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[booming music]

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Distraught woman: My bed! My bridal! All for misery!

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[Intense background music] And I cannot...

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[pause]

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I cannot...save my child from death!

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Dr. Scott: This is one of the most shocking
stories ever written.

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A mother, a princess, has lost
her city and her husband in war.

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Now, she has to face the news
that she is to be sold into slavery

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and her only son –killed.

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This film version of an ancient
Greek play called Trojan Women

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has become a classic.

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The first time I saw it, I was moved
to tears, and it still moves me now.

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[pause]

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It is a play about the most
charged aspects of human life–

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love, war, sacrifice,
fear, and death.

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And although it is set
amongst the gods, myths,

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and peoples of ancient Greece,
it is still utterly gripping today.

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It is one of the main reasons
I study Classics.

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[intense music]

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An Athenian called Euripides
wrote this play

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a little under two and
a half thousand years ago.

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Back then, he was often
ridiculed as an angry young man.

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But, over time, his plays
have come to symbolize

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the incredible sophistication of
ancient Greek civilization.

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[ambiguous sound effect]

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That civilization has influenced
almost every aspect of our lives.

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Not just drama, but politics,
language, philosophy,

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art and architecture.

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[walking, sad music]

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To understand ourselves,
it turns out,

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we need to understand
the ancient Greeks.

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And the best seat from which
to do that, for my money,

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is in the theater.

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[soaring music]

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This series is about how
ancient drama changed our world.

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It's the story of dramatists

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like Aeschylus,
Sophocles and Euripides,

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who revolutionized
storytelling through plays

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like Trojan Women, Antigone,
Oedipus, and The Oresteia.

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[instrumental music]

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It's the story of
how the Ancient Greeks

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gave birth to tragedy and comedy.

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And it's the story of how theater
spread throughout Greece and beyond,

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becoming a benchmark
of civilization,

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not just for Greeks,
but for the world—

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then and now.

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[music continues]

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In this episode,
I want to journey to Athens

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to explore how drama first began.

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From the very start, it was
about more than just entertainment–

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it was a reaction to real events,
it was a driving force in history,

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and it was deeply connected
to Athenian democracy.

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In fact, the story of theater
IS the story of Athens–

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the cultural hub of ancient Greece

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and the stage for one
of the greatest shows on earth.

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[dramatic theme music]

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[instrumental music]

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The story of drama as we know it
begins in a particular place,

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and a particular time–

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Athens in the 6th century
before Christ.

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At that time,
Greece was not a single country,

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but a mass of competing
city-states, or "polis"–

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the Greek term describing
a body of citizens.

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[pause]

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But in the late 6th century,
the polis of Athens

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pulled ahead of the others

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politically, economically
and culturally.

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[birds chirping, music]

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In the last part
of the 6th century BC,

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Athens was the breeding ground
for two extraordinary inventions.

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The first was democracy.

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Athens was ruled, not by kings
or by cliques of aristocrats,

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but by the votes of
its own citizens.

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But the second was theater.

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Athens invented an entirely
new art form: drama.

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And these two inventions
were tightly intertwined

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at the beating heart
of Athenian society.

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And both of them were the result

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of an extraordinary
cultural revolution.

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[pause, instrumental
music]

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At this time, the whole of
ancient Greek culture

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underwent a historic transformation.

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The revolution extended
from architecture to literature,

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from vase painting to philosophy.

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You can see the impact
of that revolution clearly

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in how Greek sculpture developed.

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In the middle 6th century
it was rigid, stylized,

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lacking movement and life.

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But then things began to change.

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By the 5th century,
Greek artists began

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to produce some of the greatest
life-like sculptures ever made.

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[pause]

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It all amounted, not
just to a new-looking world,

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but to a whole new
view of the world.

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We call it the Classical World.

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And in this ground-breaking epoch,

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drama was perhaps
the biggest innovation of them all.

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[pause]

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Tales of love, death and war
had always been passed on

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by storytellers and epic poems
like Homer's Iliad

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and savage myths had been
celebrated in choral dance and song.

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BUT the Athenians added actors and
invented the idea of performance.

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These epic stories would now
play out, not only in the mind,

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but live on stage.

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This was more than innovation,
this was a revolution.

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[pause]

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Prof. Taplin: Never before in the Greek
tradition that we know of,

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in the Greek storytelling tradition,

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were things enacted
rather than narrated.

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So, instead of having, "And then
the king drew his sword and said..."

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Instead, a person actually
draws a sword and speaks.

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I know we sort of say,
"Well, children do that"

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but to do it with
serious storytelling,

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with storytelling that
actually delves into

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important roots in human behavior,

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that is a very new step, and to
have it done in front of you,

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I think that must have been
a very, very startling innovation.

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Actor: The son of Thyestes...

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Dr. Scott: Ancient Greek drama looked

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and sounded very different
from drama as we know it today.

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There were no more
than three or four actors.

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There was a chorus who interrupted
the action with song and dance,

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and all the performers wore masks.

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[intense drum music, silence]

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Prof. Taplin: When an actor began to
enact rather than narrate,

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there's a kind of
dangerousness about that,

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that the actor has
to become a woman,

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the actor has
to become a slave,

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the actor, perhaps even
more dangerously,

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has to become a god, and
it's almost as if the mask

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is a kind of signal
of the profession,

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that protects the actor against
the danger of doing these things.

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[dark music]

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Actor: Blood shoot of Aetrius...

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[muffled speech]

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Prof. Taplin: The chorus are costumed
and masked in an identical

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or near identical way and they
move and speak as a group.

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The chorus is not a bunch
of individuals.

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For the Greeks,
the chorus was a group.

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In which, in a sense,
they submerged their identity.

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AND what the chorus does is,
in its groupness,

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it tries to make sense of
what it's witnessing.

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They're deeply emotionally involved,
and the suffering becomes a song.

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And the chorus, as a group,
with its group response,

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sings its choral lyrics.

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Different actors: You did it? Plotted it? You? 
Single-handed? The people will stone him.

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Chorus: You don't stand a chance.

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[intense music]

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Prof. Taplin: It seems to me, that the crucial
thing is that it is simultaneously

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a very strong emotional experience,

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and a very strong
thought experience.

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[drum beat, fades to quiet]

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Dr. Scott: When the Greeks came to
analyze their new art form,

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they discerned three
different types of play.

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Two of which we still have with
us today - tragedy and comedy.

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But, in many ways,
modern tragedy has actually changed

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from how ancient tragedy worked.

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For us, tragedy is a
play with a sad ending,

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but for the ancient Greeks,
tragedy was a play

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in which the events offered
the audience a tough decision.

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And because no real ancient
tragedy ends conclusively—

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siding with one
course of action or another—

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what it does is face
the audience with a problem.

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What would THEY do if they
were in the same situation?

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[instrumental music]

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Take one of the most
famous plays ever written,

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Oedipus The King by Sophocles.

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It tells the story of Oedipus,

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a man who was destined to kill
his father and marry his mother.

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Although this outcome
is predicted by an oracle,

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Oedipus himself makes
a series of free choices

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that lead to its fulfillment–

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choices that would have posed
serious questions for the audience.

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The play ends with Oedipus
blinding himself in despair.

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[intense, then calm music]

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The issues dealt with in tragedy
were often so disturbing

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that the plays were nearly always
set away from Athens,

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in the land of myth and legend,
or at very least a far away city.

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And after a series of tragedies,

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the Athenians were
offered a satyr play.

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Now, we don't have
this any more today,

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but effectively the satyrs

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were the half-male, half-goat
companions of the god of revelry,

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who would be allowed
to run around the stage

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doing lots of lewd and bawdy things
as a bit of light relief.

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But what we do have today is comedy.

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And ancient comedy,
just like tragedy,

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spoke directly to
contemporary Athenians.

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[playful music]

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Usually set in a topsy-turvy
version of real life,

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or in a realm of fantasy, they
poked fun at contemporary Athens.

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The Birds is a play that mocks
the Athenian obsession

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with litigation and politics.

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It tells the story of two men

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who are tired of a life of
law courts and civic duties.

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To escape, they turn
themselves into birds

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and create a bird city-in-the-sky
called Cloud Cuckoo Land

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where they reject all attempts to
impose Athenian-style law and order.

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Both comedy and tragedy
sought to have a direct bearing

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on life in Athens.

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And most fascinating of all, is how
they seamlessly blended together

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religion and myth with
contemporary politics.

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This means that a play
like The Oresteia by Aeschylus

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can start with a mythic
tale from the Trojan wars

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where Agamemnon is murdered by his
wife and avenged by his son Orestes,

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but can end in a courtroom,
in democratic Athens,

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with Orestes on trial
for the murder of his mother.

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[booming music]

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Dr. Wyles: The Oresteia is one of the
biggest hits in antiquity,

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it's also one of the very
few trilogies that we've got.

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So what you have is three tragedies

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and, in this case,
it's got a connected story.

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Dr. Scott: How does tragedy take this,
this, this smorgasbord if you like,

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and make it into a story?

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Dr. Wyles: Well it's not the same problem
for the ancient Greeks

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as it might be for us.

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You know there's not this
idea of anachronism.

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Your mythical world, with
the gods, with the Trojan war—

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all of this that we've had in
the first parts with the trilogy—

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can then end in that third part
with a law court in Athens,

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which would have been familiar,
of course,

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from 1st century
contemporary Athens.

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So you have this brilliant genre

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where you can zoom from your
present day into the past

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and bring your past
into your present day.

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And it's that relationship,

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that tragedy uses to be able to say things
about its contemporary society.

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[transitional music]

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Dr. Scott: To find out more about how
drama and democratic Athens

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became so intimately connected,

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I want to look at how
theater first emerged.

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[quiet music]

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Everything in ancient Greece

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came under the auspices
of a particular god,

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and the god controlling theater
was called Dionysus.

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He was also the god
of wine and revelry

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and many scholars think that
theater evolved directly

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out of the choral songs
performed in honor of Dionysus.

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But there's also something
else going on here.

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Something that is
suggested by the ruins

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at a place called Thorikos,
near Athens.

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[quiet harp-sounding music]

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This region was once home to
the ancient Athenian silver mines

244
00:12:25,650 --> 00:12:26,850
but is also the site

245
00:12:26,850 --> 00:12:30,070
of the oldest stone-built theater
in the Greek world.

246
00:12:30,400 --> 00:12:34,380
We're in an industrial heartland
of the ancient Athenian state,

247
00:12:34,380 --> 00:12:36,530
with the ore washeries
and the mine shafts

248
00:12:36,530 --> 00:12:38,030
just beyond the theater here.

249
00:12:38,065 --> 00:12:39,525
[pause]

250
00:12:39,540 --> 00:12:42,540
The first phase of this theatre
is late 6th century

251
00:12:42,540 --> 00:12:44,340
and that puts it in the same time

252
00:12:44,340 --> 00:12:46,710
as the invention of
Athenian democracy itself.

253
00:12:46,710 --> 00:12:48,470
Which throws up another question–

254
00:12:48,470 --> 00:12:53,270
just what is the relationship
between theater and democracy?

255
00:12:53,270 --> 00:12:56,740
And how did the two
help each other into being?

