nemea 3.7 – the epinikion is the best means. Given the large and diverse audience at the Panhellenic games, it is not surprising that many additional performances of different literary forms, ranging from poetry to prose, took place there. Herodotus is said to have read from his Histories at the Olympic games (Lucian, Herodotus 1) and the sophist Gorgias delivered speeches at the Pythian and Olympic games (Philostratus, VS 1.9). Authors thus seem to have used popular places to present and spread their works regardless of their connection to the festival.
Most forms of choral song, which took its origin from cult rituals (Burkert 1985, 162) were presented at religious festivals, either at the holy place (temenos) of the worshiped god or during the processions leading to the temple. Some cults even had specialized groups of singers, who carefully prepared choral performances. Pindar wrote cult songs for the daphnephorika at Thebes and we know of the Milesian molpoi of Apollo Delphinios (Burkert 1985, 161). Although the tendency to perform new poetry at religious festivals was strong, there is evidence for the performance of older songs as well, especially at festivals of local gods, for whom songs with important aetiological significance could be performed repeatedly. This also applies to songs that contain specific historical evidence that was important for the cult-community (cf. Isocrates, Pan. 4.158). Some cult songs like the Delphic Paian of Philodamos (fourth century BCE) were memorialized in inscriptions in the temenos, which shows their importance and indicates a repetitive performance at a specific place.
Religious festivals in a broader sense include the celebrations of death, which were performed both by the public as well as in private, with variation both in the places of performance and the literature presented. Whereas in Archaic times we find public funerals for soldiers, aristocrats, and rulers with song contests of aoidoi (cf. Hesiod Op. 645–61), from the Classical period onward the prose funeral speech, epitaphios logos (cf. Prinz 1997), was established as a kind of epideictic speech in Athens (Demosthenes, Lept. [or. 20] 141). It was held in public on the agora and in connection with the erection of a public grave (demosion sema) and probably the telos at the end of the rite (cf. Binder, Korenjak, and Noack 2007, 2). The earliest transmitted example is the funeral speech of Pericles in Thucydides’ Histories (2.34–46), which was held for the dead in the first year of the Peloponnesian War. Pericles’ epitaphios logos functions as a literary lieu de mémoire for the Athenian polis and it stresses the collective identity of the Athenians. Menander Rhetor notes that in Athens there was a yearly public funeral speech (2.11), which might have taken place in the theater; against this background Socrates recites Aspasia’s fictitious funeral speech in Plato’s Menexenus (cf. Cicero Orator 151). Apart from this, the most popular song of lament was the threnos, a choral song composed primarily for private ceremonies held at the tombs of the deceased.
Choral wedding songs (hymenaios/epithalamion) were performed either in public at the weddings themselves, during the processions accompanying the bride (Il. 18.491–6), or at the symposium held in the husband’s house after the wedding. While most of these songs were standardized, individually composed songs can be traced back to aristocratic families (cf. Contiades-Tsitsoni 1990). Literary scenes of choral dance as well as many vase paintings without specific context probably resemble different forms of private festivals like weddings or komoi, such as the choral song on Achilles’ shield in Iliad 18.604ff.
Starting in the fifth century BCE with Isocrates, the panegyric became an established form of epideictic speech at various official festivals, mostly to entertain the audience. One final case of the presentation of literature at festivals: performances at the local cults of the poet heroes, which were spread all over Greece, located mostly at the place of birth (or death) of a poet (cf. Clay 2004, 5). A key element of these cults was the performance of “memories in verse and prose” (Arist. Rhet. 1.5, 1361a34–6) and most likely, literature of the worshiped poet was presented at these occasions.
When Pindar praises the victory of Hieron in the Olympian Horse race of 476 BCE, he visualizes himself as a frequent guest at the “friendly table” of the Syracusan ruler (Ol. 1,13–17). This indicates a strong connection between the presentation of literature and the court, places we can observe from the palace complexes (ta basileia, aule) of the Archaic rulers to those of the Hellenistic emperors. From Ibycus (sixth century BCE) onwards we hear of poets traveling through Greece in order to present their works at courts (cf. the story of the contest of Hesiod and Homer at the court of Paneides which goes back to the sophist Alcidamas in the fourth century BCE, see West 1967); and some poets like Anacreon were even employed by a ruler at a royal court. As the court was not only the place for discussion and decision-making (cf. Elias 1969) but also for self-presentation and propaganda, the presence of a poet added to the reputation of a court, allowed it to solidify its ethical values, glorious past or political agenda in poetry, and spread those values inside and outside the reign. In this regard, literature presented at a court is in close dialogue with its beliefs and intentions and could strengthen the loyalty amongst the elites. However, the court as place of presentation does not necessarily influence the literature presented: poets could present works there that were written for different occasions; they could try to distance themselves from the court by way of irony or parody; or present work which does not show any connection with the agenda of a court.
