Technitai

Technitai ( Greek  τεχνῖται ) originally referred to as the plural of τεχνίτης generally artists or craftsmen. In Hellenism , however, the meaning narrowed to festival artists organized in guilds, especially in the cult of Dionysus .

Members were actors, choir leaders, choir teachers, dancers, singers and musicians, heralds, poets, costume distributors and stage technicians. The members, which included sponsors ( philotechnitai ), were privileged in many ways. This included tax exemption and exemption from military service. The guilds were led by a Dionysus priest and, in addition to theatrical performances (for example in the case of the Athenian Dionysia ) , they also contested the large festival processions (in which they participated as a separate group) and all kinds of cultic celebrations.

They were initially organized at the urban level ( Athens , Syracuse ), and during the imperial era also at the imperial level ( iera synodos ). Individual guilds competed with each other in agons .

literature

• Sophia Aneziri: The associations of the Dionysian technites in the context of the Hellenistic society. Investigations into the history, organization and effect of the Hellenistic technite associations . Steiner, Stuttgart 2003. ISBN 3-515-08126-7
• Walter Hatto Gross : Technitai. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 5, Stuttgart 1975, Col. 553 f.
• Günter Fleischhauer: The musicians' cooperatives in Hellenistic-Roman antiquity. Contributions to the musical life of the Romans. Dissertation Halle 1959
• Franz Poland : Technites. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II A, 2, Stuttgart 1923, Sp. 24737-2558.
• Otto Lüders : The Dionysian artists. Weidmann, Berlin 1873.