Tragic Props and Cognitive Function: Aspects of the Function of Images in Thinking

Abstract

Whereas there is much uncertainty about what the fifth-century BC spectator 'saw' in terms of stage effects and scenery in performances of Greek tragedy, there is little doubt about the central function and visibility of certain props. Such significant objects as Agamemnon's tapestry (A. Ag.) Philoktetes' bow (S. ph.) or Ion's cradle (E. Io.) perform an important thematic and symbolic role within their respective dramas. While acknowledging this dramatic function, the present study proposes that the props represent images, both visually perceived and mental, which may serve a cognitive function in thinking and problem solving. Although thinking and problem solving are areas of mental activity more readily associated with verbal reasoning, the suitability of imagery as a vehicle for thought is supported by anecdotal evidence from the sciences and the arts, and, more recently, empirical evidence from the work of cognitive psychologists. This work suggests that imagery may have a valuable function in the retrieval of information from the mind, and may be particularly useful in problem-solving situations which involve novelty and cognitive conflict. Such situations may be identified with the dysfunctional world of Greek tragedy. In the thesis I examine central prop images from five tragedies: the shield in Aiskhylos' Seven Against Thebes, the urn in Sophokles' Elekra, the peplos in Sophokles' Trakhiniai, the smiling mask of Dionysos in Euripides' Bakkhai and Helen herself in Euripides' Helen. These images are examined from the perspectives of the remembered experience of the spectators, the poet's manipulation of the image in the present action of the play, and from the more speculative perspective of possible effects which image transformations may have on the spectators' understanding of real contemporary issues. A relevant (although not exclusive) context for such effects is the growth and demise of Athenian imperialism during the period over which these plays were produced. Behind the transformation of tragic props I propose that image shape and its potential for various meanings or construals are powerful and economical tools which serve both memory and thinking. The activating of these tools supplements the verbal in the making of meaning. Further, I propose that the prop images discussed facilitate conceptual change and the making of new meanings. As symbols the props function as conventional metaphors; their reconstrual lends itself to the making of novel metaphors. To attribute cognitive potential to imagery runs counter to certain of its characteristics. Images particularise experience, they evoke unpredictable associations, and they are coloured by the emotional contexts from which they are produced and in which they are presented. The possibility, then, that the tragic poets may have activated this cognitive potential through their central props is a fascinating one and forms the basis for the present study.