0:00:02 > 0:00:06My bed, my bridal, all for misery.
0:00:06 > 0:00:07And I cannot...
0:00:09 > 0:00:14I cannot...save my child from death.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17This is one of the most shocking stories ever written.
0:00:17 > 0:00:22A mother, a princess, has lost her city and her husband in war.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27Now, she has to face the news that she is to be sold into slavery
0:00:27 > 0:00:29and her only son - killed.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34This film version of an ancient Greek play called Trojan Women
0:00:34 > 0:00:36has become a classic.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41The first time I saw it, I was moved to tears, and it still moves me now.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47It is a play about the most charged aspects of human life -
0:00:47 > 0:00:51love, war, sacrifice, fear and death.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54And although it is set amongst the gods, myths,
0:00:54 > 0:00:58and peoples of ancient Greece, it is still utterly gripping today.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01It is one of the main reasons I study Classics.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10An Athenian called Euripides wrote this play
0:01:10 > 0:01:13a little under two and a half thousand years ago.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16Back then, he was often ridiculed as an angry young man.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19But, over time, his plays have come to symbolise
0:01:19 > 0:01:23the incredible sophistication of ancient Greek civilisation.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31That civilisation has influenced almost every aspect of our lives.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35Not just drama, but politics, language, philosophy,
0:01:35 > 0:01:37art and architecture.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43To understand ourselves, it turns out,
0:01:43 > 0:01:45we need to understand the ancient Greeks.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50And the best seat from which to do that, for my money,
0:01:50 > 0:01:51is in the theatre.
0:01:53 > 0:01:58This series is about how ancient drama changed our world.
0:01:58 > 0:01:59It's the story of dramatists
0:01:59 > 0:02:02like Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides,
0:02:02 > 0:02:05who revolutionised storytelling through plays
0:02:05 > 0:02:09like Trojan Women, Antigone, Oedipus, and The Oresteia.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12It's the story of how the Ancient Greeks
0:02:12 > 0:02:15gave birth to tragedy and comedy.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19And it's the story of how theatre spread throughout Greece and beyond,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22becoming a benchmark of civilisation,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25not just for Greeks, but for the world -
0:02:25 > 0:02:26then and now.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31In this episode, I want to journey to Athens
0:02:31 > 0:02:34to explore how drama first began.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37From the very start, it was about more than just entertainment -
0:02:37 > 0:02:42it was a reaction to real events, it was a driving force in history,
0:02:42 > 0:02:45and it was deeply connected to Athenian democracy.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49In fact, the story of theatre, IS the story of Athens -
0:02:49 > 0:02:52the cultural hub of ancient Greece
0:02:52 > 0:02:55and the stage for one of the greatest shows on earth.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19The story of drama as we know it begins in a particular place,
0:03:19 > 0:03:21and a particular time -
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Athens in the 6th century before Christ.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27At that time, Greece was not a single country
0:03:27 > 0:03:31but a mass of competing city-states, or "poleis" -
0:03:31 > 0:03:34the Greek term describing a body of citizens.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38But in the late 6th century, the polis of Athens
0:03:38 > 0:03:40pulled ahead of the others -
0:03:40 > 0:03:42politically, economically and culturally.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46In the last part of the 6th century BC,
0:03:46 > 0:03:50Athens was the breeding ground for two extraordinary inventions.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52The first was democracy.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55Athens was ruled, not by kings or by cliques of aristocrats,
0:03:55 > 0:03:58but by the votes of its own citizens.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00But the second was theatre.
0:04:00 > 0:04:05Athens invented an entirely new art form - drama.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08And these two inventions were tightly intertwined
0:04:08 > 0:04:11at the beating heart of Athenian society.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13And both of them were the result
0:04:13 > 0:04:16of an extraordinary cultural revolution.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22At this time, the whole of ancient Greek culture
0:04:22 > 0:04:25underwent a historic transformation.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28The revolution extended from architecture to literature,
0:04:28 > 0:04:30from vase painting to philosophy.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33You can see the impact of that revolution clearly
0:04:33 > 0:04:35in how Greek sculpture developed.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39In the middle 6th century it was rigid, stylised,
0:04:39 > 0:04:40lacking movement and life.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43But then things began to change.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46By the 5th century, Greek artists began
0:04:46 > 0:04:49to produce some of the greatest life-like sculptures ever made.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53It all amounted, not just to a new-looking world,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56but to a whole new view of the world.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59We call it the Classical World.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01And in this ground-breaking epoch,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05drama was perhaps the biggest innovation of them all.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12Tales of love, death and war had always been passed on
0:05:12 > 0:05:16by storytellers and epic poems like Homer's Iliad
0:05:16 > 0:05:20and savage myths had been celebrated in choral dance and song.
0:05:20 > 0:05:25BUT the Athenians added actors and invented the idea of performance.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29These epic stories would now play out, not only in the mind,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32but live on stage.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35This was more than innovation, this was a revolution.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39Never before in the Greek tradition that we know of,
0:05:39 > 0:05:41in the Greek storytelling tradition,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44were things enacted rather than narrated.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48So, instead of having, "And then the king drew his sword and said..."
0:05:48 > 0:05:53Instead, a person actually draws a sword and speaks.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55I know we sort of say, "Well, children do that"
0:05:55 > 0:05:58but to do it with serious storytelling,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01with storytelling that actually delves into
0:06:01 > 0:06:03important roots in human behaviour,
0:06:03 > 0:06:08that is a very new step and to have it done in front of you,
0:06:08 > 0:06:12I think that must have been a very, very startling innovation.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14- ACTOR:- The son of Thyestes...
0:06:14 > 0:06:15Ancient Greek drama looked
0:06:15 > 0:06:18and sounded very different from drama as we know it today.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20There were no more than three or four actors.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24There was a chorus who interrupted the action with song and dance,
0:06:24 > 0:06:26and all the performers wore masks.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33When an actor began to enact rather than narrate,
0:06:33 > 0:06:35there's a kind of dangerousness about that,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39that the actor has to become a woman,
0:06:39 > 0:06:41the actor has to become a slave,
0:06:41 > 0:06:43the actor, perhaps even more dangerously,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46has to become a god and it's almost as if the mask
0:06:46 > 0:06:50is a kind of signal of the profession,
0:06:50 > 0:06:55that protects the actor against the danger of doing these things.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58- ACTOR:- Blood shoot of Aetrius...
0:06:58 > 0:07:02'The chorus are costumed and masked in an identical'
0:07:02 > 0:07:06or near identical way and they move and speak as a group.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08The chorus is not a bunch of individuals -
0:07:08 > 0:07:10for the Greeks, the chorus was a group.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14In which, in a sense, they submerged their identity.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18AND what the chorus does is, in its groupness,
0:07:18 > 0:07:22it tries to make sense of what it's witnessing.
0:07:22 > 0:07:28They're deeply emotionally involved, and the suffering becomes a song.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32And the chorus, as a group, with its group response,
0:07:32 > 0:07:33sings its choral lyrics.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37- ACTOR:- He plotted it? Single-handed? The people will stone him.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39CHORUS: You don't stand a chance.
0:07:42 > 0:07:47It seems to me, that the crucial thing is that it is simultaneously
0:07:47 > 0:07:49a very strong emotional experience
0:07:49 > 0:07:52and a very strong thought experience.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00When the Greeks came to analyse their new art form,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03they discerned three different types of play.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06Two of which we still have with us today - tragedy and comedy.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09But, in many ways, modern tragedy has actually changed
0:08:09 > 0:08:11from how ancient tragedy worked.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15For us, tragedy is a play with a sad ending,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18but for the ancient Greeks, tragedy was a play
0:08:18 > 0:08:22in which the events offered the audience a tough decision.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25And because no real ancient tragedy ends conclusively -
0:08:25 > 0:08:28siding with one course of action or another -
0:08:28 > 0:08:32what it does is face the audience with a problem.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35What would THEY do if they were in the same situation?
