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Hfdst. Ch. 4 Attisch ritueel theater 4: Attic ritual theatre

1 Inleiding. 1 Introduction.

In dit hoofdstuk zal onderzocht worden of het Attisch theater in de vijfde eeuw rituele kenmerken vertoonde en zo ja, met wat voor type ritueel wij te maken hebben. This chapter will examine whether Attic theatre in the 5th century BC showed ritual characteristics and, if so, what type of ritual we are dealing with. We will raise the question whether the theory of Turner may be applied to explain the phenomenon of Attic theatre. Daartoe zal onderzocht worden of de begrippen liminaliteit, anti-structuur, communitas en inferioriteit een juist verklaringsmodel leveren voor een aantal aspecten van Attisch theater. To that end we will examine whether the concepts of liminality, anti-structure, communitas and inferiority present a correct explanatory model for some aspects of Attic theatre.

Attisch theater zal bij de bespreking worden opgesplitst in de genres komedie en tragedie, waarbij het satyrspel niet besproken al worden. Attic theatre will be divided into the genres of comedy and tragedy, without reviewing the satyr play. This is not because the satyr play is not matching with Turner's model, but because we want to limit our research for reasons of clarity.

2. Attisch theater: liminaal of liminoide? Attic theatre: liminal or liminoid?

In het vorige hoofdstuk werd gesteld dat Attisch theater is voortgekomen uit de handelingen van de komos bij verschillende kalendrische rituelen. In the previous chapter we saw that Attic theatre developed from ritual acts of the komos performed at various calendrical festivals. De vraag dient nu gesteld te worden of het Attisch theater van de 5e eeuw dit rituele kader ontgroeid is. The question must now be asked whether Attic theatre of the 5th century BC did outgrew its ritual context. Met andere woorden: is Attisch theater in zijn opzet en in zijn functie identiek aan ons theater of zijn er verschillen? In other words: is Attic theatre in its design and in its function identical to our theatre, or are there any differences? Hadden de komedie- en tragedievoorstellingen misschien nog dezelfde functie als de rituelen waaruit zij zijn voortgekomen? Did the comedy and tragedy  performances preserve the same function as the rituals out of which they emerged?

Om deze vragen te beantwoorden moeten wij ons afvragen of Attisch theater liminaal of liminoide van karakter is. In order to answer these questions we must ask ourselves whether Attic theatre was liminal or liminoid by nature. Let us therefore  apply the points we discussed in Chapter II, 7 to Attic theatre.

1. Attisch theater is niet uit zijn rituele context geplaatst. 1. Attic theatre is not divorced from its ritual context. Het koor verricht nog steeds rituele handelingen, zoals het brengen van offers of het zingen van de threnos of de hymne. The choir still performs  ritual acts, such as bringing offerings or singing the hymn or the threnos. In komedie fungeert het koor ook vaak nog in zijn rituele rol van feestgangers. In comedy the choir is frequently presented in its ritual role of religious gathering.In de Kikkers van Aristophanes is zelfs een echte rituele processie op het toneel gebracht.Aristophanes' Frogs even brought a real-life ritual procession on stage.

Men zou als punt van verschil naar voren kunnen brengen, dat het koor niet meer bij zijn graf samenkomt om de gestorven heros te vereren, maar om daadwerkelijk mee te spelen en aanwezig te zijn in een gefingeerde legendarische tijd toen de heros nog leefde. One may object to this by stressing the fact that the choir no longer gathers at his grave to worship the fallen heros, but to actually play and be present in a fictitious time when the legendary heros was still alive. In het vorige hoofdstuk zagen wij echter dat dit proces van identificatie met de volgelingen of vrienden van de held al bij de rituelen zelf begon. In the previous section we saw, however, that this process of identification with the followers and/or friends of the heros already began at the rituals themselves. Bij de pre-theatrale rituelen liepen heden en verleden al door elkaar.Already in the pre-theatrical stage did the past and the present overlap.

The ritual function of Attic theatre is virtually identical to the function of the pre-theatrical calendrical rituals, except that the focus has shifted more to a social rather than a biological function. In paragraaf 4 zal dit nader onderzocht worden. In paragraph 4 this will be further investigated.

Een Attisch theaterstuk is de creatie van een individuele kunstenaar. An Attic play is the creation of an individual artist. Hij is vrij om zijn eigen wendingen aan te brengen in de vertelling van de mythe, maar deze vrijheid is desondanks beperkt. He is free to make his own adaptations in the narrative of the myth, but his freedom is limited nevertheless. Hij verzint de verhalen niet zelf, maar put uit een rijke mythologische traditie. He does not make up the stories all by himself, but draws from a rich mythological tradition. Tot op zekere hoogte heeft hij zich te houden aan deze traditie. To some extent he has to abide by this tradition. Wil hij de wedstrijd winnen dan moet hij ervoor zorgen dat zowel de verhaalstructuur als de ethische strekking van het verhaal valt binnen het verwachtingspatroon van het gehele publiek. If he is to win the games he must ensure that both the narrative structure and the ethical tenor of the play match the expectations of the audience at large.

In zijn verhalen kan hij kritiek op collectieve waarden en normen aanbrengen (het liminale karakter van het ritueel laat dit toe), maar het is zijn doel dat deze kritiek door het gehele publiek wordt geaccepteerd, niet alleen door een bepaalde subgroep binnen dat publiek. In his stories he may criticize collective values, opinions and beliefs (the liminal nature of the ritual allows this), but still he wants the whole audience to accept his criticism, not only a particular sub-group from within the public. Wil hij winnen, dan zal hij uiteindelijk de collectieve waarden en normen moeten bekrachtigen. If he is to win, he will eventually have to ratify the values and beliefs of the collective. Alleen dan kan hij op bijval van het gehele publiek rekenen. Only then will the audience support his play in the contest.

The impact of an Attic play in the 5th century BC is more collective than individual: on fixed days in the year the whole city goes out to visit the theatre of Dionysos to reflect on the core of human existence. Bij deze bezinning worden collectieve symbolen gebruikt: de toneelstukken zijn een visualisering van mythen, die men van jongs af heeft horen vertellen en die voor iedereen dezelfde emotionele waarde hebben.As an aid to such reflection collective symbols are used: the plays are a visualization of myths, which one has heard from a very early age onward, having the same emotional value for every citizen. De verhalen maken deel uit van de godsdienst van het Atheense volk. The stories are part of the religion of the Athenian people. Ze zijn 'waar' want men gelooft in de verhalen. They are 'true' because they believe in the stories. 

In de 5e eeuw BC is het collectief bijwonen van een theatervoorstelling de normale gang van zake In the 5th century BC is the collective attending of a theatrical performance the normal state of affairs. Het individueel lezen van een theaterstuk is een secundaire ontwikkeling die pas aan het einde van de 5 eeuw opkwam. The individual reading of a play is a secondary development, beginning only at the end of the 5 century.

2. Attische theater voorstellingen werden, net als de rituelen waaruit zij voortkwamen, gehouden op vaste tijden in het jaar: de landelijke Dionysia in de december, de Lenaia eind januari of begin februari, de grote Dionysia eind maart begin april (1). 2. Attic theatre performances were, just like their predecessors, the pre-theatrical rituals, held at fixed times in the year: the rural Dionysia in December, the Lenaia late January or early February, the great Dionysia at the end of March or the beginning of April (1). De theatervoorstellingen werden gehouden bij 'natuurlijke breekpunten' in de biologische en sociale processen van de Atheense gemeenschap. The theatrical performances were held at natural 'breaks' in the biological and social processes of the Athenian community. Het begin van het nieuwe jaar of het begin van de lente is een tijd van vernieuwing, niet alleen voor de natuur, maar ook voor de menselijke gemeenschap. The start of the new year or the beginning of spring is a time of renewal, not just for nature, but for the human community as well. The theatre performances were meant to give the community this renewal.

3. Attische theatervoorstelling zijn ingebouwd in het sociale systeem. 3. Attic theatrical performance are built into the social system. Zij zijn een instituut door de staat georganiseerd. They are an institution organized by the state. Particuliere choregoi zorgden voor de nodige financiën om de koren te trainen en waarschijnlijk het decor te bouwen. Private choregoi provided for the necessary finances to train the choirs and probably to build up the stage. De toekenning van de prijzen lag echter bij de overheid. The awarding of the prizes, however, was with the government. ok werd het publieke leven tijdens de festiviteiten stil gelegd: de overheidsgebouwen en de rechtbanken werden gesloten en handel en werk moest worden uitgesteld.All public life was during the festivities suspended: the government buildings and courts were closed and trade and work had to be postponed. Van staatswege werden gevangenen uit hun cel gehaald om de voorstellingen bij te wonen. Prisoners were freed from their cells to attend the performances. Aanwezigheid bij de voorstellingen werd gezien als een religieuze plicht (hoewel men dit niet zo hoefde te voelen) (2). Attendance to the festivities was seen as a religious duty (but probably not felt that way) (2).

De verschillende dichters hebben door te experimenteren de ontwikkeling van Attisch theater beïnvloed. The various poets have with experiments affected the development of Attic theatre. Zo hebben Aischylos en Sophocles het aantal acteurs en koorleden vergroot en zo heeft Euripides nieuwe muziek in zijn lyriek toegepast. For example, Aeschylos and Sophocles have increased the number of actors and choir members and Euripides put new, avant-garde music to his lyrics. Toch kan men niet zeggen dat Attisch theater experimenteel van karakter is. Nevertheless, one can not say that Attic theatre is experimental by nature. Niet was elk nieuw theaterstuk een experiment in nieuwe dicht-, decor- of toonkunst. Not every new theatre piece was an experiment in poetry, music or stage art. Seen as a whole Attic theatre tended to be rather conservative.

De kunstenaars die succesvolle theaterstukken schreven en produceerden stonden niet aan de rand van de samenleving maar werden daarentegen door geheel de staat op handen gedragen. The successful artists who wrote and produced plays were not at the fringes of society but were honoured throughout the state. Ze hadden hun succes niet slechts te danken aan een kleine coterie van connaisseurs. Their success was not only due to a small clique of connoisseurs. Succesvolle kunstenaars konden rekenen op hoge beloningen van staatswege. Successful artists were highly rewarded by the state. Zo heeft Sophocles waarschijnlijk zijn benoeming tot het ambt van strategos in 440 naar Samos te danken aan het succes met zijn stuk de Antigone (3). Sophocles was probably appointed to the post of strategos in 440 (in the expedition to Samos) due to the success of his play Antigone (3).