256
00:12:56,740 --> 00:13:01,910
[contemplative music]

257
00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:05,580
It's a question that has been
debated by scholars for centuries–

258
00:13:05,580 --> 00:13:09,160
were theater and democracy
connected from the very start?

259
00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:13,850
Prof. Cartledge: Now I actually buy into 
the story that tragic drama

260
00:13:13,850 --> 00:13:16,620
IS a democratic invention.

261
00:13:16,620 --> 00:13:18,510
I have a particular take

262
00:13:18,510 --> 00:13:22,800
because I am one of those who
think that Athenian tragic drama

263
00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:25,520
was deeply, strongly politicized.

264
00:13:25,520 --> 00:13:29,200
Not just, it happened in a polis,
but it happened in a polis

265
00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:33,640
of a particular sort and could
not have happened before Athens

266
00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:37,670
became a polis of that
particular sort, a democratic one.

267
00:13:37,670 --> 00:13:41,330
Prof. Osborne: The theatrical side
seems to coincide

268
00:13:41,330 --> 00:13:44,620
fairly closely with
the political identity.

269
00:13:44,620 --> 00:13:47,180
Theatrical activities of
some sort or another

270
00:13:47,180 --> 00:13:49,930
were one of the ways in which
they expressed the fact

271
00:13:49,930 --> 00:13:51,760
that now they all belonged together,

272
00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:54,570
this was the place to which they
came and in which they acted.

273
00:13:54,570 --> 00:13:56,010
It's about, you know,

274
00:13:56,010 --> 00:13:59,160
the local community feeling
itself to be a local community.

275
00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:01,160
[string music]

276
00:14:01,180 --> 00:14:04,690
Dr. Scott: I'm on my way to visit one of the
smaller Athenian communities

277
00:14:04,690 --> 00:14:06,610
to try and find some more proof

278
00:14:06,610 --> 00:14:09,580
about the connection
between drama and politics.

279
00:14:09,580 --> 00:14:13,200
I want to see what the archaeology
itself has to say.

280
00:14:13,260 --> 00:14:14,260
[music]

281
00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:15,950
Now, neither for theater
nor democracy,

282
00:14:15,950 --> 00:14:18,160
was there any kind of
immaculate conception.

283
00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:21,420
Nor were either born
into the fully-developed form

284
00:14:21,420 --> 00:14:22,820
that we recognize them today.

285
00:14:22,820 --> 00:14:25,730
Both developed,
arm-in-arm, over time.

286
00:14:25,730 --> 00:14:27,960
And all around us
as we drive in Attica,

287
00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:29,690
we can see the building blocks,

288
00:14:29,690 --> 00:14:32,540
the basis of the Athenian
democratic system.

289
00:14:32,550 --> 00:14:37,120
[dramatic music]

290
00:14:37,140 --> 00:14:40,060
People tend to think of
Athenians as city dwellers,

291
00:14:40,060 --> 00:14:41,610
but much of the population

292
00:14:41,610 --> 00:14:45,020
actually lived in village
communities called demes.

293
00:14:45,020 --> 00:14:49,930
There were 139 demes making up
the Athenian democracy

294
00:14:49,930 --> 00:14:51,920
and each deme governed itself.

295
00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:54,740
The deme I'm looking for
is one of the remotest–

296
00:14:54,740 --> 00:14:56,570
it's called Rhamnous.

297
00:14:56,680 --> 00:14:59,580
The people who lived here
were mostly farmers,

298
00:14:59,580 --> 00:15:02,230
but all the male citizens
voted for the council,

299
00:15:02,230 --> 00:15:04,970
and on local regulations
and on by-laws.

300
00:15:04,970 --> 00:15:07,280
And right at the heart
of the community,

301
00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:10,180
are the remains of what
was once a theater.

302
00:15:10,190 --> 00:15:12,250
[pause, dramatic music]

303
00:15:12,250 --> 00:15:15,260
This is what I've come looking
for on this very hot afternoon–

304
00:15:15,260 --> 00:15:17,830
an inscription that
shows us democracy

305
00:15:17,830 --> 00:15:19,870
at its most local
level in operation.

306
00:15:19,885 --> 00:15:21,425
[pause]

307
00:15:21,465 --> 00:15:24,740
"Dionisoi": to Dionysus...

308
00:15:24,750 --> 00:15:29,960
"Hypo tes boules": from the Boule,

309
00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:34,640
the local council controlling
this deme, here in Attica.

310
00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:38,610
And it's to Dionysus because,
yes, you've guessed it,

311
00:15:38,610 --> 00:15:42,330
we're in a theater –a theater,
the space of Dionysus.

312
00:15:42,330 --> 00:15:45,350
The privileged seats for the
distinguished local clientele,

313
00:15:45,350 --> 00:15:47,810
and the stage set out before us.

314
00:15:47,810 --> 00:15:51,140
Religion, politics, theater...

315
00:15:51,140 --> 00:15:53,840
at democracy's most local level.

316
00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:57,740
[dramatic piano music]

317
00:15:57,740 --> 00:16:02,210
These theaters really were far more
than just places of entertainment,

318
00:16:02,210 --> 00:16:05,500
they were places where the whole
deme would gather together.

319
00:16:05,510 --> 00:16:07,260
[pause]

320
00:16:07,260 --> 00:16:09,500
No-one's going to bother
to build a theater

321
00:16:09,500 --> 00:16:11,800
just for a couple of days
of drama a year.

322
00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:13,660
But the theaters here,

323
00:16:13,660 --> 00:16:16,660
at the lowest, most basic level
of the Athenian democracy,

324
00:16:16,660 --> 00:16:20,580
seem to have also been used
as multi-purpose civic spaces,

325
00:16:20,580 --> 00:16:24,930
giving them all-year-round
potential, not just for drama,

326
00:16:24,930 --> 00:16:28,960
but also for democracy
and democratic action itself.

327
00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:33,120
And THAT is what the archaeology
is really beginning to uncover–

328
00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:36,790
not only the demes,
but the deme theaters,

329
00:16:36,790 --> 00:16:39,020
spreading across all of Attica.

330
00:16:39,020 --> 00:16:41,430
[upbeat dramatic music]

331
00:16:41,430 --> 00:16:44,040
The use of theaters
for democratic activity

332
00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:46,360
seems to have been the case,
not just in the demes,

333
00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:48,270
but in the city of Athens itself.

334
00:16:48,270 --> 00:16:52,430
Every year, the democratic
authorities spent a fortune

335
00:16:52,430 --> 00:16:56,030
on the Great Dionysia Festival:
a drama competition

336
00:16:56,030 --> 00:16:58,070
that took place in
the Theater of Dionysus

337
00:16:58,070 --> 00:17:00,030
in honor of the god of theater.

338
00:17:00,030 --> 00:17:03,970
It's through understanding the
different stages of this festival

339
00:17:03,970 --> 00:17:07,450
that we can get closer to
understanding what ancient Athenians

340
00:17:07,450 --> 00:17:10,569
experienced when they
watched and created drama.

341
00:17:10,569 --> 00:17:12,920
The festival began
with a procession–

342
00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:15,580
a rowdy affair with
feasting, drinking,

343
00:17:15,580 --> 00:17:18,539
and a great crowd of people
parading through the streets

344
00:17:18,539 --> 00:17:22,730
with a statue of the god and a
small herd of sacrificial animals.

345
00:17:22,730 --> 00:17:26,930
When it reached the altar of the
12 Olympian Gods in the marketplace,

346
00:17:26,930 --> 00:17:29,550
the first thing that happened
was a holy dance.

347
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:34,570
Dr. Agelidis: The cult of Dionysus
is very much

348
00:17:34,570 --> 00:17:36,340
a psychological thing.

349
00:17:36,340 --> 00:17:40,500
You know wine was, of course, 
very important, for Dionysus,

350
00:17:40,500 --> 00:17:41,520
everyone knows that,

351
00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:45,100
but the thing was that by
drinking wine,

352
00:17:45,100 --> 00:17:47,980
you were getting closer to the god

353
00:17:47,980 --> 00:17:52,510
and the more wine you drink,
the more you step out of yourself

354
00:17:52,510 --> 00:17:54,260
and get closer to the god.

355
00:17:54,930 --> 00:17:58,690
And that is also what happens
when you're dancing,

356
00:17:58,690 --> 00:18:03,060
you're getting outside yourself,
so to say, but also by, for example,

357
00:18:03,060 --> 00:18:04,260
wearing a mask...

358
00:18:04,870 --> 00:18:08,740
The ancient people thought
that when you were wearing a mask,

359
00:18:08,740 --> 00:18:11,300
you really become someone else.

360
00:18:11,300 --> 00:18:12,550
Dr: Scott: And the Greek word is...


361
00:18:12,550 --> 00:18:14,080
Dr Agelidis: It's ecstasies.

362
00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:18,620
Dr Scott: So "ec" - out, "stasis" -
of one's self, of one's stance.

363
00:18:18,620 --> 00:18:19,610
Dr Agelidis: Yes.

364
00:18:19,610 --> 00:18:21,020
Dr. Scott: And that's our ecstasy.

365
00:18:21,020 --> 00:18:23,290
Dr. Agelidis: It is the ecstasy as we know it.

366
00:18:23,290 --> 00:18:24,770
Dr. Scott: The ecstasy of the god.

367
00:18:24,770 --> 00:18:25,270
Dr. Agelidis: Yeah.

368
00:18:25,270 --> 00:18:29,390
[celebratory music]

369
00:18:29,390 --> 00:18:32,000
Dr. Scott: The procession then
surged through the streets

370
00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:34,170
along a route lined with tripods—

371
00:18:34,170 --> 00:18:38,150
monuments put up by the proud
sponsors of the winning plays.

372
00:18:38,150 --> 00:18:39,860
Often politicians,

373
00:18:39,860 --> 00:18:43,130
they spent fortunes
funding dramatic productions,

374
00:18:43,130 --> 00:18:46,300
and marked their victories
with monuments like this one:

375
00:18:46,300 --> 00:18:49,110
put up by a winner
from the 4th century BC.

376
00:18:49,110 --> 00:18:51,250
[triumphant music]

377
00:18:51,250 --> 00:18:55,450
So, the drama festival was more than
an opportunity for staging plays,

378
00:18:55,450 --> 00:18:58,030
it was a chance for the
leading figures of Athens

379
00:18:58,030 --> 00:19:02,370
to stage their generosity, and
their success to the whole city.

380
00:19:02,370 --> 00:19:06,750
Finally, having wound its way
right around the Acropolis,

381
00:19:06,750 --> 00:19:10,550
the procession emerged noisily
into the precinct of Dionysus.

382
00:19:10,550 --> 00:19:14,250
By now, the participants
were becoming a single entity.

383
00:19:14,250 --> 00:19:20,030
Dr. Agelidis: It was a religious but also
a political incident, actually.

384
00:19:20,690 --> 00:19:23,400
You know, the whole city, so to say,

385
00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:25,960
steps towards the god

386
00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:29,450
so in order to worship the god.

387
00:19:29,450 --> 00:19:33,550
And they show not only their piety

388
00:19:33,550 --> 00:19:36,280
but also that they belong together.

