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AUTHOR: 
 
 PICKARD, JOHN 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 THE RELATIVE 
 POSITION OF ACTORS 
 AND CHORUS . . . 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 BALTIMORE, [MD.l 
 
 DATE: 
 
 1893 
 
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 P532 
 
 Piokard, John 
 
 The relative position of actors and chorus in 
 the Greek theatre of the fifth century. Balti- 
 more, Friedenwald, 1893, 
 
 73 p. diagrs. 23^ cm. 
 
 From American Journal of philology, XIV 1, 
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 THE RELATIVE POSITION 
 
 OF 
 
 ACTORS AND CHORU^ .N THE GREEK 
 
 « f>"'" 
 
 THEATRE OF THE '--TLl CENTURY 
 
 [i 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN PICKARD, Ph.D. 
 
 BALTIMORE 
 PRESS OF THE FRIEDENWALD COfttPANY 
 
 / 1893 
 
 « 
 

 .-*" 
 
 \'\ 
 
 (■I 
 
• :a 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 This book is Sue on th«» t\pfp indicPt^' h^^*^ -^r at the 
 
 \ 
 
 v'-'. •> 
 
i 
 
 i 
 
 L Reprinted from American Journal of Philology, XIV i.] 
 
 THE RELATIVE POSITION OF ACTORS AND CHORUS 
 IN THE GREEK THEATRE OF THE V CENTURY.^ 
 
 (, 
 
 Part I. 
 
 CONSIDERATION OF THE EXTANT THEATRES. 
 
 The Greek Theatre. 
 
 It has been assumed, and by many writers on the subject it is 
 assumed to-day, that the great Athenian dramatists, Vitruvius, all 
 the grammarians, lexicographers and scholiasts had before their 
 eyes the same Greek theatre, which remained practically unchanged 
 from the time of Aischylos to the days when Nero and Hadrian 
 were spectators in the theatre of Dionysos. The 'Vitruvian 
 stage' has been accepted as fke Greek stage for the entire period 
 of the Greek drama, and the description of the Greek theatre by 
 the same authority has been used as a Procrustes bed to which 
 all plans of theatre ruins must in some way be made to conform. 
 
 Within the last decade, however, the revolt against the writers 
 of post-classic times as authorities on the theatre of the V century 
 has been rapidly spreading. The excavations in the theatres of 
 Athens, Epidauros, Sikyon, Oropos, Megalopolis, and Eretria 
 have yielded results of the highest importance. With the knowl- 
 edge gained from these excavations, with the carefully drawn 
 plans of these theatres before us, the older works dealing with 
 the construction of the Greek theatre, and plans such as are found 
 in Wieseler's 'Theatergebaude' must be considered as antiquated. 
 Therefore, before entering upon the discussion of the extant 
 dramas, we will consider the Greek theatre as described in classic 
 
 ^The substance of this paper has already appeared under the title 'Der 
 Standort der Schauspieler und des Chors im griechischen Theater des flinften 
 Jahrhunderts. (Inaugural-Dissertation.) Mit dem Accessit gekrSnte Preis- 
 schrift. Munchen, 1892.' Contrary to the usage of the Journal, the paper is 
 reproduced here as a necessary introduction to the new matter which will be 
 embraced in the subsequent article. — B. L. G. 
 
% 
 
 literature and as it actually exists in the more recent and more 
 important excavations.* 
 
 Theatre of Dionysos at Athens? 
 
 Oldest of the existing ruins are the remains of the ancient 
 orchestra, KNO (vid. Fig. i). All stage-buildings of which 
 traces still exist were built over a portion of this circle. A glance 
 at the plan shows that the present cavea has no connection with 
 it. At O the Acropolis rock was cut away in order to make room 
 for this circle ; so the level of this entire orchestra could not have 
 been lower than the rock at O is to-day. At A'' and A' are still 
 in situ portions of the circular supporting wall, whose character 
 can best be studied at N. It is built of roughly shaped pieces of 
 Acropolis limestone, which is the oldest building material in 
 Athens, and was not used later than the V century. This is 
 plainly a supporting wall ; the outside was intended to be seen, 
 but the inside is rough, just as the stone was broken from the 
 quarry. The bottom of this wall at A^ is 5 or 6 ft. lower than O, 
 Therefore the level of the earth within the orchestra circle at KN 
 was originally at least 5 or 6 ft. above the level of the ground 
 outside the circle at these points. This fact alone is fatal to the 
 theory of Wilamowitz (Hermes, XXI, S. 597 if.) that the audience 
 to the earlier plays of Aeschylos stood or sat in a complete circle 
 about this orchestra. Furthermore, at the time when this 
 orchestra was constructed no stage-building' could have existed. 
 For, if present, its front must have been nearly tangent to the 
 circle on the south. In that event the level of the orchestra must 
 needs have been continued to the entire front of the stage-building, 
 the outer surface of the wall A7V would not have been carefully 
 dressed, and, in fact, this wall would not have been necessary at 
 all. It has also been urged that a 'stage' 10-12 ft. high was 
 
 ^ Some of the more important discussions are: HOpken, De theatro Attico 
 saeculi a. Chr. quinti. A. MuUer, BuhnenalterthUmer, and Philol. Anz. XV 
 525 ff. Wilamowitz, Hermes, XXI, S. 597 ff. Haigh. Attic Theatre. Dorpfeld: 
 in A. Mailer's BuhnenalterthUmer, S 415 ff.; on Haigh, Attic Theatre, in 
 Philol. Wochenschrift, 1890, S. 461 ff.; on Hartzmann, Quaestiones Scaenicae, 
 ibid., S. 1658 ff.; on Oehmichen, Buhnenwesen, ibid., S. 1532 ff. Kawerau, in 
 Baumeister's Denkmaler, S. 1730 ff. 
 
 ' The facts concerning the Athens theatre are from the lectures of DOrpfeld 
 in the theatre itself during the winter of 1890-91. 
 
 'As a matter of convenience, 'stage,' 'stage-buildings,' etc., will be used, 
 though the writer is convinced that no stage existed in the V century. 
 
 South. 
 
 V'TT! '-'J i 
 
 W 5 « 
 tiililiiiiL. 
 
 
 ^littcr„ 
 
 Fig. I. 
 
 I 
 
necessary in order to give room underneath for the disappearance 
 of an actor, as in the Prometheus. Since there was a difference 
 of 6 ft. between the level of the orchestra and the level of the 
 earth under the supposed 'stage,' a height of 10-12 ft. for this 
 would cause the actor to drop 16-18 ft. ! Suidas (v. Uparipos and 
 AiV;^i^XoO informs us that the wooden seats having broken down 
 under the weight of the spectators, a stone 6earpov was built by 
 the Athenians in Ol. 70. In this connection may be mentioned 
 some walls not yet published on any plan and not on Fig. i 
 because of the lack of accurate measurements. These walls, at 
 XZy are not parallel with FH, and from their direction could 
 hardly have had anything to do with the orchestra belonging 
 with the extant cavea. Whether these walls belonged with the 
 eiarpov erected after the Pratinas-Choirilos-Aischylos breakdown 
 can perhaps not be fully decided. They at least take us back a 
 step nearer to that oldest stone cavea. 
 
 The walls of the oldest stage-buildings are represented on Fig. i 
 by the shaded lines AAA' A' and are of the same age and method 
 of construction as are the supporting walls of the cavea, e. g. FL 
 2, 3, 4. Wherever these walls were not exposed to view, as in 
 the inner supporting walls of the cavea at 2, 3, 4 and in the lower 
 foundations of the stage-buildings, they are constructed of blocks 
 of breccia of the same size, shape and method of working through- 
 out. If exposed to view, as in the outer cavea wall LF and in 
 the upper courses oi AA\ Peiraieus limestone was used. Where 
 any portion of the superstructure remains the Peiraieus limestone 
 is covered by Hymettos marble. The entire similarity of con- 
 struction proves that these oldest foundations of stage-buildings 
 and the cavea belong to the same period of building. But no ' 
 ruin is known in Athens constructed, in the manner just described, 
 of breccia, Peiraieus limestone and Hymettos marble which dates 
 prior to the IV century B. C. At H, on a stone in the supporting 
 wall of the cavea, are found Q and o, the former of the shape in 
 use after the time of Eukleides. At the corner F is to be seen 
 the inscription published in CIA. 1 499. The stone is in its 
 original position, and was formerly covered by two courses of 
 stone, which were between it and the corner F, The inscription, 
 then, could not have been added after the stone was placed in its 
 present location, but was placed there when the stone was in some 
 previous position. It is variously dated from the middle of the 
 V century (Julius) to 408 B. C. (Kirchhoff). The stone was 
 
 - 
 
 :i 
 
 surely not removed from the earlier structure and built into this 
 cavea wall immediately after this inscription was added. These 
 two inscriptions, then, render the construction of the cavea walls, 
 and hence of these oldest stage-buildings, before the end of the 
 
 V century impossible. For all students of the theatre of Dionysos 
 agree that these walls represent one and but one period of con- 
 struction. Haigh (Attic Theatre, p. 123) contends that these 
 inscriptions date the construction only as late as the end of the 
 
 V century. Dorpfeld (Wochenschrift, 12. Apr. 1890, S. 423) well 
 replies: "Dieser Einwand kann kaum ernstlich gemeint sein: 
 denn wer die Geschichte Athens kennt wird niemals glauben, dass 
 die Athener am Ende des fiinften Jahrhunderts ein grosses 
 steinernes Theater errichtet haben." The extant cavea and the 
 oldest stage-buildings were constructed, then, in the IV century. 
 In this century we know of one and but one great period of 
 theatre-building ; that mentioned in connection with the orator 
 Lykourgos (cf. Miiller, B.-A., S. 86). Such important construc- 
 tion could hardly have been completed before his time and have 
 passed unnoted by classic authors. In that event, too, nothing 
 would have remained to be done by Lykourgos of sufficient 
 importance to merit the attention which his work on the theatre 
 has received. Hereafter, therefore, we shall refer to the cavea 
 and the foundations AAA' A' under the name of Lykourgos. 
 
 The stylobate BB is later than the time of Lykourgos. When 
 it was built the fronts of the paraskenia A A were cut back so that 
 they ended beneath this stylobate. The original foundations of 
 the paraskenia are still iti situ. The upper course of BB is of 
 Hymettos marble, but this marble rests directly on a rough, 
 poorly constructed foundation largely made up of breccia. In 
 IV-century construction in Athens this never occurs. A course 
 of Peiraieus limestone was in this period always placed between 
 the breccia and the marble. Upon BB stood full columns whose 
 diameter, .50 m., can still be measured. These, with the epistyle, 
 would, at the time they were constructed, be about 12 ft. high. 
 So this proskenion would in height correspond very nearly with 
 the one in Epidauros. The upper surface of BB is exactly on a 
 level with the pavement of the present orchestra, and the front of 
 the slabs which compose this stylobate is worked out to receive 
 the edges of slabs of a similar pavement. Therefore the surface 
 of BB was on a level with the orchestra circle existing at the time 
 of its construction. In Epidauros, Oropos and Eretria the pros- 
 
8 
 
 kenion walls were constructed of half-columns, the spaces between 
 which, as is proven at Eretria and Oropos, were filled by mvaK€s, 
 In the centre of each of these walls was a door leading out on the 
 level of the orchestra. At Athens were full columns, and in the 
 centre were three doors, only a single column separating each of 
 the side doors from the one in the centre. This last, exactly in 
 the middle of the stylobate, was the widest (1.60 m.). The other 
 two are wider than the usual intercolumnar interval. The mark- 
 ings made on the stylobate by door-posts and hinges admit of 
 no doubt as to the existence of the doors, and these could, of 
 course, have had no meaning unless the intervals between the 
 other columns had been closed in some way. 
 
 /^P represents what still remains of the 'stage of Phaidros,' 
 the erection of which in the III century A. D. is dated by the 
 inscription (CIA. Ill 239). Its height is that customary in the 
 later theatre, and a glance at the plan shows that its depth, back to 
 the foundations of the stage-buildings, was also quite * Roman.' 
 
 The reliefs which now adorn the front of this stage have been 
 cut down to fit their present position. Their artistic execution is 
 similar to that of the torsos of some large satyrs which are now 
 found scattered among the ruins of the theatre, along with the 
 fragments of the massive architrave which they helped to support. 
 On this architrave can still be read (CIA. Ill 158) [AiovCa-a 'e\]cv- 
 
 B^pul Koi \^(p<ovi KXJauSio) Kalaapi 2€[j3ao-Tt3 TepfxaviK^ /c. r. X. The 
 
 unchanneled columns which, with the torsos, supported this archi- 
 trave are much too large ever to have stood on BB. But imme- 
 diately behind the Lykourgan wall aa stands a much later 
 strengthening wall (not given on the plan). The wall aa thus 
 strengthened alone, of the walls found in the ruins of the stage- 
 buildings, could have borne the weight of the Neronian columns 
 and their epistyle. This wall was therefore the front of Nero's 
 stage-building. The stage itself extended over the stylobate BB, 
 well forward towards the position of the front of the stage of 
 Phaidros. For under Nero the wide Roman stage would be 
 constructed. 
 
 The history of the theatre of Dionysos during the 8ck) years 
 from Aischylos to Phaidros, so far as it can now be read in the 
 ruins themselves, is briefly as follows : 
 
 I. Dating to the V century or earlier is the ancient orchestra 
 ONK, In connection with this orchestra permanent stage-buildings 
 never existed. 
 
 t 
 
 > 
 
 
 2. Such buildings were first completed in connection with a 
 new theatron by Lykouroos, in the latter half of the IV century. 
 The form of this 'scenae frons,' the wall aa with the paraskenia 
 A A, was naturally that of the temporary wooden scenae frons 
 which existed before this time, i. e. the form was what the 
 requirements of the plays demanded. This, then, is the best 
 representation we possess of the scenae frons before which the 
 plays of the great dramatists of the V century were acted. 
 
 3. The stone proskenion on BB was added at some period 
 considerably later than Lykourgos, but before the time of Nero. 
 That such stone 'proskenia' did not exist in the V and IV 
 centuries is a strong indication that the plays of the great 
 dramatists were not exhibited before one fixed form of a back- 
 ground, but that proscenia were erected in accordance with the 
 requirements of the various plays. 
 
 4. The * Roman ' stage was built under Nero. 
 
 5. This was altered in the time of Phaidros, about 290 A. D. 
 
 T/ie Thyntele, 
 
 It becomes necessary to examine the evidence to see if the 
 structure which we have thus far called the * proskenion ' was ever 
 used as a 'stage.' Since the extant plays emphatically demand 
 that there shall be no impediment to the free intermingling of 
 actors and chorus, and since, if the actors were on a stage 12 ft. 
 high while the chorus were on the orchestra-level, such free 
 communication would be impossible, Hermann, Wieseler, Miiller 
 and many others have assumed that a supplementary stage was 
 erected for the chorus, to which the name 6vpLikr\ has been assigned. 
 A. Miiller (B.-A., S. 129 fi.) is the latest who has undertaken to 
 prove the existence of such a platform. He first cites (S. 129, 
 
 An. l) Pollux, IV 123: Kai (TKr]vr] flip viroKpiTav idiov, r} di opxrja-rpa rov 
 Xopov, €v Tj Koi rj dvniXrjy fire ^rjfid ri ouo-a €it€ ^cofios. But here it is 
 
 simply said that the thymele was in the orchestra and was a kind of 
 platform for a speaker (/S^/mo), or an altar (iSo/zoy). Neither of these 
 statements indicates that it was a large platform, or that the chorus 
 ever took position on it. The epigram of Simmias Thebanus 
 (Miiller, S. 129) — 
 
 TOP ae xopois fitX-^apra 2o<f)OK\€a Traida 2o(f)i\oVj 
 
 TOP TpayiKTJs Movcrrjs da-repa KeKponiop 
 TToXXtiKip €P $vfie\r)cri /cat eV aKT]PTJ(ri TfdrjXoiS 
 
 /SXattro? K. T. X. 
 
 I 
 
 ' 4 
 
(fi 
 
 lO 
 
 only testifies that the thymele and the skene were two important 
 portions of the theatre. The inscription referring to the actress 
 
 Basilla (CIG. 6750), ivl a-Krjvalai XajBovaap navTolrjs dp€TTJs . . . ctra 
 
 xopolai noWoKii €v dvfi^Xais, shows in addition that the chorus was 
 particularly associated with the thymele, as would naturally be 
 the case, since this was the altar in the orchestra (Pollux, IV 123). 
 
 The remark of Hesych. v. y\vK€p<^ ^idiovlco. dpapa Bi eorti/ ev w t^s 
 
 evfX€\T)s^ apx^rai ovrm, adds nothing. Here seems to be said only 
 that the play opens with a choral ode. Isidor Origg. XVIII 47 
 "thymelici erant musici scaenici, qui in organis et lyris et citharis 
 praecinebant, et dicti thymehci, quod olim in orchestra stantes 
 cantabant super pulpitum, quod thymele vocabatur" is valuable 
 as proving that the musicians had their place on some portion of 
 this altar. The scholion to Aristides, III, p. 536, Dind. ot€ etViy'ci 
 (V rrj 6pxn<TTpa fi eari ^u/uAi;, Only States that the thymele was in the 
 orchestra. So in Vitruvius, V 7, 2 "actores in scaena peragunt, 
 reliqui autem artifices suas per orchestram praestant actiones 
 itaque ex eo scaenici et thymelici graece separatim nominantur'* 
 the writer simply understands that the chorus performed its part 
 in the orchestra and received a name from the thymele, the most 
 important object in this portion of the theatre. The scholiast to 
 Aristoph. Eq. 149: ws eV evp^n t6 ava^aivi is speaking of an actor, 
 and the application of his words will appear when this passage in 
 the Equites is considered. The story of Alkibiades and Eupolis 
 in schol. Aristid. Ill 444 adds nothing. The only passages in 
 which Miiller finds that thymele really means platform are Gloss. 
 
 PhiloX., ed. Vulc, p. 176, 18: pulpitum, OvpfXrj, (ravlbapa, eTTtncduv; 
 
 Charisius, I, p. 552, 18, Keil : pulpitus, BvptXr]. These definitions 
 should be compared with Pollux, IV 123. They do not at all 
 indicate that the thymele was a large platform for the chorus. 
 The citations from Thomas Magister, p. 179, ed. Ritschl, and 
 Strabo, p. 468, Cas. (Miiller, S. 130, An. i), as Miiller rightly 
 remarks, only show that the musicians had their place on the 
 thymele. In the famous Hyporchema of Pratinas in Athen. XIV, 
 p. 617 C: tU 6 66pv^os ode; tI rabe ra ;^o/)ei;^ara/ r'a v^pis fpoXev eirl 
 
 Aiow,Tid8a TToXviraTaya BvpfKav; the poet is Complaining of the inso- 
 lence of the flute-players in taking the lead, instead of being 
 content to accompany the chorus. His tIs v^pis refers to the 
 insolence of the musicians, and the noXvndTaya BvpeXav is so called 
 because it resounded to their music. The words of Ulpian to 
 
 * Wecklein emends : ra otto r^f 6v/Lie?iJjg. 
 
 S9 W 
 
 r Mt 
 
 It 
 
 Dem. Mid., p. 502, explain that some one led the dishonored 
 {rovs dripovs) away from the altar (?« ttjs OvpeXrjs) ; but they contain 
 no hint of a platform. The grammarian Phrynichos, p. 163, Lob. 
 (Miiller, S. 130, An. 5), not only does not declare in favor of a 
 special stage for the chorus, but by using Xoyclov and opxrjarpa 
 shows that he is speaking of the later Roman theatre. For Xoyeioi', 
 as applied to the theatre, is never used till Roman times (Dorpfeld). 
 
 In fact, no one of the advocates of this special platform has as 
 yet brought from the writings of the ancients one word of positive 
 testimony for its existence, while the argument against its exist- 
 ence is overwhelming.^ It is hardly possible that, among the 
 many notices which have come down to us from antiquity con- 
 cerning the Greek theatre, there should exist no mention of this 
 special platform for the chorus, if it ever existed. Vitruvius (V 
 6, 7) takes pains to explain what he considers to be the chief 
 points of difference between the Greek and the Roman theatres. 
 Had such a platform ever existed, he could have mentioned 
 nothing else that would have emphasized this difference so much. 
 He is, however, silent on this point. Again, if such a dvpeXr) were 
 ever present, we should be compelled to believe that the Greeks 
 first built their stage much too high ; then, when they discovered 
 their mistake, in order to bring the chorus within reach of the 
 actors, they built each year another platform nearly as high. 
 This requires us to believe that the Greeks were exceedingly 
 unpractical. 
 
 The entire area of the orchestra was required for the dithy- 
 rambic choruses of the City Dionysia. This platform would have 
 interfered with the motions of these cyclic choruses, and conse- 
 quently must have been erected after the dithyrambic contests, 
 and removed at the conclusion of the performance of the dramas. 
 This renders the existence of such a OufxeXr} improbable. For 
 the yearly erection of such a staging special appliances would 
 undoubtedly be present — sockets, holes for the supporting posts, 
 mortices in the walls of the 'stage' front for the reception of 
 beams, some indication of the inclined plane or steps leading 
 from the parodoi to the platform. Not a trace of these things 
 has ever been found. 
 
 In all but three of the plays of Aristophanes, actors and chorus 
 go off together at the end. In the Wasps the poet tells us that 
 
 * Cf. Petersen in Wiener Studien, VII, S. 175 ff., and Haigh, Attic Theatre, 
 p. 156 f. 
 
1 
 
 12 
 
 all depart dancing. They undoubtedly do the same in the Peace, 
 the Birds, and the Ecclesiazusae. This action would be impossible 
 in descending from a platform to the parodoi. 
 
 In several plays persons enter riding upon chariots drawn by 
 horses. As will appear later, these could not have appeared on 
 the so-called stage. Equally impossible is it that they could have 
 ascended to this special platform. The din made by horses and 
 chariots moving over such a hollow wooden platform is in itself 
 sufficient to make such a theory improbable. 
 