0:08:38 > 0:08:40Take one of the most famous plays ever written -
0:08:40 > 0:08:43Oedipus The King by Sophocles.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45It tells the story of Oedipus,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49a man who was destined to kill his father and marry his mother.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52Although this outcome is predicted by an oracle,
0:08:52 > 0:08:54Oedipus himself makes a series of free choices
0:08:54 > 0:08:56that lead to its fulfilment -
0:08:56 > 0:09:00choices that would have posed serious questions for the audience.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04The play ends with Oedipus blinding himself in despair.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10The issues dealt with in tragedy were often so disturbing
0:09:10 > 0:09:12that the plays were nearly always set away from Athens,
0:09:12 > 0:09:16in the land of myth and legend, or at very least a far away city.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18And after a series of tragedies,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21the Athenians were offered a satyr play.
0:09:21 > 0:09:22Now, we don't have this any more today
0:09:22 > 0:09:24but effectively the satyrs
0:09:24 > 0:09:27were the half-male, half-goat companions of the god of revelry,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29who would be allowed to run around the stage
0:09:29 > 0:09:32doing lots of lewd and bawdy things as a bit of light relief.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34But what we do have today is comedy.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37And ancient comedy, just like tragedy,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40spoke directly to contemporary Athenians.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46Usually set in a topsy-turvy version of real life,
0:09:46 > 0:09:51or in a realm of fantasy, they poked fun at contemporary Athens.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55The Birds is a play that mocks the Athenian obsession
0:09:55 > 0:09:57with litigation and politics.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59It tells the story of two men
0:09:59 > 0:10:03who are tired of a life of law courts and civic duties.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05To escape, they turn themselves into birds
0:10:05 > 0:10:09and create a bird city-in-the-sky called Cloud Cuckoo Land
0:10:09 > 0:10:14where they reject all attempts to impose Athenian-style law and order.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18Both comedy and tragedy sought to have a direct bearing
0:10:18 > 0:10:20on life in Athens.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23And most fascinating of all, is how they seamlessly blended together
0:10:23 > 0:10:27religion and myth with contemporary politics.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29This means that a play like The Oresteia by Aeschylus
0:10:29 > 0:10:32can start with a mythic tale from the Trojan wars
0:10:32 > 0:10:36where Agamemnon is murdered by his wife and avenged by his son Orestes,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39but can end in a courtroom, in democratic Athens,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43with Orestes on trial for the murder of his mother.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49The Oresteia is one of the biggest hits in antiquity,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53it's also one of the very few trilogies that we've got.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56So what you have is three tragedies
0:10:56 > 0:10:59and, in this case, it's got a connected story.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03How does tragedy take this smorgasbord if you like,
0:11:03 > 0:11:05and make it into a story?
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Well it's not the same problem for the ancient Greeks
0:11:08 > 0:11:09as it might be for us.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12You know there's not this idea of anachronism.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17Your mythical world, with the gods, with the Trojan war -
0:11:17 > 0:11:21all of this that we've had in the first parts with the trilogy -
0:11:21 > 0:11:26can then end in that third part with a law court in Athens,
0:11:26 > 0:11:28which would have been familiar, of course,
0:11:28 > 0:11:31from 1st century contemporary Athens.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34So you have this brilliant genre
0:11:34 > 0:11:38where you can zoom from your present day into the past
0:11:38 > 0:11:40and bring your past into your present day.
0:11:40 > 0:11:41And it's that relationship,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45that tragedy uses to say things about its contemporary society.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50To find out more about how drama and democratic Athens
0:11:50 > 0:11:52became so intimately connected,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55I want to look at how theatre first emerged.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58Everything in ancient Greece
0:11:58 > 0:12:00came under the auspices of a particular god,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04and the god controlling theatre was called Dionysus.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06He was also the god of wine and revelry
0:12:06 > 0:12:10and many scholars think that theatre evolved directly
0:12:10 > 0:12:14out of the choral songs performed in honour of Dionysus.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16But there's also something else going on here.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18Something that is suggested by the ruins
0:12:18 > 0:12:21at a place called Thorikos, near Athens.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25This region was once home to the ancient Athenian silver mines
0:12:25 > 0:12:27but is also the site
0:12:27 > 0:12:30of the oldest stone-built theatre in the Greek world.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34We're in an industrial heartland of the ancient Athenian state,
0:12:34 > 0:12:36with the ore washeries and the mineshafts
0:12:36 > 0:12:38just beyond the theatre here.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42The first phase of this theatre is late 6th century
0:12:42 > 0:12:44and that puts it in the same time
0:12:44 > 0:12:47as the invention of Athenian democracy itself.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49Which throws up another question -
0:12:49 > 0:12:54just what is the relationship between theatre and democracy?
0:12:54 > 0:12:57And how did the two help each other into being?
0:13:02 > 0:13:05It's a question that has been debated by scholars for centuries -
0:13:05 > 0:13:09were theatre and democracy connected from the very start?
0:13:09 > 0:13:14Now I actually buy into the story that tragic drama
0:13:14 > 0:13:17IS a democratic invention.
0:13:17 > 0:13:18I have a particular take
0:13:18 > 0:13:22because I am one of those who think that Athenian tragic drama
0:13:22 > 0:13:25was deeply, strongly politicised.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29Not just, it happened in a polis but it happened in a polis
0:13:29 > 0:13:33of a particular sort and could not have happened before Athens
0:13:33 > 0:13:38became a polis of that particular sort, a democratic one.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41The theatrical side seems to coincide
0:13:41 > 0:13:45fairly closely with the political identity.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47Theatrical activities of some sort or another
0:13:47 > 0:13:50were one of the ways in which they expressed the fact
0:13:50 > 0:13:51that now they all belonged together,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54this was the place to which they came and in which they acted.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56It's about, you know,
0:13:56 > 0:13:59the local community feeling itself to be a local community.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04I'm on my way to visit one of the smaller Athenian communities
0:14:04 > 0:14:06to try and find some more proof
0:14:06 > 0:14:10about the connection between drama and politics.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13I want to see what the archaeology itself has to say.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16Now, neither for theatre nor for democracy,
0:14:16 > 0:14:18was there any kind of immaculate conception.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Nor were either born into the fully-developed form
0:14:21 > 0:14:23that we recognize them today.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26Both developed, arm-in-arm, over time.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28And all around us as we drive in Attica,
0:14:28 > 0:14:29we can see the building blocks,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32the basis of the Athenian democratic system.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40People tend to think of Athenians as city dwellers,
0:14:40 > 0:14:41but much of the population
0:14:41 > 0:14:45actually lived in village communities called demes.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49There were 139 demes making up the Athenian democracy
0:14:49 > 0:14:52and each deme governed itself.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54The deme I'm looking for is one of the remotest -
0:14:54 > 0:14:57it's called Rhamnous.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59The people who lived here were mostly farmers,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02but all the male citizens voted for the council,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05and on local regulations and on by-laws.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07And right at the heart of the community,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10are the remains of what was once a theatre.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15This is what I've come looking for on this very hot afternoon -
0:15:15 > 0:15:17an inscription that shows us democracy
0:15:17 > 0:15:20at its most local level in operation.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24"Dionisoi" - to Dionysus...
