Stage props and the extrascenic dimension: the casket in Trachiniae and the urn in Sophocles’s Electra

In an evocative art form like Greek theatre, ruled by the power of words, the very few props employed never have an ornamental function, but are instead strictly functional to the delineation of character and the development of the plot. Within the wide range of examples presented in the surviving tragedies, we have focused our inquiry on two containers with a common function in Sophocles’s works: the casket in Trachiniae and the urn in Sophocles’s Electra. These are both instrumental for a deathly outcome, and thus play a strategic role for the unfolding of the drama.