4. De verhalen die in Attisch theater worden gespeeld hebben voor alle aanwezige toeschouwers een zelfde intellectuele en emotionele betekenis. 4. The stories played out in Attic theatre have the same intellectual and emotional meaning for all spectators present.De religieuze symboliek, zowel non-verbaal (bijvoorbeeld offers, gebedshandelingen etc.), als verbaal (het noemen van de verschillende goden in hymnen, threnoi, eden etc.) spreekt het hele collectivum aam, niet slechts een kleine kring van gelovigen. The religious symbolism, both non-verbal (such as offerings, acts of devotion etc.) and verbal (the appeal to the various gods in hymns, threnoi, oaths etc.) affects the collective as a whole, not just a small circle of believers.Een ieder is bekend met de gehanteerde symboliek en een ieder wordt er gevoelsmatig door geraakt. Everyone understands the symbolism used. Everyone is affected by it personally and emotionally. De symboliek in Attisch theater is niet idiosyncratisch. The symbolism used in Attic theatre is not idiosyncratic.

Het bijwonen van een theatervoorstelling was in de 5e eeuw BC een collectief gebeuren. Attending a theatrical performance was a collective happening in the 5th century BC. De ethische vragen waarover men uitgenodigd werd na te denken betroffen sociale verhoudingen, niet zozeer individueel-persoonlijke problemen. The ethical questions which one was invited to reflect on, were related to social questions, rather than to individual-personal problems. De Griek van de 5e eeuw was meer een zoion politikon (4) dan een individu in de moderne betekenis van het woord. The Greek of the 5th century was more of a zoion politikon (4) than an individual in the modern sense of the word. Toch nam aan het einde van de 5e eeuw de individualisering van de mens toe. Yet the individualization of man slowly progressed and evolved at the end of the 5th century. Sporen van deze tendens treft men niet alleen in de filosofie (Socrates bv.), maar ook in de tragedie van Euripides aan.We find traces of this trend not only in philosophy (Socrates), but also in the tragedies of Euripides. Bij Euripides is er een grotere aandacht voor de psychologie van het individu dan bij zijn voorgangers.  Euripides gave greater emphasis to the psychology of the individual than his predecessors had done. But this was only the beginning of a process that was to culminate in the individualization of man in the Renaissance and in Modern Times. It was still far from the individualized man as we know him today.

5. Attisch theater genereert periodieke communitas onder het Atheense publiek en doet dat mede door middel van inversies. 5. Attic theater generates periodically communitas within the Athenian audience and effects this partly through inversions. Dit zal in de volgende paragrafen beargumenteerd worden. This will be argued in the following paragraphs. Attisch theater is hiermee functioneel voor het doelmatig werken van sociale structuur. Attic theatre is functional for making the social structure work efficiently.

Uit deze behandeling van de vijf punten van hoofdstuk II, 7 blijkt dat Attisch theater eerder een liminaal dan een liminoide fenomeen was. This treatment of the five points of Chapter II, 7 shows that Attic theatre was more of a liminal than a liminoid phenomenon. Wij zouden derhalve in het vervolg van Attisch ritueel theater kunnen spreken, hiermee aangevend dat theater in de 5e eeuw BC anders van karakter was dan ons huidig modern theater. We will therefore in the following speak of Attic theater as being ritual, acknowledging hereby that theatre in the 5th century BC was different in nature from our current modern theatre.

Dat een individuele kunstenaar komedie en tragedies schreef en daarbij persoonlijke ideeën aan het publiek kon voorleggen is op zich niet een reden om Attisch theater niet ritueel (dus: liminoide) te noemen. The fact that an individual artist wrote comedies and tragedies, presenting his personal ideas to the public, is not in itself a reason for not accepting the rituality of Attic theatre. Wij zagen immers dat individuele kunstenaars in de 5e eeuw ook voor duidelijk rituele aangelegenheden, zoals processies naar Eleusis, teksten schreven.For we saw individual artists in the 5th century also at other occasions writing texts for purposes which were clearly ritual, like processions to Eleusis (cf. the Iacchos of Diagoras).

Het naar voren brengen van persoonlijke ideeën en kritiek is niet slechts voorbehouden aan liminoide fenomenen. The presenting of personal ideas and personal criticism is not just limited to liminoid phenomena. Ook in rituele liminaliteit is het mogelijk dat de opvattingen van individuen of van subgroepen binnen de maatschappij aan de participanten in het ritueel worden voorgelegd. Also in the liminality of ritual is it possible for the views of individuals or subgroups within society to be handed out to the participants in the ritual for approval.

Het rituele karakter van Attisch theater blijkt ook uit het protocol waarmee de Dionysosfeesten werden gevierd: in de nacht voor het begin van het feest werd het beeld van Dionysos Eleuthereus uit zijn tempel gehaald en naar de Akadameia gebracht. The ritual nature of Attic theatre shows itself also from the protocol which preceded the festival of Dionsysos: in the night before the start of the festival the statue of Dionysos Eleuthereus was brought from his temple and taken to the Akadameia. Vandaar werd het beeld in processie terug naar zijn tempel op de Akropolis gedragen, alwaar men offers aan de god bracht. Hence the statue was in procession brought back to his temple on the Acropolis, where offerings were laid at his feet. Bij het eerste ochtendgloren brachten vervolgens epheboi het beeld van de god het theater in, opdat hij de toneelvoorstellingen kon bijwonen (5). At first dawn epheboi brought the image of the god to the theatre, so that he could attend the plays and the festivities (5).

Deze processie vormde de eerste fase van het ritueel, die door Van Gennep 'seperation' werd genoemd. This procession was the first phase of the ritual, which Van Gennep called 'separation'. De theatervoorstellingen zelf vormden de tweede fase, de liminale fase, en het ritueel werd bij de komedievoorstellingen afgesloten met een groot publiek feest, de gemeenschappelijke maaltijd, waarbij het eten de drank en de liefde gratis en vrij waren. The theatre spectacles themselves formed the second phase, the liminal phase. After the comedy performances the ritual ended  with a large public celebration, the common meal, the food, the drink and the love being free.

a. A. de liminaliteit van komedie The liminality of comedy

In de rituele liminaliteit van de komedievoorstellingen was de dichter vrij om kritiek te leveren op politieke toestand of ontwikkelingen. In the ritual liminality of comedy the poet was free to criticize political matters. Structure was denounced. De komedies haalden heftig uit naar politieke misstanden, corruptie, onderdrukkingen en uitbuiting, waarbij soms de zijde van het gewone volk werd gekozen, soms de zijde van de aristocratie, wanneer zij door de democratische partij onwaardig was behandeld. The comedies attacked political abuse, corruption, oppression and exploitation, sometimes taking sides with the common people, sometimes with the aristocracy, when unworthy treated by the Democratic Party (6). In alle gevallen ging het er echter om wat volgens de komedieschrijver het beste voor het Atheense volk als geheel was. In all cases, however, the writer of comedy's main concern was with the Athenian people at large.

Politieke leiders die volgens de komedieschrijvers een slecht politiek beleid voerden, werden met alle middelen in de stukken aangevallen. Political leaders implementing bad political policies were by all means attacked in the plays. De lach hielp hierbij om de opgekropte wrevel die onder het publiek leefde, een uitlaatklep te geven. The laughter helped to give a valve to the   resentment that lived among the public. Zo wordt de oorlogshitser Kleon in de stukken de Acharniërs en de Ridders belachelijk gemaakt. Thus the warmonger Kleon is made ridiculous in the plays the Acharnians and the Knights.t kon straffeloos gebeure Aristophanes could do so with impunity. Aristophanes hoefde niet bang te zijn dat hem een civiele procedure werd aangespannen, omdat (zelfs grove) kritiek bij consensus in komedie was toegestaan.He did not need to worry about being engaged in legal proceedings, because (even coarse) criticism was by consensus permitted in comedy.

Uit de ons overgeleverde komedies van Aristophanes blijkt hoe moe het Atheense volk in de laatste kwart van de 5e eeuw van de oorlog met Sparta was. The surviving comedies of Aristophanes show how tired the Athenian people had become of the war with Sparta in the last quarter of the 5th century. De oorlog vormt een belangrijk thema in de komedies. The war was a recurrent theme in the comedies. Steeds wordt vrede als alternatief gepresenteerd. Always peace is presented as an alternative. In de Acharniërs, de Ridders, de Vrede, de Vogels en de Lysistrata is kritiek op de oorlog een belangrijk thema. In the Acharnians, the Knights, the Peace, the Birds and the Lysistrata criticism of the war is the major theme.

Ook werden verschillende sociale verschijnselen in de komedies bekritiseerd, zoals de procedeerwoede van de Atheners in de Wespen en de verderfelijke invloed van de moderne opvoeding in Aristophanes' eerst stuk de Disgenoten. Also, several social phenomena were criticized in the comedies, like addiction to litigation in the Wasps or the pernicious influence of modern education in Aristophanes' first play the Dinner members. De ondeugden worden overdreven en zo belachelijk gemaakt. The vices are exaggerated and so made ridiculous. Maar door alle humor heen valt serieuze kritiek te bespeuren. But beyond all the humor serious criticism is to be detected.

Een andere liminale factor in de stukken is de vergaande fantasie waarmee men zich een andere wereld schept, die in contrast staat mede de buiten-rituele werkelijkheid. Another liminal factor in the plays is the far reaching fantasy meant to create a different world, in contrast to the reality external to the ritual. De komedieschrijver Krates heeft in zijn stuk de Dieren een ideale samenleving geschilderd waarin slaven overbodig waren. The playwright Crates, painted in his play the Animals an ideal society in which slavery was abolished. This other world is an Utopia, a world of peace, happiness and prosperity. In de Vogels wordt in de lucht een grote stad gebouwd, Wolkenkoekoeksheim, van waaruit de vogels in het vervolg heerschappij over mensen en goden zullen uitoefenen.In Aristophanes' the Birds a big city in the air built, Cloudcuckooland, from which the birds will exercise rule over humans and gods. Want de mensen en de goden brengen er maar weinig van terecht. Because the humans and the gods are making such a mess of the world down below.

Ook fantaseert men over de vraag hoe de wereld er uit zou zien als de vrouwen het van de mannen zouden overnemen.One also phantasizes about how the world would look like, if the women were to take over from the men. Zouden zij het beter doen dan de mannen, die niet in staat zijn Athene vreedzaam en welvarend te besturen? Would they do any better than the men, who are unable to rule Athens peacefully and prosperously?De klungeligheid van de vrouwen geeft echter aanleiding tot grote hilarite

In de komedie is het ook toegestaan om zaken te parodiëren, die in het dagelijks leven serieus moeten worden genomen. In comedy it is allowed to make fun of what in daily life is to be taken seriously. Er wordt met de traditionele mythen de draak gestoken.It is even allowed to ridicule the myths of tradition. In the Frogs a ludicrous persiflage of the god Dionysus is brought on the scene. Heracles is in de komedie een boertige veelvraat. Heracles is in comedy presented as a coarse glutton.

