DOI Artikel:
Cushing, William: The Theatre of Thoricus: supplementary report
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8561#0044
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THE THEATRE OF THOR1CUS.
forming the orchestra floor, which on its outer side was raised sixteen
feet above the natural slope of the hill. Below the wall was found
a stone block containing a square hole four inches wide and six inches
<leep. (Plate II. Fig. 6.) This looks like a socket of some kind,
and may have been part of a temporary scene-frame, or of an ordinary
railing along the edge of the retaining wall. The floor of the orchestra
was formed of red earth well beaten down.
It seems easy to believe that this orchestra was intended for the
production of Dionysiac choruses and for other festal celebrations
which needed only a dancing floor. The absence, however, of
foundations for a stage building in this theatre cannot safely be
adduced as negative evidence in favor of the theory of Hopken
and Dorpfeld, that actors and chorus in dramatic representations
performed on the same floor. For the inference is reasonable that
the rustic community of Thoricus, standing alone among their fellow-
Greeks in the open violation of almost every law of architecture in
the construction of their theatre, could have had little appreciation of
the conventional niceties and sobriety of the Greek drama, and hence
made no arrangements for its production.
The Temple. — At the west end of the orchestra and lying parallel
-with the parodos wall are found the ruined foundations of a small
temple, K. (See also Plate II. Fig. 3.) At its west end the stylobate
is cut in the native rock. The entrance was at the east end, where
the lowest of the three steps is in situ. In the northwest corner,
on a level with the stylobate, a pavement is preserved, formed of
pebbles set in mortar. Portions of the cella wall, nearly five feet in
height, are still standing on the north and west sides. It is com-
posed of roughly dressed blocks of the inferior white marble found
in this locality, and in the details of its construction it exactly resembles
the outer wall of the theatre. Parts of the marble cornice and a
section of a marble architrave, all Ionic and roughly dressed, were
discovered near these foundations (see Plate II. Fig. 2), together
with numerous pieces of tiling and antefixae of terra cotta. The
outlines of the antefixae are moulded in the form of the honeysuckle,
and the same pattern is painted on their outer surface.
The position of the cella wall and the character of the architectural
fragments show that this was an Ionic temple in antis. Nothing what-
THE THEATRE OF THOR1CUS.
forming the orchestra floor, which on its outer side was raised sixteen
feet above the natural slope of the hill. Below the wall was found
a stone block containing a square hole four inches wide and six inches
<leep. (Plate II. Fig. 6.) This looks like a socket of some kind,
and may have been part of a temporary scene-frame, or of an ordinary
railing along the edge of the retaining wall. The floor of the orchestra
was formed of red earth well beaten down.
It seems easy to believe that this orchestra was intended for the
production of Dionysiac choruses and for other festal celebrations
which needed only a dancing floor. The absence, however, of
foundations for a stage building in this theatre cannot safely be
adduced as negative evidence in favor of the theory of Hopken
and Dorpfeld, that actors and chorus in dramatic representations
performed on the same floor. For the inference is reasonable that
the rustic community of Thoricus, standing alone among their fellow-
Greeks in the open violation of almost every law of architecture in
the construction of their theatre, could have had little appreciation of
the conventional niceties and sobriety of the Greek drama, and hence
made no arrangements for its production.
The Temple. — At the west end of the orchestra and lying parallel
-with the parodos wall are found the ruined foundations of a small
temple, K. (See also Plate II. Fig. 3.) At its west end the stylobate
is cut in the native rock. The entrance was at the east end, where
the lowest of the three steps is in situ. In the northwest corner,
on a level with the stylobate, a pavement is preserved, formed of
pebbles set in mortar. Portions of the cella wall, nearly five feet in
height, are still standing on the north and west sides. It is com-
posed of roughly dressed blocks of the inferior white marble found
in this locality, and in the details of its construction it exactly resembles
the outer wall of the theatre. Parts of the marble cornice and a
section of a marble architrave, all Ionic and roughly dressed, were
discovered near these foundations (see Plate II. Fig. 2), together
with numerous pieces of tiling and antefixae of terra cotta. The
outlines of the antefixae are moulded in the form of the honeysuckle,
and the same pattern is painted on their outer surface.
The position of the cella wall and the character of the architectural
fragments show that this was an Ionic temple in antis. Nothing what-