DOI Artikel:
Waldstein, Charles: [Excavations and discoveries at Eretria, 1891-1895]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8681#0113
THE THEATRE AT ERETRIA.
101
An important fact to bo noted is that such a passage could have been
employed only in particular cases. An actor who is represented as
coming from palace or city or some foreign land could not possibly
appear before the audience as if rising suddenly from the depths of the
earth. Such an apparition must actually be a being from the lower
world, imagined as returning to the light of day. The manner of
entrance would be so clearly seen by the audience and would be so
notable that it must at once suggest such an apparition. The device
can have had no cause for existence, if it was not to contribute to what
we call stage-effect, to heighten illusion; but illusion would have been
utterly lost if an actor who came to herald the return of a king from
Troy had been seen emerging from the earth.
Extant tragedy furnishes examples of such appearances. In the
Persians of Aeschylus, the chorus is urged by Atossa (v. 619, seq.) to
call up the spirit of Darius. The chorus then accompany her libations
with a long hymn of supplication to Darius and to the powers of the
lower world (vv. 621—671). In v. 656, the King is implored : Ikov
tov8' eV dupov Kopv/x^ov o%6ov. Darius appears. He first addresses
the chorus, telling them how he has seen Atossa rd<f)ov 7re\a<{ (v. 675),
and has received her libations, and he further bids the chorus : uyaet?
Be OprjvetT eyyvs kcnwres rdcfrov (v. 677). They have just called on
him to rise above the mound that covers his tomb ; now he finds them
standing close by the tomb. He must appear therefore in the midst
of them, and surely from below. The difficulty of placing the tomb
upon the stage and grouping the chorus there instead of in the orchestra
has always been evident. Such a passageway as that at Eretria would
enable the actor who personated Darius to make his appearance much
more naturally, from beneath the actual surface of the earth and in
the midst of the chorus.
If we are to believe that actors as well as chorus had their places in
the orchestra, the final catastrophe of the Prometheus Bound may have
represented the disappearance of Prometheus and the Oceanides be-
neath its surface. They must, from the play, have shared the same
fate, and together, whether in orchestra or on a stage. At Eretria the
entrance to the passage is so small that its use by so large a group
would certainly present great difficulties. It is possible also that in
Sophocles' Pltiloctctes, and Euripides' Cyclops, the passageway may
have served as the cave which made part of the scene. This, however,
may well he deemed doubtful, and the best evidence is furnished by
101
An important fact to bo noted is that such a passage could have been
employed only in particular cases. An actor who is represented as
coming from palace or city or some foreign land could not possibly
appear before the audience as if rising suddenly from the depths of the
earth. Such an apparition must actually be a being from the lower
world, imagined as returning to the light of day. The manner of
entrance would be so clearly seen by the audience and would be so
notable that it must at once suggest such an apparition. The device
can have had no cause for existence, if it was not to contribute to what
we call stage-effect, to heighten illusion; but illusion would have been
utterly lost if an actor who came to herald the return of a king from
Troy had been seen emerging from the earth.
Extant tragedy furnishes examples of such appearances. In the
Persians of Aeschylus, the chorus is urged by Atossa (v. 619, seq.) to
call up the spirit of Darius. The chorus then accompany her libations
with a long hymn of supplication to Darius and to the powers of the
lower world (vv. 621—671). In v. 656, the King is implored : Ikov
tov8' eV dupov Kopv/x^ov o%6ov. Darius appears. He first addresses
the chorus, telling them how he has seen Atossa rd<f)ov 7re\a<{ (v. 675),
and has received her libations, and he further bids the chorus : uyaet?
Be OprjvetT eyyvs kcnwres rdcfrov (v. 677). They have just called on
him to rise above the mound that covers his tomb ; now he finds them
standing close by the tomb. He must appear therefore in the midst
of them, and surely from below. The difficulty of placing the tomb
upon the stage and grouping the chorus there instead of in the orchestra
has always been evident. Such a passageway as that at Eretria would
enable the actor who personated Darius to make his appearance much
more naturally, from beneath the actual surface of the earth and in
the midst of the chorus.
If we are to believe that actors as well as chorus had their places in
the orchestra, the final catastrophe of the Prometheus Bound may have
represented the disappearance of Prometheus and the Oceanides be-
neath its surface. They must, from the play, have shared the same
fate, and together, whether in orchestra or on a stage. At Eretria the
entrance to the passage is so small that its use by so large a group
would certainly present great difficulties. It is possible also that in
Sophocles' Pltiloctctes, and Euripides' Cyclops, the passageway may
have served as the cave which made part of the scene. This, however,
may well he deemed doubtful, and the best evidence is furnished by