 The fronts of the 'stages' at Athens, Epidauros, Oropos, and 
 Eretria were ornamented with handsome columns ; in the middle 
 of each 'stage '-front was a door leading out on the level of the 
 orchestra. This special platform for the chorus would have cut 
 these columns and doors in half, and they would then have 
 presented a very unpleasing appearance to the eyes of the spec- 
 tators. To say that the theatre was used for other than dramatic 
 purposes is no sufficient reply to this argument. The theatre, 
 particularly the 'stage,' was principally for theatrical purposes, 
 and it requires most special proof to show that the architecture 
 found therein was intended for some other use. 
 
 The size and shape of this imaginary platform are not the same 
 in any two of the many authors who have advocated its existence. 
 In Epidauros the 'stage' was 4 m. high. Since the sole object of 
 the platform now under consideration was to bring the choreutae 
 and actors near each other, it is fair to assume for Epidauros at 
 least 2.50 m. as its height. In Epidauros the 0p6voi of the front 
 row of seats rest on a basis whose upper surface is exactly on a 
 level with the orchestra (cf. plan in UpaKnAca, 1883, mv. A' 2). 
 The height of the seat of these dpovoi from the basis is .43 m. — 
 practically the same as that of the similar chairs at Athens and 
 Oropos. The average man as he sits has the level of his eyes 
 not more than .80 m. above the seat. From the level of the 
 orchestra to the level of the eyes of the spectators in the front 
 row of seats at Epidauros, the distance would not be greater than 
 1.25 m. Since the thymele was to be large enough for all the 
 evolutions of twenty-four choreutae (in comedy), it is not too 
 much to say that it should extend from the front of the 'stage' to 
 the centre of the orchestra. Fig. 2 represents the appearance of 
 the 'stage' and of such a thymele to the spectator in the middle 
 seat of the front row in this theatre. HA is the line of sight from 
 the spectator's eye to the top of the stage ; HEB the corresponding 
 
 SO/cp"^^ 
 
 ^9g'/ 
 
 0^ 
 
 ?^ 
 
 ft 
 
 t^''^<7^'^b 
 
 
 >*• 
 
 
 S> 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 "si 
 
 
 •s* 
 
 
 r^ 
 
 
 .^ 
 
 
 ;^ 
 
 
 -^ 
 
 • 
 
 «-> 
 
 s 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 "i5^ 
 
 5 
 
 h 
 
 V 
 
 ^ 
 
 • 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 «o 
 
 
 '«5- 
 
 
 kj 
 
 
 -55- 
 
 
 K^ 
 
 ft, C5) 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 -f 
 
I '/ 
 
 ♦ : 
 
 14 
 
 line over the front edge of the thymele. If the choreutae were 
 near E on this platform their bodies would effectually conceal the 
 stage from the spectator at //. If they stood in the rear near Z>, 
 only the upper portions of their own bodies would be visible. To 
 avoid this last difficulty the slope of the thymele must be nearly 
 as great as that of BE — rather a sharp incline, it must be confessed. 
 
 But we must consider not only the man who sits at H^ but also 
 the spectators at the extreme ends of this row of seats. Here the 
 spectator was not, as at //, separated from this thymele by a 
 distance of 12.25 meters, but the edge of the platform must have 
 been very near to him. If, as was natural, the thymele covered 
 the entire width of the orchestra, its edge was only 2.50 m. from 
 the ^poi/ot. Every foot taken from the width to withdraw the edge 
 farther away removed one foot from each side of the platform. 
 A simple mathematical calculation shows that this process of 
 cutting would soon render the platform too small for use. In any 
 event, the spectators at the ends would be much nearer to the 
 thymele than those in the centre of the front row. Consequently 
 the ^^^^ of the platform must have been so much the lower that 
 they might see over it. The slope towards the ends of the rows of 
 seats was greater, then, than that towards H, and the edges of this 
 platform opposite the end seats could have been very little higher 
 than the eyes of the spectators sitting there, i. e. very little more than 
 1.25 m. high. But if this double slope towards the two ends existed^ 
 the persons seated in these portions of the front row could have seen 
 only the half of the platform next to them ; the opposite half would 
 have been cut off from their eyes by the higher middle portion of 
 the thymele (along DE, Fig. 2). The shape of this platform must 
 have been, then, like the half of a gigantic turtle-shell, with the 
 diameter placed against the ' stage ' and the incline extending in 
 all directions to the edges. This is a self-evident absurdity. The 
 only way to overcome all these difficulties is to reduce the height 
 of the platform to 1.25 m., the level of the eyes of front row 
 of spectators. But in that case the stage would be- over 8 ft. above 
 the level of this plat'brm, and communication between actors and 
 chorus would be practically as difficult as if no such thymele 
 existed. 
 
 The argument for Epidauros applies fully at Athens, except 
 that the base on which the Athenian thronoi stand is .30 m. above 
 the level of the orchestra. In Oropos a new difficulty is found 
 (cf. npajcTijca, 1886, 7r»i/. 3). The chairs of honor are in their 
 
 f £v 
 
 Y m^ 
 
 'X 
 
 15 
 
 original position, and are actually placed within the orchestra. It 
 is incredible that any platform could ever have been erected 
 immediately before the eyes of the occupants of these thronoi. 
 
 Of great weight in this connection are the discoveries in the 
 theatre of Eretria (cf. Preprints of the Am. Journal of Arch., Vol.- 
 VII, No. 3). An inscription found in the theatre (v. Jour., p. 23) 
 proves that the theatre was at least as old as the IV century. The 
 oldest portion is probably of a yet earlier date. Exactly in the 
 centre of the orchestra (cf. plan in Jour.) a flight of steps leads 
 down into an underground passage which extends to a position 
 behind the * stage '-front, where similar steps lead again to the 
 surface. The work of the walls of this tunnel is excellent; it is 
 older than the stone 'stage '-front — which corresponds to the 
 similar structures at Epidauros, Oropos, and Athens ; it is .89 
 m. wide and 2 m. high (C. L. Brownson in Jour., p. 43), and it is 
 entirely unconnected with any drain. Its only possible purpose 
 was to allow an actor to pass from behind the 'stage '-front and 
 appear in the middle of the orchestra. 'Charon's steps' (Pollux, 
 IV 127) appear clearly to us moderns for the first time in Eretria. 
 In Sikyon (cf. Am. Jour, of Arch., Vol. V, Fig. 9) a similar passage 
 has been found, but this tunnel served also as a drain. Such 
 underground passages exist also in Magnesia and Tralles. So 
 the Eretrian tunnel by no means stands as an isolated example. 
 These passages would have been entirely unnecessary had a 
 special platform for the chorus existed. One would surely not 
 expect the ghost of Dareios, for example, to pass through this 
 passage to the orchestra and then climb to such a thymele. 
 
 In view of all these objections, a special platform such as has 
 been imagined for the chorus seems an utter impossibility. 
 
 The So-called G^eek Stage, 
 
 The 'stages' of Epidauros, Athens, and Eretria were about 4 m. 
 high. The corresponding structure in the smaller theatre of 
 Oropos was only 2.51 m. high. The appearance of the ' stage '- 
 front in each of the four theatres was much the same. The depth 
 of this 'stage' was in Epidauros 3 m., in Athens 2.25 m. (Dorp- 
 feld), in Eretria 2.14 m., in Oropos 1.93 m. This depth does not, 
 however, represent the space at hand for the actors during the 
 presentation of a play. In front of the wall of the stage-building 
 must have been placed the hia-nyla, A. Miiller (B.-A., S. 140 ff.) 
 explains what this was in classic times. The scenes in the dramas 
 
 ^ |A 
 
 fc\ . ^ 
 
i6 
 
 in which this platform was used will be discussed later. Suffice 
 it here to say that the distegia must have been broad enough to 
 contain several persons and to permit freedom of action. The 
 real scenery must then have been placed on a framework in front 
 of the wall of the stage-building (Miiller, B.-A., S. 142), far 
 enough away to allow room for the distegia. Two feet in depth 
 would be altogether too narrow accommodations for the numbers 
 who at times appeared on this platform. Yet, subtracting two 
 feet from the depth of the 'stage,' and there would remain for 
 actual use in the presentation of a play a shelf, at Athens and 
 Eretria less than five feet deep, at Oropos four feet deep, and even 
 in Epidauros only about eight feet deep. These are hard facts of 
 actual measurement which cannot be explained away. If this 
 structure was a 'stage' in one theatre it was a 'stage' in all, and 
 the same distegia was necessary in each. 
 
 The scene of the drama was often a hillside, part way up the 
 slope of which was the mouth of a cavern to which, in 'Philok- 
 tetes,' a path leads up. Taf. Ill im Theatergebiiude von J. H. 
 Strack shows the impossibility of representing such a scene on 
 such a 'stage' as we are discussing. Under the various plays 
 will be noted the many other instances where it would be simply 
 impossible to accommodate, on any such platform, the accessories 
 actually mentioned in the text. Yet we are asked to believe that, 
 in addition to the scenery, the altars and other accessories, the 
 in many instances numerous train of actors and mutes, even the 
 chorus also appeared, moved and danced on this shelf 8, 5, 4 ft. 
 deep ! It has been soberly maintained also that chariots and 
 horses were driven out upon it ! 
 
 It has been customary to assume that the necessary connection 
 between the 'stage' and orchestra was formed by the steps men- 
 tioned by Pollux, IV 127, and Athenaios de Mach., p. 29, Wesch. 
 A flight of steps 12 ft. high reaches the ground some 15 ft. from 
 the foot of a perpendicular let fall from its top. If these steps 
 extended directly into the orchestra, they would render a con- 
 siderable space useless for the evolutions of the chorus. If they 
 were placed close against the 'stage '-front, they would partially 
 conceal the columns which ornamented these 'stage '-fronts, and 
 would therefore be a very ugly addition. Up and down such 
 lofty stairs it would be impossible for actors and chorus to pass in 
 the many scenes which require quick and easy communication 
 between the entire body of the chorus and the actors. In fact, 
 
 17 
 
 the movements of the tragic actors, incumbered as they were by 
 their robes and impeded by the lofty cothurnos, over such steps 
 would have been attended by much of difficulty and even of 
 danger. On the well-preserved epistyle of the 'stage '-front at 
 Oropos there exists not a scratch or a mark to show that steps 
 ever rested against this 'stage'; nor has there been found in 
 any Greek theatre any indication that they ever existed. 
 
 Vitruvius, V 6, is describing the Roman theatre; Pollux, IV 
 124, 126, seems also to have this later theatre in mind. Fettered, 
 however, by these passages and by the information obtained from 
 such Roman theatres as those of Orange and Aspendos, writers 
 have been unwilling to believe that the doors in the 'stage '-fronts 
 of Epidauros, Athens, Oropos, and Eretria could have been meant 
 for the actors. The theory has obtained that there must have 
 been at least three doors opening on the 'stage.' Yet the ruins 
 of no Greek theatre are so well preserved as to show whether or 
 not doors ever opened from the wall of the stage-buildings on 
 this 'stage' (Dorpfeld, Wochensch. 1890, S. 1536), and in most 
 of the extant dramas only one door in the background is required. 
 Beneath the stage-buildings at Eretria (cf. plan in Jour, of Arch, 
 cited above) is a finely constructed vaulted passage 1.98 m. wide 
 and 2.95 m. high. For the entrance of the public and the chorus 
 the parodoi afforded ample room. The orchestra is some 3.50 m. 
 below the level of the earth behind the stage-buildings. That 
 this tunnel was constructed and so well constructed is sufficient 
 proof of its importance. This passage, then, as well as the tunnel 
 leading into the middle of the orchestra, could hardly have had 
 any other use than as a means of ingress and egress for the actors 
 while the performance was going on in front of the 'stage,' not 
 upon it. 
 
 The plans of the theatres of Epidauros, Athens, Oropos, Eretria, 
 Megalopolis (cf. Jour, of Hell. Stud., vol. XI, p. 295) and Ter- 
 messos (cf. Spratt, Travels in Lycia, p. 240) may serve as examples 
 to prove that the rows of seats in a Greek theatre extend over an 
 arc of more than 180°. The seats in the ends of the rows are so 
 arranged that the spectators occupying them have an excellent 
 view of what is going on in the orchestra ; but in order to see the 
 top of the 'stage' they must turn themselves half about. The 
 Greek theatre was not hemmed in by the walls of a building. It 
 would have been easy, therefore, to turn these seats so that their 
 occupants could have had an unobstructed view of the 'stage,* 
 
 ( 
 
i8 
 
 had this view been desirable. If the 'stage' had been used, the 
 distance between the pubhc and the actors would have been so 
 great that the chorus would necessarily be the important element 
 in the performance. The great force of the last two arguments is 
 only fully appreciated when one is in the theatre itself. 
 
 The height of this 'stage,' the lack of means of communication 
 with the orchestra, its slight depth, its distance from the cavea, 
 the doors leading out on the level of the orchestra, the arrange- 
 ment of the seats themselves, all unite to prove that this structure 
 could never have been used as a stage. 
 
 Against this emphatic testimony we have the word of Vitruvius 
 (V 7) that this proskenion was the stage of the Greek theatre. 
 The general correctness of his architectural views proves that the 
 architectural authorities from which he drew his information 
 concerning that earlier theatre which he calls Greek were excel- 
 lent. Misled by the existence of a stage in the later theatre and 
 by the term Xoyuov as applied to this, and finding no other 
 structure on the plans of the earlier theatres before him to which 
 the name could be applied, he made the mistake of naming the 
 proskenion Xoydov. The only theatre he would naturally have 
 an opportunity to inspect was that theatre which he called 
 
 ' Roman.' 
 
 Haigh (Attic Theatre, p. 158) maintains that the proskenion 
 was used as a stage, but conjectures that the stage of the V 
 century was only 6 or 7 ft. high. For this assumption he has, of 
 course, no proof. The latest plays of Euripides and Aristophanes 
 required the same freedom of communication between actors and 
 chorus as did the earliest plays of Aischylos. There could have 
 been no increase in height in the V century. The historical fact 
 is that with the disappearance of the chorus in the IV and III 
 centuries there developed what we know as the Roman stage. 
 If a i2-ft. stage had ever been used I agree with Todt (Philol. 
 Suppl. VI, S. 131) that it existed when the 'Prometheus' was first 
 given. But the stage-theory requires two sudden springs. We 
 have absolutely nothing between the table of Thespis and the 
 •stage' at Epidauros, and there is no intermediate step between 
 this 'stage' 4 m. high and the 5-ft. Roman stage. No satisfactory 
 explanation is offered for these changes, which are contrary both 
 to reason and to the historical development of the classic drama 
 and the classic theatre from the age of Aischylos to late Roman 
 times. 
 
 7 
 
 ( 
 
 19 
 
 The inscription on the epistyle of this structure at Oropos puts 
 beyond doubt that its proper name is TrpoaKijvtov. This agrees with 
 
 the article m PhotlOS, Tfuros apiarcpov' 6 pev dpta-Tfpos (TToix^os 6 npos tw 
 
 Bfarpo) riv, o 6'e df^ioy tt/jo? tw npon-Krjvicp. The words of Glycera in 
 Alciphron, Ep. II 4, are perhaps not to be reckoned here, since 
 the latest editor, Hercher, following a hint of Meineke, reads fV 
 
 rots 7rapnaKr}viois instead of eV mU rrpoaKrjvloi^. Hut in the Life of 
 
 Nero, 26 " interdiu quoque clam gestatoria sella delattis in theatrum 
 seditionibus pantomimorum ex parte proscaenii superioie signifer 
 simul ac spectator aderat," Suetonius refers to the top of the pro- 
 skenion, i.e. 'stage,' in the words "ex parte proscaenii superiore." 
 CIG. 4283, from the theatre of Patara, distinguishes sharply 
 between the Trpoa-Kijviop and the later Xoyflov. Athen. XIII, p. 587 
 B, Photios and Suidas v. Nai/noi/, Suidas v. npoaKlivuw, Cramer, 
 Anecd. Paris, I 19. Duris in Athen. XII, p. 536 A (Miiller, B.-A., 
 S. 117, 168), have ref<"rence either to the painted decoration in 
 front of the npoaKi]viov or to that temporary structure which existed 
 before the stone Trpoa-KTjviov was built.* 
 
 On the plan of the Odeion of Herodes Attikos in Athens 
 (Baumeister, Fig. 1824) the front of the Xoydop and the row of 
 columns which formed the background before which the play was 
 presented are both indicated. This" row of columns is 1.84 m. 
 from the wall behind them.'"^ That is, they formed the TrpoaKijvmv 
 in this Roman theatre, of the same form, position and purpose as 
 the npoiTKrjvtov which stood on BB in the neighboring theatre of 
 Dionysos. The npoaKrivtov remained the same throu|>hout the 
 history of the classic theatre ; in the later, the ' Roman' theatre, a 
 stage, a Xoydov was placed before it. 
 
 The word a-Krjprj refers in general to the 'stage '-building, and in 
 no classic writer does it mean 'stage' (cf. Reisch in Zeitsch. fiir 
 osterreich. Gymnasien, 1887, S. 270 flf.). Therefore the vTToa-Krjviop 
 is not the room 'under the stage' or even under the npooKTjPiop. 
 
 Pollux (IV 124), in vTTOdKrjviop Kioai Koi dyaXparlois KeKoaprjTo, bv 
 
 vno(rKT)piop plainly refers to the wall which the inscription from 
 Oropos calls the TrpoaKijpiov. As often happens elsewhere in Pollux, 
 a mistake has been made in the term used. For in IV 124 he 
 explains by ra Inb a-KrjPTJp the things that have plainly taken place 
 
 ^Synes. Aeg. Ill 8, p. 1286 elg rovro KwocpBa/^plCoiro Sia rov ttpogktjvlov refers 
 to the entire stage-buildings. 
 
 ^Tuckermann, Das Od. des Iler. Att., S. r. T. is in error when he assumes 
 that other columns were placed above these (Dorpfeld). 
 
 A 
 
 ( 
 
20 
 
 'behind the scenes.' vno aKrjpijv has this same meaning in Polkix, 
 IV 130 vno TJi (TKTjv^ omire^v; Philost. Vit. Apollon. VI 11, p. 244 
 
 01. TO vTTd a-KTjvijf airo0vi}(TK€iv; Plutarch, Phocion, C. V ^(OKiKova , . . 
 nfptnaTflv vno crKTjvrjv ; A rat. XV vvv\ 8e vno a-Krjvrjv eapaKas. With 
 
 this meaning Athenaios agrees in XIV, p. 631 'Aa<cn68a)pos 6 ^\idaios 
 . . . avTos 6Tt €v Tw vTToaKTjv'Ko, Ti TovT / thfv. Thereforc Sommerbrodt 
 (Scaenica, S. 140) is correct when he interprets v'no(TKr]via/m Pollux, 
 IV 123, as the rooms in the stage buildings, in the o-ki/w;. 
 
 The references to the cyclic chorus in Dem. Mid. 17, to the 
 Ithyphalloi in Harpok., p. 100, 22, Athenaios, XIV, p. 622 B, and 
 to the Phallophoroi in Athen. XIV, p. 622 D, may be dismissed 
 with the remark that it is absurd to suppose that they entered the 
 theatre from the skene upon a lofty stage and then clambered 
 down a flight of steps to reach their position in the orchestra. 
 
 The attempt to prove the existence of a stage in the Athenian 
 theatre of the V century from vase-paintings found in Southern 
 Italy has decidedly not succeeded.^ With perhaps a single 
 exception (Baumeister, Fig. 904), there is no trace of the Old 
 Comedy on these vases. No one of the scenes has been referred 
 to the Middle or the New Comedy. The oldest of these vases 
 goes no farther back than the beginning of the III century. They 
 are found only in Magna Grecia. It is incredible that the vase- 
 painters of this period in Southern Italy should go back more than 
 a hundred years and select from Athens the scenes which they 
 placed on their wares, particularly when no Athenian vase-painter 
 had set them an example. In no other field has the Italian vase- 
 painter shown such originality. A chorus is never found in these 
 representations. The stage is of the rudest description. The 
 steps leading therefrom are too narrow and too steep to meet the 
 requirements of the Attic dramas of the V century. We are 
 warranted, then, in saying that these scenes were taken from the 
 * Phlyakenpossen,' as these were presented in Southern Italy at 
 the time when these vases were manufactured. 
 
 Outline of the Development of the Greek Theatre, 
 
 Beyond question, from the earliest times an altar stood in the 
 orchestra.^ The previous discussion has clearly shown that this 
 altar was sometimes called 6v^iKi]. Around this altar, before the 
 
 *Cf. Arnold in Baumeister, S. 1750 fF.; Heydermann, Jahrbuch d. k. Arch. 
 Tns. 1886, S. 260 ff., and A. Muller, Philol. Suppl., Bd. VI, S. 59 f. 
 
 ■''Cf. Suidas v. Kaddpaiov; Pollux, IV 103; Plut. Cimon, c. 9; Philost. Vit. 
 ApoU. IV 22. 
 
 -1 i 
 
 r 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 ♦ 7 i^ 
 
 < 
 
 21 
 
 beginning of the real drama, the assembled crowd danced.^ The 
 first actor stood on a table near this altar.^ This table is also 
 called Qv\kiKr] in Et. Mag., p. 458, 30; Orion, Theb. Etym., p. 72; 
 Cyrill. Lex. in Alberti on Hesych. I, p. 1743. In speaking of the 
 theatre of later times also, the actors are also brought into close 
 connection with the BvfieXt], as in Diodor. 4, 5 ; Plutarch, Demetr. 
 12, and De Pyth. Or. 22 ; Alciphron, II 3, 16 ; Suidas v. evfieXiKol', 
 Plut. Sulla 36; Athen. XV, p. 699 A; CIG. 3493. Since the 
 musicians and the pa^Bovxot (cf. Suidas and Schol. Aristoph., Peace 
 733) had their place on this BvpifKriy it could hardly have been that 
 portion of the altar on which the offering was laid. In Olympia 
 that portion of the altar on which the priests stood was called the 
 TTpodvais (Dorpfeld). In the theatre, as we have seen, it was called 
 dvfiiXrj, and an inscription from Delos in Bull. Cor. Hell. 1890, p. 
 396 f] 6vfi€\ri Tov ^(onov, clearly shows that the thymele was a portion 
 of the altar. 
 
