xi. 465 a (quoted above), quoting Phanodemus, mentions Λιμναῖος as a

name of Dionysus, especially connected with the Anthesteria. But in fact the emendation, though highly probable, is needless so far as the case against identifying the festivals is concerned. I do not notice some other passages cited by Gilbert in support of the identification, because so far as I can discover no one does or would now so use them: in any case Nilsson’s reply is sufficient.

II. With regard to the archaeological evidence adduced by Dörpfeld (Ath. Mitth. 1895, Griech. Theat. p. 7) and Miss Harrison, it seems enough to say that though the precinct discovered by the former, and identified by them with the precinct ἐν Λίμναις, contains the remains of a ληνός, this does not itself prove that it was a precinct of Dionysus Lenaeus, much less that it was the Lenaeum for which we are looking. If it were the precinct of Dionysus Lenaeus it might contain a ληνός (though this is not necessary); but to argue the converse is quite fallacious. Nor does the existence of other ληνοί in the neighbourhood help the argument. There is some plausibility, indeed, in the idea that the Lenaeum may have been a place or district in which there were many ληνοί, but (1) it is certainly not proved that Dörpfeld’s precinct was the temple ἐν Λίμναις, and so, even if it were the Lenaeum, the two temples would not necessarily be identified, and (2) it is very probable that the title Λήναιος is not derived from ληνός at all. We will first deal with these two points before discussing such positive evidence as there is for the site of the Lenaeum.

(1) As to the temple ἐν Λίμναις, the first important piece of evidence as to the site is the passage of Thucydides, and next the passages of pseudo-Dem. in Neaeram and Pausanias, all quoted above. To take Thucydides first. The most natural and obvious interpretation, the one which a reader would assume if not on the look out for difficulties, would take πρὸς τοῦτο τὸ μέρος as = πρὸς τὸ ὑπ’ αὐτὴν πρὸς νότον μάλιστα τετραμμένον. It cannot indeed be said that it would be _impossible_ for it to mean ‘near this original city’ (including the acropolis and the land south of it); but, as Prof. E. Gardner points out (Ancient Athens, p. 144), one would expect πρὸς νότῳ (or πρὸς τούτῳ τῷ μέρει) in such a case; and such an interpretation gives us no reason why Thucydides should have mentioned the south at all. On the most natural interpretation then of Thucydides the temple ἐν Λίμναις was to the south of the acropolis (or SW.), not, like Dörpfeld’s precinct, on the WNW. Pausanias, moreover, says that the ἀρχαιότατον ἱερόν of Dionysus was πρὸς τῷ θεάτρῳ. (ἱερόν as Carroll points out (Class. Rev. July, 1905) often means the whole precinct, and not merely the shrine or sanctuary; several shrines may be included in one precinct.) Carroll reminds us (l.c.) that ‘Fischbach (Wiener Stud. xv. pp. 161-91) has shown conclusively that Pausanias was thoroughly acquainted with Thucydides, and made extensive use of the historian in his description of Athens; so much that he appropriates words, phrases, and terms of expression found in Thucydides. These stylistic resemblances exclude the acceptance of an intermediate channel. Pausanias had also the benefit of a tradition handed down by local guides respecting important sites. Hence when he makes a statement manifestly based on Thucydides, the presumption is that he understood his authority and interpreted him correctly.’ Now in the present case it is admitted that Pausanias had Thucydides before him; and when Thucydides speaks of the ἀρχαιότερα Διονύσια as celebrated at the temple ἐν Λίμναις, and when the pseudo-Demosthenes (l.c.), a connecting link, speaks of the ἐν Λίμναις as the ἀρχαιότατον ἱερόν of Dionysus, it is infinitely more natural to suppose that Pausanias also, speaking of the ἀρχαιότατον ἱερόν, refers to the precinct ἐν Λίμναις, and that therefore the temple ἐν Λίμναις was πρὸς τῷ θεάτρῳ, than with Wilamowitz (Hermes, xxi) to construct a theory of clumsy mistakes on Pausanias’ part. Of course, for the reasons given by Wilamowitz, the ἐν Λίμναις was not the same as the theatre or temple of Dionysus Eleuthereus, but it may well have been within the same ἱερόν, the same sacred precinct, or quite close to it, on the SW. of the acropolis.

Now Miss Harrison (l.c., p. 83) writes that ‘Thucydides himself seems to warn us. He seems to say, “not that precinct which you all know so well and think so much of, not that theatre where year by year you all go, but an earlier and more venerable place, and, that there be no mistake, the place where you go on the 12th day of Anthesterion, &c.”’: and she concludes that Pausanias was wrong in saying that the oldest sanctuary of Dionysus was πρὸς τῷ θεάτρῳ. Thucydides, she seems to argue, would not have been at such pains to distinguish the two ‘hiera’ if they had been close to each other. But (if he is really intending to distinguish them) this may just as well have been because they _were_ close to each other and might be confused. However, so far as this passage goes, the theatre may or may not have been near the oldest sanctuary; Thucydides would not have any reason to think of the theatre _in either case_, for the simple reason that it was not old enough to add anything to his argument, and any mention of it would have been irrelevant and confusing.

The most natural conclusion then from the words of Thucydides and Pausanias is that the temple ἐν Λίμναις was near the theatre, and not in Dörpfeld’s precinct to the WNW. of the acropolis. (In spite of Miss Harrison it seems that the other temples mentioned by Thucydides can be accommodated with sites at least as well on the view here taken as on that taken by Dörpfeld, and I should say very much better. See Bates (Trans. Amer. Phil. Assoc, vol. 30); E. Gardner (l.c.); Farnell (Class. Rev. 1900, &c.).)

I pass on to the attempt to identify the ἐν Λίμναις with Dörpfeld’s precinct on the evidence of pseudo-Demosthenes. The passage gives the oath taken by the γεραραί or attendants at the ceremony on the 12th of Anthesterion. They swear that they celebrate (or will celebrate, though I cannot find any authority for the reading γεραρῶ) the Theoinia and Iobaccheia in the customary manner and at the customary times. Therefore, Miss Harrison seems to wish us to argue, the Iobaccheia took place like the ceremony on the 12th of Anthesterion in the ἐν Λίμναις, and the Iobacchic inscription discovered in Dörpfeld’s precinct proves this precinct to be the place of the Iobaccheia, and therefore to be the ἐν Λίμναις. This is simply a case of _non sequitur_. Suppose a ceremony of the English Church which required of its attendants a solemn declaration, ‘I am (or, I will be) a regular communicant,’ it could not be inferred that the Communion Service was part of the ceremony, or took place at the same spot. Even, therefore, if a Baccheion has been found, guaranteed by the inscription (and of this there is no doubt), there is nothing to prove either that it, or any older building beneath it, is the temple ἐν Λίμναις, or that the third-century inscription on the pillar by the altar is the representative of the far older στήλη by the altar ἐν Λίμναις mentioned by the pseudo-Demosthenes. Prof. Ernest Gardner also points out (l.c., p. 113) that the Iobaccheia mentioned in the oath cannot be the same as the rites of the Iobacchi of the inscription, for ‘the one is a state ceremony, the other a private one; and, moreover, the Iobaccheia are not among the festivals which the Iobacchi celebrate, and of which we have a complete list’ (see Roberts and Gardner, Greek Epigraphy, ii. pp. 236 ff.). The fact that the lower building contains a wine-press and places for an altar and stelae does not prove that it was the ἐν Λίμναις: it proves at most that it was an old Βακχεῖον, like the one above it. There is no proof at all of the crucial point—that the Iobaccheia were celebrated only, or celebrated at all, in the temple ἐν Λίμναις: Dörpfeld’s precinct is probably only one of the many Βακχεῖα which (as Prof. E. Gardner, l.c., notes) must have existed in Athens, and the practice of setting up stelae was too general to allow of any argument being drawn from the one found. On the whole, the statement ‘I celebrate (or, will celebrate) the Iobaccheia at the proper times’ suggests that the reference is to some time _not_ the present, and that the Iobaccheia are quite distinct from the ceremony of the 12th of Anthesterion. The nature of the enclosure surrounding Dörpfeld’s precinct also admits of many explanations besides the one Miss Harrison offers. Perhaps if it _was_ the ἐν Λίμναις, only open once a year and kept strictly secret, it would be carefully enclosed, and would have only a small door, and would contain no votive offerings; but to argue the converse is simply bad reasoning. Since then Dörpfeld’s precinct was probably _not_ the temple ἐν Λίμναις, the place of the Anthesteria, it gives us no ground for identifying the sites or the ceremonies of the Anthesteria and the Lenaea; and we have seen that the fact that it contains a ληνός is quite insufficient to prove that the precinct was the Lenaeum. So that the discovery of the precinct, interesting as it is in itself, throws no light whatever on the problem before us—the site of the Lenaeum.

(2) As regards the derivation of the title Λήναιος, the form of the word suggests derivation from a feminine λήνη, not a masculine ληνός, and this view finds support on other grounds from Ribbeck (Anfänge und Entwickelung des Dionysos-Kult in Attika, p. 13); Farnell (Class. Rev. 1900), and Nilsson (l.c., pp. 111 ff.). Shortly, the reasons for the derivation from λήνη are as follows. Hesychius gives us λῆναι· βάκχαι· Ἀρκάδες: and Ribbeck, comparing this with Odyssey xix. 230 ὁ μὲν (sc. κύων) λάε νεβρὸν ἀπάγχων, suggests that the root is λαϝ, ‘tear,’ and that the λῆναι were bacchants of the mountains who rent a fawn in their ecstasy. We find also the verb ληναΐζειν. If this is so, the Lenaea probably at first included orgiastic rites, and it is significant in this connexion that there were mysteries connected with Lenaea at Myconos; and it may be added that in C. I. A. 834 b the fact that expenditure for the Lenaea appears in the accounts of the ἐπιστάται Ἐλευσινόθεν has by some been interpreted as pointing in the same direction, and suggesting in connexion with the Lenaea mystic rites having reference to the fertility of the ground. If so, the derivation from ληνός must give way; it is in any case uncertain, though perhaps it was the popular derivation in ancient times. It does not, however, seem to me to follow necessarily (as Dr. Farnell appears to think) that because both the Anthesteria and the Lenaea involved secret rites, they were even probably the same festival. The arguments given by Nilsson and others, and partly reproduced above, are a sufficient reply.

III. Finally, we have to ask, what positive evidence have we for the site of the Lenaeum?

(1) It was in the ἀγορά. This seems to be a legitimate inference from two passages of Photius, viz. ληναῖον· περίβολος μέγας Ἀθήνησιν ἐν ᾧ τοὺς ἀγῶνας ἦγον πρὸ τοῦ τὸ θέατρον οἰκοδομηθῆναι ὀνομάζοντες ἐπὶ Ληναίῳ. ἔστιν δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ ἱερὸν Διονύσου Ληναίου (so practically Hesych. s.v. ἐπὶ Ληναίῳ ἀγών), and ἴκρια· τὰ ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ ἀφ’ ὧν ἐθεῶντο τοὺς Διονυσιακοὺς ἀγῶνας πρὶν ἢ κατασκευασθῆναι τὸ ἐν Διονύσου θέατρον. Again, Schol. ad Dem. de Cor. § 129 describes τὸ κλίσιον τὸ πρὸς τῷ καλαμίτῃ ἥρωϊ as ἐν ἀγορᾷ, while the ἱερόν of the hero is said to be πρὸς τῷ Ληναίῳ. Whatever is to be said about the hero, he at any rate serves to connect the Ληναῖον and the ἀγορά. That there was anciently an orchestra in the market-place at Athens appears also from Photius, ὀρχήστρα· πρῶτον ἐκλήθη ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ, and Plato, Laws 817 c, speaks of stages erected in the market-place by tragic poets. Socrates speaks of book-shops in the orchestra (Plato, Apol. 26 E). But the site of the ἀγορά itself is still so much disputed that we are left in uncertainty. The statement of Timaeus, Lex. Plat., ὀρχήστρα τόπος ἐπιφάνης εἰς πανήγυριν ἔνθα Ἁρμοδίου καὶ Ἀριστογείτονος εἰκόνες, does not really help, as the position of these statues is itself disputed. It may have been at the NE. or the NW. corner of the acropolis. We have to be content therefore with the information that the old Lenaic performances took place in a temporary wooden theatre in (or by) the market-place—wherever this was, and that the particular spot in (or by) the market-place was the Lenaeum, a περίβολος μέγας.

(2) The Scholia on Aristophanes twice over state that the Lenaea took place ἐν ἀγροῖς. Schol. ad Aristoph. Ach. 504 reads οὑπὶ Ληναίῳ τ’ ἀγών· ὁ τῶν Διονυσίων ἀγὼν ἐτελεῖτο δὶς τοῦ ἔτους, τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἔαρος ἐν ἄστει, ὅτε καὶ οἱ φόροι Ἀθήνησιν ἐφέροντο, τὸ δὲ δεύτερον ἐν ἀγροῖς ὁ ἐπὶ Ληναίῳ λεγόμενος, ὅτε ξένοι οὐ παρῆσαν Ἀθήνησι· χειμὼν γὰρ λοιπὸν ἦν: and Schol. id. 202 ἄξω τὰ καὶ ἀγρούς· τὰ Λήναια λεγόμενα. ἔνθεν τὰ Λήναια καὶ ὁ ἐπιλήναιος ἀγὼν τελεῖται τῷ Διονύσῳ· Λήναιον γάρ ἐστιν ἐν ἀγροῖς ἱερὸν τοῦ Διονύσου· διὰ τὸ πλεκτοὺς ἐνταῦθα γεγονέναι, ἢ διὰ τὸ πρῶτον ἐν τούτῳ τῷ τόπῳ ληνὸν τεθῆναι. Μένανδρος· τραγῳδὸς ἦν ἀγών, Διονύσια. So also Steph. Byz. Λήναιος· ἀγὼν Διονύσου ἐν ἀγροῖς ἀπὸ τῆς ληνοῦ· Ἀπολλόδωρος ἐν τρίτῳ χρονικῶν. But the confusion of these remarks is plain (see Nilsson, l.c. 78), and when the Scholia on Aristophanes which comment on the Dionysiac festivals are taken altogether, it is clear that no consistent view is to be found in them and no confidence is to be placed in them. It is enough to note that Schol. ad Ar. Ach. 378 places the Lenaea in autumn. The Scholiasts’ ἐν ἀγροῖς is no doubt due to the need of distinguishing the Lenaea from the Dionysia ἐν ἄστει, properly so called in opposition, not to the Lenaea, but to the rural Dionysia. Religious nomenclature is not so consistent that we can assume that all the Dionysia except the festival named ἐν ἄστει were once ἐν ἀγροῖς, but it is still possible that the Lenaeum was once outside the walls, and afterwards came to be included in their circuit. Hesychius (s.v. ἐπὶ Ληναίῳ ἀγών) describes it as ἐν τῷ ἄστει.

M. Foucart (Le Culte de Dionysos en Attique, p. 105) thinks that he has found an indication of the site in C. I. A. IV. i. p. 66, in part of an inscription which runs, τὸ δὲ ψήφισμα τόδε ... ἀναγράψας ὁ γραμματεὺς ὁ τῆς βουλῆς ἐν στήλῃ λιθίνῃ καταθέτω ἐν τῷ Νηλείῳ παρὰ τὰ ἴκρια, and he attempts (l.c., p. 109) to fix the site of this Neleion. But his proof that παρὰ τὰ ἴκρια means ‘by the Lenaean theatre’ is very weak.

APPENDIX D

The following extracts are from a series of inscriptions containing the accounts of the priests of Apollo at Delos. These priests had charge of the various public buildings in the island, including the theatre. The part of their accounts which refers to the theatre is of great interest, because of the light which it throws on the theatrical architecture of the time. A collection of the notices concerning the theatre is given by Homolle in Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, 1894, pp. 161 ff. The most important passages are given below.

290 B.C. τοῖς τὴν σκηνὴν ἐργολαβήσασι καὶ τὸ προσκήνιον ΗΗΗΗΔ.

282 B.C. Ἡρακλείδῃ εἰς τὸ προσκήνιον γράψαντι πίνακας δύο μισθὸς δραχμαὶ 𐅂𐅂𐅂Ι· Ἀντιδότῳ τοῦ προσκηνίου γρά[ψαν]τι πίνακας δύο . . . . . . . . . . . . Θεοδότῳ πίνακα εἰς τὸ προσκήνιον ποιήσαντι μισθὸς δραχμαὶ ΔΔΔ· εἰς τοῦτο κατε[χρήσθη ξύλον] ἐλάτινον τῶν ὑπαρχόντων . . . . . ἀπὸ τούτων ἠλεί[ψα]μεν τὰς θύρας πάσας . . . . . . καὶ ὅσα ἔδει τῆς σκηνῆς τῆς ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ.

281 B.C. τοὺς πίνακας εἰς τὸ θέατρον ἀνενέγκασι ΙΙΙ . . . . . . . χαλκοῦ εἰς τὴν σκηνὴν μνᾶς ΙΙ.

279 B.C. (δραχμὰς) ἃς ἐξέτεισε Ἀρίγνωτος Ἀντιπάτρου ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐγγύης ἧς ἠγγύητο Δίαιτον Ἀπολλοδώρου τῆς τοῦ θεάτρου περιοικοδομίας τὸ καθ’ αὑτὸν μέρος . . . . . . τορνίσκον εἰς τὸ θέατρον ἐργασαμένῳ Ἀντιγόνῳ Καΐκου, παρέχοντι αὐτῷ πάντα εἰς τὸ ἔργον πλὴγ ξύλων, μισθὸς . . . . . . . τοῦ θεάτρου τὴν ὀρχήστραν καὶ τοὺς ὁλκοὺς ἀνακαθάραντι καὶ τὸν χοῦν ἐξενέγκασι μισθωτοῖς, ἀρχιτέκτονος ἐγδόντος, μισθὸς 𐅃𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . . . . τῆς σκηνῆς τὸ τέγος καταλείψαντι Ἕρμωνι Δ𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . εἰς τὸ [λογε]ῖον τῆς σκηνῆς (ξύλον). . . .

276 B.C. [ἐργο]λάβαις τοῦ θεάτρου τῶν ὁλκῶν τὴν δευτέραν δόσιν Χ𐅅.

274 B.C. [ἀγαγοῦσι εἰς] τὸ θέατρον ἀπὸ τοῦ νεωκορίου λίθους οὓς εἰργάσατο . . . . . . . συστήσαντι τὸ παρασκήνιον . . . . . . . . . . . [ἀπενέγκαντι εἰς] τὸ θέατρον λίθους τῶν ἐκ Τήνου δύο καὶ ἐκ τοῦ σταδίου . . . . . . . . . ἐγλαβόντι τὴν πρισμὴν τῶν στοῶν τῶν εἰς τὰς σκηνάς . . . . . τῷ τοὺς ἥλους ἐγλαβόντι [τοὺς εἰς τὰς σκ]ηνὰς καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια τὴμ μνᾶν 𐅂𐅂 ἀπεστησάμεθα κατὰ τὴν συγγραφὴν μνᾶς τριάκοντα ἑπτὰ μετὰ τοῦ ἀρχιτέκτονος καὶ τῶν ἐπιμελητῶν . . . . . . . . Θεοδήμῳ τῷ ἐγλαβόντι ποιῆσαι τὴν σκηνὴν τὴν μέσην καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια τὰ κάτω δραχμῶν ΗΗΗΗ𐅄ΔΔΔΔ𐅃𐅂𐅂𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . . Ἐπικλύτῃ τῷ ἐγλαβόντι τὰς σκηνὰς τὰς παλαιὰς . . . καὶ ἐπισκευάσαι καὶ τὰς ἐπάνω σκηνὰς καινὰς ποιῆσαι δύο καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια τὰ ἄνω καινὰ ποιῆσαι δύο καὶ τοῖς παλαιοῖς πίναξι τῶν παρασκηνίων περι . . . σαι καὶ τὰς ἐξώστρας καὶ τὴν κλίμακα καὶ τοὺς βαθμοὺς ἐπισκευάσαι 𐅄ΔΔΔ𐅃𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . . τοῖς ἐγλαβοῦσι γράψαι τὰς σκηνὰς καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια τά τε ἐπάνω καὶ τὰ ὑποκάτω δραχμῶν ΧΧ𐅅 . . . . . . . . . . τῷ ἐγλαβόντι . . . . σαι τὸ παρασκήνιον τὸ ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ δραχμῶν ΗΗΗ𐅄ΔΔΔΔ . . . . . . . . . Θρασυλέῳ τῷ ἐγλαβόντι ἐργάσασθαι τὸ ἐπιστύ[λιον] . . . . \ΙΟΥ . . . . . . Ἀρχέλᾳ . . . καταχρίσαντι τὸ τεῖχος τῆς σκηνῆς κατὰ τὴν συγγραφὴν ἀπέδομεν τὸ γινόμενον ἀρχιτέκτονος κελεύοντος καὶ τῶν ἐπιμελητῶν.

