ABSTRACT
The Athenian theatre, which was popular and national in the full sense, was closely bound to the city and its gods. Its productions were staged for all the citizens in the context of a state-run festival. The state decided which authors would be allowed to compete (three tragedians, who each presented three tragedies and one satyrical drama, and between three and five comic writers, who each put on a single play), required rich citizens to pay for the shows, gave money to poorer ones to ensure that they couid attend and set up a panel of judges representative of the entire community to name the winners. Fifth-century theatre was thus a highly political genre. This can clearly be seen in Old Comedy, which mocks contemporary statesmen and claims to give useful advice to the city. However, it was also true of tragedy; though this genre held the present at a distance and generally took its subjects from myth, it centred on the problems of communal life in fifth-century Athens.