 So long as there was only one actor this dvpeXr}, this step, as it 
 were, beside the ^afios on which the actor stood, was sufficient. 
 As soon as the real drama began, with the introduction of the 
 second actor under Aischylos, more room was needed. Then 
 the cothurnos (Cramer, Anecd. Paris, I 19) was invented, and 
 the elevation of the BvfitXr} became movable under the feet of the 
 actors. The earlier explanation that the cothurnos was added to 
 give the actors the appearance of demigods and heroes is not 
 sufficient. There were not only Prometheus, Agamemnon, The- 
 seus and Oidipos, but also heralds, nurses, slaves and ordinary 
 mortals like Xerxes to be represented. There is no aesthetical 
 reason why these latter should be made to appear unusually large. 
 In the fact that the actors were brought down from the 6v/i€\r{ and 
 placed on the same level with the choreutae is found the reason 
 why they were made taller and given a more splendid costume. 
 By these means they were at all times readily distinguishable from 
 the members of the chorus among whom they were moving. 
 When one has seen 24 men march into the great orchestra at 
 Epidauros, and go through with such manoeuvres as we may 
 imagine the chorus performed, the objection that, even with the 
 aid of the cothurnos and the tragic robe, the actors would have 
 been hidden by the chorus ceases to exist. It is as if the per- 
 formers in a modern opera-house took their position in the 
 
 *Cf. Euanthius, Fe trag. et com., p. 4; Max., Tyr. dissert. 37. 
 * Pollux, IV 123, calls this a 'meat-table,' e/.eog. 
 
 i 
 
22 
 
 parquette— on the floor of the house— while the audience sits in 
 the boxes and jralleries around three sides of them. The chorus 
 of 24 even was very small in proportion to the great area of the 
 orchestra, and even if grouped in a body, the choreutae could 
 have concealed the actors only from a very small portion of the 
 audience at one time. It is nowhere in the classic drama distinctly 
 said that the chorus was instructed not to stand between the actors 
 and the audience, but neither does the modern opera contain 
 directions for the crowds which fill the staoe to remain in the 
 background, nor does the text of the Passion Play of Oberam- 
 meroau command the chorus to fall back on either side, that the 
 action may be seen. 
 
 As soon as an actor had more than one part to play, a booth, a 
 (TKTjv^, was necessary for the change of costume. When the second 
 actor was added, and the action was given a fixed place, it was 
 most natural that the actors should occupy the ground immediately 
 before this temple or palace. So, while the entire orchestra might 
 be necessary for the dances of the 'stasima,' that half of the 
 orchestra next to the proskenion became naturally the 'scene' of 
 the play. For the lively movement of the comedy the cothurnos 
 was unsuited, and so was discarded ; but it is from the comedy 
 that we obtain some of the strongest proof that actors and chorus 
 were together in the orchestra. 
 
 A \oy€iov for the actors we find mentioned for the first time after 
 the chorus has practically disappeared from the drama. When 
 the chorus was no longer present, then the entire orchestra circle 
 was no longer necessary. The actors remained as always, in the 
 part in front of the proskenion ; the other half could be used for 
 other purposes. To separate the spectators in the front row of 
 seats from the combats of gladiators and of wild beasts, in Athens 
 the balustrade of marble slabs was erected. In Pergamon and 
 Assos the lower rows of seats were removed till the lowest row 
 remaining was on a level with the Xoyelov which had been con- 
 structed. In the theatres of Aizani, Telmessos, Patara and 
 Aspendos the lower rows of seats are also on a level with the 
 stage. If in these theatres the space between the Xoyela and the 
 front rows of seats were filled up to the level of the Xoyela, there 
 would then exist the orchestra circle of the V-century theatre.^ 
 For in the Greek theatres like those of Epidauros, Athens, 
 
 ^Cf. Durm, Baukunst der Griechen, S. 213. 
 
 yi 
 
 ■\^ 
 
 %r 
 
 •j*^ 
 
 23 
 
 Peiraieus, Oropos, Delos, Myra, Patara, Telmessos, Side, Eretria, 
 Megalopolis, the circle of the orchestra does not quite reach the 
 front of the proskenion. 
 
 In the Roman theatre, according to Vitruvius, the senators sat 
 in this portion of the old Greek orchestra that was no longer 
 needed for the proper presentation of the plays. If the senators 
 had been seated on the same level with the actors, those in the 
 back rows could not have seen over the heads of those in front. 
 Here arose another reason for lowering that half of the elder 
 orchestra in which the senators were sitting, or of elevating the 
 stage on which the actors performed. 
 
 When, for any reason, this difference in level existed, the public 
 could no longer enter through the old parodoi and pass from 
 thence to their seats. So in the Roman theatres we find two 
 passages into the theatre, the old parodoi now leading to the 
 stage alone, and new vaulted passages under the wings of the 
 rows of seats into the new lower level of the orchestra. Since in 
 the Roman theatre the old parodoi were used only by the actors, 
 it required but one step more in the development to roof these 
 passages over and thus bring the walls of the stage-buildings into 
 connection with the walls of the * theatron,' thus rendering a roof 
 over the cavea a possibility. 
 
 No author of the V or IV century mentions a 'stage' in the 
 theatre. For the word oKpi^avra in Plato's Conviv., p. 194 B, 
 refers only to an elevation in the circular odeion where the 
 rehearsals were held.^ When a portion of the orchestra was 
 lowered to form an arena, this was called Koviarpa. The portion 
 remaining for the actors also received a new name, Xoyetoi/, because 
 it was now distinctively the 'speaking place' of the actors. Since 
 in the Roman theatre the boundary line between the Kovicrrpa and 
 the Xoyeiov passed through the centre of the old orchestra, the 
 thymele, the altar could be placed at will in either. 
 
 This late Greek, the so-called Roman theatre, is described 
 correctly by Suidas and Et. Mag. v. aKrjvrj. Sktjvtj cotiv 1] fiearj 6vpa 
 
 Tov dedrpoVf irapaaKrjvia Se ra cpOcv koI cvBcv t^s fiearjs dvpas (^x*^^*^^ Kay- 
 KeWa), Koi Lva (Ta(f)€(rT€pov eiiroi i(TKr)pr] rf] pLtTo. rfjv <TKr)vrjp €v6vs /cat ra 
 7rapa<TKT}via rj opxTjarpa. avrr) 5e etrrti' 6 ronos 6 ck ffavidav €\a>v to eda(f)os 
 f(f)' ov B^arpi^ovuiv oi fjujxoi. eira //era t^p opxrjoTpap ^(Ofios rjp roii AiovvaoVf 
 T€Tpdya)POP olKodofirjfia kcpop fVl tov fieVov, 6 /caXelrai BvfieXr] napa to 6v€iVf 
 fiera Be tijv $vfi€\rjp rj KOPiaTpa tovt ivji to Korai tbac^os tov Btdrpov, 
 
 *Cf. Rohde, Rhein. Mus. 38, p. 255 f.; Dorp., Wochensch. 1890, S. 470. 
 
 V 
 
r 
 
 24 
 
 First is the (rKrfvri described as the middle door, which was the 
 most prominent object in the wall facing the spectators. On either 
 side of this were the wapaaKrjvia. Next is mentioned the Xoyilov, 
 rightfully called by its old name, opxh^rrpa. The altar of Dionysos, 
 the du/xAi;, is named, as we should naturally expect, between the 
 \aytlov and that latest addition to the theatre, the Kovivrpa. In the 
 introduction to the * Clouds ' the scholiast also says : <V t^ opxvfrrpq 
 T« vCv UyopLfiKa Xoyct'o). Isidor, Origg. 18, 43, explains: pulpitus, 
 qui pulpitus orchestra vocabatur, and 44 : orchestra autem pulpitus 
 erat. 
 
 The references of the scholiasts and the grammarians to the 
 \oyuov are easily explained. Through ignorance of the true 
 arrangement of the classic theatre, they have sometimes ascribed 
 to it the \oyiiov which belonged only to later times, a natural 
 mistake when we consider the centuries which separated some of 
 these writers from the theatre which they sought to describe. 
 Again, they may have been misled by the fact that when a 
 classic play was revived it was necessarily adapted to the ' Roman ' 
 theatre. 
 
 r. 
 
 \ 
 
 ( 
 
 h 
 
 > 
 
Part II. 
 
 CONSIDERATION OF THE EXTANT DRAMAS. 
 
 An examination of the works of the four great dramatists in 
 strictly chronological order would seem at first glance calculated 
 to show most clearly the steady course of development in the 
 drama, and consequently to illustrate most fully the corresponding 
 changes which were made in 'stage '-buildings and equipments. 
 But Sophokles was ever more akin to Aischylos than to Euripides, 
 and Aristophanes frequently holds the youngest of the tragedians 
 up to ridicule, both in his text and in the setting of his plays. It 
 has seemed best, therefore, to follow an order which, while in a 
 general way chronological, shall place together the poets who 
 are most closely related to each other.^ 
 
 I. The Plays of Aischylos before the Time of 
 
 Sophokles.^ 
 
 Supplices, 
 
 Two points in this play are especially remarkable. The action 
 does not take place before a palace or temple, or in any well- 
 known locality; there is no hint of a 'scenae frons.' We find 
 mention of an altar (222) near the coast of Argos (714 ff., 734, 
 744, 836) and not far from the city (955 ff.). Again, the dialogue 
 is almost entirely between an actor and the chorus. On only two 
 occasions does an actor converse with a fellow-actor (480 flf. and 
 
 * The chronological order of the plays followed is that found in Christ's 
 Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur. The references are for the * Persians * 
 to TeuflFel-Wecklein's edition ; for the other plays, to the Teubner texts. 
 
 '^Cf. Wilamowitz, Hermes, XXI, S. 597 ff.; Schonborn, Die Skene der 
 Hellenen, S. 284 ff.; A. MuUer, B.-A. 125 f.; Todt, Noch einmal die Buhne 
 des Aeschylos, in Philologus, XLVIII, S. 505 ff.; Capps, The Stage in the 
 Greek Theatre. 
 
J 
 
 A 
 
 26 
 
 911 ff.). The chorus is the important element of the play. In 
 the choreutae the interest centres, and where they are, there is the 
 place of the action. 
 
 The first words of Danaos (tw5* vavK\r]p<p narpi, 177) assure us 
 that he has come as a guide to his daughters. As such his place 
 was with the chorus when they came marching in chanting their 
 anapaests, at the opening of the play. The entrance of the king 
 (234) and of the herald (836) are most carefully motived. Even 
 when Danaos returns from the city (600) the chorus greets him 
 as he enters ; and we feel that it is only because of the exciting 
 nature of the scene that there is a lack of something of the kind 
 when the king reappears (911). Since, then, there is nothing in 
 the play to indicate that such is the case, it is hardly credible that 
 Danaos should have entered during the recital of vs. i-i75- The 
 play assumes his presence with his children from the beginning. 
 «XX' ^9 raxiirra ^ arc he bids them (191). If he were on the stage 
 he must bid them 'come up' to him. For if a 'stage' existed, the 
 altar, as we shall presently see, was upon it. But ^Src is exactly 
 the expression to be used if the father stood with his children and 
 bade them seek refuge at an altar on the same level with them- 
 selves. There is in fact no hint of any change of level as they 
 repeatedly pass to and from this altar. The king says fmarpit^ov 
 (508). They exhort each other ^aivt <l>vya irpos oKkuv (832). It is 
 not possible that they could have climbed to a stage in the four 
 lines which are spoken before the herald joins them (836). What 
 an absurd spectacle these choreutae would have presented 
 scrambling up a flight of steps to reach their altar of refuge ! 
 Finally, when the king invites the chorus to go to the city, he 
 uses ar€ix€r (955). Schonbom infers from Trdyop (189) that a hill 
 is represented on the scene. But this is not simply a hill, but 
 ndyou T5>vd' dy<opla>p ^««v. It is neither more nor less than the altar 
 of the gods, at which the maidens are to sit as suppliants. This 
 is plain from Kptiaaiou Be nCpyov |3o>/Li(Jf in the following line, ndyov 
 tS>v e^a^v for altar Oco/xdr) need not surprise us, when we remember 
 that altars at Olympia and elsewhere frequendy became hillocks 
 by the gradual accretions from the remains of sacrifices. 
 
 At v. 208 the chorus says to Danaos dikoip! hv fjdrj <to\ ttcXoc 
 ep6povs tx^ip. Father and daughters are both at the altar. Here 
 the choreutae remain till v. 508, when they leave their suppliant 
 position at the request of the king. On the approach of the 
 herald (832) they again seek refuge at the altar, from which they 
 
 f* 
 
 ^ ^' 
 
 i 
 
 \T 
 
 . 
 
 , y 
 
 '-<> 
 
 27 
 
 depart to the city (955). Since the herald seeks to drag them 
 from its protection (866-910), and is only prevented from doing 
 so by the timely arrival of the king (911), it follows that this altar 
 was where the actors were accustomed to be — on the 'stage,' if 
 there were a stage. But the chorus is at the altar during 454 
 verses, considerably more than one-third of the entire play, and 
 during almost the entire time when the action is going on. 
 
 Besides altars, chorus and actors there were present the 
 attributes and images of the gods, rplaivap (218), *Ep/x^ff o5' (220), 
 0p€T€a (463), Tpiaipas (755), ^ptreos (885). These were numerous 
 and of considerable size, for the choreutae threaten to hang 
 themselves upon them (465). Some portion of the multitude 
 seen by Danaos (180 ff.) is also present, as the king (otcixoct' Sp, 
 av8p(9, 500) commands his attendants to guide and guard Danaos. 
 Again, (f>i\ais oTrdoai (954) and oTraBoi (1023) refer to others than 
 the choreutae. It would be difficult indeed to accommodate on 
 any stage possible in a Greek theatre these persons and objects 
 actually mentioned as present. 
 
 V. 713 UeTadoKov yap T^ffS' otto a-KOTrrjs 6pS> is also taken as an 
 indication of an elevated 'stage.' That the chorus is at this time 
 in the orchestra is evident. For they left the altar at 508 and do 
 not return to it till the entrance of the herald. They are surely 
 not far from it, because the ode 630-709 is a prayer at this koipo- 
 P<ofiia for all blessings for the Argives. Danaos is with his children 
 in the orchestra, since poprjp de ^fj TrpoXctTre, XiWofiai (74^) becomes 
 nonsense if the father is not near enough to render assistance in 
 case the choreutae are attacked. In iKeraBoKov a-KOTrrjs we surely 
 have a reference to the same altar mentioned in ndyop rapb' 
 dyapiav dtc^P' If this altar were on an elevated stage to which 
 the herald was about to enter (836), and on which he was bound 
 by the rules of dramatic art to remain, why does the chorus run 
 to meet the danger ? 
 
 The setting of the play becomes simple when we once have 
 clearly in mind the earliest orchestra on the site of the theatre at 
 Athens (cf. Part I). There were no stage-buildings. The ^Itar 
 in the middle of the orchestra would naturally be the altar belong- 
 ing to the temple, since a second altar for sacrificial purposes 
 would be superfluous. The Suppliants carries us back more 
 nearly than any other extant play to the time when the drama 
 consisted of odes sung by the choreutae as they danced around 
 the altar. In the light of what we have found in the play itself 
 
 > I V 
 

 28 
 
 we are warranted in saying that to this circular dancing-place came 
 the procession of Danaos and his daughters. To the large altar 
 (^KOivo^<ofxiay cf. 189 f., 222) in its centre, decorated with emblems and 
 mages of the gods, they go, deposit their branches, and sit as sup- 
 pliants. Hither come the king and his attendants and find them. 
 He sends Danaos to the city, then follows him. Danaos returns, 
 from the altar sees the enemy approaching, and hastens for aid. 
 The herald comes and seeks to drag the maidens to the ships, 
 but is prevented by the king. Finally Danaos with his guard of 
 honor (980 ff.) leads his children from the orchestra (1014 ff.) 
 away into the hospitable city. Thus regarded the play possesses 
 a dignity and simplicity which are entirely wanting on the suppo- 
 sition of a stage of any kind. Viewed in this light the Suppliants 
 shows a natural step in the development from the choral song. 
 
 Persa^, 
 
 The tomb of Dareios is the central point of much of the action. 
 It is a structure of some size, for the shade of the king is invited 
 
 (659) €\6' en aKpov Kopvfi^ov 6x6ov. tyyvs eirrares rdcjiov (686) proves 
 
 that he literally obeys this call. The words (rreyo? apxaiov (141) 
 seem also to apply to this family sepulchre (cf v. 657 apxaios ^aXX^v, 
 Soph. Electra 1165, and Lycophr. Alex. 1097), since a council 
 chamber such as Wilamowitz (Herm. XXI) has assumed would 
 not be erected on the scene for this one brief reference. 
 
 The palace was at a distance. The chorus see Atossa approach- 
 ing at 150, but it is five lines later before they begin to address 
 her. Appearing from a palace in the background, she would 
 have been immediately before them as soon as she became visible. 
 She announces (159) raira Xmova iKava. These words are super- 
 fluous if the palace was before the eyes of the choreutae. The 
 queen mentions (229) the offerings she will make after she has 
 returned to the royal dwelling. She says she will return to the 
 sepulchre with a sacrificial cake (524), but adds (529 f.) edtmep devp' 
 
 (fjLOV 7rp6(T0€V p.6\r]j I 7rapT]yop(iT€, koI ttpottc/xttct' es Bofxovs, ThlS eSCOrt 
 
 duty could only be performed by the chorus when the palace lay 
 at a distance. The mother's fear that her son will arrive while 
 she is absent, and her non-appearance in the long scene which 
 follows the appearance of Xerxes, are both inexplicable on the 
 theory that the palace is before the eyes of the spectators. In all 
 these passages there is the idea of space to be traversed and time 
 to be consumed in passing to and from the dwelling. 
 
 i^^ 
 
 x< 
 
 J 
 
 r 
 
 ^^ 
 
 29 
 
 The queen announces (607 f.) roiyap KikevBov ttjv8* ap€v t 
 
 oxTj fxarav | ;^Xid^s" t€ ttjs rrapoiBev €K Sofioav naXiv \ corctXa. oxT)fia 
 
 means vehiculum, chariot,^ as in Iph. in Aulis 610 f aXX' oxwdrav 
 €^<o TToptvfB'. The fact that Atossa takes pains to say that she has 
 come without her chariot and her former pomp distinctly implies 
 that at her first appearance she did come with such royal insignia. 
 Therefore it was equally impossible that she should come from a 
 palace in the background, or enter on a stage at all. Lines 1016 
 and 1024 show how poverty-stricken was the dress of Xerxes on 
 his arrival on the scene of action, and how few were in his retinue. 
 Still the poet could not introduce the king unattended, nor repre- 
 sent him as having come from Greece on foot. Therefore it is a 
 fair inference that aKT}va7s rpoxrikdroKnv (1000 f.) imply a chariot in 
 which the king appears in the orchestra. 
 
 But there are yet other proofs that actors and chorus are 
 together in the orchestra. For the first forty lines after his 
 appearance (249) the messenger converses with the chorus. 
 Had he appeared on a stage of which Atossa and her attendants 
 were the occupants, he would on his entrance have stood face to 
 face with them, and it would have been most unnatural for him to 
 turn from the queen before him to address the chorus in the 
 orchestra below and at some distance from him. His action is 
 natural only on the supposition that he enters through the 
 parodos, since then the chorus in the middle of the orchestra 
 would first meet his eyes. Again Atossa returns from the palace 
 with the sacrificial offerings (598) and the chorus join in the 
 libations to the dead which follow. It need hardly be said that 
 all are by the tomb during this ceremony. In fact Dareios 
 addresses his wife as ra<^ou TrAay (684) and the chorus as iyyvs . . . 
 Td4>ov (686). He actually addresses the chorus first on his appear- 
 ance (681). Then the commands of Xerxes to the chorus, irpos 
 boiiovs 5' Wi (1038) and is dofiovs kU (1067), do not bid them to 
 'come up' to him and enter the palace by clambering over a 
 stage, but to escort him to the royal house, as they had been 
 commanded by the queen-mother (530). The length of the 
 kommos (1036-76), during which all are leaving the scene 
 together, is another indication that they are passing out through 
 the parodos, and not by the shorter way, * over a stage.* 
 
 ^ Teuffel-Wecklein, Perser, S. 50, attempt to explain hxVfJ-o- as * Thronsessel,' 
 but this is simply an effort to show how the queen entered from a palace in the 
 background. 
 
 > < 
 
/ 
 
 J- 
 
 30 
 
 It is true that no underground passage has been as yet found in 
 the theatre at Athens, but the existence of such passages in Eretria, 
 Sikyon and elsewhere produces not a demonstration but a con- 
 viction that the ghost of Dareios appeared by means of some such 
 passage, that he appeared in the orchestra, not on a 'stage/ 
 
 The Persians is certainly a step higher in development than the 
 Suppliants. The tomb of Dareios is of more importance than the 
 lcolvo^a)/ita, and the interest centres in the actors, not in the chorus. 
 But the idea of a scenic background is not yet present. 
 
 Septem. 
 
