Dionysia

By melding civic ritual with dramatic art, the yearly City Dionysia and related festivals fostered an essential cultural space for reflection and debate, a forum that shaped democratic deliberation.

Their plays premiered at the annual City Dionysia, a festival that was held on the slopes of the Acropolis each spring, drawing large audiences.

We know it wasn’t a comedy because, with a bias that persists to this day, the city Dionysia didn’t get around to recognizing komoidía alongside tragoidia until three years later.

The words “being boring” took me back to the early ’70s and an invitation I had received to the Great Urban Dionysia Party in Newcastle, England, where I grew up.

Greek theatergoers at the City Dionysia competition in 431 B.C. were equally outraged.