Happy new year! On the Athenian calendar it's Posideiṓn now, and Posideiṓn is Rural Dionysia time. This lesser known dramatic festival was an important part of Athenian life -- in this deepest part of winter Athenians engaged is an orgy of community theater 🧵
Today (2023-Dec-31) is Posideiṓn 19, ἐνάτῃ ἐπὶ δέκα Ποσιδειῶνος, day 167 of 354 in the year 2023/2024.
On this day (Posideiṓn 19) in Myrrhinous, a deme about 15 miles SE of Athens, they held a meeting in which "the business of the Dionysia shall be on the agenda" (IG II² 1183). This probably means that they needed to wrap up the festival that had just occurred
The City Dionysia took place in the principal Theater of Dionysus, just south of the Acropolis. The Rural Dionysia, though, was celebrated in the many "Deme Theaters", like this one in Thorikos, about 20 miles SE of the city, overlooking the Aegean
(Alun Salt, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
In Plato's Republic, Glaukon compares Sokrates' definition of a philosopher as someone who cannot get enough of learning to philotheamones, theater geeks, who "run around to all the Dionysias" in town and country (Rep. 5.475d). They were scheduled not to conflict so you could get to more than one
IG I³ 970 is an inscription honoring Gnathis and Anaxandrides, the winning "producers" of two plays at Eleusis. The "directors" listed for the plays: Aristophanes and Sophokles. There were revivals, too. Rural Dionysia performances may be the main way later generations knew these plays
You might also see an up-and-coming playwright. IG I³ 969 was put up by someone named Sokrates (but not *that* Sokrates) listing the names of the chorus (probably) in his winning production. Also in the inscription: "Directed by Euripides"
And if you wanted to get your start writing or acting for the big stage -- the City Dionysia -- these deme theaters were where you did it.
The Rural Dionysia has long been neglected by scholars, but must have been a huge part of Athenian life. There has been more work recently
Csapo & Wilson have collected all the evidence and their introduction is a great place to start if you're interested:
Csapo, Eric, and Peter Wilson, A Social and Economic History of the Theatre to 300 BC. Cambridge UP, 2020
Also --
Goette, Hans Rupprech. “The Archaeology of the ‘Rural’ Dionysia in Attica.” In Greek Theatre in the Fourth Century B.C, edited by Eric Csapo, Hans Rupprecht Goette, J. R. Green, and Peter Wilson, 77–105. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
and --
Paga, Jessica. “Deme Theaters in Attica and the Trittys System.” Hesperia: 79.3 (2010): 351–84.
Sean Redmond