 The scene is on the Kadmeia in Thebes (aKpoTroXti/, 240), and 
 perhaps in an agora ; for Eteokles, at the opening of the play, is 
 addressing an assembly of the citizens. KaS/xov TroXIrat (i), opfiaaBe 
 7rdpr(s (31), and the exhortation for young and old alike (10 ff.) to 
 succor the city, unite to prove that numbers were present in this 
 assembly. Being mutes, their place is with the actors, but their 
 numbers are apparently too great for any possible stage. The 
 bodies of the two brothers are brought in at 861. From 960 on 
 Antigone and Ismene are present with them. The chorus in 
 antistrophic strains (874 ff.) lament the fate of the dead. ai8ap6- 
 ttUktoi fih 2)5' ^xov(Ti (911) shows that the body lies immediately 
 before the semichorus. At 1068 rjfMus ptp lfi€v kol awddyf^onev \ aide 
 nponoiMnoi says the one semichorus as it, with Antigone, follows the 
 body of Polynikes through one parodos. fjfius afxa rad' respond 
 the others as they, together with Ismene, accompany the funeral 
 procession of Eteokles. Here not only are the numbers too great 
 for the supposed 'stage,' but there is the distinct statement that 
 all are together on one level, which could only be that of the 
 
 orchestra. 
 
 Many images are mentioned. Ares (105, 135), Zeus (116), 
 Apollo (145, 159), Artemis (149 f), Hera (152). The chorus not 
 only appeal to them in these passages, but prostrate themselves 
 before them (95 ^peTtj'). They rush in haste to them (211 npodponos 
 ?i\3ou). The choreutae are clinging to these figures (258), and 
 only come forth from among them (265 €kt6s ova dyaXpdrav) in 
 response to repeated commands of the king. But neither here 
 nor elsewhere in the play does anything suggest an ascent to a 
 stage or descent therefrom. Yet Eteokles offers prayer to these 
 same tutelary deities (69 f.). In these devotions he could not 
 neglect the images, nor can we conceive that he prayed from the 
 
 ( 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 C 
 
 f-\ --«< 
 
 . 
 
 31 
 
 top of a* stage' to the images down in the orchestra. On the 
 other hand, there is no room for these agalmata on a stage. 
 These difficulties disappear when we grant that all— actors, chorus 
 and mutes — are moving and performing their several functions on 
 the acropolis of Thebes, from which the chorus (81, 89, 115, 117) 
 — not because they have climbed the little elevation of a ' stage,' 
 but because of the height of the citadel itself— watch the action 
 going on without the walls. 
 
 Prometheus, 
 
 The final catastrophe in which actor and chorus are swallowed 
 up together could only take place if the cliff to which the Titan 
 was chained was of considerable height and extent. Otherwise 
 there would not be room beneath for the reception of so great a 
 number of persons. In the Prometheus, then, we have the first 
 example of extensive construction to aid in the presentation of a 
 play, the first of the npoaK^via which Aischylos is said to have 
 invented. For the tomb and altars used in the previous plays 
 could hardly be called by that name. As has been shown in 
 Part I of this paper, the stage-buildings of the V century were 
 entirely of wood. The mistake which has been made in the past 
 has been in the assumption that the theatre-carpenter first built a 
 lofty narrow platform and then proceeded to erect his scenery 
 upon this. But such a construction for the Prometheus is an 
 absurdity. On the narrow platform of the so-called stage there 
 would be no room for the representation of the craggy mountain- 
 side to which the Titan is bound, much less for the immense trap- 
 door (?) through which chorus and actor finally disappear. It was 
 not on the (later) proskenion, but instead of it, that the scenery 
 was constructed. It is quite possible that the sudden and 
 complete disappearance of all the occupants of the scene finds 
 its explanation in the peculiar position of the ancient orchestra at 
 Athens. As explained in Part I, the earth outside of this orchestra 
 to the south was five or six feet at least lower than the level of 
 the orchestra. Under these circumstances such a disappearance 
 could be easily managed. 
 
 For more than 150 verses after they appear (127-282) the 
 chorus remain in their winged chariot. This chariot, with its 
 burden of 12 choreutae, could not have moved into view through 
 the air. The weight was too great. Vs. 143 ff. show that they 
 are near the Titan when they enter. The idea that at 282 they 
 
 > 
 
 V 
 

 / 
 
 32 
 
 leave their chariot and descend from a stage into an orchestra, 
 having no connection with the real scene of the action, finds no 
 support whatever in the text. Next to the hero himself, the 
 chorus is the important element of the play. Their conversation 
 with him is, as it were, only interrupted by the visits of Okeanos 
 and lo. They remain constant to him and finally suffer with him. 
 Where they are is always considered a part of the scene of action. 
 The words of Hermes (1058 ff.) show that they are then near 
 Prometheus, and the whole play demands that there be no 
 artificial barrier like a stage between them and the sufferer. 
 
 Certain common characteristics of these first four plays we shall 
 find neither in the later dramas of Aischylos nor in those of the 
 other dramatists. 
 
 1. Although a (tktjvtI, a building of some sort to which the actors 
 could retire for the changes of masks and of costumes, was neces- 
 sarily present, it is only in the Prometheus that a special structure 
 to represent a scene is demanded. 
 
 2. So far as can be learned from the plays themselves, the side 
 entrances, the parodoi, alone were used. 
 
 3. The chorus has an importance either greater than or equal 
 to that of the actors. 
 
 As Mr. Verrall says (Class. Rev. 1890, p. 225): "The drama 
 of Aeschylos is really a choric drama. If we except the Prome- 
 theus, a work sui generis and not really com passable by any stage 
 high or low, all Aeschylos's remaining plays are of the choric 
 kind. Speakers, singers and mutes are all indissolubly connected 
 and equally essential to the action. So that to subtract the 
 .singers and separate them in any way from the whole body would 
 be as improbable and contradictory to the nature of the act as to 
 put a barrier between the actors of a dialogue." 
 
 II. The Aischylos-Sophokles Period. 
 A. Aischylos, — Agamemnon. 
 The scene is before the palace of the Atreidai : uriyais ^Arptidapj 
 
 3; *ATp(ida>v aT(yos, 310; fifXaBpa ^ao-iXeW, 5^8; h fi(\a6pa Koi fio/noi;?, 
 851; eV dSifi, 911; fS dofiap fifXadpa, 957) €i(ra) KOfil^ov Koi av, IO35 ; 
 irpos TTju 'ATp€i8ci>if, 1088 ; ev fid/xoto-i, II02 ; dafxaaip, II9I ) dofxoiSy I217 ; 
 
 dofxoi, 1309; Trpoff 8a>fjLa, 1 349; dafidroyp, 1 673. These passages are 
 cited not to prove what all the world knows, but to call attention 
 to the marked contrast between the scenic accessories used in the 
 
 1** 
 
 33 
 
 Agamemnon and those employed — if we base our judgment on 
 the text — in the four earlier plays. 
 
 Commentators may be in doubt as to whether Pelasgos rides 
 into the orchestra in the Suppliants, but there is no doubt that 
 Agamemnon and Kassandra come on the scene in the Agamemnon 
 (782) in a chariot. Not only was this act of itself impossible on a 
 Greek 'stage,' but, granting that the chariot itself could appear on 
 this narrow platform, no space would remain for the spreading of 
 the carpet (909), for the maid-servants (908), for Klytaimnestra, 
 and for the train of menials who must have followed the king. 
 The conqueror of Troy would not arrive before his palace 
 unattended. In spite of the repeated invitations of Klytaim- 
 nestra (1039 ff.) and exhortations of the chorus (1054), the 
 prophetess remains seated in the chariot till v. 1290 (lova-a 
 Kdya>). Then she ranges free through the orchestra (1298). She 
 approaches the door (1306). She essays again and again to 
 enter, while the chorus gather about her in wondering pity (1321). 
 Finally she rushes within to meet her doom (1330). Nothing in 
 the play indicates that she must ascend to a 'stage.' During 500 
 lines (782-1290) the chariot and the captive Kassandra seated 
 within is the middle point of the action. To this chariot must 
 Klytaimnestra come, both when she welcomes her husband and 
 when she invites the Trojan maiden to enter the palace. If stairs 
 were present, the mutes and the actors, encumbered by their 
 tragic costume, must have repeatedly passed over them. Then 
 it would have been easy for the chorus, unencumbered by such 
 dress, to have ascended them in the death scene (1342 ff.), in 
 order to enter the palace, had it not been that the fate of Aga- 
 memnon was foreordained, and that the exigencies of the play 
 required them to remain without, that Klytaimnestra might 
 address them in the presence of the spectators. 
 
 In 16 1 5 f. the chorus threatens that Aigisthos shall be stoned. 
 Later (1650) he calls upon his companions to be ready, and the 
 chorus draw their swords and rush forward (1651 ela Bq, |t0oy 
 TTpoKtoTTop nds Tis (vTpemC^To)). These are not the words of men who 
 must climb a narrow flight of steps to come at their enemy. 
 Aigisthos retires to the house at the close of the play, but there 
 is no indication again that he must ascend in order to do this. 
 A stage was then not only not necessary, but would have been a 
 decided hindrance to the entire action of the play, while the 
 greater portion of the play must in any event have been repre- 
 sented in the orchestra. 
 
 > 
 
 V 
 
/"" 
 
 I 
 
 34 
 
 Choephoroe, 
 
 Two objects are mentioned as being before the eyes of the 
 spectators — the tomb of Agamemnon and the royal palace. The 
 latter is first mentioned v. 13, and the chorus inform us that they 
 are come forth from it (22 f.) as an escort to the drink-offering. 
 The tomb being the central point of the action for the next 400 
 lines, the palace is not again referred to till 553. From this line 
 to the end of the play the action is either in or immediately before 
 this building (cf. 561, 652, 669, 712, 732, 849, 878, 885). The 
 testimony concerning the sepulchre is equally emphatic. Orestes 
 is at the tomb v. 4 ; Elektra pours libations on it, vs. 129 and 149. 
 The lock of hair is found upon it (168). It is also referred to as 
 present in 106, 355 f., 501, 511. Finally, after Klytaimnestra has 
 conducted Orestes and Py lades within the house, 722 f w Trdma 
 
 \Qi^v Koi noTVi aKTri \ ;^a)/iaTos, t) vvv inX vavapxjo^ \ (Toofiari Kclam rw ^adtXeio), 
 
 in connection with BofioKri (13) and (k So/xaji/ (22) proves conclusively 
 that there has been no change of scene, but that sepulchre and 
 palace have both been present throughout the play. 
 
 But dwelling and tomb cannot both exist at the same time in 
 the background directly in front of the aKrjvrj. The sepulchre 
 could not be located close by the door of the palace, and Orestes 
 (16 f.) sees the procession coming, yet has time to withdraw before 
 the maidens perceive him. Furthermore, the narrow stage 
 afforded no room for an object so large as the passages already 
 cited prove this sepulchre to have been. The tomb was then in 
 the orchestra. 
 
 This tallies exactly with what we learn of the position of actors 
 and chorus. The choreutae enter with Elektra (16 f), they are 
 her associates (86), sharers in the ceremonies (100). She prays 
 for them as well as for herself (112). They move about her 
 chanting the dirge as she pours the libation (152 f.) Therefore, 
 for the first 584 vs. — more than half the play — actors and chorus 
 are together in the orchestra. The chorus decide not to enter the 
 palace in the death scene (870 ff.), and they have the same excel- 
 lent reason here as in the Agamemnon. The play must go on 
 before the eyes of the spectators. Later Orestes says, as he 
 shows the murderous net in which his father had been entangled : 
 
 (KTeivar avro <at KVK\<a TrapaaraBov \ ariyaarpov avhpoi b^i^aS (9"3 *')* 
 
 He is plainly talking to the choreutae, and if they are not actually 
 holding the garment, they are at least near the group. KVKKto 
 certainly implies that they are not separated from the actors by a 
 
 '^ .f! 
 
 \ ^ 
 
 
 J 
 
 35 
 
 * stage.' In the Choephoroe, then, actors and chorus are on the 
 same level throughout, and a stage is impossible. 
 
 It is worth noting that in (878) yvpaiKeiovs nvXas we have probably 
 the first allusion to a second door in the proskenion. The servant 
 has just come out of one door as he goes to open that leading to 
 the women's apartments. 
 
 Eumenides, 
 
 In the opening scene the proskenion represents the temple of 
 Apollo at Delphoi, and the orchestra appears as the open court 
 before it. The priestess entering offers prayer to Taia and Gf'/iij 
 (2), Tiravls — ^oL^r^ (6, 7). Certainly goddesses who earlier were 
 held in highest honor here would possess at least altars within the 
 sacred precincts. At these the priestess does homage, and they 
 could hardly have been crowded together on a narrow * stage ' 
 close in front of the temple. 
 
 The chorus have just ended their ode (142-177) in the orchestra 
 
 when the god gives his command (179) e^w, KcXevw, ravhe dapdrap. 
 
 These words, then, refer to the sacred precinct — temple and court, 
 i. e. orchestra — as a whole. 
 
 That, as the schol. in loc. informs us, the sleeping Furies, Apollo, 
 Hermes and Orestes, are all brought into view on the ekkyklema 
 (64) is beyond belief. No door in Greek or Roman theatre has 
 ever been found capable of giving passage to a platform of such 
 size. The words of Apollo (68), vnva Treo-oCo-at kt\., are unnecessary 
 if the sleepers were before the eyes of the spectators. It is accord- 
 ingly not till 140 that, finally aroused by the reproaches of Kly- 
 taimnestra, they come rushing forth. But the first strophe begins 
 with 143. There is no time to descend a flight of steps between 
 140 and 143, and surely the choreutae are not descending stairs 
 as they sing this ode. 
 
 It is of no great weight, but it is nevertheless natural to expect 
 that the pursued Orestes and the pursuing Furies should leave the 
 theatre by the same exit, the left parodos. 
 
 If there had been a stage, the Furies, when they reenter (244), 
 searching for their victim (245 f.), would naturally look for Orestes, 
 an actor, upon it ; but where they find him clinging to the image, 
 there the trial is conducted, and there all the participants in this 
 magnificent scene have their places. Accusers, accused, defenders 
 and judges can hardly be separated — a portion on a lofty platform 
 and the rest deep down in the orchestra. That the altar and 
 image of the goddess, with the numerous company of actors. 
 
^ 
 
 36 
 
 mutes and chorus, could find no sufficient room on the 'stage* is 
 self-evident. Whether Athena appears (404) moving through 
 the air is of no importance so far as the stage- question is 
 concerned, but, after judgment has been rendered, the goddess 
 declares that she herself will head the procession which is to lead 
 the Furies to their new abode (1003 f.). She invites the chorus 
 to follow (1006), and bids the Areopagites accompany them. 
 Attendants bear the torches (1005) and chant the closing ode 
 (1032 ff.) as all move from the theatre together in splendid 
 procession — affording splendid proof that the entire scene has 
 been given on the broad level of the orchestra. 
 
 B. Sophokles, — Aiax, 
 
 Since in the V century the proskenion was a temporary struc- 
 ture, alterable to meet the requirements of each play, it is reason- 
 able to suppose that the hut of Aias was made with some attempt 
 to portray a real structure of this kind. It could not occupy the 
 entire space (e. g. 24 m. at Epidauros) between the paraskenia ; 
 nor could it, from lack of room, be built forward on the 'stage.* 
 Then, too, the invitation to the chorus to enter the tent (329 
 ttVeX^oVreff) is not an invitation to ascend to a stage. Nor can we 
 assume, with Miiller (B.-A., S. 127), that they do not enter 
 because of the difficulty of climbing the steps. The scholiast (in 
 130) gives the correct explanation : iiriihr} be aronov top xorop dnoXt- 
 
 miv TTjv (TKrjpriv dva^oa €pbo6iv 6 Amy Ipa fifiprj eVt x^P^^ ^ X°P^^' Here 
 
 aKr)v{]p means simply the 'scene' of the action. Tekmessa opens 
 the hut (344, 346), saying that the chorus can now see the hero 
 (346), which statement Aias repeats (364). But the hero is lying 
 on the floor of the hut (427). From the orchestra it would be 
 impossible for the chorus to see him over the edge of a stage 
 more than five feet high. Again, the choreutae must be near 
 enough to make the request of Aias (361), that they slay him, 
 appear reasonable. 
 
 Aias is an actor, therefore his place is on the 'stage,* if one 
 existed. If the semichoruses are not entirely lacking in sense 
 they will look for him there when they enter in the ' search scene.* 
 Though they are on the scene 25 vs. before the body is found, 
 Tekmessa is the one to discover it. The length of the search 
 implies that considerable space was examined. This space existed 
 only in the orchestra. A glance would have sufficed for the 
 examination of the so-called 'stage.* tto Kelrat (911 £) asks the 
 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
 
 3; 
 
 chorus ; ovtoi dearos is the reply, showing that the body was visible 
 to them, as it could hardly have been if on a stage, while they 
 were in the orchestra below. 
 
 Teuker bids the choreutae (1182) protect the child of Aias, and 
 in the closing scene he bids some to hollow out a grave (1403 f.), 
 others to put the tripod on the fire (1405). Let one troop bring 
 forth the arms (1407 f.) of the hero. Finally, let every one 
 (14 1 3 f.) who says he is a friend of Aias hurry and go toiling for 
 him. No one has a better right to be included in these commands 
 than the chorus. Since all have been together in the orchestra, 
 so all depart in solemn march through the parodos. 
 
 Anft^'one. 
 
 The scene is before the palace of Kreon (386, 526, 1181, 1248, 
 1293). Apparently but one entrance to this is used (i, 99, 162, 
 526, 578, 626 (?), 804, 1 182, 1243, 1276, 1292, 1346). One entrance 
 on the right is necessary (99, 987, 1090, 1353), and one on the 
 left^ (99, 222, 331, 444, 765, 943, 1 1 14, 1261). 
 
 Vs. 160 ff. inform us that the chorus is assembled in its capacity 
 of council to the king, and that Kreon addresses them as such. 
 Naturally, the king joins his councillors, and is not perched on a 
 ' stage ' high above them. The chorus is also frequently addressed 
 and brought intimately into the action of the play by Antigone 
 (940), by Teiresias 988. The prophet addresses Kreon and the 
 chorus as members of one body, of which Kreon is the one who 
 replies. The messenger (cf. Schol. in 1155) and Eurydike (1183) 
 direct their conversation to the choreutae. This method of treat- 
 ing the chorus is natural only on the supposition that actors and 
 chorus are together on one level in the open court before the 
 palace of the king. 
 
 Elecira, 
 
 The palace of the Pelopidai is again in the background (10, 40, 
 69, 324, 661, 802, 818, 929, 1 106) ; but the tomb of Agamemnon 
 is not visible (51 ff., 404 ff., 871 ff , 893). An altar to Apollo is 
 placed before the dwelling (634 f., 1376 f.). 'Ayopa Au^ceioy (7) and 
 *Hpaf vaas (8), particularly the latter, could not have been actually 
 on the scene, for the proskenion represented the palace. They 
 might have been represented on the paraskenia, however, and 
 possibly we have here the first clear indication of that (r*cj?i/oypa<^ia 
 the invention of which Aristotle (Poet., c. 4) ascribes to Sophokles. 
 
 ^ Right and left from the standpoint of the spectator. 
 
 > 
 
1 " 
 
 38 
 
 The pedagogue, entering v. 659, though Klytaimnestra has 
 just finished speaking, first addresses the chorus. So Orestes 
 (1098) salutes them, 2) ywalKftj and seems unconscious of the 
 presence of Elektra, as one apart from the rest of the number, till 
 the chorus call his attention to the fact. Had these two actors 
 come in on a stage whose only occupant in each case was another 
 actor, it would have been a peculiar thing for them to turn 
 from this actor to address the chorus in the orchestra below and 
 at some distance from them. An examination of the plan of the 
 theatre of Dionysos in Part I will show that when an actor entered 
 the orchestra through the parodos, he would first see, and there- 
 fore naturally first address, the choreutae near the centre of the 
 orchestra, rather than the actors nearer the proskenion. 
 
 From 120 to 324 Elektra and the chorus are engaged in intimate 
 conversation (cf. 130, 229). There is no more reason for sepa- 
 rating them than for keeping apart any two actors under similar 
 circumstances. From 804-870 chorus and actor are again alone, 
 and Elektra is lying by the door of the palace. 827 El. e e, ala7. \ 
 
 Cho. 2) iratf rl daKpveis ', | El. (fi€v. \ Ch. firfdfv fxe'y dvaDs. \ El. dnoXels. 
 Ch. nS>s ', j El. « tS>v (fiavepcos oi)(Ofi(va>v els Aidav iXrrlb vnoia€is, kut 
 
 ifiov TOKOfxevas fiaWov fVe/x^ao-ct. It is surely but reasonable to say 
 that the choreutae are near the one whom they are seeking to 
 comfort. There is no word of their ascending to reach her, but 
 in her recumbent position on a stage she would not even be visible 
 to her friends in the orchestra. 
 
 Oedipus Rex, 
 
 The royal palace of Thebes is in the background (632, 927, 
 1294, etc.), before which are altars (2, 16, 919). It would not, 
 indeed, have been impossible to arrange these altars and the 
 crowd of suppliants^ sitting at them as Oidipous enters, v. i, on the 
 so-called Greek stage ; but, in that event, there could be but little 
 room for any one or anything else there. The priest is an actor, 
 the other suppliants are mutes, therefore they are on the same 
 level as the other actors. All prostrate themselves before the 
 king (40 f.), and the priest assumes that all are with himself (147 
 iOTw/zc^a). Yet the crowd is at a little distance from the two actors, 
 and have a clearer view of the side entrances. For the suppliants 
 inform the priest that Kreon is approaching (78 ff.). The new- 
 
 ' 16 ff. ot fiEV nv6eTTu fiaKpav \ irriadat aOevdvTeg, ol Si avv y^pg^ ^apeig | iep^c, 
 
 r 
 
 T 
 
 39 
 
 comer is still at a little distance, for two speeches are delivered 
 before he is within speaking distance (85). The scene is entirely 
 clear only on the assumption that the suppliants at the altars 
 nearer the middle of the orchestra command a better view of the 
 actor entering through the parodos than do the actors who are 
 nearer the proskenion. It may be urged that the actor could be 
 imagined as visible while still standing in the paraskenia, but this 
 would not at all explain those scenes where the chorus in the 
 orchestra first see and annoyance the coming of an actor through 
 the side entrances. The chorus in such a case could not be 
 expected even to imagine seeing an actor about to enter on a 
 'stage.' 
 
