Professor Peter Wilson
William Ritchie Professor of Classics
Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
Department of Classics and Ancient History
School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI)
Quadrangle A14
The University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia
Office: Brennan-MacCallum 810
P: +61 2 9351 3249
F: +61 2 9351 3918
I am currently engaged in a large project with my colleagues Eric Csapo, Dick Green, Ted Robinson and Sebastiana Nervegna entitled ‘The Theatrical Revolution: The Expansion of Theatre Outside Athens’. This is funded by the ARC (2010-2014) and includes a post-Doctoral Fellow (Sebatsiana Nervegna) housed in the Centre for Classical & Near Eastern Studies of Australia.
Fields of Expertise
- History of the Classical theatre
- Greek literature and culture from Homer to the Hellenistic age
- The sociology of Greek music.
Education
B.A. (Hons.) University of Sydney; Ph.D. University of Cambridge
Selected Publications
Books
- Performance, Reception, Iconography: Studies in Honour of Oliver Taplin, ed. with M. Revermann, Oxford University Press 2008
- Greek Theatre and Festivals: Documentary Studies, ed., Oxford University Press 2007
- Drama III: Studies in Honour of Kevin Lee, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Supplement 87 (London) 2006, ed. with F. Muecke, J. Davidson
- Music and the Muses: the Culture of ‘Mousike’ in the Classical Athenian City, ed. with P. Murray, Oxford University Press 2004
- The Athenian Institution of the ‘Khoregia’: the Chorus, the City and the Stage, Cambridge University Press 2000; paperback edition 2003
Articles
- ‘The glue of democracy?: tragedy, democracy; structure and finance’ in Why Athens?: rethinking tragic politics, ed. D. Carter, Oxford University Press, 2011, 18-43
- ‘Le passage de la chorégie à l’agonothésie à Athènes à la fin du IVe siècle’, in L’argent dans les concours du monde grec, ed. B. Le Guen, Presses universitaires de Vincennes, 2010, 83-105, co-authored with Eric Csapo
- ‘How did the Athenian demes fund their theatre?’ in L’argent dans les concours du monde grec, ed. B. Le Guen, Presses universitaires de Vincennes, 2010, 37-82
- ‘Pronomos of Thebes: the man and his music’ in Pronomos: his Vase and its World, ed. O. Taplin and R. Wyles, Oxford University Press, 2010, 181-212
- ‘Tragic Honours and Democracy: neglected evidence for the politics of the Athenian Dionysia’, Classical Quarterly 59, 2009, 8-29
- ‘IG I/3 102 and the tradition of announcing honours at the tragic agon’ Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 169, 2009, 17-27; co-authored with A. Hartwig
- ‘Timotheus and the New Music’ in The Cambridge Companion to Greek Lyric, ed. F. Budelmann, Cambridge University Press, 2009, 277-94; co-authored with E. Csapo
- ‘The End of the Khoregia in Athens: a Forgotten Document’ in La Musa dimenticata: Aspetti dell’esperienza musicale greca in età ellenistica. Atti e Seminari delle edizioni della Scuola Normale Pisa, ed. M. Chiara Martinelli, Pisa, 2009, 47-74
- Costing the Dionysia’ in Performance, Reception, Iconography, ed. P. Wilson and M. Revermann, Oxford University Press, 2008, 88-127
- ‘Thamyris: the archetype of the wandering poet?’ in Wandering Poets in Ancient Greek Culture, eds. R. Hunter and I. Rutherford, Cambridge University Press, 2008, 46-79
- ‘Choruses for sale in Thorikos?: a speculative note on SEG 34, 107’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 161 (2007) 125-32.
- ‘Pronomos and Potamon: two pipers and two epigrams’ Journal of Hellenic Studies 127 (2007) 141-149.
- ‘Comic victory: the end, and going beyond’ in Visualizing the Tragic: Essays in Honour of Froma I. Zeitlin, eds. J. Elsner, H. Foley, S. Goldhill, E. Hall, C. Kraus, Oxford University Press, 2007, 257-87
- ‘The Athenian Thargelia’ in The Greek Theatre and Festivals: Documentary Studies, ed. P. Wilson, Oxford University Press, 2007, 150-184
- ‘Sicilian choruses’ in The Greek Theatre and Festivals: Documentary Studies, ed. P. Wilson, Oxford University Press, 2007, 351-377
- ‘diken in the Oresteia of Aeschylus’ in Greek Drama III: Studies in Honour of Kevin Lee, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Supplement 87 eds. P. Wilson, F. Muecke, J. Davidson, London, 2006, 187-201
- ‘The Music of Tragedy’, in The Blackwell Companion to Greek Tragedy, ed. J. Gregory, Blackwell’s Oxford, 2005, 198-93
- ‘Jebb’s Ajax’ a critical introduction to a re-edition, under the general editorship of P. Easterling, of Sir Richard Jebb’s Commentary on the ‘Ajax’ of Sophocles, Bristol Classics Press 2004
- ‘Athenian Strings’, in Music and the Muses: the Culture of ‘Mousike’ in the Classical Athenian City, eds. P. Wilson and P. Murray, Oxford University Press, 2004, 269-306
- ‘The Politics of Dance: dithyrambic contest and social order in Greece’, in Sport and Festival in the Ancient Greek World, eds. D. Phillips and D. Pritchard, Classical Press of Wales and Duckworth, 2003, 165-198
- ‘The Sound of Cultural Conflict: Kritias and the culture of mousike in Athens’, in The Cultures within Greek Culture: Contact, Conflict, Collaboration, eds. L. Kurke and C. Dougherty, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 181-206
- ‘The Musicians among the Actors’, in Greek and Roman Actors: Aspects of an Ancient Profession, eds. P. Easterling and E. Hall, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 41-70
- 'Dionysos in Hagnous’ Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 177 (2001) 79-89
- ‘Powers of horror and laughter: the great age of drama’ in Literature in the Greek and Roman Worlds: a New Perspective, ed. O. Taplin, Oxford University Press, 2000, 88-132
- ‘Euripides’ Tragic Muse’, Euripides and Tragic Theatre in the Late Fifth Century (Illinois Classical Studies 24-25) eds. M. Cropp, K. Lee, D. Sansone, 2000, 427-450
- ‘The Aulos in Athens’, in Performance Culture and Athenian Democracy, eds. S. Goldhill and R. Osborne, Cambridge University Press, 1999, 58-95
- ‘Leading the Tragic Khoros: tragic prestige in the democratic city’, in Greek Tragedy and the Ancient Historian, ed. C. B. R. Pelling, Oxford University Press, 1997, 81-108
- ‘Tragic Rhetoric: the use of tragedy and the tragic in the fourth century’, in Tragedy and the Tragic: Greek Theatre and Beyond, ed. M. Silk, Oxford University Press, 1996, 310-331
- ‘The “Aetiology” of Tragedy in the Oresteia’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Association 39 (1993) 169-180; co-authored with Oliver Taplin
- ‘Demosthenes 21, Against Meidias: democratic abuse’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Association 37 (1991) 164-195
Current project
Accounting for the Ancient Theatre: a new social and economic history of Classical Greek drama (Chief Investigator, with Prof. Eric Csapo)