389
00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:38,960
Dr. Scott: So... It's an extraordinary
idea, isn't it?

390
00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:42,110
That when they take their seats
in theater, it's no longer,

391
00:19:42,110 --> 00:19:45,140
we would say in English, "It's no
longer Joe Bloggs and somebody"—

392
00:19:45,140 --> 00:19:46,780
it's no longer the farmer
and the individuals,

393
00:19:46,780 --> 00:19:51,080
it is a collective of people
with a new identity—

394
00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:54,310
which is that of worshipers
of the god Dionysus.

395
00:19:54,310 --> 00:19:55,420
Dr. Agelidis: Yes, correct.

396
00:19:55,420 --> 00:19:57,650
Dr. Scott: It's a bit different to going to the
theater today, right?

397
00:19:57,650 --> 00:19:59,420
Dr. Agelidis: It is indeed.
[both laugh]

398
00:19:59,420 --> 00:20:01,020
[calm music]

399
00:20:01,020 --> 00:20:04,610
Dr. Scott: All of this put the audience
into a receptive state

400
00:20:04,610 --> 00:20:06,930
for the drama competition
that was to follow.

401
00:20:06,930 --> 00:20:09,860
But first, as they took their seats
in the theater,

402
00:20:09,860 --> 00:20:12,750
there was one more important
set of rituals to come.

403
00:20:12,750 --> 00:20:14,630
[brief music]

404
00:20:14,630 --> 00:20:16,120
The audience were seated here,

405
00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:19,710
perhaps in the same groupings
as when they went to war.

406
00:20:19,710 --> 00:20:22,580
The citizens of Athens
who were acting on the stage,

407
00:20:22,580 --> 00:20:25,990
were acting in the same groups
as when they went to war.

408
00:20:25,990 --> 00:20:29,000
And in the front seats of the
theater were the reserved seats

409
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:33,100
for various priests of the city, and
for the important civic officials.

410
00:20:33,610 --> 00:20:37,630
And then, before the plays began,
there were a series of events.

411
00:20:37,630 --> 00:20:41,780
First, a libation
(an offering to the gods) were poured

412
00:20:41,780 --> 00:20:43,550
in the center of the
stage by the generals,

413
00:20:43,550 --> 00:20:45,540
the military generals of the city.

414
00:20:45,540 --> 00:20:48,930
Then, a parade of tribute,

415
00:20:48,930 --> 00:20:52,670
of all the money paid by the cities
and states of the Athenian empire

416
00:20:52,670 --> 00:20:56,240
to Athens, was literally
taken across the stage,

417
00:20:56,240 --> 00:20:59,660
paraded in front of an audience
that contained members

418
00:20:59,660 --> 00:21:02,630
from those same city and states
who'd had to pay all that money.

419
00:21:02,630 --> 00:21:06,550
Then a list of all those who had
benefited the city in some way

420
00:21:06,550 --> 00:21:07,460
was read out.

421
00:21:07,460 --> 00:21:12,040
And finally, onto the stage
were brought the orphans,

422
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:16,200
those whose parents had died
fighting for the city in battle,

423
00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:18,210
and whom the city would now

424
00:21:18,210 --> 00:21:21,190
take on the expenses of
bringing up and educating.

425
00:21:21,190 --> 00:21:26,020
They came on, dressed themselves
in the armor of war

426
00:21:26,020 --> 00:21:29,360
and took their seats, their
special seats here in the theater.

427
00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:32,370
Only then did the plays begin.

428
00:21:32,370 --> 00:21:35,060
[intense music]

429
00:21:35,060 --> 00:21:37,910
From dawn until dusk, for five days,

430
00:21:37,910 --> 00:21:40,530
the citizen audience watched
three playwrights

431
00:21:40,530 --> 00:21:44,640
each put on three tragedies
as well as a farcical satyr play,

432
00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:45,820
and some comedies.

433
00:21:45,820 --> 00:21:49,420
At their heart were issues
of justice and loyalty,

434
00:21:49,420 --> 00:21:52,800
war and peace,
vengeance and compassion,

435
00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:56,000
which sent powerful
messages to the citizen audience.

436
00:21:56,010 --> 00:21:58,900
[pause]

437
00:21:58,900 --> 00:22:01,130
In the centuries
of Athens' greatness,

438
00:22:01,130 --> 00:22:03,980
over 1,000 plays were written
for the Dionysia.

439
00:22:03,980 --> 00:22:09,090
But today, just 32 of them
survive in full.

440
00:22:09,090 --> 00:22:11,580
And those 32 have survived, in part,

441
00:22:11,580 --> 00:22:13,320
because they were considered
to be the greatest.

442
00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:16,560
And they were all written
by just three people—

443
00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:19,940
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides—

444
00:22:19,940 --> 00:22:23,105
the great tragedians
of the 5th century BC.

445
00:22:23,105 --> 00:22:25,580
[dramatic music]

446
00:22:25,580 --> 00:22:27,330
Aeschylus was the first.

447
00:22:27,360 --> 00:22:29,320
He was the author of the Oresteia,

448
00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:31,470
the only whole trilogy
to have survived.

449
00:22:31,470 --> 00:22:35,080
Sophocles wrote
two of the most enduring plays,

450
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:37,440
Oedipus The King and Antigone,

451
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:40,260
which tells the tragic story
of Oedipus' daughter

452
00:22:40,260 --> 00:22:41,710
who is sentenced to death

453
00:22:41,710 --> 00:22:44,380
for breaking the law and
burying her rebel brother.

454
00:22:44,380 --> 00:22:47,920
But, of all the playwrights,
Euripides is now considered

455
00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:49,590
in many ways to have been the best.

456
00:22:49,590 --> 00:22:52,790
He wrote the play Medea,
with its shocking tale

457
00:22:52,790 --> 00:22:54,780
of a woman betrayed by her husband

458
00:22:54,780 --> 00:22:57,400
who takes revenge
by killing her own children.

459
00:22:58,100 --> 00:23:03,580
The playwrights of ancient Athens
were all gurus of the city

460
00:23:03,580 --> 00:23:07,240
in one form or another:
Aeschylus the war hero,

461
00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:09,140
Sophocles the civic official,

462
00:23:09,140 --> 00:23:13,080
and Euripides, the sort of "enfant
terrible" of Athenian society.

463
00:23:13,090 --> 00:23:14,270
[inhales]

464
00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:18,460
The Greek word for playwright
is "didaskalos",

465
00:23:18,460 --> 00:23:20,570
which means "trainer", or "teacher".

466
00:23:20,570 --> 00:23:23,650
Now, in part, that refers
to the playwright's role

467
00:23:23,650 --> 00:23:25,400
in training the chorus
for their play,

468
00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:29,630
but many believe it also refers
to the role of the playwright

469
00:23:29,630 --> 00:23:35,080
in training the audience for
participation in democracy itself.

470
00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:39,190
If we take Sophocles' Ajax,
as an example,

471
00:23:39,190 --> 00:23:42,140
it's a retelling of a classic myth

472
00:23:42,140 --> 00:23:45,700
set in the time of the legendary war
between the Greeks and the Trojans.

473
00:23:45,700 --> 00:23:47,550
And, on the one hand, it's just that,

474
00:23:47,550 --> 00:23:49,580
but on the other it's also a lesson,

475
00:23:49,580 --> 00:23:55,340
a lesson in the sacrifices that have
to be made for democracy to work.

476
00:23:55,340 --> 00:23:59,450
[foreboding music]

477
00:23:59,450 --> 00:24:03,710
Ajax was one of the warriors who
fought with the Greeks at Troy.

478
00:24:03,710 --> 00:24:08,030
After the death of Achilles,
the greatest hero of them all,

479
00:24:08,030 --> 00:24:11,480
the Greeks take a vote on
who should get his weapons.

480
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:16,200
They choose Odysseus, not Ajax,
and Ajax is furious.

481
00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:17,640
[thunder]

482
00:24:17,650 --> 00:24:22,670
Unable to accept the result of the
vote, he goes on a killing spree.

483
00:24:22,670 --> 00:24:26,390
And ultimately, consumed
by the shame of his actions...

484
00:24:26,390 --> 00:24:28,690
he is driven to suicide.

485
00:24:28,690 --> 00:24:32,510
[music continues,
stops]

486
00:24:32,510 --> 00:24:34,230
The motor of this play is a vote:

487
00:24:34,230 --> 00:24:36,480
a process that would
have been very familiar

488
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:38,610
to the democratic citizens
of ancient Athens.

489
00:24:38,610 --> 00:24:42,590
But it's a vote that
Ajax refuses to accept.

490
00:24:42,590 --> 00:24:47,110
Ajax is the antithesis of
the good democratic citizen.

491
00:24:47,110 --> 00:24:47,650
[pause]

492
00:24:47,650 --> 00:24:49,580
But the play also goes further.

493
00:24:49,580 --> 00:24:51,570
Because, for me, the key moment

494
00:24:51,570 --> 00:24:54,530
is actually what happens
after Ajax's death.

495
00:24:54,530 --> 00:24:57,050
What Sophocles has
the other Greeks do

496
00:24:57,050 --> 00:24:59,380
is debate about how
they should proceed.

497
00:24:59,380 --> 00:25:02,550
And some argue that Ajax should not
be buried because of his actions

498
00:25:02,550 --> 00:25:05,730
but Odysseus steps in to
argue that he should be buried.

499
00:25:05,745 --> 00:25:07,105
[sweeping music]

500
00:25:07,105 --> 00:25:12,310
"Do not fling his body out unburied,
treated so unfeelingly.

501
00:25:12,310 --> 00:25:16,140
And don't let force have such
control of you that you allow

502
00:25:16,140 --> 00:25:18,580
your hate to trample justice down."

503
00:25:18,580 --> 00:25:22,510
For scholars, this is the
critical point in the play.

504
00:25:22,510 --> 00:25:23,510
[pause]

505
00:25:23,510 --> 00:25:25,430
Prof Osborne: There's a real danger in Ajax

506
00:25:25,430 --> 00:25:29,290
that because you've
got these two extraordinary episodes

507
00:25:29,290 --> 00:25:30,650
that are bloody and shocking,

508
00:25:30,650 --> 00:25:33,130
you think the play
is about those two episodes

509
00:25:33,130 --> 00:25:34,280
that are bloody and shocking.

510
00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:38,370
But I think the play is about
the process of debate

511
00:25:38,370 --> 00:25:40,860
that leads to decisions

512
00:25:40,860 --> 00:25:45,880
in the wake of actions that really
you haven't been able to cope with.

513
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:51,050
And so, this is a play
that stages debate

514
00:25:51,050 --> 00:25:54,190
and it stages it in all its forms.

515
00:25:54,190 --> 00:25:58,580
Prof. Hall: One way of thinking about Ajax
is as a Homerical Bronze Age

516
00:25:58,580 --> 00:26:02,080
or archaic warrior stuck in a much
more modern political system.

517
00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:06,500
He has values about being
an individual and being a hero,

518
00:26:06,500 --> 00:26:08,340
not being a co-operative person...

519
00:26:08,340 --> 00:26:10,600
that make him very, very difficult,

520
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:15,310
as if individuals can no longer
be powerful figures in the democracy.