 Nothing in the play requires the chorus to ascend to a stage, 
 yet are they on the same level with the actors. They first see 
 Teiresias (297 f.), and they prostrate themselves before the king 
 (326 f.). For all the MSS except L assign these words to the 
 chorus, and Oidipous would hardly kneel to the prophet, nor could 
 he say rravrfs (T€ TTpoa-Kvvovfiev old' iKTrjpioi. Furthermore, lokasta 
 brings the chorus intimately into the action (648) ; the messenger 
 addresses the chorus, not lokasta (924) ; Oidipous questions the 
 choreutae whether any of them know the herdsman (1047, ms Q- 
 He appeals to the choreutae to lead him away (1339), to deign to 
 touch him (141 3). These passages imply unobstructed intercourse 
 between actors and chorus. 
 
 Had the newly-blinded king come forth on the so-called stage 
 (1307), one must surely have trembled lest he walk over its edge 
 and fall into the orchestra. 
 
 Trachiniae, 
 
 The scene of the action is before the palace of Herakles (203, 
 329, 531, 900). 
 
 The chorus first appear to bid Deianeira hope (138). Later 
 she comes forth in secret (531 ff".) to explain to them her fears 
 and her plans, and to show to them the garment she has prepared 
 (580). They are undoubtedly in a position to see this in its 
 hollow chest (692). Although the herald is already without the 
 palace (594 ff".), Deianeira bids the choreutae keep her secret, and 
 adds a moral reflection for their edification. The eternal fitness 
 of things would certainly seem to be violated if she were confiden- 
 tially shouting her woes from a 'stage' to the chorus at some 
 distance from her, below in the orchestra, with Lichas, from whom 
 
 > i 
 
 V 
 
i 
 
 40 
 
 these things are to be kept hidden, standing a few feet from her, 
 at the door of the palace. This scene is also clear when we 
 understand that the wife of Herakles is with her friends, the 
 choreutae, in the orchestra, while the herald is at a little distance 
 when he comes from the palace door. Directly to the chorus 
 does the hero's wife come again (663), when she discovers the 
 
 » 
 
 evil she has wrought. 
 
 Herakles is brought in where the chorus can see him lying on 
 his couch (964 ff.). This they could do with difficulty were he 
 on a stage. His bearers, attendants, and the friends who would 
 naturally accompany him, the procession with which the play 
 closes and of which the chorus probably form a part,— all tend to 
 prove that the action is going on on the broad level of the orchestra. 
 
 Philocietes. 
 
 Neoptolemos, a mute (45), the chorus (92 7j,i5ff roo-ouo-de, 126 
 aoK^f), and Odysseus enter together. Following the directions of 
 Odysseus (15), Neoptolemos begins the search for the cave on the 
 hillside (20 f.). He finds it above them (29), mounts to it and 
 describes its contents (33 if.). He invites the chorus to draw 
 near (145, cf. Schol. in loc.) and see the cave. Surprised at the 
 miserable quarters, they question if it really is the hero's dwelling. 
 Neoptolemos' reply (159) assures them that it is, and calls their 
 attention to his previous description. 
 
 The impossibility of setting this play on the so-called 'stage' 
 has been shown in Part I. For this is a hillside, on which actors 
 and chorus can move easily without danger of slipping and drop- 
 ping over the edge of a 12-foot stage. The proskenion is then 
 neither that found in the theatre at Epidauros, nor that which 
 represented the palace in the Agamemnon, but is one representing 
 a rocky hillside sloping down to the level of the orchestra. On 
 the slope was the cavern, to which led a path, and a spring was 
 
 near (21). 
 
 Philoktetes addresses Neoptolemos and the chorus together 
 (219), and only learns which is the leader from Neoptolemos' reply 
 (232). V. 581 refers to the chorus as of one party with the actors, 
 an idea which is strengthened by the ^aaii>\itv of 825. In 861 the 
 chorus can observe the sick man closely. Later on (887) Neoptol- 
 emos proposes that the choreutae bear the lame man to the ship, 
 and Odysseus threatens that they shall bear him away by force (983). 
 In his reply to this last Philoktetes alludes to the chorus as near him 
 
 ) ' r 
 
 41 
 
 (984). He threatens to throw himself down from the rocks (1002), 
 but he is seized and held by members of the chorus, all of whom 
 are present for the express purpose of rendering the necessary 
 assistance. Xiop&fiev drj Travres doXXus (1469, cf. doXXuf, Trach. 513) 
 makes us to understand clearly that chorus and actors go off the 
 scene through the parodos together at the end of the play. 
 
 Oedipus Coioneus. 
 
 The spot is full of the bay, the olive and the vine, and nightin- 
 gales are singing within the grove (17 ff ). Real trees were an 
 impossibility, therefore the painted scenery must have been 
 elaborate. The precinct of the Eumenides is a grove (98, 126), 
 into which Antigone guides her father (114). When the chorus 
 see him (138) they caution him not to remain (156) in the silent 
 grove. A long distance separates them from him (163). They 
 invite him to come forth ; when he advances (178) they urge him 
 to come farther (178), and then direct Antigone to lead him still 
 farther (i8o). She encourages Oidipous to follow with confidence. 
 The advancing pictured in all these passages could not refer to 
 crossing a stage 8 ft. wide. When the Colonean goes (80) to 
 summon the chorus of his fellow-citizens, we look for the latter to 
 enter by the same passage through which he departed. They do 
 this, for they declare that they will search for the intruder through 
 the sacred temenos (136). In other words, in searching for an 
 actor they search where actors are accustomed to be. There is 
 no indication of a barrier between the orchestra proper and the 
 grove, excepting that wall of the precinct on which the blind king 
 sits (192). Reasoning from analogy with other passages in which 
 chariots and animals are mentioned, we may assume that Ismene 
 rides into the orchestra on her Aetnaean steed (312) ; but nothing 
 shows that she ascends to come to her father. 
 
 Theseus appoints the chorus as a guard to Oidipous (638, cf. 
 Schol. in loc). He appeals to them (724). They are near (803, 
 cf. Schol.), so that Kreon cannot seize him against their will 
 (815, cf. Schol.). When Kreon gives command to drag Antigone 
 away, the choreutae first threaten (835) ; then, though he forbids 
 them to touch him (856), they seize and hold him (857). From 
 638 to 857 actors and chorus have plainly been together. To 
 these come Theseus (885) with followers (893). It is certainly 
 not too much to say that, as in Philoktetes, the scenery could not 
 have been placed on a J^tage, and, further, that no Greek 'stage' 
 could have contained the numbers present in the scene just 
 
 > 
 
/ 
 
 42 
 
 described, particularly in the lively action in which they were 
 engaged. 
 
 In the plays of this second period there is a clearness of state- 
 ment, with reference to place of the action and to the details of 
 the scenery, which was lacking in the first four dramas of Aischylos. 
 In seven of the plays just considered a building is in the back- 
 ground, a palace in the Agamemnon, the Choephoroe, Electra, 
 Antigone, the Trachiniae, and Oedipus Rex, and a temple in the 
 Eumenides. In the Aiax we find a tent by the sea-shore, in the 
 Philoctetes a cavern on a hillside, in the Oedipus Coloneus the 
 sacred precinct in the grove. The proskenion, however, is still a 
 unity ; that is, it represents but one building. From the Electra 
 and Oedipus Coloneus we are justified in inferring that great 
 advances had been made in aKr}Poypn(t>la, and that this was employed 
 even where there are no clear allusions to it in the text. The 
 teaching of the dramas is that from the Suppliants of Aischylos 
 to the Oedipus Coloneus of Sophokles there has been much the 
 same progress in the art of representation as in the art of compo- 
 sition. Yet in every play of this second period, as in those of the 
 first, there exists the strong probability that actors and chorus 
 make use of the same parodoi for entrances and exits, and in 
 several plays the text shows that the existence of a stage was an 
 impossibility. 
 
 III. The Period of Euripides and Aristophanes. 
 
 A. Euripides. — Rhesus, 
 
 The chorus, in its character of night-watch, approaches the tent 
 of Hektor (i ff.) in the background to awaken him. His reply 
 (II ff.) affords excellent evidence that the choreutae are close to 
 him, not below in an orchestra. Odysseus and Diomedes enter 
 (564) and find the tent of the Trojan chief empty. They depart to 
 slay Rhesos. On their return (667) they are pursued by the chorus. 
 
 675 ff. jSaXc I 6ivt e^vt' ris oS' dvj)p; \ XcuaafTC. rodrov avba> . . . | Sevpo 
 deOpo Tra. I Toiad€ ix<^, 685 iraU nas, 688 ri 8}} r6 (ra>fia; Od. ^ot^os, 
 
 make clear as the light that in the lively pursuit all must have 
 been in the orchestra together, and that the intruders are seized 
 and held till the watchword is given. This scene simply requires 
 more emphatically, what the entire play also demands, that there 
 be no barrier between actors and chorus. All alike are soldiers, 
 the only difference being that the actors are commanders. No 
 
 (^. 
 
 43 
 
 good reason can be urged why the choreutae, in going to or 
 coming from the camps of the Greeks and the Trojans, should 
 make use of different roads, different exits, from those employed 
 by Dolon, Odysseus, Diomedes, Rhesos, Aineias, Paris and 
 Hektor under like circumstances. 
 
 Alcestis. 
 
 The proskenion represents the house of Admetos (i, 87, 477, 
 911, 941, etc.). As the chorus enter their attention is directed to 
 the palace. They do not see before the doors water for bathing 
 the dead ; nor are there locks of shorn hair im TrpoOvpois (98 ff.). 
 Such minute observation as is implied in this last statement was 
 only possible when the chorus stood near and on practically the 
 same level with the palace door. The chorus is the first to see 
 and announce that Alkestis is really dead (392). Such observation 
 as this scene also requires would have been impossible on the 
 * stage* theory. 
 
 The funeral procession comes forth from the dwelling (605 ff.). 
 Admetos addresses the choreutae, and bids them, while the 
 servants are bearing the body, to salute the dead in the customary 
 manner. No word is spoken to show that the chorus ascends or 
 that the rest of the procession descends, yet there can hardly be 
 a doubt that all leave by the same parodos (741). By the same 
 road Herakles follows them (860) ; by the same entrance the 
 funeral procession returns (861), and by the same way we certainly 
 expect the son of Jove and Alkmene to bring back the rescued 
 Alkestis (1007). Again, three entrances — the palace door and 
 the two parodoi — meet all the requirements of the play. 
 
 Medea. 
 
 The chorus has so little to do with the action of the play that 
 there are but few indications of the relative position of actors and 
 choreutae. napfKOa d6p.ovy (1275) shows the possibility of the 
 chorus entering the house, but again the exigencies of the play 
 (as in Agamemnon) prevent such action. The first words of 
 Jason (1293) addressing the choreutae are surely more natural if 
 he enters through the parodos and joins them standing in front of 
 the palace, than they would be if he came in on a 'stage' above 
 them, and turned to address them, instead of giving his attention 
 to the palace. 
 
 Before the doors can be broken in (1314) Medeia is visible on 
 the chariot drawn by dragons (cf. Schol. in 1321), which has been 
 
) 
 
 44 
 
 given her by the Sun. Such a chariot, large enough to contain 
 the sorceress and the bodies of her sons (1376 f.), requires room. 
 On such a diarfyla as was possible if the * stage ' theory be accepted/ 
 such an equipage could not be placed. Actors on the narrow 
 'stage' would run decided risk of stepping overboard into the 
 orchestra in their vain endeavor to get far enough from the 
 building to be able to look up at objects on the roof of the 
 dwelling. The scene becomes perfectly intelligible when we 
 consider that the proskenion represented the palace of Jason, the 
 'stage' was its roof, on which was room not only for Medeia and 
 her chariot, but also for the necessary stage machinery. 
 
 Hippolytus, 
 
 The statues of Artemis (58 ff., 72 f.) and Aphrodite (loi, 116 f., 
 359, 522) are standing before the palace of Theseus (108, 171, 575, 
 790, 882 f., 1 152) as Hippolytos appears (57), bidding his numer- 
 ous band of attendants (54 f. ttoX^s . . . K^\ioi) sing to the goddess 
 of the chase. This chorus of attendants (cf. Schol. in 58) enter, 
 remain and depart (108 f.) with their master. For this scene the 
 broad level of the orchestra is far better suited than is the narrow 
 platform of the ' stage.' 
 
 Phaidra bids the real chorus of the play, not to ascend to a 
 'stage,' but (575) ralffS' fVtaraa-ai TruXatf. The choreutae do not 
 obey because they are plainly terrified by the outcry of Phaidra 
 (569 f.), and because the audience must also hear of what is taking 
 place within the house. So they bid her announce to them what 
 the evil may be (577 ff.)- They do not respond to the appeals of 
 the nurse (775, 780) that they (776) rush in and save her mistress. 
 The action, from the first appeal of the nurse (775) to the 
 announcement that Phaidra is dead (786), is too rapid to allow 
 the choreutae to enter the dwelling even had they been so 
 inclined. The foreordained has again come to pass, and the 
 announcement has been made to the public in due form (cf. death- 
 scene in Agamemnon). 
 
 Hecuha, 
 
 When Talthybios enters (483) the chorus have just completed 
 an ode, and therefore are near the middle of the orchestra. He 
 asks where he can find Hekabe. The reply, a.v-n\ ntXas a-ov . . . 
 jcetToi $vyK€K\rj[M€vri irtnXois, proves that, as they point her out, they 
 
 iCf. Part I, Muller, B.-A., S. 140 ff., and Haigh, Att. Th., p. 172. 
 
 ( 
 
 i 
 
 r 
 
 
 45 
 
 m 
 
 can see her lying, wrapped up in her mantle. Polyxene has just 
 been borne away to the camp. In the agony of parting the 
 mother threw herself down near the exit through which her 
 daughter disappeared. Talthybios enters from the camp. Had 
 he come in on the 'stage' the prostrate form of the fallen queen 
 must have been immediately before him. His question to the 
 chorus would have been then quite uncalled for ; he must have 
 seen her before the chorus was visible to him. On the other 
 hand, as he came through the parodos he must needs see the 
 chorus first, and his question and their reply are both pertinent. 
 
 The choreutae are on the point of entering the hut of Agamem- 
 non (43, 171, 619, 880, 1049) to bear aid to their friends within 
 (1042), when Hekabe comes hastening forth (1044) to escape the 
 furious Polymnestor (1070). There is no talk of descending 
 steps, and no time for such action. Barely have they and the 
 queen fled to one side (1054), when the raving Thracian bursts 
 from the dwelling — upon a narrow stage ? That would indeed be 
 difficult to believe. 
 
 Cyclops, 
 
 The chorus with itpoaizokoi (83) enter (40), driving the flocks 
 and herds of the Kyklops (43 f., 51 f.). Whether these are really 
 animals or are men dressed as such, their erratic motions (41 ff.) 
 show that they must enter the orchestra, from which they pass to 
 the cave in the background (35, 82 f , 383). 
 
 Odysseus first sees the servants (96) as he enters, then perceives 
 the satyrs, Silenos and the chorus by the cavern. Had he 
 entered on a 'stage' he would have seen these last first. In the 
 bargaining scene which follows there are present Odysseus, his 
 several companions (85 £), Silenos, the chorus, and the servants 
 (191), who bring in the lambs bound ready to be borne away. 
 The 'stage' could not well accommodate these numbers. The 
 Kyklops' threat to beat the chorus (210 f.), and their reply (212 f), 
 prove that they are near him. A 'stage' would be very narrow 
 accommodations for the giant when he comes forth drunk later 
 on (502). 
 
 There is no hindrance for the choreutae if they desire to enter 
 the cave, therefore they readily enter into conspiracy with Ulysses 
 (451 ff.). To be sure, they refuse to aid in putting out the 
 Kyklops' eye, not because they cannot easily ascend to a 'stage' 
 (Muller, B.-A., S. 127) — that difficulty has been overcome many 
 times in the course of the play — but because of the cowardly 
 
 > 
 
 \ 
 
46 
 
 nature of the satyrs, and because the poet desires to amuse the 
 spectators by their dancing rather than leave the stage empty.' 
 
 The blinded giant (683 ff.) would have found the 'stage' a 
 dangerous place. Odysseus announces that he is far from (689) 
 the Kyklops, and undoubtedly he, his companions and the chorus 
 have all moved out into the orchestra, on the appearance of their 
 enemy, preparatory to departing together through the parodos 
 on their way to the ship. The impossibility of representing the 
 hillside and the cavern on the 'stage' has been discussed in 
 connection with the Philoctetes. 
 
 Heraclidae. 
 
 lolaos and a numerous company (10, 64, 91 f., 93» 248, 581) of 
 the younger sons of Herakles sit as suppliants at the altar of Zeus 
 (61, 79, 97 U 121, 238, 341, etc.), at which the children remain 
 throughout the play (344 ff.)- This is the ^0,,.^? before the temple 
 (41 f.; 479, 643, 646, 657. 695 ff), of sufficient size to receive this 
 group. Excavations at Olympia and elsewhere have shown that 
 such altars were not placed close before the temples; their use 
 for sacrifices forbade that. The size and probable character of 
 this altar alike tend to prove that it could not have been on a 
 narrow platform of a 'stage.* 
 
 When Kopreus is attempting to drag the children away he 
 throws lolaos violently to the ground (75 f, 128 f.). In response 
 to the cry for help (69 f.) the chorus come in with a rush (73), on 
 the same level with the actors, for their presence compels Kopreus 
 to desist from his attempt. Because they are later with Demo- 
 phaon, the messenger of the Argive king feels that he is powerless 
 (274 /xiaf yap x«poff «<^^^»"7f M"X»?)- I^laos bids the chorus and the 
 children exchange the pledge of the right hand (307, 308). The 
 choreutae fulfil this duty in their character of representatives of 
 the Athenian people (cf 69), and the king is separately addressed 
 (320 ff.). This act of pledging is performed by all the chorus 
 (307 f.). Thus scenery and text alike require that the play be 
 acted in the orchestra. 
 
 Hercules Furens, 
 
 The chorus enter (106), to find the father, wife and children of 
 Herakles as suppliants at an altar (51, 72, 243) before the palace 
 of the hero (107, 330, 523, 622, 1142). The passage 119 ff is 
 very corrupt, and it is doubtful whether &vavr^i belongs in the text. 
 
 ^Cf. Capps, The Stage in the Greek Theatre, p. 42. 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 t« 
 
 ,1 . ,. ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 47 
 
 At best, however, the words referring to ascent are used in the 
 comparison, and refer to the 'yoke-bearing steed' as showing the 
 cause of its weariness. The chorus of old men, each of whom 
 leans on his staff for support (107 ff.), comes feebly in, each man 
 assisting his neighbor (125). They are on the same level and 
 near to the actors, for they are on the point of striking Lykos 
 (254), and declare (262 f ) that while they are alive he cannot 
 carry out his design of slaying the children. The long choral 
 ode (348-441) must have been delivered in the orchestra. There 
 is no indication that they descend for this, nor that they ascend 
 for the following scene. Here Amphitryon is bidding farewell to 
 the chorus (503 ff.), when Herakles enters and finds all together 
 before his house (525 ff.). He beholds his family in funeral garb 
 standing not 7iear but among the choreutae (oxXw t ev avdpSyv). 
 The words of the hero (529), that he will approach them, are 
 nonsense if he refers to the few feet between the side and the 
 middle of a 'stage'; they are natural if he is near the parodos, 
 while, the others are grouped together in the orchestra, immedi- 
 ately in front of the palace. 
 
 At 748 the chorus cry aKonS>fi€v 'let us look into the palace.' 
 The death-cry of Lykos is heard a few moments later, and the 
 choreutae begin their dance in the orchestra. The description of 
 objects within the palace (1029 ff.) shows that they are again 
 where they can see within the ruined dwelling. They flee to 
 avoid the danger, when it is announced that Herakles is coming 
 forth (1081 f.). This danger could exist only because he is 
 coming out into the orchestra. In company with Amphitryon 
 (1 109 ff.) they again approach the dwelling. These passages 
 offer strong proof that no stage existed as a barrier between the 
 chorus and the palace, particularly when we remember that the 
 choreutae could not have seen the hero lying chained among the 
 ruins of his dwelling, had the so-called stage been in their way. 
 
 • 
 
 Andromache. 
 
 The proskenion again represents a palace (41, 495, 817, 1055). 
 The shrine of Thetis, by which Andromache is sitting at the 
 opening of the play, is referred to under different names: 115 
 
 &ya\txa deisy 1 17 Bdnedov Kai dvaKTopa, 135 dyXabv ebpav, 161 Sw/xa Niyp^- 
 fioff TOSe, I ov ^(opos ovBe va6s, 253 dyvov riptvos eva\ias Otov, 380 Twi/d' 
 
 dvaKT6p<^v, 411 ^(op6v. This is no ordinary altar, but a precinct, 
 rt/ici/of , containing a house, 6«/xa, va6s, an altar, ^w/iof , and an image, 
 SiyaKtia. There is no room for such a structure in the background 
 
 / 
 
 ^ 
 
y 
 
 ll 
 
 'I 
 
 48 
 
 — the palace is there— nor on the so-called stage— that is too 
 narrow to afford space for the shrine and for the actors. This 
 structure is then in the orchestra, and in the orchestra is repre- 
 sented the main action of the play which concerns Andromache 
 sitting within this temenos. 
 
 The choreutae are on one occasion (817) about to rush in to 
 prevent the suicide of Hermione, but before they can do this she 
 is heard coming forth (822). So they remain without. The text 
 implies the easy possibility of their entering (cf. Miiller, B.-A., 
 
 S. 127). 
 
 Suppliants. 
 
 As the play opens, Aithra, with the mothers of 'the seven' (20), 
 is sitting at the altars (33, 64, 93) before the temple of Demeter 
 and Kore at Eleusis (30, 88, 938). Adrastos, surrounded by the 
 sons of 'the seven,' lies at the doors of the same temple (22, 104). 
 
