Costume in the Comedies of AristophanesThis book offers an interpretation of the handling of costume in the plays of the fifth-century comic poet Aristophanes. Drawing on both textual and material evidence from the fourth- and fifth-century Greek world, it examines three layers of costume: the bodysuit worn by the actors, the characters' clothes, and the additional layering of disguise. A chapter is also devoted to the inventive costumes of the comic chorus. Going beyond describing what costumes looked like, the book focuses instead on the dynamics of costume as it is manipulated by characters in the performance of plays. The book argues that costume is used competitively, as characters handle each other's costumes and poets vie for status using costume. This argument is informed by performance studies and by analyses of gender and the body. |
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Acharnians action Agathon appearance Apulian red-figure bell-krater argues Aristophanes artificiality Assemblywomen Athenian Athens Attic black-figure audience auletes Bdelycleon beak bird costumes Blepyrus calyx-krater character’s chiton choral costume choregos chorus members cloak clothing comic actors comic body comic characters comic costume comic mask comic performances comic stage contrast Csapo depicted Dicaeopolis Dionysus Dionysus’s disguise dressed embades emphasis Euelpides Euripides exomis female characters fifth-century fourth century Frogs garment gender Greek grotesque Heracles himatia himation Hughes indicate Knights krater krater Figure Lamachus layer lopodusia Lysistrata male characters male comic manipulation Museum oinochoe Old Comedy onstage padded Paestan parabasis Peisetaerus phallus Philocleon play play’s poet Praxagora Proboulos Procne protagonist references represent Revermann 2006 role scene sexual shoes skyphos Slater slave somation Sommerstein Sophocles Strepsiades stripping suggests Taplin Telephus Tereus terracotta terracotta figurines Thesm Thesmophoria tragedy tragic tribon tume vase paintings visual Wasps Wealth wearing wings woman women worn Xanthias καὶ τὸ