269 B.C. τὴν σκηνὴν τὴν ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ ἀνακαθάρασι 𐅂Ι . . . . . . . . . . παρὰ Τέλλωνος ἀτράκτους δύο ὥστε κλίμα[κα] εἰς τὸ θέατρον 𐅂𐅂𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . . . .Θεοδήμῳ κλιμακτῆρας παρασχόντι καὶ κατασκευάσαντι 𐅂𐅂𐅂ΙΙΙ . . . . . . . . . Διονυσίῳ ἐγλαβόντι τὴν ὀρχήστραν τοῦ θεάτρου καταχρῖσαι τὴν πρώτην δόσιν ἔδομεν . . . . . . . . . Σωσιμένει Ἀντιγόνου τῶν λίθων τῶν τῆς εἰς τὸν θησαυρὸν (?) ἔδομεν . . . . . . Ἀντίκῳ τῆς διόδου τῆς ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ . . . . . . . . Ἀντίκῳ Καΐκου ἐγλαβόντι καθάραι τὸν τόπον τῇ διόδῳ τῇ ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ πάντα κύκλῳ ἔδομεν . . . . . . . . . Ἀριστοκλεῖ καὶ Καλλιμένει τῆς λιθείας τῆς εἰς τὸ παρασκήνιον ἐκ ποδῶν πεντακοσίων ἔδομεν . . . . . . . . . . . . Φιλανδρίδει Παρίῳ τῆς [λιθείας] τῆς εἰς τὰς κρηπῖδας [τὰς] ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ ἐγλαβόντι πόδας χιλίους ἔδομεν . . . . . . . . . . λίθων τῶν εἰς τὸ θέατρον . . . . . . . . .

250 B.C. τὸ θέατρον ἀνακαθάραι . . . . . . . . . κλεῖς καὶ χελώνιον ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰνωπὸν καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ Ἡράκλειον καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν σκηνήν . . . . . . . . . . . Παρμένοντι ἀνακαθάραντι τὴν ἐπαγωγίδα τὴν ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ . . . . . . . Ὠφελίωνι τοὺς κρουνοὺς διακαθάραντι τοὺς ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ . . . . . . . . . Νεογένει ἐπιγράψαντι ἐπὶ τὸ προσκήνιον . . . . . . . . . . . τῆς λιθείας τῆς εἰς τὸ θέατρον ἐξέδομεν πόδας διακοσίους, τὸμ πόδα δραχμῶν 𐅃𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . . . . . . τῆς ἐργασίας τοῦ ἐπιθεάτρου ἐξέδομεν πόδας διακοσίους . . . . . . . . . Εὐκλείδει ἐργολαβήσαντι τὸν ὀρθοστάτην καὶ τὸν καταληπτῆρα θεῖναι καὶ ἐργάσασθαι ἐν τῷ ἐπιθεάτρῳ . . . .

180 B.C. [ξύλον . . . . κατεχρήσθη εἰς] τὴν κατασκευὴν τῶν πινάκων τῶν ἐπὶ τὸ λογεῖον.

The earliest notices refer to the old wooden structure. The erection of a stone theatre was apparently begun about 275 B.C., and completed in the course of the third century. A large part of this theatre still remains. But the stone proscenium of the Vitruvian type, of which the foundations are preserved, was probably a later work constructed in the second century B.C. This proscenium is not enclosed by side-wings (παρασκήνια), but open at both ends (see Fig. 12). But the inscription for 269 B.C. expressly mentions τῆς λιθείας τῆς εἰς τὸ παρασκήνιον. Hence it is probable that in the stage-buildings erected in the middle of the third century the stage was of wood, and was terminated at each end by stone side-wings. In the second century, when a regular stone proscenium was erected, these side-wings were removed (see Dörpfeld, Griech. Theater, p. 148).

The word σκηνή is used in the inscriptions in two senses. It denotes (1) the stage-buildings as a whole, e.g. τοὺς κρουνοὺς τοὺς ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ, (2) the wall at the rear of the stage, or the boards by which that wall was covered, e.g. τὴν σκηνὴν τὴν μέσην καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια, τὰς σκηνὰς καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια. This wall or boarding is called ἡ μέση σκηνή as opposed to the παρασκήνια on each side, and αἱ ἐπάνω σκηναί in opposition to the προσκήνιον underneath (so Homolle, l.c., p. 165). Apparently the whole building was only two stories, and the back-scene rose one story above the stage. Bethe, however (Prolegomena, p. 234), suggests that there were three stories; that ἡ μέση σκηνή denoted the middle story, and αἱ ἐπάνω σκηναί the top story, of the back-scene; the bottom story being concealed behind the προσκήνιον. But as only two stories are mentioned in connexion with the side-wings (τὰ παρασκήνια τά τε ἐπάνω καὶ τὰ ὑποκάτω), it seems unlikely that the central part of the building should have had more than two.

Some of the technical terms are new. The lines of seats in the early theatre are called ὁλκοί, as resembling furrows dug in the slope of the auditorium. The horizontal passage dividing the upper belt (διάζωμα) of seats from the lower is the δίοδος. The word περιοικοδομία seems to denote the wall by which the outside of the auditorium was enclosed and supported where necessary. The ἐπιθέατρον must have been the upper belt of seats. The ὀρθοστάτης and καταληπτήρ are explained by Homolle as a sort of balustrade and coping by which the top of the auditorium was finished off. The κλῖμαξ and κλιμακτῆρες may have been the steps leading up from orchestra to stage; but this is not certain. See on these points Homolle, l.c., pp. 163 ff.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Dem. Androt. § 68, and schol. ad loc.; Meid. § 10, &c.

[2] Dem. Meid. §§ 51-3.

[3] See below, p. 9.

[4] C. I. A. iii. 240-384. Hesych. s.v. νεμήσεις θέας.

[5] Dem. Meid. §§ 8-10.

[6] Ibid. § 180.

[7] Ibid. § 178.

[8] See esp. Aristoph. Ran. 1008 ff., 1054 ff.; Plat. Rep. 598 D, E.

[9] Plut. Solon, p. 95 B. ἀρχομένων δὲ τῶν περὶ Θέσπιν ἤδη τὴν τραγῳδίαν κινεῖν, καὶ διὰ τὴν καινότητα τοὺς πολλοὺς ἄγοντος τοῦ πράγματος, οὔπω δὲ εἰς ἅμιλλαν ἐναγώνιον ἐξηγμένου κτλ.

[10] Aristot. Poet. c. v.

[11] For dramatic exhibitions in other parts of Greece, see The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 436.

[12] Gilbert (Die Festzeiten der attischen Dionysien, 1872) and more recently Dörpfeld (Das griechische Theater, p. 9) have attempted to show that the Lenaea was only a part of the Anthesteria, and that the Anthesteria was only the Athenian counterpart of the Rural Dionysia. Gilbert was refuted by Schömann, Alterth. ii. 579-99. Wachsmuth, Abhandl. der Sächs. Gesell. der Wissensch. xviii. p. 33 ff., and Körte, Rhein. Mus., 1897, p. 168 ff., show that an inscription C. I. A. ii. 834 b proves that there must have been a considerable interval between the Lenaea and Anthesteria. It is an account of the sums expended by the ἐπιστάται Ἐλευσινόθεν in B.C. 329-328. In col. ii. 46 we read ἐπιστάταις ἐπιλήναια εἰς Διονύσια θῦσαι ΔΔ; in ii. 68, twenty-two lines later, εἰς Χοὰς δημοσίοις ἱερεῖον κτλ. (The adjective ἐπιλήναιος is also found in the papyrus of Ath. Pol. c. 57, and the inscription confirms the reading ἐπιληναίων, which editors alter to ἐπὶ Ληναίῳ). [The whole subject of the Dionysiac festivals has been investigated afresh by Nilsson (Studia de Dionysiis Atticis, 1900), who proves at length the separateness of the four festivals.]

[13] Dem. Meid. § 10.

[14] See below, p. 9.

[15] [See articles on Dionysus in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl., and Preller-Robert, Griech. Mythologie.]

[16] Paus. i. 29; Philostrat. Vit. Soph. p. 549.

[17] Διονύσια τὰ ἐν ἄστει C. I. A. ii. 341, 402, 404; Διονύσια τὰ ἀστικά Thuc. v. 20; Διονύσια τὰ μεγάλα Athen. Pol. c. 56, C. I. A. ii. 312, 331; Διονύσια Athen. Pol. c. 56.

[18] This is proved by the inscription on the chief seat at the theatre, Ἱερέως Διονύσου Ἐλευθερέως (C. I. A. iii. 240).

[19] νίκη ἀστική Diog. Laërt. viii. 90. To produce plays at the City Dionysia was ἐν ἄστει διδάσκειν Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 67, or εἰς ἄστυ καθιέναι Arg. ii. Aristoph. Aves: cf. διδασκαλία ἀστική Plut. X Orat. 839 D.

[20] The feast of Asclepius and the Proagon were on the 8th of Elaphebolion, Aeschin. Ctesiph. § 67; the Proagon took place ‘a few days’ before the City Dionysia, Schol. ibid.: the City Dionysia cannot therefore have begun before the 10th. The festival must have terminated on the 15th, since after it came the Pandia, the next day the ἐκκλησία ἐν Διονύσου, and the next day, when the first assembly mentioned by Aeschines and Demosthenes took place, was the 18th. See Aeschin. Ctes. § 68; Fals. Leg. § 61; Dem. Meid. § 8.

[21] Stormy weather sometimes interfered with the proceedings. In the time of Demetrius a snowfall prevented the procession. Theophr. Char. 3; Plut. Demetr. p. 894 B.

[22] Aeschin. Ctes. § 43; cf. Dem. Meid. § 74.

[23] Aristoph. Ach. 505, 506; Thuc. v. 23.

[24] The procession must have been on the first day, for (1) in Dem. Meid. § 10 it comes first in the list of proceedings, (2) it was not till after the procession was over that the statue was placed in the theatre to witness the dramatic and dithyrambic contests.

[25] Paus. i. 29. 2, 38. 8; Philostrat. Vit. Soph. p. 549.

[26] Menand. Fragm. 558 (Kock).

[27] Plut. Cupid. Divit. 527 E.

[28] C. I. A. ii. 420, 470, 471.

[29] C. I. A. ii. 471, 741.

[30] Dem. Meid. § 22; Athen. p. 534 C.

[31] Xen. Hipparch. iii. 2.

[32] Philostrat. Vit. Soph. p. 549.

[33] C. I. A. ii. 470, 471. Hence Aristophanes in the Frogs selects Dionysus as the most experienced of dramatic critics. Cf. also Aristoph. Eq. 536 θεᾶσθαι λιπαρὸν παρὰ τῷ Διονύσῳ. Late writers (Philostrat. Vit. Apoll. p. 161; Dio Chrys., orat. 31, p. 631 R) protest against shedding human blood in gladiatorial combats in the very orchestra visited by the god Dionysus.

[34] In the lists of victors at the City Dionysia (C. I. A. ii. 971 a-e, iv. 971 f-h) the contests enumerated are always the same, viz. παίδων, ἀνδρῶν, κωμῳδῶν, τραγῳδῶν. Cp. Athen. Pol. c. 56 χορηγοὺς τραγῳδοῖς καθίστησι τρεῖς ... ἔπειτα παραλαβὼν τοὺς χορηγοὺς τοὺς ἐνηνεγμένους ὑπὸ τῶν φυλῶν εἰς Διονύσια ἀνδράσιν καὶ παισὶν καὶ κωμῳδοῖς κτλ. Dem. Meid. § 10 καὶ τοῖς ἐν ἄστει Διονυσίοις ἡ πομπὴ καὶ οἱ παῖδες ⟨καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες⟩ καὶ ὁ κῶμος καὶ οἱ κωμῳδοὶ καὶ οἱ τραγῳδοί. (The words καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες have obviously fallen out.) Cp. also C. I. A. ii. 553 (list of victors παισὶν ἢ ἀνδράσιν).

[35] Dem. Meid. § 156 loosely calls the choruses of men αὐληταὶ ἄνδρες, and the author of the first Argument to the speech, misled by this, states that there were αὐλητῶν χοροί at the City Dionysia. But other passages in the speech, e.g. §§ 15, 17, show that the expression means not that the men were flute-players, but that they sang dithyrambs accompanied by the flute. See Wieseler, Das Satyrspiel, pp. 46-8.

[36] [Marmor Par. ep. 46. For the archon v. Munro, Class. Rev. xv. p. 357. For choregia v. Capps, Introduction of Comedy to the City Dionysia, p. 27 ff.]

[37] Schol. Aeschin. Timarch. § 11 ἐξ ἔθους Ἀθηναῖοι [κατέστησαν] κατὰ φυλὴν πεντήκοντα παίδων χορὸν ἢ ἀνδρῶν, ὥστε γενέσθαι δέκα χορούς, ἐπειδὴ καὶ δέκα φυλαί. λέγονται δὲ οἱ διθύραμβοι χοροὶ κύκλιοι, καὶ χορὸς κύκλιος.

[38] Dem. Meid. § 13; Antiphon orat. vi. §§ 12, 13.

[39] Lysias xxi. § 2; Dem. Meid. § 5 τῆς φυλῆς ἀδίκως ἀφαιρεθείσης τὸν τρίποδα. The choregus of a dithyrambic chorus was said χορηγεῖν τῇ φυλῇ. Plut. X orat. 835 B ἐχορήγησε κυκλίῳ χορῷ τῇ αὑτοῦ φυλῇ ἀγωνιζομένῃ διθυράμβῳ: Isaeus v. § 36 οὗτος γὰρ τῇ μὲν φυλῇ εἰς Διονύσια χορηγήσας τέταρτος ἐγένετο, τραγῳδοῖς δὲ καὶ πυρριχισταῖς ὕστατος. (Bentley’s emendation, τέταρτος ἐγένετο τραγῳδοῖς, καὶ πυρριχισταῖς ὕστατος makes Dicaeogenes fourth in the tragic contest, in which there were never more than three competitors.)

[40] In the time of Aristotle the choregi in comedy were appointed by the tribes. But this was a late innovation, and produced no change in the character of the contest. See chap. ii. § 2.

[41] C. I. A. ii. 971 (printed in Appendix B). Ibid. ii. 1234 ff.

[42] Marm. Par. ep. 43 ἀφ’ οὗ Θέσπις ὁ ποιητὴς [ἐφάνη], πρῶτος ὃς ἐδίδαξε [δρ]ᾶ[μα ἐν ἄ]στ[ει, καὶ ἐ]τέθη ὁ [τ]ράγος [ἆθλον], ἔτη.... The date is mutilated, but must have fallen between 542 and 520, the preceding and subsequent epochs. Suidas s.v. Θέσπις (ἐδίδαξε δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς πρώτης καὶ ξʹ ὀλυμπιάδος) doubtless refers to the same contest, which may therefore be assigned to B.C. 536-5.

[43] [Capps (The Introduction of Comedy into the City Dionysia) renders it highly probable that choregia was not introduced until about B.C. 502.]

[44] Suidas s.v. Χοιρίλος. The same lexicon, s.v. Πρατίνας, says that Pratinas composed fifty plays, of which thirty-two were satyric: but it is unsafe to draw inferences from this as to relative proportion of satyric plays and tragedies in these early days, since the numbers may refer merely to the plays which happened to be preserved in the time of the grammarians.

[45] Suidas s.v. Πρατίνας.

[46] Arg. Aesch. Persae.

[47] Arg. Aesch. Sept. c. Theb.

[48] Arg. Aesch. Agam.

[49] Args. Eur. Alcest., Med., Hippol.

[50] Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 8; Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 67.

[51] Athen. Pol. c. 56; C. I. A. ii. 972, 973, 975.

[52] Cp. Diog. Laërt. iii. 56. Θρασύλλος δέ φησι καὶ κατὰ τὴν τραγικὴν τετραλογίαν ἐκδοῦναι αὐτὸν (sc. τὸν Πλάτωνα) τοὺς διαλόγους, οἷον ἐκεῖνοι τέτρασι δράμασιν ἠγωνίζοντο, Διονυσίοις, Ληναίοις, Παναθηναίοις, Χύτροις, ὧν τὸ τέταρτον ἦν σατυρικόν· τὰ δὲ τέτταρα δράματα ἐκαλεῖτο τετραλογία. Thrasyllus was a philosopher of the time of Tiberius. The passage οἷον ... τετραλογία is probably an explanatory interpolation by Diogenes himself. The statement that the four plays of a tetralogy were performed at four different festivals is absurd in itself, and abundantly disproved by inscriptions and other evidence (e.g. Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 67).

[53] Plut. Pericl. p. 154 E.

[54] Plut. l.c.; Id. X orat. 839 D διδασκαλίας ἀστικὰς καθῆκεν ἓξ ... καὶ ἑτέρας δύο Ληναϊκάς; Anthol. Pal. vii. 37 ἡ δ’ ἐνὶ χερσὶν | κούριμος, ἐκ ποίης ἥδε διδασκαλίης;

[55] That the word τετραλογία was applied only to a group of four plays connected in subject is proved by the statement of Suidas (s.v. Σοφοκλῆς) that Sophocles abandoned the practice of exhibiting ‘tetralogies’, though we know that he exhibited four plays at a time; and also by the application of the word by Greek writers to the Oresteia of Aeschylus (Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1155), the Pandionis of Philocles (Schol. Aristoph. Av. 282), the Lycurgeia of Aeschylus (Schol. Aristoph. Thesm. 135), and the Lycurgeia of Polyphradmon (Arg. Aesch. Sept. c. Theb.). All these were groups of plays on a single subject.

[56] Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1155 τετραλογίαν φέρουσι τὴν Ὀρεστείαν αἱ Διδασκαλίαι (i.e. the Διδασκαλίαι of Aristotle). The other passages where τετραλογία occurs in a dramatic sense are Diog. Laërt. iii. 56, ix. 45; Schol. Plat. Apol. p. 330; Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1155, where it is said that the grammarians Aristarchus and Apollonius disregarded the satyric plays and spoke only of trilogies; Schol. Av. 282, Thesm. 142; Arg. Aesch. Sept. c. Theb. τριλογία is found only in Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1155; Diog. Laërt. iii. 61; Suidas s.v. Νικόμαχος.

[57] Aristoph. Thesm. 135, Ran. 1124. See, on these titles, The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 114.

[58] [Donaldson, Theatre of the Greeks, p. 118, suggests possible connexions; but they are highly conjectural.]

[59] [Other critics, however, suppose that the final scene was added in some later revision of the play, after Sophocles’ Antigone had been written, or when it became customary to present single plays of Aeschylus (see below, p. 74), which would often be shorter than those of other poets, and might therefore be lengthened by the addition of a scene.]

[60] Cp. Hor. Ars Poet. 225 ff.

[61] Suidas s.v. Σοφοκλῆς· καὶ αὐτὸς ἦρξε τοῦ δρᾶμα πρὸς δρᾶμα ἀγωνίζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ μὴ τετραλογίαν. The words seem to imply that he exhibited only one play at each festival: but the didascalic records show that this cannot have been the case. Probably, therefore, Suidas has misunderstood and misquoted his authority, who meant to say that Sophocles exhibited not single plays but groups of plays unconnected in subject. The suggestion of Oehmichen (Philol. Wochenschr., 1887, p. 1058) that after the reform of Sophocles each poet exhibited one of his plays on each successive day of the competition, and that this is what Suidas means, is rendered most improbable by the fact that tetralogies were still occasionally written; and that Sophocles would have no power, as poet, to make such a change in the arrangement of the festival.

[62] Schol. Aristoph. Av. 282; Schol. Plat. Apol. p. 330 (Bekk.); Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 30.

[63] C. I. A., ii. 973 (quoted in Appendix B).

[64] [If the inscription C. I. A. ii. 971 c recorded by Pittakis, L’ancienne Athènes, p. 168, is reliable, an old tragedy was performed in B.C. 387-386. The phrase used is παλαιὸν δρᾶμα παρεδίδαξαν οἱ τραγῳδοί: but the interpretation of this fragment is full of difficulties, see Wilhelm, Urkunden dramat. Aufführungen in Athen, p. 22 ff. The use of the expression παρεδίδαξαν (cf. παραχορήγημα) seems to show that at this date the performance of an old tragedy was exceptional; while in the inscription recording the years 341, &c., it would seem to be treated as a regular part of the festival.]

