Reconstructing Satyr Drama

Andreas P. Antonopoulos, Menelaos M. Christopoulos, and George W. M. Harrison, eds., Reconstructing Satyr Drama (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021). 9783110725216.

Reviewed by Joshua A. Streeter, The Ohio State University, joshua.a.streeter@gmail.com.

It is a welcome irony that the massive Reconstructing Satyr Drama, volume 12 of De Gruyter’s MythosEikonPoiesis series, concerns the dramatic genre for which we have the scarcest evidence. In 2016, Andreas P. Antonopoulos and Menelaos M. Christopoulos organized a conference in Patras (Greek Satyr Play: Reconstructing a Dramatic Genre from its Remnants), and they, together with George W. M. Harrison, compiled the associated twenty-five papers with nine additional chapters to produce a whopping 891 pages: thirty-five chapters from thirty-three contributors. The heft of this volume, therefore, precludes a deep chapter-by-chapter review here, so a part-by-part approach may work best in surveying the quality offerings in this publication.

The Introduction by Antonopoulos is “designed as a general survey of satyr drama, concentrating all basic information on the genre” (p. viii) and is arranged in the sections “The Evidence,” “Origins and History,” “Function(s),” “Production,” and “Typical Themes.” Antonopoulos recaps the foundational ancient sources to reconstruct satyr drama (e.g., the fragments; theorists and grammarians like Aristotle and Pseudo-Demetrius; the Pronomos vase—the first of its many appearances in this volume) and numerous notable contemporary scholars. It highlights our current (ever tentative) understanding of the plays, their performance conventions, and their cultural and historical significance from their 6^th century BCE predecessors to the “last known playwright” of satyr drama, Lucius Marius Antiochus of Corinth of the 2^nd century CE (p. 17). I can easily envision the Introduction alone being assigned as preliminary reading or a quick refresher for any sort of classics or theater coursework on satyr drama or ancient performance.

Part I of the volume concerns “Genre,” and the four chapters weigh textual and material evidence to glean what information we can about this notoriously fragmentary dramatic tradition. Riccardo Palmisciano’s chapter interrogates Aristotle’s claim in Poetics 1449a.20 that tragedy “depart[ed] from the style of satyr-plays” (p. 41, using Halliwell’s translation). Palmisciano uses iconographic material and a comparative reading of the relationship between traditional Japanese Nō and Kyōgen plays to test his own interpretation of Aristotle’s account “that tragedy developed from dramatic performances in which satyrs or satyr-like characters performed a mythical story with the same interaction…as archaic dithyramb” (p. 44). Paul M. Touyz follows with a chapter on the evolving depiction of satyrs as goats or goat-like, tracing their caprine qualities captured in vase painting, etymology (not just τραγῳδία as “goat-song” but also σατυριᾶν in biological and medical texts), and even the costume of the furry perizoma belt worn by the choristers. Pierre Voelke further analyzes the relationship between satyr drama and dithyramb and other Bacchic rites in terms of the anodoi as depicted, again, in text and vase painting. Concluding this first part is Richard Seaford’s examination of satyr drama’s motif of contrasting the urban center with the mountainous periphery through his meticulous study of Pratinas and Telestes’ fragments, Aristotle’s Constitution of Athens, and the real-life geography of Attica. These first four entries squeeze every bit of information from a variety of literary and material sources supplemented with images of pots and fresco, modeling the richness to be gained by utilizing extra-literary evidence in reconstructing fragmentary plays.