0:15:25 > 0:15:30"Hypo tes boules" - from the Boule,
0:15:30 > 0:15:35the local council controlling this deme, here in Attica.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38And it's to Dionysus because, yes, you've guessed it,
0:15:38 > 0:15:42we're in a theatre - a theatre, the space of Dionysus.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45The privileged seats for the distinguished local clientele,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48and the stage set out before us.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51Religion, politics, theatre...
0:15:51 > 0:15:54at democracy's most local level.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02These theatres really were far more than just places of entertainment,
0:16:02 > 0:16:06they were places where the whole deme would gather together.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09No-one's going to bother to build a theatre
0:16:09 > 0:16:12just for a couple of days of drama a year.
0:16:12 > 0:16:13But the theatres here,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16at the lowest, most basic level of the Athenian democracy,
0:16:16 > 0:16:20seem to have also been used as multi-purpose civic spaces,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24giving them all-year-round potential, not just for drama,
0:16:24 > 0:16:28but also for democracy and democratic action itself.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33And THAT is what the archaeology is really beginning to uncover -
0:16:33 > 0:16:37not only the demes, but the deme theatres,
0:16:37 > 0:16:38spreading across all of Attica.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44The use of theatres for democratic activity
0:16:44 > 0:16:46seems to have been the case, not just in the demes,
0:16:46 > 0:16:48but in the city of Athens itself.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52Every year, the democratic authorities spent a fortune
0:16:52 > 0:16:56on the Great Dionysia Festival - a drama competition
0:16:56 > 0:16:58that took place in the Theatre of Dionysus
0:16:58 > 0:17:00in honour of the god of theatre.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04It's through understanding the different stages of this festival
0:17:04 > 0:17:07that we can get closer to understanding what ancient Athenians
0:17:07 > 0:17:11experienced when they watched and created drama.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13The festival began with a procession -
0:17:13 > 0:17:15a rowdy affair with feasting, drinking
0:17:15 > 0:17:18and a great crowd of people parading through the streets
0:17:18 > 0:17:23with a statue of the god and a small herd of sacrificial animals.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27When it reached the altar of the 12 Olympian Gods in the marketplace,
0:17:27 > 0:17:29the first thing that happened was a holy dance.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35The cult of Dionysus is very much
0:17:35 > 0:17:38a psychological thing.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41Wine was, of course, very important,
0:17:41 > 0:17:43everyone knows that,
0:17:43 > 0:17:46but the thing was that by drinking wine,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48you were getting closer to the god
0:17:48 > 0:17:52and the more wine you drink, the more you step out of yourself
0:17:52 > 0:17:54and get closer to the god.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58And that is also what happens when you're dancing,
0:17:58 > 0:18:03you're getting outside yourself, so to say, but also by, for example,
0:18:03 > 0:18:04wearing a mask...
0:18:05 > 0:18:08The ancient people thought that when you were wearing a mask,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11you really become someone else.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14- And the Greek word is... - It's ecstasies.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19- So "ec" - out, "stasis" - of one's self, of one's stance.- Yes.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23- And that's our ecstasy. - It is the ecstasy as we know it.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25- The ecstasy of the god.- Yeah.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32The procession then surged through the streets
0:18:32 > 0:18:34along a route lined with tripods -
0:18:34 > 0:18:38monuments put up by the proud sponsors of the winning plays.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40Often politicians,
0:18:40 > 0:18:43they spent fortunes funding dramatic productions,
0:18:43 > 0:18:46and marked their victories with monuments like this one -
0:18:46 > 0:18:49put up by a winner from the 4th century BC.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55So, the drama festival was more than an opportunity for staging plays,
0:18:55 > 0:18:58it was a chance for the leading figures of Athens
0:18:58 > 0:19:03to stage their generosity, and their success to the whole city.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07Finally, having wound its way right around the Acropolis,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11the procession emerged noisily into the precinct of Dionysus.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15By now, the participants were becoming a single entity.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20It was a religious but also a political incident, actually.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23You know, the whole city, so to say,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26steps toward the god
0:19:26 > 0:19:30in order to worship the god
0:19:30 > 0:19:34and they show not only their piety
0:19:34 > 0:19:37but also that they belong together.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39So... It's an extraordinary idea, isn't it?
0:19:39 > 0:19:42That when they take their seats in theatre, it's no longer,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45we would say in English, "It's no longer Joe Bloggs and somebody" -
0:19:45 > 0:19:47it's no longer the farmer and the individuals,
0:19:47 > 0:19:51it is a collective of people with a new identity
0:19:51 > 0:19:55- which is that of worshippers of the god Dionysus.- Yes, correct.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59- It's a bit different to going to the theatre today, right?- It is indeed.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04All of this put the audience into a receptive state
0:20:04 > 0:20:07for the drama competition that was to follow.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10But first, as they took their seats in the theatre,
0:20:10 > 0:20:13there was one more important set of rituals to come.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16The audience were seated here,
0:20:16 > 0:20:20perhaps in the same groupings as when they went to war.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22The citizens of Athens who were acting on the stage,
0:20:22 > 0:20:26were acting in the same groups as when they went to war.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29And in the front seats of the theatre were the reserved seats
0:20:29 > 0:20:33for various priests of the city, and for the important civic officials.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38And then, before the plays began, there were a series of events.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41First, a libation - an offering to the gods were poured
0:20:41 > 0:20:43in the centre of the stage by the generals,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46the military generals of the city.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49Then, a parade of tribute,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52of all the money paid by the cities and states of the Athenian empire
0:20:52 > 0:20:56to Athens, was literally taken across the stage,
0:20:56 > 0:20:59paraded in front of an audience that contained members
0:20:59 > 0:21:03from those same city-states which had to pay all that money.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06Then a list of all those who had benefited the city in some way
0:21:06 > 0:21:08was read out.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12And finally, onto the stage were brought the orphans,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16those whose parents had died fighting for the city in battle
0:21:16 > 0:21:18and whom the city would now
0:21:18 > 0:21:22take on the expenses of bringing up and educating.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26They came on, dressed themselves in the armour of war
0:21:26 > 0:21:30and took their seats, their special seats here in the theatre.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32Only then could the plays begin.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38From dawn until dusk, for five days,
0:21:38 > 0:21:40the citizen audience watched three playwrights
0:21:40 > 0:21:44each put on three tragedies as well as a farcical satyr play,
0:21:44 > 0:21:46and some comedies.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49At their heart were issues of justice and loyalty,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52war and peace, vengeance and compassion,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56which sent powerful messages to the citizen audience.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01In the centuries of Athens' greatness,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04over 1,000 plays were written for the Dionysia.
0:22:04 > 0:22:09But today, just 32 of them survive in full.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11And those 32 have survived, in part,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14because they were considered to be the greatest.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17And they were all written by just three people -
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides -
0:22:20 > 0:22:23the great tragedians of the 5th century BC.
0:22:26 > 0:22:27Aeschylus was the first.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29He was the author of the Oresteia,
0:22:29 > 0:22:32the only whole trilogy to have survived.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35Sophocles wrote two of the most enduring plays -
0:22:35 > 0:22:37Oedipus The King and Antigone,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40which tells the tragic story of Oedipus' daughter
0:22:40 > 0:22:41who is sentenced to death
0:22:41 > 0:22:45for breaking the law and burying her rebel brother.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47But, of all the playwrights, Euripides is now considered
0:22:47 > 0:22:50in many ways to have been the best.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53He wrote the play Medea, with its shocking tale
0:22:53 > 0:22:55of a woman betrayed by her husband
0:22:55 > 0:22:57who takes revenge by killing her own children.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03The playwrights of ancient Athens were all gurus of the city
0:23:03 > 0:23:07in one form or another - Aeschylus the war hero,
0:23:07 > 0:23:09Sophocles the civic official,
0:23:09 > 0:23:13and Euripides, the sort of enfant terrible of Athenian society.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18The Greek word for playwright is "didaskalos",
0:23:18 > 0:23:21which means "trainer", or "teacher".