 279 dfi<f)imTVOv<Ta top aop yovv and 284 f. xrept aoi(ri yovvaaiv prOVe that 
 
 Theseus is standing close by the Argive king. But Theseus' 
 direction to the chorus (359 f ) to remove the hallowed garlands 
 from his mother, that he may lead her back to the city, show that 
 Aithra and the suppliants are also on the same level with the 
 actors. In the Heracleidae it has been pointed out that the ^<ofi6s 
 of a temple would not be placed on a 'stage.' The chorus of 15, 
 Aithra, Adrastos, with the seven sons (106, 1124 f., 1224), make a 
 total of 24 persons, arranged in two groups, when Theseus and 
 his attendants enter. It is incredible, again, that so many persons 
 could occupy this 'stage.' No room would remain for the neces- 
 sary action. When nearly one third of the play is past, and the 
 chorus is bidden (359) to leave the altar, the word of Theseus is 
 not a command to descend to a level below that occupied by the 
 actors. As a matter of fact, the choreutae are with the actors 
 later on. 
 
 Adrastos goes to meet the bodies (772), and commands that 
 they be brought in (81 1). 815 ff. d6$\ wy ircpinrvxalai Bq \ x^P^^ npoa- 
 apfioaaa €fiOis \ iv dyKoxTi rUva BCopai Cries the choruS. tx^Hy «;(€iff is 
 
 the reply. The choreutae are in the orchestra, for they have just 
 completed the ode 778 ff. But they here embrace the bodies 
 brought in under the direction of Adrastos. Theseus also comes 
 (837), and stands by the bodies while the heroes are being 
 described (860 ff.). As the dead are borne forth, Adrastos 
 invites the chorus to follow (941). This Theseus forbids (942), 
 but Adrastos promises that they shall receive the bones (948 f.). 
 The chorus remain, that they may be present at the burning of 
 
 '' 
 
 
 •' ( 
 
 I 
 
 49 
 
 the body of Kapaneus (cf. Miiller, B.-A., S. 127). To them in 
 the orchestra are brought the ashes of their dead by the Epigoni 
 (II 13 ff.), and from the orchestra they march forth in company 
 with Adrastos (1132), at the end. 
 
 There is no room on a 'stage' for the pyre of Kapaneus (981, 
 loio, 1058) and the towering rock (987) from which Evadne leaps 
 (1071), to say nothing of the danger to wooden 'stage' and stage- 
 buildings from the actually burning pile (1012-1017). Dismissing 
 the stage-idea as untenable, the lofty rock occupies a portion of 
 the space where stood the later proskenion, and the burning pile 
 was on the earth in the orchestra. The importance of the chorus 
 and the freedom with which it mingles with the actors remind one 
 strongly of the early plays of Aischylos. 
 
 Troades. 
 
 Hekabe, lying before the door (37) of the hut (32, 139, 155, 157, 
 294, 359, 880) in which are confined the captive Trojan women, 
 calls (143 f.) on the chorus within (cf. Schol. in 139) to sing 
 responsively with her. One semichorus comes forth at 153 (cf. 
 157), the other at 176 (cf. Schol. in loc). The ode 197-229 is of 
 course sung in the orchestra, but, again, no word shows that the 
 performers descend to reach their accustomed place. 
 
 Andromache appears with her son (571, 614, 702, 713, 749, 782, 
 786), riding on a chariot (569, 572, 626). From 610 aycJ/xe^a Xet'o 
 ui>v T€Kpa and 622 t5>p a' 6x<op we learn that she remains in the 
 chariot at least till 626. Her chariot can only enter to the 
 orchestra. There is no mention of her leaving this vehicle, much 
 less of her ascending to or descending from a stage. She unques- 
 tionably rides forth (779) on the same conveyance on which she 
 entered. All things tend to show that this scene, in which Andro- 
 mache holds long and intimate conversation with Hekabe, and 
 pours forth all her mother's tenderness in embracing her son 
 (755 ff.). has taken place in the orchestra. Thither come Talthy- 
 bios and his companions to seize and destroy the child. There 
 Hekabe utters her lament for her grandson (790 ff.). From thence 
 the herald commands the chorus (1266 ff.) to depart to the shore 
 at the sound of the trump, and bids Hekabe follow him (1269 f.). 
 She does not obey, and he directs the servants to lead her forth 
 (1285). Still she does not go, but from 1302 to the end she sings 
 the responsive dirge with the chorus. She kneels (1305 f.) and 
 places her hands on the ground ; the choreutae follow her example 
 
 / 
 
 ^ 
 
50 
 
 (1307 f.)- ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ moving toward the same shore, from 
 the same level, through the same parodos, and the poet sends all 
 forth in procession at the close of the play. 
 
 Iphigenia Taurica. 
 
 73. (^ aifiaTOiv yovv |dv^' fxei dpiyKoifiara 
 
 Op. OpiyKOiS S' VTT uvTois (TKv\ opas l]pTr]fl€Va / 
 IIv. Twv Kardavovroiv y aKpoBivia ^iviov 
 
 • ••••• 
 
 113 IIu. opa de yuaa TpiyXvcfxov ottoi K€vcv 
 dffias Kadfivai' 
 
 No such minute and realistic description of scenery is found in 
 any of the preceding plays. These lines demonstrate that the 
 temple was carefully represented. The long back wall of a 
 'stage' was hardly adapted for such a building. The theatre 
 carpenter could, however, in the period of which we are speaking, 
 build the proskenion in whatever form the drama required. Its 
 door would then open out upon the orchestra. 
 
 Iphigeneia, coming from the temple (142), joins the chorus, 
 addresses the choreutae as dfiaai (143), offers her shorn locks, and 
 pours a libation to the shade of her brother (159 ff.), in which the 
 chorus assist by singing a hymn to the dead (179 ff.). As in the 
 other libation scenes in which the chorus take part (e. g. Persians 
 619 ff., Choeph. 92 ff.), actors and chorus are together in the 
 orchestra. In 1069 ff. Iphigeneia appeals to the various members 
 of the chorus not to betray her. There is in her words no actual 
 demonstration that actors and chorus are together in the orchestra, 
 but it is improbable that Iphigeneia is talking in this individual, 
 intimate manner to a group of people twelve feet below and at 
 some distance from her. 
 
 Ion, 
 
 Seven metopes are carefully described (184-218), and therefore 
 the temple-front (79, 219 ff., 510, 1319 f.) must have been repre- 
 sented in a most realistic manner. Hermes says (76) : tls Ba(f)VQ>8rj 
 yvaXa ^qaofjLai, from which it is fair to infer that painted decorations 
 represented the laurel groves of Delphi. To one who has climbed 
 the steep hillside to the site of the ancient temple of the oracle, 
 the words of Kreousa and the pedagogue as they enter (cf. 724- 
 738 f.) convey an additional idea of the realistic nature of the 
 scene presented to the gaze of the Athenian audience. The 
 
 
 
 ( 
 
 SI 
 
 temple (738 ff.), fiapT€'la, did lie high, alndpd. A winding path 
 (743 Tcpt^cpJ) (TTifiov') may well have led up to it. The old man's 
 exhaustion (739 ff.) under such circumstances was to be expected. 
 Here, as in the Philoktetes and the Birds, any indication of the 
 ascending path was possible only in the orchestra. The conver- 
 sation of the two actors (724-747) shows that they are slowly but 
 steadily advancing. At 747 Kreousa first sees and addresses the 
 chorus. The time consumed in uttering these 23 verses would be 
 requisite for entering through the parodos and passing to a 
 position near the front of the temple, but not for moving from the 
 side to the centre of a ' stage.' 
 
 In the distance traversed this scene resembles 183 ff. The 
 choreutae, loitering and discussing the metopes in the latter scene, 
 consume a still longer time before they are near enough to 
 address Ion (219). They do not enter the temple because they 
 have not performed the necessary sacrifices, and have no motive 
 but idle curiosity (226 ff.) ; not because there is a stage in the way 
 (cf Muller, B.-A., S. 127). 
 
 The choreutae are the servants of Kreousa. Arriving with her 
 from Athens, they have come direct to the temple (183, 252 ff.). 
 Mistress and servants enter then by the same path. The cho- 
 reutae are still at a little distance from the temple when they first 
 call to Ion (219 0-6 Toi t6v napa va6v). Kreousa has perchance 
 stopped by one of the altars to offer the necessary sacrifices,^ for 
 we find no word in the following lines that it is unlawful for her 
 to enter the temple because of failure to do this. The chorus 
 
 says (237) : Trapovaas 5' ap(fH ra(r5' epiorqs. She is still at a little 
 
 distance, for it is not till 241 that Ion observes that she is weeping. 
 On a stage she would have been within a few feet of him as soon 
 as she was visible at all. The entire scene gains in clearness 
 when we recognize that actor and chorus enter through the parodos. 
 Kreousa comes hastening in (1249) to her attendants, asking 
 what she shall do to escape the death to which she has just been 
 sentenced. Naturally she comes to them, not to a platform above 
 them. In obedience to their advice (1255 ff.), she goes as a 
 suppliant to the altar (1275, 1280, 1401, 1403). Like the temple 
 ^(Ofios in the plays previously discussed, this was in the orchestra. 
 So from the orchestra at the end, in obedience to the commands 
 of Athena, master, mistress and newly-found son, with the serv- 
 ants, the choreutae, move forth together on their way to Athens. 
 
 1 Cf. Capps, The Stage in the Greek Theatre, p. 23. 
 
 i 
 
 f 
 
 ^ 
 
52 
 
 Eledra. 
 
 Orestes and his companions (394) enter, and perceive Elektra 
 returning from the stream with water (107). They sit down (109 
 «f&)/x€o-^a) very near to the peasant's hut (216}, which the proske- 
 nion for this play represents (78, 251, 489, 750, 1233). Elektra 
 sings the long ode 1 12-166, the chorus joins her (166), and 
 together they sing the verses 167-212. The choreutae are 
 present as the friends (175) of Elektra, and invite her to come 
 with them to receive the proper apparel and join in the festive 
 dance (191 ff.). This scene implies that actors and chorus are 
 together. But the strangers, though they have no reason for 
 concealment (109 ff.), remain unobserved from 112 to 215. Had 
 Elektra entered on the side of a 'stage,' Orestes and his com- 
 panions would have been directly before her eyes, but a few feet 
 distant. She could not have avoided seeing them during the 
 recital of one hundred verses. She begins her song, however, as 
 she comes in through the parodos, is joined by the chorus, and 
 all move gradually toward the cottage, absorbed in their conver- 
 sation. As a movement of Orestes (217) suddenly attracts the 
 attention of his sister, frightened, she calls to the chorus to hasten 
 back the way they came (218), while she attempts to escape into 
 the house. 
 
 At 962 Elektra sees her mother coming from Argos in her 
 chariot. To look from the 'stage' out through the parodos, 
 through which the chariot must enter, is an impossibility. The 
 queen enters at 987. Elektra comes forward to meet her, and 
 offers to assist her from the chariot (1006). Beyond a doubt 
 then are the two actors here in the orchestra. Not till 1135 does 
 Klytaimnestra send the chariot forth. Like the old man in Ion, 
 the old servant complains of the steepness of the way (489). 
 Here, as in Ion, the ascending path leads from the parodos. 
 
 Helena. 
 
 The central point of the action during the first 1200 lines is the 
 tomb of Proteus in front of the royal palace (64, 324, 528, 797^ 
 984, 1 165, 1203). On this (984 ff. Tu/i/3ov W kotois) Menelaus 
 declares that he will slay Helen and himself, so that their blood 
 shall flow down the tomb, and their two bodies shall lie upon it. 
 Although, as he enters (1164), his first words are a salute to the 
 sepulchre of his father, Theoklymenos does not see Menelaos 
 
 53 
 
 crouching by this tomb till Helen points out her husband (1203). 
 Then this structure was of considerable size. 
 
 When Helen reappears from the palace at 527 she speaks of 
 again coming to the sepulchre, but does not see Menelaos till 544. 
 She has not then reached her former resting-place, for she cries 
 out that she is being kept from the tomb by the stranger (550 f.). 
 This monument would hardly be built against the very front of 
 the palace. This fact, its size, its distance from the palace door, 
 all tend to demonstrate that it was constructed in the orchestra. 
 Then, the action was in the orchestra. This agrees with that free 
 intercourse between actors and chorus in 327 ff. and 1624 ff., also 
 with the presence of the band of hunters with their dogs and nets 
 (1169 f.). 
 
 It is necessary that the scene be vacant when Menelaos appears 
 (386 ff.). Therefore the chorus accompanies Helen within the 
 palace, reappearing with her at 514. There is no sign of difficulty 
 connected with this action. 
 
 Theoklymenos threatens to revenge himself on his sister (1624 
 ff.). The chorus remonstrate (1627), but he bids them to get out 
 of the way (1628). They respond that they will not release their 
 grasp on his garments (1629). There is no reason why the 
 choreutae should be on a 'stage' just previous to 1624. Between 
 1624 and 1628 there is no time for the entire chorus, nor for any 
 members of it, to leave their position in the orchestra and ascend 
 a flight of steps to seize the actor. The teaching of the entire 
 text is, then, that no stage existed. 
 
 Phoenissae, 
 
 The palace in Thebes (99, 193, 277, 1067, 1342, 1636), with the 
 customary altars before it (274, 604, 631), is in the background. 
 The pedagogue, in company with Antigone, appears (87), inves- 
 tigates the road in front of the palace (92), then invites his com- 
 panion to ascend the steps (100), to reach the point from whence 
 she can see the hostile army. She requires his assistance to 
 mount the difficult ascent (103 f). The Scholiast to 90 under- 
 stands fii^pfff %(TxoTov to refer to a second story. Pollux, IV 1 29, 
 informs us that the two ascend to the atarcyia. From the text 
 . this much is clear, the two actors come forth and ascend to some 
 portion of the decoration. For such an elevation, and the stairs 
 leading to it, there is not room on the narrow stage. 
 
54 
 
 In response to Polyncikes' declaration of his birth and name 
 (288 flf.), the chorus prostrate themselves at his knees (294 (.), a 
 difficult action, to say the least, if he is not with them in the 
 orclu'Stra. 
 
 Anti.i»ono enters (1484) with the procession which bears the 
 dead bodies of her mother and her two brothers (1491, 1523, 
 1526 f., 1563, 1627, 1629, 1635, 1665). Kreon is present with the 
 attendants, whom he commands (1660) to seize Antij;one. It is 
 natural to suppose that other soldiers besides the bearers enter 
 with the funeral train (1484). The blind Oidipous joins the com- 
 pany at 1539. Antijjone embraces the body of her mother (1661), 
 and leads her father that he may touch the bodies in turn (1693, 
 1699). There is room, then, for unimpeded action. Yet, without 
 mentioning the number of soldiers who escort the funeral train, 
 or the number of attendants with Kreon, there were |)resent the 
 three dead, stretched on their biers, lour bearers for each, Oidi- 
 pous, Antigone, and Kreon — 19 necessary persons. It is hii^hly 
 improbal)le that such numbers, with the altars and other necessary 
 decorations, were crowded together on a 'stage,' when abundant 
 room existed in the orchestra. 
 
 Orrsfes. 
 
 As the play opens Elektra is sitting by Orestes, who is sleeping 
 on a couch (35, 44, 88, 185, 311), before the palace of Agamemnon 
 (60, 112, 356, 744, II 19, 1358). She cautions the chorus to move 
 gently (136), to retire from before the couch (142). Aj»ain, when 
 they show that they can move lightly and speak soltly (147 f.), 
 she bids them approach. They are close by the sleeper (166), 
 for they cry out o/wy/ tv tre'TrXoKrt Kipti de/xas. Their cries disturb 
 the sleeper, and Electra again bids them move away (171). This 
 request, repeated in 187 f., is then obeyed, for the choreutae at 
 208 f. cannot see whether Orestes is sleeping. The words ol the 
 play show clearly enoui^h that the chorus is throughout the scene 
 moving near the actors, but the veYbs of motion employed all 
 imply motion to and fro on the same level. Nothing here 
 suggests a stage (cf. Miiller, B.-A., S. 125). 
 
 In 1246 ff. Electra and the chorus remain outside to guard 
 against surprise. Electra commands (1251) or^d' at fxh vfiav t6p8' 
 
 Afia^ijprj Tpi^ov, \ ot d fpOad liXKoP oifiov €ls (fipovpav SofKOV. I he One 
 
 semichorus replies (1258) that they will guard the east, the other 
 says (1260) that they will watch the west. Since they are guard- 
 
 /I 
 
 '^*' 
 
 5 
 
 ing against actors, they will be on a 'stage,* if there be a stage. 
 Only two paths are mentioned, and the choreutae are guarding 
 these on either side of the proskenion. liut the Afia^riprj rplf-iov 
 can be nothing else than the road i)y which chariots are accus- 
 tomed to enter the orchestra. One entrance on either side, and 
 that leading into the orchestra, is exactly what the new theory 
 demands. 
 
 The closing scene (1554 fi.) adds its emphatic testimony in 
 favor of the same theory. As Menelaos and his attendants (1562) 
 are about to break in the gales, there appear on the roof of the 
 palace Orestes (1567), llermione (1575), Pyhides (1620), and 
 others (1574). The knife is placed at llermione's throat and the 
 torches are ready to set fire to the building. The roof of the 
 palace, i. e. the top of the [)ro.skeiii()n, alone could afford the 
 necessary room for this exciting scene. Only in the orchestra, 
 in fact, could Menelaos and his companions remove far enough 
 from the front wall of the palace to see the roof easily. 
 
 Bacc/iae, 
 
 The text does not make clear the exact location of the tomb of 
 Seinele (6, 596 (T.), whicii must be, however, near the palace (7, 
 170, 212, 606, 1 165, 1368). 
 
 In 55 ff. Bacchos addresses the chorus as present, and announces 
 that he has brought them with him from among the barbarians, 
 as his companions. There is no direct statement to this effect, 
 but, as the immediate followers of the god, we expect them to 
 enter on the same level and at the same time with him. Their 
 entrance at another lime and i)]ace is not suggested. 
 
 The cry of the •^od to light the lamp and burn the house of 
 Penlheus (576) comes from within, for the chorus question from 
 whence it is (579); and Bacchos explains (616 ff.; that, as the 
 flame sprung ui)on the grave of his mother, the king believed his 
 palace was burning, and labored with his servants to quench the 
 flames. These actions of the king take ])lace within; without the 
 choreutae only see the pillars of the house shake at the presence 
 of the god (591). Consequently there can be no difficulty in 
 ascending a 'stage,' of which Miiller (B.-A., S. 127) speaks. 
 
 The numbers present at the end — Agave (1167), women of 
 Thebes (1203 ff.), Kadmos and his servants bearing the remains of 
 Pentheus (1216), Bacchos (1330 f.), the guides for Agave (1381) 
 — are too numerous to be readily accommodated on the ' stage.' 
 
 ) 
 
56 
 
 57 
 
 Iphigenia Aulidensis, 
 
 The old servant of Agamemnon sets out on the road to Argos 
 (163), but is brought back by Menelaos (302). The messenger 
 enters by the same road (414), to announce the coming of Kly- 
 taimnestra. The chorus proclaim that she is visible (592), and 
 the testimony that she rides into the orchestra is exceedingly 
 clear. Rejecting the doubtful verses 598-606, in 607 Klytaim- 
 nestra thanks the chorus for their kindly greeting. She bids 
 (610 ff.) some take from the chariot and bear within the hut (i, 
 12, 440, 678, 820, 1098, 1 106) the wedding gifts for her child, and 
 asks the choreutae to assist Iphigenia to alight (617). She 
 directs others to stand in front of the horses, that they may not 
 become frightened (619), and still others to take the boy Orestes 
 (621). Iphigeneia runs to meet her father (631 ff.). Who will 
 care to maintain either that she ascends to or that he descends 
 from a 'stage' that they may come together? They enter the 
 tent on the invitation of the king (678). The text teaches that 
 the orchestra is simply the open space in front of the royal 
 quarters, with no impediment to free passage fi-om the one to the 
 other. 
 
 Again, Iphigeneia cries that she sees a crowd (1338 o;(Xoi') 
 approaching. The mother replies that this is Achilles, and that 
 hero himself (1359) informs us that these followers are on the 
 scene. But the attendants of Agamemnon are also present in 
 numbers (1463 oTradai/ Tw^Sf). It is almost needless to remark 
 that the Greek 'stage' afforded no room for action in the 
 presence of numbers. 
 
 It is interesting, indeed, to find the testimony of this last drama 
 of Euripides so emphatically supporting the theory that actors 
 and chorus occupied the same level in the classic period of the 
 Greek drama. 
 
 B. Aristopha7ies} — Acharnenses, 
 
 The opening scene portrays an assembly on the Pnyx, Dikai- 
 opolis is seated as the Prytanes come crowding in (42), each 
 endeavoring to obtain the best seat. The herald calls to order 
 (43), and asks who desires to speak. Amphitheos responds 
 (46 ff.). His words not being pleasing, he is removed by the 
 
 ^The writer acknowledges his special indebtedness to "The 'Stage' in 
 Aristophanes," by Prof. John Williams White, in Harvard Studies in Class. 
 Philol., vol. II, p. 159 ff. 
 
 c 
 
 I 
 
 ( 
 
 policemen (54 f.), and the embassadors to the great king are 
 announced (61). With them comes Pseudartabas (91) and two 
 eunuchs (117). This worthy company retire to dine in the Pry- 
 taneion (123 ff.), but their places are more than filled by the 
 arrival of the envoy to the king of Thrace, with his army of 
 Odomantians (156 (rrparos). There must have been some attempt 
 to represent the Pnyx with its Bema and its benches for the 
 Prytanes and spectators. The Prytanes are present in numbers 
 (26, 43), and people occupy the remaining benches (56 rrjv iKKkrj- 
 <riav) with Dikaiopolis and Amphitheos. When to all these are 
 added the embassadors and their companions, or the envoy and 
 his Thraceans, thirty is surely an understatement of the number 
 present (cf. White, p. 189). These actors and mutes, in the 
 lively scenes when Amphitheos is removed by force (54), and 
 when the Odomantians rob Dikaiopolis of his garlic (163 ff.), 
 could not have been placed on any 'stage.' Therefore some 
 portion of the orchestra represented the Pnyx, and there is no 
 reason why, from the beginning, the proskenion may not have 
 represented the houses of Dikaiopolis (262, 1095 ^0> of Lamachos 
 (1072, 1095 ff-) and of Euripides (395 ff.). 
 