[65] Suidas s.v. Θεοδέκτης; Steph. Byz. s.v. Φάσηλις.

[66] Plut. X Orat. 839 D.

[67] Aristot. Rhet. iii. 11.

[68] See The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 444 ff.: and (for the City Dionysia in the second century A.D.) cp. C. I. A. iii. 78; Philostr. Vit. Soph. p. 549; Paus. i. 29, ii. 38, 8.

[69] Aristot. Poet. ch. v. καὶ γὰρ χορὸν κωμῳδῶν ὀψέ ποτε ὁ ἄρχων ἔδωκεν, ἀλλ’ ἐθελονταὶ ἦσαν.

[70] C. I. A. ii. 971 a (quoted, Appendix B) [B.C. 463 is the latest possible date of the events referred to in this part of this inscription. Capps (Introduction of Comedy into City Dionysia) with great probability dates them 473-472; he fixes the date of the granting of a comic chorus (whether at the Lenaea or City Dionysia is uncertain) by the archon at 487, when, according to Suidas s.v. Χιωνίδης, Chionides began to exhibit; and the date of the first choregia in tragedy at about 502. This would justify sufficiently Aristotle’s ὀψέ ποτε. Suidas’ date for Chionides’ first exhibition is not really inconsistent with the Dorian tradition recorded by Aristotle that Epicharmus was πολλῷ πρότερος Χιωνίδου καὶ Μάγνητος, since the generally recorded date of the former, B.C. 488 onwards, is most probably a ‘floruit’ date, based on the time of his first performances at Syracuse, not the date of the beginning of his career at Megara Hyblaea, which may have been a good deal earlier. Capps shows ground for believing that Aristotle and Suidas—the former directly, the latter perhaps indirectly—obtained their knowledge from the official records, and are therefore quite reliable. At the head of the inscription, C. I. A. ii. 971 a, are the words πρῶ]τον κῶμοι ἦσαν τ[ῶν ..., which must originally have formed part of the general heading of the whole inscription, whose earlier columns are lost. Capps conjectures (with some reason) that it originally ran ἀπὸ (name of archon) ἐφ’ οὗ πρῶτον κῶμοι ἦσαν τῶν ἐν ἄστει Διονυσίων οἵδε ἐνίκων. But κῶμοι cannot mean ‘comedies’, as Köhler and Wilamowitz assumed when they dated the beginning of choregia in comedy by this inscription. Cf. Wilhelm, Urkunden dramatischer Aufführungen in Athen, pp. 11 ff, 241 ff.]

[71] Args. Aristoph. Nubes, Pax, Aves.

[72] Arg. Aristoph. Plutus (festival uncertain); Ath. Pol. c. 56 (City Dionysia); C. I. A. ii. 972 (Lenaea), 975 (City Dionysia). [If C. I. G. xiv. 1097 is rightly restored and interpreted by Wilhelm, l.c., p. 195 ff., it would seem as if there were five competitors as early as B.C. 434 at the Dionysia; this is very difficult to reconcile with the consistent mention by the Arguments of three only.]

[73] Arg. Aristoph. Vespae. [The passage, however, is almost certainly corrupt, and most editors are now agreed that in its existing form, according to which Philonides brought out both the Προάγων and the Σφῆκες, it cannot stand; and that even if both plays can have been the work of Aristophanes, they cannot both have been produced by Philonides. For the various emendations, vide Kanngiesser, Über die alte komische Bühne, p. 270; Petersen, Fleck. Jahrb. lxxxv. p. 662; Leo, Rhein. Mus. xxxiii. p. 404; the introductions to Rogers and van Leeuwen’s editions of the Wasps; and a brief summary in Excursus I of Starkie’s edition. It is very doubtful whether there is good evidence for the practice alluded to, as regards the fifth century B.C.]

[74] C. I. A. ii. 972. [The inscription leaves no room for doubt here, except for the remote possibility that there may have been two poets of the name Diodorus. Capps, Amer. Journ. Archaeol., 1900, argues almost conclusively that the inscription is to be dated 290-288, and not 353, the date given by Mr. Haigh, and generally accepted until recently.]

[75] C. I. A. ii. 972. [Mr. Haigh wrote 353, but see note on previous page.]

[76] C. I. A. ii. 975 (quoted, Appendix B). [If Capps is right in dating the fragment 975 f between B.C. 308 and 290, the practice must have been begun by that date; see Amer. Journ. Arch., 1900, p. 89 ff., but Wilhelm, Urkunden dramat. Aufführungen in Athen, p. 68, disputes the date, and with some reason. See also Wilhelm, ibid., p. 149. The practice is proved for the early part of the second century by fragment a.]

[77] [The evidence for this is a fragment of an inscription published by Wilhelm, loc. cit., p. 27 ff., and connecting with C. I. A. ii. 971 h. See Appendix B. The expression used παλαιὸν δρᾶμα παρεδίδαξαν οἱ κωμῳδοί (cp. παραχορήγημα), when compared with the expressions used in 975 a, &c., shows that the performance was exceptional, and the play is not mentioned; cp. the parallel expressions in the case of tragedy, p. 19, supra, n. 1.]

[78] C. I. G. 1585, 1587, 2759; Athen. Mitth., 1894, pp. 96, 97; Ἐφημ. Ἀρχαιολ., 1884, pp. 120, 124, 126; Rangabé, Antiq. Hellén., vol. ii. no. 965.

[79] The fact that inscriptions (C. I. A. 971 a-e, iv. 971 f-h) and the law of Evegorus, quoted Dem. Meid. § 10, all mention first chorus of boys, then choruses of men, then comedy, then tragedy, proves nothing, as there is nothing to show that the contests are being spoken of in order of performance, rather than in order of relative importance.

[80] Arist. Poet. ch. xxiv. suggests that an epic poem should be shorter than the old epics, and about equal to that of the tragedies offered at one hearing (τὸ πλῆθος τῶν τραγῳδιῶν τῶν εἰς μίαν ἀκρόασιν τιθεμένων). A performance of four tragedies a day would give about 6,000 lines of tragedy (including satyric drama), while the Iliad contains about 15,000 lines, and the Odyssey about 12,000.

[81] Aristoph. Av. 785 ff. οὐδέν ἐστ’ ἄμεινον οὐδ’ ἥδιον ἢ φῦσαι πτερά. | αὐτίχ’ ὑμῶν τῶν θεατῶν εἴ τις ἦν ὑπόπτερος, | εἶτα πεινῶν τοῖς χοροῖσι τῶν τραγῳδῶν ἤχθετο, | ἐκπτόμενος ἂν οὗτος ἠρίστησεν ἐλθὼν οἴκαδε, | κᾆτ’ ἂν ἐμπλησθεὶς ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς αὖθις αὖ κατέπτετο. Müller (Griech. Bühn., p. 322) and others take ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς to mean generally ‘to us in the theatre’. But in that case there would be no point in the sentence. There is obviously a contrast between ὑμεῖς, the spectators, and ἡμεῖς the comic chorus. The same contrast is emphasized in the previous group of trochaics, vv. 753-68. Lipsius accepts the change of τραγῳδῶν to τρυγῳδῶν (‘the other comic choruses’ as opposed to ἡμεῖς, the Birds), and infers that all the comedies were performed in one day by themselves (Ber. der K. S. Ges. der Wiss. zu Leipzig, philol.-histor. Classe, 1885, p. 417). But the change is quite gratuitous and makes the whole passage feeble and obscure.

[82] [See p. 69.]

[83] [Either connected with ληνός ‘wine-press’ or λῆναι = βάκχαι, vid. Appendix C.]

[84] [See Appendix C for authorities and for a discussion of the site of the Lenaeum and its relation to the temple of Dionysus ἐν Λίμναις.]

[85] [See Appendix C.]

[86] Bekk. Anecd. p. 235, 6; C. I. A. ii. 834 b, col. 2, where the expenditure on the Lenaea is placed about the middle of the sixth prytany, i.e. in Gamelion. [Nilsson, Studia de Dionysiis Atticis, pp. 1-37, confirms the date here given, after a very full discussion.]

[87] Plat. Symp. 223 c; Theophrast. Char. 3.

[88] Aristoph. Ach. 501 ff.

[89] Dem. Meid. § 10 καὶ ἡ ἐπὶ Ληναίῳ πομπὴ καὶ οἱ τραγῳδοὶ καὶ οἱ κωμῳδοί. That there were no dithyrambs at the Lenaea is proved by this passage, and by C. I. A. ii. 553, which enumerates the festivals at which dithyrambic choruses competed, viz. City Dionysia, Thargelia, Prometheia, Hephaesteia. C. I. A. ii. 1367, recording a dithyrambic victory at the Lenaea, is of comparatively late date.

[90] Suidas s.v. τὰ ἐκ τῶν ἁμαξῶν σκώμματα.

[91] C. I. A. ii. 972 (see Appendix B).

[92] Hence in Diod. Sic. xv. 74 δεδιδαχότος Ληναίοις τραγῳδίαν (of Dionysius’ victory in 367), the expression διδάσκειν τραγῳδίαν probably means ‘to compete in the tragic contests’, and implies nothing as to the number of plays presented. Cf. Plat. Symp. 173 A ὅτε τῇ πρώτῃ τραγῳδίᾳ ἐνίκησεν Ἀγάθων, ‘won his first tragic victory’.

[93] Athen. p. 217 A.

[94] Diod. Sic. xv. 74; Plut. X Orat. 839 D; C. I. A. ii. 977 b, c (see Appendix B).

[95] [C. I. A. ii. 1289 shows that tragedy was still performed in B.C. 307-306. This is the last mention of it. (Capps, Amer. Journ. Arch., iv. p. 76.)]

[96] C. I. A. iii. 1160.

[97] See above, p. 20, note 2.

[98] [Capps (Introduction of Comedy into the City Dionysia, p. 25) shows that whether the victory of Chionides recorded by Suidas was won at the Dionysia or Lenaea, there is no reason for doubting the existence of contests in 487 B.C., on the evidence of inscriptions. C. I. A. ii. 977 d as it stands must have been preceded by another column of names of victors, which would almost certainly take us back as far; and there was room for the name of Chionides above that of Magnes in 977 i (Dionysian victors) in a position which would imply an early date for his first victory; cp. also Amer. Journ. Philol. xx. pp. 396, 397.]

[99] Arg. to Acharn.

[100] Args. to Acharn., Equit., Vesp., Ran.

[101] See p. 21, note.

[102] [If Capps is right, C. I. A. ii. 975 f proves that old comedies were acted at the City Dionysia at a date between 308 and 290, but this date is very uncertain; see p. 22, note. C. I. A. ii. 972, col. 1, which Capps, followed by Wilhelm, dates soon after B.C. 290, does not show any sign of the practice; it may have begun at the City Dionysia, and have been afterwards extended to the Lenaea; but it is not easy to believe this without confirmatory evidence; and the difficulty is avoided if Capps’ date for 975 f is not accepted.]

[103] [C. I. A. ii. 977 gives lists of tragic and comic poets and actors. In the case of the comic poets and actors, some names (those of Agathocles and Biottus) are known from 975 d to belong to the middle of the second century; but it is not certain to what festival the part of this inscription in which their names occur (fragm. m) belongs.]

[104] Schol. Aristoph. Plut 954; Plut. Phoc. c. 30.

[105] See The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 128, note 4.

[106] C. I. A. ii. 972, col. II.

[107] Athen. p. 217 A; Plat. Symp. 173 A.

[108] Diod. Sic. xv. 74.

[109] The Acharnians, Equites, Vespae, and Ranae at the Lenaea; the Nubes, Pax, and Aves, at the City Dionysia.

[110] C. I. A. ii. 977 d, i.

[111] [See Capps, Amer. Journ. Philol. xx. p. 396, who remarks that Aristophanes (Equit. 517 ff.) referring to the great poets of the past, omits Teleclides and Hermippus, who had been very successful at the Lenaea, and was especially disappointed at failing to obtain a ‘City victory’ with the Nubes in 423, after his two Lenaean victories. The reason suggested, however, for the omission of these two poets can hardly be correct, as Cratinus, who is mentioned, was also especially successful at the Lenaea.]

[112] [Nilsson (Studia de Dionysiis Atticis, p. 108) shows that the festival was probably not celebrated in all the demes at precisely the same time, though it always took place after the autumn sowing, being in fact in origin a ceremony designed to secure the fertility of the new-sown seed. Cf. Plat. Rep. v. p. 475 D ὥσπερ δὲ ἀπομεμισθωκότες τὰ ὦτα ἐπακοῦσαι πάντων χορῶν περιθέουσι τοῖς Διονυσίοις οὔτε τῶν κατὰ πόλεις οὔτε τῶν κατὰ κώμας ἀπολειπόμενοι. There must also have been time for the troupes of actors to move from one place to another.]

[113] See Aristoph. Ach. 69, 241 ff. Also Plut. de Cup. div. p. 527 D; id. Non suav. viv. sec. Epic. p. 1098 B; Heraclitus fr. 127 Byw.

[114] Dem. Meid. § 10; C. I. A. ii. 164, 467, 468, 589, 741; iv. 2, 834 b; Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 13.

[115] Dem. de Cor. § 180; Aeschin. Timarch. § 157.

[116] C. I. A. iv. 574 b, c, g.

[117] Ibid. ii. 469, 470, 594.

[118] C. I. A. iv. 1282 b, 1285 b.

[119] Ibid. ii. 585.

[120] Isaeus viii. § 15. We also hear of such celebrations at Brauron (Ar. Pax 874, with Schol.; Schol. in Dem. Conon. § 35; Suidas s.v. Βραύρων); and at Myrrhinus (C. I. A. ii. 575, 578).

[121] Dörpfeld u. Reisch, Griech. Theat. p. 109 ff.

[122] In addition to the instance at the Peiraeeus recorded above, the only known example is at Salamis, C. I. A. ii. 470 Διονυσίων τῶν ἐν Σαλαμῖνι τραγῳδῶν τ[ῷ καινῷ ἀγ]ῶνι, if the restoration be correct.

[123] Dem. de Cor. § 262.

[124] [It must be admitted that it is not easy to reconcile this with Aristot. Poet. ix, where it is said that even the well-known plays or legends are well known only to few, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ γνώριμα ὀλίγοις γνώριμά ἐστιν, ἀλλ’ ὅμως εὐφραίνει πάντας. Aristotle may be speaking particularly of his own day, when probably few poets or plays had the celebrity enjoyed by the plays of the three great tragedians of the previous century.]

[125] [Vid. J. E. Harrison, Proleg. to the Study of Greek Religion, c. i.]

[126] This seems to be the meaning of Plut. x orat. 841 F εἰσήνεγκε δὲ καὶ νόμους (sc. Lycurgus), τὸν περὶ τῶν κωμῳδῶν ἀγῶνα τοῖς Χύτροις ἐπιτελεῖν ἐφάμιλλον ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ, καὶ τὸν νικήσαντα εἰς ἄστυ καταλέγεσθαι, πρότερον οὐκ ἐξόν, ἀναλαμβάνων τὸν ἀγῶνα ἐκλελοιπότα. The contest must be the same as the ἀγῶνες Χύτρινοι quoted from Philochorus by Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. 220. [See Nilsson, Studia de Dionysiis Atticis, p. 57.]

[127] Philostrat. Vit Apoll. p. 158.

[128] Schol. Aristoph. Aves, 445; Suidas s.v. ἐν πέντε κριτῶν γόνασι.

[129] There is no consecutive account in any ancient writer of the mode of selecting the judges and of voting. Our knowledge of the subject has to be pieced together from the three following passages: (1) Plut. Cim. p. 483 E ἔθεντο δ’ εἰς μνήμην αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν τῶν τραγῳδῶν κρίσιν ὀνομαστὴν γενομένην. πρώτην γὰρ διδασκαλίαν τοῦ Σοφοκλέους ἔτι νέου καθέντος, Ἀψεφίων ὁ ἄρχων, φιλονεικίας οὔσης καὶ παρατάξεως τῶν θεατῶν, κριτὰς μὲν οὐκ ἐκλήρωσε τοῦ ἀγῶνος, ὡς δὲ Κίμων μετὰ τῶν συστρατήγων προελθὼν εἰς τὸ θέατρον ἐποιήσατο τῷ θεῷ τὰς νενομισμένας σπονδάς, οὐκ ἀφῆκεν αὐτοὺς ἀπελθεῖν, ἀλλ’ ὁρκώσας ἠνάγκασε καθίσαι καὶ κρῖναι δέκα ὄντας, ἀπὸ φυλῆς μιᾶς ἕκαστον. (2) Isocrat. xvii. § 43 Πυθόδωρον γὰρ τὸν σκηνίτην καλούμενον, ὃς ὑπὲρ Πασίωνος ἅπαντα καὶ λέγει καὶ πράττει, τίς οὐκ οἶδεν ὑμῶν πέρυσιν ἀνοίξαντα τὰς ὑδρίας καὶ τοὺς κριτὰς ἐξελόντα τοὺς ὑπὸ τῆς βουλῆς εἰσβληθέντας; καίτοι ὅστις μικρῶν ἕνεκα καὶ περὶ τοῦ σώματος κινδυνεύων ταύτας ὑπανοίγειν ἐτόλμησεν, αἳ σεσημασμέναι μὲν ἦσαν ὑπὸ τῶν πρυτάνεων, κατεσφραγισμέναι δ’ ὑπὸ τῶν χορηγῶν, ἐφυλάττοντο δ’ ὑπὸ τῶν ταμιῶν, ἔκειντο δ’ ἐν ἀκροπόλει, τί δεῖ θαυμάζειν εἰ κτλ. (3) Lysias iv. § 3 ἐβουλόμην δ’ ἂν μὴ ἀπολαχεῖν αὐτὸν κριτὴν Διονυσίοις, ἵν’ ὑμῖν φανερὸς ἐγένετο ἐμοὶ διηλλαγμένος, κρίνας τὴν ἐμὴν φυλὴν νικᾶν. νῦν δὲ ἔγραψε μὲν ταῦτα εἰς τὸ γραμματεῖον, ἀπέλαχε δέ. καὶ ὅτι ἀληθῆ ταῦτα λέγω Φιλῖνος καὶ Διοκλῆς ἴσασιν. ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἔστ’ αὐτοῖς μαρτυρῆσαι μὴ διομοσαμένοις περὶ τῆς αἰτίας ἧς ἐγὼ φεύγω, ἐπεὶ σαφῶς ἔγνωτ’ ἂν ὅτι ἡμεῖς ἦμεν αὐτὸν οἱ κριτὴν ἐμβαλόντες, καὶ ἡμῶν εἵνεκα ἐκαθέζετο. The first of these passages refers to a dramatic contest, the third to a dithyrambic one. It is uncertain to which the second refers. But there is no reason to suppose (with Oehmichen, Bühnenwesen, p. 206) that the mode of selecting the judges was different in the dramatic and the dithyrambic contests. That there were ten urns for the names on the preliminary list of judges is inferred from the plural ὑδρίαι in Isocrates. That a second list of judges was appointed by lot from the larger list _before_ the commencement of each contest, and that this second list consisted of ten persons, one from each of the ten tribes, seems to be proved by the words of Plutarch, κριτὰς μὲν οὐκ ἐκλήρωσε τοῦ ἀγῶνος ... ἀπὸ φυλῆς μιᾶς ἕκαστον. That there was another selection of judges by lot _after_ the contest, and that the number of judges who actually decided the result was smaller than the number of those who sat through the performance and voted, is proved by two expressions in the above passages: (1) ἔγραψε μὲν ταῦτα εἰς τὸ γραμματεῖον, ἀπέλαχε δέ, i.e. he voted in my favour, but his vote was not drawn; (2) ἡμῶν εἵνεκα ἐκαθέζετο. Καθίζειν and καθέζεσθαι were the regular words used of a judge at a contest. It is clear therefore that the person here referred to sat through the performance as a judge, but that after the performance was over his vote was not drawn by lot.

The above conclusions are those of Petersen (Preisrichter der grossen Dionysien). Mommsen (Bursian’s Jahresbericht, lii. pp. 354-8) raises some objections. He suggests (1) that the plural ὑδρίαι is merely rhetorical, and that there was only one urn for all the names, (2) that the selection of a second list of judges _before_ the contest is not mentioned by Lysias, and was probably a fiction of Plutarch’s. It may be replied that Lysias had no occasion to refer to this preliminary ballot. He was not giving an account of the entire system of judging, and therefore only mentioned the points which enforced his argument. Still, it must be confessed that the evidence about the judges is very fragmentary, and that Petersen’s scheme depends largely on conjecture.