0:23:21 > 0:23:23Now, in part, that refers to the playwright's role
0:23:23 > 0:23:25in training the chorus for their play,
0:23:25 > 0:23:30BUT many believe it also refers to the role of the playwright
0:23:30 > 0:23:35in training the audience for participation in democracy itself.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39If we take Sophocles' Ajax, as an example -
0:23:39 > 0:23:42it's a retelling of a classic myth
0:23:42 > 0:23:45set in the time of the legendary war between the Greeks and the Trojans.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47And, on the one hand, it's just that
0:23:47 > 0:23:50but on the other it's also a lesson,
0:23:50 > 0:23:55a lesson in the sacrifices that have to be made for democracy to work.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04Ajax was one of the warriors who fought with the Greeks at Troy.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08After the death of Achilles, the greatest hero of them all,
0:24:08 > 0:24:12the Greeks take a vote on who should get his weapons.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16They choose Odysseus, not Ajax, and Ajax is furious.
0:24:18 > 0:24:23Unable to accept the result of the vote, he goes on a killing spree.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26And ultimately, consumed by the shame of his actions -
0:24:26 > 0:24:28he is driven to suicide.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34The motor of this play is a vote -
0:24:34 > 0:24:36a process that would have been very familiar
0:24:36 > 0:24:39to the democratic citizens of ancient Athens.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43But it's a vote that Ajax refuses to accept.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47Ajax is the antithesis of the good democratic citizen.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49But the play also goes further.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51Because, for me, the key moment
0:24:51 > 0:24:54is actually what happens after Ajax's death.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57What Sophocles has the other Greeks do
0:24:57 > 0:24:59is debate about how they should proceed.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03And some argue that Ajax should not be buried because of his actions
0:25:03 > 0:25:06but Odysseus steps in to argue that he should be buried.
0:25:07 > 0:25:12"Do not fling his body out unburied, treated so unfeelingly.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16"And don't let force have such control of you that you allow
0:25:16 > 0:25:19"your hate to trample justice down."
0:25:19 > 0:25:22For scholars, this is the critical point in the play.
0:25:24 > 0:25:25There's a real danger in Ajax
0:25:25 > 0:25:29that because you've got these two extraordinary episodes
0:25:29 > 0:25:30that are bloody and shocking,
0:25:30 > 0:25:33you think the play is about those two episodes
0:25:33 > 0:25:34that are bloody and shocking.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38But I think the play is about the process of debate
0:25:38 > 0:25:40that leads to decisions
0:25:40 > 0:25:47in the wake of actions that really you haven't been able to cope with.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51So, this is a play that stages debate
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and it stages it in all its forms.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58One way of thinking about Ajax is as a hermetical bronze age
0:25:58 > 0:26:02or archaic warrior stuck in a much more modern political system.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06He has values about being an individual and being a hero,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09not being a co-operative person...
0:26:09 > 0:26:11that make him very difficult,
0:26:11 > 0:26:15as if individuals can no longer be powerful figures in a democracy.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17- A man out of time, out of place? - Yes.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21So, this may be someone who is hardly a role model citizen
0:26:21 > 0:26:23but there are going to be lots of people in Athens
0:26:23 > 0:26:25who are hardly role model citizens.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35Athens, no doubt, had its own fair share of bigheads
0:26:35 > 0:26:39and glory seekers - people who just wouldn't work within the democracy.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41And this play plays out the dilemma
0:26:41 > 0:26:43of what do you do with those kinds of people?
0:26:43 > 0:26:46How do you keep the democracy on track?
0:26:46 > 0:26:50And that, for me, is why Odysseus' intervention is so crucial,
0:26:50 > 0:26:52because he shows that you need to have empathy with these people
0:26:52 > 0:26:56and you need to let justice run its course.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58Odysseus offers a way for the community
0:26:58 > 0:27:01to come back together, make a joint decision and move forward.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06And that's why this play is such a great example
0:27:06 > 0:27:10of what theatre did in ancient Athenian society -
0:27:10 > 0:27:12it told a story, it posed problems,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15it asked questions, questions of the audience
0:27:15 > 0:27:18about what would you do in this kind of situation,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21a situation which they would undoubtedly have to face up to
0:27:21 > 0:27:23at some point in their lives.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28Theatre was vital to the processes that played out
0:27:28 > 0:27:31here on the Pnyx, home of the Athenian assembly.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35It was the oil that allowed democracy to function.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38A contained space which allowed for a continual process
0:27:38 > 0:27:42of risky reflection, self-doubt and debate.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45It's no accident that the most important words
0:27:45 > 0:27:48in any Greek tragedy are "Ti draso?" -
0:27:48 > 0:27:50"What shall I do?"
0:27:50 > 0:27:53Theatre and democracy had grown up together
0:27:53 > 0:27:56and were now inextricably linked in Athenian minds
0:27:56 > 0:27:59and every year, for almost the next two centuries,
0:27:59 > 0:28:02the Athenians came to the theatre
0:28:02 > 0:28:05to rework the old myths into tragic dramas
0:28:05 > 0:28:08that spoke to the problems that had beset
0:28:08 > 0:28:10and were fundamental
0:28:10 > 0:28:13to one of the most important and interesting stories in history -
0:28:13 > 0:28:16The Rise and Fall of Athens.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20And, at the same time, those very same people were here,
0:28:20 > 0:28:23in the assembly, making the decisions
0:28:23 > 0:28:25that affected those events.
0:28:27 > 0:28:29It's therefore no surprise
0:28:29 > 0:28:32that a common subject matter in Athenian drama
0:28:32 > 0:28:37was a problem that constantly dogged the Athenian assembly - war.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39And one war in particular fired the imagination
0:28:39 > 0:28:41of the playwright Aeschylus,
0:28:41 > 0:28:43who lived through the real life drama
0:28:43 > 0:28:45and was inspired to write what is now
0:28:45 > 0:28:49the first ancient Greek play to survive in full.
0:28:49 > 0:28:54In 490 BC, less than 20 years after the democracy was established,
0:28:54 > 0:28:58Athens was attacked by the greatest power on earth - the Persian empire.
0:29:01 > 0:29:06The first crisis came at Marathon, 26 miles from the city of Athens.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11A Persian fleet arrived with an enormous army.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Although outnumbered, the Athenians attacked,
0:29:14 > 0:29:16and against all the odds, they triumphed.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22The Athenian dead were commemorated by a memorial barrow
0:29:22 > 0:29:23near the battlefield,
0:29:23 > 0:29:25which is impressive even today.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30But ten years later, the Persians were back with an army
0:29:30 > 0:29:32said to have been more than a million strong.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36As it bore down on Athens, the assembly passed a heroic decree
0:29:36 > 0:29:39at the urging of a leading general called Themistocles.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42Amazingly, a later copy of the decree
0:29:42 > 0:29:45actually survives in an Athens museum.
0:29:45 > 0:29:50This is one of the most evocative inscriptions surviving to us today.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54It's a decree of the people of Athens and here's the key word -
0:29:54 > 0:29:57"Salamina" - Salamis.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00This is the decree recording the decision
0:30:00 > 0:30:03by the Athenian people to evacuate their home city
0:30:03 > 0:30:06and go to the island of Salamis
0:30:06 > 0:30:11to save themselves from the invading hordes of Persians.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13This is the record of one of the most key moments
0:30:13 > 0:30:15in the whole of ancient history.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22The Athenians abandoned their city and took to their ships,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25leaving only a few men barricaded on the Acropolis.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31The Persians ransacked the city, destroying the temples.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33But the Athenian gamble paid off -
0:30:33 > 0:30:36the Athenian fleet defeated the Persians
0:30:36 > 0:30:38in the narrows off Salamis.