 Since the Acharnians are in pursuit of Amphitheos, and he 
 appears on the Pnyx (175), they also appear here. Yet they are 
 before the house of Dikaiopolis and hear him preparing to come 
 forth (238). Our hero, his wife and daughter (245), two slaves 
 (259 f.), and probably the rest of the household whom we find 
 mentioned in 817 ff., 1003 ff., appear. From 262 (npo^a) to 280 
 the procession is in motion. This march is impossible on a 
 'stage,' and a Biarcyla above a 'stage' would have been narrow 
 quarters for the wife and daughter. 
 
 Since if he does not persuade the chorus he is willing to forfeit 
 his life, Dikaiopolis (365) brings the tiri^rjvov to the orchestra, 
 where the chorus is. Therefore, when the one semichorus seeks 
 to strike him (564 deveis), but is prevented from doing so by the 
 other, there is no hint that the choreutae must chmb steps in 
 order to reach the object of their enmity. 
 
 It is hardly conceivable that the Boiotian with his flute-players 
 (863), and his attendants loaded with fish, flesh and fowl (874 ff., 
 878 ff.), could have entered on any stage. But with reference to 
 the Megarian a word is used which is held to prove that he and 
 his daughters enter the orchestra and ascend to a stage, afi^are 
 norrrav fiddBav at x ^vpryri ira (731), he calls to his children. But there 
 
\ ; 
 
 s> 
 
 is no reason why the Megarian should enter the orchestra, if this 
 was not the customary place for the actors. In discussing 
 Knights 149 we shall find that a^^are signifies simply 'enter.' 
 In his drunken elation at his victory in the drinking bout, 
 
 Dikaiopolis cries out (1225) nov Vtii/ 6 ^a(n\fvs; anoSort /xoi TOP naKOV, 
 
 Previous to that moment, then, he has not received his prize. 
 At 1230 the chorus calls x«/>" \a^<ov rbv octkov. Between 1224 and 
 1230 the wine-skin has been given to him, probably with some 
 joke on the Archon Basileus (White). This could, of course, 
 only take place in the orchestra, from which alone approach to 
 the seat of the Archon was possible. At 1231 Dikaiopolis invites 
 the chorus to follow him singing. This they do 1232 ff., and, as 
 a matter of course, this procession moves from the orchestra 
 through the parodos. 
 
 Equites. 
 
 The scene is before the dwelling of Demos (no ff., 234 flf., 725 
 ff.), that is, the Acropolis, and the proskenion represents the 
 propylaia (1326), not, of course, that of Mnesikles, but the lower 
 gateway to the citadel. Probably here, as in the Lysistrata, 
 where the propylaia is also represented, the ascending road 
 leading to the Acropolis entrance was indicated. 
 
 Demosthenes calls to the sausage-seller (147 flf.) ^ /iOKtiptc | 
 
 oiCKavT&natKa^ dfvpo ScCp' 2) (/)tXTaT€, | dvd^aiv€ (rayTfjp rrj noXii koI v(ov 
 
 <f>av€is. In Diibner three scholia are given to 149 : i. avd^aivc (rarfip 
 
 T17 TToXci • "iva, (f>r}(T\vy €K T^s TTapodov fTTt TO Xoyfiou dva^Tj. 2. fim ti ov¥ 
 in T^ff Trapohov ; tovto yap ovk dpayKaiov, X^KTfov ovv on dpa^aiveip cX/ycro 
 TO «irt TO \oy€'iop elaiepai, o Koii irpotrKHTai, Xe-ycrat yap Kara^aipeip to diraX- 
 Xdrrftrdai ipTtvBfp d-nb tov TraXatoO Wovs* 3. ft>r iv OvpeXij Se to dpd^atpfi, 
 
 Suidas s. v. dpd^aipe repeats substantially the words of the second 
 scholiast. Three other passages in Aristophanes must be con- 
 sidered with the above: Ach. 731-2, already noted ((J/ijSaTc) ; 
 Wasps 1341, where Philokleon calls on the flute-player to enter 
 (ava3ati/€); and Eccl. 1151 ff., in which the choreutae say that 
 while the actors are passing off (/caTajSatWtf) they will sing in 
 accompaniment (fWo-o/iai ; cf. Eurip. Elect. 864 and Hdt. I 132, 
 White). 
 
 It is to be carefully noted — 
 
 I. That in the passages cited from the Achar. and Knights no 
 reason is apparent why the actors should be entering by other 
 than the usual way. In the Eccl. the chorus keep their word and 
 sing the accompaniment as the procession passes from the theatre. 
 
 ( 
 
 >t^ 
 
 59 
 
 2. The words dpa^aipeip, Kara^aipup are used in this way but these 
 four times in all the extant Greek dramas ; and each time they 
 refer to an actor or mute who is on the point of entering or 
 departing by a side entrance. In the many instances in which 
 the chorus join the actors or leave them to return to their 
 customary position, these words are never used. 
 
 3. The scholiasts do not agree. This illustrates, what needed 
 no additional illustration, that, while there is a very large amount 
 of valuable information in the scholia, while many of their opinions 
 go back to excellent authority, there are scattered through the 
 scholia notes made by men who were not in a position to know 
 the truth, who often betray most lamentable ignorance of the real 
 force and meaning of the passages on which they commented. 
 In short, the unsupported testimony of a scholiast cannot be cited 
 as authority against the plain teaching of the dramas themselves. 
 
 The words of the second scholiast have the greatest interest for 
 us. Not only do his explanations of dpa^aUip by etVitVat and KaTa- 
 fiaipfip by aTraWdrreadai exactly agree with what the situations in the 
 various plays demand, but his statement that these meanings 
 were derived dn6 tov rraXaiov eBovs is most important. The ancient 
 time referred to is that mentioned by Pollux, IV 123: Aeiy 5' ^p 
 
 TpdneCa dpxaia, i<j> fjp npb QcamSos fU tis dpa^ds ktX. In those days 
 
 before Thespis dpa^ds meant to ascend to the table. In the later, 
 the time of the scholiast, for example, dpa-KaTa-8aiveip had come to 
 have merely the technical meaning of entering and retiring. . 
 
 The third scholiast refers the words of the text to ascending to 
 the 6vfi€\r}, but to a BvfieXr} to which actors were wont to ascend. 
 His idea of the Bvp^ikr] agrees with what has already been said of 
 this portion of the ^oj/xoV (cf. Part I). 
 
 The entrances and exits of the actors in all four of the passages 
 cited were made, then, as usual. The first two scholiasts, however, 
 mention the Xoyeroi* as a well-known portion of the theatre. This 
 proves neither more nor less than at the time in which they lived 
 the stage was customary in the theatre, and, so far as they knew, 
 the same platform was in use in classic times. We know nothing of 
 the age in which they lived, nor of the authorities they may have 
 used. Therefore we cannot accept their testimony where it conflicts 
 with the evidence of all the extant Greek dramas— including the very 
 one on which they have commented — that a stage never existed in 
 the classic Greek theatre of the time of the great dramatists.* 
 
 ^ Cf. White, " The ' Stage' in Aristophanes," p. 164 ff., for the entire discus- 
 sion of these scholia. 
 
 / 
 
 V 
 
 yx) 
 
6o 
 
 To return to the play. The chorus enters in haste (246). naU 
 (247), SiWe Kai rdparre (251), they cry. They themselves take an 
 active part in the beating and pursuing (252, 255 ff., 271, 272, 
 273). There would be no room for this lively scene on a * stage,' 
 nor is there any indication that the chorus mount to such a plat- 
 form. In 451 ff. the choreutae again fall upon Kreon and pummel 
 him. The action is again quickly agreed upon and as quickly 
 executed. The actor and chorus are plainly near each other, 
 where the latter can fall upon their enemy and pummel him 
 whenever the desire seizes them. It is because they are on the 
 same level with the actor that the choreutae (490 ff.) easily equip 
 the sausage-seller for the coming fray with the flask of oil and the 
 garlic. At 919 ff. again no barrier exists between them and their 
 champion, as they hand him the ladle with which to 'skim off' the 
 
 frothy Kleon. 
 
 Nudes, 
 
 The proskenion represents two separate buildings. The one 
 before which father and son are sleeping at the opening of the 
 play, from which Strepsiades bids the servant bring forth a light 
 and his writing-tablets (18 f.), into which Pheidippides enters 
 (125), stands till the end of the play. For the father leads his 
 son within to entertain him (12 12), the old man's creditors call 
 him forth (1221, 1258, 1320), and he rushes out (1320), calling 
 for help because he is being beaten by his son. He summons 
 Xanthias to come forth (1485 f.). bringing with him the imple- 
 ments necessary for the destruction of the Phrontisterion. Before 
 this dwelling of Strepsiades is the statue of equestrian Poseidon 
 
 (83). 
 
 But the building of chief importance in the play is the 'thinking- 
 shop' of Socrates. First mentioned in 92, allusions to it are 
 frequent (132, 183, 195, 506, 804, 1144, etc.). In the final scene 
 Strepsiades and his servant n)Ount to the top of this building 
 (1487, 1502), and dig down through the roof (1488, 1496). 
 Finally they set fire to the house (149O1 i494. i497» ^5^4)- 
 There is a real climbing from the orchestra to the top of the 
 proskenion, hence the <cXi>a«« mentioned by Pollux are used. 
 
 The two houses are quite separate and distinct. There is no 
 room for them on a narrow 'stage.' A distegia two feet wide 
 could not represent the roof in this case; it would not afford 
 space sufficient for the action. It is incredible that fire should be 
 applied to scenery the continuation of which represents the entire 
 
 / 
 
 T 
 
 ( 
 
 ■ ( 
 
 
 61 
 
 background, including the house of Strepsiades himself. These 
 difficulties all disappear when it is granted that these buildings 
 stood as separate houses on that space later occupied by the 
 stone proskenia, such as those of Oropos and Eretria. 
 
 Vespae. 
 
 The house of Philokleon is realistically represented (142 ff., 
 172 ff., 196 ff , 317 ff , 456, 1484 ff ). Bdelykleon, who is sleeping 
 on the roof as the play begins, drives his father back as he 
 attempts to escape through the chimney (142 ff ). But the old 
 man again appears on the roof (202 ff ), and later on (379 f ) tries 
 to lower himself from a window with a cord. This roof could not 
 have been represented by such a 8i<rT€yia as MuUer and Haigh 
 have imagined. 
 
 The scene (170 ff ) in which the ass is led forth with Philokleon 
 clinging beneath his belly, like Odysseus beneath the ram in the 
 Odyssey, just as all scenes in which animals were introduced, 
 could only take place in the orchestra. 
 
 The road by which the chorus of dikasts appears (228) is a 
 street of the city (247 ff ). They halt before the house of Philo- 
 kleon to wait for his appearance. The houses of Athens were 
 certainly not perched on platforms twelve feet above the street. 
 On the supposition of a 'stage,' in the duet following the appear- 
 ance of the chorus, Philokleon would have been some 20 to 25 feet 
 above his fellow-dikasts (White). When his attempted escape is 
 prevented (394), he calls upon the chorus (402) to keep the 
 promise they made (383) to defend him. The choreutae prepare 
 to obey (420, 423), and rush upon the actors (453 ff ), are beaten 
 back by Xanthus, suffocated with smoke (457), again clubbed 
 (458). Though much is said of rushing forward and driving 
 back, there is not one word of ascending or descending. Not till 
 727 do the choreutae finally throw aside their stones. From the 
 moment that the choreutae first appear before the dwelling till 
 their weapons are finally laid down, the text clearly assumes that 
 the door of the house opens on the level of the orchestra. 
 
 dvd^atve (1342) needs butaword of additional explanation^ here. 
 Philokleon and the girl enter together, for he has just stolen her 
 and brought her away from his boon companions. They come 
 in (1325) to the same level just occupied by Xanthias, or he 
 would not be so fearful of receiving another drubbing (1324). 
 
 ^ Cf. discussion of Knights, 147 ff. 
 
 :^ 
 
 / 
 
 y 
 
62 
 
 The pursuing Bdelykleon and the avunoTai must appear in the 
 same portion of the theatre (1331). The old man drives his 
 pursuers back, leads the flute-player farther in, where Bdelykleon 
 again finds them (1363). From 1325 ^o i363» then, the actors 
 occupy their usual portion of the theatre, and the drunken old 
 man neither climbs to a 'stage' himself, nor drags his flute-girl 
 
 up to one. 
 
 It is now so commonly admitted (cf. White, 168) that Kam^areop 
 y <V avToCs (1514) means zn ceriamen descender e that it is hardly 
 necessary to say that no change of level is implied here. The 
 chorus make room for Philokleon and the sons of Karkinos ' 
 (15 16), and sing the accompaniment for the dance which follows. 
 Finally all the occupants of the scene go dancing off" through the 
 parodos together (1535 A".)- To complete the proof that the 
 entire play has been presented in the orchestra, we need simply 
 note that the sons of Karkinos, though mutes, plainly appear in 
 the orchestra, and that the violent motions of Philokleon (1484 ff".) 
 could not be safely made by a drunken man on a narrow 'stage.' 
 
 Pax. 
 
 The change from earth to heaven and from heaven back to 
 earth has given commentators more trouble, perhaps, than has 
 any other passage of our poet. It is natural, however, that the 
 scene before the palace of Zeus should take place on the theolo- 
 geion, where the gods were accustomed to appear. 
 
 The figure of Peace was of great size (schol. Plato, Apol. 19, C). 
 Hermes says she has been cast into a deep cave (223), below 
 where he and Trygaios are standing (224). The latter has 
 actually ascended through the air (149 ff"., 174 f.). The platform 
 on which he has landed is large enough to contain himself, 
 Hermes, the great statue, Theoria, and Opora. The scholiast to 
 727 informs us that Trygaios and the two maidens descend to the 
 orchestra by means of klimakes. These suggestions all point to 
 the roof of the proskenion as the location of heaven. But we 
 cannot accept the additional statement of the scholiast just quoted, 
 that probably (to-©?) the chorus has also been in heaven with the 
 actors. It is composed of y«ofyyci)p 'AOfioveav (Dramatis Personae, 
 Codex V) and comes in (300) calling to Trygaios to direct them. 
 The dance which follows (322 ff".) would be possible only in the 
 orchestra. Accompanying them is a crowd of Boiotians (466), 
 Argives (475, 494)1 Spartans (478), Megarians (481, 500), and 
 
 ] 
 
 f ■ 
 
 f 
 
 > 
 
 i 
 
 • ( 
 
 63 
 
 Lamachos (473). This numerous company is possible only in 
 the orchestra. The absurdity of the chorus and their companions 
 tugging away in the orchestra, on earth, while Hermes and Try- 
 gaios are directing them from the heavens, is not so great as the 
 absurdity of allowing the chorus to climb by some means to that 
 heaven to which Trygaios only attained by the flight of his beetle 
 (cf. Capps, p. 76 f.). In the Peace, then, we have the only instance 
 in the classic drama of the use of the so-called stage by the actors 
 for any considerable time. At the bidding of Hermes (427) 
 some of the choreutae enter (eiVtdj/rer) the proskenion, in order 
 to 'remove the stones* and so prepare for the raising of the 
 goddess. 
 
 Trygaios appeals (881 f.) to the audience to inform him who is 
 to care for Theoria, then adds that he will himself lead to a posi- 
 tion in their midst. He invites the Prytanis to receive her (905), 
 then cries (906) $€aa as npoBvfias 6 TTpvTavis rrapedt^aro. There can 
 be no doubt that Theoria actually goes to the spectators' seats. 
 
 962. Tryg. Koi. Tois Bearais pinn roiv KpiBav* Oik. Ibov, 
 Tryg. edcuKas fjbr}; Oik. vrj top 'Eppfjv aan ye 
 rovToav oaomep elai rSiV detofitvap 
 ovK eoTip oifdeis oaris ov Kpi0f)p e;^«. 
 
 In the Wasps, 58 f., we find 
 
 rjpip yap ovk ear ovre Kapv ck (f}opfudos 
 dovXoi diapptiTTovpTe rots deaptpois. 
 
 In Plutus, 797 ff". 
 
 ov yap rrpirrades €<tti tw didaoKoXa 
 laxaBia Ka\ TpayaXia rois Seafxepois 
 npo^aXoPT , f TTt TovTOis €tT dpayKa^dP yeXap. 
 
 These passages prove what was the custom in the time of 
 Aristophanes. There was undoubtedly, then, an actual throwing 
 of the barley in Peace, 962 ff". The sacrifice is therefore being 
 offered in the orchestra, from which alone the barley could be 
 thrown among the spectators. Since the actors were in the 
 orchestra, the direction of Trygaios (1305 f.) to the chorus to eat 
 all that remains is easily understood, and the choreutae readily 
 join the procession which escorts the 'happy pair' from the 
 theatre at the end. 
 
 / r ^ 
 
 o 
 
( 
 
 64 
 
 Aves. 
 
 It is necessary to ascend the bushy hillside (i, 92, 202, 208, 
 224, 265) in order to reach the mouth of the cavern where the 
 Epops dwells (51 ff., 92, 646 ff.), for Euelpides declares (8) that 
 he has worn off his toe-nails in following the directions of his 
 Jackdaw, and asks the bird if he proposes to lead them down the 
 rocks (20). From i to 51 the actors are plainly wandering hither 
 and thither, in obedience to the motions of their feathery guides. 
 This play, like the Prometheus and the Philoktetes, could not be 
 'set' on a 'stage,' and the actors have evidently entered by the 
 parodos. 
 
 175* /SXc^ov Kara). Ep. koI drj jSXeVco. Pel. ^Xent vvv avca. 
 
 Ep. /SXcVo). Pel. rrepta-yc top rpd)(r}\ov. Ep. vrj Ala, 
 airoXavfToiJiat ti 5 , ct diaaTpacjiTjaofiai. 
 
 ^Xfyjrov KaVo) has been cited as a strong argument that the actors 
 were standing on a stage when these words were uttered (Miiller, 
 B.-A., S. 109). But the bushy hillside rising from the level of 
 the orchestra offers practically as good an opportunity for looking 
 down as does M tiller's stage. The whole passage, however, is 
 no more to be taken seriously than is the command to the 
 sausage-seller (Knights, 169 ff.) to mount his dresser and take a 
 look at the islands. 
 
 The first four birds (227 ff.) come apparently from different 
 directions, for Peisth. says the second one comes from an unlucky 
 quarter (275). The chorus proper appear in the parodos (296), 
 and come slowly in, that their appearance may be duly appre- 
 ciated. They are evidently at a distance when they ask (310) 
 irov /i' ap' OS f*caXf(rc/ and they do not perceive the two strangers 
 till after 326, when Epops calls their attention to the two mortals. 
 In rage they exhort one another to attack the intruders (344). 
 KVKXaaai (345) implies that the birds can surround their enemies. 
 The two men in terror seize on whatever comes to hand for 
 protection (353, 357, 361), but the birds attack them at close 
 quarters (364 ff ). Not till 480 does the Epops finally persuade 
 them to retire. As in all the other scenes in which steps must be 
 ascended to reach a stage, if a stage exists, there is no word of 
 the text which signifies ascending. It is plain also that no 
 impediment exists to the free intermingling of actors and chorus. 
 The following scene, in which Peisth. explains his plans, gains 
 
 ) i ( 
 
 } 
 
 ( 
 
 
 65 
 
 vastly when it is understood that the actor is not preaching to 
 the birds from the top of a stage, but is talking to them as a 
 sharer of the same scene with themselves. 
 
 The close (1720 ff ) but emphasizes the teaching of the earlier 
 portions of the play. The chorus sings livay^, bUx^, rrapayc, mipfx^f 
 TTfpnreTeade, as Peisth. and his bride appear. The bridegroom, 
 delighted with their hymn, invites them to follow in the marriage- 
 train (1755); and, as he leads the way out dancing (1761) with 
 his bride, the birds follow singing (1763 ff ). 
 
 Lysisfrafa, 
 
 Though Lysistrata has sent the older women to seize the 
 citadel, her purpose in calling the assembly of the women is to 
 persuade them to join in the movement. The acropolis is the 
 goal to which they are to move, and immediately after the 
 assembly of women have sworn to follow the leadership of 
 Lysistrata, the shout of those who have taken possession of the 
 citadel is heard from within. On the deep stage of the modern 
 opera-house a street scene in the foreground, with an acropolis 
 in the distance, is easily represented, and the audience readily 
 believes that the cry from behind the scenes comes from the 
 citadel. Stage or no stage, such scenic effects were impossible 
 in the Greek theatre. If the cry is to be understood as coming 
 from the acropolis, then the propylaia must be represented before 
 the eyes of the audience at the moment when the cry is heard. 
 This view is supported by the words of Lysistrata (246) : ^wffi- 
 ^dXapep uaiovfTai tovs poxXovs, words which imply entering the gates 
 which are before them. No change of scene takes place then, 
 
 and €^€pxfTai (5), and <j)€p€T(o kvXiko. tis tvbo6ev Koi arapviov (199) 
 
 imply actions which occurred before the acropolis entrance. 
 