[130] Dem. Meid. § 17 ὀμνύουσι παρεστηκὼς τοῖς κριταῖς. Aristoph. Eccles. 1163 μὴ ’πιορκεῖν, ἀλλὰ κρίνειν τοὺς χοροὺς ὀρθῶς ἀεί.

[131] Special seats were assigned to the judges at Alexandria, and no doubt the Attic custom was followed there: cp. Vitruv. vii. praef. § 5 cum secretae sedes iudicibus essent distributae.

[132] Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 13 καὶ προσέταττον τοῖς κριταῖς ἄνωθεν Ἀριστοφάνην ἀλλὰ μὴ ἄλλον γράφειν. Lysias iv. § 3 ἔγραψε μὲν ταῦτα ἐς τὸ γραμματεῖον.

[133] This follows from Lysias iv. § 3 ἐβουλόμην δ’ ἂν μὴ ἀπολαχεῖν αὐτὸν κριτὴν Διονυσίοις, ἵν’ ὑμῖν φανερὸς ἐγένετο ἐμοὶ διηλλαγμένος, κρίνας τὴν ἐμὴν φυλὴν νικᾶν. νῦν δὲ ἔγραψε μὲν ταῦτα εἰς τὸ γραμματεῖον, ἀπέλαχε δέ.

[134] Aristoph. Aves 445-7 ΧΟ. ὄμνυμ’ ἐπὶ τούτοις, πᾶσι νικᾶν τοῖς κριταῖς | καὶ τοῖς θεαταῖς πᾶσιν. ΠΕ. ἔσται ταυταγί. | ΧΟ. εἰ δὲ παραβαίην, ἑνὶ κριτῇ νικᾶν μόνον.

[135] Vita Aeschyli; Suidas s.v. Αἰσχύλος.

[136] See above, p. 28.

[137] The number of his plays is given as 123 by Suidas, and as 104 or 130 in the Life.

[138] Vita Eur.

[139] Args. to Eur. Alcestis and Medea.

[140] Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 8; Suidas s.v. Νικόμαχος.

[141] Arg. to Soph. Oed. Tyr.

[142] Lysias iv. § 3.

[143] Dem. Meid. §§ 5, 17, 65.

[144] Andocid. Alcibiad. § 20 ἀλλὰ τῶν κριτῶν οἱ μὲν φοβούμενοι οἱ δὲ χαριζόμενοι νικᾶν ἔκριναν αὐτόν.

[145] Aul. Gell. N. A. 17. 4.

[146] Plut. Demosth. 859 D εὐημερῶν δὲ καὶ κατέχων τὸ θέατρον ἐνδείᾳ παρασκευῆς καὶ χορηγίας κρατεῖσθαι.

[147] Id. Nicias, 524 D.

[148] Xen. Memor. iii. 4. 3.

[149] Isaeus v. § 36.

[150] Aeschin. Ctesiph. § 232.

[151] Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 13.

[152] Plato, Legg. 700 C-701 A. 659 A-C.

[153] [Cp. Butcher, Harvard Lectures, p. 173 ff.]

[154] Alciphron ii. 3; Plut. An seni &c. p. 785 B; Athen. p. 217 A στεφανοῦται Ληναίοις; Aristid. vol. ii. p. 2 (Dindf.) τοῦτον στεφανοῦν καὶ πρῶτον ἀναγορεύειν.

[155] Dem. Meid. § 5; Lysias xxi. § 2; Schol. Aeschin. Timarch. § 11; Isaeus vii. § 40; 2nd Arg. to Dem. Meid. p. 510. The monuments of Lysicrates and Thrasyllus, which were surmounted with tripods (Stuart and Revett, Antiquities of Athens, vol. i. chap. iv. pt. 3, vol. ii. p. 31), were in honour of victories with dithyrambic choruses; cp. C. I. A. ii. 1242, 1247.

[156] Marmor Par. epp. 39, 43.

[157] Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 367 τὸν μισθὸν τῶν κωμῳδῶν ἐμείωσαν; Eccles. 102 τὸν μισθὸν τῶν ποιητῶν συνέτεμε; Hesych. s.v. μισθός· τὸ ἔπαθλον τῶν κωμικῶν ... ἔμμισθοι δὲ πέντε ἦσαν. As the competitors in comedy were five, this last passage proves that _all_ the competing poets received a reward of money.

[158] Plut. X orat. 842 A.

[159] Aristoph. Ran. 367, and Schol. ad loc.

[160] Arg. Aristoph. Nub.

[161] Vit. Soph.; Aristid. vol. ii. p. 344 (Dindf.).

[162] C. I. A. ii. 971 a-e, iv. 971 f-h.

[163] Arg. Aristoph. Vesp. ἐνίκα πρῶτος Φιλωνίδης. Arg. Nub. ὅτε Κρατῖνος μὲν ἐνίκα Πυτίνῃ, Ἀμειψίας δὲ Κόννῳ. Arg. Pax ἐνίκησε δὲ τῷ δράματι ὁ ποιητὴς ... δεύτερος Ἀριστοφάνης Εἰρήνῃ.

[164] C. I. A. iv. 971 f.

[165] C. I. A. ii. 971 a-e, iv. 971 f-h. Hence Rose’s ingenious emendation of the conclusion to the first Arg. to the Pax—τὸ δὲ δρᾶμα ὑπεκρίνατο Ἀπολλόδωρος, ἡνίκα ἑρμῆν λοιοκρότης [ἐνίκα Ἕρμων ὁ ὑποκριτής Rose]—must be regarded as very doubtful, as the Pax was produced at the City Dionysia.

[166] C. I. A. ii. 975 a-e: see also note 6 below.

[167] C. I. A. ii. 972, col. ii. The mention of the victorious actor’s name shows that the comic list in this inscription, like the tragic, must refer to the Lenaea.

[168] [C. I. A. ii. 972, col. i, as dated by Capps (Amer. Journ. Arch. xx. p. 74 ff.), who shows almost conclusive grounds for substituting this date for the date 354 hitherto generally accepted, and is followed by Wilhelm.]

[169] [Circ. B.C. 330, according to Capps, l.c. p. 84. The date depends upon the conjectural restoration of some fragments of C. I. A. ii. 977, especially fragment u. If Wilhelm’s restoration of C. I. A. ii. 1289 is correct (Urkunden dramat. Aufführungen in Athen, pp. 149, 209 ff.) there is evidence of contests of comic actors in B.C. 307-6; and the inscription 974 c, elucidated by Wilhelm, l.c., p. 43, shows that there were contests in 313-312; but it is not certain to which festival this inscription belongs. Wilhelm, l.c., p. 253, even infers, from a restoration of C. I. A. ii. 977 l (i′ according to his numbering), that these contests existed as early as the beginning of the fourth or end of the fifth century: the restoration is highly probable, and if it is correct, contests of comic actors can be traced back nearly as far as contests of tragic actors; but again it is uncertain to which festival the inscription refers, and it is going too far to use the combined evidence of this inscription, and the Arg. to the Pax, as emended, to prove the existence of contests at the City Dionysia in 421 B.C.]

[170] C. I. A. ii. 973.

[171] Dem. Fals. Leg. § 246.

[172] C. I. A. ii. 975 b, 972.

[173] Diod. Sic. xiii. 97.

[174] For the City Dionysia see above, pp. 18 and 24. For the Lenaea there is no evidence, but the practice was probably much the same. See p. 26.

[175] Alciphron iii. 48 κακὸς κακῶς ἀπόλοιτο καὶ ἄφωνος εἴη Λικύμνιος ὁ τῆς τραγῳδίας ὑποκριτής. ὡς γὰρ ἐνίκα τοὺς ἀντιτέχνους Κριτίαν τὸν Κλεωναῖον καὶ Ἵππασον τὸν Ἀμβρακιώτην τοὺς Αἰσχύλου Προπομποὺς κ.τ.λ. Athen. p. 584 D Ἀνδρονίκου δὲ τοῦ τραγῳδοῦ ἀπ’ ἀγῶνός τινος, ἐν ᾧ τοὺς Ἐπιγόνους εὐημερήκει, πίνειν μέλλοντος παρ’ αὐτῇ κτλ.

[176] See above, p. 31.

[177] Theophrast. Char. 22 ταινία ξυλίνη.

[178] Lysias xxi. § 4 κωμῳδοῖς χορηγῶν Κηφισοδώρῳ ἐνίκων, καὶ ἀνήλωσα σὺν τῇ τῆς σκευῆς ἀναθέσει ἑκκαίδεκα μνᾶς.

[179] Plut. Themist. 114 C πίνακα τῆς νίκης ἀνέθηκε. Aristot. Pol. viii. 6 ἐκ τοῦ πίνακος ὃν ἀνέθηκε Θράσιππος.

[180] C. I. A. ii. 1289; Bull. Corr. Hell. iii. pl. 5.

[181] Reisch, Griechische Weihgeschenke, p. 118 ff.

[182] Plut. Themist. 114 C. Cp. C. I. A. ii. 1280, 1285 (a metrical inscription), 1289, iv. 1280 b, 1282 b, 1285 b, &c.

[183] C. I. A. ii. 971 a-e, iv. 971 f-h. See Appendix B.

[184] C. I. A. ii. 972, 973, 975. See Appendix B.

[185] C. I. A. ii. 977, iv. 977.

[186] Diod. Sic. xiii. 103; Suidas s.v. Κρατῖνος.

[187] Diog. Laërt. v. 1. 26. A complete list of the quotations from Aristotle’s Διδασκαλίαι is given in Bekker’s Aristotle, vol. v, p. 1572.

[188] See pp. 13 (note 2), 61.

[189] Suidas s.v. Καλλίμαχος; Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 552.

[190] Etym. Mag. s.v. πίναξ.

[191] Trendelenburg, Gramm. Graec. de Arte Tragica Iudiciorum Reliquiae, p. 3 foll.

[192] C. I. A. iv. 971 f. See above, p. 20, note 3. [It is not at all improbable that the extant inscriptions which have been described in this section were to a great extent based on the work of Aristotle himself, this work being itself based on earlier records now lost. It would only be natural that the theatre officials would take advantage of so important a compilation as the Διδασκαλίαι and Νῖκαι Διονυσιακαί of Aristotle, and might well have extracts from it engraved on stone in the theatre. The fact that the last record in C. I. A. ii. 971 belongs to the year 328 B.C. has also led some writers to conjecture that this whole inscription represents the work of Aristotle. This view is confirmed by the fact that Aristotle, with Callisthenes, prepared a record of Pythian victors for the temple of Delphi, which was engraved on stone at the public cost, B.C. 331. (Homolle, Bull. de Corr. Hell. xxii. 261, 631; Bourguet, ibid. xxiv. 504; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscr. Gr. 915.) Cp. Reisch in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl., Art. Didaskaliai; Wilhelm, Urkunden dramatischer Aufführungen in Athen, pp. 13-15. The latter work gives a very complete account of the extant inscriptions.]

[193] Ath. Pol. cc. 56, 57. The archons superintended the various contests themselves, but were assisted by curators in the organization of the processions. These ἐπιμεληταὶ τῆς πομπῆς were ten in number at the City Dionysia. Until 352 they were elected by the people from the general mass of the citizens, and paid the expenses of the procession themselves. After 352 they were chosen by lot, one from each tribe, and received 100 minae from the state to cover expenses. In the third century the system of election was reintroduced. The curators at the Lenaea were also curators of the Eleusinian mysteries (ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν μυστηρίων), four in number, and elected by the state, two from the people generally, one each from the Κήρυκες and Εὐμολπίδαι. See Sandys’ notes ad loc.

[194] Suidas s.v. χορὸν δίδωμι; Athen. p. 638 F; Cratinus fr. 15 (Kock); cf. Aristot. Poet. c. v, Ath. Pol. l.c.

[195] Cratinus l.c.

[196] Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 510, 530.

[197] Suidas s.v. Αἰσχύλος; Marm. Par. ep. 56; Vita I Eurip.

[198] Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 504; Arg. Aristoph. Equit.; cf. Suidas s.v. Εὔπολις. [The remarkable didascalic inscription (974 c) printed by Wilhelm, Urkunden dramat. Aufführungen in Athen, p. 45, and reproduced in Appendix B, notices of a certain Ameinias (probably), who won the third place with his play, that ἔφηβος ὢν ἐνεμήθη. Wilhelm shows that this use of νέμειν and its cognates, to signify permission to compete, was a technical one, and quotes conclusive parallels.]

[199] Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 531; Anon. de Com. (Kaibel Com. Fr. p. 8); Suidas s.v. Σαμίων ὁ δῆμος; Arg. Aristoph. Acharn.

[200] Aristoph. Equit. 512-44; cf. Nub. 528-31.

[201] Arg. Aristoph. Plutus; Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 73.

[202] Suidas s.v. Ἀρκάδας μιμούμενοι.

[203] Args. Aristoph. Av., Lysist., Vesp., Ran.

[204] Athen. p. 216 D; Vit. Aristoph.

[205] Plut. X orat. 839 D.

[206] Aristoph. Equit. 512, 513.

[207] Id. Vesp. 1016-22.

[208] Arg. ii to Dem. Meid.

[209] Athen. Pol. c. 56.

[210] Ibid.

[211] C. I. A. ii. 971 d, iv. 971 h.

[212] Lysias xxi. §§ 1-5; Aeschin. Timarch. §§ 11, 12; Harpocrat. s.v. ὅτι νόμος.

[213] Lysias l.c.

[214] In the time of Demosthenes the tribe Pandionis was for three years unable to supply a dithyrambic choregus. Dem. Meid. § 13.

[215] Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 406, who suggests that the system was also extended to the Lenaea. But this is disproved by Lysias xxi. § 4, where the defendant says he was choregus (not synchoregus) to a comic chorus in B.C. 402. The synchoregia cannot, therefore, have been applied to both festivals.

[216] C. I. A. ii. 971 c (tragic choregus at City Dionysia for 387) [but the interpretation of this fragment is very difficult]. Tragic synchoregi occur twice in inscriptions at the beginning of the fourth century (C. I. A. ii. 1280, iv. 1280 b); and are mentioned by Isaeus v. § 36 (B.C. 389) and Lysias xix., § 29 (B.C. 394-389); but as the festival is not mentioned by either author, it may have been the Lenaea, and so no inference can be drawn as to the discontinuance of the synchoregia. In C. I. A. iv. 971 h we find a comic choregus in 329; in C. I. A. iv. 1280 b (beginning of fourth century) and ii. 1280 b (middle of fourth century) we find comic synchoregi, but as the latter inscription was found at a distance from Athens, it may refer to the Rural Dionysia, at which joint choregi were sometimes appointed; e.g. C. I. A. iv. 1282 b mentions three tragic choregi in partnership at Icaria.

[217] The statement of Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 406, that soon after the institution of synchoregi the choregia as a whole was abolished by Cinesias is disproved by Ath. Pol. c. 56, which shows that choregi were a regular institution in the latter half of the fourth century. Capps (Am. J. Arch. 1895, p. 316) conjectures that the scholiast’s error arose from his misunderstanding of the epithet χοροκτόνος, applied to Cinesias as a bad poet, not as a legislator against choruses.

[218] There were still choregi in 319 (C. I. A. ii. 1246, 1247). But Nicanor was appointed Agonothetes immediately after the death of Antipater (Plut. Phoc. 31), who died in 319.

[219] C. I. A. ii. 302, 307, 314, 331, 379.

[220] C. I. A. ii. 314, καὶ εἰς ταῦτα πάντα ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων ἀναλώσας πολλὰ χρήματα. This phrase, however, does not imply that he paid the whole of the expenses; and the formula ὁ δῆμος ἐχορήγει, constantly found in agonothetic inscriptions, seems to show that the people bore a part [e.g. C. I. A. ii. 1289, quoted App. B].

[221] C. I. A. iii. 78 (Agonothetes and choregus together); ibid. 79, 83, 84 (choregi alone); ibid. 1, 10, 121, 457, 613, 721, 810, 1091 (Agonothetes alone).

[222] Demosth. Meid. §§ 13, 14; 2nd Arg. to Meidias, p. 510.

[223] C. I. A. ii. 1246 Νικίας Νικοδήμου Ξυπεταίων ἀνέθηκε νικήσας χορηγῶν Κεκροπίδι παίδων· Πανταλέων Σικυώνιος ηὔλει· ᾆσμα Ἐλπήνωρ Τιμοθέου· Νέαιχμος ἦρχεν. In this case the dithyramb performed was the Elpenor of the celebrated poet Timotheus. When old dithyrambs were performed, and no poet was necessary, a professional trainer was hired to look after the chorus. Such was the διδάσκαλος mentioned by Demosthenes (Meid. § 17).

[224] Antiphon, orat. vi. § 11 ἐπειδὴ χορηγὸς κατεστάθην εἰς Θαργήλια καὶ ἔλαχον Παντακλέα διδάσκαλον κτλ. Pantacles was a poet, and not a mere trainer of choruses, like the διδάσκαλος hired by Demosthenes. This is proved by a passage in Etym. Mag. v. διδάσκαλος· ἰδίως διδασκάλους λέγουσιν οἱ Ἀττικοὶ τοὺς ποιητὰς τῶν διθυράμβων ἢ τῶν κωμῳδιῶν ἢ τῶν τραγῳδιῶν. Ἀντίφων ἐν τῷ περὶ τοῦ χορευτοῦ· ἔλαχόν, φησι, Παντακλέα διδάσκαλον· ὅτι γὰρ ὁ Παντακλῆς ποιητής, δεδήλωκεν Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν ταῖς Διδασκαλίαις. When there was a poet, a professional trainer was not usually required. The poet undertook the training of the chorus.

[225] Aristot. Rhet. iii. 1.

[226] Vita Aesch.

[227] Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 1267.

[228] Vita Soph.

[229] Vita Eur.

[230] Dem. Fals. Leg. §§ 10, 246; de Cor. § 262.

[231] C. I. A. ii. 972.

[232] Suidas s.v. νεμήσεις ὑποκριτῶν· οἱ ποιηταὶ ἐλάμβανον τρεῖς ὑποκριτὰς κλήρῳ νεμηθέντας, ὑποκρινομένους (? ὑποκρινουμένους) τὰ δράματα· ὧν ὁ νικήσας εἰς τοὐπιὸν ἄκριτος παραλαμβάνεται. Obviously ὁ νικήσας denotes, not the victorious poet, nor yet the actor who acted for him, but the actor who won the prize for acting. Τοὐπιόν apparently means ‘the next festival’. The victorious actor was allowed to act at the next festival as a matter of course. The ‘three actors’ are the three protagonists required at each tragic contest, and not the three actors required by each poet. This is proved by the words ὧν ὁ νικήσας, which imply that the three actors mentioned all took part in the actors’ contest. But the actors’ contest was limited to the protagonists; the subordinate actors had nothing to do with it. See above, p. 42.

[233] Aristot. Rhet. iii. 1.

[234] C. I. A. ii. 973.

[235] Schol. Aristoph. Equit. 534; Vita Aristoph. (Dindf. Prolegom. de Comoed. p. 36). The commentator, misunderstanding the expression that certain plays of Aristophanes were brought out by Philonides and Callistratus (ἐδιδάχθη διὰ Φιλωνίδου κτλ.), concluded that these persons were actors.

[236] C. I. A. ii. 972, 975 c and d.

[237] Xen. Hiero ix. 4, Resp. Athen. i. 13. The training-room was called διδασκαλεῖον (Antiphon orat. vi. § 11), or χορηγεῖον (Bekk. Anecd. p. 72, 17; Pollux iv. 106, ix. 42).

[238] Antiphon orat. vi. §§ 11-13; Pollux iv. 106. The agent was called χορολέκτης.

[239] Aristot. Pol. iii. 3.

[240] Antiphon l.c.

[241] Plutarch Glor. Athen. 349 A; Suidas s.v. φαρυγγίνδην· ὡς ἀριστίνδην· σκώπτοντες γὰρ τὴν γαστριμαργίαν τῶν χορευτῶν Ἀττικοὶ οὕτω λέγουσι.