Hoewel er in komedie kritiek op gebruiken en parodie op geaccepteerde geloofsopvattingen mogelijk is, wordt toch de moraal en de godsdienst niet aan de kant gezet. Although in comedy criticism of tradition and parody of accepted beliefs is possible, the standard morality and religion are not put a side. Integendeel, er vindt juist een bekrachtiging plaats van de kosmologie van het Atheense volk (7). Instead, the play aims by and large at ratification of the cosmology of the Athenian people (7). De komische held mag immoreel zijn, maar uiteindelijk wordt hij zelf de dupe van zijn eigen slechtheid. The comic 'hero' may be immoral, but he himself is ultimately victimized by his own wickedness.

In de Wolken probeert de komische held Strepsiades op slinkse wijze van zijn schuldeisers af te komen door zijn zoon les te laten nemen in het Reflectorium van Socrates. In the Clouds the comic hero Strepsiades tries surreptitiously to outwit his creditors by letting his son take lessons in the famous Reflectorium of Socrates. Uiteindelijk wordt Strepsiades voor zijn hoogmoed tegenover zijn schuldeisers gestraft, omdat de nieuw verkregen disputeergave van zijn zoon zich tegen Strepsiades zelf keert, in plaats van tegen zijn schuldeisers. Ultimately, Strepsiades is punished for his arrogance towards his creditors, because the newly acquired talents of his son turn against Strepsiades himself, rather than against his creditors. In vs. In VS.1463 ziet Strepsiades in dat hij fout is geweest. 1463 Strepsiades acknowledges that he is wrong.

Het verhaal laat aan het publiek zien dat misdaad en onrechtvaardigheid uiteindelijk hun verdiende straf ontvangen. The story shows to the audience that crime and injustice eventually meet their due punishment. Zo helpt het ritueel in het bekrachtigen van de basiswaarden van de gemeenschap. Thus the ritual helps in ratifying the basic values of the community. Uiteindelijk wordt ook de goddeloze leer die men in het Reflectorium doceert gestraft: de school wordt in brand gestoken. Ultimately, the wicked doctrine teached in the Reflectorium is also punished: the school is set on fire. Het publiek kan niet anders concluderen dan dat dit de juiste straf is voor mensen die in plaats van in Zeus in wolken geloven. The public is led to conclude that this is the appropriate punishment for people, who instead of Olympian gods worship clouds.

b. B. Inversies als structureringsfactor in komedie. Inversions structuring comedy.

In de bespreking van de theorie van Turner zagen wij dat kalendrische en cyclische rituelen doorgaans 'rituals of status reversal' zijn: de vaste sociale verhoudingen worden op hun kop gezet. In the discussion of the theory of Turner we saw that calendrical and cyclic rituals are often 'rituals of status reversal': the fixed social relations are put upside down. Bij sommige rituelen in sommige culturen is deze inversie volledig, zoals wij zagen bij de Romeinse Saturnaliën: slaven worden meesters en meesters worden slaven.In some rituals in some cultures, this inversion is complete, as we saw in the Roman Saturnalia: slaves become masters and masters slaves. Ook Attisch theater in de 5e eeuw BC is een 'ritual of status reversal', maar de verschillende inversies zijn op het eerste gezicht minder in het oog vallend dan bij bijvoorbeeld de Saturnaliën. Also Attic theatre in the 5th century BC is a ritual of status reversal, but its successive inversions are at first sight less conspicious than, say, in the Saturnalia.Toch vormen inversies een belangrijke structureringsfactor in de verhalen. Yet inversions form an important scheme to structure the plays.

In Attisch ritueel theater zijn er twee soorten sociale inversie. In Attic ritual theater there are two types of social inversion. In het vervolg zullen wij de inversie die in een bepaald genre van Attisch theater het meest op de voorgrond treedt en die bepalend is voor dat genre 'predominant' noemen. In the sequel we will call the inversion used in a certain genre of Attic theatre the most, the predominant inversion. De tweede sociale inversie, die in het genre op het tweede plan komt noemen wij 'subdominant'. The second social inversion, which in that genre is used only secondary, we will call the subdominant inversion. Nadruk moet worden gelegd op het feit dat de termen predominant en subdominant slechts gelden voor het genre in zijn geheel, niet voor een toneelstuk apart. Emphasis should be placed on the fact that the terms predominant and subdominant only apply to the genres as a whole, not to each play apart. Het komt namelijk voor dat de predominante inversie (dus een een inversie die in het genre komedie of tragedie het meest voorkomt en die bepalend is voor wat wij onder tragisch of komisch verstaan) in bepaalde toneelstukken subdominant is, terwijl de subdominante inversie in die toneelstukken apart predominant is.For it happens that the predominant inversion (ie. the inversion that in the genre of comedy or tragedy is used most frequently and defines what we mean by tragic or comic) is in some plays used subdominantly, while the subdominant inversion in those plays may be used predominantly. Predominant en subdominant zijn derhalve relatieve termen. Predominant and subdominant are therefore relative terms.

De predominante sociale inversie in komedie is die van laag naar hoog. The predominant social inversion in comedy is from low to high. De komische 'held', die de drager van het verhaal is, behoort in de regel tot een meer inferieure groep in de Atheense maatschappij. The comic hero, the protagonist in the story, belongs as a rule to a more inferior group in the Athenian society. In veel gevallen is hij een eenvoudig boertje afkomstig uit een dorp in Attika. In many cases he is a simple peasant from a village in Attica.

Dat men boeren als een meer inferieure groep beschouwde in de samenleving blijkt uit de tegenstelling tussen de woorden asteios en agroikos , stad en boers.That peasants were considered an inferior group in society shows from the contrast between the words asteios and agroikos, urban and agrarian. Stads stond voor knap, geestig, elegant, slim etc., terwijl iemand die boers werd genoemd stom, slecht gemanierd, onelegant en traag van inzicht was. Urban meant clever, witty, elegant, smart etc., while an agrarian was considered to be stupid, badly mannered, uncharming and slow of wit. Verder vond men boeren slecht van humeur en te veel 'op de centen'.(8). Furthermore, peasants were held to be moody, and too much 'on the penny' (8).

Hier kwam nog bij dat veel boeren sinds de bezetting van Dekeleia in 413 BC naar de stad waren gevlucht. Moreover, many farmers had fled since the occupation of Dekeleia in 413 BC to the city. Veel Atheners zullen met argusogen naar deze onstadse vreemdelingen hebben gekeken, die door hun komst een extra aanslag op de toch al niet rooskleurige economie betekenden. Many Athenians will have frowned  upon these unurban aliens, draining their economy. For they saw themselves forced to care for this new group of unemployed.

In de komedie ondergaat het eenvoudige boertje echter een sociale inversie: in de loop van het verhaal blijkt hij van onmisbaar nut voor de stad te zin. In comedy, however, the simple peasant undergoes a social inversion: in the course of the story he appears to be indispensable for the welfare of the city. Ondanks al zijn boersheid en lachwekkendheid weet hij politieke resultaten te behalen die van groot algemeen belang zijn. Despite all his coarseness and stupidity he knows how to get political results of significant public interest.

In de Acharniërs sluit de boer Dikaiopolis (de naam wijst al op inversie) op eigen houtje vrede met de Spartanen, waardoor hij alle voordelen van de vrede geniet. In the Acharnians the farmer Dikaiopolis (the name already points to inversion) makes peace on his own with the Spartans. And so he is the one enjoying all the advantages of peace. Door zijn heerlijk leventje overtuigt hij de mensen van de noodzaak om vrede te sluiten. His happy and prosperous life convinces the people of the need for peace. Het volk heeft volgens hem alle oorlogsellende te danken aan demagogen en oorlogshitsers.He finally makes them see that all misery is due to demagogues and warmongers. In de loop van het verhaal wordt het boertje nolens volens een man van gewicht, met voordelige adviezen voor het Atheense volk. In the course of the story the farmer (rather willy-nilly) becomes a man of weight, offering advantageous advice to the Athenian people.

De boer Strepsiades in de Wolken blijft in intellect ver achter bij de hooggeleerde medestudenten en docenten van het Reflectorium, The farmer Strepsiades in the Clouds is not as clever as the highbrow students and teachers of the Reflectorium. maar uiteindelijk komt hij als triomferende overwinnaar uit de strijd door de school van Socrates in brand te steken. But in the end he triumphantantly outwits them all by putting the school on fire. In het dagelijks leven buiten het ritueel zijn boeren de mindere van de intelligentsia van de stad. In daily life outside the ritual farmers are inferior by far to the intelligentsia in the city. Maar in de komedie worden zij boven hen gesteld. But in comedy they are presented as superior. Opvallend is dat Strepsiades in de laatste scene door een slaaf wordt geholpen. Interestingly, Strepsiades is in the last scene helped by a slave in putting fire to the buildings. Ook slaven behoren tot een inferieure groep binnen de Atheense samenleving. Slaves also belonged to an inferior group within Athenian society.

In de Vrede slagen Attische boeren erin om onder leiding van de boer Trygaios de godin Vrede uit haar grot te bevrijden waarin zij door de Oorlogsgod is opgesloten. In the Peace Attic farmers under the leadership of the farmer Trygaios manage to liberate the goddess Peace from her cave, where she is imprisoned by the god of war.Dankzij de boeren kan heel Griekenland weer herademen.Again the farmers are the ones bringing salvation to Greece.

Naast boeren waren er ook nog andere meer inferieure groepen in de Atheense samenleving.Besides the farmers there were other, even more inferior groups in Athenian society.In een gesloten maatschappij als het Athene van de 5e eeuw BC werden economisch productieve mannen sociaal hoger ingeschat dan andere leeftijds- en geslachtsgroepen. In a closed society like 5th century Athens economically productive men were socially valued higher than other age and gender groups. Oude mensen, nog niet volwassen mannen en vrouwen waren sociaal inferieur aan de volwassen mannen. Old people, young adolescent men and virtually all women were socially inferior to these adult men.

Het zijn echter niet alleen economische redenen waardoor deze groepen lager worden ingeschat.But the reasons for assessing these groups inferior were not only economic. Men vond dat volwassen mannen met meer verstand functioneerden. It was felt that adult men acted more wisely. Een jonge man begon volgens de Grieken pas verstand te hebben als hij de pubertijd was ontgroeid en op zijn achttiende was bijgeschreven op de lijst van de deme. According to the Greeks a young man began to show some common sense only after he had outgrown his puberty, when at the age of eighteen he was included on the list of deme. Hij bereikte zijn hoogtepunt op zijn veertigste. He peaked at his fortieth. De jeugd was een tijd van onbezonnenheid, roekeloosheid, gebrek aan zelfrestrictie en seksuele buitensporigheid. Youth was considered to be a time of carelessness, recklessness, lack of self restraint and sexual intemperance. Als men jong was, dan had men zich nog niet goed in de hand. A young man was not in self control. Men spraak vaak denigrerend over onvolwassen mannen (9). They often spoke condescendingly about immature young men (9).

