Theater outside Athens

"This volume brings together archaeologists, art historians, philologists, literary scholars, political scientists and historians to articulate the ways in which western Greek theater was distinct from that of the Greek mainland, and, at the same time, to investigate how the two traditions each influenced the other. The chapters intersect and build on each other in their pursuit of a number of shared questions and themes: the place of theater in the cultural life of Sicilian and South Italian 'colonial cities,' theater as a method of cultural selfidentification, shared mythological themes in performance texts and theatrical vase-painting, and the reflection and analysis of Sicilian and South Italian theater in the work of Athenian philosophers and playwrights. Together, the essays explore central problems in the study of western Greek theater. By gathering a range of perspectives and methods, this volume offers the first wide-ranging examination of this hitherto neglected history"--