Dramatic Actions from Archaic Iconographic Sources: the Domain of the Satyrikon

Dramatic actions are a very interesting field for the study of 'submerged literature', that is the complex of texts which never entered the process of publication and preservation and for this reason were unable to survive. These texts (or these performances) were published during a real occasion, that is a social event which involves normal people as well as poets. The occasion was therefore the nucleus around which poems were composed and the time of performance was the time in which poetry lived in archaic and classical age. Mimetic actions of different kind are well displayed in greek art, but a true masterpiece of greek painting, the attic aryballos by Nearchos (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 26.49), shows a choral dance of men dressed like satyrs and involved in a mythical drama. This drama in which satyrs are put together with heroes and gods (Perseus and Hermes) tells the battle of cranes and pygmies. Many details of the iconography of this aryballos bring to the conclusion that the action displayed must be considered a satyrikòn which dates back to 570-550 BCE, that is some decades before the beginning of dramatic festivals in Athens.