521
00:26:15,310 --> 00:26:16,870
Dr. Scott: A man out of time, 
out of place?

522
00:26:16,870 --> 00:26:17,670
Dr. Hall: Yes.

523
00:26:17,670 --> 00:26:21,210
Dr. Osborne: So, this may be someone who
is hardly a role model citizen,

524
00:26:21,210 --> 00:26:23,000
but there are going to
be lots of people in Athens

525
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:24,440
who are hardly role model citizens.

526
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:31,570
[sweeping instrumental music]

527
00:26:31,570 --> 00:26:35,330
Dr. Scott: Athens, no doubt, would have
had its own fair share of bigheads

528
00:26:35,330 --> 00:26:39,310
and glory seekers - people who just
wouldn't work within the democracy.

529
00:26:39,310 --> 00:26:41,330
And this play plays out the dilemma

530
00:26:41,330 --> 00:26:43,500
of what do you do with
those kinds of people?

531
00:26:43,500 --> 00:26:45,860
How do you keep
the democracy on track?

532
00:26:45,860 --> 00:26:50,040
And that, for me, is why Odysseus'
intervention is so crucial,

533
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:52,570
because he shows that you need
to have empathy with these people

534
00:26:52,570 --> 00:26:55,350
and you need to let
justice run its course.

535
00:26:55,350 --> 00:26:58,070
Odysseus offers a way
for the community

536
00:26:58,070 --> 00:27:01,470
to come back together, make a
joint decision and move forward.

537
00:27:01,470 --> 00:27:02,470
[pause]

538
00:27:02,470 --> 00:27:05,770
And that's why this play
is such a great example

539
00:27:05,770 --> 00:27:09,940
of what theater did in
ancient Athenian society—

540
00:27:09,940 --> 00:27:12,990
it told a story, it posed problems,

541
00:27:12,990 --> 00:27:15,350
it asked questions,
questions of the audience

542
00:27:15,350 --> 00:27:17,850
about what would you do
in this kind of situation,

543
00:27:17,850 --> 00:27:21,500
a situation which they would
undoubtedly have to face up to

544
00:27:21,500 --> 00:27:22,980
at some point in their lives.

545
00:27:22,980 --> 00:27:25,380
[dramatic music]

546
00:27:25,380 --> 00:27:28,750
Theater was vital to the
processes that played out

547
00:27:28,750 --> 00:27:31,720
here on the Pnyx,
home of the Athenian assembly.

548
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:35,000
It was the oil that allowed
democracy to function.

549
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:38,730
A contained space which allowed
for a continual process

550
00:27:38,730 --> 00:27:41,890
of risky reflection,
self-doubt, and debate.

551
00:27:42,610 --> 00:27:45,130
It's no accident that
the most important words

552
00:27:45,130 --> 00:27:47,550
in any Greek tragedy are
"Ti draso?" -

553
00:27:47,550 --> 00:27:49,470
"What shall I do?"

554
00:27:49,470 --> 00:27:53,610
Theater and democracy
had grown up together

555
00:27:53,610 --> 00:27:56,750
and were now inextricably
linked in Athenian minds

556
00:27:56,750 --> 00:27:59,820
and every year, for almost
the next two centuries,

557
00:27:59,820 --> 00:28:02,000
the Athenians came to the theater

558
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:05,890
to rework the old myths
into tragic dramas

559
00:28:05,890 --> 00:28:08,500
that spoke to the problems
that had beset

560
00:28:08,500 --> 00:28:10,810
and were fundamental

561
00:28:10,810 --> 00:28:13,500
to one of the most important and
interesting stories in history–

562
00:28:13,500 --> 00:28:16,080
The Rise and Fall of Athens.

563
00:28:16,730 --> 00:28:20,140
And, at the same time, those
very same people were here,

564
00:28:20,140 --> 00:28:22,920
in the assembly,
making the decisions

565
00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:25,200
that affected those events.

566
00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:27,270
[dramatic music]

567
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,330
It's therefore no surprise

568
00:28:29,330 --> 00:28:32,060
that a common subject matter
in Athenian drama

569
00:28:32,060 --> 00:28:36,460
was a problem that constantly
dogged the Athenian assembly: war.

570
00:28:36,460 --> 00:28:39,820
And one war in particular
fired the imagination

571
00:28:39,820 --> 00:28:41,190
of the playwright Aeschylus,

572
00:28:41,190 --> 00:28:43,300
who lived through
the real life drama

573
00:28:43,300 --> 00:28:45,610
and was inspired
to write what is now

574
00:28:45,610 --> 00:28:48,700
the first ancient Greek play
to survive in full.

575
00:28:48,700 --> 00:28:53,990
In 490 BC, less than 20 years
after the democracy was established,

576
00:28:53,990 --> 00:28:58,700
Athens was attacked by the greatest
power on earth - the Persian empire.

577
00:28:58,700 --> 00:29:01,680
[men screaming]

578
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:06,240
The first crisis came at Marathon,
26 miles from the city of Athens.

579
00:29:06,245 --> 00:29:07,695
[intense music]

580
00:29:07,710 --> 00:29:11,040
A Persian fleet arrived
with an enormous army.

581
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:13,870
Although outnumbered,
the Athenians attacked,

582
00:29:13,870 --> 00:29:16,590
and against all the odds,
they triumph.

583
00:29:16,590 --> 00:29:18,270
[pause]

584
00:29:18,290 --> 00:29:22,110
The Athenian dead were commemorated
by a memorial barrow

585
00:29:22,110 --> 00:29:23,190
near the battlefield,

586
00:29:23,190 --> 00:29:25,520
which is impressive even today.

587
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:27,090
[pause]

588
00:29:27,110 --> 00:29:30,270
But ten years later,
the Persians were back with an army

589
00:29:30,270 --> 00:29:32,260
said to have been
more than a million strong.

590
00:29:32,260 --> 00:29:36,300
As it bore down on Athens,
the assembly passed a heroic decree

591
00:29:36,300 --> 00:29:39,570
at the urging of a leading
general called Themistocles.

592
00:29:39,650 --> 00:29:42,290
Amazingly, a later copy
of the decree

593
00:29:42,290 --> 00:29:44,840
actually survives
in an Athens museum.

594
00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:49,840
This is one of the most evocative
inscriptions surviving to us today.

595
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:53,640
It's a decree of the people
of Athens and here's the key word:

596
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:56,530
"Salamina" - Salamis.

597
00:29:56,530 --> 00:29:59,970
This is the decree
recording the decision

598
00:29:59,970 --> 00:30:03,670
by the Athenian people
to evacuate their home city

599
00:30:03,670 --> 00:30:05,620
and go to the island of Salamis

600
00:30:05,620 --> 00:30:09,450
to save themselves from the
invading hordes of Persians.

601
00:30:09,450 --> 00:30:13,730
This is the record of
one of the most key moments

602
00:30:13,730 --> 00:30:15,370
in the whole of ancient history.

603
00:30:15,375 --> 00:30:18,675
[pause, music]

604
00:30:18,675 --> 00:30:22,370
The Athenians abandoned their city
and took to their ships,

605
00:30:22,370 --> 00:30:25,520
leaving only a few men
barricaded on the Acropolis.

606
00:30:25,525 --> 00:30:26,835
[pause]

607
00:30:26,850 --> 00:30:30,660
The Persians ransacked the city,
destroying the temples.

608
00:30:30,660 --> 00:30:33,460
But the Athenian gamble paid off –

609
00:30:33,460 --> 00:30:36,160
the Athenian fleet
defeated the Persians

610
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:37,630
in the narrows off Salamis.

611
00:30:37,630 --> 00:30:39,760
Greece was saved.

612
00:30:39,770 --> 00:30:40,720
[pause]

613
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:45,010
And witnessing it all, not from afar
but at close range, was Aeschylus.

614
00:30:45,025 --> 00:30:46,835
[music, pause]

615
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:51,640
Aeschylus wasn't just a playwright -
he was also a soldier.

616
00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:55,810
He stood in the Athenian
ranks on the plane at Marathon,

617
00:30:55,810 --> 00:30:58,980
on that fateful day when
the Persians first arrived.

618
00:30:58,980 --> 00:31:02,210
He was part of the
victorious Athenian army,

619
00:31:02,210 --> 00:31:04,940
but he also lost his brother
on the battlefield.

620
00:31:04,950 --> 00:31:06,140
[pause]

621
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:08,280
Aeschylus, in his own epitaph,

622
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,560
preferred to be remembered for
his role here at Marathon,

623
00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:13,120
rather than for his plays.

624
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:16,800
Without doubt, it was his
extraordinary experiences

625
00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:20,120
here on the battlefield that
gave him a unique perspective

626
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:23,750
and allowed him
to represent war on stage

627
00:31:23,750 --> 00:31:26,910
in a way that has echoed ever since.

628
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:28,700
[scattered drums]

629
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:32,420
Aeschylus composed over
90 plays in his lifetime

630
00:31:32,420 --> 00:31:33,920
and of the few that survive,

631
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:36,750
the play that he composed
about these great events

632
00:31:36,750 --> 00:31:40,100
is one of the most moving,
and one of the most fascinating.

633
00:31:40,100 --> 00:31:45,210
In 472 BC, Aeschylus produced
a play called The Persians,

634
00:31:45,210 --> 00:31:49,010
and it's the first ancient tragedy
to survive to us in full today.


635
00:31:49,010 --> 00:31:53,360
Its sponsor was no-one less than
the future democratic hero Pericles.

636
00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:57,900
But what's really surprising
about it is its subject matter,

637
00:31:57,900 --> 00:32:01,210
because it tells the story
of how the Persians

638
00:32:01,210 --> 00:32:05,200
reacted to the news of their defeat
at the battle of Salamis,

639
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:09,380
a battle that those in the
audience had fought and won

640
00:32:09,380 --> 00:32:11,270
just eight years before.

641
00:32:11,285 --> 00:32:14,485
[drum music]

642
00:32:14,500 --> 00:32:17,290
The play is set in
the Persian capital.

643
00:32:17,290 --> 00:32:19,670
A messenger arrives
at the Persian court

644
00:32:19,670 --> 00:32:21,320
with the news of the Greek victory.

645
00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:24,490
The Persians cannot believe
that they have been defeated,

646
00:32:24,490 --> 00:32:26,180
and they fall to pieces.

647
00:32:26,180 --> 00:32:27,730
In their misery,

648
00:32:27,730 --> 00:32:31,400
they summon the ghost of the
previous King Darius for advice.

649
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:35,050
The ghost of Darius
tells the Persians

650
00:32:35,050 --> 00:32:37,620
that they themselves
are to blame for their defeat,

651
00:32:37,620 --> 00:32:40,100
because their pride
and their ambition

652
00:32:40,100 --> 00:32:42,380
has led them to disregard the gods.

653
00:32:42,380 --> 00:32:44,420
[foreboding music]

654
00:32:44,430 --> 00:32:49,130
"The voiceless heaps of slaughtered
corpses shall eloquently show

655
00:32:49,130 --> 00:32:52,430
that no one human should
puff up inflated thoughts.