Part II considers the “Language, Style, and Metre” of satyr drama. Willeon Slenders’ chapter details the usage of interjections, deictics, and other forms of colloquialism across tragedy, comedy, and satyr drama to “provide a ‘correlative’ picture of the three genres” (p. 119) whereby “one can conclude that satyr drama has a…more colloquial tone” (p. 139) than tragedy. Marco Catrambone applies “politeness theory” to the dramatic genres and finds three “satyric deviations: over-politeness, mock-politeness, [and] impoliteness” (p. 168) in Euripides’ Cyclops and other fragments. Jordi Redondo takes up another significant oral tradition, that of the rhetors and sophists, in Sophocles’ satyr plays and challenges the notion of “a woodland setting being inescapably rude and rustic” to surmise (perhaps hyperbolically) that “our satyrs are the best masters of the most innovative utterances…of the spoken and written word” (p. 193). Lucy C. M. M. Jackson’s concluding chapter weds philology with performance, painstakingly extracting from the meter of the Cyclops, Sophocles’ Ichneutai and Inachos, and fragments of Aeschylus’ satyr plays “a few recurrent features of satyric metre and movement…[amid] the seemingly boundless creativity of the poets of satyr drama” (p. 225). As a theater scholar myself, I always appreciate when the text is understood as a vehicle for performance, and Jackson’s work here shows that careful metrical work can yield robust results with dramaturgical ramifications.

With Part III, the focus shifts to a topic underlying much of the preceding contributions: “Text Transmission and Criticism.” Paolo B. Cipolla’s chapter surveys what ancient scholarship (or what we can reconstruct of it) had to say about satyr drama through two case studies on Ion’s Omphale and Aeschylus’ Kerkyon, with the prudent caution that they “cannot be used without attempting to go back, as far as possible, to the original context” (p. 252). Laura Carrara outlines methodological tools that include a list of six questions systematized “as a minimal checklist to consider before” (p. 255) deeming a fragment as tragedy or satyr play. She demonstrates this method in determining Sophocles’ Andromeda was likely the former. Chiara Meccariello initiates a trio of chapters on Euripides: she reconciles the varying numbers of attested Euripidean satyr dramas by attributing to him a ninth satyr play, the Epeios. Bernd Seidensticker’s chapter adds his constructive criticism of two texts on the Cyclops, James Diggle’s 1984 edition and Richard Seaford’s 1998 commentary, criticism that arose during Seidensticker’s work on his own commentary on the Cyclops published in 2020). Lastly, James Diggle briefly explicates Cyclops 320–28, the “thundering” of Polyphemus in reply to Zeus’ storming. It is the shortest and most niche of the chapters within the entire volume, yet it is nevertheless an elucidating glimpse into the process of editing ancient texts as Diggle grapples with the issue of whether the brute strikes [κτυπῶν] his clothing [πέπλον] or, as he ultimately determines, the ground [πέδον].

Part IV, “Reflections on the Plays,” is the longest section of the volume with ten chapters. Three concern Euripides (paired with Pratinas by Anton Bierl, plus two on the Cyclops from Pavlos Sfyroeras and Patrick O’Sullivan). Two contend with Aeschylus (the Diktyoulkoi from Nikos G. Charalabopoulos and the Theoroi/Isthmiastai by Maurizio Sonnino). Two more from two of the volume’s editors analyze the Ichneutai (Antonopoulos on the “strange behavior” of the satyr chorus and Christopoulos on the dramatized invention of the lyre). Two separate chapters focus on “minor” playwrights (Ion’s Omphale from Anna Uhlig and Chaeremon and Astydamas courtesy of Niall W. Slater). The last entry for this section, authored by Agnieszka Kotlińska-Toma, is an overview of satyr plays and playwrights from the early Hellenistic. Any one of these contributions will attract primarily those interested in a particular author, play, or time period, but all are worthwhile for the committed reader. I particularly appreciated those chapters with special consideration toward performance, chiefly those by Bierl, Charalabopoulos, Antonopoulos, Christopoulos, and Uhlig. None of the chapters will disappoint as each contains deep and careful work by and for specialists.

