L'ingresso del coro negli Ichneutai di Sofocle e in due commedie di Aristofane. Un modulo comico-satiresco?

The paper discusses the staging of the parodos of Sophocles’ Ichneutai and its implications for the theatrical conventions of satyr drama. Wilamowitz, Robert and other scholars argued that the chorus arrived onstage before the parodos: the chorus, in fact, knows some of the events presented in the prologue and this knowledge would be contrary to tragic dramaturgical practice. However, the staging proposed by Wilamowitz and others has no parallels in any genre of Greek classical drama, either. The paper argues that the chorus arrives onstage during the parodos, as normally expected, and that its knowledge of prologic events has significant parallels not in tragedy, but in Aristophanes’ Knights and Peace. Sophocles’ satyr drama and Aristophanic comedy are also similar in the way they stage crucial elements of Greek social and legal practice, in particular the institutions of boè and kērygma, while tragedy appears to use different conventions even in this respect. This indicates that satyr drama, despite its strong ties with tragedy, shared some important generic features with comedy.