0:30:38 > 0:30:39Greece was saved.
0:30:40 > 0:30:45And witnessing it all, not from afar but at close range, was Aeschylus.
0:30:47 > 0:30:52Aeschylus wasn't just a playwright - he was also a soldier.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55He stood in the Athenian ranks on the plane at Marathon,
0:30:55 > 0:30:59on that fateful day when the Persians first arrived.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02He was part of the victorious Athenian army,
0:31:02 > 0:31:05but he also lost his brother on the battlefield.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08Aeschylus, in his own epitaph,
0:31:08 > 0:31:11preferred to be remembered for his role here at Marathon,
0:31:11 > 0:31:13rather than for his plays.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16Without doubt, it was his extraordinary experiences
0:31:16 > 0:31:20here on the battlefield that gave him a unique perspective
0:31:20 > 0:31:24and allowed him to represent war on stage
0:31:24 > 0:31:27in a way that has echoed ever since.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32Aeschylus composed over 90 plays in his lifetime
0:31:32 > 0:31:34and of the few that survive,
0:31:34 > 0:31:36the play that he composed about these great events
0:31:36 > 0:31:41is one of the most moving, and one of the most fascinating.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45In 472 BC, Aeschylus produced a play called The Persians,
0:31:45 > 0:31:49and it's the first ancient tragedy to survive to us in full today.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54Its sponsor was no-one less than the future democratic hero Pericles.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58But what's really surprising about it is its subject matter,
0:31:58 > 0:32:01because it tells the story of how the Persians
0:32:01 > 0:32:05reacted to the news of their defeat at the battle of Salamis,
0:32:05 > 0:32:09a battle that those in the audience had fought and won
0:32:09 > 0:32:11just eight years before.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17The play is set in the Persian capital.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19A messenger arrives at the Persian court
0:32:19 > 0:32:21with the news of the Greek victory.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24The Persians cannot believe that they have been defeated,
0:32:24 > 0:32:26and they fall to pieces.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28In their misery,
0:32:28 > 0:32:32they summon the ghost of the previous King Darius for advice.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35The ghost of Darius tells the Persians
0:32:35 > 0:32:37that they themselves are to blame for their defeat,
0:32:37 > 0:32:40because their pride and their ambition
0:32:40 > 0:32:42has led them to disregard the gods.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49"The voiceless heaps of slaughtered corpses shall eloquently show
0:32:49 > 0:32:53"that no one human should puff up inflated thoughts.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56"You see how insolence, once opened into flower,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59"produces fields ripe with calamity
0:32:59 > 0:33:02"and reaps a harvest-home of sorrow."
0:33:02 > 0:33:05This is the crucial theme of the play.
0:33:05 > 0:33:10Well, I think, really, at its heart, it's almost a tragedy about hubris.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14- Hmm.- This idea of, sometimes translated as "arrogance",
0:33:14 > 0:33:18something like that - going too far, crossing a line, transgressing.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21And the Persians had done that.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24They thought big, they thought they could go and take Greece.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26They didn't win and, actually,
0:33:26 > 0:33:28part of what the play is exploring
0:33:28 > 0:33:31is the idea that big empires can fall.
0:33:31 > 0:33:32What kind of resonance
0:33:32 > 0:33:37and implications does a play like The Persians have for us today?
0:33:37 > 0:33:41It deals with one of these eternal themes - it looks at war.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44It looks at the destruction, the loss,
0:33:44 > 0:33:47the risks you run if you go to war.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50They became really popular with the Gulf War
0:33:50 > 0:33:54and with the Iraq War as well and this is a really interesting one.
0:33:54 > 0:33:56In some modern productions,
0:33:56 > 0:33:59what you get is costume that really tells you
0:33:59 > 0:34:04that the audience should be making a link with contemporary war.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07What point is Aeschylus making, do you think, with that?
0:34:07 > 0:34:10I mean this is an amazingly difficult question to answer,
0:34:10 > 0:34:15you can't even imagine how this must have felt for the audience.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19They'd had their city sacked, they'd really come close
0:34:19 > 0:34:23to being completely occupied by Persia.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27- This play is, on one level really celebratory...- Yeah.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30But you have to imagine it operating on another level as well
0:34:30 > 0:34:34because there are incredibly moving speeches in this -
0:34:34 > 0:34:39the language isn't just victorious, if you like.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41I think it tells us a lot about what tragedy is doing,
0:34:41 > 0:34:45it is complex and it doesn't make it easy on the audience
0:34:45 > 0:34:48and it's really asking the society to reflect.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57This play, for me, is both an exception to normal tragedy
0:34:57 > 0:35:00AND a fantastic example of it.
0:35:00 > 0:35:05It's an exception because unlike most that focus on mythical stories,
0:35:05 > 0:35:08this focuses on real and recent history.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11But it's a fantastic example of what tragedy does
0:35:11 > 0:35:14because it doesn't just allow the Athenians
0:35:14 > 0:35:16to gloat over their victory.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18Instead, it offers a warning.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21For the Persians, pride came before a fall,
0:35:21 > 0:35:24and at a time when Athens and the Athenians
0:35:24 > 0:35:28were beginning to grow in their own power within the Greek world,
0:35:28 > 0:35:30the play offers that same message -
0:35:30 > 0:35:34"be careful or you too could end up just like the Persians."
0:35:36 > 0:35:42This warning had a direct bearing on the current situation in Athens.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44In the aftermath of the Persian wars,
0:35:44 > 0:35:47Athens reached the peak of her power and influence
0:35:47 > 0:35:51and the fleet that had secured victory at Salamis
0:35:51 > 0:35:53now reached out across the Aegean.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59Athens became the leading city-state in a new anti-Persian alliance.
0:35:59 > 0:36:04But what began as a free coalition, was soon under Athenian control.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11The financial muscle at Athens' command allowed it eventually
0:36:11 > 0:36:13to turn the free alliance of Greek cities and states,
0:36:13 > 0:36:18that had been brought together to wreak revenge on the Persians,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21into an empire solely to support the glory of Athens.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23And it was policed by the mighty
0:36:23 > 0:36:27and yet brutal majesty of the supreme Athenian fleet.
0:36:27 > 0:36:29The war-chest for that free alliance,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32which had been kept on the sacred island of Delos,
0:36:32 > 0:36:35was moved to Athens, placed on the Acropolis
0:36:35 > 0:36:37and eventually into a building - the Parthenon -
0:36:37 > 0:36:42which has today become synonymous with democracy and freedom.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44And yet which was originally built
0:36:44 > 0:36:46with the blood-money of Athenian empire.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53Every year, each city in the alliance or empire,
0:36:53 > 0:36:55contributed money in silver as tribute,
0:36:55 > 0:36:58and this money was displayed in the theatre, in Athens,
0:36:58 > 0:37:01at the Great Dionysia Festival.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05But when any members of the empire refused these payments,
0:37:05 > 0:37:07Athens sent a fleet to attack them.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10Having an empire meant that the Athenian assembly
0:37:10 > 0:37:12was now making life-or-death decisions,
0:37:12 > 0:37:16not just about themselves but about cities and peoples far away
0:37:16 > 0:37:18who had no real say in the matter.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24These decisions were far from easy, as the Athenians discovered
0:37:24 > 0:37:28when they had to decide how to deal with the city of Mytilene.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35In 428 BC, the city of Mytilene
0:37:35 > 0:37:37rebelled against the Athenian empire.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40The Athenian assembly met to decide how to respond.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43The hardliners wanted to execute every man
0:37:43 > 0:37:45and enslave every woman in the city -
0:37:45 > 0:37:48the moderates just to execute the ringleaders.
