D. M. Carter

The politics of Greek Tragedy

Preface 1. Introduction 2. Some views, their implications 3. The political shape of tragedy 4. Four political tragedies 5. The political reception of Greek tragedy Notes Appendix A: Chronology Appendix B: Authors and surviving works Appendix C: Some heroic genealogy Appendix D: Glossary of Greek terms Further Reading Index

Was Attic Tragedy Democratic

This article begins with a detailed response to Simon Goldhills paper in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, 107 (1987), on the civic ideology surrounding Attic tragedy. His view, that the Dionysia was a festival promoting the values of the democratic polis, requires substantial qualification. I then suggest my own interpretation of the evidence Goldhill cites for ceremonies at the Dionysia, referring also to several of the dramas. Tragedy at the Dionysia was presented in front of an audience from all over the Greek world. As a result, (1) political ideas in tragedy for the most part are relevant both to democracies and to other cities; (2) where Athens appears in tragedy, it tends to be presented more as a benevolent imperial power, and less often as a democracy.

The demos in Greek tragedy

This paper looks at a relatively neglected character in Greek tragedy: the people. I cannot claim to produce a complete survey of this issue; however, I shall identify some different ways in which a tragic poet could portray a citys population, and discuss some examples. This is an important and interesting topic for two reasons, which are linked throughout, for behind my argument is the contention that a consideration of the original staging of a tragedy can help us to understand its politics. In the first place, it is instructive to ask how a poet could meet the challenge of representing the population of a city on stage; in the second, this exercise is likely to shed light on the political function of Greek tragedy. More specifically, it will shed light on the relationship between tragedy and democracy - a vexed question in recent years - for no consideration of democracy in drama can neglect the role of democracys central player.

Republicanism, rights and democratic Athens

In a recent article Paul Cartledge and Matt Edge argue that the modern republican tradition offers a useful framework for understanding the Athenian concept of freedom, and that within this framework the Athenians protected their freedoms without reference to a concept of rights. This paper agrees with both of these conclusions but identifies and corrects three assumptions behind Cartledge and Edge’s argument: that the only purpose of rights is to protect individual freedoms against the state; that rights have no place at all in the republican tradition; and that the ancient Greeks did not understand rights. In fact the Athenians did have an understanding of rights but they did not use rights to protect freedoms. The reason for this is that the protected freedom is a very modern and particularly sophisticated application of the concept of rights.