DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0305
THE PELOPONNESUS 28I
tlemen, if you examine carefully this platform which
you think is a stage, you will find, I think, the marks
where columns have stood. What you think is a
stage I take to be a stylobate." When the English
resumed their work at Megalopolis the following
year, the so-called stage was examined. Sure enough,
there were the marks of columns. The)' had found
not a stage, but a portico to a great building men-
tioned by Pausanias, the Thersilion. The satisfaction
of the English School in uncovering this great build-
lng partly atoned for the disappointment in not having
found a stage to support the statement of Vitruvius.
A close study of the ruins at Megalopolis suggests
that an older theatre existed, and that the Thersilion
was built about the same time. There were no seats
W either of them ; one was covered and the other
uncovered, and the orchestral circle lay between
them. Two steps led up from the orchestra to the
Thersilion, which was built on an incline. The portico
served as a skend for the actors. In later times the
theatre and the Thersilion were rebuilt. The level of
the orchestra was lowered, and three steps were put
beneath the two already existing. This is the expla-
nation of the five steps at Megalopolis which have no
relation to a staee. In still later times the theatre,
o
which was of enormous size, became too large for the
audience, and a proskcuion was built in the orchestra
to reduce its size.
It is a double tribute to the general accuracy of
Pausanias and the penetration of Curtius that the
plan of Megalopolis made by the latter based on
Pausanias has been proved by the excavations to be
substantially correct.
tlemen, if you examine carefully this platform which
you think is a stage, you will find, I think, the marks
where columns have stood. What you think is a
stage I take to be a stylobate." When the English
resumed their work at Megalopolis the following
year, the so-called stage was examined. Sure enough,
there were the marks of columns. The)' had found
not a stage, but a portico to a great building men-
tioned by Pausanias, the Thersilion. The satisfaction
of the English School in uncovering this great build-
lng partly atoned for the disappointment in not having
found a stage to support the statement of Vitruvius.
A close study of the ruins at Megalopolis suggests
that an older theatre existed, and that the Thersilion
was built about the same time. There were no seats
W either of them ; one was covered and the other
uncovered, and the orchestral circle lay between
them. Two steps led up from the orchestra to the
Thersilion, which was built on an incline. The portico
served as a skend for the actors. In later times the
theatre and the Thersilion were rebuilt. The level of
the orchestra was lowered, and three steps were put
beneath the two already existing. This is the expla-
nation of the five steps at Megalopolis which have no
relation to a staee. In still later times the theatre,
o
which was of enormous size, became too large for the
audience, and a proskcuion was built in the orchestra
to reduce its size.
It is a double tribute to the general accuracy of
Pausanias and the penetration of Curtius that the
plan of Megalopolis made by the latter based on
Pausanias has been proved by the excavations to be
substantially correct.