In komedie zien wij een inversie in de sociale positie van jonge, ongetrouwde mannen. In comedy we see an inversion in the social position of young, unmarried men. Waren zijn in het dagelijks leven respect verschuldigd aan hun vader en werd het als vanzelfsprekend beschouwd dat de oudere gelijk had en de jongere ongelijk, in de komedie zijn de rollen omgedraaid. In daily life they owed respect to their fathers. It was taken for granted that the elderly were right and the younger wrong. But in comedy these roles were reversed. In de Wespen is niet de oudere, volwassen man de verstandige en bezonnene in de vader-zoon relatie, maar is het juist de zoon die zijn vader moet beschermen tegen diens uit de hand gelopen procedeerverslaving.In the Wasps it is not the older, more mature man who is sensible and wise. It is the son who's obliged to protect his father against his addiction to litigation. The son wisely closes his father in, in their own house.

In de Wolken wordt Strepsiades door zijn zoon afgetroefd. In the Clouds Strepsiades is outwitted by his son. The son appears far more intelligent than the father. Wilde het met de cursus van Strepsiades in het Reflectorium niet erg lukken, bij zijn zoon heeft de opleiding van Socrates wel succes. The course of Strepsiades in the Reflectorium was not very successful, due to lack of required brain capacity. But with his son the training of Socrates is successful indeed. The son, however, uses his newly acquired knowledge and his new theoretical frame of mind to give his father a thorough beating. Wat in het dagelijks leven alleen een vader zijn zoon mag aandoen, mag in de komedie een zoon zijn vader aandoen (10). What in everyday life only a father may do to his son, is allowed the son in comedy (10).

Ook oude bejaarde mannen zag men als een inferieure groep in de maatschappij. Old men too were considered to be an inferior group in society. Lichamelijke zwakte en economische afhankelijkheid zorgde ervoor dat de maatschappij de bejaarden vaak als een last beschouwde. Physical weakness and economic dependence caused society to see the elderly as a burden. Oude mannen stonden bekend om hun humeurigheid. Old men were known for their chagrin. Men vond ze eerder zeurderig dan wijs en levensrijp (11). They were seen as querulous rather than wise and mature (11). In de Ridders wordt de oude Demos weer verjongd.In The Knights the old Demos is rejuvenated.

Politiek en legaal hadden de vrouwen in het klassieke Athene minder rechten dan mannen (12). Politically and legally, the women in classical Athens had fewer rights than men (12). Ook sociaal was de vrouw inferieur aan de man: zij moest haar werkzaamheden tot het huis bepreken.Socially too the woman was inferior to the man: she was only allowed to work in and around the house. Ze mocht geen handel drijven of contracten sluiten. She was not allowed to trade or draw contracts. Dochters werden als economische last beschouwd, omdat zij met een dure bruidsschat uitgehuwelijkt moesten worden. Daughters were regarded as an economic burden because they could only marry when bringing in an expensive dowery. De wet zorgde ervoor dat bruidsschatten werden verstrekt aan arme meisjes, maar in de regel voedde een vader niet meer dochters op dan hij aan bruidsschat kon veroorloven. The law ensured that doweries were provided to poor girls, but as a rule, a father did not raise more daughters than what he could afford to lay aside as dowery. Te vondeling leggen en zelfs infanticide van vrouwelijke baby's kwam veel voor, mede omdat Athene door de oorlogen een vrouwenoverschot had en er in de laatste helft van de 5e eeuw van een bevolkingsexplosie sprake was (13). Foundling, and even infanticide of female babies, was widespread, partly because Athens had too many females because of the war and also because there was a demographic explosion in the last half of the 5th century (13). Verder beschouwde men de vrouw ook fysiek en intellectueel de mindere van de man. Furthermore, women were considered to be physically and intellectually inferior to man. Het was een belediging om een man vrouwelijk te noemen. It was an insult to refer to a man as feminine.

In de komedie vindt er een inversie plaats van de sociale positie van de vrouw. In comedy we find an inversion in the social position of women. In de Lysistrata houden de vrouwen een seksuele staking om de mannen tot vrede sluiten te dwingen. In the Lysistrata, the women go on sexual strike to enforce the men to make peace. In het dagelijks leven een inferieure groep, worden vrouwen op het toneel ineens van groot maatschappelijk nut.Though in daily life an inferior group, the women on the stage prove to be of great social utility. Hetzelfde ziet men gebeuren in de Ecclesiazusai waar vrouwen als mannen verkleed een communistische staatsregeling weten door te drijven. The same is the case in the Ecclesiazusai where women dressed as men start a revolution and manage to enforce a communist constitution. Vrouwen worden hier de politieke leiders.In the play the women become the political leaders.

Tot zover de predominante inversie (van laag naar hoog). So much for the predominant inversion (from low to high). De subdominante inversie in komedie is van hoog naar laag: wat in het dagelijks leven hoog in structuur staat, wordt in komedie laag geplaatst. The subdominant inversion in comedy is from high to low: what in daily life is high in structure, is put low in comedy. De in komedie genoemde politieke leiders stonden in de buiten-rituele werkelijkheid vanwege hun positie in aanzien. The political leaders satirized in comedy were outside the ritual held in high esteem. In the ritual, however, they were made ridiculous. In hun fysiek en ethische kenmerken werden zijn met de meest laag gestructureerde mensentypen gelijkgesteld. In their ethical and physical characteristics they were equated with the most lowly structured. Net als zij zagen de politieke leiders er in de beschrijving van de komedie dichter lelijk uit en hadden zij allerlei ethische tekortkomingen. Just like them the political leaders were in the play described as ugly and just like them showed all sorts of ethical shortcomings. De nieuwe Paflagonische slaaf van de oude Demos in de Ridders van Aristophanes is duidelijk een karikatuur van de politieke leider Kleon. The new Paphlagonian slave of the old Demos in the Knights of Aristophanes is clearly a caricature of the political leader Kleon. Kleon is tot slaaf geïnverteerd. Kleon is in the play inverted to a slave .

Ook zijn er aanwijzingen dat de sofisten in het dagelijks leven van Athene hoog in structuur stonden. There are also indications that the Sophists in the daily life of Athens stood high in structure. De gewone man zag ze weliswaar als parasieten van de samenleving, maar uit de dialogen van Plato blijkt dat de adel en de rijken voor het onderwijs van de sofisten hoge bedragen bereid waren te betalen. The ordinary man saw them as parasites of society, but the dialogues of Plato indicate that the nobility and the rich were prepared to hand them, for the education of their sons, large sums of money. The lessons of the sophists formed some sort of a university training, after the primary education of the grammatistes and the secondary education of the kitharistes. De sofisten vroegen veel geld voor hun onderwijs. The sophists asked a lot of money for their training. Maar weinigen konden dat betalen. But few could afford. Slechts de adel en de rijken konden zich onderwijs veroorloven. Only the nobility and the wealthy could. Door hun associatie met de adel kwamen de sofisten hoog in structuur te staan (15). Because of their association with the nobility, the sophists were deemed to be high in structure too (15).

De komedie draait de sociale positie van de sofisten echter om door een komische persiflage van hun onderwijs te geven. Comedy inverts the social position of the sophists, however, by bringing on stage a comic persiflage of their teachings.Voor het gemak worden ook andere filosofen dan de sofisten belachelijk gemaakt. For convenience  sake other philosophers also, besides the sophists, are made ridiculous. De doorsnee burger in Athene zag het verschil toch vaak niet. The average citizen in Athens could not tell the difference anyhow. For the many Socrates was the most annoying philosopher. Hij moet het dan ook vooral ontgelden in de Wolken.So he is the one getting all the arrows of satire fired at him, especially in the Clouds. De inversie is compleet als op het eind van het stuk de boer Strepsiades over de sofisten triomfeert en hun school in brand steekt. The inversion is made complete when at the end of the play the farmer Strepsiades triumphs over the sophists  by putting their school to fire.De sofisten vallen in de komedie van hun voetstuk.

De Kikkers is een voorbeeld van een komedie waarin een doorgaans subdominante inversie predominant is. The Frogs is an example of a comedy in which a subdominant inversion is used predominantly. In het gehele genre van komedie is de inversie van hoog naar laag secundair. In the whole genre of comedy the inversion from high to low is secondary. De komische held is de drager van het verhaal. The comic hero is the protagonist of the story. Zijn inversie is meestal de predominante inversie (van laag naar hoog). His inversion is usually the predominant inversion (from low to high). De komische held in de Kikkers is echter Dionysos. The comic hero in the Frogs however is Dionysos. Zijn inversie is niet van laag naar hoog maar van hoog naar laag. His inversion is not from low to high, but from high to low. Als god wordt hij immers door de mensen vereerd.For as a god, he was honoured by the people. Hij is de godheid onder wiens patronage de Dionysia en de Lenaia worden gevierd. He is the deity under whose patronage the Dionysia and the Lenaia were celebrated. Hij is meer dan mens, een krachtige godheid die men moet aanbidden. He is more than man, a powerful deity, to be worshipped. As a deity he stands even higher than the nobility or the political leaders. In de Kikkers wordt hij echter als een niet bijster ontwikkelde lafaard aan het publiek gepresenteerd.In the Frogs, however, he was presented to the public as an imbecile coward. Ondanks al zijn grote praat doet hij het letterlijk in zijn broek van de verschrikkingen van de onderwereld. Despite all his grandiloquence, he wets his trousers when confronted with the horrors of the underworld. Hij ziet er maar verwijfd uit met zijn gele tunica en nog bespottelijk bovendien, met zijn leeuwenhuid over zijn rug en zijn knuppel in zijn hand. His yellow tunic looks all too feminine, all too gay. The lion skin on his back and the club in his hand are definitely preposterous.

Xanthias daarentegen weet zijn meester constant af te troeven en in de maling te nemen.His slave Xanthias however knows how to outwit his master constantly and how to pull his leg. In intellectueel opzicht is Xanthias de baas over Dionysos. Intellectually Xanthias is superior to Dionysos. Er vindt zelfs een uitwisseling van kleding plaats, waarbij Xanthias de meester (Heracles) wordt en Dionysos de slaaf. There is even an exchange of clothing, in which Xanthias becomes the master (Heracles) and Dionysos the slave. Deze uitwisseling van kleding kan men haast zien als een symbolische bekrachtiging van een rolwisseling die op intellectueel niveau al vanaf het begin van het stuk heeft plaatsgevonden: de slaaf is de meerdere van de godheid. This exchange of clothes can be seen as a symbolic endorsement of a roll change that already at intellectual level took place at the beginning of the play: the slave is during the whole performance superior to the deity.

Hoewel de inversie van Xanthias predominant is (van laag naar hoog), is hij toch niet de protagonist van het stuk. Although the inversion of Xanthias is predominant (from low to high), he is not the protagonist of the play. De komische held is Dionysos. The comic hero is Dionysos. Hij is de drager van het verhaal. The narrative is centered around him. Xanthias verdwijnt zelfs na vs. Xanthias disappears even after vs. 813 van het toneel. 813 from the stage.