The shortest part, “Satyric Influences,” concerns the reception of satyr drama in non-dramatic literature. Charalabopoulos returns with a chapter on the appearance of satyr drama in the Platonic corpus, mostly in the Symposium but also the Lysis, Charmides, Laws, and Theaetetus, and suggests this relative lack of attention by Plato reinforces the supposed supremacy of tragedy while nonetheless employing a sort of “elusive satyr (meta)drama” (p. 538) through the performance mode of his dialogues. Johanna A. Michels documents the “traces of satyr drama” in the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, determining that these collections do not supply “witnesses of the plot but rather echoes of their continuing legacy”; they are therefore less pieces of satyr drama to be reconstructed and more the evidence of the “constant transformation of myths in Greek society and literature” (p. 566). Rounding out this section, Oliver Thomas jumps to Imperial Rome with Athenaeus’s Deipnosophistae as well as Aelius Aristides and Lucian to detail criticisms of the Cynics by aligning them with “theatrical satyrs [who] exemplify a lack of self-control, a contrast between appearance and essence, hybridity with animals, and frequent consorting with…Heracles” (p. 583). Much like the satyrs themselves who stumble into well-known myths, these three chapters show the surprising reach of satyr drama into other, later texts.

Finally, the last and second-longest section concerns “The Archaeological Evidence” for satyr drama. Throughout the volume, its contributors have considered satyrs depicted in vase paintings, frescoes, and the text of papyri, and Part VI delves deeper into these and other representations. The first six chapters deal primarily with vase paintings. Ralf Krumeich broadly charts satyrs and satyr drama in the pottery of Athens and Southern Italy, while Tyler Jo Smith narrows the focus to black-figure paintings and their contrasting illustrations of satyrs and komasts. Carl A. Shaw compiles the delightful and unexpected relationship between satyrs and dolphins shown in vase-paintings; Guy Hedreen analyzes the Pronomos vase and Aeschylus’ satyr plays to reconcile the satyrs’ notorious licentiousness with more civically condoned expressions like marriage. Hollister Nolan Pritchett looks at the figure of the child satyr and notes its maturation is seemingly “not all that different from human children” (p. 734), and T. H. Carpenter focuses on grandfather Papposilenos as seen in Apulian vases. Pritchett’s and Carpenter’s respective chapters make for serendipitous companion pieces to Charalabopoulos’ offering on Silenos Paidotrophos (even if it necessitates flipping back some 340 pages).

The penultimate chapter by Mali Skotheim provides a compelling epigraphical perspective by documenting the history, titles and playwrights, competitive ordering, and prize money of satyr drama up through imperial Rome to argue that this “lowliest dramatic form was the competition which marked a dramatic program as complete” (p. 762). And the final chapter, penned by editor Harrison, analyzes satyrs as seen in a variety of physical media: adornments to the stage, mosaics, altars, “telamones/atlantids,” and even theatrical curtains and oscillata (small weights sewn in or attached to the fabric to provide “swag”—a technical term, I promise). Near the end, Harrison raises the intriguing question in a subheading with the same title, “When Does Depiction Constitute Performance?” (p. 791) that only teases answers about the longevity and legacy of satyr drama “into the fourth century [CE], if not even later” (p. 796).

If the preceding review strikes the reader as thin or cursory, may I offer as consolation my unreserved endorsement of Reconstructing Satyr Drama? Color illustrations supplement the discussions of the many visual portrayals of satyrs, and the wide range of disciplines and methodologies represented by the contributors evidence the eclecticism necessary for working with fragments. The 60-page bibliography and indices general, locorum, and vasorum supply an all but exhaustive resource for further study of satyr drama. It is a hefty volume, but well worth a careful reading for anyone interested in the subject.

Table of Contents

Editors’ Preface (vii–xiii)
Introduction: What is Satyr Drama? / Andreas P. Antonopoulos (1–36)