656
00:32:52,430 --> 00:32:56,070
You see how insolence,
once opened into flower,

657
00:32:56,070 --> 00:32:58,660
produces fields ripe with calamity

658
00:32:58,660 --> 00:33:01,560
and reaps a harvest-home
of sorrow."

659
00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:04,620
This is the crucial
theme of the play.

660
00:33:04,620 --> 00:33:10,150
Dr Wyles: Well, I think, really, at its heart,
really it's almost a tragedy about hubris.

661
00:33:10,150 --> 00:33:14,640
[Scott hmms] This idea of, sometimes
translated as "arrogance",

662
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:18,270
something like that - going too far,
crossing a line, transgressing.

663
00:33:18,270 --> 00:33:21,160
And the Persians had done that.

664
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:24,240
They thought big, they thought
they could go and take Greece.

665
00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:26,720
They didn't win and, actually,

666
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:28,150
part of what the play is exploring

667
00:33:28,150 --> 00:33:30,880
is the idea that
big empires can fall.

668
00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:32,380
Dr. Scott: What kind of resonance

669
00:33:32,380 --> 00:33:36,920
and implications does a play
like The Persians have for us today?

670
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:40,880
Dr. Wyles: It deals with one of these eternal
themes - it looks at war.

671
00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:44,080
And it looks at the destruction,
the loss,

672
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:46,500
the risks you run if you go to war.

673
00:33:46,500 --> 00:33:50,290
They became really popular
with the Gulf War

674
00:33:50,290 --> 00:33:54,200
and then with the Iraq War as well and
this is a really interesting one.

675
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:56,070
In some modern productions,

676
00:33:56,070 --> 00:33:59,040
what you get is costume
that really tells you

677
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:03,690
that the audience should be making
a link with contemporary war.

678
00:34:03,690 --> 00:34:07,500
Dr. Scott: What point is Aeschylus making,
do you think, with that?

679
00:34:07,500 --> 00:34:10,740
Dr. Wyles: I mean this is an amazingly
difficult question to answer,

680
00:34:10,740 --> 00:34:14,890
you can't even imagine how this
must have felt for the audience

681
00:34:14,890 --> 00:34:19,420
when they'd had their city sacked,
they'd really come close

682
00:34:19,420 --> 00:34:22,399
to being completely
occupied by Persia.

683
00:34:22,399 --> 00:34:26,910
This play is, on one level
really celebratory... [Scott: Yeah].

684
00:34:26,910 --> 00:34:30,600
But you have to imagine it
operating on another level as well

685
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:34,539
because there are incredibly
moving speeches in this —

686
00:34:34,539 --> 00:34:38,620
the language isn't just
victorious, if you like.

687
00:34:38,620 --> 00:34:41,849
I think it tells us a lot
about what tragedy is doing,

688
00:34:41,849 --> 00:34:44,940
it is complex and it doesn't
make it easy on the audience

689
00:34:44,940 --> 00:34:48,140
and it's really asking
the society to reflect.

690
00:34:48,150 --> 00:34:53,530
[somber, eerie music]

691
00:34:53,530 --> 00:34:57,660
Dr. Scott: This play, for me, is both an
exception to normal tragedy

692
00:34:57,660 --> 00:34:59,980
AND a fantastic example of it.

693
00:34:59,980 --> 00:35:04,580
It's an exception because unlike
most that focus on mythical stories,

694
00:35:04,580 --> 00:35:07,860
this focuses on real
and recent history.

695
00:35:07,860 --> 00:35:11,900
But it's a fantastic example
of what tragedy does

696
00:35:11,900 --> 00:35:14,090
because it doesn't
just allow the Athenians

697
00:35:14,090 --> 00:35:16,240
to gloat over their victory.

698
00:35:16,240 --> 00:35:18,430
Instead, it offers a warning.

699
00:35:18,430 --> 00:35:21,170
For the Persians,
pride came before a fall,

700
00:35:21,170 --> 00:35:24,410
and at a time when Athens
and the Athenians

701
00:35:24,410 --> 00:35:27,810
were beginning to grow in their
own power within the Greek world,

702
00:35:27,810 --> 00:35:29,770
the play offers that same message—

703
00:35:29,770 --> 00:35:34,300
"be careful or you too could end up
just like the Persians."

704
00:35:34,332 --> 00:35:35,525
[birds]

705
00:35:35,525 --> 00:35:36,825
[intense music]

706
00:35:36,850 --> 00:35:41,450
This warning had a direct bearing
on the current situation in Athens.

707
00:35:41,450 --> 00:35:42,450
[music continues]

708
00:35:42,450 --> 00:35:44,480
In the aftermath
of the Persian wars,

709
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:47,350
Athens reached the peak
of her power and influence

710
00:35:47,350 --> 00:35:51,010
and the fleet that had
secured victory at Salamis

711
00:35:51,010 --> 00:35:53,340
now reached out across the Aegean.

712
00:35:53,355 --> 00:35:54,515
[eerie music]

713
00:35:54,530 --> 00:35:58,780
Athens became the leading city-state
in a new anti-Persian alliance.

714
00:35:58,780 --> 00:36:03,760
But what began as a free coalition,
was soon under Athenian control.

715
00:36:03,770 --> 00:36:06,780
[music continues]

716
00:36:06,780 --> 00:36:10,900
The financial muscle at Athens'
command allowed it eventually

717
00:36:10,900 --> 00:36:13,690
to turn the free alliance
of Greek cities and states,

718
00:36:13,690 --> 00:36:17,370
that had been brought together
to wreak revenge on the Persians,

719
00:36:17,370 --> 00:36:21,150
into an empire solely to
support the glory of Athens.

720
00:36:21,150 --> 00:36:23,550
And it was policed by the mighty

721
00:36:23,550 --> 00:36:27,300
and yet brutal majesty
of the supreme Athenian fleet.

722
00:36:27,300 --> 00:36:29,620
The war-chest of
that free alliance,

723
00:36:29,620 --> 00:36:32,000
which had been kept on
the sacred island of Delos,

724
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:34,730
was moved to Athens,
placed on the Acropolis

725
00:36:34,730 --> 00:36:37,830
and eventually into
a building –the Parthenon–

726
00:36:37,830 --> 00:36:41,270
which has today become synonymous
with democracy and freedom.

727
00:36:41,270 --> 00:36:43,890
And yet which was originally built

728
00:36:43,890 --> 00:36:46,610
with the blood-money of
Athenian empire.

729
00:36:46,610 --> 00:36:49,180
[more dramatic music]

730
00:36:49,190 --> 00:36:52,800
Every year, each city
in the alliance or empire,

731
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:55,350
contributed money
in silver as tribute,

732
00:36:55,350 --> 00:36:58,860
and this money was displayed
in the theatre, in Athens,

733
00:36:58,860 --> 00:37:00,930
at the Great Dionysia Festival.

734
00:37:00,930 --> 00:37:04,780
But when any members of the
empire refused these payments,

735
00:37:04,780 --> 00:37:07,000
Athens sent a fleet to attack them.

736
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:10,140
Having an empire meant
that the Athenian assembly

737
00:37:10,140 --> 00:37:12,380
was now making
life-or-death decisions,

738
00:37:12,380 --> 00:37:16,770
not just about themselves, but about
cities and peoples far away

739
00:37:16,770 --> 00:37:18,830
who had no real say in the matter.

740
00:37:18,830 --> 00:37:20,400
[intense music]

741
00:37:20,470 --> 00:37:24,630
These decisions were far from
easy, as the Athenians discovered

742
00:37:24,630 --> 00:37:28,010
when they had to decide how
to deal with the city of Mytilene.

743
00:37:28,020 --> 00:37:32,590
[music continues]

744
00:37:32,590 --> 00:37:35,190
In 428 BC, the city of Mytilene

745
00:37:35,190 --> 00:37:37,160
rebelled against
the Athenian empire.

746
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:40,220
The Athenian assembly met
to decide how to respond.

747
00:37:40,220 --> 00:37:43,080
The hardliners
wanted to execute every man

748
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:45,390
and enslave every woman
in the city–

749
00:37:45,390 --> 00:37:48,240
the moderates just to execute
the ringleaders.

750
00:37:48,240 --> 00:37:49,780
And on the first day of debate,

751
00:37:49,780 --> 00:37:52,110
the Athenian assembly
sided with the hardliners.

752
00:37:52,110 --> 00:37:55,930
They even dispatched a trireme to
Mytilene to carry out those orders.

753
00:37:55,930 --> 00:37:58,330
And yet when they met
on the second day,

754
00:37:58,330 --> 00:38:02,190
the Athenian assembly started
to doubt its own decision.

755
00:38:02,190 --> 00:38:05,500
And indeed they went on to reverse
it, sending a second trireme

756
00:38:05,500 --> 00:38:06,980
which got there just in time.

757
00:38:06,980 --> 00:38:11,160
Now these events not only brought
great relief to the Mytileneans

758
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:14,610
but it also brought home to the
Athenians the critical importance

759
00:38:14,610 --> 00:38:20,070
of thinking through properly their
decisions before taking action.

760
00:38:20,070 --> 00:38:22,630
[drum heavy music]

761
00:38:22,630 --> 00:38:25,790
Dealing with life and death
decisions like this

762
00:38:25,790 --> 00:38:28,680
had always lain at the heart
of Athenian drama.

763
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:32,870
And authors like the prize-winning
Sophocles forced the audience

764
00:38:32,870 --> 00:38:37,150
to experience vicariously
the consequences of sloppy thinking.

765
00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:42,230
In 442 BC, Sophocles won yet
another victory at the City Dionysia

766
00:38:42,230 --> 00:38:44,090
with his play Antigone.

767
00:38:44,090 --> 00:38:46,670
Now, Sophocles was a man
intensely involved

768
00:38:46,670 --> 00:38:48,500
with the affairs
of the Athenian state.

769
00:38:48,500 --> 00:38:50,110
He had been a general
and he would go on

770
00:38:50,110 --> 00:38:52,280
to become one of
its closest advisors

771
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:54,360
during its darkest hours
in future years.

772
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:57,520
And his play Antigone deals
with exactly this kind of thing:

773
00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:00,860
how to debate and argue
through the difficult

774
00:39:00,860 --> 00:39:03,990
and yet critical issues
that face a city.

775
00:39:04,025 --> 00:39:05,025
[pause]

776
00:39:05,060 --> 00:39:08,190
And what can happen
when it all goes terribly wrong.

777
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:13,120
[sad music]

778
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:17,975
The play tells the sad story of
Oedipus' daughter Princess Antigone.

779
00:39:17,975 --> 00:39:19,380
[thunder and lightning]

780
00:39:19,380 --> 00:39:22,060
When Antigone buries
the body of her rebel brother,

781
00:39:22,060 --> 00:39:24,160
she is following
the law of the gods.

782
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:28,510
But the city's law and her uncle,
King Creon have forbidden it.

783
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:30,080
[quiet piano music]

784
00:39:30,090 --> 00:39:32,535
Creon is furious,
and condemns her to death.

785
00:39:32,535 --> 00:39:35,830
[music continues]

786
00:39:35,830 --> 00:39:39,480
Creon's son Haemon,
who is in love with Antigone,

787
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:42,275
urges his father to reconsider.

