Sydney Cramer

Dr. Lars Tatom

Theatre History II

25 January 2020

The Greeks and Their Ideas

History dictates that majority will win out. According to Professor Peter Burian, this type

of mindset is what lead to Athen being the center of both theatre and democracy in the 5th

century BCE. I commonality of democratic ideals and procedures was represented on

theatrical stages, and that made democracy and drama grow in popularity as a result of the

other simultaneously. Democracy pushed for “frank and open speech,” and the theaters of the

time exhibited such practices in their shows and festivals, specifically in comedy. Burian

suggests that a desire for open speech for all citizens is why theatricality intertwined with

democratic tendency was so popular at the time. Though not considered citizens, women and

slaves got to some sort of representation of themselves in these performances, and even if

they were performed by their free and male counterparts, representation of any kind in this

period must have been somewhat welcomed. It makes sense to me that both theatre and

democracy rose at the same time because of this.

Burian mentions that greek tragedy of this era was created to bring old, legendary

characters into a new light. He mentions the story of Ajax’s suicide and Odysseus becoming

the modern version of a hero in the play’s second act. I am sure that some interpretations of

this can be taken that way, however, historical speaking, there is a pattern when it comes to

powerful and/or intelligent men wanting flaunt other similar power figures of the past. The

theatre of today is truly one of the most progressive fields out there, and it has always been

innovative and shiny, even in ancient Greece. However, I see the argument of Odysseus

representing “a model of a new kind of hero” to be a little silly. Burian seems to be grasping at

straws on this one. It is okay to say that comedy had the defining role in building Athenian

democracy, which he explicitly mentions earlier in this article. Bringing up this “tragedy at least
tried” argument with less than on-par examples defeats the purpose of his reasoning to me.

Maybe Sophocles just got ahead of himself and killed Ajax too early, or maybe we shouldn’t be

looking to the same “one heroic man can take over for some other heroic man and that proves

some majestic character point” trope. Burian, if your point is that comedy was a defining

aspect of Athenian democracy—maybe don’t bring up tragedy for an entire third of your article.