[242] Suidas s.v. διδάσκαλος; Aristoph. Ran. 1026 εἶτα διδάξας Πέρσας κτλ.; Anthol. Pal. vii. 37 (of a mask of Antigone or Electra) ἐκ ποίης ἥδε διδασκαλίης; Plut. Pericles 154 E ἀλλ’ Ἴωνα μὲν ὥσπερ τραγικὴν διδασκαλίαν ἀξιοῦντα τὴν ἀρετὴν ἔχειν τι πάντως καὶ σατυρικὸν μέρος ἐῶμεν.

[243] Athen. p. 22 A.

[244] Athen. p. 21 C; Vit. Aeschyli; Philostrat. Vit. Apoll. p. 244.

[245] Eustath. Odyss. p. 1553.

[246] Plut. De Audiendo, 46 B.

[247] Photius v. ὑποδιδάσκαλος; Plat. Ion p. 536 A.

[248] Thus the trainer hired by Demosthenes for his chorus is called διδάσκαλος, Dem. Meid. § 17.

[249] Dem. Meid. §§ 58, 59.

[250] Xen. Mem. iii. 4. 3.

[251] Xen. Resp. Athen. i. 13 χορηγοῦσι μὲν οἱ πλούσιοι, χορηγεῖται δὲ ὁ δῆμος ... ἀξιοῖ οὖν ἀργύριον λαμβάνειν ὁ δῆμος καὶ ᾄδων καὶ τρέχων καὶ ὀρχούμενος ... ἵνα αὐτός τε ἔχῃ καὶ οἱ πλούσιοι πενέστεροι γίγνωνται. First Arg. to Dem. Meid., p. 509 χορηγὸς ... ὁ τὰ ἀναλώματα παρέχων τὰ περὶ τὸν χορόν. Plut. Glor. Athen. 349 B. The statement of the Scholiast on Dionysius Thrax (Bekk. Anecd. p. 746), that every comic and tragic poet was supplied with a chorus ‘supported by the state’, appears to be merely a loose way of saying that the dramatic choruses were provided by choregi appointed by the state. The author of the 2nd Arg. to the Meidias says that the choregus ‘received sums of money for the support of the chorus’. But his authority is of the weakest description. He is quite mistaken as to the Dionysiac festivals, imagining that the Great Dionysia was a triennial affair, as opposed to the Small or annual celebration. Hence his testimony is of no value in the face of other authorities.

[252] The name of the flute-player is inserted in all dithyrambic records except the earliest, but never in the dramatic records. This seems to show that their status was different, and that the dramatic flute-player was not appointed officially.

[253] Plut. Phocion p. 750 C.

[254] The actors were assigned by the state to the poets, and not to the choregi: hence it is quite clear that in later times the choregi did not pay for them. See Suidas s.v. νεμήσεις ὑποκριτῶν.

[255] Antiphanes apud Athen. p. 103 E; Dem. Meid. § 16.

[256] Aristot. Eth. Nic. iv. 6. Pollux vii. 78 τοὺς δὲ τὰς ἐσθῆτας ἀπομισθοῦντας τοῖς χορηγοῖς οἱ μὲν νέοι ἱματιομίσθας ἐκάλουν, οἱ δὲ παλαιοὶ ἱματιομισθωτάς.

[257] Lysias xxi. §§ 1-5, xix. §§ 29, 42; Dem. Meid. § 156.

[258] Aristoph. Eccles. 307; Böckh, Public Economy of Athens, i. p. 157 (Engl. transl.).

[259] Demosth. Philipp. i. § 35.

[260] Xen. Hiero ix. 4 καὶ γὰρ ὅταν χοροὺς ἡμῖν βουλώμεθα ἀγωνίζεσθαι, ἆθλα μὲν ὁ ἄρχων προτίθησιν, ἀθροίζειν δὲ αὐτοὺς προστέτακται χορηγοῖς καὶ ἄλλοις διδάσκειν, καὶ ἀνάγκην προστιθέναι τοῖς ἐνδεῶς τι ποιοῦσιν.

[261] Dem. Meid. § 61.

[262] Plutarch Nicias, p. 524 D.

[263] Andocid. Alcibiad. § 20.

[264] Dem. Meid. §§ 58-66.

[265] Our knowledge of the Proagon is derived from the following passages:—Aeschin. Ctesiph. §§ 66, 67 ὁ γὰρ μισαλέξανδρος νυνὶ φάσκων εἶναι ... γράφει ψήφισμα ... ἐκκλησίαν ποιεῖν τοὺς πρυτάνεις τῇ ὀγδόῃ ἱσταμένου τοῦ ἐλαφηβολιῶνος μηνός, ὅτ’ ἦν τῷ Ἀσκληπιῷ ἡ θυσία καὶ ὁ προάγων. Schol. Aeschin. Ctesiph. § 67 ἐγίγνοντο πρὸ τῶν μεγάλων Διονυσίων ἡμέραις ὀλίγαις ἔμπροσθεν ἐν τῷ ᾠδείῳ καλουμένῳ τῶν τραγῳδῶν ἀγὼν καὶ ἐπίδειξις ὧν μέλλουσι δραμάτων ἀγωνίζεσθαι ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ· δι’ ὃ ἐτύμως προάγων καλεῖται. εἰσίασι δὲ δίχα προσώπων οἱ ὑποκριταὶ γυμνοί. Vita Euripid. λέγουσι δὲ καὶ Σοφοκλέα, ἀκούσαντα ὅτι ἐτελεύτησε, αὐτὸν μὲν ἱματίῳ φαιῷ ἤτοι πορφυρῷ προελθεῖν, τὸν δὲ χορὸν καὶ τοὺς ὑποκριτὰς ἀστεφανώτους εἰσαγαγεῖν ἐν τῷ προάγωνι, καὶ δακρῦσαι τὸν δῆμον. Schol. Aristoph. Wasps 1104 οἱ δ’ ἐν ᾠδείῳ· ἔστι τόπος θεατροειδής, ἐν ᾧ εἰώθασι τὰ ποιήματα ἀπαγγέλλειν πρὶν τῆς εἰς τὸ θέατρον ἀπαγγελίας. That the Proagon was a contest is out of the question. The contest was to follow some days later. Nor can it have been a dress rehearsal, as part of one day would not have sufficed for the rehearsal of twelve tragedies and five comedies. Προάγων denotes ‘the ceremony before the contest’, just as πρόγαμος means ‘the ceremony before the marriage’. The expression of the Schol. on Aeschines τῶν τραγῳδῶν ἀγών is probably due to a misunderstanding of the word προάγων. The passage in Plato’s Symposium 194 A (ἐπιλήσμων μεντἂν εἴην, ὦ Ἀγάθων, ... εἰ ἰδὼν τὴν σὴν ἀνδρείαν καὶ μεγαλοφροσύνην ἀναβαίνοντος ἐπὶ τὸν ὀκρίβαντα μετὰ τῶν ὑποκριτῶν καὶ βλέψαντος ἐναντία τοσούτῳ θεάτρῳ, μέλλοντος ἐπιδείξεσθαι σαυτοῦ λόγους, καὶ οὐδ’ ὁπωστιοῦν ἐκπλαγέντος κτλ.) probably refers to the Proagon. If so ἀπαγγέλλειν in the Schol. and ἐπιδείξεσθαι λόγους both probably refer to an announcement of the plots or subjects of the plays (λόγος is so used, Aristoph. Vesp. 54, Pax 50, and Hesych. λόγος· ἡ τοῦ δράματος ὑπόθεσις). See Mazon, Revue de Philologie, 1903, pp. 263 ff. That there was a Proagon before the Lenaea as well as the City Dionysia seems natural in itself, and is implied by the use of the plural in such inscriptions as C. I. A. ii. 307 ἐπετέλεσε δὲ καὶ τοὺς προάγωνας τοὺς ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς κτλ.

[266] Aeschin. Ctesiph. § 76 ἅμα τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἡγεῖτο τοῖς πρέσβεσιν εἰς τὸ θέατρον. Demosth. Meid. § 74.

[267] Suidas s.v. καθάρσιον; Pollux viii. 104; Plut. Cimon p. 482 E; Philostrat. vit. Apoll. p. 161.

[268] Aeschin. Ctesiph. §§ 48, 230.

[269] Isocrat. viii. § 82.

[270] Aeschin. Ctesiph. §§ 153, 154.

[271] Aristid. περὶ ῥητορικῆς, vol. ii. p. 2 (Dindf.).

[272] The passage from Philochorus (Athen. p. 464 E καὶ τοῖς χοροῖς εἰσιοῦσιν ἐνέχεον πίνειν καὶ διηγωνισμένοις ὅτ’ ἐξεπορεύοντο ἐνέχεον πάλιν) affords no warrant for assuming, with Müller (Griech. Bühnen, p. 373), that before the commencement of each play the poet and his chorus entered the orchestra and offered a libation to Dionysus. [Aristoph. Ach. 11 ἀλλ’ ὠδυνήθην ἕτερον αὖ τραγῳδικόν, | ὅτε δὴ ’κεχήνη προσδοκῶν τὸν Αἰσχύλον, | ὁ δ’ ἀνεῖπεν, εἴσαγ’, ὦ Θέογνι, τὸν χορόν, is generally taken to refer to this point in the proceedings. But it is not likely that the names, &c., of the poets would be unknown to the spectators, when the Proagon had taken place only a few days before; see p. 66; and Mazon is probably right (Rev. de Philologie, 1903, p. 264) in making the lines refer to the Proagon itself.]

[273] Pollux iv. 88.

[274] Aristoph. Eccles. 1154 ff.

[275] Plat. Symp. 173 A. 174 A.

[276] Athen. p. 3 F; Schol. Aristoph. Pax 835.

[277] Cf. ch. i. § 1.

[278] Dem. Meid. §§ 8-10; C. I. A. ii. 114, 307, 420.

[279] Arg. Aristoph. Ran. οὕτω δὲ ἐθαυμάσθη τὸ δρᾶμα διὰ τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ παράβασιν ὥστε καὶ ἀνεδιδάχθη, ὥς φησι Δικαίαρχος.

[280] Herod, vi. 21.

[281] A revised edition of a play was called διασκευή, Athen. p. 110 C.

[282] Athen. p. 374 A.

[283] Nauck, Frag. Trag. Graec. pp. 215, 441, 627.

[284] Arg. Eur. Hipp.

[285] Arg. Aristoph. Nub.

[286] Arg. Aristoph. Pax; Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. i. pp. 1074, 1130.

[287] Meineke, iv. 116, 377. Additional instances of revision of plays are to be found in the Autolycus of Eupolis, the Synoris of Diphilus, and the Phryx of Alexis. The Demetrius of Alexis appeared subsequently as the Philetaerus, the Ἄγροικοι of Antiphanes as the Butalion. See Meineke, ii. 440; iii. 36, 403, 500; iv. 412.

[288] Philostrat. vit. Apoll. p. 245.

[289] [Or more probably to the Odeum to see the Proagon; see p. 69, n. 3.]

[290] Aristoph. Acharn. 9-12.

[291] Id. Ran. 868.

[292] Quint. Inst. x. 1. 66.

[293] [See, however, note on p. 16, on the Septem of Aeschylus.]

[294] Suidas s.v. Εὐφορίων; Arg. Soph. Oed. Col.; Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 67.

[295] See above, pp. 18 and 26.

[296] See above, p. 31.

[297] Plut. X orat. 841 F εἰσήνεγκε δὲ καὶ νόμους ... τὸν δέ, ὡς χαλκᾶς εἰκόνας ἀναθεῖναι τῶν ποιητῶν, Αἰσχύλου, Σοφοκλέους, Εὐριπίδου, καὶ τὰς τραγῳδίας αὐτῶν ἐν κοινῷ γραψαμένους φυλάττειν, καὶ τὸν τῆς πόλεως γραμματέα παραναγιγνώσκειν τοῖς ὑποκρινομένοις· οὐκ ἐξεῖναι γὰρ αὐτὰς ὑποκρίνεσθαι. The general meaning of the passage is clear, though the text is corrupt. Various emendations have been proposed, e.g. παρ’ αὐτὰς ὑποκρίνεσθαι, Wyttenbach; αὐτὰς ἄλλως ὑποκρίνεσθαι, Grysar: ἄλλως ὑποκρίνεσθαι, Dübner.

[298] Galen Comm. ii. on Hippocrat. Epidem. iii. (p. 607 Kühn).

[299] See above, pp. 22 and 27.

[300] Alciphron. Epist. iii. 48.

[301] Plut. Demosth. p. 849 A.

[302] C. I. A. ii. 973.

[303] Demosth. de Cor. §§ 180, 267; Aelian Var. Hist. xiv. 40; Plut. Fort. Alexand. 333 F; Diod. Sic. xiii. 97.

[304] Aul. Gell. vii. 5; Stob. Flor. 97, 28 (ii. p. 211 Meineke); Demosth. Fals. Leg. § 246; Schol. Soph. Ajax 865; Athen. p. 584 D.

[305] Throughout the present chapter my account of the existing remains of the Athenian theatre has been taken almost entirely from Dörpfeld and Reisch, Das griechische Theater, 1896. Dörpfeld’s minute and admirable description of the theatre has superseded all previous treatises on the subject. For the old authorities see Preface to the First Edition, p. viii.

[306] Pollux iv. 123 ἐλεὸς δ’ ἦν τράπεζα ἀρχαία, ἐφ’ ἣν πρὸ Θέσπιδος εἷς τις ἀναβὰς τοῖς χορευταῖς ἀπεκρίνατο. Etym. Mag. s.v. θυμέλη· τράπεζα δὲ ἦν ἐφ’ ἧς ἑστῶτες ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς ᾖδον, μήπω τάξιν λαβούσης τραγῳδίας. Dörpfeld (Griechische Theater, pp. 34, 278) thinks the ἐλεός was the altar step, which in some cases was of great size. Cp. the specimen he gives on p. 34. He quotes Pollux iv. 123 θυμέλη, εἴτε βῆμά τι οὖσα, εἴτε βωμός. But this passage does not mean that Pollux thought the thymele was partly an altar and partly a platform. It means that he was uncertain which of the two it was. Probably he was thinking of the later sense of θυμέλη = ‘the stage’.

[307] Cp. Cook on the Thymele in Greek Theatres, Classical Review, October 1895, p. 371, and below, p. 108, with notes.

[308] Suidas s.v. σκηνή; Pollux iv. 123; Etym. Mag. s.v. θυμέλη.

[309] Hesych. s.v. παρ’ αἰγείρου θέα ... τὰ ἴκρια, ἅ ἐστιν ὀρθὰ ξύλα ἔχοντα σανίδας προσδεδεμένας, οἷον βαθμούς, ἐφ’ αἷς ἐκαθέζοντο πρὸ τοῦ κατασκευασθῆναι τὸ θέατρον. Cp. Bekk. Anecd. p. 354; Hesych. and Suidas s.v. ἴκρια; Eustath. Od. p. 1472.

[310] All theatres, in which the orchestra consists of an exact semicircle, are either Roman, or built under Roman influence. See Vitruv. v. 6.

[311] The term θέατρον Ληναϊκόν mentioned by Pollux (iv. 121) may refer to the old wooden theatre in the Lenaeum.

[312] See Appendix C for a discussion of the site of the Lenaeum.

[313] Suidas s.v. ἀπ’ αἰγείρου θέα. Hesych. s.vv. αἰγείρου θέα, παρ’ αἰγείρου θέα, θέα παρ’ αἰγείρῳ. Eustath. Od. p. 1472.

[314] Suidas s.v. Πρατίνας ... συνέβη τὰ ἴκρια, ἐφ’ ὧν ἑστήκεσαν οἱ θεαταί, πεσεῖν, καὶ ἐκ τούτου θέατρον ᾠκοδομήθη Ἀθηναίοις.

[315] See below, p. 130.

[316] Dörpfeld and Reisch, Griechische Theater, p. 31.

[317] Wilamowitz, Hermes, xxi. p. 622. Griech. Theater, p. 9.

[318] Aristoph. Acharn. 504; Plat. Prot. 327 D; Dem. Meid. § 10 (law of Evegorus); C. I. A. ii. 741 (334-331 B.C.).

[319] Griech. Theater, pp. 26 ff.

[320] Griech. Theater, p. 111.

[321] Griech. Theater, pp. 36 ff.

[322] Fürtwängler, Sitzungsber. der Akad. der Wiss. zu München, 1901, p. 415. Roberts and Gardner, Greek Epigraphy, ii. Introd. p. xiii.

[323] C. I. A. i. 499. Cp. p. 132.

[324] Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 430.

[325] C. I. A. ii. 176.

[326] Plut. X orat. 841 C καὶ τὸ ἐν Διονύσου θέατρον ἐπιστατῶν ἐτελεύτησε. Id. Psephism. iii. πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ἡμίεργα παραλαβὼν τούς τε νεωσοίκους καὶ τὴν σκευοθήκην καὶ τὸ θέατρον τὸ Διονυσιακὸν ἐξειργάσατο καὶ ἐπετέλεσε. Paus. i. 29. 16 οἰκοδομήματα δὲ ἐπετέλεσε μὲν τὸ θέατρον ἑτέρων ὑπαρξαμένων. Hyperid. or. dep. 118 Kenyon ταχθεὶς δὲ ἐπὶ τῇ διοικήσει τῶν χρημάτων εὗρε πόρους, ᾠκοδόμησε δὲ τὸ θέατρον, τὸ ᾠδεῖον, τὰ νεώρια, τριήρεις ἐποιήσατο, λιμένας.

[327] [Aristoph. Thesm. 395 (B.C. 411) and Cratinus, Frag. Incert. 51 (before B.C. 422) call the spectators’ seats ἴκρια, ‘benches’: but the name might survive after the material had been changed from wood to stone; and Puchstein may be right in dating this before the end of the fifth century. See below, p. 131.]

[328] See below, p. 130.

[329] C. I. A. iii. 158.

[330] C. I. A. iii. 239 σοὶ τόδε καλὸν ἔτευξε φιλόργιε βῆμα θεήτρου | Φαῖδρος Ζωίλου βιοδώτορος Ἀτθίδος ἀρχός.

[331] See E. A. Gardner, Ancient Athens, p. 435.

[332] Paus. i. 20 3; Griech. Theater, pp. 10 ff.

[333] Vitruv. v. 3. 2.

[334] The plan is copied from that given in Griech. Theater, Tafel I.

[335] Harp. s.v. κατατομή· Ὑπερείδης ἐν τῷ κατὰ Δημοσθένους. καὶ καθήμενος κάτω ὑπὸ τῇ κατατομῇ. Φιλόχορος δὲ ἐν ἕκτῃ οὕτως· Αἰσχραῖος Ἀναγυράσιος ἀνέθηκε τὸν ὑπὲρ θεάτρου τρίποδα καταργυρώσας, νενικηκὼς τῷ πρότερον ἔτει χορηγῶν παισί, καὶ ἐπέγραψεν ἐπὶ τὴν κατατομὴν τῆς πέτρας. Bekk Anecd. p. 270. 21 κατατομὴ ἡ ὀρχήστρα ἡ νῦν σίγμα, ἢ μέρος τι τοῦ θεάτρου κατετμήθη, ἐπεὶ ἐν ὄρει κατεσκεύασται.

[336] Paus. i. 21. 5; C. I. A. ii. 1247; Stuart and Revett’s Antiquities of Athens, ii. 8. For a detailed description of the Thrasyllus monument see Harrison and Verrall, Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens, pp. 266 ff.; E. Gardner, Ancient Athens, p. 403.

[337] See Griech. Theater, pp. 169 ff.; Capps, Vitruvius and the Greek Stage, pp. 18 ff.

[338] The illustration is copied, with a few alterations, from Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, xiii. p. 197.

[339] Griech. Theater, p. 51.

[340] Gardner and Loring, Excavations at Megalopolis, p. 74; Griech. Theater, pp. 101, 121; Schrader, Berl. Phil. Wochenschrift, April 16, 1898, p. 508.

[341] Griech. Theater, p. 44.

[342] Pollux iv. 123.

[343] διαζώματα, C. I. G. 4283; ζῶναι, Malal. p. 222. The longitudinal passages are called δίοδοι in the Delian inscription for 269 B.C. The upper belt of seats is called ἐπιθέατρον in the inscription for 250 B.C. See Bull. Corr. Hell., 1894, pp. 162 ff.

[344] Griech. Theater, p. 41.

[345] The copy is taken from Wieseler’s Denkmäler des Bühnenwesens, i. 1.

[346] Vitruv. v. 6. 4.

[347] Griech. Theater, p. 45. Dörpfeld obtains this result by allowing for each person a space of 16 inches—the distance between the vertical lines already mentioned (p. 97). If 19 inches is allowed, he calculates that the theatre would have held about 14,000 people.

