The cold case of Aitnaiai's stagecraft

Abstract

Although no Aeschylean hypomnemata have been preserved, the papyri have returned evidences of ancient scholarship, such as fragments with marginalia and hypotheseis of several lost tragedies. For this reason, it is difficult to compare the scholia tradition, but it provides particular value for these ancient annotations. If the limited papyrus notes could testify a lower fortune of Aeschylus, the discovery of scholar materials, linked with lost tragedies, denotes that his productions was still available during the first centuries of Imperial Age. Interesting evidence is P.Oxy. XX 2257, which offers important information on the Aitnaiai stagecraft. My purpose is to reconstruct the drama setting and explain the technical modality of scene changes.