of the roles that society imposes on individuals. Thus, in the drama, a male Athenian citizen can play the
role of a woman or slave, or he can impersonate a mythical king or hero or even a god. Dionysus is,
therefore, a fundamentally democratic divinity, and it is appropriate that his festival should have
flourished in democratic Athens.
Figure 43 Red-figure bell krater by the Christie Painter, showing Dionysus flanked by a MAENAD and a
satyr; height 29.2 cm, ca. 440 BC. Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, 48.74.
Source: Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum.
MAENAD A woman inspired to ritual frenzy by the god Dionysus, often represented in the wilds of
the countryside or mountains (figure 43).The drama is an Attic creation, developing just at the time when Athenian democracy was being born. The
Greeks themselves attributed the invention of the drama to the Athenian Thespis, who lived in the second
half of the sixth century, but about whom almost nothing is known. A good deal is known, however, about
the Attic playwright Aeschylus, six of whose tragedies have survived and whose works represent the
earliest examples of drama that we possess. Aeschylus was born around 525 BC and died in 456 BC. His
creative life therefore spanned almost the whole of the first half of the fifth century. Aeschylus’ earliest
surviving tragedy – that is, the earliest work of dramatic literature available to us – is The Persians, first
staged in 472 BC. It is in many ways quite an untypical Greek tragedy, but it is fascinating both for its