Performing Gods in Classical Antiquity and the Age of Shakespeare

Dustin W. Dixon is Assistant Professor of Classics, Grinnell College, USA, where he teaches courses on ancient literature and culture. His research on drama appears in journals such as Classical Philology, Classical Quarterly, and Classical Receptions Journal.John S. Garrison is a Professor of English at Grinnell College. His books include Glass (2015), Shakespeare at Peace (with Kyle Pivetti, 2018), and Shakespeare and the Afterlife (2019). In 2021, he was named a Guggenheim Fellow.

• Introduction: The Gods Take StageChapter One: Approaching DivinityChapter Two: Under the Actor’s Spell: Audiences in Euripides’ Helen and Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus Chapter Three: An Actor Ascends: Status and Identity in Plautus’ Amphitruo and the Court MasqueChapter Four: Authoring Gods in Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Shakespeare’s HamletChapter Five: To Die is Human, To Perform is Divine Afterword: Entertaining Gods in Zimmerman’s MetamorphosesNotes BibliographyIndex

This work shows great erudition, since in addition to the main sources of study, there are numerous allusions to other classical and neoclassical texts. The fact that it features analysis of both tragedy and comedy is a rarity and therefore one of the volume’s strengths. Ultimately, it offers a dialogue between literature, theatre and performance, anthropology and religion in a pragmatic and reinvigorating way. Undoubtedly, it will be a work of reference for researchers of classical reception, drama performance, divinity and the English Renaissance.