[348] Megalopolis held about 17,000 (Gardner), or 18,700 (Schultz); Epidaurus about 17,000 (Gardner). These calculations, however, should be slightly reduced, as they are based on an allowance of only 13 inches for each person (see above, p. 97), which is certainly too small, though the experience of modern theatre managers shows that, where the seats have no dividing arms, 14 inches is sufficient and 16 inches ample. (See Gardner, Ancient Athens, p. 439.) See Excavations at Megalopolis, p. 69.

[349] Plat. Symp. 175 E.

[350] Phot. s.v. ὀρχήστρα ... τοῦ θεάτρου τὸ κάτω ἡμικύκλιον, οὗ καὶ οἱ χοροὶ ᾖδον καὶ ὠρχοῦντο.

[351] Bekk. Anecd. p. 270. 21 ἡ ὀρχήστρα ἡ νῦν σίγμα λεγομένη. Ibid. p. 286. 16.

[352] Suidas s.v. σκηνή ... ἡ κονίστρα, τουτέστι τὸ κάτω ἔδαφος τοῦ θεάτρου. The same scholium is repeated in Schol. Gregor. Nazianz. laud. patr. 355 B.

[353] e.g. Schol. Aristoph. Equit. 505 (of the chorus) ἑστᾶσι μὲν γὰρ κατὰ στοῖχον οἱ πρὸς τὴν ὀρχήστραν ἀποβλέποντες· ὅταν δὲ παραβῶσιν, ἐφεξῆς ἑστῶτες καὶ πρὸς τοὺς θεατὰς βλέποντες τὸν λόγον ποιοῦνται. Here ὀρχήστρα obviously = λογεῖον. Cp. Suidas s.v. σκηνή; Isidor. Origg. xviii. 44 ‘orchestra autem pulpitum erat scaenae’. [A full history of the meanings of the word is given in A. Müller’s Untersuchungen zu den Bühnenalterthümern, pp. 77-88.]

[354] Griech. Theater, pp. 57, 58.

[355] For the date see Griech. Theater, pp. 129 ff.; Christ, Sitzungsber. bayer. Akad. der Wissen. 1894, pp. 30 ff.; Lechat, Épidaure, p. 106.

[356] Paus. ii. 27. 5 Ἐπιδαυρίοις δέ ἐστι θέατρον ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ, μάλιστα ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν θέας ἄξιον· τὰ μὲν γὰρ Ῥωμαίων πολὺ δή τι ὑπερῆρκε τῶν πανταχοῦ τῷ κόσμῳ, μεγέθει δὲ Ἀρκάδων τὸ ἐν Μεγάλῃ πόλει· ἁρμονίας δὲ ἢ κάλλους ἕνεκα ἀρχιτέκτων ποῖος ἐς ἅμιλλαν Πολυκλείτῳ γένοιτ’ ἂν ἀξιόχρεως; Πολύκλειτος γὰρ τὸ θέατρον τοῦτο καὶ οἴκημα τὸ περιφερὲς ὁ ποιήσας ἦν.

[357] The view is copied from a photograph taken by Prof. Ernest Gardner, and kindly lent for reproduction. The plan is from Baumeister’s Denkmäler, iii. p. 1735.

[358] Vitruv. v. 6 and 7.

[359] Other examples are found at Athens, the Peiraeeus, and Eretria. See Fig. 3, and the plans in Griech. Theater, pp. 98 and 112.

[360] Griech. Theater, p. 175.

[361] See the plans in Griech. Theater, pp. 117, 144, 149.

[362] Suidas s.v. σκηνή ... μετὰ τὴν σκηνὴν εὐθὺς καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια ἡ ὀρχήστρα. αὕτη δέ ἐστιν ὁ τόπος ὁ ἐκ σανίδων ἔχων τὸ ἔδαφος, ἀφ’ οὗ θεατρίζουσιν οἱ μῖμοι. Here the word ὀρχήστρα clearly = λογεῖον. Cp. p. 102, note.

[363] Griech. Theater, p. 116. Bulletin de Corr. Hell. 1894, p. 163 τὴν ὀρχήστραν τοῦ θεάτρου καταχρῖσαι (date 269 B.C.).

[364] Hesych. s.v. γραμμαί.

[365] Aristot. Prob. xi. 25 διὰ τί, ὅταν ἀχυρωθῶσιν αἱ ὀρχῆστραι, ἧττον οἱ χοροὶ γεγώνασιν;

[366] Suidas s.v. σκηνή ... εἶτα μετὰ τὴν ὀρχήστραν (i.e. the stage) βωμὸς τοῦ Διονύσου. Poll. iv. 123 ἡ δὲ ὀρχήστρα τοῦ χοροῦ, ἐν ᾗ καὶ ἡ θυμέλη, εἴτε βῆμά τι οὖσα εἴτε βωμός. For the sacrifices in the theatre see p. 68.

[367] Schrader, Berl. Philolog. Wochenschrift, 1898, April 16, p. 509.

[368] Suidas s.v. σκηνή ... μετὰ τὴν ὀρχήστραν βωμὸς τοῦ Διονύσου, ὃς καλεῖται θυμέλη παρὰ τὸ θύειν. Etym. Mag. s.v. θυμέλη. Pratinas apud Athen. 517 B τίς ὕβρις ἔμολεν ἐπὶ Διονυσιάδα πολυπάταγα θυμέλαν;

[369] Phrynichus p. 163 (Lob.) θυμέλην· τοῦτο οἱ μὲν ἀρχαῖοι ἀντὶ τοῦ θυσίαν ἐτίθουν, οἱ δὲ νῦν ἐπὶ τοῦ τόπου ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ, ἐν ᾧ αὐληταὶ καὶ κιθαρῳδοὶ καὶ ἄλλοι τινὲς ἀγωνίζονται· σὺ μέντοι ἔνθα μὲν κωμῳδοὶ καὶ τραγῳδοὶ ἀγωνίζονται λογεῖον ἐρεῖς, ἔνθα δὲ οἱ αὐληταὶ καὶ οἱ χοροὶ ὀρχήστραν, μὴ λέγε δὲ θυμέλην.

[370] Bekk. Anecd. p. 292 σκηνὴ δ’ ἐστὶν ἡ νῦν λεγομένη θυμέλη. Schol. Arist. Equit. 149 ὡς ἐν θυμέλῃ δὲ τὸ ἀνάβαινε. [Cp. Robert, Hermes xxxii. p. 441; Bethe, ibid. xxxvi. p. 597, and Dörpfeld, ibid. xxxvii. p. 249 for more recent discussions of the meaning of θυμέλη. Dörpfeld may be right in explaining the various meanings of the word by its having originally included not only the altar, but the broad base or stone platform on which the altar stood, e.g. in front of a temple. But Robert’s connexion of the word with θεμέλιον and τιθέναι instead of with θύω is more than doubtful. See also Müller, Unters. zu den Bühnenalterth., pp. 93-108.]

[371] Griech. Theater, p. 116.

[372] Ibid. p. 156.

[373] Amer. Journ. Arch., 1891, p. 281; 1893, p. 404.

[374] Athen. Mittheil., 1893, p. 407; Griech. Theater, p. 157.

[375] [Sharpley (Aristoph. Pax Introd., p. 27) thinks that it is ‘trifling with words’ to say that the purpose has not been explained. He thinks it certain that these tunnels were used for the appearance of actors in the orchestra, and constructs a theory of the scenic arrangements of the Pax on this hypothesis, assuming the correctness of Dörpfeld’s theory of the stage. But if Dörpfeld’s theory of the stage is to be rejected, owing to a balance of considerations against it (see below), then these tunnels do remain unexplained and their purpose mysterious. The fact that at Eretria they _could_ be used as Sharpley suggests proves nothing as to the manner in which they _were_ used, unless the theory of their use fits in with other evidence as to theatrical performances. We know nothing of the performances in the theatre at Eretria; there are no such tunnels at Athens, and there are other ways of explaining the Pax.]

[376] Remains of such gateways are to be found at Sicyon, Delos, and Pergamon. See the plans in Griech. Theater, pp. 117, 144, 151.

[377] Griech. Theater, pp. 129, 150.

[378] The illustration is taken from Πρακτικὰ τῆς ἐν Ἀθήν. ἀρχαιολ. ἑταιρίας for 1883.

[379] Πάροδοι in Schol. Arist. Equit. 149; Poll. iv. 126; εἴσοδοι in Arist. Nub. 326, Av. 296. The word πάροδος was also used to denote the entrances on to the stage, e.g. in Plut. Demetr. 905 B; Poll. iv. 128; Athen. 622 D.

[380] Vitruv. v. 6. The side-entrances are called ψαλίς in Poll. iv. 123; ἁψίς in Vit. Aristoph. (Dindf. Prolegom. de Comoed. p. 36).

[381] e.g. τῆς σκηνῆς τὸ τέγος καταλείψαντι ... εἰς τὸ λογεῖον τῆς σκηνῆς (Delian inscription, 279 B.C., in Bull. Corr. Hell. 1894, pp. 162 ff.).

[382] e.g. Aristot. Poet. c. 24 τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς καὶ τῶν ὑποκριτῶν μέρος. Polyb. xxx. 13 πύκται τέσσαρες ἀνέβησαν ἐπὶ τὴν σκηνήν.

[383] Plut. Demetr. 900 D ἔλεγε νῦν πρῶτον ἑωρακέναι πόρνην προερχομένην ἐκ τραγικῆς σκηνῆς. So ἡ σκηνὴ ἡ μέση, τὰς ἐπάνω σκηνὰς καινὰς ποιῆσαι, γράψαι τὰς σκηνάς, κ.τ.λ. (Delian inscription, 274 B.C., in Bull. Corr. Hell. l.c.). Hence σκηνογραφία = scene-painting (Aristot. Poet. c. 4). [Müller, Unters. zu den Bühnenalterth., pp. 1 ff., gives fully the history of the various meanings of σκηνή.]

[384] Arg. Aesch. Pers. καὶ ἔστιν ἡ μὲν σκηνὴ τοῦ δράματος περὶ τῷ τάφῳ Δαρείου. Bekk. Anecd. iii. p. 1461 εἰς πέντε σκηνὰς διαιρεῖ τὸ δρᾶμα.

[385] Puchstein, Die Griech. Bühne, p. 136.

[386] Griech. Theater, pp. 62 ff.

[387] Puchstein, l.c., p. 102, denies this, on the ground that these stylobates are not long enough for the foundation walls of the Lycurgean building, and cannot therefore have been originally made for them.

[388] See above, p. 88.

[389] [Dörpfeld has, since the publication of his book, changed his mind, and now thinks that the Neronian stage was higher, and belonged to the Vitruvian Graeco-Roman, not to the Roman type (Ath. Mitth. 1897, p. 459; 1898, pp. 330, 347). Puchstein is inclined to agree (die griech. Bühne, p. 101). But, in fact, the evidence is insufficient to prove anything as to the height of the stage.]

[390] Griech. Theater, pp. 89-90.

[391] Harpocrat. (s.v. παρασκήνια) quotes Theophrastus for the definition of paraskenia as places on one side of the stage, used for storage purposes. The παρασκήνια τά τε ἐπάνω καὶ τὰ ὑποκάτω mentioned along with the σκηναί in the Delian inscription of 274 B.C. (Bull. Corr. Hell. 1894, pp. 162 ff.) were doubtless side-wings. Demosthenes (Meid. § 17) accuses Meidias of ‘nailing up the paraskenia’, and so preventing his dithyrambic chorus from making its appearance. Probably he nailed up the doors out of the side-wings into the parodoi. The word is also explained by the commentators as = (1) the entrances to the orchestra (Didymus quoted by Harpocrat. l.c.), or (2) the entrances to the stage (Phot. and Etym. Mag. s.v.; Bekk. Anecd. p. 292; Ulpian on Dem. Meid. § 17), or (3) the doors on each side of the main door in the back-scene (Suidas s.v. σκηνή). But these explanations are probably false inferences from the passage in Demosthenes, or from some other source. Cp. Müller, Unters. zu den Bühnenalt., pp. 57-62, for the history of the word παρασκήνια.

[392] See above, p. 112.

[393] Hesych. s.v. ὀκρίβας· τὸ λογεῖον ἐφ’ οὗ οἱ τραγῳδοὶ ἠγωνίζοντο. Plat. Symp. 194 A ἀναβαίνοντος ἐπὶ τὸν ὀκρίβαντα μετὰ τῶν ὑποκριτῶν. The stage referred to in this latter passage was probably in the Odeion. See above, p. 68, and Mazon, Rev. de Philologie, 1903, p. 265.

[394] Delian inscription of 279 B.C. εἰς τὸ [λογε]ῖον τῆς σκηνῆς; 180 B.C. τῶν πινάκων τῶν ἐπὶ τὸ λογεῖον (Bull. Corr. Hell. 1894, pp. 162 ff.). Phryn. p. 163 (Lob.) σὺ μέντοι, ἔνθα μὲν κωμῳδοὶ καὶ τραγῳδοὶ ἀγωνίζονται, λογεῖον ἐρεῖς. Cp. Müller, l.c., pp. 49-57, for the history of this and similar words.

[395] Delian inscription of 290 B.C. τὴν σκηνὴν ἐργολαβήσασι καὶ τὸ προσκήνιον; 282 B.C. εἰς τὸ προσκήνιον γράψαντι πίνακας (Bull. Corr. Hell. l.c.). Inscription on architrave of proscenium at Oropus (Griech. Theater, p. 103) ἀγωνοθετήσας τὸ προσκήνιον καὶ τοὺς πίνακας. Polyb. xxx. 13 τούτους δὲ στήσας ἐπὶ τὸ προσκήνιον μετὰ τοῦ χοροῦ. The word προσκήνιον also denoted (1) the painted scenery at the back of the stage. Cp. Suidas s.v. προσκήνιον· τὸ πρὸ τῆς σκηνῆς παραπέτασμα. Nannio the courtesan (fourth century B.C.) was called ‘proskenion’ because of the deceptive character of her beauty (Athen. p. 587 B). A representation of Demetrius (third century B.C.) was painted ἐπὶ τοῦ προσκηνίου. (2) The drop-scene (in late Greek). Cp. Synesius (about 400 A.D.), Aegypt. 128 C εἰ δέ τις ... κυνοφθαλμίζοιτο διὰ τοῦ προσκηνίου. Cp. Müller, l.c., pp. 35 ff., for history of the meanings of the word.

[396] Dörpfeld (p. 69) denies that there was ever a wooden stage between the wings of the Lycurgean building. He thinks the space was originally filled up with a wooden proscenium, of the same height as the later Hellenistic one of stone; and that both these proscenia served as backgrounds, and not as stages. He argues that if there had been a stage, it must have been made of stone. But if he is justified in assuming the existence of an early wooden proscenium, we are surely justified in assuming the existence of a stage of the same material.

[397] The theatres of Epidaurus and Megalopolis were formerly assigned to about the middle of the fourth century. But it now appears probable that they were not earlier than the end of that century. See Dörpfeld, Griech. Theater, pp. 129 ff., 140.

[398] See the plan in Griech. Theater, p. 112.

[399] This was probably for acoustic reasons; see below, p. 122.

[400] Dörpfeld (p. 69) argues that the original erection put up between the wings of the Lycurgean building must have been 13 ft. high, since the back-wall was adorned with columns and entablature of that height. But there is no proof of the existence of these columns and this entablature. In fact, the evidence is all the other way. See above, p. 114. Prof. E. Gardner (Excavations at Megalopolis, p. 84) thinks there is actual proof of the existence of a low wooden stage at Megalopolis in early times. The question really depends on the date of the three lower steps of the Thersilion, which he supposes to be considerably later than the stone auditorium. Dörpfeld, however (Griech. Theater, p. 140), assigns them to the same period.

[401] Griech. Theater, pp. 100, 102, 113, 120, 143, 147, 150, 156. Puchstein in many cases assigns an earlier date, e.g. at Megalopolis. (Die Griech. Bühne, p. 90.)

[402] Griech. Theater, p. 118.

[403] Ibid., p. 115. There is the foundation-wall of a wooden proscenium at Megalopolis, apparently of the third century, and running on the same line as the later stone proscenium. But whether it was of the same height is unknown. See Excavations at Megalopolis, p. 85.

[404] Schrader, Berl. Philolog. Wochenschrift, 1898, April 16, p. 508. The stone proscenium at Epidaurus has sometimes been assigned to the end of the fourth century, when the rest of the theatre was built. Dörpfeld thinks it more probable that it was a later structure (Griech. Theater, p. 232). Puchstein, however, dates the stone proscenium at Megalopolis in the third or even the fourth century.

[405] Vitruv. v. 7.

[406] Puchstein, Griech. Bühne, pp. 41 ff.

[407] Ibid., pp. 17, 18. See below, p. 130.

[408] See (besides Puchstein, l.c.) Excavations at Megalopolis, p. 87; Griech. Theater, p. 116. Cp. ibid., pp. 103, 150, for similar traces at Assos and Oropus. The architrave of the proscenium at Oropus bore the inscription ἀγωνοθετήσας τὸ προσκήνιον καὶ τοὺς πίνακας (ibid., p. 102). The Delian inscriptions of 282 B.C. and 180 B.C. mention πίνακες εἰς τὸ προσκήνιον, πίνακες ἐπὶ τὸ λογεῖον (Bull. Corr. Hell. 1894, p. 162).

[409] [See Bethe, Jahrb. Arch. Inst. 1900, p. 79. There is nothing absurd, as Dörpfeld seems to think (ibid. 1901, p. 22), in the proscenium thus serving two purposes in the two different types of performance. Why should it not?]

[410] See Puchstein, l.c., p. 23.

[411] Bull. Corr. Hell. 1894, p. 162.

[412] Puchstein, l.c., p. 38.

[413] Poll. iv. 124 τὸ δὲ ὑποσκήνιον κίοσι καὶ ἀγαλματίοις κεκόσμητο πρὸς τὸ θέατρον τετραμμένοις, ὑπὸ τὸ λογεῖον κείμενον. When Athenaeus (631 E) speaks of a flute-player waiting in the hyposkenion till his turn came to perform, it is uncertain whether the word there denotes a room under the stage, or is used generally for the whole of the stage-buildings. See Müller, Unters. zu den Bühnenalt., pp. 62-5.

[414] Griech. Theater, pp. 127, 147.

[415] Schrader, Berl. Philolog. Wochenschrift, 1898, April 16, p. 509; Puchstein, l.c., pp. 19, 50.

[416] Griech. Theater, pp. 99, 102, 115, 125, 147, 150, 384. Dörpfeld now thinks that there may have been three doors at Delos, but the matter is very doubtful (Bull. Corr. Hell. 1896, p. 570).

[417] Excavations at Megalopolis, p. 86. Chamonard, Bull. Corr. Hell. 1896, p. 296.

[418] The illustration is taken from Baumeister’s Denkmäler, iii. plate lxv.

[419] Griech. Theater, 103. Bull. Corr. Hell. 1896, p. 595.

[420] Chamonard (Bull. Corr. Hell. 1896, p. 296), judging from the width of the supporting columns, makes the height of the Delian proscenium 8 ft. 2 in. Dörpfeld (ibid., p. 564), arguing that these columns must have been the same height as the pillars at the side-entrance, supposes the proscenium to have been 9 ft. 2 in.

[421] Griech. Theater, p. 99.

[422] See the plans in Griech. Theater.

[423] [Robert, Gött. Gel. Anz. 1902, p. 425; Dörpfeld, Ath. Mitth. 1903, p. 407. The latter’s suggestion (l.c. 1898, p. 351) that they were used to bring stage machinery into the θεολογεῖον, which he identifies with the stage or λογεῖον, is met by the rejection of this identification; see below, p. 164.]

[424] Puchstein, Griech. Bühne, pp. 49, 58, &c.

[425] The remains at Sicyon and Eretria show that at any rate the _first_ story—that above the proscenium—was made of stone.

[426] The phrase αἱ ἐπάνω σκηναί in the Delian inscription of 274 B.C. appears to show that the back-scene of that time must have been two stories high (Bull. Corr. Hell. 1894, p. 162), [and the large sum of 2,500 drachmae paid for painting the σκηναί and παρασκήνια, when compared with the 6 drachmae 2 obols for painting the four πίνακες ἐς τὸ προσκήνιον suggests that the former was elaborate and artistic decoration, the latter something much simpler. See above, p. 123, and Bethe, Jahrb. Arch. Inst. 1900, p. 64; P. Gardner, J. Hell. Stud. 1899, p. 259, shows reason for thinking that the painting on the σκηναί represented architectural decoration, perhaps of an elaborate kind.]

