Ancient Theatre and Performance Culture Around the Black Sea

This is the first study of ancient theatre and performance around the coasts of the Black Sea. It brings together key specialists around the region with well-established international scholars on theatre and the Black Sea, from a wide range of disciplines, especially archaeology, drama and history. In that way the wealth of material found around these great coasts is brought together with the best methodology in all fields of study. This landmark book broadens the whole concept and range of theatre outside Athens. It shows ways in which the colonial world of the Black Sea may be compared importantly with Southern Italy and Sicily in terms of theatre and performance. At the same time, it shows too how the Black Sea world itself can be better understood through a focus on the development of theatre and performance there, both among Greeks and among their local neighbours.

Part I. Approaches: 1. Introduction – embarking on a voyage around Black Sea theatre David Braund; 2. The spread of Greek theatre to the West – and to the North-East? Oliver Taplin; 3. The northward advance of Greek horizons Stephanie West; Part II. Places: 4. The tragedians of Heraclea and comedians of Sinope Edith Hall; 5. The Phanagoria Chous – comic art in miniature in a luxury tomb in the Cimmerian Bosporus Jeffrey Rusten; 6. Theatre and performance in the Bosporan Kingdom David Braund; 7. Ancient theatre in Tauric Chersonesus Sergey Saprykin; 8. Theatre at Olbia in the Black Sea Valeriya Bylkova; 9. Celebrating Dionysos in Istros and Tomis – theatrical manifestations and artistic life in two Ionian cities of the Black Sea Madalina Dana; 10. Ancient theatres and theatre-art of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and Thracian Hinterland Alexander Minchev; Part III. Plays: 11. Space, place and the metallurgical imagination of the Prometheus trilogy Emmanuela Bakola; 12. Fragmentary Greek tragedies set in the Black Sea Rosie Wyles; 13. Black Sea back story – Euripides' Medea Edith Hall; 14. Mind-games in the Crimea – Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris Felix Budelmann; 15. Visualising Euripides' Tauric Temple of the Maiden Goddess Edith Hall; Part IV. Performative Presences: 16. Music and performance among Greeks and Scythians Marina Vakhtina; 17. A new mask and musical instruments from the Eastern Bosporus Vladimir Bochkovoy, David Braund, Roman Mimokhodov and Nikolay Sudarev; 18. The Cult of Dionysus in Ancient Georgia Manana Odisheli; 19. Paratheatrical performances in the Bosporan Kingdom – the evidence of terracotta figurine Maya Muratov; 20. Historiography and theatre: the tragedy of Scythian King Skyles David Braund; 21. Life trajectories – Iphigenia, Helen and Achilles on the Black Sea Froma Zeitlin; Epilogue: dancing around the Black Sea – Xenophon, Pseudo-Scymnus and Lucian's bacchants David Braund.

David Braund is Emeritus Professor of Black Sea and Mediterranean History at the University of Exeter, and has spent over thirty years working on the Black Sea region. His books include Georgia in Antiquity (1994) and Greek Religion and Cults in the Black Sea Region (Cambridge, 2018).
Edith Hall is Professor of Classics at King's College London. She has published twenty-five books on ancient Greek and Roman culture and their continuing presence since the Renaissance, with her most recent publications including Introducing the Ancient Greeks (2015) and Aristotle's Way (2018).
Rosie Wyles is Lecturer in Classical History and Literature at the University of Kent. Her work focuses on Greek drama, its staging and its receptions, and she is the author of Costume in Greek Tragedy (2011).