0:37:48 > 0:37:49On the first day of debate,
0:37:49 > 0:37:52the Athenian assembly sided with the hardliners.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56They even dispatched a trireme to Mytilene to carry out those orders.
0:37:56 > 0:37:58And yet when they met on the second day,
0:37:58 > 0:38:02the Athenian assembly started to doubt its own decision.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05And indeed they went on to reverse it, sending a second trireme
0:38:05 > 0:38:08which got there just in time.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11Now these events not only brought great relief to the Mytileneans
0:38:11 > 0:38:15but it also brought home to the Athenians the critical importance
0:38:15 > 0:38:19of thinking through properly their decisions before taking action.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25Dealing with life and death decisions like this
0:38:25 > 0:38:29had always lain at the heart of Athenian drama.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32And authors like the prize-winning Sophocles forced the audience
0:38:32 > 0:38:38to experience vicariously the consequences of sloppy thinking.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42In 442 BC, Sophocles won yet another victory at the City Dionysia
0:38:42 > 0:38:44with his play Antigone.
0:38:44 > 0:38:46Now, Sophocles was a man intensely involved
0:38:46 > 0:38:48with the affairs of the Athenian state.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50He had been a general and he would go on
0:38:50 > 0:38:52to become one of its closest advisers
0:38:52 > 0:38:55during its darkest hours in future years.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57And his play Antigone deals with exactly this kind of thing -
0:38:57 > 0:39:01how to debate and argue through the difficult
0:39:01 > 0:39:04and yet critical issues that face a city.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08And what can happen when it all goes terribly wrong.
0:39:13 > 0:39:18The play tells the sad story of Oedipus' daughter Princess Antigone.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22When Antigone buries the body of her rebel brother,
0:39:22 > 0:39:24she is following the law of the gods.
0:39:24 > 0:39:28But the city's law and her uncle, King Creon have forbidden it.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32Creon is furious, and condemns her to death.
0:39:35 > 0:39:40Creon's son Haemon, who is in love with Antigone,
0:39:40 > 0:39:42urges his father to reconsider.
0:39:43 > 0:39:49He argues that "A city is not a city if it is the holding of one man."
0:39:49 > 0:39:51But Creon is stubborn and uncompromising.
0:39:51 > 0:39:56He refuses to listen, and refuses to back down.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59The play ends with Antigone and Haemon both committing suicide
0:39:59 > 0:40:02and with Creon facing the displeasure of his people
0:40:02 > 0:40:03and of the gods.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06Creon has to face the fact that his actions,
0:40:06 > 0:40:08and his alone, have caused this disaster.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15All of Greek tragedy stages dilemmas that cities under leaders have,
0:40:15 > 0:40:19where they're faced with either very bad luck
0:40:19 > 0:40:22or very bad management, or both.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25Now, at one end of that spectrum you've got Oedipus,
0:40:25 > 0:40:29who has very, very, very bad luck - he's doomed before he's even born.
0:40:29 > 0:40:31How do you react to that?
0:40:31 > 0:40:34How do you conduct yourself in a situation with very bad luck?
0:40:34 > 0:40:38Right at the other end is the story of Oedipus' daughter Antigone,
0:40:38 > 0:40:43faced with THE most incompetent leader in all of Greek literature
0:40:43 > 0:40:45and that is saying something.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49Creon simply cannot put a foot right, so Sophocles is asking people
0:40:49 > 0:40:51to think about what a good leader might be
0:40:51 > 0:40:54through showing them the worst possible leader
0:40:54 > 0:40:56and the Athenians loved that
0:40:56 > 0:41:00so much that Antiquity said they made him general in response.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03Creon is getting pretty a bad stick from Edith
0:41:03 > 0:41:08but there is a real sense in which the issue at the centre of the play
0:41:08 > 0:41:12is an issue that arises even in Athenian law.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14In Athenian law, if someone is a traitor
0:41:14 > 0:41:16they are not to be buried -
0:41:16 > 0:41:18you have to take them beyond the borders
0:41:18 > 0:41:20and you can then bury them outside.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23If you're a dimark in Athens
0:41:23 > 0:41:27and there is a dead body in your deign you are obliged to bury it.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30So, immediately that clash of,
0:41:30 > 0:41:32"Yes, you must bury it but no, you can't"
0:41:32 > 0:41:35arises if the dead body happens to be a traitor.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39So this isn't a non issue, this is a real issue
0:41:39 > 0:41:43and Creon may make a complete fist of resolving it
0:41:43 > 0:41:46but he makes a fist because
0:41:46 > 0:41:50there are two diametrically opposed, justifiable views
0:41:50 > 0:41:53and you then have to pick your way through these.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03Due to his dogged determination for others to do
0:42:03 > 0:42:08exactly what he wants, his inability to listen, to compromise,
0:42:08 > 0:42:10Creon ends up paying the ultimate price -
0:42:10 > 0:42:14the loss of his family and his authority.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18It's a play about listening, debate, compromise,
0:42:18 > 0:42:20what it takes to be a leader.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22Those are issues which, of course, had relevance
0:42:22 > 0:42:25to the ancient Athenians watching the play,
0:42:25 > 0:42:30but they're also issues that are relevant to any society at any time.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34That's what makes Antigone so timeless.
0:42:36 > 0:42:41It's got universal appeal because it's about someone
0:42:41 > 0:42:44fighting against the system and a system that's wrong.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47I mean, that's how it gets picked up now
0:42:47 > 0:42:51and that's what really appeals to modern audiences, I think, about it.
0:42:51 > 0:42:52A play like Antigone,
0:42:52 > 0:42:55what kind of resonance does that have for us today?
0:42:55 > 0:42:59Thinking about this adaptation that Jean Anouilh
0:42:59 > 0:43:05produced in 1944 in France while it was being occupied by Nazis -
0:43:05 > 0:43:08that's a real example where you've got this play
0:43:08 > 0:43:13which is really taken on and championed by the Resistance.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17How did it ever get permission to be performed
0:43:17 > 0:43:20if it's such a play of resistance?
0:43:20 > 0:43:23Well, I think that's the ambiguity of the play.
0:43:23 > 0:43:28So, for the occupying force, for the Vichy government,
0:43:28 > 0:43:30actually, you can look at this play and think,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33"This is a play about law and imposing law"
0:43:33 > 0:43:36and actually this is a silly little girl
0:43:36 > 0:43:39who breaks that law and she gets what's coming to her.
0:43:39 > 0:43:44So, it's that ambiguity that allows, even in those circumstances,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47this great play of resistance, for some people, to be put on.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56Tragedy was an effective way of engaging with the issues
0:43:56 > 0:44:00that beset the democracy, but it was not the only way.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02There was also comedy.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06Comedy was irreverent, rude and bawdy,
0:44:06 > 0:44:10and it was also personal, targeting real individuals.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14And just like today, ordinary Athenians in the marketplace
0:44:14 > 0:44:18were deeply suspicious of their elected political leaders.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21Some people, it seems, were just naturally born
0:44:21 > 0:44:22to successfully navigate
0:44:22 > 0:44:26the slippery waters of Athenian politics.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29And one of those guys was a man called Cleon.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31HE SPEAKS GREEK
0:44:31 > 0:44:36Now, Cleon was what we would call today an opportunistic politician.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38He would be with the aristocrats or he would be spurring
0:44:38 > 0:44:42on the lowest of the low of the Athenian citizenry.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46And the ancient commentators are fairly hard on Cleon.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48Today we'd probably be a bit more balanced,
0:44:48 > 0:44:50but without a shadow of a doubt
0:44:50 > 0:44:53he would do whatever it took to get whatever he wanted.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56Naturally, he had his enemies.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59They accused him of being greedy, not just for power,
0:44:59 > 0:45:02but for fresh-caught tuna,
0:45:02 > 0:45:06seen back then as a luxury desired by the rich and anti-democratic.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12How could the democracy keep people like this in check
0:45:12 > 0:45:14while not killing off their energy and enthusiasm
0:45:14 > 0:45:17that at the end of the day benefited the city?