[427] [Vitruvius, vii. 5. 5, says that Apaturius of Alabanda, about the middle of the first century B.C., treated the architectural back-scene in a fantastic manner, and it is therefore probable, though the inference is not certain, that the style in a simpler form had been in vogue for some time previously. A terra-cotta from the S. Angelo collection, belonging to the first or second century B.C., presents a back-scene of two stories (Röm. Mitth. xii. p. 140; Bethe, Jahrb. Arch. Inst. 1900, p. 61). There is also a vase-painting from Magna Graecia in Madrid by Assteas, representing the Mad Heracles murdering his child (Baumeister, Denkm. 732; Bethe, l.c., p. 60), with an architectural background of two stories enclosed on both sides, and with a roof. As Assteas painted in the fourth century B.C. (Robert, art. Assteas, in Pauly-Wiss. Encycl.), Bethe, l.c., argues that the architectural back-scene was known in Magna Graecia, and probably therefore in Greece proper, at that date. But it is uncertain whether the scene represents an actual stage performance. The murder, so far as we know, was never presented on the stage: it took place in a room. The scene depicted may therefore represent the scene as narrated by a messenger, and the buildings cannot be assumed to be a stage background. The inferences from the terra-cotta are equally disputed. (Dörpfeld, Jahrb. Arch. Inst. 1901, pp. 27 ff.; Graef., Hermes 1901, pp. 81 ff.) Cp. note on p. 172.]

[428] Vitruv. v. 6; Poll. iv. 124.

[429] The point of course is not, as Dörpfeld seems to imply (Jahrb. Arch. Inst. 1901, p. 25; Ath. Mitth. 1903, pp. 389, 406), whether there was ever a chorus or not at this time; but that there was no longer a chorus in close communication with the actors, as in some plays of Aeschylus, and therefore requiring a low stage. Bethe is, however, not justified in assuming that there was _no_ stage in Aeschylus’ time (see below, p. 172). A low one would allow sufficient intercourse between chorus and actors.

[430] Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 452.

[431] Poll. iv. 127. See below, p. 148.

[432] Athen. de Mach., p. 29 (Wesch.) κατεσκεύασαν δέ τινες ἐν πολιορκίᾳ κλιμάκων γένη παραπλήσια τοῖς τιθεμένοις ἐν τοῖς θεάτροις πρὸς τὰ προσκήνια τοῖς ὑποκριταῖς. The meaning of this passage has been much disputed. But Weissmann (Scenische Anweis. pp. 49 ff.) has shown conclusively, as it seems to me, from a parallel passage in Apollodorus περὶ κλιμάκων, that Athenaeus is referring, not to ladders used on the stage for mounting the back-scene, but to steps about 12 feet high, placed in front of the stage.

[433] See Fig. 13. Other specimens are given in Baumeister, Denkmäler, ii. pp. 819, 820; Griechische Theater, pp. 322-324.

[434] Wieseler, Denkmäl. iv. 5.

[435] Puchstein, Griech. Bühne, pp. 17 ff.

[436] Griech. Theater, p. 113.

[437] Ancient Athens, p. 435.

[438] Fürtwängler, Sitzungsber. der Akad. der Wiss. zu München, 1901, pp. 411-6: q.v. for further arguments.

[439] Puchstein, l.c., p. 138.

[440] Tafel iii.

[441] Cp. p. 87. Dörpfeld’s objection that the shape is not that of such seat-steps is disposed of by a comparison with other seat-steps elsewhere; Puchstein, l.c., p. 139. The inscription is C. I. A. i. 499.

[442] l.c., p. 136.

[443] Above, p. 119, and below, § 13.

[444] See note on p. 128.

[445] Aristot. Poet. c. 18, ad fin.

[446] The illustration is taken from Lanckoronski, Städte Pamphyliens und Pisidiens (Wien, 1892), vol. i. plate 27.

[447] Vitruv. v. 6; Poll. iv. 124.

[448] Müller, Bühnenalt., p. 28.

[449] See Lanckoronski, Städte Pamphyliens und Pisidiens, vol. i. pp. 51 ff., and plate 14 (Perge), vol. ii. pp. 92 ff., and plates 10-13 (Termessos), pp. 152 ff., and plate 26 (Sagalassos); Texier, Description de l’Asie Mineure, vol. iii. plates 181 and 182 (Patara), plate 215 (Myra). The stage at Termessos was 8 feet high, that at Patara 8½ feet, that at Sagalassos 9 feet. At Magnesia and at Tralles, where in other respects the theatres were more completely Romanized, the height of the stages was 7 ft. 6 in. and 9 ft. 10 in. respectively (Griech. Theater, p. 156). See also Puchstein, Griech. Bühne, on all these theatres.

[450] Griech. Theater, pp. 150 ff.

[451] See Excavations at Megalopolis, Supplementary Paper published by the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, 1892; Puchstein, Griech. Bühne, pp. 88 ff. The plan is copied from Griech. Theater, p. 134.

[452] From Griech. Theater, p. 144. For the description of the theatre, see ibid., pp. 144 ff.; Chamonard, Bull. Corr. Hell., 1896, pp. 256 ff.; Puchstein, l.c., pp. 53 ff.

[453] Side-wings (παρασκήνια) are mentioned not infrequently in the Delian inscriptions for 274 and 269 B.C. (Bull. Corr. Hell., 1894, p. 162) as forming part of the theatre. But the present proscenium was probably erected in the second century. At that date the permanent side-wings must have been abolished.

[454] Dindorf, Prolegom. de Comoed. p. 29 καὶ ὅτε μὲν πρὸς τοὺς ὑποκριτὰς διελέγετο (ὁ χορὸς ὁ κωμικός), πρὸς τὴν σκηνὴν ἀφεώρα, ὅτε δὲ ἀπελθόντων τῶν ὑποκριτῶν τοὺς ἀναπαίστους διεξῄει, πρὸς τὸν δῆμον ἀπεστρέφετο. Ibid. p. 36 εἰσῄει (ὁ χορὸς ὁ κωμικὸς) ἐν τετραγώνῳ σχήματι, ἀφορῶν εἰς τοὺς ὑποκριτάς. Cp. ibid. p. 21; Dübner, Prolegom. de Comoed. p. 20; Schol. Aristoph. Equit. 505.

[455] G. Hermann, Opusc. vi. 2, pp. 152 ff. The passage occurs in Suidas and Etym. Mag., _s.v._ σκηνή; and in a more complete form in Schol. Gregor. Nazianz. 355 B. The last version runs as follows:—μετὰ τὴν σκηνὴν εὐθὺς καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια ἡ ὀρχήστρα. αὕτη δέ ἐστιν ὁ τόπος ὁ ἐκ σανίδων ἔχων τὸ ἔδαφος, ἐφ’ οὗ θεατρίζουσιν οἱ μῖμοι. εἶτα μετὰ τὴν ὀρχήστραν βωμὸς ἦν τοῦ Διονύσου, τετράγωνον οἰκοδόμημα κενὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ μέσου, ὃ καλεῖται θυμέλη παρὰ τοῦ θύειν. μετὰ τὴν θυμέλην ἡ κονίστρα, τουτέστι τὸ κάτω ἔδαφος τοῦ θεάτρου. It is clear that ὀρχήστρα here means the stage. This appears not only from the context, but also from the fact that it is said to have been the place for the μῖμοι. Wieseler bases upon the above passage his peculiar theory that the ‘thymele’ was the platform for the chorus, and not an altar at all. He relies on the words τετράγωνον οἰκοδόμημα κενόν. It is true that the passage is obscure. But if it proves one thing more than another, it proves that the ‘thymele’ was the altar of Dionysus, and stood in the orchestra.

[456] See above, p. 108.

[457] In addition to the scholium quoted in the preceding note, the following passages are cited to prove that θυμέλη sometimes = the special platform for the chorus, between the orchestra and the stage:—(1) Anthol. Pal. vii. 21 πολλάκις ἐν θυμέλῃσι καὶ ἐν σκηνῇσι τεθηλὼς | βλαισὸς Ἀχαρνίτης κισσὸς κ.τ.λ. (2) Corp. Ins. Gr. 6750 δόξαν φωνήεσσαν ἐνὶ σκηναῖσι λαβοῦσαν | παντοίης ἀρετῆς ἐν μείμοις, εἶτα χοροῖσι | πολλάκις ἐν θυμέλαις. (3) Schol. Aristid. iii, p. 536 (Dindf.) ὁ χορὸς ὅτε εἰσῄει ἐν τῇ ὀρχήστρᾳ ᾗ (MS. ἣ) ἐστι θυμέλη. (4) Poll. iv. 123 ἡ δὲ ὀρχήστρα τοῦ χοροῦ, ἐν ᾗ καὶ ἡ θυμέλη, εἴτε βῆμά τι οὖσα εἴτε βωμός. (5) Isidor. Origg. xviii. 47 ‘et dicti thymelici, quod olim in orchestra stantes cantabant super pulpitum quod thymele vocabatur.’ In the first and second passages θυμέλη obviously = ὀρχήστρα. In the third passage it = ὀρχήστρα or βωμὸς Διονύσου, according as ἥ or ᾗ is read. In the fourth passage there is apparently a confusion of the two meanings of θυμέλη as ‘a stage’ and ‘an altar’. In the fifth passage the two meanings of ‘orchestra’ and ‘stage’ are confused. [Cp. p. 108, n.]

[458] Horace, Ars Poet. 278-80 ‘post hunc personae pallaeque repertor honestae | Aeschylus et modicis instravit pulpita tignis | et docuit magnumque loqui nitique cothurno.’ [The passage becomes still more significant if we translate ‘tignis’ ‘posts’, i.e. uprights. It bears this sense in Caes. B. G. iv. 17, 3. ‘Tigna bina sesquipedalia paulum ab imo praeacuta ... in flumen defixerat.’ See P. Gardner, J. Hell. Stud. 1899, p. 257.]

[459] Höpken, De Theatro Attico, Bonn, 1884.

[460] Vitruv. v. 7 ‘ita a tribus centris hac descriptione ampliorem habent orchestram Graeci et scaenam recessiorem minoreque latitudine pulpitum, quod λογεῖον appellant, ideo quod eo tragici et comici actores in scaena peragunt, reliqui autem artifices suas per orchestram praestant actiones, itaque ex eo scaenici et thymelici graece separatim nominantur. Eius logei altitudo non minus debet esse pedum decem, non plus duodecim.’ Whether under ‘reliqui artifices’ Vitruvius included the dramatic chorus is very doubtful. The dramatic chorus had almost disappeared in his day. Moreover ‘thymelici’ as opposed to ‘scaenici’ generally means the competitors in musical and literary contests, as opposed to the competitors in dramatic contests. But the words of Vitruvius about the position of the actors upon the stage are free from all ambiguity. [Cp. Frei, de Certaminibus Thymelicis. Dörpfeld’s suggestion (Deutsche Littztg. 1901, p. 1816) that dramatic actors were called σκηνικοί because they were nearer the σκηνή, and musical performers θυμελικοί as being in the centre of the orchestra, round the θυμέλη, forces the words to fit his theory, but gives a far less natural meaning to the distinction. According to this, the members of the chorus in the drama also ought to be called θυμελικοί.]

[461] Ibid. v. 6.

[462] Griech. Theater, p. 364.

[463] Bull. Corr. Hell. 1896, pp. 577 ff.; Athen. Mittheil. 1897, pp. 444 ff.; 1903, p. 386, &c.

[464] See above, p. 135.

[465] [The discussion is continued by Bethe, Hermes, 1898, pp. 313 ff., and Dörpfeld, Ath. Mitth. 1898, pp. 326 ff.; 1903, pp. 424 ff. The latter admits that the Hellenistic stage corresponds better in depth with Vitruvius’ rule, and his further arguments in support of his theory are very unconvincing. (As regards some of them, see pp. 158 ff.) In various other details the Hellenistic and Asiatic theatres nearly all deviate from the exact figures given by Vitruvius, though the approximations are in most cases close. One theatre corresponds in one point with the figures given, one in another, as one would expect: and in most points, other than those above mentioned, neither the Hellenistic nor the Asiatic type has much advantage over the other in respect of precise correspondence. (See Noack, Philologus, lviii, pp. 9 ff.) The clearest result of Dörpfeld’s controversy with Bethe, and later with Puchstein, is that theatres of both types varied much more than most writers have allowed. Why should they not have done so? At the same time, Vitruvius’ rules are as nearly in accordance with the general features of the Hellenistic type as general rules can be reasonably expected to be.]

[466] Poll. iv. 123 καὶ σκηνὴ μὲν ὑποκριτῶν ἴδιον, ἡ δὲ ὀρχήστρα τοῦ χοροῦ. Dörpfeld (p. 347, and Ath. Mitth. 1903, p. 419) says that σκηνή here = ‘the stage-buildings’. But the mention of the λογεῖον in the previous line of Pollux, and the description of the ὑποσκήνιον, almost immediately afterwards, as ὑπὸ τὸ λογεῖον κείμενον, clearly show that the type of theatre described by Pollux was one which possessed a stage. If so, this stage must have been used by the actors.

[467] Poll. iv. 127 εἰσελθόντες δὲ κατὰ τὴν ὀρχήστραν ἐπὶ τὴν σκηνὴν ἀναβαίνουσι διὰ κλιμάκων. Here too Dörpfeld (p. 347, and Ath. Mitth. 1903, p. 406) thinks σκηνή = the house in the background, and that the sentence refers to cases like Aristoph. Nub. 1486, where Strepsiades climbs on to the roof. But why should the actors have used steps to mount the house only when they entered the theatre by the orchestra? They would need them just as much if they entered by the doors in the back-scene.

[468] Schol. Ran. 183 ἠλλοιῶσθαι χρὴ τὴν σκηνὴν καὶ εἶναι κατὰ τὴν Ἀχερουσίαν λίμνην τὸν τόπον ἐπὶ τοῦ λογείου ἢ ἐπὶ τῆς ὀρχήστρας. Ibid. 299 ἀποροῦσι δέ τινες πῶς ἀπὸ τοῦ λογείου περιελθὼν καὶ κρυφθεὶς ὄπισθεν τοῦ ἱερέως τοῦτο λέγει. φαίνονται δὲ οὐκ εἶναι ἐπὶ τοῦ λογείου ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ τῆς ὀρχήστρας. Schol. Equit. 149 ἵνα, φησίν, ἐκ τῆς παρόδου ἐπὶ τὸ λογεῖον ἀναβῇ. διὰ τί οὖν ἐκ τῆς παρόδου; τοῦτο γὰρ οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον. Ibid. 506 λέγεται δὲ παράβασις ... ἐπειδὴ παραβαίνει ὁ χορὸς τὸν τόπον. ἑστᾶσι μὲν γὰρ κατὰ στοῖχον οἱ πρὸς τὴν ὀρχήστραν (i.e. the stage) ἀποβλέποντες· ὅταν δὲ παραβῶσιν, ἐφεξῆς ἑστῶτες καὶ πρὸς τοὺς θεατὰς βλέποντες τὸν λόγον ποιοῦνται. Vit. Aesch. p. 8 (Dindf.) τὰ γὰρ δράματα συμπληροῦσιν οἱ πρεσβύτατοι τῶν θεῶν, καὶ ἔστι τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς σκηνῆς καὶ τῆς ὀρχήστρας θεῖα πάντα πρόσωπα.

[469] See above, p. 144, and note 1.

[470] Griech. Theater, p. 348.

[471] Griech. Theater, pp. 103, 113-16, 118.

[472] [Noack (Philologus, lviii. p. 6) argues that the reason was that at the north end, where the rock is not cut away, it is much higher, and the cutting and removal would be very expensive. But we know nothing of the willingness or unwillingness of the Sicyonians to spend money on public and religious objects, and the simpler theory seems to be that the space was not wanted. The same remark applies to Noack’s explanation of the case of Eretria by considerations of expense.]

[473] [Noack, l.c., contends that the division of the skene and filling of half the space with earth is later work, and throws no light on the scheme of the Hellenistic theatre. This is very doubtful; but even if it were proved the other cases quoted would be sufficient for the argument in the text.]

[474] See above, p. 125.

[475] This point is well brought out by Chamonard, Bull. Corr. Hell. 1896, p. 296.

[476] Griech. Theater, p. 381.

[477] Chamonard, l.c., p. 294.

[478] Griech. Theater, p. 381.

[479] See above, p. 124.

[480] Lanckoronski, Städte Pamphyliens, &c., vol. ii. plate 10.

[481] Griech. Theater, p. 380. [Also Noack, Philologus, lviii. pp. 2 ff.; to whom Puchstein, Griech. Bühne, pp. 30 ff., replies sufficiently. The evidence of the vases (see below), where actors are shown acting _on_ a stage with columns in front, is conclusive against his contention that the _only_ proper support for a stage is a wall, and that therefore the columns of the proscenium can only represent a back-scene.]

[482] On the subject of these vase-paintings see especially Heydemann, Die Phlyakendarstellungen auf bemalten Vasen, Jahrb. Kais. Deutsch. Archäol. Inst. 1886, pp. 260 ff. Bethe, Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Theaters, pp. 278 ff. Reisch, in Griech. Theater, pp. 311 ff.

[483] They are taken from Wieseler’s Denkmäler, ix. 14 and 15 (= Baumeister, figs. 1828 and 1830).

[484] Fig. 13. Cp. the specimens in Wieseler’s Denkmäl. ix. 8; Griech. Theater, pp. 315, 322, and 323; Baumeister’s Denkmäl., figs. 902, 903, 1826, 1827, 1829.

[485] Fig. 14. Cp. also the specimen in Griech. Theater, p. 318.

[486] Fig. 13. Cp. also Griech. Theater, pp. 322-4; Baumeister, figs. 902, 903.

[487] Baumeister, fig. 903. Griech. Theater, p. 322.

[488] Griech. Theater, p. 327.

[489] [The same must be said of his later suggestion (Jahrb. Arch. Inst. 1901, p. 36) that the columns on the Phlyakes vases are not really curtailed, and do not therefore point to a taller stage, but are complete and imply a stage between three and four feet high.]

[490] Griech. Theater, p. 147.

[491] Puchstein, Griech. Bühne, p. 24.

[492] Griech. Theater, p. 361.

[493] The stage at Athens was about 9 ft. 3 in.; at Epidaurus about 10½ ft. (Griech. Theater, pp. 78, 128). That at Delos was about 10 ft. (Chamonard, Bull. Corr. Hell. 1896, p. 306). As Lechat (Épidaure, p. 208) points out, it is necessary, in calculating the depth, not to measure from wall to wall, but to take into account the projecting cornice. In some cases, as he also remarks, the wall of the back-scene may have been narrower than the wall beneath, on which it rested; and this would add slightly to the depth of the stage.

[494] These facts and measurements have been kindly supplied to me by Dr. Gray.

[495] Griech. Theater, p. 342; Ath. Mitth. 1898, pp. 337, 345, &c.

[496] Fougères, Mantinée et l’Arcadie, pp. 165 ff. According to Dörpfeld’s theory that the proscenium was the back-scene, these lowest seats would be on a level with the roof of the back-scene, which is absurd. His argument that in cases where a removal of the lower rows or steps of seats is certain (as at Assos, Pergamon, and Delphi), we may assume that the theatre was converted from the supposed stageless Hellenistic type to the Asiatic, is most unconvincing. Why were the rows not similarly removed at Priene and Magnesia, though the high stage was erected there? If he can suppose that in these cases seats were allowed to remain which were bad for dramatic performances, why not in other cases?

[497] Wochenschr. für Klass. Phil. 1899, p. 260.

[498] [For controversy on this point, cf. A. Müller, Unters. zu den Bühnenalt., pp. 108 ff.; Dörpfeld, Ath. Mitth. 1899, p. 310; Müller, Philologus, lix. p. 330. Müller accepts Maass’ conclusions, though he corrects some of his figures. Both Müller and Dörpfeld calculate how much of the orchestra or of the actor on the stage could be seen by the spectators in different parts of different theatres. But any conclusions drawn from such calculations are precarious; we have no reason to suppose that there was a larger proportion of good seats in ancient theatres than in modern; still less that the front seats were all necessarily better for seeing the actors, any more than front seats or other seats of honour are in many cases in modern theatres.]

[499] Griech. Theater, p. 342.

[500] Athen. Mittheil. 1893, p. 410.

[501] Griech. Theater, pp. 138, 139.

[502] See Puchstein, Griech. Bühne, p. 88; and P. Gardner, J. Hell. Stud. 1899, p. 258.