De Kikkers is derhalve een voorbeeld van een komedie waar de doorgaans predominante inversie (= Xanthias) subdominant is en de doorgaans subdominante inversie (= Dionysos) predominant is. The Frogs is therefore an example of a comedy in which the predominant inversion (= Xanthias) is used subdominantly, and the subdominant inversion (= Dionysos) predominantly.

Naast sociale inversies zijn er ook nog andere inversies in de komedies: inversies in ethische opvattingen (in de agoon tussen Dikaios Logos en de Adikos Logos in de Wolken (vs. 889 ev.) wint uiteindelijk de Adikos Logos het), inversies in de tegenstelling dood-leven (de doden worden als levend voorgesteld en de levenden als dood, cf. Ran. vs. 419-420), inversies in de tegenstelling mens/dier etc. In addition to social inversions there are other inversions in the comedies: inversions in ethical beliefs (in the agon between Dikaios Logos and Logos Adikos in the Clouds (vs. 889 ff) the Adikos Logos finally wins), inversions in the opposition death-life (the dead are presented alive, and the living dead, see the Frogs vs. 419-420), inversions in the opposition human-animal etc. Voor de werking van komedie zijn de sociale inversies echter het meest belangrijk. For the functionality of comedy, the social inversions, however, are the most important.

Concluderend kan men stellen dat wat in het dagelijks leven hoog in structuur staat, in komedie laag wordt geplaatst. In conclusion let's observe that what in daily life is high in structure, is placed low in comedy. Dat wat in het dagelijks leven laag in structuur staat wordt in komedie hoog geplaatst. What in everyday life is low in structure is placed high in comedy.

c. C. Communitas door komedie. Comedy generating communitas.

Alle vrijgeboren inwoners van Athene hadden toegang tot het theater. All free born residents of Athens had access to the theater. De gegevens uit de oudheid zijn schaars en onzeker, maar waarschijnlijk hadden ook vrouwen toegang (16). The data from antiquity are scarce and uncertain, but probably the women had access too (16). Alle sociale lagen waren aanwezig, met uitzondering wellicht van slaven en metoiken. All social strata were present, with the exception perhaps of slaves and resident foreigners. Op de eerste rij zat de priester van Dionysos en andere religieuze magistraten. On the first row sat the priest of Dionysos and other religious magistrates. Vlak achter hen zaten de politieke leiders en de aristocraten van de stad. Just behind them were the political leaders and the aristocrats of the city. In hun midden bevonden zich de intellectuelen: schrijvers, dichters, filosofen, literaire critici etc. In their midst the intellectuals were seated: writers, poets, philosophers, literary critics etc. Ook zullen de rijke zakenlieden van de stad een betere plaats in het theater bemachtigd hebben. Also, the wealthy businessmen of the city had obtained the better seats in the theatre. Meer naar achteren zat het gewone volk: ambachtslieden en de boeren, misschien vermengd met leden van de middenklasse. More to the back the common people: craftsmen and farmers, perhaps mixed with members of the middle class. Ook waren de heuvels om het theater bezet. The hills around the theater were crowded too. Here the slaves and the resident foreigners had gathered (when not permitted into the theatre).

Al deze toeschouwers waren in feeststemming het theater binnengekomen. All these spectators had entered the theatre in elated spirits.  It was a free day. Er was al het een en ander aan alcohol geconsumeerd. They had already had a drink. Yet each one also had brought his or her frustrations with them into the theatre (17). Deze frustraties waren politiek, economisch en sociaal van aard. These frustrations were political, economic and social in nature.

De komedievoorstelling zorgde er echter voor dat er een periodiek gevoel van eenheid onder het publiek opkwam. The comedy provided however for a periodic sense of unity to arise among the public. By being spectator the public participated in the ritual. Men leefde mee met de lotgevallen van de verschillende personages. They sympathized with the adventures of the various characters. Doordat de toeschouwer zich met de personages en de gebeurtenissen op het toneel vereenzelvigde, vonden de inversies die in het toneelstuk voorkwamen ook bij de toeschouwer plaats. Because the spectators identified with the characters and the events on stage, the inversions in the play also occurred with them. This whole process may have worked unconsciously.

De toeschouwer relateerde de personages en de gebeurtenissen op het toneel aan zichzelf en aan zijn/haar sociale context. The spectator related the characters and the events on stage to himself and to his/her social context. Men beoordeelde de personages en de gebeurtenissen met dezelfde sociale waarden en normen als waarmee men personages en gebeurtenissen in het leven van elke dag beoordeelde. One evaluated the characters and the events with the same social values and norms which they used to asses characters and events in everyday life. They had their fixed ideas about people of a certain social layer, ideas depending in turn on the social position they themselves occupied.

In de loop van een komedievoorstelling was men echter gedwongen die vaste opvattingen los te laten. In the course of a comedy performance one was forced, though, to give up these rigid notions. Mensen die laag waren gestructureerd bleken ineens van even groot belang te kunnen zijn als mensen die hoog waren gestructureerd.. People who were lowly structured suddenly appeared to be just as important as the highly structured. Mensen die hoog waren gestructureerd bleken vaak niet zo voortreffelijk en bijzonder als men wel van hen dacht. People who were highly structured proved to be not as good and outstanding as they were thought to be. De laag gestructureerden onder het publiek ervoeren een gevoel van trots. The lowly structured experienced a sense of pride. Zij zagen op het toneel een opwaardering van hun mens zijn. They saw on stage an upgrade of their humanity. De hoog gestructureerden zagen in dat zijn niet de enigen waren die in de maatschappij waarde hadden. The highly structured came to understand that they were not the only ones in society with value. Daarnaast ervoeren zij de satire en de persiflage op hun persoon als een 'release' van spanning. In addition, they experienced the satire, the banter and the persiflage as a release of tension. Wat hoog stond werd lager gewaardeerd,.The high was seen in its true perspective. Wat laag stond werd opgewaardeerd. The low was upgraded. Zo vond er een egalisering van de sociale stratificatie plaats. Thus an equalizition of the social stratification was effected. Dit resulteerde in een gevoel van communitas. This resulted in a sense of communitas.

Communitas ontstond mede omdat in de predominante inversie de boer, de slaaf, de vrouw etc. Communitas arose partly because in the predominant inversion the farmer, the slave, the woman etc. niet moreel perfect werd voorgeteld, maar de vermeende karakteristieken van zijn sociale positie behield.were not presented as morally perfect. They retained the alleged characteristics of their social position. Bij een te grote morele perfectie zou het personage ten eerste aan geloofwaardigheid inboeten (niemand verwachtte immers van een boer of een slaaf dat deze moreel perfect was).When they would have been presented as morally too perfect, the character was in the first place liable to lose his credibility (nobody expected a farmer or a slave to be morally perfect). Ten tweede zou te grote deugdzaamheid en rechtschapenheid communitas-ervaring bij het publiek in de weg staan. Secondly, a too great amount of virtuousness and righteousness  would preclude an experience of communitas from within the public. If the lowly structured in comedy were morally without any blame and the highly structured full of moral shortcomings, then such a state of affairs would admittedly have been an inversion (for the opposite was expected: that the highly structured were to be without any blame and the lowly structured full of moral failings), but not an inversion provoking communitas. It would have been an inversion that was to leave the social oppositions intact.

This time, however, each group in the audience may laugh at the inadequacies of the other group. The farmers and other working people may laugh at the paleness and unwordliness of the sophists and the sophists may laugh at the stupidity of farmers. Such a laugh not only  gives release of tension, but gives every group and every individual in the public the awareness that all groups and all people in Athenian society have one way or another something ridiculous, whether one is a political leader, or a farmer or slave. The laughing evokes communitas, because what you blame the other is present in you yourself also (even when you may have difficulties in admitting it).

The communitas that is generated by comedy is the second form of normative communitas (see Chapter II 5.3). At a fixed time in the year communitas has been normatively institutionalized, in order to restrengthen the forces of society.

The experienced communitas, however, is only temporarily. After the performances they soon lapse back into structure. It should also be noted that even during the theatre performances structure is not entirely eliminated. This is demonstrated by the various grades that were occupied: the celebrities sat on the first row, while the lower people sat at the back. Still, the plays were designed to bring these different groups closer.

Turner's observation, that communitas is often presented from inferior groups, seems to include comedy also. In the Peace the farmers are the ones ensuring Greece to live in peace and prosperity. In the Women's parliament the women want an egalitarian society. From the lowest groups in society unity, fraternity, equality, peace and prosperity are created. 

4. Tragedy: liminal nature and function.

a. The liminality of tragedy.

In Chapter II, 3, we saw that in liminality a society steps back from its normal mode of social and cultural functioning, to re-examine, in a secluded time and place, the central values and axioms of that particular culture.

In 5th century Athens the population gathered together in the theatre of Dionysus to reflect on existential issues. They were invited to consider the fate of man, his place in the world and his relation to his fellow man, to nature and the gods. With this reflection the central values of their culture were investigated. The playwrights chose preferably from the body of myths those stories, which were the best in bringing to light these central values. They reshaped the narratives so, that the characters would present, in a conflict, a different world view to the public. The public was invited to think, to make choices or to accept a paradoxical dilemma (18).

While the myths visualized in a tragedy performance recount a legendary time, the problem addressed in the plays is 5th century. The political, social and religious issues dealt with in tragedy align directly with the experience of the audience in 5th century Athens. In that tragedy shows itself to be an anachronism. For a correct interpretation of the plays it is therefore important that we relate the issues raised in tragedy to the social, political and religious context of the time. It is eg. in the interpretation of Sophocles' Elektra important to examine how the Greeks thought about avenging murder and about the killing of the mother. For these are the moral dilemma's touched upon by Sophocles in the play.

In Chapter II, 3 we saw that many tribal and post-tribal societies allow forces in the ritual, which in the outer ritual reality they exclude from their cosmological order. For the Greeks, there was a strict separation of the various cosmological categories. Each category had its permanent demarcation. A breach of that line was a defilement. It was not up to man to infringe the boundary between humans and animals (19) or between humans and the gods (20).

In certain rituals they were permitted to cross the line: in the omophagia ritual in the cult of Dionysos, the Mainads made, by eating raw meat, contact with the animal world, something strictly tabood outside the ritual. One possible interpretation of this could be that they, in exceptional ritual circumstances, made contact with nature as to conjure potentially beneficial forces to the benefit of human society.

A similar violation of cosmological demarcations we see in the ritual liminality of tragedy: in daily life hybris was the greatest sin for a man  to commit. Hybris was to consider yourself more than your fellow man and to treat an equal as if he was a slave. A man inflated by hybris had too much confidence in his own strength and success. He had no regard for drawing his lines and deemed himself more than human. Hybris was the major threat to the democracy of the 5th century BC, because the state could be undermined by people on a power trip (the checks and balances in 5th century BC democracy were not as solid as they are today).

The tragic hero in the plays of Sophocles, however, is filled with hybris. He does not accepts his human limits, but estimates his own glory and his own self-worth higher than what his fellow men think of him. He has the choice between a possible downfall or a compromise, which is to him a betrayal of his pride and self-esteem. The heros refuses to compromise and so causes his own downfall (21).