0:45:17 > 0:45:21Well, one of the ways they did it was in the theatre,
0:45:21 > 0:45:24by taking the piss out of them, right in their very face.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33Comedies, while performed at the Dionysia Festival,
0:45:33 > 0:45:35also had their own smaller festival.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37It was called the Lenaia.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39It took place early in January,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41long before the season for sailing started,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44so there were no foreigners present.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47This meant that comic writers could really let rip
0:45:47 > 0:45:50without letting the city down.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52What you have is really lively plays,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56very outrageous plays sometimes
0:45:56 > 0:45:58but they are politically involved.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02The settings can be amazing in the real sense, incredible.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06You have comedies that go to the underworld,
0:46:06 > 0:46:07they go to hell
0:46:07 > 0:46:10and that's where you get these animal choruses like frogs.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14This is a frog that was used
0:46:14 > 0:46:18in the King's College Greek play.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21Animal choruses are quite common in comedy.
0:46:21 > 0:46:23You've got, for example, the chorus here...
0:46:24 > 0:46:28These guys performing and the songs that they get to sing,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31I mean, this is a great source of comedy.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35What kind of level of biting satire are we talking about here
0:46:35 > 0:46:37in ancient comedy?
0:46:37 > 0:46:38It's extremely personal,
0:46:38 > 0:46:42there's insults really of quite an infantile nature.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45You have plays which put politicians as one of the characters,
0:46:45 > 0:46:47very thinly disguised,
0:46:47 > 0:46:51but they'll be the leading politicians of the day.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55Their policies will be clear, the way they speak might be parodied,
0:46:55 > 0:46:59even the mask can reflect characters from Athenian society.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03This was the sort of thing that lay in store
0:47:03 > 0:47:07for ambitious politicians like Cleon.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10And the man who was the real expert at this
0:47:10 > 0:47:13was a comic playwright called Aristophanes.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17And for Aristophanes and Cleon, it was a grudge match -
0:47:17 > 0:47:19they even came from the same village.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28In 425 BC, Aristophanes wrote a play called The Knights.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30It portrays Cleon as a cunning servant
0:47:30 > 0:47:34working for an old man called Demos.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38Demos represents the people, and as his crafty servant,
0:47:38 > 0:47:40Cleon misuses his position
0:47:40 > 0:47:44for the purposes of extortion and corruption.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47Yet, in the end, is it Demos who has the last laugh.
0:47:47 > 0:47:52Cleon's corrupt ways are exposed, he loses his position
0:47:52 > 0:47:54and he is reduced to selling sausages
0:47:54 > 0:47:56outside the Athens' city gates.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59Aristophanes didn't pull any punches -
0:47:59 > 0:48:02this play brings Cleon right back down to earth.
0:48:02 > 0:48:04And, of course, the politicians,
0:48:04 > 0:48:06about whom the jokes were being made,
0:48:06 > 0:48:09were right here, visible to all in the audience.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11So it's like having one of our shows,
0:48:11 > 0:48:14The Daily Show in the States or Have I Got News For You here,
0:48:14 > 0:48:16being played out in an important civic space -
0:48:16 > 0:48:19the Capitol or the House of Commons -
0:48:19 > 0:48:21with the people they're taking the piss out of
0:48:21 > 0:48:22sitting right here in the audience,
0:48:22 > 0:48:24having to take it in front of everyone.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26The Greeks even had a word for this -
0:48:26 > 0:48:29they called these people, the "komedoumenoi",
0:48:29 > 0:48:32those made fun of in comedy.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34And this isn't just some sort of sideshow.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37This, many ancient commentators saw,
0:48:37 > 0:48:40as the hallmark of ancient Athenian democracy
0:48:40 > 0:48:42and of freedom and free speech.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47The laughter didn't stop Cleon's career.
0:48:47 > 0:48:52Despite his slippery reputation, he was elected again and again.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55But the effect of comedy was more subtle than that.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58What it did do, was police the boundaries of behaviour,
0:48:58 > 0:49:02skewer pretensions and remind those in positions of power
0:49:02 > 0:49:06of their responsibilities and of the limits of their ambitions.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09It's a kind of satire that we can still see at work
0:49:09 > 0:49:11in our own democracy today.
0:49:11 > 0:49:16By the time of Cleon, this experiment in Athenian democracy
0:49:16 > 0:49:18was heading towards its centenary.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21And in that time it had seen it all, from fighting for survival,
0:49:21 > 0:49:25to cultural supremacy, to empire, to wealth.
0:49:25 > 0:49:30And it was, still, at war, not now with Persia
0:49:30 > 0:49:33but with Greece's greatest fighting force - the Spartans.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38And desperate times called for desperate measures.
0:49:41 > 0:49:46The war between Sparta and Athens started in 431 BC
0:49:46 > 0:49:48and lasted for decades.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50It was a fight to the death.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53Sparta ruled by land, Athens ruled at sea.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55But there was one island
0:49:55 > 0:49:58that had never submitted to Athenian domination
0:49:58 > 0:50:01and tried instead to remain neutral -
0:50:01 > 0:50:03the small island of Melos.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09In 416 BC, the Athenian democrats had had enough -
0:50:09 > 0:50:12it was time for the Melians to submit.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16So the Athenians sent their fleet to enforce their demands.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21Now, according to Thucydides, the contemporary Athenian historian,
0:50:21 > 0:50:23the Athenians sent in not just their fleet
0:50:23 > 0:50:26but also some diplomats to put the case.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30The case was very simple, it was this - join us or die.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34But what happened next, according to Thucydides,
0:50:34 > 0:50:38was an extraordinary debate between the two sides.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41"These envoys the Melians did not bring before the popular assembly,
0:50:41 > 0:50:43"but bade them tell in the presence of the magistrates
0:50:43 > 0:50:45"and the few what they had come for."
0:50:45 > 0:50:48The envoys gave the Melians an ultimatum -
0:50:48 > 0:50:52surrender and pay tribute to Athens or be destroyed.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56The Melians argued that they were a neutral city, not an enemy.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00And that it would be shameful and cowardly to submit without a fight.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02But the Athenians were unmoved -
0:51:02 > 0:51:06they countered that if they didn't extract surrender from Melos,
0:51:06 > 0:51:08the empire would look weak.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12They argued that the strong have the right to exert their authority.
0:51:13 > 0:51:14This is a classic example
0:51:14 > 0:51:17of what we call in Greek an "agon" - a debate.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20You could have seen it in the philosophical lecture hall
0:51:20 > 0:51:22or in the political assembly or in the law courts,
0:51:22 > 0:51:24or indeed on the stage in the theatre.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27And it's summed up... Well, it's summed up rather well, actually,
0:51:27 > 0:51:30by an enthusiastic student who seems to have had this copy before me.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34And who has written rather pithily in the margin, "Might is right".
