Reprinted by Hillside Educational Press, Lysis Goes to the Play by Caroline Dale Snedeker is a very short middle-grade everyday adventure story set in 5th-century B.C. Athens, during a festival of Dionysus.
When the story opens, Lysis, a thirteen-year-old Athenian boy, is excited about seeing a new play by Euripides. Because plays are only performed during the annual festival of Dionysus, he has spent months looking forward to this entertainment, and his heart is entirely set on attending with his father. The day before the play, however, his father receives devastating news and must travel to Samos because one of his merchant ships has been wrecked. Lysis is shocked by the loss of his father’s ship and despondent over his father’s command that he, Lysis, must stay home from the play and help the slaves look over the household. Like many a thirteen-year-old who has been disappointed, Lysis chooses to sulk.
“He spoke to Callisto in a barbarous dialect. She was a girl, and hence did not speak the beautiful clear Greek of men.”
As Lysis grieves his personal loss, his sweet sister Callisto tries several things to cheer him. When he rebuffs her, Snedeker tells us that he spoke to her in a “barbarous dialect.” Throughout the story, Snedker tells us things about ancient Greece by showing us how Callisto’s experience is different from that of Lysis. In places it feels a bit heavy handed, but it is effective in teaching young readers about the time and place of this setting.
The story is very short and simple. Lysis wants to go to the play and Callisto wants to help him. A bit like a thin Shakespearean play, Callisto is dressed up as a boy and the two children move through the city to the temple of Athena and then to the Acropolis. Through their eyes we see a busy and interesting moment in Athenian culture.
Her final novel, this Caroline Dale Snedeker story was published posthumously. I would recommend this to middle-grade readers who want to learn more about ancient Greece.