Sophocles is trying to show that if man is not willing to compromise, he will end up being without family and friends, deplorable, lonely. The tragic hero is, by stubbornly holding on to an idiosyncratic self, an isolated a man, who at the time of his deepest despair can no longer face the gods or his fellow humans, but can only address the wild nature around him: he deemed himself a god, but he appears to be even less than human. He is equal to the animals (22).

Yet, the tragic hero is a great man also. His untamed passion has also the potentiality to benefit mankind. Ajax deserves to be buried. His anger did not only turn against the Greeks in his moment of madness. His raging passion also caused the Trojans to flee from their  ships.

In the ritual liminality of tragedy it becomes clear that hybris has positive aspects also. Tragedy shows that hybris is an ambiguous force. The tragic hero is deinos, a word meaning both 'terrible furious', as 'wonderfully great'. Many other names of passion in tragedy point to the ambiguity of those forces: thrasos, thymos, menos, orge, tolma, have both a negative and a positive meaning (23).

The tragic heros in the works of Sophocles is omos, raw. This culinary term makes clear that the heros belongs to the wild nature outside the polis. He is not civilised. Yet precisely because of his energy and his commitment to certain values he also has a place of honour within the city (24).

In their cosmological organization the Greeks made a distinction between three different categories: humans, animals, gods. The god of tragedy, Dionysos, mixes this organization up. In his cult man again makes contact with raw nature, in order to find new sources of energy. In ecstasy, man comes in contact with the divine. Segal describes the liminality of the Dionysos cult as follows: "Under the protection of this god, the dramatic performances could express all that the disciplined life of the polis suppressed. (....) The tragic universe, like its god, in some sense stands for an anti-world ". (TC p. 49)

In everyday life ambiguity is excluded from the cosmological order. In the liminality of the ritual theatre, the ambiguity, the complexity and the problems of human existence are brought into focus.

Nevertheless, in calendrical rituals the cosmological order is not only temporarily abandoned or brought into examination to point to ambiguities and paradoxical dilemma's: the cosmological order is also ratified. The books of Oudemans/Lardinois (25) and Segal (26) focus too unilaterally on ambiguity and on decoupling from the cosmological order. Tragedy also shows that the inherited system of values and norms is of great interest to the polis.  Tragedy also puts emphasis on ratification of values like justice, forgiveness,  devotion to the gods, respect for your fellow man etc. The play teaches the audience that these values are to be preferred to immoral behaviour, because the man who does not underline the importance of these values becomes lonely and isolated (see Soph. Ant. 370-371).
The Ajax of Sophocles is a plea for forgiveness. Even though it was hybris of Ajax not to accept his loss in the contest for the arms of Achilles, and even though he did behave as a traitor in his desire to slaughter the entire Greek army, he still deserves a funeral. The man who was Ajax' worst enemy succeeds eventually in persuading Agamemnon to grant Ajax a funeral. Odysseus calls upon Agamemnon not to be inflexible of heart (vs. 1361). He also will one day need a funeral (vs. 1365). By putting Odysseus at the beginning of the tragedy in a close relationship with the goddess Athene, Sophocles wants to show that the gods love people like Odysseus. We must know when to stop holding grudges. In the Ajax, the coöperative values (27) are ratified.

In an even more compelling way the Antigone covers the same theme as the Ajax. Kreon holds firmly on to his decree to allow nobody to bury the public enemy Polyneikes and to punish the offender of the decree with the death sentence. His stubbornness effects his own doom, as he loses, after the death of Antigone, his own son and later on his wife. Kreon eventually becomes lonely and isolated, even sterile in a way, being without family and without the possibility to raise new children. Teiresias makes Kreon see that the gods did not approve of the decree. The gods had sent bad omens (vs. 998 ff). The city has been contaminated by Kreons decision (vs. 1015-1018). It is clear that Kreon was wrong in his decision. The tragedy shows in the fate of Kreon that forgiveness and wisdom are preferable to hatred and intemperance.

In the Elektra Sophocles wants to point out to the public that laws are necessary for the welfare of the state. In 5th century Athens the family of a murdered citizen was obliged to proclaim the assassination to the city on the marketplace. The family was compelled by law to avenge the murder of their family member (28). To Attic jurisdiction Orestes was therefore obliged to avenge the murder of his father. Sophocles lays emphasis on the justice of the revenge by letting Apollo himself decree the command to punish Aigisthos and Klytaimnestra. The crime of Aigisthos was horrific because besides the killing of Agamemnon he had also seduced his wife (29). By letting herself be seduced by Aigisthos and by murdering her own husband Klytaimnestra also deserved to be put to death (30).

The difficulty in punishing Klytaimnestra, however, lies in the fact that only her own children may avenge the murder of Agamemnon. There is no law that can give Aigisthos and Klytaimnestra the death penalty because they are the rulers defining the law. This leads to the terrible dilemma that Orestes must kill his own mother. In the plays of Aeschylos and Euripides, this matricide again leads to defilement:  after the assassination of Klytaimnestra Orestes is being haunted by the Erinyes. But Sophocles makes in his Elektra a plea for justice. To him justice and laws are the most important. In some cases even a son has to kill his own mother, when she has committed heinous crimes. If crime is not punished, then there will be no more justice in the world. In Sophocles' Elektra  the gods support the revenge (vs. 1382-1383) and human law demands it (cf. vs. 245-250).

Sophocles' answer to the problem of matricide is that a woman who treats her husband and her children the way Klytaimnestra has treated Agamemnon and his children, does not deserve to be called a mother (31). To that extent, matricide is out of the question. Sophocles emphasizes in his play the unmotherly nature and the unmotherly behaviour of Klytaimnestra (cf. vs. 273-74, 597-600, 1154, 1194). What kind of a mother is a woman who does not grant her daughter the happiness of men and children (see vs. 164, 165, 187)? Nowhere in the Elektra is there a hint that Orestes will afterwards be dogged by the Erinyes (32). The end of the Elektra rather shows that with the vengeance finally an end has come to the suffering of the house of Atreus (vs. 1508-1510). The Elektra confirms the sense of justice that lives among the audience.
 

b. Inversions structuring tragedy.

As in comedy, the representatives of various social positions in a tragedy are inverted in respect to their social roles: what was highly structured, is put low, and what lowly, high.

This is not the case with all characters in a tragedy. Some minor parts undergo no inversion. But that does not mean that inversions are only reserved for the leading parts, as we shall see in the course of this subsection. Also the minor parts may function within a predominant or subdominant inversion.
 
As to domination, the two social inversions in a tragedy are in inverse proportion to the two inversions in comedy. In comedy the predominant inversion was from low to high and the subdominant inversion from high to low. In tragedy, the opposite is the case: the predominant inversion in this genre is from high to low and the subdominant inversion is from low to high.

The inversion occuring in tragedy the most -what we mean by tragic (the predominant inversion)-, is the fall of a highly ranked person into a situation not fitting with his high position. One expects the life of the distinguished to be fulfilling, full of happiness, prosperity and wealth. But in the course of the story they fall from exultant happiness into deep grief. Such suffering is expected in the case of people with a low social status, for whom life has nothing but hardship in store, but not in the case of kings or other high-ranking persons. In some cases, the inversion is even complete, as in the case of King Oedipus, who inverts from being king to the position of a blind, itinerant beggar.

Let us now, by way of finding arguments for the alleged propositions, look at some examples of inversion in tragedy. We will have a closer look at three tragedies of Sophocles to start with, but in passing some other tragedies will be referred to also. First we will look at the use of the predominant inversion. In the Ajax the leader of the battalion from Salamis, the great hero Ajax, has at night in frenzied anger butchered the whole livestock. In his madness he meant to kill the Greeks, in punishment for not granting him the arms of Achilles. The goddess Athene, however, stopped him from genocide, in diverting his rage not at the Greeks, but at the cattle instead. At the beginning of the play the goddess makes the unfortunate plight of Ajax apparent to Odysseus. The great Ajax, king of Salamis, is robbed of his intellect and behaves like a beast. Odysseus sympathizes with him (vs. 121). Ajax is fallen from a high position into the deepest misery.

In the whole play the emphasis is on the high position of Ajax (megas 205, ho kleinos  vs. 216 etc.) and on the miserable condition he now is in after his madness. First he was in high regard with the Greeks, now he an out-cast. He fears their hate will eventually kill him (vs. 408-409). As to outsmart his enemies, and to save his honor and pride, Ajax ultimately commits suicide.

Another example of a tragedy in which the predominant inversion is central to the narrative, is the Oedipus Rex. In the beginning of the play, Oedipus enters the scene in full royal dignity. He is the man who has rescued Thebes from the Sphinx. His high position is underscored by the suppliants who have come to his palace, in the hope he will again save them from the plague. The group consists of representatives of inferior groups within society: children, elderly and unmarried men. It is  significant that married men are not part of the group. Towering over this group of humble suppliants, sitting down with bowed head at the altars of the palace, stands Oedipus, the great king, with all the signs of his dignity, his sceptre, his crown and his kingly robe.

However, in the course of the story Oedipus himself appears to be the cause of the plague. He is the defiler of the city, having slain his father and married his mother and having begotten children with her. Eventually the truth is found out: the prophecy of Teiresias appears to be true. At the end of the play, Oedipus has blinded himself and is demoted to the lowest position among men: he now has become an itinerant beggar, dispelled from his homeland.

In addition to Sophocles' Ajax and Oedipus Rex, Euripides' Heracles and Bacchai may be cited as tragedies in which the central inversion of the play is the predominant one. In these tragedies, the king, the heros or the heroes come to downfall in the course of the story.

In tragedies in which the predominant inversion is central to the narrative, the subdominant inversion is as a rule also present. In these tragedies the subdominant inversion (from low to high) occurs not with the protagonist, but with the deuteragonist, tritagonist or with the minor parts.

Tekmessa is in the war captured by Ajax. She has a son with him, Eurysakes. She is no more than a piece of loot. She considers herself to be his slave and maid (vs. 489). Nevertheless, she is kindly affectioned towards him. She imparts the choir her grief and her concern for the  condition Ajax is in. For Ajax has protected her and her son against too excessive maltreatment by the rest of the Greek army. She fears however, that if Ajax kills himself, that the entire army will treat her and her son as the slaves they actually are (vs. 496-503). As  slave of war Tekmessa holds a low position, especially now that Ajax has shown himself to be a traitor. Just like Ajax, she is an outcast too. Besides Tekmessa the slave of war, and Eurysakes, the bastard  son of a Phrygian, also Ajax' half brother Teuker belongs to an inferior group. Teuker is the son of Telamon and the Trojan princess Hermione. As son of a foreign woman he was in the eyes of the Greeks a mongrel.