788
00:39:42,275 --> 00:39:43,505
[same music]

789
00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:48,740
He argues that "A city is not a city
if it is the holding of one man."

790
00:39:48,740 --> 00:39:51,740
But Creon is stubborn
and uncompromising.

791
00:39:51,740 --> 00:39:55,220
He refuses to listen,
and refuses to back down.

792
00:39:55,220 --> 00:39:59,520
The play ends with Antigone and
Haemon both committing suicide

793
00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:02,530
and with Creon facing the
displeasure of his people

794
00:40:02,530 --> 00:40:03,470
and of the gods.

795
00:40:03,470 --> 00:40:06,210
Creon has to face the fact
that his actions,

796
00:40:06,210 --> 00:40:08,680
and his alone,
have caused this disaster.

797
00:40:08,680 --> 00:40:10,220
[sad music]

798
00:40:10,220 --> 00:40:15,300
Prof. Hall: All of Greek tragedy stages 
dilemmas that cities under leaders have,

799
00:40:15,300 --> 00:40:18,760
where they're faced
with either very bad luck,

800
00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:22,230
or very bad management, or both.

801
00:40:22,230 --> 00:40:25,140
Now, at one end of that
spectrum you've got Oedipus,

802
00:40:25,140 --> 00:40:29,200
who has very, very, very bad luck [laughter]
right? He's doomed before he's even born.

803
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:30,880
How do you react to that?

804
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:33,980
How do you conduct yourself
in a situation with very bad luck?

805
00:40:33,980 --> 00:40:38,460
Right at the other end is the story
of Oedipus' daughter Antigone,

806
00:40:38,460 --> 00:40:43,300
faced with THE most incompetent
leader in all of Greek literature

807
00:40:43,300 --> 00:40:44,700
and that is saying something.

808
00:40:44,700 --> 00:40:49,650
Creon simply cannot put a foot
right, so Sophocles is asking people

809
00:40:49,650 --> 00:40:51,960
to think about what
a good leader might be

810
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:54,070
through showing them
the worst possible leader

811
00:40:54,070 --> 00:40:56,100
and the Athenians loved that

812
00:40:56,100 --> 00:41:00,050
so much that Antiquity said
they made him general in response.

813
00:41:00,050 --> 00:41:03,000
Prof. Osborne: Creon is getting pretty
a bad stick from Edith

814
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:07,630
but there is a real sense in which
the issue at the center of the play

815
00:41:07,630 --> 00:41:11,070
is an issue that arises
even in Athenian law.

816
00:41:11,070 --> 00:41:14,160
In Athenian law,
if someone is a traitor

817
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:15,660
they are not to be buried.

818
00:41:15,660 --> 00:41:18,450
You have to take
them beyond the borders

819
00:41:18,450 --> 00:41:20,100
and you can then bury them outside.

820
00:41:20,100 --> 00:41:22,630
If you're a dimark in Athens

821
00:41:22,630 --> 00:41:26,520
and there is a dead body in your
deign you are obliged to bury it.

822
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:30,740
So, immediately that clash of,

823
00:41:30,740 --> 00:41:32,570
"Yes, you must bury it
but no, you can't"

824
00:41:32,570 --> 00:41:34,880
arises if the dead body
happens to be a traitor.

825
00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:38,390
So this isn't a non issue,
this is a real issue

826
00:41:38,390 --> 00:41:42,570
and Creon may make a
complete fist of resolving it

827
00:41:42,570 --> 00:41:45,820
but he makes a fist because

828
00:41:45,820 --> 00:41:49,920
there are two diametrically
opposed, justifiable views

829
00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:52,770
and you then have to pick
your way through these.

830
00:41:52,770 --> 00:41:59,840
[quiet music]

831
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:03,320
Dr. Scott: Due to his dogged determination
for others to do

832
00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:07,810
exactly what he wants, his inability
to listen, to compromise,

833
00:42:07,810 --> 00:42:10,470
Creon ends up paying
the ultimate price–

834
00:42:10,470 --> 00:42:13,340
the loss of his family
and his authority.

835
00:42:13,390 --> 00:42:18,260
It's a play about listening,
debate, compromise,

836
00:42:18,260 --> 00:42:20,070
what it takes to be a leader.

837
00:42:20,070 --> 00:42:22,900
Those are issues which,
of course, had relevance

838
00:42:22,900 --> 00:42:24,800
to the ancient Athenians
watching the play,

839
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:29,490
but they're also issues that are
relevant to any society at any time.

840
00:42:29,490 --> 00:42:33,915
That's what makes
Antigone so timeless.

841
00:42:33,915 --> 00:42:36,750
[quiet string music]

842
00:42:36,750 --> 00:42:40,850
Dr. Wyles: It's got universal appeal
because it's about someone

843
00:42:40,850 --> 00:42:44,420
fighting against the system
and a system that's wrong.

844
00:42:44,420 --> 00:42:46,640
I mean, that's how
it gets picked up now

845
00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:50,890
and that's, that's what really appeals to
modern audiences, I think, about it.

846
00:42:50,890 --> 00:42:52,450
Dr. Scott: A play like Antigone,

847
00:42:52,450 --> 00:42:55,090
what kind of resonance
does that have for us today?

848
00:42:55,090 --> 00:42:58,640
Dr. Wyles: Thinking about this
adaptation that Jean Anouilh

849
00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:05,140
produced in 1944 in France while it
was being occupied by Nazis.

850
00:43:05,140 --> 00:43:08,080
That's a real example of
where you've got this play

851
00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:13,700
which is really taken on and
championed by the Resistance.

852
00:43:14,241 --> 00:43:17,500
Dr. Scott: How did it ever get
permission to be performed

853
00:43:17,500 --> 00:43:19,410
if it's such a play of resistance?

854
00:43:19,410 --> 00:43:23,060
Dr. Wyles: Well, I think that's
the ambiguity of the play.

855
00:43:23,060 --> 00:43:28,000
So, you know, for the occupying force,
for the Vichy government,

856
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:30,110
actually, you can look
at this play and think,

857
00:43:30,110 --> 00:43:33,580
"This is a play about
law and imposing law

858
00:43:33,580 --> 00:43:36,110
and actually this
is a silly little girl

859
00:43:36,110 --> 00:43:39,640
who breaks that law and, you know,
she gets what's coming to her."

860
00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:43,690
So, it's that ambiguity that allows,
even in those circumstances,

861
00:43:43,690 --> 00:43:46,980
this great play of resistance,
for some people, to be put on.

862
00:43:46,980 --> 00:43:50,970
[transitional music]

863
00:43:50,970 --> 00:43:56,460
Dr. Scott: Tragedy was an effective way of
engaging with the issues

864
00:43:56,460 --> 00:44:00,200
that beset the democracy,
but it was not the only way.

865
00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:01,840
There was also comedy.

866
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:06,290
Comedy was irreverent,
rude and bawdy,

867
00:44:06,290 --> 00:44:09,860
and it was also personal,
targeting real individuals.

868
00:44:09,860 --> 00:44:13,980
And just like today, ordinary
Athenians in the marketplace

869
00:44:13,980 --> 00:44:17,100
were deeply suspicious
of their elected political leaders.

870
00:44:17,100 --> 00:44:18,100
[pause]

871
00:44:18,100 --> 00:44:21,150
Some people, it seems,
were just naturally born

872
00:44:21,150 --> 00:44:22,750
to successfully navigate

873
00:44:22,750 --> 00:44:25,150
the slippery waters
of Athenian politics.

874
00:44:25,150 --> 00:44:29,260
And one of those guys
was a man called Cleon.

875
00:44:29,260 --> 00:44:31,720
[speaking Greek]

876
00:44:31,720 --> 00:44:35,440
Now, Cleon was what we would call
today an opportunistic politician.

877
00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:38,620
He would be with the aristocrats
or he would be spurring

878
00:44:38,620 --> 00:44:40,900
on the lowest of the low
of the Athenian citizenry.

879
00:44:40,900 --> 00:44:45,830
And the ancient commentators
are fairly hard on Cleon.

880
00:44:45,830 --> 00:44:48,080
And today we'd probably
be a bit more balanced,

881
00:44:48,080 --> 00:44:49,880
but without a shadow of a doubt

882
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:52,730
he would do whatever it took to
get whatever he wanted.

883
00:44:52,730 --> 00:44:55,640
Naturally, he had his enemies.

884
00:44:55,640 --> 00:44:59,430
They accused him of being
greedy, not just for power,

885
00:44:59,430 --> 00:45:01,290
but for fresh-caught tuna,

886
00:45:01,290 --> 00:45:06,300
seen back then as a luxury desired
by the rich and anti-democratic.

887
00:45:06,300 --> 00:45:08,300
[city noises]

888
00:45:08,300 --> 00:45:11,930
How could the democracy
keep people like this in check

889
00:45:11,930 --> 00:45:14,760
while not killing off
their energy and enthusiasm

890
00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:16,960
that at the end of the day
benefited the city?

891
00:45:16,960 --> 00:45:20,270
Well, one of the ways
they did it was in the theater,

892
00:45:20,270 --> 00:45:24,780
by taking the piss out of them,
right in their very face.

893
00:45:24,790 --> 00:45:29,530
[upbeat, quirky music]

894
00:45:29,530 --> 00:45:32,880
Comedies, while performed
at the Dionysia Festival,

895
00:45:32,880 --> 00:45:35,220
also had their own, smaller festival.

896
00:45:35,220 --> 00:45:37,440
It was called the Lenaia.

897
00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:39,260
It took place early in January,

898
00:45:39,260 --> 00:45:41,620
long before the season
for sailing started,

899
00:45:41,620 --> 00:45:43,700
so there were no foreigners present.

900
00:45:43,700 --> 00:45:46,830
This meant that comic writers
could really let rip

901
00:45:46,830 --> 00:45:48,400
without letting the city down.

902
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:49,400
[music continues]

903
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:52,150
Dr. Wyles: What you have is
really lively plays,

904
00:45:52,150 --> 00:45:55,360
very outrageous plays, actually, sometimes,

905
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:57,830
but they are politically involved.

906
00:45:57,830 --> 00:46:02,780
The settings can be, you know, amazing in
the real sense, [Scott: Yep] incredible.

907
00:46:02,780 --> 00:46:05,630
You have comedies that
go to the underworld,

908
00:46:05,630 --> 00:46:06,510
they go to hell,

909
00:46:06,510 --> 00:46:10,410
and that's where you get
these animal choruses like frogs.

910
00:46:10,500 --> 00:46:14,220
This is a frog that was used

911
00:46:14,220 --> 00:46:17,840
in the King's College Greek play.

912
00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:21,190
I mean animal choruses are
quite common in comedy.

913
00:46:21,190 --> 00:46:23,270
You've got, for example,
the chorus here...

914
00:46:23,275 --> 00:46:24,275
[pause]

915
00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:28,490
These guys performing and the
songs that they get to sing,

916
00:46:28,490 --> 00:46:31,350
I mean, this is a
great source of comedy.

917
00:46:31,350 --> 00:46:35,590
Dr. Scott: What kind of level of biting
satire are we talking about here

918
00:46:35,590 --> 00:46:36,620
in ancient comedy?

