Aeschylus’ The Persians

This year’s costume exhibition at the Epidaurus Museum, which is housed on the site of the Ancient Theatre, is dedicated to Greek productions at Epidaurus and elsewhere of Aeschylus’ The Persians, the root of world theatre and our oldest surviving theatrical work. If that wasn’t reason enough for us to honour the play, it is also a masterpiece.

And while academics may inform us, quite rightly, that the roots of ancient tragedy lie in the Bacchanalian dithyramb and Dionysian rites—a hagiography of the birth, death and resurrection of Bacchus and the core of the frenzy and depraved carnality associated with the feast of Dionysus—the first theatrical drama has a historical theme, portraying and recording a historical moment which was contemporary for its audience: the Battle of Salamis. To avoid flattering the victors and prolonging the conceit that accompanied victory, the great tragedian chose to shift the action to Persia and to laud the victors’ triumph through the lamentation of the defeated and criticism of the vainglorious invasion. And he does so without naming names, letting it be understood that the victory was the result of Athens’ democratic institutions, education and ethos.

The Greek directors who have tackled The Persians over the last hundred years have done so using a variety of expressive means (visual, musical, vocal, lingual, bodily), but each new interpretation has had to solve the same complex problems. What, for instance, did Aeschylus actually know about the clothes of Persian courtiers and queens, about Persians’ laments and dirges and burial customs, for the work puts a ghost on stage for the first time in the history of the theatre as the Chorus summons a spirit from the underworld.

The exhibits in this year’s show bear witness to a century of interpretations of a tragedy first performed 2,481 years ago!

Kostas Georgousopoulos

June 2009

Hours: 9:00 – 21:00

Tel .: 27530 22026