Chair: Alessio Francesco Palmieri-Marinoni

‘The man who walks and soils such silken gear—a fool does this; a twice-fool, with no fear’*

Classical Greek theatre may be seen as a sort of textile historiography. The tragedies, like the comedies, offer spectators a cross-section view of the complex anthropological, socio-economic and symbolic meanings which textile objects had for the Greek man in everyday life; likewise, adoption of particular styles of clothing linked to as many types of fabrics ‘chronicled’ and ‘declaimed’ the origin, actions and intentions of the characters on the ancient stage.

This seminar will proceed through analysis of several classical Greek theatrical scripts and comparison with iconographic sources and contemporary theatrical productions to trace the evolution of the semantics of textiles and clothing proper to classical theatre.

* Aeschylus, Agamemnon, v. 920