Phlyax play (original) (raw)

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Three men robbing a miser in his house, in a scene from a phlyax play painted by Asteas; c. 350–340 BC

A phlyax play (Ancient Greek: φλύαξ, pl: φλύακες, phlyakes), also known as a hilarotragedy (Ἱλαροτραγῳδία lit. 'cheerful tragedy'),[1] was a burlesque dramatic form that developed in the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia in the 4th century BC. From the surviving fragments and titles of the plays, they appear to have been a form of mythological burlesque, which mixed figures from the Greek pantheon with the stock characters and situations of Attic New Comedy.

While the plays themselves survive only as titles and a few fragments,[2] a substantial body of South Italian vases which survive today are generally thought to represent phlyax-related imagery. These vases depict lively and entertaining theatrical scenes of contemporary Athenian comedies as well as lesser known local productions.[3] Distinct phlyax plays, blending tragic and comic elements, became well defined only in the late 4th century BC onwards by the dramatist Rhinthon.[4] Five authors of this genre are known by name; Rhinthon and Sciras of Taranto, Blaesus of Capri, Sopater of Paphos and Heraclides.

The name 'Phlyax' came to designate both the actors in the play as well as the performances as a whole. There are two possible origins of the name; either from the Greek verb φλυαρεῖν phlyarein ('to talk nonsense') or from the verb φλέω phleo ('to swell'), both words being etymologically related. The latter is sometimes regarded as more likely given the actors' well-padded costumes that were typical for phlyax plays and also appeared frequently on Corinthian vases. Additionally, the adjective phleos or phleon ('tumid') was attributed to Dionysus who is often portrayed as company of phlyax actors, while such perfomrances were typically given in his honor.[5]

Phlyax scene parodying the birth of Helen out the egg which was laid by Leda. The events take place on a stage with elements of set design such as a usable door; c. 380–370 BC

Nossis of Locri provides the closest contemporary explanation of the genre in her epitaph for Rhinthon:

Pass by with a loud laugh and a kindly word
For me: Rhinthon of Syracuse am I,
The Muses' little nightingale; and yet
For tragic farce I plucked an ivy wreath.[6]

Textual and archaeological evidence give a partial picture of these burlesques of mythology and daily life. The absence of any surviving script has led some to conjecture that the plays were largely improvised. On the other hand, others have argued that it is more likely for the phlyax plays to have been in fact performed by itinerant actors who carried with them their own stage, necessary props, and costumes. Those actors would have had their own repertory of plays which they performed and might have adapted their plays, either Athenian and local productions, in order to better fit each occasion.[7]

Portrayal of a female phlyax character with a typical burlesque white mask, c. 380–370 BC

The vase paintings indicate that they were performed on a raised wooden stage with an upper gallery, and that the actors wore grotesque costumes and masks similar to those of Attic Old Comedy. Acrobatics and farcical scenes were major features of the phlyax. The standard costume of the phlyax actors was made of tight fits that represented nudity and a large padding on the back and front, on which a phallus was attached. The actors could wear additional clothes, such as cloaks, which are sometimes shown painted with various colors, while their faces were covered with masks. For female roles in particular, the actors wore typical long dresses, while their masks were often painted in white.[8]

The phlyakes seems to die out by the late 3rd century, but the Oscan inhabitants of Campania subsequently developed a tradition of farces, parodies, and satires influenced by late Greek models, which became popular in Rome during the 3rd century BCE. This genre was known as Atellan farce, Atella being the name of a Campanian town. Atellan farce introduced a set of stock characters such as Maccus and Bucco to Latin comedy; even in antiquity, these were thought to be the ancestors of the characters found in Plautus,[9] and perhaps distantly of those of commedia dell'arte. Although an older view held that Attic comedy was the only source of Roman comedy, it has been argued that Rhinthon in particular influenced Plautus’s Amphitruo.[10]

Zeus (middle) walking with a cane and holding a thunderbolt while an aulos-player (right) marks the rhythm; a bystander watches with a basket on his head. Red-figure calyx-krater, 380–360 BC.

The so-called phlyax vases are a principal source of information on the genre. By 1967, 185 of these vases had been identified.[11] Since depictions of theatre and especially comedy are rare in fabrics other than the South Italian, these have been thought to portray the distinctly local theatre tradition.[12] The vases first appeared at the end of the 5th century BCE, but most are 4th century. They represent grotesque characters, the masks of comedy, and the props of comic performance such as ladders, baskets, and open windows. About a quarter of them depict a low wooden temporary stage, but whether this was used in reality is a point of contention.[13]

More recent scholarship views the early fourth-century BC phlyax vases as depicting scenes from Attic Old Comedy, rather than distinct phlyax plays,[1] which would not become well defined until the time of Rhinthon.[7][14] The Wurzburg Telephus Travestitus vase (bell krater, H5697) was identified in 1980 as a phlyax vase,[15] but Csapo[16] and Taplin[17] independently have argued that it actually represents the Thesmophoriazousai of Aristophanes.

  1. ^ a b Jendza 2020, p. 254.
  2. ^ See Rudolf Kassel, Colin Austin Poetae Comici Graeci, vol. I, pp. 257–88. 2001.
  3. ^ Spivey & Rasmussen 1991, pp. 168–169.
  4. ^ Jendza 2020, p. 254; Spivey & Rasmussen 1991, p. 169
  5. ^ Spivey & Rasmussen 1991, p. 161.
  6. ^ Anthologia Palatina 7.414
  7. ^ a b Spivey & Rasmussen 1991, p. 169.
  8. ^ Spivey & Rasmussen 1991, p. 164.
  9. ^ For instance, Horace, Epistles II, 1, 170 ff.
  10. ^ Z Stewart , The ‘Amphitrue’ of Plautus and Euripides ‘Bacchae’ TAPhA 89, 1958, 348–73.
  11. ^ Trendall, Phlyax Vases, 1967.
  12. ^ This argument was first made by H Heydemann in Die Phlyakendarstellungen der bemalten Vasen of 1886. Scholarship of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, in particular the work of Oliver Taplin, has cast doubt on this ascription of the vases to the phlyakes seeing them instead as depictions of Attic Old Comedy.
  13. ^ Margarete Bieber, The History of Greek and Roman Theater, 1961, p.146, takes a rather literal reading of this whereas W. Beare, The Roman Stage, 1964, insists this is a matter of the painter's interpretation.
  14. ^ Trendall and Webster, Illustrations of Greek Drama, 1971, correlated Greek and Roman painted linen comic masks with their representation on the vases.
  15. ^ Kossatz-Deissmann, in Tainia: Festschrift für Roland Hampe, 1980
  16. ^ E. Csapo, A Note on the Wurzburg Bell-Krater H5697, Phoenix 40, 1986, 379–92.
  17. ^ O. Taplin, Classical Philology, Icongraphic Parody and Potted Aristophanes, Dioniso 57, 1987, 95–109, taking the vase as evidence that Attic Old Comedy was performed outside Athens after death of Aristophanes.

Media related to Phlyax scenes at Wikimedia Commons