Part I: Genre
1. Satyrikon and the Origins of Tragedy / Riccardo Palmisciano (39–57)
2. Putting the ‘Goat’ into ‘Goat-song’: The Conceptualisation of Satyrs on Stage and in Scholarship / Paul M. Touyz (59–80)
3. Satyr Drama, Dithyramb, and Anodoi / Pierre Voelke (81–99)
4. Urban Centre and Mountainous Periphery in Dionysiac Drama / Richard Seaford (101–12)
Part II: Language, Style and Metre
5. ΔΙΑΛΑΛΗΣΩΜΕΝ ΤΙ ΣΟΙ: ʻColloquialisms’ in Satyr Drama / Willeon Slenders (115–39)
6. Im/Politeness in Satyr Drama / Marco Catrambone (141–73)
7. Satyrs Speaking like Rhetors and Sophists / Jordi Redondo (175–93)
8. Metre, Movement and Dance in Satyr Drama / Lucy C. M. M. Jackson (195–225)
Part III: Text Transmission and Criticism
9. Ancient Scholarship on Satyr Drama: The Background of Quotations in Athenaeus, Lexicographers, Grammarians, and Scholia / Paolo B. Cipolla (229–52)
10. Distinguishing Satyric from Tragic Fragments: Methodological Tools and Practical Results / Laura Carrara (253–81)
11. Eight and Counting: New Insights on the Number and Early Transmission of Euripides’ Satyr Dramas / Chiara Meccariello (283–302)
12. Some Notes on Euripides’ Cyclops / Bernd Seidensticker (303–21)
13. Thundering Polyphemus: Euripides, Cyclops 320–28 / James Diggle (323–33)

Part IV: Reflections on the Plays
14. Pratinas and Euripides: Wild Origins, Choral Self-Reference and Performative Release of Dionysian Energy in Satyr Drama / Anton Bierl (337–59)
15. Sacrificial Feasts and Euripides’ Cyclops: Between Comedy and Tragedy? / Pavlos Sfyroeras (361–73)
16. Satyric Friendship in Euripides’ Cyclops / Patrick O’Sullivan (375–94)
17. Baby-Boomer: Silenos Paidotrophos in Aeschylus’ Diktyoulkoi / Nikos G. Charalabopoulos (395–408)
18. The Riddles of Aeschylus’ Theoroi or Isthmiastai / Maurizio Sonnino (409–32)
19. Silenos on the Strange Behaviour of the Satyrs: The Case of Sophocles’ Ichneutai / Andreas P. Antonopoulos (433–48)
20. The Invention of the Lyre in Sophocles’ Ichneutai / Menelaos M. Christopoulos (449–54)
21. Satyrs in Drag: Transvestism in Ion’s Omphale and Elsewhere / Anna Uhlig (455–75)
22. Innovation and Self-promotion in Fourth-century Satyr Drama: The Cases of Chaeremon and Astydamas / Niall W. Slater (477–94)
23. Satyr Drama at a Crossroads: Plays from the Early Hellenistic Period / Agnieszka Kotlińska-Toma (495–515)

Part V: Satyric Influences
24. Plato and the Elusive Satyr (Meta)Drama / Nikos G. Charalabopoulos (519–38)
25. Traces of Satyr Dramas in the Mythographic Tradition: The Case of Pseudo-Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca / Johanna A. Michels (539–66)
26. Satyrising Cynics in the Roman Empire / Oliver Thomas (567–84)
Part VI: The Archaeological Evidence
27. Images of Satyrs and the Reception of Satyr Drama-Performances in Athenian and South Italian Vase-Painting / Ralf Krumeich (587–635)
28. Heads or Tails? Satyrs, Komasts, and Dance in Black-Figure Vase-Painting / Tyler Jo Smith (637–67)
29. Satyrs, Dolphins, Dithyramb, and Drama / Carl A. Shaw (669–94)
30. Sex, Love, and Marriage in Dionysiac Myth, Cultural Theory, and Satyr Drama / Guy Hedreen (695–716)
31. When Does a Satyr become a Satyr? Examining Satyr Children in Athenian Vase-Painting / Hollister Nolan Pritchett (717–34)
32. Beyond the Pronomos Vase: Papposilenos on Apulian Vases / T. H. Carpenter (735–47)
33. Satyr Drama in the Late Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Periods: An Epigraphical Perspective / Mali Skotheim (749–63)
34. Lowering the Curtain: (Modest) Satyrs on Stage in the Roman Empire / George W. M. Harrison (765–96)