0:51:34 > 0:51:37And that was the Athenian argument.
0:51:37 > 0:51:38The strong do as they can.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41The weak suffer what they must.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43And that's exactly what happened.
0:51:43 > 0:51:45The Athenians invaded the island of Melos,
0:51:45 > 0:51:47they executed all the men,
0:51:47 > 0:51:49they enslaved all the women and the children,
0:51:49 > 0:51:52and they established an Athenian colony there.
0:51:52 > 0:51:57And yet, just the very next year, in the Theatre of Dionysus,
0:51:57 > 0:51:58in the centre of Athens,
0:51:58 > 0:52:02Euripides, the enfant terrible of Athenian drama,
0:52:02 > 0:52:05staged a play called Trojan Women.
0:52:05 > 0:52:09Its subject matter was what happened to the women at Troy
0:52:09 > 0:52:13after the Greeks had besieged, invaded and destroyed the city.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18So the Athenians sat down to watch a play
0:52:18 > 0:52:20which laid before them on the stage
0:52:20 > 0:52:24the tragic reality of what they had done,
0:52:24 > 0:52:27just the year before, to the island of Melos.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35The play is set in the aftermath of the legendary siege of Troy.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39The city has fallen, all the Trojan men are dead,
0:52:39 > 0:52:41and the surviving Trojan women,
0:52:41 > 0:52:45who make up the chorus in the play, are to be sold into slavery.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48But for Princess Andromache, there's worse -
0:52:48 > 0:52:50her son is to be taken from her and slaughtered.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57When she argues, the messenger tells her to be brave - "might is right".
0:52:57 > 0:53:00SHE WAILS
0:53:03 > 0:53:05WOMEN ALL SCREAM
0:53:05 > 0:53:07MAN: Hush.
0:53:12 > 0:53:13SHE PANTS
0:53:13 > 0:53:16If you say words that make the army angry...
0:53:17 > 0:53:19..the child will have no burial...
0:53:21 > 0:53:23..and without pity...
0:53:24 > 0:53:26So bear your fate as best you can.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32Then you need not leave him dead without a grave...
0:53:34 > 0:53:36..and you will find the Greeks...
0:53:36 > 0:53:38more kind.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46Trojan Women may well have spoken to Athenian actions on Melos,
0:53:46 > 0:53:49but Euripides was also crucially
0:53:49 > 0:53:52sending a broader message about the disillusionment
0:53:52 > 0:53:53that was taking hold in Greece
0:53:53 > 0:53:56after years of relentless, savage war
0:53:56 > 0:53:58and the terrible impact
0:53:58 > 0:54:01that such conflict has on all members of society.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08Why should WE think that what the Athenians did to the Melians
0:54:08 > 0:54:12would have generated such terrific outrage
0:54:12 > 0:54:14when the Spartans had done something
0:54:14 > 0:54:19- very similar to the people of Hisiai just a few years earlier.- Exactly.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21I mean that's purely historically.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24On the other hand, the coincidence of date means,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27it seems to me, that as Euripides is writing this,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30what is the big campaign the Athenians are involved in
0:54:30 > 0:54:35that is going to involve women as slaves of war?
0:54:35 > 0:54:38Well, there is no other campaign going on
0:54:38 > 0:54:43as Euripides is writing it in the winter of 416-5
0:54:43 > 0:54:48but he could have thought it at any time, that's the thing.
0:54:48 > 0:54:53By 416/415, I think Euripides really has seen that war
0:54:53 > 0:54:55as a way of life brings nothing but misery
0:54:55 > 0:54:58to both victors and vanquished.
0:54:58 > 0:55:00And from that point of view, if you focus on Melos,
0:55:00 > 0:55:02- you actually miss that point. - Exactly.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04The more you think that this is a sort of,
0:55:04 > 0:55:07- "Oh, there's been a terrible atrocity..."- Yes.- Exactly.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09..the more you miss
0:55:09 > 0:55:12that this is about war and how irrational and terrible.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16Euripides is presenting a view of all the Greeks
0:55:16 > 0:55:19as having barbarised themselves
0:55:19 > 0:55:21during the course of the Peloponnesian War.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25Euripides was not the only one
0:55:25 > 0:55:28to despair at the state of affairs in Greece,
0:55:28 > 0:55:30or criticise Athenian behaviour.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34Many in Greece now felt that Athens was guilty of hubris,
0:55:34 > 0:55:36of over-reaching pride.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39And anyone who had ever seen a Greek tragedy
0:55:39 > 0:55:42would have been aware of what could happen next.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45Here at Rhamnous in the 6th century,
0:55:45 > 0:55:47the people had built a temple
0:55:47 > 0:55:51to the Greek goddess responsible for punishing those guilty of hubris.
0:55:51 > 0:55:56She was called Nemesis, a name that comes from the Greek verb "nemein" -
0:55:56 > 0:55:58meaning to give what is due.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02Now, after the Melian atrocity,
0:56:02 > 0:56:06it seemed like Athenian ambition and pride
0:56:06 > 0:56:08was beginning to over-reach itself.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10They not only had enemies abroad -
0:56:10 > 0:56:13they had an increasing number of enemies in Greece,
0:56:13 > 0:56:16and indeed an increasing number of enemies at home as well,
0:56:16 > 0:56:18who were beginning to think of democracy
0:56:18 > 0:56:22as perhaps the immoral inversion of the righteous order.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24The question was,
0:56:24 > 0:56:28as the glorious golden age of the 5th century drew to a close,
0:56:28 > 0:56:30how would theatre and democracy,
0:56:30 > 0:56:34which had so spectacularly grown up together,
0:56:34 > 0:56:38survive in a much harsher and more difficult world?
0:56:45 > 0:56:48Although the future of Athens now looked uncertain,
0:56:48 > 0:56:53the past century had been a spectacular era,
0:56:53 > 0:56:57Athens had invented and pioneered an array of things
0:56:57 > 0:57:00which underpin our own civilisation.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03From classical sculpture and architecture
0:57:03 > 0:57:06to new directions in philosophy and history.
0:57:08 > 0:57:10But for me, out of all those legacies,
0:57:10 > 0:57:14two stand out as the most extraordinary...
0:57:14 > 0:57:16First, democracy -
0:57:16 > 0:57:20Athens created the first democratic constitution in history
0:57:20 > 0:57:22which has become a beacon across the centuries.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26And second - at the very same time,
0:57:26 > 0:57:31Athens invented a powerful and incisive new art form -
0:57:31 > 0:57:34theatre - an innovation without which perhaps,
0:57:34 > 0:57:37that democracy might never have survived.
0:57:39 > 0:57:44Drama comes from the Greek word, "dram" - to do, to act, to perform.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47And if there is one thing that has become abundantly clear
0:57:47 > 0:57:50it's that theatre was never just mere entertainment,
0:57:50 > 0:57:51never a passive spectator -
0:57:51 > 0:57:56it was a performer in Athens' story in the ancient world.
0:57:56 > 0:58:02From tragedy making our most important beliefs uncomfortable,
0:58:02 > 0:58:04to comedy questioning and policing citizenship,
0:58:04 > 0:58:06and keeping people in check.
0:58:06 > 0:58:12Theatre was an institution that plugged into religious, civic,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16political and military aspects of ancient Athenian society.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20It was an extraordinary, and extraordinarily uncomfortable,
0:58:20 > 0:58:24risky and yet essential part of Athenian life.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27Join the Open University as we explore
0:58:27 > 0:58:30the connections between Greek theatre and modern-day democracy.
0:58:32 > 0:58:35Follow the links to the Open University's free-learning website.
0:58:44 > 0:58:48Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd