Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (6.1890-1897 (1897))

THE CHORUS IN THE LATER GREEK DRAMA.

429

(Bull. Cor. Hell., 1894, 85, where Couve rightly draws this infer-
ence from the mention of the lyre). Our present texts afford
abundant proof that actors tampered freely with passages
which would cause them trouble to perform, hut not a shred of
evidence that it was found necessary to alter the parts of the
chorus. On the other hand, a passage in the Iphigenia at Aulis,
which is generally recognized as interpolated (yv. 615 ft'.), re-
quires the intermingling of the chorus with the actors. Christ
(Sitzungsber. d. bayr. Akad. 1894, p. 17) calls for proof that the
Orestes, for example, was ever reproduced after the fourth century.
But this very play furnishes the clearest example of an actor's
interpolation (1366-8, schol.) which was surely made a long time
after the law of Lycurgus for protecting the text of the dramatists
was passed. The Roman tragedy also gives evidence that the
chorus in the-Greek still remained. This applies, of course, to
the production of tragedies in the city theatres at important festi-
vals. The evidence of inscriptions weighs more and more in
favor of this view. One cannot emphasize too strongly the fact
that in Rhodes in the first century before Christ a complete
tetralogy of Sophocles, satyr-drama and all, was reproduced. Nor
is there any reason for believing that this was an exceptional
occurrence. Finally it should be mentioned that the late writers
on music were still familiar with the choral parts of classical
tragedy, evidently from the theatre ("Wilamowitz, Ilerakles i,
181, note 18).

In conclusion I may summarize my argument as follows : The
theory that at the end of the fourth century the actors were ele-
vated from their former position to a stage ten to twelve feet high
is untenable, because (1) the chorus in tragedy, though perhaps
less correctly handled by the later poets as regards its connection
with the plot, was still regularly brought into close contact with
the actors down to at least the end of the Roman republic; (2)
the satyr-drama with its chorus flourished still in Roman times;
(3) the chorus in comedy continued into the third century, mean-
while retaining its connection with the action; (4) the intimate
relation of the chorus to the action in the old tragedies of the
fifth century was not changed in later reproductions. The con-
tinuance for the longest time of the external functions of the