Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The Festivals and Genre2 The Comic and the Serious3 Overview: A Developmental Study 1 Comedy and Tragedy in Athens 1 The Development of Comedy and Tragedy2 Masks, Costumes, Choruses, Language, and Props3 Comedy, Tragedy, and Euripides 2 Satyr Drama and the Cyclops : Where Tragedy and Comedy Meet 1 Comic Satyrs/Tragic Tales2 Satyr Play: Net-Draggers, Festival-Goers, Trackers 3 The Cyclops 3 The Acharnians and the Paradox of the City 1 Tragedy, Comedy, and Politics2 The Oresteia and the Bacchae : The City in a Greater Whole3 The Double Vision of the Acharnians 4 The Wasps : Comic Heroes/Tragic Heroes 1 Comic and Tragic Consistency2 Ajax and Medea: A Focus on Identity3 Wasps : The Hero as Chameleon4 Aristophanes and the Three Stooges: Pitying Your Betters, Envying Inferior Men 5 Oedipus Tyrannos and the Knights : Oracles, Divine and Human 1 Oedipus Tyrannos : Human and Divine Meaning2 The Human Oracles of the Knights 3 Hidden Meanings and the Rejuvenation of Demos4 Comedy and Carnival or Tragedy Upside Down 6 Persians , Peace , and Birds : God and Man in Wartime 1 The Persians : War, Empire, and the Divine2 The Peace : Finding a God for Athens3 The Birds : An Athenian on Olympus 7 Women at the Thesmophoria and Frogs : Aristophanes on Tragedy and Comedy 1 Parody, Metatheater, and Dialogue2 Women at the Thesmophoria : Comedy and Tragedy Talk3 Frogs : Comedy--and Tragedy--Save the City Conclusion: The Dionysia's Many Voices Synopses Glossary Bibliography Index.