919
00:46:36,620 --> 00:46:38,000
Dr. Wyles: It's extremely personal,

920
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:41,470
there's insults really
of quite an infantile nature.

921
00:46:41,470 --> 00:46:45,670
You have plays which actually put
politicians as one of the characters,

922
00:46:45,670 --> 00:46:47,500
very thinly disguised,

923
00:46:47,500 --> 00:46:51,040
but the-they'll be the
leading politicians of the day.

924
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:54,940
Their policies will be clear, the
way they speak might be parodied,

925
00:46:54,940 --> 00:46:59,840
even the mask can reflect
characters from Athenian society.

926
00:46:59,860 --> 00:47:00,860
[fun music]

927
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:03,440
Dr. Scott: This was the sort of thing
that lay in store

928
00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:05,870
for ambitious politicians
like Cleon.

929
00:47:05,870 --> 00:47:07,110
[pause]

930
00:47:07,110 --> 00:47:10,150
And the man who was
the real expert at this

931
00:47:10,150 --> 00:47:13,060
was a comic playwright
called Aristophanes.

932
00:47:13,060 --> 00:47:16,810
And for Aristophanes and Cleon,
it was a grudge match –

933
00:47:16,810 --> 00:47:19,560
they even came
from the same village.

934
00:47:19,575 --> 00:47:23,215
[playful music]

935
00:47:23,215 --> 00:47:27,740
In 425 BC, Aristophanes
wrote a play called The Knights.

936
00:47:27,740 --> 00:47:30,710
It portrays Cleon
as a cunning servant

937
00:47:30,710 --> 00:47:33,630
working for an old man called Demos.

938
00:47:33,630 --> 00:47:38,570
Demos represents the people,
and as his crafty servant,

939
00:47:38,570 --> 00:47:40,720
Cleon misuses his position

940
00:47:40,720 --> 00:47:43,900
for the purposes of
extortion and corruption.

941
00:47:43,900 --> 00:47:47,480
Yet, in the end, it is Demos
who has the last laugh.

942
00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:51,960
Cleon's corrupt ways are
exposed, he loses his position

943
00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:54,130
and he is reduced
to selling sausages

944
00:47:54,130 --> 00:47:56,620
outside the Athens city gates.

945
00:47:56,620 --> 00:47:58,830
Aristophanes didn't
pull any punches–

946
00:47:58,830 --> 00:48:01,850
this play brings Cleon
right back down to earth.

947
00:48:02,750 --> 00:48:04,280
And, of course, the politicians,

948
00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:05,690
about whom the jokes
were being made,

949
00:48:05,690 --> 00:48:08,540
were right here, visible
to all in the audience.

950
00:48:08,540 --> 00:48:11,280
So it's like having
one of our shows,

951
00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:13,980
The Daily Show in the States
or Have I Got News For You here,

952
00:48:13,980 --> 00:48:16,550
being played out in
an important civic space

953
00:48:16,550 --> 00:48:18,410
–the Capitol or
the House of Commons–

954
00:48:18,410 --> 00:48:20,690
with the people they're
taking the piss out of

955
00:48:20,690 --> 00:48:22,540
sitting right here in the audience,

956
00:48:22,540 --> 00:48:23,940
having to take it
in front of everyone.

957
00:48:23,940 --> 00:48:25,880
The Greeks even had a word
for this,

958
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:28,640
they called these people,
the "komedoumenoi",

959
00:48:28,640 --> 00:48:31,070
those made fun of in comedy.

960
00:48:31,070 --> 00:48:34,270
And this isn't just
some sort of sideshow.

961
00:48:34,270 --> 00:48:36,670
This, many ancient commentators saw,

962
00:48:36,670 --> 00:48:40,220
as the hallmark of
ancient Athenian democracy

963
00:48:40,220 --> 00:48:42,430
and of freedom and free speech.

964
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:44,220
[mysterious music]

965
00:48:44,220 --> 00:48:47,030
The laughter didn't
stop Cleon's career.

966
00:48:47,030 --> 00:48:51,470
Despite his slippery reputation,
he was elected again and again.

967
00:48:51,470 --> 00:48:55,280
But the effect of comedy
was more subtle than that.

968
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:58,600
What it did do, was police
the boundaries of behavior,

969
00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:02,440
skewer pretensions and remind
those in positions of power

970
00:49:02,440 --> 00:49:06,440
of their responsibilities and of
the limits of their ambitions.

971
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:09,320
It's a kind of satire
that we can still see at work

972
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:10,990
in our own democracy today.

973
00:49:10,990 --> 00:49:15,660
By the time of Cleon, this
experiment in Athenian democracy

974
00:49:15,660 --> 00:49:17,520
was heading towards its centenary.

975
00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:21,400
And in that time it had seen it
all, from fighting for survival,

976
00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:24,710
to cultural supremacy,
to empire, to wealth.

977
00:49:24,710 --> 00:49:29,200
And it was, still, at war,
not now with Persia

978
00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:33,980
but with Greece's greatest
fighting force: the Spartans.

979
00:49:33,980 --> 00:49:35,190
[pause]

980
00:49:35,190 --> 00:49:38,425
And desperate times called
for desperate measures.

981
00:49:38,425 --> 00:49:41,745
[ominous music]

982
00:49:41,745 --> 00:49:46,040
The war between Sparta
and Athens started in 431 BC

983
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:47,810
and lasted for decades.

984
00:49:47,810 --> 00:49:49,870
It was a fight to the death.

985
00:49:49,870 --> 00:49:53,210
Sparta ruled by land,
Athens ruled at sea.

986
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:55,120
But there was one island

987
00:49:55,120 --> 00:49:57,850
that had never submitted
to Athenian domination

988
00:49:57,850 --> 00:50:00,840
and tried instead
to remain neutral:

989
00:50:01,410 --> 00:50:03,570
the small island of Melos.

990
00:50:03,570 --> 00:50:04,980
[pause]

991
00:50:04,980 --> 00:50:09,340
In 416 BC, the Athenian
democrats had had enough;

992
00:50:09,340 --> 00:50:12,190
it was time for
the Melians to submit.

993
00:50:12,630 --> 00:50:16,585
So the Athenians sent their
fleet to enforce their demands.

994
00:50:16,585 --> 00:50:17,945
[pause, waves]

995
00:50:17,945 --> 00:50:21,190
Now, according to Thucydides,
the contemporary Athenian historian,

996
00:50:21,190 --> 00:50:23,150
the Athenians sent in
not just their fleet

997
00:50:23,150 --> 00:50:26,040
but also some diplomats
to put the case.

998
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:30,160
The case was very simple,
it was this– join us or die.

999
00:50:30,160 --> 00:50:31,240
[pause]

1000
00:50:31,260 --> 00:50:34,300
But what happened next,
according to Thucydides,

1001
00:50:34,300 --> 00:50:37,210
was an extraordinary debate
between the two sides.

1002
00:50:37,210 --> 00:50:41,090
"These envoys the Melians did not
bring before the popular assembly,

1003
00:50:41,090 --> 00:50:43,340
but bade them tell in
the presence of the magistrates

1004
00:50:43,340 --> 00:50:44,920
and the few what
they had come for."

1005
00:50:44,920 --> 00:50:48,350
The envoys gave the Melians
an ultimatum:

1006
00:50:48,350 --> 00:50:52,180
surrender and pay tribute
to Athens, or be destroyed.

1007
00:50:52,180 --> 00:50:56,420
The Melians argued that they were
a neutral city, not an enemy.

1008
00:50:56,420 --> 00:50:59,930
And that it would be shameful and
cowardly to submit without a fight.

1009
00:50:59,930 --> 00:51:02,490
But the Athenians were unmoved.

1010
00:51:02,490 --> 00:51:06,210
They countered that if they didn't
extract surrender from Melos,

1011
00:51:06,210 --> 00:51:07,890
the empire would look weak.

1012
00:51:07,890 --> 00:51:12,270
They argued that the strong have
the right to exert their authority.

1013
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:13,470
[distant string music]

1014
00:51:13,470 --> 00:51:14,620
This is a classic example

1015
00:51:14,620 --> 00:51:17,160
of what we call in Greek
an "agon" –a debate.

1016
00:51:17,160 --> 00:51:19,720
You could have seen it in
the philosophical lecture hall,

1017
00:51:19,720 --> 00:51:22,120
or in the political assembly,
or in the law courts,

1018
00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:24,000
or indeed on the stage
in the theater.

1019
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:27,180
And it's summed up... Well, it's
summed up rather well, actually,

1020
00:51:27,180 --> 00:51:30,140
by an enthusiastic student who seems
to have had this copy before me.

1021
00:51:30,140 --> 00:51:33,440
And who has written rather pithily
in the margin, "Might is right".

1022
00:51:33,440 --> 00:51:36,080
And that was the Athenian argument.

1023
00:51:36,080 --> 00:51:38,290
The strong do as they can.

1024
00:51:38,290 --> 00:51:40,720
The weak suffer what they must.

1025
00:51:40,720 --> 00:51:42,650
And that's exactly what happened.

1026
00:51:42,650 --> 00:51:45,090
The Athenians invaded
the island of Melos,

1027
00:51:45,090 --> 00:51:46,610
they executed all the men,

1028
00:51:46,610 --> 00:51:48,610
they enslaved all the women
and the children,

1029
00:51:48,610 --> 00:51:50,810
and they established
an Athenian colony there.

1030
00:51:50,810 --> 00:51:51,810
[pause]

1031
00:51:51,810 --> 00:51:56,870
And yet, just the very next year,
in the Theatre of Dionysus,

1032
00:51:56,870 --> 00:51:58,660
in the centre of Athens,

1033
00:51:58,660 --> 00:52:01,880
Euripides, the "enfant
terrible" of Athenian drama,

1034
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:04,810
staged a play called Trojan Women.

1035
00:52:04,810 --> 00:52:08,500
Its subject matter was what
happened to the women at Troy

1036
00:52:08,500 --> 00:52:12,970
after the Greeks had besieged,
invaded, and destroyed the city.

1037
00:52:12,970 --> 00:52:13,970
[pause]

1038
00:52:13,970 --> 00:52:17,530
So the Athenians
sat down to watch a play

1039
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:20,250
which laid before them on the stage

1040
00:52:20,250 --> 00:52:23,820
the tragic reality
of what they had done,

1041
00:52:23,820 --> 00:52:27,100
just the year before,
to the island of Melos.

1042
00:52:27,105 --> 00:52:30,505
[booming]

1043
00:52:30,505 --> 00:52:34,970
The play is set in the aftermath
of the legendary siege of Troy.

1044
00:52:34,970 --> 00:52:36,590
[pause, booming]

1045
00:52:36,600 --> 00:52:39,310
The city has fallen,
all the Trojan men are dead,

1046
00:52:39,310 --> 00:52:41,000
and the surviving Trojan women,

1047
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:44,980
who make up the chorus in the play,
are to be sold into slavery.

1048
00:52:45,170 --> 00:52:47,860
But for Princess Andromache,
there's worse–

1049
00:52:47,860 --> 00:52:50,630
her son is to be taken
from her and slaughtered.

1050
00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:51,860
[pause]

1051
00:52:51,890 --> 00:52:56,930
When she argues, the messenger tells
her to be brave –"might is right".