In Athens bastard sons stood low in structure. Since the new legislation of Pericles in 451/450 BC the bastard son of an Athenian woman with civil rights (nothos ex asthes) and also the bastard son of a foreign woman with an Athenian father (nothos ex xenes) were both excluded from inheritance (33). From 450 onward a son only received civil rights if born from an Athenian father and mother  (34). Bastards constituted an inferior group within Athenian society.

In the agon between Agamemnon and Teuker Agamemnon emphasizes the fact that Teuker is a mongrel (vs. 1228). He even equates Teuker with a slave (vs. 1235), who speaks too freely (vs. 1258). Because Teuker as an inferior person has no right to speak, he must provide for a lawyer to argue his case (vs. 1259-1261). The mongrel Teuker has no locus standi. The argument shows that the rulers consider Teuker to be an inferior person.

These three characters, Tekmessa, the Phrygian whore, Eurysakes, the immature bastard son and Teuker, the nothos ex xenes, are all three representatives of inferior groups within Athenian society. They ask those in power, Menelaos and Agamemnon, to grant Ajax the funeral he deserves. In the end Agamemnon, won over by Odysseus, gives in to their demands, albeit after fierce disputes between Menelaos and Agamemnon on the one hand and Teuker on the other. Tekmessa, Eurysakes and Teuker win their dispute with those in power. The demands they make are fair. The rulers had violated with their refusal the laws of the gods (vs. 1343-1344). Ajax has served the Greeks. He deserves to be buried (vs. 1332 ff).

Sophocles presents the dispute in a way, that the public may sympathize with the lowly structured. The public is, as it were, the jury in the proceedings and can only conclude that the cause of Teuker is fairer than the cause of Menelaos and Agamemnon. The public is forced by Sophocles to deem the lowly structured personages higher than those in power, Menelaos and Agamemnon. This leads to an enhancement of the inferior groups. What is socially low, becomes high in the eyes of the public. In the Ajax not the rulers are the paragon of wisdom and justice. At the end of the piece, they are even cursed (vs. 1390-1391).

In the first part of the Ajax, up to and including the suicide of Ajax, the predominant inversion is central to the narrative, but in the last part Sophocles uses the subdominant inversion as the central factor. In the second part the subdominant inversion is used predominantly.

That this was not an unusual method, we will soon seen in discussing the Elektra. First, however the subdominant inversion in the Oedipus Rex has to be discussed.

The seer Teiresias, as priest of Apollo, is in itself an inversion. As a blind, old man, he is a representative of an inferior group in society. I think it is therefore significant that Teiresias is led by a boy on the scene (vs. 444 ff, see also Antigone vs. 1087). The boy and the old man were both the representative of an inferior group. Their association is not by chance, like the composition of the group of suppliants in the prologue of the Oedipus Rex was no coincidence either.

Teiresias, however, has, due to his profetic gifts, reached the high position of priest of Apollo. In this role, he is highly regarded. The public knows that Teiresias proclaims the truth. The choir is full of awe (vs. 484) in respect to the seer. The blind, old man is the spokesman of the deity. Inferiority is here equated with what is highest.

Teiresias, however, is in the Oedipus Rex by those in power not honoured as the man of high position he is. They regard him simply as an old, blind man, just as inferior as other old and blind people. They do not believe in his gifts of profecy. They see in him not the high interpreter of the will of Apollo. In the dispute between him and Oedipus, Oedipus becomes increasingly angered with Teiresias. He calls him kakoon kakiste (the lowest of the low). Though Oedipus had called for Teiresias to clarify the oracle of Apollo and to give details about the murder of Laios, it soon appears that Oedipus has doubts about Teiresias' capabilities. Wherein has Teiresias ever shown himself to be a great visionary, he asks out loud (vs. 390). Teiresias did not know to answer the riddles of the sphinx, although he was the man for it (vs. 391-396). The first traveler coming by knew more than Teiresias with all of his mantic gifts (vs. 396-398). Teiresias is a fake seer. He is just an old man (vs. 402).
 
However, in the course of the story it appears that the words of Teiresias are true: Oedipus is a defiler of the country by having slain his father and by marrying his mother. Teiresias has pronounced the prophecy that Oedipus would become blind and would become am itinerant beggar in a foreign country, instead of a rich man (vs. 455). This prophecy is fulfilled at the end of the play.

The public sees that Teiresias is despised by those in power and is being treated as the inferior which they hold him to be as an old, blind man. During the performance, the spectators, however, are led to conclude that Teiresias is not the inferior they hold him to be. He is not in a low but in a high position: as the true visionary of Apollo he is close to the gods, elevated above all humans. The audience already knew this from the start, but they see in the fate of Oedipus a reaffirmation of Teiresias' inversion.

Teiresias is in the course of the play exalted from being an inferior blind, old man to being the companion of Apollo (subdominant inversion), while Oedipus is inverted from being the rich, almighty king to a poor, blind wanderer dispelled from his homeland (predominant inversion).

The roles of Oedipus and Teiresias are reversed. Oedipus thought he saw everything clearly but appeared to be blind. He thought Teiresias was blind, but the latter saw all too clearly. The seer is the blind (both figuratively and literally) and the blind is the seer. What seemed low was high, and what appeared to be high proved out to be low.

The messenger who comes from Corinth to tell Oedipus that Polybos is deceased, is a man of low position. He is not only an old man (vs. 990-1001), but he was in days gone by a shepherd and itinerant manual worker (vs. 1029). Oedipus estimates the messenger therefore not to be of any social value. Implicitly he even calls him a good-for-nothing. Oedipus means by vs. 1019: how can the man who has begotten me be on a par with someone who is of no value at all (35)? My father was the king and what are you? However, this old man appears to be of great significance. Thanks to this shepherd and laborer the king still lives (vs. 1030). He proves out to be the saviour of Oedipus.

The servant of Laios, who is summoned to give detailed explanations to questions concerning the murder of his master, is a man of low status too ( oikeus vs.756, ton ergaten vs. 859, doulos vs . 1123,  presbu vs. 1147 ). He was previously a pastor too, tending together with the old man from Corinth his sheeps on mount Kitairon. Together they are the saviours of the king. The servant of Laios had sympathy with the baby and wanted the man from Corinth to put him out as a foundling. The old man in turn had compassion for the child and gave it to the childless king Polybos. Without these two men of low origin, the future king of Thebes would not have lived.

These two men were faithful (cf. vs. 764) and had compassion. They showed themselves human. Sophocles forces his audience to reassess the value of slaves. He shows that they are potentially high in social value.

As in comedy, the subdominant inversion (in tragedy from low to high) can also in certain tragedies be used predominantly and what is normally the predominant inversion (in tragedy from high to low), subdominantly. In such tragedies the subdominant inversion becomes central to the narrative.
 
The protagonist in these plays is always lowly structured and knows in the course of the play to gain victory over people of high position or to defend more equitable views, so that the public in the conflict with the rulers is forced to side with the protagonist. At the beginning of the play the protagonist is usually in an unfortunate position. In the course of the story there is in many cases an improvement in that position.

In many of these tragedies with a central subdominant inversion women play the leading part. In point 3b it was argued that women belonged to a more inferior group in Athenian society. It is therefore likely that women , as in comedy, undergo inversion in tragedy too. This is indeed the case, although not with all women in tragedy. In tragedy especially the young, unmarried women reach from an inferior status high position. Turner too (36) came to this observation in his study of rituals in tribal societies. He explained the great ritual significance of young unmarried women by pointing to the fact that they were not yet mother and had no sons, forming the basis for opposition and rivalry in society. However, there is also another explanation possible, giving a better explanation of this phenomenon in tragedy: by being married the older women have become part of structure. They derive a high position from their marriage with a man of status. Older women are, as it were, by their marriage corrupted by structure.

As proof of this we may observe that the women in tragedy, who are married to men of low social status, are indeed subdominantly inverted, while this is not the case with women married to men of high social status. Thus, for example, Elektra in the play of Euripides is subdominantly inverted. She is married to a man of low social status . But Iokaste, the wife of Oedipus, and Euridike, the wife of Kreon in the Antigone, are not subdominantly inverted. Though they are women, they are by their marriage with the rulers highly structured. It is therefore likely that instead of subdominantly, they will be inverted predominantly. And indeed, both women meet death and there is no improvement of their position.

To this rule, that women married to highly structured men are not be subdominantly inverted, there is, however, an exception. Some tragedies relate the fate of women, who were married to men of high position, but are nevertheless in the play subdominantly inverted. These are mostly women captured in war, like Andromache or Hekabe. At the beginning of the tragedy, these women are in an unfortunate position. Hekabe is the queen of Troy and Andromache the wife of Hektor, but with the downfall of their husbands they too have sunken low.

In many of the surviving tragedies of Euripides the subdominant inversion is central to the narrative. It is therefore not surprising that in most of these tragedies the protagonist is a woman. The so-called suppliant plays belong also to this type of tragedy.

In some cases, however, a man is the protagonist in a tragedy in which the subdominant inversion is central to the narrative. But in that case he is a man of low position, not lowly born, though, but in the events previous to the action fallen from high position.

The risk with this kind of tragedy is that such an inversion may confuse the public. They are likely to mix it up with the predominant inversion in comedy, because in both cases a man of low social status is the protagonist and is in the beginning of the play in an unfortunate position. In both cases the protagonist inverts from low to high. That this was a real existing danger was clear from the criticism Euripides received as a result of plays like the Telephos. He was objected not to have respected the solemnity and respectability of tragedy by bringing his protagonist on stage dressed in rags (see Arist. Ran. vs 842; 1062). 

Euripides had, to compositional standards, written a perfectly acceptable tragedy. He had used the subdominant inversion predominantly, which is permitted and functional. The public, however, doubted whether they were attending a tragedy or a comedy. The result was that some broke out in laughter when seeing Telephos coming on stage. To circumvent this hazard the playwright had to emphasize from the very beginning that the beggar dressed in rags was not a born beggar, but a fallen king. 

Sophocles' Elektra is a tragedy in which the subdominant inversion is used predominantly. Elektra is scorned by her mother and her stepfather because she keeps the memory of her father Agamemnon alive. The brutal harassments of Klytaimnestra and Aigisthos even reach the limit of treating Elektra as a slave (vs. 189). She is forced to wear clothing unworthy of a king's daughter (vs. 19). The rulers are not even letting her have her meal in public (vs. 192). In name a King's daughter Elektra has in fact the existence of an outcast (vs. 599). Her mother is the mistress and she is the slave (vs. 597-598). From this low position she decides to avenge her father and to cast the ones in power from the throne. Eventually she succeeds with the help of her brother Orestes.

It is striking that both Elektra and Orestes are still unmarried. Justice is restored by people belonging to a group of low social status in 5th century Athens. At the beginning of the tragedy, Elektra and Orestes occupy a low social position. But at the end of the play they are highly placed (subdominant inversion). Those in power are at the beginning in a high social position, but eventually fall from their pedestal (predominant inversion).

