O que os olhos veem na Helena de Eurípides

Abstract

The tendency, now well consolidated, of thinking about Greek theatre plays as performance and not just as text intended to be read, opens way to ask how an analysis centred on scenery, costumes, props, and movement can help us to clearly understand these works. It is true that the essential information about these elements comes from the text itself, creating a potential circularity, but it is important to verify that, when treated with the necessary care, they often allow us to build some parallel reading, or even to confront the text itself, widening the ways in which it can be understood. My aim, in this paper, is to work on the visual dimension (I mean, everything that, during the performance, was under the eyes of the audience) of a play as diverse and challenging as Euripides' Helen. If there is much to say about props, costumes, and movement, all these become even more important in a play that, from the beginning, keeps repeating eyes are not the faithful witnesses that allow us to face the world without suspicion.