The City Dionysia served as the main dramatic festival of Attica beginning in the late sixth century B.C. and as the backdrop for the development of drama. Beginning c. 532 B.C., three tragedians and five comic writers were given the honor of performing at the festival each year over the course of five days. Originally, plays were performed in the Agora until 500 B.C. It was not until after the collapse of the wooden seats at the Agora that performances moved to the theatre of Dionysus. The approximate date of this switch to the theatre is supported by the presence of early fifth century pottery in the earth used to steepen the hillside slope for the theatre’s audience seating. Also, the seats must have collapsed sometime around the turn of the fourth century because it happened during a performance of Pratinas, who died before 467 B.C.

The task of organizing and supervising preparations for the festival fell upon the archon eponymous , who had the all-important task of selecting which playwrights would be accepted to perform at that year’s festival. Other important officials include the choregoi, literally “chorus bringers”, who were wealthy citizens who paid for the recruitment, training, and costumes for the chorus. The City Dionysia was not simply a presentation of drama, but rather a competition, and thus several choregoi were selected each year, with one choregos per playwright. Given the high profile nature of the City Dionysia, sponsoring a winning playwright was a great source of pride for the choregos. The winning choregos was awarded a large, valuable bronze tripod (up to three meters tall and worth over 1,000 drachmas). The tripods were dedicated by mounting them on a stone base and placing them on the main street from the agora to the Theatre of Dionysus, also known as the Street of the Tripods. One well-preserved example of a tripod dedication is the monument of Lysikrates, who sponsored a boys’ choir of the Akamantis tribe in 334 B.C. The monument is the first instance of Corinthian columns placed on the outside of a structure. In addition, it is characterized by tripods in the relief between columns and a frieze depicting Dionysus’ struggle with pirates, presumed to be the subject of the winning performance.

http://www.sikyon.com/Athens/Monuments/lysicrates.jpg

References

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Green, Richard, and Eric Handley. Images of the Greek Theatre. London: The British Museum P, 2001.

Storey, Ian C., and Arlene Allan. A Guide to Ancient Greek Drama. Malden: Blackwell, 2005.

Walton, J. Michael. The Greek Sense of theatre: Tragedy Reviewed. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, 1996.

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