 That the ascending road to the propylaia could not be repre- 
 sented on a * stage ' has been shown above. That it actually was 
 represented we learn from 287 f. : \oin6v ean x<^p'^ov \ to npos ttoXh/, 
 TO cripop, ol (T-novbqv €;^o>. The scholion to TO (Tipov fDubner, 288) 
 
 explams t6 aipov' ovopa x<^ptov rrept Trjp aKponoXip dpTi tov npoaapTes* 
 rj opopa x<^P^ov (koi ip Ha^vXapiois " p€(TT}v epetSf npos to o-t/idi/"). /cal 
 nXaro)!/ fp NiKnis tovti tt poa-ava^rjpai to crifiop Set. to fripop not only 
 
 means an ascent, then, but was the name of the ascent leading to 
 the acropolis. The absurdity of making the words refer to a 
 flight of steps is apparent. That an inclined plane led from the 
 orchestra to a 'stage' is equally incredible. As in the similar 
 
f 
 
 66 
 
 scenes already discussed, the ground rises from the orchestra 
 level to the front of the proskenion, on which is represented the 
 required scene. This ascent, enough to give the suggestion of 
 reality to the spectators, was not sufficient to prevent the free move- 
 ment of actors and chorus, nor to serve as a barrier between them. 
 
 In 829 ff. Lysistrata, Myrrhina and the day guards appear, 
 move and act on the wall above the entrance (864 and schol., 873 
 and schol., 883). As often remarked in the foregoing pages, the 
 dioTfyla, as it was possible above a stage, could not have afforded 
 room for so many people. They appear on the roof of the 
 proskenion. 
 
 The four orchestic movements 256-265, 271-280, 286-295, 296- 
 305, were of course executed in the orchestra. At 306 the chorus 
 of men turn to the gates of the acropolis, and, their burdens being 
 deposited on the ground (307, 314), they prepare to set fire to the 
 gates (308, 311, 316). They are here close in front of the gates, 
 on the stage, if stage there be. Therefore the chorus of women, 
 as they enter with water to the rescue of their fellow-women (318, 
 334), do not reach the men till after the orchestic movement (321- 
 334, 335-349) in the orchestra is ended. Not till 350 do they 
 approach the men, who turn to face them (352). All are on the 
 same level, for the talk is of beating (357, 364), of seizing (359), 
 of striking (360, 366) ; the women invite the men to come forward 
 (365) 5 the men threaten to scorch the women (376) and to burn 
 their hair (381). The women reply by drenching their opponents 
 wit'i the contents of their water-pots. In this connection the 
 scholiast is cited to prove that the women were on a stage above 
 the men. 
 
 Schol. m 321 I neroVf ntrov' vvv earip rjfxixnpiov ro Xe'yov e/c yvvaiKcav 
 «i(Tfpxofi€Votv (ivcodcv, Iva Koi to vdoip avTci)v KaraxfttXTiv ava>d€V. to de aWo 
 r)fJin(6piov €^ dvdpav KoroiQiv infpxppiviov rais ev Trj d<po7roXft etff noXiopKiav. 
 
 The imagination of the scholiast has been caught by the drenching 
 scene (381 ff.), and he wishes the effect of height for this. Hence 
 arises his use of ava0€v and KOTaBev. We have noted above why 
 the chorus of women came in on the level of the orchestra, it 
 remains to give the reasons why they could not have entered on 
 a * stage.' The chorus of men has dragged their burden up the 
 TO aifxov (286, 287 ff.) and deposited it (306 ff.), so they can no 
 longer be spoken of as coming up from below. Had the chorus 
 of women entered on a 'stage,' their first orchestic movement^ 
 
 *Cf. Arnoldt, Die Chorparteien bei Euripides, S. 80 fF. 
 
 ) ' 
 
 k 
 
 ( 
 
 67 
 
 must have been performed there (321-349), and they must have 
 remained till 541 ff. and performed this dance also on the * stage.' 
 For they are on the same level with the magistrate (386 ff.) Not 
 till 539 do they announce that they leave their pitchers to engage 
 in the dance. 
 
 But there are present on this 'stage' the chorus of women, the 
 magistrate (387 ff.), the servants with the levers (424 ff.), Lysis- 
 trata (430 ff.), first woman (439 f ), second woman (443 f ), third 
 woman (447 f.), at least four different policemen to contend with 
 the four women (433 ff., 441 f., 445, 449, 451, 455, 462), and a 
 crowd of women from the acropolis (456 ff.). That such numbers, 
 in a scene of the liveliest possible action, could be accommodated 
 on a Greek 'stage' is an utter impossibility, and we must simply 
 infer that the scholiast to 321 had no better authority for his words 
 than his own imagination.^ 
 
 Though at the close of the play the text is very corrupt, and 
 though many of the various readings have unquestionably been 
 adapted with the view of making representation on a stage 
 possible, it is yet clear that there is the easiest possible commu- 
 nication between the entrance to the acropolis and the orchestra. 
 Actors and chorus, Spartans, Athenians, and the women all pass 
 in and out with ease. Room for the dances of the Athenians and 
 Spartans (1243, 1246, 1277, 1279, 1317) with their wives existed 
 only in the orchestra, and therefore from the orchestra all departed 
 at the end. In fact, for, the Lysistrata the only means to avoid 
 building the 'stage' on a level with the orchestra is to construct 
 an orchestra on a level with the stage, which has been shown 
 (Part I) to be an impossibility. 
 
 Thesmophoriazusae, 
 
 The assembly scene alone need claim our attention. Mnesikles, 
 dressed as a woman, with his servant Thratta, approaches the 
 Thesmophorion (279). They sacrifice a cake to the goddesses 
 (285). Mnesikles offers prayer at the altar (286), and seeks a 
 good place among the seats where he may sit down and listen to 
 the orators (292 f.). The herald proclaims silence (295 f.). The 
 prayers customary in opening an assembly are offered (296 ff.), 
 in which the chorus join (312 ff.). The irpo^ovXevfia is read (372 ff.). 
 The call for speakers is given (379). The speaker is crowned 
 
 ^ For the discussion of the entire play see White, p. 202 fF. 
 
 f 
 

 68 
 
 before addressing the assembly (380). Two of the women leave 
 their seats and come forward and speak (380. 443), followed by 
 Mnesikles (466). Kleisthenes brings news that an intruder is 
 among them (573), and joins in the search which follows (598 ff.), 
 and, with the assistance of the choreutae, discovers the culprit 
 (628 ff.)« The chorus kindles torches and searches through the 
 entire precinct, and has an active part to perform with the herald 
 (312 ff.), as well as with the speakers (434 ff., 459 ff., 520 ff.) and 
 with Kleisthenes (582 ff.)- Mnesikles seizes the child from its 
 nurse (689) and flees to the altar (693). In response to the 
 mother's call for assistance the chorus advise to set him on fire. 
 Throughout the entire scene actor is distinguishable from the 
 chorus in no way ; all are together, and it need hardly be remarked 
 that the orchestra alone affords the required space. As usual, we 
 have emphatic testimony that actors and chorus must be together 
 in important portions of the play, while no situation is discoverable 
 which renders it either necessary or desirable that they be separated 
 by a stage. 
 
 Ecclesiazusae, 
 
 The proskenion is most interesting because it must have repre- 
 sented several houses, before which, through the orchestra, ran a 
 street of the city. Praxagora appears from her dwelling in the 
 opening scene, as we learn from 310, when her husband enters 
 under circumstances which render it necessary that he come 
 directly from the house. At 491 also the chorus declares that 
 they are again before the dwelling of their general. Later 
 Praxagora wishes to creep in unobserved (511), but is prevented 
 by the appearance of Blepyros (519). The greeting of the maid 
 to the chorus and neighbors (11 14 f) testifies that the same house 
 is visible to the end. The other dwellings are the house of the 
 neighbor (34), of the first citizen (731 ff.), of the first old woman 
 (977, 990, 997, 1005), of the young woman (962, 976, 989), of the 
 second old woman (1093 ff.). Here are six dwellings mentioned 
 as visible on the scene. It is about as hopeless to try and recon- 
 cile them with the three stage-doors of Pollux as it is to attempt 
 to prove that they fronted on a narrow 'stage.' 
 
 The assembly scene is again interesting. The chorus enters at 
 30, the neighbor at 35, three others at 41 f, another 46, still 
 another 49, two more at 51, and many at 52. All take seats (57), 
 the rite of purification is travestied (128), the call for the speaker 
 is given (130), and the orators are crowned (122, 131). Then the 
 
 t; 
 
 \ 
 
 ^ 
 
 i 
 
 -f 
 
 69 
 
 leader instructs them what to do in the real assembly. Not only 
 is the orchestra the only place large enough to contain such an 
 assembly, but there is again absolutely no way of distinguishing 
 actors, mutes and chorus till Praxagora and her companions hasten 
 forth (284), to be followed by the chorus singing the ode 289-310. 
 
 The chorus reappear at 477, but stop in the shelter of the 
 parodos wall to remove their disguises (cf. Miiller, B.-A., S. 135). 
 Praxagoras arrives (503) while they are still busy with this work, and 
 bids her servant (509 f.) put the clothing in order. This command 
 cannot be meant for the choreutae, for they respond to the direc- 
 tion to lay aside their garments (514 ff.). Orders are constantly 
 given without mention of names, as in the Peace 937, 956, 960 f., 
 1 100, 1 193, and the Birds 435, 947, 95^, 1309 (White, p. 182). 
 Mistress and servant are therefore in the orchestra with the chorus. 
 
 Of Kara3atVciff (1152) and the procession with which the play 
 closes enough has already been said in connection with the dis- 
 cussion of the Knights 147 ff It is sufficient here to call attention 
 to the fact that, while the text contains no hint of a 'stage,' actors 
 and chorus are in the orchestra together at the beginning, middle 
 and end of the play. 
 
 Ranae. 
 
 Because of the extraordinary nature of the scenes pictured on 
 earth, on the Lake of Acheron and in Hades, doubts must ever 
 exist as to how much was actually represented and how much was 
 left to the imagination of the audience. It is impossible to assign 
 a separate portion of the theatre to each of the above-mentioned 
 localities. Therefore, if the scenery did not actually change, it 
 was assumed by the poet the spectators would conceive the loca- 
 tion of the action altered as often as he invited them to do so. 
 
 Dionysos and Xanthias enter the orchestra, for the latter is 
 mounted on an ass (23, 25, 27, 31 f., 35). The god approaches 
 the house of Herakles and raps (36). The interview with the 
 hero being ended, Charon's boat appears (182, 188, 190, 202), 
 Dionysos embarks (188, 190), and the voyage begins. Knowledge 
 of the later Xo-yctoi; has confused the scholiast to 181, so that he is 
 in doubt whether Acheron is on the Xoyeloi/ or in the orchestra. 
 Since the god entered the orchestra in the beginning, we could 
 hardly expect him to mount to a 'stage' to find the stream of 
 Acheron. The full proof that he continues in the orchestra is 
 found in the scene just after his landing in the under world. 
 Here Dionysos is thoroughly frightened by the monsters which 
 
70 
 
 71 
 
 Xanthias describes as present. When the Empusa appears, the 
 god, in mortal terror, rushes to his priest, who occupies the seat 
 of honor in the middle of the row of dpovoi, crying (297) Uptv 
 Bia<f>v\a^6p /x' ti/' 2> <roi ^vixTrorrjs. Of the actual running Xanthias 
 
 gives testimony (301 W^ §nfp epX"« Bevpo fi«vp' & deanoTo). 1 he 
 
 scholiast declares that he runs and hides behind the chair of his 
 priest, a statement which we readily accept after a comparison 
 with the action of Theoria (Peace 906-7) and with that of the 
 slave throwing barley to the spectators (Peace 962). 
 
 As is the case so often in Aristophanes, the final scene strongly 
 supports the testimony of the earlier portions of the play, that no 
 stage could have existed. The trial scene is over, and Aischylos 
 is to return to the upper world. The numbers present again 
 demonstrate that this scene has been acted in the orchestra. 
 Pluto gives the command to the chorus (1524 ff.) c^aiWre roivw vpeis 
 
 TovTO} I Xapnddas Upds, x "/*<» TrpoTrefiwcTC | roia-iv tovtov tovtov pikeaiv J 
 
 Koi (ioXnaicrip KiXadoivTfs. The chorus obeys, and moves with 
 Dionysos, Aischylos and Xanthias from the theatre. 
 
 Pluius. 
 
 But two scenes need mention. Chremylos bids Kario (222 f.) 
 go forth and summon rovi ^vyyfa>pyovs, who form the chorus. The 
 servant obeys, and appears with them in the parodos (253 ff.), 
 urging them to hasten to reach the house of his master. They 
 threaten to club him (271 f.) for humbugging them, and after a 
 few lines he declares that he will lead them in the dance (290 f.) 
 which follows. In this last play of our poet, then, we find this 
 testimony, which puts beyond question that actor and chorus are 
 together in the orchestra, and no reason anywhere appears for the 
 existence of a stage. In 1208 ff. we learn that the chorus again 
 goes from the theatre in procession with the actors. Thus, in his 
 last words, Aristophanes puts the seal of his condemnation on any 
 theory which shall separate actors and chorus by any artificial 
 difference of level. 
 
 The same striving after realism appears in the scenery of some 
 of the plays of Euripides as in the tattered garments of certain of 
 his characters. Nowhere in the two older tragedians are there 
 such indications of realism as we find in the description of the 
 temple in Iph. Taur. 70 ff., and of the metopes in Ion 190 ff. 
 Instead of the usual palace, a peasant's hut is shown in the 
 
 4 
 
 Electra. The palace shakes in the Bacchae, and falls partially in 
 ruins in Hercules Furens. In Andromache two buildings, the 
 shrine and the palace, are shown. The burning on the roof of 
 the palace in Orestes and the burning pyre in the Suppliants are 
 entirely new features. 
 
 In Aristophanes the innovations are yet more marked. Heaven 
 and earth are represented in the Peace ; earth. Hades, and the 
 stream of Acheron in the Frogs. Not only are two buildings on 
 the scene in the Clouds, three in the Acharnians, and several in 
 the Ecclesiazusae, but such passages as those where the actor will 
 climb from the chimney or through a window in the Wasps, and 
 sits at a window in Eccl., and burns down the Phrontisterion in 
 the Clouds, also show a striking advance in the construction of 
 scenery. The Sto-reyi'a is used to an extraordinary extent in the 
 Peace. All these indications give warrant for believing that in the 
 Knights and in the Lysistrata the entrance to the acropolis is 
 accurately represented. The testimony of the dramas themselves 
 fully proves that the actors and the chorus can no more be sepa- 
 rated from each other by the barrier of a stage in the dramas of 
 Euripides and Aristophanes than in those of Aischylos. 
 
 To compare in a word the summaries of the three periods of 
 the classic drama as they have been considered in the foregoing 
 pages, from the earliest play of Aischylos to the latest of Aristo- 
 phanes, there is apparent a steady development in the scenery 
 used. No fixed npoaKrjviov could have fulfilled the requirements 
 of the plays of the V century. The scene appropriate for each 
 drama was erected on the floor of the orchestra, in front of the 
 
 trKrjvrj, 
 
 The argument that in the V century no stage existed, that there 
 was but one entrance, the ndpodos, on each side of the scene, and 
 that actors, chorus and mutes all performed their respective parts 
 in the orchestra may be summarized as follows : 
 
 1. The few instances in the dramas which at first glance favor 
 the idea that a stage existed admit of other and more logical 
 explanations. 
 
 2. Although there are very many passages in which the chorus 
 is bidden to advance to the position occupied by actors, or to 
 retire from this, in none of these passages is an expression used 
 which can be construed as a direction to ascend or descend. Had 
 a stage existed, some command to the chorus indicating the differ- 
 ence of level between stage and orchestra must have found its way 
 into the text of some one, at least, of these passages. 
 
 f 
 
 i^ 
 
\ 
 
 72 
 
 3. In situations where there is no call for them to be on a 
 * stage,' the choreutae make minute observations concerning actors 
 or scenery, observations which they could not make from the 
 orchestra over the edge of the so-called 'stage.' Cf. Aiax 346, 
 364, 911 f.; Soph. Elect. 818; Trach. 964 ff.; Philoc. 861 ; Alcest. 
 98 ff., 392; Hec. 486 f.; Here. Fur. 748, 1029; Orest. 208 ff. 
 
 Actors, on entering, see and converse with the choreutae first, 
 though actors are present and the situation demands that they be 
 first addressed. Cf. Persae 249 ff.; Oed. Rex 924; Soph. Elect. 
 660 ff., 1098 ff.; Philoc. 219; Eur. Elect. 109 ff.; Cyc. 96. 
 
 4. Where no mention is made of actual personal contact, the 
 relations between actors and chorus are of so intimate a character 
 that no barrier could have existed between them. Cf. Septem 
 677 ff.; Choeph. 983; Trach. 141 ff., 531 ff., 663 ff.; Oed. Rex 
 327, 648, 1047, 1339, 1413; Antig. 160 ff., 940 ff., 988 ff., 1 155; 
 Soph. Elect. 121 ff., 824 ff.; Philoc. 581, 825, 887, 983; Orest. 
 132 ff.; Eurip. Suppl. 11 14 ff.; Phoeniss. 293 ff.; Ion 1249 ff.; 
 Hecuba 484 ff.; Iph. Taur. 1068 f.; Cyc. 451 ff.; Aves 431 ff. 
 
 Here may be mentioned : a. The scenes in which it is proposed 
 that the chorus enter the <TKi)vi], or in which this action actually 
 occurs. Cf. Agamem. 1343 ff.; Aiax 329; Andromache 817 f.; 
 Hecuba 1042 f.; Cyc. 590 ff., 630 ff.; Ion 219; Hippol. 782 ff.; 
 Med. 1275; Hel. 331 ff. 
 
 b. The 'libation scenes.* Cf. Pers. 597 ff.; Choeph. 16 ff., 100 
 ff.; Iph. Taur. 159 ff.; Pax 941 ff., 970. 
 
 c. Where the chorus stands by actors as a guard. Cf. Aiax 
 1 182; Oed. Col. 638, 724, 803, 811, 815, 835; Heracl. 69 ff., 
 274 ; Eq. 246. 
 
 5. The choreutae actually engage in strife with actors or with 
 each other in the immediate presence of actors. Cf Agamem. 
 1650 ff.; Oed. Col. 857 ff.; Philoc. 1003 ff.; Hel. 1628 ff.; Rhes. 
 675 ff.; Achar. 280 ff., 564 ff.; Eq. 247 ff., 451 ; Vesp. 453 ff.; Av. 
 
 364 ff. 
 
 Blows are threatened in Cyc. 210 ff.; Here. Fur. 254. 
 
 The choreutae hand objects to actors in Eq. 490 ff., 919 ff. 
 
 They 'pledge right hands' with mutes : Heracl. 305 ff. 
 
 They stand with actors, bidding them farewell : Here. Fur. 522 ff. 
 
 They approach the proskenion in company with actors : Here. 
 
 Fur. 1 109 f ; Philoc. 144 ff. 
 
 6. In 'search scenes' the chorus is on ground usually occupied 
 by actors, with no suggestion in the text that the choreutae are in 
 
 m 
 
 H 
 
 %t 
 
 n 
 
 an unusual position. Cf Eumen. 255 ff ; Aiax 865 ff.; Oed. Col. 
 
 116 ff.; Thes. 655ff. 
 
 7. Chorus and actors enter together, or by the same entrance, 
 or to the same portion of the scene. Cf Aesch. Suppl. i ; Prom. 
 127; Choeph. 20; Oed. Col. 116; Philoc. i; Soph. Elect. 120; 
 Ion*i84; Eur. Elect. 167; Bac. i ; Troad. 153 ff.; Plut. 252. 
 
 8. It may almost be said to be customaty for actors and chorus 
 to leave the theatre together by the parodos at the end of the 
 play. Cf Aesch. Supp. 980 ff.; Pers. 1000 ff.; Sept. 1068 ff. 
 Eum. 1003 ff; Aiax 1403 ff.; Philoc. 1469 ff; Trach. 1264 ff 
 Troad. 1266 ff; Eur. Suppl. 1232 ff; Cyc. 702 ff; Ion 1619 ff 
 Pax 1333 ff.; Vesp. 1516 ff.; Achar. 1231 ff.; Eccl. 1165 ff.; Av 
 1763 ff; Lys. 1289 ff; Ran. 1524 ff; Plut. 1208 ff Such a pro- 
 cession also occurs in Ale. 741, 861. 
 
 9. The 'stage' could not contain the actors, mutes and decora- 
 tions in Aesch. Suppl. 218 ff, 463 ff" 755. 885; Septem i ff, 95 
 ff., 861 ff.; Eum. 480 ff.; Oed. Rex i ff.; Phoeniss. 1484 ff.; Eur. 
 Suppl. I ff, 815 ff; Cyc. i ff; Hipp. 57 ff; Ip^- Aul. 1338 ff; 
 Achar. 42 ff; Lysis. 456 ff ; Thes. 295 ff ; Eccl. 57 ff Even if a 
 'stage' had existed, actors and mutes were in the orchestra m 
 Eum. I ff; Pax 462 ff., 906; Av. i ff; Ran. 297; Achar. 1224 ff. 
 
 10. Certain plays could not have been 'set' on the so-called 
 
 stage because — ^ 
 
 a. A hillside was represented in Prom., Philoc, Eur. Elect. 
 
 (489 ff.), Cyc, Lysist., Aves. ^ 
 
 b. The altar, grove or shrine present required spaclrapart from 
 the building in the background, only to be found in the orchestra 
 in Choeph., Oed. Col., Heracl., Andr., Hel., Eur. Suppl. 
 
 c. The burning pyre (Eurip. Suppl. 1012 ff.) and the burning 
 house (Nub. 1445 ff.) could not have been located on a stage. 
 
 d. Scenes with chariots and animals were possible only in the 
 orchestra. Cf Aesch. Suppl. 180 ff (?); Pers. 149 (607), looi ; 
 Agam. 782 ff; Oed. Col. 312; Troad. 569 ff; Eur. Elect. 987 ff-; 
 Iph. Aul. 607 ff.; Vesp. 170 ff.; Ran. 23 ff. 
 
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