Images of the Greek theatre

Greek theatre was one of the glories of the ancient world.

It survives not only in cultural traditions, but in plays which can still be read and seen and in artistic images.

This book examines the history of Greek theatre as seen through representations on painted pottery, terracotta figures, sculpture, mosiacs, metalware and gems.

Depictions of performances, actors and their masks were frequent in classical times and continued to appear down to the fifth and sixth centuries AD and beyond, long after the plays had ceased to be staged.

The remains of actual theatres and texts of surviving plays also help to give us an idea of how Greek drama developed from the choral origins and how it must have appeared in its heyday.

Painted or sculpted representations may not be as literal as photographs, but they tell us much about Greek drama as its ancient admirers saw it.

Terracottas and vase paintings often show details of costumes, masks, and stage settings.

They also give glimpses of scenes from lost plays, as well as from famous and familiar ones. Most important of all, they allow us to recapture, in part, how theatre was seen and experienced by its first audiences and how images of it informed their lives and cultures.