1052
00:52:56,930 --> 00:53:00,900
[Princess Andromache wails]

1053
00:53:00,900 --> 00:53:05,140
[all women scream]

1054
00:53:05,140 --> 00:53:06,600
Man: Hush!

1055
00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:08,340
[the women quiet]

1056
00:53:08,340 --> 00:53:12,920
[Princess Andromache pants]

1057
00:53:12,920 --> 00:53:16,220
Messenger: If you say words that
make the army angry...

1058
00:53:16,220 --> 00:53:17,330
[she shudders]

1059
00:53:17,330 --> 00:53:19,250
the child will have no burial...

1060
00:53:19,260 --> 00:53:20,610
[breathing heavily]

1061
00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:22,430
and without pity...

1062
00:53:22,445 --> 00:53:23,885
[shuddering]

1063
00:53:23,885 --> 00:53:26,990
so bear your fate as best you can.

1064
00:53:26,990 --> 00:53:28,470
[still breathing heavily]

1065
00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:32,020
Then you need not leave him
dead without a grave...

1066
00:53:32,020 --> 00:53:33,960
[shallow breathing]

1067
00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:35,450
and you will find
the Greeks...

1068
00:53:35,475 --> 00:53:36,595
[shuddering]

1069
00:53:36,600 --> 00:53:37,510
more kind.

1070
00:53:37,515 --> 00:53:39,667
[gravel crunching as he stands]

1071
00:53:39,667 --> 00:53:42,147
[shuffling]

1072
00:53:42,147 --> 00:53:46,600
Dr. Scott: Trojan Women may well have spoken
to Athenian actions on Melos,

1073
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:49,130
but Euripides was also crucially

1074
00:53:49,130 --> 00:53:51,950
sending a broader message
about the disillusionment

1075
00:53:51,950 --> 00:53:53,620
that was taking hold in Greece

1076
00:53:53,620 --> 00:53:56,230
after years of
relentless, savage war

1077
00:53:56,420 --> 00:53:58,250
and the terrible impact

1078
00:53:58,250 --> 00:54:01,260
that such conflict has on
all members of society.

1079
00:54:01,260 --> 00:54:04,090
[boom, fades]

1080
00:54:04,110 --> 00:54:08,630
Prof. Cartledge: Why should WE think that
what the Athenians did to the Melians

1081
00:54:08,630 --> 00:54:12,180
would have generated
such terrific outrage

1082
00:54:12,180 --> 00:54:14,220
when the Spartans had done something

1083
00:54:14,220 --> 00:54:19,610
very similar to the people of Hisiai just a few 
years earlier? [overlapping: Exactly. Exactly.]

1084
00:54:19,610 --> 00:54:21,490
I mean that's purely historically.

1085
00:54:21,490 --> 00:54:23,940
On the other hand,
the coincidence of date means,

1086
00:54:23,940 --> 00:54:27,370
it seems to me, that as
Euripides is writing this,

1087
00:54:27,370 --> 00:54:30,630
what is the big campaign that
the Athenians are involved in

1088
00:54:30,630 --> 00:54:35,060
that is going to involve
women as slaves of war?

1089
00:54:35,060 --> 00:54:38,290
Well, it is the Mel- there is
no other campaign going on

1090
00:54:38,290 --> 00:54:43,340
as Euripides is writing
it in the winter of 416-5,

1091
00:54:43,340 --> 00:54:47,690
but he could have thought it
at any time, that's the thing.

1092
00:54:47,690 --> 00:54:53,700
Prof. Hall: By 416/415, I think Euripides
really has seen that war

1093
00:54:53,700 --> 00:54:55,710
as a way of life brings
nothing but misery

1094
00:54:55,710 --> 00:54:58,180
to both victors and vanquished.

1095
00:54:58,180 --> 00:55:00,100
Prof. Osborne: And from that point of
view, if you focus on Melos,

1096
00:55:00,100 --> 00:55:01,470
you actually miss that point.

1097
00:55:01,470 --> 00:55:02,660
Prof Hall: Exactly.

1098
00:55:02,660 --> 00:55:04,420
Prof. Osborne: The more you think
this is just a sort of,

1099
00:55:04,420 --> 00:55:06,140
"Oh, there's been a terrible
atrocity..."

1100
00:55:06,140 --> 00:55:07,220
[other professors agree]

1101
00:55:07,220 --> 00:55:08,960
Prof. Osborne: ...the more you miss

1102
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:12,600
that this is about the fact that
war is irrational and terrible.

1103
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:16,730
Prof. Hall: Euripides is presenting
a very –a, a, view of all the Greeks

1104
00:55:16,730 --> 00:55:19,060
as having barbarized themselves

1105
00:55:19,060 --> 00:55:21,160
during the course of
the Peloponnesian War.

1106
00:55:21,160 --> 00:55:22,810
[dramatic music]

1107
00:55:22,810 --> 00:55:25,240
Dr. Scott: Euripides was not the only one

1108
00:55:25,240 --> 00:55:27,850
to despair at the state
of affairs in Greece,

1109
00:55:27,850 --> 00:55:30,040
or criticize Athenian behavior.

1110
00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:34,100
Many in Greece now felt that
Athens was guilty of hubris,

1111
00:55:34,100 --> 00:55:35,830
of over-reaching pride.

1112
00:55:35,830 --> 00:55:39,010
And anyone who had ever
seen a Greek tragedy

1113
00:55:39,010 --> 00:55:41,530
would have been aware
of what could happen next.

1114
00:55:41,530 --> 00:55:42,530
[quiet music]

1115
00:55:42,530 --> 00:55:44,940
Here at Rhamnous in the 6th century,

1116
00:55:44,940 --> 00:55:46,780
the people had built a temple

1117
00:55:46,780 --> 00:55:51,090
to the Greek goddess responsible for
punishing those guilty of hubris.

1118
00:55:51,090 --> 00:55:56,140
She was called Nemesis, a name that
comes from the Greek verb "nemein",

1119
00:55:56,140 --> 00:55:58,170
meaning to give what is due.

1120
00:55:58,170 --> 00:56:00,240
[ominous music]

1121
00:56:00,240 --> 00:56:02,730
Now, after the Melian atrocity,

1122
00:56:02,730 --> 00:56:05,780
it seemed like Athenian
ambition and pride

1123
00:56:05,780 --> 00:56:08,060
was beginning to over-reach itself.

1124
00:56:08,060 --> 00:56:10,280
They not only had enemies abroad,

1125
00:56:10,280 --> 00:56:13,080
they had an increasing number
of enemies in Greece,

1126
00:56:13,530 --> 00:56:16,280
and indeed an increasing number
of enemies at home as well,

1127
00:56:16,280 --> 00:56:18,030
who were beginning
to think of democracy

1128
00:56:18,030 --> 00:56:21,620
as perhaps the immoral
inversion of the righteous order.

1129
00:56:21,620 --> 00:56:23,500
The question was,

1130
00:56:23,500 --> 00:56:27,970
as the glorious Golden Age of
the 5th century drew to a close,

1131
00:56:27,970 --> 00:56:30,530
how would theater and democracy,

1132
00:56:30,530 --> 00:56:33,740
which had so spectacularly
grown up together,

1133
00:56:33,740 --> 00:56:38,840
survive in a much harsher
and more difficult world?

1134
00:56:38,865 --> 00:56:45,015
[nature, dramatic music]

1135
00:56:45,015 --> 00:56:48,680
Although the future of Athens
now looked uncertain,

1136
00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:52,270
the past century had
been a spectacular era,

1137
00:56:52,270 --> 00:56:57,210
Athens had invented and pioneered
an array of things

1138
00:56:57,210 --> 00:57:00,150
which underpin our own civilization.

1139
00:57:00,150 --> 00:57:03,360
From classical sculpture
and architecture

1140
00:57:03,360 --> 00:57:06,470
to new directions
in philosophy and history.

1141
00:57:06,470 --> 00:57:07,470
[music swells]

1142
00:57:07,470 --> 00:57:10,330
But for me,
out of all those legacies,

1143
00:57:10,330 --> 00:57:13,490
two stand out as the most
extraordinary...

1144
00:57:13,490 --> 00:57:15,840
First, democracy:

1145
00:57:15,840 --> 00:57:20,010
Athens created the first
democratic constitution in history,

1146
00:57:20,010 --> 00:57:22,640
which has become a beacon
across the centuries.

1147
00:57:22,640 --> 00:57:23,640
[music]

1148
00:57:23,640 --> 00:57:27,020
And second: at the very same time,

1149
00:57:27,020 --> 00:57:30,770
Athens invented a powerful
and incisive new art form

1150
00:57:30,770 --> 00:57:34,620
–theater– an innovation
without which, perhaps,

1151
00:57:34,620 --> 00:57:37,110
that democracy might
never have survived.

1152
00:57:37,125 --> 00:57:38,495
[pause]

1153
00:57:38,495 --> 00:57:43,970
Drama comes from the Greek word,
"dram": to do, to act, to perform.

1154
00:57:43,970 --> 00:57:47,350
And if there is one thing
that has become abundantly clear

1155
00:57:47,350 --> 00:57:49,930
it's that theater was
never just mere entertainment,

1156
00:57:49,930 --> 00:57:51,340
never a passive spectator.

1157
00:57:51,340 --> 00:57:55,290
It was a performer in Athens'
story in the ancient world.

1158
00:57:55,290 --> 00:58:01,610
From tragedy making our most
important beliefs uncomfortable,

1159
00:58:01,610 --> 00:58:04,900
to comedy questioning
and policing citizenship,

1160
00:58:04,900 --> 00:58:06,060
and keeping people in check.

1161
00:58:06,060 --> 00:58:11,790
Theatre was an institution that
plugged into religious, civic,

1162
00:58:11,790 --> 00:58:15,310
political, and military aspects
of ancient Athenian society.

1163
00:58:15,310 --> 00:58:19,770
It was an extraordinary,
and an extraordinarily uncomfortable,

1164
00:58:19,770 --> 00:58:24,210
risky, and yet essential
part of Athenian life.

1165
00:58:24,210 --> 00:58:26,440
Join the Open University
as we explore

1166
00:58:26,440 --> 00:58:29,590
the connections between Greek
theatre and modern-day democracy.

1167
00:58:29,605 --> 00:58:32,460
Go to bbc.co.uk/ancientgreece

1168
00:58:32,460 --> 00:58:35,980
and follow the links to the Open
University's free-learning website.

1169
00:58:35,980 --> 00:58:39,220
[dramatic end music]

1170
00:58:39,220 --> 00:58:43,150
Female voice over: Peter and Dan Snow
explore another 20th century battlefield

1171
00:58:43,150 --> 00:58:47,470
in just a moment's time here on BBC Four
this evening, and then a chance to re-meet

1172
00:58:47,470 --> 00:58:53,640
the ancestors: families of the Stone Age
in stories from the dark earth at eleven.

1173
00:58:53,640 --> 00:58:54,300
Stay with us.

1174
00:58:54,300 --> 00:58:57,260
[dramatic end music resumes,
continues to end]

1175
00:58:57,260 --> 00:58:59,961
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd, edited
for Hope College