Antigone Lecture 1 Response

I was very interested to hear about the sheer size of the Sanctuary of Dionysus. 15,000 is a lot, especially in a time when the worldwide population was way less than it is now. I am not a sports person, so I am not sure if 15,000 is small compared to some stadiums, but it seems like a crazy amount of people who gathered to see a play. Additionally, the idea that people watched other people watch the play is fascinating. Today, plays are often performed in darkness, shining the light/ attention on the stage. You can not really look around and see the reactions of those around you. I think it would be interesting to see how people react to a play no one has seen before (whereas now, you can look up any play you are about to see online to read a synopsis). As for Antigone, there is a large amount of shock factor. That combined with a collective reaction must be so cool to watch. I also think it is neat how a rich person was appointed to pay for the production. They must have been so rich that no cost was too much where the state thought they could not pay. I am curious about the financial spread of people in ancient Greece. Were some people moderately wealthy, or was it all super rich or super poor? Who was the average person who went to see the plays? Did the contents of the play affect society at large? Lots of questions, and I wish I had a time machine to go find out myself!

Comments

  1. I hadn't thought about how we watch plays/movies in the dark! All of our seats face the front, we're only supposed to absorb whats on stage. It would be super cool to learn about how writers from that time anticipating audience responses influenced their work

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  2. I think it's interesting that you brought up the size of sports venues. Almost every culture in the world views sports as something to watch or experience together as a community. This contrasts to the way we consume entertainment such as movies or performances which, as you alluded to, we treat as a much more individual experience. Why/when did humans shift away from this communal setting for the arts yet gravitate towards it for sports and other events? It's an interesting question to think about for sure.

    P.S. 15,000 is slightly smaller than the pro basketball arena in Phoenix (where I'm from) so that's definitely a pretty large crowd for anything.

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  3. Wow I really like your thoughts about the size and the fact that it is not in the dark! I actually touched on that myself in my own response and how the fact that it is not dark makes the audience have more of a community feel in how they interpret the play while being able to see one another. I think it is cool that you brought it up too because I think it has a really big influence on how the audience ends up interpreting the play in the end.

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