Drama and the Religious in Ancient Greece

This paper argues that Greek tragedy could provide a ritual framing of religious critique. Specifically, I shall examine the representation of Zeus in Hesiod and in Prometheus Bound. While Promethean material appears in both Theogony and Works and Days, the latter poem strongly positions Zeus as the guarantor of justice (dike) in human society because he can bring power to bear on kings. That power, however, is force, not persuasion: Zeus punishes unjust rulers by harming their people and resources (WD 240-270). The economy of persuasion in which good kings work (Th.

Euripides’ Ion begins with the arrival of Athenian king and queen, Kreusa and Xuthus, at Delphi where they hope to consult Apollo about their childlessness; it concludes with a prediction about the political fortunes of Athens. Accordingly, much scholarly literature on the play focuses on its political and religious aspects. Recent political readings have considered the play’s treatment of Athenian autochthony and identity, Athens’ relationship with Ionian cities, and colonialism, to name a few (Loraux 1994; Saxonhouse 1986; Hoffer 1996).

This paper argues that the dramatic fabric of Sophocles’ extant tragedies is closely intertwined with their ethical and religious content, so that each play functions, on one level, as a dramatization or mise-en-scène of human existence in its relationship with the divine. This interrelation of performance, ethics, and religion, as well as the specific view of humanity enacted by the plays, reflects Sophoclean tragedy’s embeddedness in intellectual and poetic traditions that can be traced back to archaic thought and literature.

This paper investigates the gap between the position of Artemis in the Athenian religious life, where she was an important and powerful deity, and her depiction in the Athenian tragedies, where her presence is considerably diminished.