Another character in the Elektra coming from low social status to high reputation, is the persona of the pedagogue. In the prologue we are told that there has grown an affectionate relationship between him and Orestes. The slave and the King's son have become dear friends. Orestes treasures the old man highly (vs. 23-31). The old slave even has some mental superiority over the boy. He urges him to take as soon as possible a decision concerning the action he is to take (vs. 15-16). When Orestes commits the error to linger while listening to Elektra's laments, it is the pedagogue who gives the wise counsel to first go and carry out Apollo's missions (vs. 84-85). With words that express authority the pedagogue ends the prologue.

In the scene just before the murder of Klytaimnestra and Aigisthos, after Orestes and Elektra have met each other, it is again the pedagogue giving wise counsel. They are to take action as soon as possible. They have to take heed not to betray their plans to the rulers, being moved by joy as they are. Without the diligence of the old slave they would totally have failed in their plans (1331-1334).

Elektra does not yet know who this old man is, but when Orestes tells her that he is the one who once rescued him out of the hands of his murderers, she cannot find words to express her gratitude. This old slave -to the public a representative of a group of people whom they frowned upon in daily life-, this inferior character, is in the eyes of Elektra the most noble man that ever walked the planet. At the time of the murder of Agamemnon, he was the only one remaining faithful to the brutally murdered King (vs. 1351-1352). This slave is the only saviour of the house of Agamemnon (vs. 1354).

c. Tragedy generating communitas.

Soph. Ant. 1155-1171

Not only are these words important for a proper understanding of the Antigone, but they also clarify our understanding of the functionality of tragedy in general. For tragedy aimed at creating a sense of unity within the public. This she did by making the spectators conscious of the fact that structure is always relative and potentially changing. The predominant inversion, which in tragedy  is applied to persons of high status, made the public more aware of the fact that such people may also be victim to 'the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune'. Even a man of high status may suddenly be deprived of his good fortune. Thus the life of Kreon shows (Ant. 1161-1167). All the beauty and glory of his high position is taken from him by the death of his son Haimon. You may be rich, even the King, but when there is no more joy in life, then all is worth nothing (vs. 1168-1171).

Tragedy brings the audience to the understanding that no one is to be praised or blamed because of his or her social position (vs. 1156-1157). A ruler or a rich man is not to be looked up to, because any moment disaster may strike and throw him from his pedestal. People of low status shouldn't be frowned upon either, because they may all of a sudden prosper and take over control (vs. 1158-1159). In the eyes of lady Fortune, everyone is equal.

During the theatre spectacles the lowly structured experience an upgrade of their position. For on stage they see that people of low status and representatives of more inferior groups may also be of use to society. Without the old slave in the Elektra, Orestes would never have been rescued and justice would never have been restored. If the two simple shepherds had not shown their humanity, Oedipus would certainly have died. The lowly structured experience a feeling of pride when watching a tragedy. During and after the ritual presentation they feel as important as people of high position.

The highly structured among the public in turn feel more equal. They also are led to reflect on the relativity of their position. In the fate of the kings and rulers on stage they notice how transitory power and money is. Possessing power and money does not make you any better than another human being. Even an old slave can be a better man than the King, when the first preserves his integrity and the latter abuses his power, as in the case of the pedagogue and Aigisthos.

This awareness, that all people, regardless of social position, are fundamentally equal, is at the same time a warning against hybris :

The fate of mankind is hanging, as it were, in a scale, which may now turn up, now turn down. One should therefore not pride one's self over power or money, because fate may snatch it away in a second.

For the communitas experience, it is important that the characters that suffer a downfall in the predominant inversion are not morally bad. This would acerbate the oppositions between the various social stratifications in the public, rather than annihilate them. For when the man/woman of high position were in tragedy always to be presented as a scoundrel, then the public would conclude that people of high status were always bad and that they deserve their fall. This would only increase the hatred and envy among the public.

Also, the man/woman who undergoes a predominant inversion, is not to be presented as totally without moral blame. This goes against any sense of justice. In creating a communitas experience such a presentation would also be detrimental, because it would confirm the bias that people of high position are, by definition, good people, who are led by fate to their ruin entirely undeserved.

In the subdominant inversion also, the character may not be morally bad. This would not only confirm the bias within the public that people of inferior status are usually bad (precisely the sort of bias tragedy wants to remove from the hearts of the public), but it also goes against any feeling of justice, that a wicked person may rise high.

Finally, to ensure an optimal communitas effect, it is to be avoided that the characters in the subdominant inversion are totally without moral blame. If the characters of low social class in tragedy were to be totally without any shortcomings and the characters of high social class full of moral failings, this would admittedly be an inversion, but not an inversion generating communitas. Then good and evil would remain separate categories in the various social strata. Such a division between good and evil is suited to a Western, but not to a Greek tragedy.

In the surviving tragedies it is clear that the writers tried to avoid the points mentioned. Sophocles eg. made his Elektra or his Antigone, who are both inverted subdominantly, not into paragons of righteousness, showing no shortcomings whatsoever. Often, they are carried away by their anger or blinded by their hatred. They know not how to be behave moderately. They act -not only in the eyes of bystanders, but also in their own view-, recklessly, immoderately (eg. Elekt. vs. 221-225, 307-309, 616-621, Ant. vs. 95, 853, 857).


As with comedy, the communitas generated by tragedy is the second form of normative communitas. Anti-structure is besides structure built into the social system to ensure the Athenian population to experience temporary feelings of unity.

Although tragedy tries to show the nullity and the fragility of man, her functionality is not negative nor destructive to the life force. The effects of tragedy are more positive and constructive, because the collective strength of all individual participants in the ritual is reinforced, by showing that the core of each human being is essentially equal. This insight frees the spectator from fear and tension. In comedy and tragedy, human beings are stripped of all external distinctions, to be again reduced to the prima materies they essentially are. Comedy works by way of humor, tragedy by showing suffering. But both genres have the same effect: communitas.

In conclusion it could be said that the theory of Victor Turner as regarding the functionality of rituals offers an appropriate explanatory model for the nature and functionality of Attic theatre as well. In its liminality, in its inversions and in its communitas effect, Attic theatre shows all the characteristics of a calendrical ritual.

1. Pickard-Cambridge (DF) (p.1-22)
2. WB Stanford: Aristophanes, the Frogs; with Introduction, revised Text, and Commentary Index (London 1958) (AF) (p. XI)
3.  R. Jebb: Sophocles, the plays and fragments part III, Antigone (Cambridge 1906) (p. XLVII)
4.  Arist. Polit. 1253 a
5.  Nilsson JDAI XXXI in 1961 (p. 336 ff)
6.  In the parabasis of the Frogs the people are asked to restore the civil rights to those aristocrats, who were punished after the oligarchic revolution of 411 BC.
7.  C. Segal: Tragedy and Civilisation, an Interpretation of Sophocles (Harvard 1981) (TC) (p. 52): "The comic hero too may exceed the limits of divine and social order; his motivation and fame, however, are a return to or a restoration of that order ".
   
8.  KJ Dover: Greek Popular Morality in the time of Plato and Aristotle (Oxford 1974) (PM) (p. 113). Although Dover's book concentrates on the fourth century, many of his material holds for the fifth century. Cf. PT Stevens: Greece and Rome XXV 1978 (p. 120 note 24): 'presumably popular morality was much the same in the fifth [century]. "
9. KJ Dover (GPM) (p. 103-105)
10. Demosthenes XXIV 60 and 102:  harassment of parents was considered to be a major crime.
11. Eg. Eurp. Ba. 1251 et seq
12. SB Pomeroy: Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves, Women in Classical Antiquity (New York 1975) (GWWS) (p. 58) Compare: Dover (GPM) (p. 95-98)
13. Pomeroy (GWWS) (p. 66)
14. Dover (GPM) (p. 99-102)
15. Dover: Aristophanes' Clouds with Introduction, Text and Commentary (Oxford 1963) (p. XXIII)
16. Pickard-Cambridge (DF) (p. 268 ff)
17. WB Stanford (AF) (p. XIII)
18. AC Schlesinger: Boundaries of Dionysus; Athenian foundations for the theory of Tragedy (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1963) (pp. 57-58): "In a great play a poet and his audience were in conference on vitally important matters, matters of concern possibly immediate and certainly perennial. " 
    
19. Oudemans and Lardinois (TA) (p. 90): "The Greeks also meticulously separated themselves from the abhorred animal world.
20. Oudemans and Lardinois (TA) (p. 93): "Primarily man has to draw firm boundaries between himself an the divine sphere, otherwise self-deification and ruin were the upshot."
21. BMW Knox: the herosic Temper; Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy (Berkeley / Los Angeles 1964) (HT) (p. 8)
22. Knox (HT) (p. 33)
23. Oudemans and Lardinois (TA) (p. 87)
24. Segal (TC) (p. 12)
25.  Eg. P. 1: "(...) a universe governed by maleficent gods. " P. 23: "what is often true or myth is almost always the case in Sophoclean tragedy -they contain nothing but the revelation of divided man in a divided cosmos."   P. 28: "In all genres the same fundamental cosmological issues are at stake: man's awkward position, ambiguous and divided in an  hard and ruthless world  (...)." P. 59: "Because tragdy concerns cosmological ambiguity (...) it is beside the point to apply ethical categories here (....)."
    
26. Eg. P. 46: "The catharsis of tragedy results from the banishing of chaos by ritually and symbolically enacting chaos. (...) Ritual tends to be conservative and affirmative of the cosmic and social order. Tragedy is innovative, polysemous and deeply questioning of that order." It shows from this dissertation that the propositions put forward by Segal do not seem to be true.  In these statements Segal does not consider tragedy to be a ritual , a view which he himself contradicts on p. 49 of his book: "The tragic action (......) is part of a rite (sic) that affirms order and stability (sic)."
27. A. Adkins: Merit and Responsiblity (Oxford1960) (p. 7)
28. Sylloge Inscriptionum Greacarum Leipzig (1915-1924 III) cf Demosthenes XXIII, 28
29. KJ Dover (GPM) (p. 147): "To rape a woman of citizen status was less heinous than to seduce her (Lys. 1.32); (........) because rape, an 'involuntary misfortune' to the woman (Men. Epitr. 914) was not regarded as alienating her affection for her husband and was therefore less of an injury to him than her seduction.
    
30. B.X. de Wet: the Elektra of Sophocles, a study in social values (Aclass. XX 1977) (p. 31)
31. C. Bowra: Sophoclean Tragedy (Oxford 1944) (ST) (p. 231): "Clytaemnestra has ceased to be a mother."
32. Bowra (ST) (p. 257-258)
33. R. Paoli: Studii di diritto attico (Rome 1930) (p. 272 ff)
34. Arist. Ath. Pol. 26.3
35. I follow  LSJ II versus Jebb who believes that with tooi medini someone is meant who is not nothing in regard to blood connexion. Cf. Soph. Ajax 1114: tous medinas' people who are nothing "
36. Turner (RP) (p. 74)

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