Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (1.1882-1883)

THE THEATRE OF DIONYSUS.

137

nected with the original scene-structure of the theatre, if indeed it
is early enough to have formed a part of it at all.*

The wall 1-2, the so-called hyposcenium of Phaedrus, is the latest
addition to the theatre of which we have any knowledge. Its position
alone would prove it to be extremely late work, even if bad construc-
tion and other evidence did not betray its date. The line of this
structure was so far advanced into the orchestra as to cut off exit and
entrance by the two Ttapohoi, thus completely shutting in the orchestra:
The western half only of this ruined stage is preserved, with the flight
of steps by which it was reached from the orchestra. The upper
step bears the following inscription : —

~%ol roSe kolKov frev&e, fytkopyie, Oeijrpov
<Pcu$po<; TjoSlXov fiioScoTopos 'Ar#tSo5 ap^os.t

" Phaedrus, Zoilus' son, in life-giving Attica ruler,
Built in thine honor this beautiful stage, O God of the orgy."

Archaeologists are inclined to identify this Phaedrus with the
one whose name, with the . addition of the designation tlaiayt,evs,
the Paeaniun, appears on a sun-dial which is now among the Elgin
Marbles of the British Museum. 1 The inscription upon the dial is
referred by Boeckh to the reign of Septimius Severus (193-211 a.d.) ; §
and if the identity of Phaedrus is assumed as established, our hypo-
scenium must date from the same period. Dittenberger, in the
Corpus Inscriptibnutn Atticarum, assigns it without hesitation to this
or even a later period ; and this is well supported by the character
of the letters of the inscription.

The half of the stage of Phaedrus which remains is adorned with
four groups of figures in high-relief,|| each group being separated from
its neighbor by an unoccupied space, while in the middle, separat-
ing the groups into two pairs, is the crouching figure of a Silenus
in a deep niche. Upon the eastern side of the steps, a second

* The two dotted lines between 6-7 and 1-2 represent a medieval wall which
has been removed by the Archaeological Society of Athens,
f C. I. A., III. 1, No. 239.

% For some discussion of this point, cf. Dyer's Ancient Athens, p. 311; also
Vischer, Xeues Schzveizerisches Museum, 1S63, III. p. 70.
§ C. I. C, No. 522/ " "

|| See the opposite plate, in which the steps of the stage and the reliefs are
shown in two lines.