The productive connection between courts and literature can be best seen from the Court Societies of the Hellenistic period (cf. Herman 1997 and Weber 1993, Schenker, ch. 20, pp. 315–6 in this volume). In the three main Diadochic states of the Seleucids, Antigonids, and Ptolemies, cultural centers were established in competition with the existing ones at Athens or Pergamon in order to claim cultural predominance within the Greek world. These centers were ideal for the production as well as presentation of literature, thanks in part to the huge libraries established there and the many poets employed to work in an academic setting such as the Museum in Alexandria. Literary activity took place within a closed circle of mostly aristocratic members of the court, to which poets also belonged. The proximity fostered productive literary competition with their colleagues as well as with the literary tradition. From this environment came new literary forms, such as bucolic, epyllion, different epigrammatic subgenres (cf. Posidippus, see Höschele, ch. 12, pp. 194–6 in this volume) or the Greek novel. Although the prestige of the court, the cultural center and its immediate audience affected the production of literature to a certain degree, the oral presentation of the work in Hellenistic times was always accompanied by the published work, so that the book emerged as the most important ‘place’ of presentation and allowed literature to travel quickly through the Greek speaking world and find multiple venues for performance, both private and public, in a short period of time.
The presentation of literature at schools was twofold. On the one hand, we have reception of literature selected and presented by a teacher in order to educate his pupils according to the norms of a state or city. Plato, for instance, tried to define a negative canon of literature in his Republic, what should not be used in education; and the Alexandrian philologists helped to establish literary canons (cf. Most 1990) used at Hellenistic schools. On the other hand, we find teachers who present their own literature directly to the pupils. Somewhere in between are travelling sophists giving guest lectures or rhapsodes. However, defining the school as a place of presentation of literature remains difficult, as we do not find a homogeneous or organized school system in the Greek world. After the private organization of education in the Archaic period, where we can even speak of a school with regard to Sappho’s poetry which was addressed to “educate” young woman before marriage, single poleis established their own school systems from Classical times onwards (Marrou 1956). In the early fifth century we find record of financial contributions from states to schools, hints at specific types of schools (didaskaleion, Thucydides 7.29), and an increasing number of vase paintings with school scenes. As for the type of literature presented at schools, choral songs that expressed appropriate ethical values (Theognis, Alcman, Solon) were part of the general education (Marrou 1956, 51–104), and “poetry of (morally) good poets” (cf. Plat. Protag. 325e2–326a3) was memorized and recited by the school children at the Hellenistic gymnasion (cf. Kah and Scholz 2004). Since, especially in Hellenistic times, many well-educated teachers and scholars gave lectures in the gymnasia for the ephebeia, schools became important places not only for presentation but also for preservation of literature, as many gymnasia included libraries at that time (cf. Scholz 2004, 125–8). Furthermore, speeches and philosophical works became important in the course of higher education that, at least at Athens, was primarily offered by rhetorical and philosophical schools. The leading philosophers or sophists of these schools taught, in many cases, their own works, thereby combining the place of presentation and the literature itself into a kind of self-representation. In Hellenistic times when education was built upon growing literacy (Arist. Pol. 8.3, 1338a15–17) more literature was edited and thus became available at schools (cf. Nilsson 1957).
The most effective and lasting way to present literature in public space was the inscription. Depending on the material and the inscribed objects, inscriptions could preserve literature through time, they could leave the place of their first presentation by being taken from stone to book, enter new contexts and spread far beyond their original location (cf. Baumbach 2000). From Archaic times onwards poetic inscriptions in epigram form were used to preserve the memory of a deceased (grave epigram) or of a person who dedicated a valuable votive (dedicatory epigram). There are epigrams for winners (cf. Ebert 1972) and honorary inscriptions, so that literature in this form was presented almost everywhere. We find poetic epigrams on cups and vases for usage both private (cf. the “Nestor cup,” c. 715 BCE) and public (cf. the “Dipylon jug,” c. 740 BCE). Epigrams were inscribed on stelai, temple walls, different kinds of monuments, artifacts (such as the chest of Kypselos), statues, or on single stones (cf. Baumbach, Petrovic, and Petrovic 2010). Grave epigrams often took the form of “speaking monuments” (cf. Wachter 2010); they directly addressed the passer-by and asked him or her to stop, read the message aloud and keep the memory alive. A good example of the public dimension and function of epigram is the hero cult of the Archaic poet Archilochus on Paros and the Mnesiepes inscription dating back to the first half of the third century BCE (Clay 2004, 9–24). The inscription is presented as a papyrus (Kontoleon 1952, 36), suggesting that the art of public inscription in Hellenistic times tried to imitate the more private medium of presentation and reception of literature in the form of a book-roll. The addressees of this publication were the participants and visitors of the cult, to whom not only information about the cult hero and the characteristics of the cult were given, but also pieces of poetry themselves: Mnesiepes quotes Archilochus’s own poetry several times and thus guarantees for his words a constant and lasting present(ation).
On performance of choral lyric: Athanassaki 2009; Heath and Lefkowitz 1991 provide an overview on Epinician performances. On the symposion, see Latacz 1990 and Murray 1990.