[503] See above, p. 138.

[504] Griech. Theater, p. 146.

[505] Vitruv. v. 6.

[506] Griech. Theater, pp. 385 ff.

[507] See above, p. 135.

[508] See above, p. 118.

[509] Griech. Theater, p. 365. Ath. Mitth. 1903, p. 395.

[510] On these points see below, pp. 209-15. Even if we suppose that the theologeion was used in the cases mentioned on p. 213 to exhibit the deus ex machina, the text of the plays shows that the god appeared _above_ the roof, and not upon it. Cp. Ion. 1549 ὑπερτελὴς οἴκων, Orest. 1631 ἐν αἰθέρος πτυχαῖς.

[511] See below, p. 186.

[512] [It is also argued (Noack, Philologus, 1899, 1; Robert, Gött. Gel. Anz. 1902, 418; Dörpfeld, Ath. Mitth. 1903, p. 403) that, because in all the Roman and Graeco-Roman theatres, where the actors stood on the logeion, the back-scene which formed their background was decorated with columns, while the proscenium was not so decorated, it follows that when the proscenium _was_ so decorated, i.e. in the earlier periods, it and not the wall above and behind the logeion must have been the actors’ background, and the actors must have played in front of the proscenium. But this is no proof at all, unless it is assumed that decorations were _only_ employed to make backgrounds for actors, and _only_ disused because not wanted for this purpose. This is neither likely in itself, nor is it confirmed by anything in the evidence.

Dörpfeld also argues (Ath. Mitth. 1903, p. 396) that the grooves for wheels, of which traces are found leading out of the door in the back-scene on to the logeion at Eretria, prove that the logeion was used by gods only, as ordinary personages in chariots came only through the side entrances into the orchestra. But all that can be argued from these grooves is that the logeion was used for something on wheels, whether chariots or the ekkyklema, which Dörpfeld rejects. There is nothing to show who used the vehicle, whatever it may have been. If an actor could do so when representing a god, he could do so when representing a mortal. Cp. Fossum, Amer. J. Arch. 1898, p. 187; cp. P. Gardner, J. Hell. Stud. 1899, p. 252.]

[513] Aristot. Probl. xix. 15 τὰ μὲν ἀπὸ σκηνῆς οὐκ ἀντίστροφα, τὰ δὲ τοῦ χοροῦ ἀντίστροφα· ὁ μὲν γὰρ ὑποκριτὴς ἀγωνιστής, ὁ δὲ χορὸς ἧττον μιμεῖται. Poet. c. 12 ἴδια δὲ τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς σκηνῆς καὶ κομμοί ... κομμός δὲ θρῆνος κοινὸς χοροῦ καὶ ἀπὸ σκηνῆς.

[514] Poet. c. 24 διὰ τὸ ἐν μὲν τῇ τραγῳδίᾳ μὴ ἐνδέχεσθαι ἅμα πραττόμενα πολλὰ μέρη μιμεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς καὶ τῶν ὑποκριτῶν μέρος μόνον. Cp. cc. 13, 17.

[515] Griech. Theater, pp. 284, 346.

[516] [Flickinger (The Meaning of ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς in Writers of the Fourth Century, Chicago, 1902) tries to show that ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς in Aristotle and Demosthenes does not mean ‘on the stage’ in any sense which would imply an elevated stage, but simply ‘at the performance’, ‘as part of a play’, &c., like ἐπὶ θέατρον later. He succeeds in interpreting the passages consistently with this, and in showing that in later writers the words often bore this meaning. But the changed application of many technical terms, e.g. ὀρχήστρα, θυμέλη, &c., in later writers shows that no reliance is to be placed on the supposed analogy; and the other meaning still seems by far the most natural in Aristotle. Dörpfeld (Deutsch. Littztg. 1901, p. 1817) thinks that the absence of the expression ἀπὸ τῆς ὀρχήστρας to balance ἀπὸ τῆς σκηνῆς is very significant as proving that all performers alike were in the orchestra. It needs only the most elementary logic to dispose of this argument. Cp. Müller, Unters. zu den Bühnenalt., for the full history of the words σκηνή, &c.]

[517] Equit. 148 δεῦρο δεῦρ’, ὦ φίλτατε, | ἀνάβαινε σωτὴρ τῇ πόλει καὶ νῷν φανείς. Acharn. 732 ἄμβατε ποττὰν μᾶδδαν. Vesp. 1342 ἀνάβαινε δεῦρο χρυσομηλολόνθιον.

[518] Eccles. 1151 τί δῆτα διατρίβεις ἔχων, ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἄγεις | τασδὶ λαβών; ἐν ὅσῳ δὲ καταβαίνεις, ἐγὼ | ἐπᾴσομαι κ.τ.λ. Vesp. 1514 ἀτὰρ καταβατέον γ’ ἐπ’ αὐτούς. In the last passage καταβατέον might perhaps mean ‘I must contend with them’. But it is more probable that the meaning here is the same as in the other passage.

[519] Bodensteiner, Scenische Fragen, pp. 699, 700. Capps, The Stage in the Greek Theatre, pp. 67, 68.

[520] Equit. 169 ἀλλ’ ἐπανάβηθι κἀπὶ τοὐλεὸν τοδί. The significance of this line, as regards the present question, was first pointed out by Zacher. Philologus, 1896, p. 181. Cp. Müller, l.c., pp. 1 ff.

[521] Harzmann, Quaestiones Scenicae, 1889. White, The Stage in Aristophanes, 1891. Capps, The Stage in the Greek Theatre, 1891. Bodensteiner, Scenische Fragen, 1893. Weissmann, Die scenische Aufführung der griechischen Dramen, 1893. Hampel, Was lehrt Aeschylos’ Orestie für die Theaterfrage? 1899. Engelmann, Archäologische Studien zu den Tragikern, 1900. Krause, Quaestiones Aristophaneae Scenicae, 1903.

[522] Eur. El. 489, Ion 727, Herc. Fur. 119. In the last passage it is the chorus which makes the complaint; so that in this case, if there was any visible ascent, it cannot have been the ascent on to the stage.

[523] Eur. Med. 1275. Cp. Agam. 1344, Cyclops 630, Hipp. 780, Hec. 1042, &c.

[524] Aesch. Choeph. 22, 1063; Eum. 140. Eur. Troad. 176; Hel. 385, 517. In Aristoph. Av. 667 Procne (the flute-player of the chorus) enters from the back-scene, and then descends into the orchestra. Several other instances are given by Capps, pp. 9, 10; but they are all very doubtful.

[525] See below, pp. 191, 201.

[526] See below, p. 191.

[527] The following instances appear to be certain—Aesch. Suppl. 208, 832; Choeph. 22 ff. Soph. Oed. Col. 826 ff. Eur. Suppl. 1, 815: Hel. 1627 ff.: Rhesus 681; Iph. Aul. 599. Aristoph. Pax 246 ff. Many other examples will be found in the treatises already mentioned; but the evidence for most of them appears to be very slight.

[528] Griech. Theater, pp. 353 ff.

[529] Phot. and Hesych. s.v. λαυροστάται.

[530] [Seats of honour are not of course necessarily the best for seeing or hearing (see p. 159, note), but they are not likely to be the worst.]

[531] Griech. Theater, p. 363.

[532] See above, p. 118.

[533] [Frei, De certaminibus thymelicis, traces back to the second half of the fourth century the distinction of θυμελικοὶ and σκηνικοὶ ἀγῶνες, and so proves the existence of a stage at that time. Engelmann, Archäol. Stud. zu den Tragikern, supports Dörpfeld’s view by reference to vase paintings, which he thinks were suggested by theatrical scenes, and represent actions taking place in the orchestra, with the columnar προσκήνιον as background. But the background could in most cases be equally well the back of the stage; and it is not certain that the vases in question present dramatic scenes at all. Columns, &c., are common on all vases to indicate a house or a temple, where there is no reference to a stage; and in black-figured vases, where all such reference is out of the question, we find Prometheus and Odysseus tied to columns instead of to a rock or a mast. See E. A. Gardner, Class. Rev. 1901, p. 432.]

[534] Bethe, Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Theaters, pp. 205 ff.

[535] Scenische Aufführung, p. 37. Jahrb. für classische Philologie, 1895, pp. 673 ff. See above, p. 167.

[536] Jahrb. für class. Philologie, 1894, pp. 161 ff.

[537] Hermes, 1897, pp. 450 ff.

[538] Vitruv. v. 6.

[539] Plut., Non posse suaviter, &c. 1096 B.

[540] Vitruv. v. 5.

[541] Id. v. 9.

[542] Plut. Pericles, 160 A. Pausan. i. 14. I. See Gardner, Ancient Athens; Harrison, Primitive Athens.

[543] Same references.

[544] Val. Max. ii. 4. 6. C. I. G. 4283.

[545] Plut. X. orat. 841 F.

[546] Pausan. i. 21. I.

[547] Griech. Theater, p. 71.

[548] Suidas s.v. σαυτὴν ἐπαινεῖς.

[549] See above, p. 87.

[550] Schol. Aristid. iii. p. 535, Dindf. So Wilamowitz, Aristoteles und Athen, i. p. 263. Christ, however (Sitzungs. bayer. Akad. der Wissen. 1894, p. 3), thinks the statement about the statues is true, though the scholiast was mistaken in applying it to the passage in Aristides.

[551] Athen., p. 19 E.

[552] C. I. A. iii. 469.

[553] Griech. Theater, p. 70. For the inscription on the Xenocles monument see C. I. A. ii. 1289.

[554] C. I. A. ii. 551.

[555] Hesych. s.v. ᾠδεῖον.

[556] See ch. ii.

[557] Aelian. Var. Hist. ii. 28. On the outside of the arms, in the throne of the priest of Dionysus, there are two bas-reliefs, in which kneeling Cupids are depicted in the act of setting cocks to fight. The significance of the reliefs is explained by the fact that the annual cock-fight was held in the theatre.

[558] Dem. Meid. § 9.

[559] Thuc. viii. 93, 94.

[560] Plut. Phoc. 757 D.

[561] Id. Demetr. 905 A. Müller (Bühnenalt. p. 74) is mistaken in stating, on the authority of Diod. xvi. 84, that on the news of the capture of Elatea in 339 the Athenians hastily assembled in the theatre. That they met in the Pnyx is proved by the passage in Dem. de Cor. § 169. Diodorus is merely using the language of his own time, when the theatre was the regular meeting-place.

[562] Harpocrat. s.v. περίπολος.

[563] Poll. viii. 132.

[564] Plut. Lycurg. 51 E. Athen. 19 E. Alciphron iii. 20.

[565] Dion Chrysost. or. xxxi. p. 386 (Dindf.). Philostrat. vit. Apoll. iv. 22.

[566] Aesch. Suppl. 189.

[567] Pers. 659. The palace is often referred to (159, 230, 524, 849, 1038); but this does not show that it was supposed to be visible. And the fact that Atossa made her first entrance on a chariot (159, 607), though coming from the palace, seems to prove that it was out of sight.

[568] Septem 95, 240, 265, 549, 823.

[569] Agam. 3, Choeph. 22, Eum. 35, 242.

[570] Reisch (Griech. Theater, pp. 194, 200) thinks the actors’ booth was originally in the side-entrance to the orchestra. He thinks the first stage-buildings were erected about 465, when scenery was introduced; and that these buildings were henceforth used for actors’ rooms. But it is much simpler to suppose that the actors’ booth stood fronting the spectators from the first, and that it was gradually converted into a stage-building.

[571] Aristot. Poet. c. 4 τρεῖς δὲ καὶ σκηνογραφίαν Σοφοκλῆς. Vitruv. vii. praef. § 11 primum Agatharchus Athenis Aeschylo docente tragoediam scaenam fecit et de ea commentarium reliquit. Prof. Jebb (Dict. Antiq. ii. p. 816) thinks the two statements may be reconciled by supposing that the words ‘Aeschylo docente tragoediam’ merely fix the date, without implying that Aeschylus had anything to do with the innovation. [Prof. P. Gardner (J. Hell. Stud. 1899, p. 253) points out that, according to Vitruvius, Agatharchus, like Democritus and Anaxagoras, seems to have studied perspective theoretically; and the story that he was enticed by Alcibiades into his house, and not released till he had painted its interior, combined with Vitruvius’ notice, suggests that he was precisely the kind of painter for a stage; while the date suggested has nothing chronologically against it.]

[572] Vitruv. v. 6.

[573] Viz. Soph. O. R., Antig., Electr., Trach.; Eur. Alc., Med., Hipp., Herc. Fur., Phoen., Hel., Orest., Bacch., Ion, Iph. Taur., Andr., Suppl., Heraclid.

[574] Viz. Eur. Hec., Troad., Iph. Aul., Rhesus.

[575] Viz. the Wasps, Peace, Clouds, Frogs, Ecclesiazusae, Plutus.

[576] [This was so not only in vase paintings, but in such elaborate works as those of Polygnotus at Delphi: cp. P. Gardner, J. Hell. Stud. 1899, p. 254.]

[577] [See P. Gardner, J. Hell. Stud. 1899, pp. 255 ff.]

[578] Bacch. 590, 1211; Orest. 1569; Iph. Taur. 113, 130.

[579] Ion 190 ff. [It is noticeable that the occurrence of the technical terms of architecture and other arts is particularly common in Euripides, who shows special acquaintance with the arts and their processes. This may perhaps confirm the otherwise uncertain tradition (Vit. Eur.) that he was once a painter: cp. Huddilston, The Attitude of the Greek Tragedians towards Art.]

[580] Such scenes were depicted on the periaktoi, Poll. iv. 126, 131. See below, p. 197.

[581] Eur. Hel. 1, Troad. 1256; Soph. El. 4 ff.

[582] Poll. iv. 131 καταβλήματα ... κατεβάλλετο ἐπὶ τὰς περιάκτους ὄρος δεικνύντα ἢ θάλατταν ἢ ποταμὸν ἢ ἄλλο τι τοιοῦτον. Anon. de comoed. (xx. 28 Dübner) πολυτελέσι δαπάναις κατεσκευάζετο ἡ σκηνὴ ... πεποικιλμένη παραπετάσμασι καὶ ὀθόναις λευκαῖς καὶ μελαίναις ... εἰς τύπον θαλάσσης ταρτάρου ᾅδου ... γῆς καὶ οὐρανοῦ κ.τ.λ.

[583] Poll. iv. 131 καταβλήματα δὲ ὑφάσματα ἢ πίνακες ἦσαν ἔχοντες γραφὰς τῇ χρείᾳ τῶν δραμάτων προσφόρους· κατεβάλλετο δὲ ἐπὶ τὰς περιάκτους. Ibid. 125 κλίσιον ... παραπετάσμασιν δηλούμενον. Suid. s.v. προσκήνιον τὸ πρὸ τῆς σκηνῆς παραπέτασμα. Anon. de comoed. (xx. 28 Dübner) σκηνὴ πεποικιλμένη παραπετάσμασι καὶ ὀθόναις.

[584] So Müller, Bühnenalt. pp. 118, 142.

[585] Poll. iv. 129 ἡ δὲ διστεγία ποτὲ μὲν ἐν οἴκῳ βασιλείῳ διῆρες δωμάτιον, οἷον ἀφ’ οὗ ἐν Φοινίσσαις ἡ Ἀντιγόνη βλέπει τὸν στρατόν, ποτὲ δὲ καὶ κέραμος, ἀφ’ οὗ βάλλουσι τῷ κεράμῳ· ἐν δὲ κωμῳδίᾳ ἀπὸ τῆς διστεγίας πορνοβοσκοί τι κατοπτεύουσιν ἢ γρᾴδια ἢ γύναια καταβλέπει.

[586] Agam. 3, Phoen. 89, Orest. 1567-75, Acharn. 262, Vesp. 68 and 144, Nub. 1485-1503, Lysist. 864, 874, and 883, Eur. Suppl. 990.

[587] Dict. Antiq. i. pp. 663, 666.

[588] Vitruv. v. 6.

[589] Vitruv. v. 6. Vesp. 379, Eccles. 924, 930, 961-3.

[590] See above, p. 135.

[591] See above, p. 135.

[592] Poll. iv. 124, 126; Vitruv. v. 6.

[593] Vitruv. v. 6 ‘ipsae autem scaenae suas habent rationes explicatas ita uti mediae valvae ornatus habeant aulae regiae, dextra ac sinistra hospitalia.’ Poll. iv. 124 τριῶν δὲ τῶν κατὰ τὴν σκηνὴν θυρῶν ἡ μέση μὲν βασίλειον ἢ σπήλαιον ἢ οἶκος ἔνδοξος ἢ πᾶν τοῦ πρωταγωνιστοῦ τοῦ δράματος, ἡ δὲ δεξιὰ τοῦ δευτεραγωνιστοῦντος καταγώγιον· ἡ δὲ ἀριστερὰ τὸ εὐτελέστατον ἔχει πρόσωπον ἢ ἱερὸν ἐξηρημωμένον, ἢ ἄοικός ἐστιν. ἐν δὲ τραγῳδίᾳ ἡ μὲν δεξιὰ θύρα ξενών ἐστιν, εἱρκτὴ δὲ ἡ λαιά. τὸ δὲ κλίσιον ἐν κωμῳδίᾳ παράκειται παρὰ τὴν οἰκίαν, παραπετάσμασι δηλούμενον, καὶ ἔστι μὲν σταθμὸς ὑποζυγίων ... ἐν δὲ Ἀντιφάνους Ἀκεστρίᾳ καὶ ἐργαστήριον γέγονεν. Throughout this passage Pollux is guilty of his usual fault of converting particular cases into general rules.

[594] See the previous note.

[595] Poll. iv. 126 παρ’ ἑκάτερα δὲ τῶν δύο θυρῶν τῶν περὶ τὴν μέσην ἄλλαι δύο εἶεν ἄν, μία ἑκατέρωθεν, πρὸς ἃς αἱ περίακτοι συμπεπήγασιν. Vitruv. v. 6 ‘secundum ea loca versurae sunt procurrentes, quae efficiunt una a foro, altera a peregre, aditus in scaenam’. Phot. s.v. παρασκήνια· αἱ εἴσοδοι αἱ εἰς τὴν σκηνήν. Schol. Aristoph. Lysist. 321 νῦν ἐστιν ἡμιχόριον τὸ λέγον ἐκ γυναικῶν εἰσερχομένων ἄνωθεν ... τὸ δὲ ἄλλο ἡμιχόριον ἐξ ἀνδρῶν κάτωθεν ἐπερχομένων.

[596] See Harzmann, Quaestiones Scenicae, pp. 43 ff.; Bodensteiner, Scenische Fragen, pp. 703 ff.; Capps, The Stage in the Greek Theatre, pp. 12 ff.; Weissmann, Scenische Aufführung, pp. 25 ff., 76.

[597] Cf. Aesch. Suppl. 1018; Pers. 1076. Eur. Suppl. 1231; Alc. 741. Aristoph. Acharn. 1231; Vesp. 1535; Pax 1357; Ran. 1524. For other instances see Bodensteiner, p. 690. Only one of these cases—the funeral procession in the Alcestis—occurs in the middle of a play.

[598] Alcestis 861; Plutus 253. Capps (pp. 20 ff.) gives some additional instances; but for these there is no clear evidence.

[599] See below, p. 201.

[600] E.g. Oed. Tyr. 1110-21; Agam. 498-503; Ion 392-401; Oed. Col. 310-24. See Harzmann, pp. 43 ff.

[601] E.g. Trach. 178-80, 731-4; Phil. 539-42.

[602] Av. 1-53, Ran. 1-35.

[603] E.g. Bacch. 1216 ff.; Hec. 484 ff.; Aj. 1040 ff. See, for other instances, Harzmann, pp. 45 ff.; Bodensteiner, pp. 716 ff.

[604] See above, pp. 125, 126, for the various devices for such entrances.

[605] Vitruv. v. 6 ‘secundum ea loca versurae sunt procurrentes, quae efficiunt una a foro, altera a peregre, aditus in scaenam’. Vit. Aristoph. (Dindf. Prolegom. de Comoed. p. 36) ὁ κωμικὸς χορὸς συνέστηκεν ἐξ ἀνδρῶν κδʹ. καὶ εἰ μὲν ὡς ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως ἤρχετο ἐπὶ τὸ θέατρον, διὰ τῆς ἀριστερᾶς ἁψῖδος εἰσῄει, εἰ δὲ ὡς ἀπὸ ἀγροῦ, διὰ τῆς δεξιᾶς. Poll.