Politics and Performance in Western Greece

Download or read book Politics and Performance in Western Greece written by Heather Reid and published by . This book was released on 2017-05-12 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Because the histories of theater, politics, art, poetry, athletics, and philosophy tend to be studied separately, it is easy to forget how interconnected they were in Western Greece--the coastal areas of Southern Italy and Sicily settled by Hellenes in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. Hieron I of Syracuse may be remembered as a tyrant, but his political power was inseparable from the theater. Hieron was the patron of the dramatist Epicharmus, who was as much a philosopher as Xenophanes, who was a poet in his own right like Pindar, who was also supported by the tyrant and whose work---like all the others'--was performed for political ends. Even Plato's adventures in Syracuse can be seen as a performance of his own political poetry. This collection of essays from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including archaeology, classics, philosophy, and art history, offers a refreshing new outlook on the ancient cultural interactions of politics and performance in Western Greece.