Definitions

Writing nearly a century after the acme of Attic tragedy, Aristotle defined an ‘‘episode’’ {epeisodion) as the ‘‘complete part of tragedy between full choral songs’’ (Poetics 1452b20-21).1 With this short phrase, Aristotle identified the two defining elements of Greek drama - choral song and what comes in between. The dynamic of all Greek drama lies in the alternation of the song of the chorus and the in-between speech of the actors. This alternation provides the rich and varied texture of tragedy {and comedy): song, with its complex patterns and bolder images, emphasized speculation, imagination, and reflection, while speech, with its repeated and steady rhythms, lent itself to exposition, declaration, and debate.

Greek theater history contains murky and conflicting stories about the genre’s origins. Most accounts suggest that tragedy developed over several stages from a purely choral phenomenon associated with a ritual in honor of Dionysus, and one pivotal step in this development was the addition of an actor. This innovation is often attributed to Thespis, who is said to have added a prologue and speech to what had previously been exclusively a choral performance. Whatever the truth behind this particular story - and however tragedy developed from purely song to its fifth-century instantiation - it reflects the dyadic nature of Greek drama: song and speech.

Another ancient anecdote of theater history relates that Aeschylus increased the number of actors from one to two, and Sophocles introduced a third {Aristotle, Poetics 1449a16-19). Here, it seems, the number of actors remained. By actor (hupokrites) was meant one with a speaking part, as other figures without speaking parts (attendants, children, servants, etc.) appeared regularly in these plays. In addition, the chorus-leader could have a speaking part and engage in dialogue with the play’s characters. The fact that a tragic dramatist had only three actors with speaking parts had several important consequences. First, the stage tended to be significantly less populated, and the interactions were often between just two individuals or even one individual and the chorus (or chorus-leader). Second, actors typically played multiple roles in a given drama, taking advantage of the full-face masks worn by all

Participants. As a third consequence, and the one most relevant to this discussion, the comings and goings of actors clustered around the choral songs, so much so that the standard pattern of Greek tragedy was actor’s exit, followed by song, followed by actor’s entrance (Taplin 1972 and 1977, 49-60, and passim). An episode, then, was defined not only by being ‘‘in between’’ full choral songs but also by the movement of actors into and away from the acting space in conjunction with the choral songs.

Over time the number of characters in plays increased significantly. Persians, for example, had only four characters and Seven against Thebes perhaps as few as two, while some of the later plays of Euripides had as many as ten (Orestes) or eleven (Phoenician Women). Having more characters allowed for greater variety of perspectives, additional plot complications, and more dynamic dramatic movement. On a formal basis, the increase in the number of characters also made it easier to multiply the number of scenes within an episode.