Actors and Icons of the Ancient Theater

• Presents a highly original viewpoint into several new and contested fields of study
• Offers the first systematic survey of evidence for the spread of theater outside Athens and the impact of the expansion of theater upon actors and dramatic literature
• Addresses a study of the privatization of theater and reveals how it was driven by political interests
• Challenges preconceived notions about theater history

Eric Csapo is Professor of Classics at the University of Sydney, Australia. An expert in ancient drama and in the material, social and economic history of the ancient theatre, Csapo is the author of Theories of Mythology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005) and co-editor of Context of Ancient Drama (with W. J. Slater, 1995) and The Origins of Theater in Ancient Greece and Elsewhere: From Ritual to Drama (with M. Miller, 2006).

Preface viii

List of abbreviations xiii

1 A Portrait of the Artist I: Theater-Realistic Art in Athens, 500–330 BC 1

2 A Portrait of the Artist II: Theater-Realistic Art in the Greek West, 400–300 BC 38

3 The Spread of Theater and the Rise of the Actor 83

4 Kallippides on the Floor Sweepings: The Limits of Realism in Classical Acting 117

5 Cooking with Menander: Slices from the Ancient Home Entertainment Industry? 140

6 The Politics of Privatization: A Short History of the Privatization of Drama from Classical Athens to Early Imperial Rome 168

Bibliography 205

Index 227

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