Prof. Dr. Eric Csapo | University of Sydney
Eric Csapo is Professor of Classics at the University of Sydney with a specific expertise in ancient myth, drama and theatre history.In recent years, in collaboration with his Sydney colleague, Prof. Peter Wilson, he has been engaged in researching and writing a multi-volume Social and Economic History of the Theatre from ca. 500 to ca. 300 BC, of which the second volume, Theatre Beyond Athens, is currently in production at Cambridge University Press.
At the Institute for Advanced Studies in Freiburg he will be completing volume one of the history. Theatre in Athens will present the first systematic revision of the evidence for the organisation and management of the Athenian theatrical festivals in over fifty years.
Freiburg with its ongoing project Kommentierung der Fragmente der griechischen Komödie is the ideal location for this study because ancient comedy, more than any other dramatic genre, is filled with (‘metatheatrical’) references to its production context and therefore serves Csapo as a major source for understanding the structure and organisation of the festival.
At the same time, Csapo’s work should be of interest to the project participants because an understanding of the festival structure and administration is essential to the task of understanding the social and performative resonance of such metatheatrical references, and indeed to understanding the historical context of ancient comic production in general.
Internationale Tagung Quando la congettura diventa paradosis. Genio e autorità nella tradizione testuale, Meran 16-18.10.2025