[Usyd_Classics_Events] USYD CAH Research Seminar #7: Peter Wilson

[Ben Brown]

Dear Friends of Classics and Ancient History,

With only a few seminars left in this semester's exciting series, we are delighted to invite you to our next Classics and Ancient History/CCANESA online research seminar.

May 4th at 4pm (AEST/UTC+10)

Peter Wilson (University of Sydney/University of Cambridge).

“Dithyramb on Paros, Komoi in Athens: Insights from the epigraphic evidence for the start of choral competitions at the Athenian Dionysia.”

Abstract

The most compelling evidence for the earliest chronology of the competitions at the Athenian Dionysia converges in or around the year 508 BC. It consists of an entry in the third-century inscribed Chronicle of historical and cultural events commonly known as the Parian Marble, which gives that year as the date of the first contest for the men’s chorus, aka ‘dithyramb’; and a handful of fragments from the wreckage of a fourth-century monument of Athenian theatre history conventionally known as the Fasti. These are very old friends to historians and handbooks of the Greek theatre and, precisely because they are so well-known, I want to revisit them, with two purposes in mind. My principal aim is to view them through the lens of their own age, to see how the monuments from which they come imply and endorse histories of the theatre that were shaped by the particular interests of their creators on third-century Paros and in late fourth-century Athens. The second is to assess just how close this evidence might bring us to the Athenian archive, ultimately made up of the records kept by successive Archons in the course of their management of the Dionysia each year.

Biography

Professor Wilson received his Bachelor of Arts at Sydney University and PhD at Cambridge. He worked in the UK at the Universities of Warwick and Oxford before returning to Sydney late in 2003, where he has been in the Department of Classics and Ancient History since. In 2022, Professor Wilson was made a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Professor Wilson’s research primarily centres on Ancient Greek theatre, notably its social and economic dimensions, on the history of which he is one of the world’s authorities. In 2000, he published The Athenian Institution of the Khoregia; in 2020 he published, with Eric Csapo, the second volume of a three-volume Social and Economic History of the Theatre that explored the evidence for the appearance of theatre outside Athens from the earliest days to 300 BC. He is currently finishing the first volume in that series, which will treat the dramatic festivals of Athens, a work that will surely be established as the new handbook on the subject. Other work includes edited or co-edited volumes on the genre of Dithyramb; Fourth-Century theatre; and Theatre and Autocracy as well as many articles on archaic and classical Greek literature.


Please register for this free online presentation (if you have not already registered for the series):
https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/JjJNCD1vlpTo3YJrwSWTb1q?domain=signup.e2ma.net
The Zoom meeting details for this seminar are:
Meeting URL: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/82392271304
Meeting ID:  823 9227 1304
Please note, our seminars begin promptly at 4 pm. To further with facilitating the online space, please ensure that your Zoom username matches the name on your registration (where possible).
Please note further that by participating in this seminar, you agree to abide by the University of Sydney’s ICT policy. You can view the policy here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/policies/showdoc.aspxrecnum=PDOC2011/140&RendNum=0
This seminar will not be recorded.
We look forward to seeing you for this fascinating presentation!
For any further information or questions, please contact us at ccanesa.general at sydney.edu.au<mailto:ccanesa.general at sydney.edu.au>

All best,
Ben
 [A small depiction of Ariadne and Dionysus seemingly hugging while riding a chariot drawn by two panthers - all in white on a yellow background. A tiny human-like figure seems to be leading the chariot.]
Image: Sardonyx cameo showing Dionysus and Ariadne riding in a chariot drawn by two panthers. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number 06.1204.

DR BEN BROWN
Classics and Ancient History
School of Humanities (SoH)
Co-director Critical Antiquities Network<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/XoJ8CE8wmrtlp40oOsw3yYI?domain=criticalantiquities.org>
THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY NSW 2006
Ph.: 9351 8983; Office: Main Quad J6.07
E benjamin.brown at sydney.edu.au<mailto:benjamin.brown at sydney.edu.au> | W http://sydney.edu.au/arts/classics_ancient_history/staff/profiles/benjamin.brown.php

Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral
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