DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47233#0114
THE THEATRE.
98
[CHAP. IV.
is offered by I), which must be considered in its proper place. In some cases there are also doors represented,
leading on to the top of the platform through the scene behind it, for the use of the actors.
In A we see a simple platform or table of the roughest description, just like what we may suppose the
primitive ε’λεός to have been, the ‘ table upon which one man used to mount,4 and enter into dialogue with the
chorus ’ in the first days of the drama. From this the development through B, a rather more regularly built
wooden platform, to the architectural proscenium we see in C, is easy and obvious. The only thing that at
first may seem puzzling is the height. Though this is proportionately greater in C, the scale of the figures shows
that it does not, as represented, approach the prescribed height of 10 to 12 feet. But it is clear that the
architecture is a mere adjunct to the scene, and that it is so much abridged in the representation that no
inferences as to relative size can be drawn from the picture; nor indeed would any inference upon this matter
occur to one accustomed to the conventions of Greek vase-painting, in which, for example, the columns of a
house or temple are not usually represented as higher than a man. Still, with this reservation, we may perhaps
see an increase of height in the platform even upon these vases, as it advances from the simplest to the most
complicated form: even in the height of the platform relative to that of the actors there is a perceptible increase,
and the architectural decoration seems to imply a still greater increase ; viewed in this way, the column front in
C may very well be intended to represent one of these proscenia, 10 to 12 feet in height, with which we are
familiar both from the description of Vitruvius and from extant examples.
An interesting feature in some of these platforms is offered by the flight of steps serving to connect stage
and orchestra, as in B, D, E. That in E is of peculiar importance, when we notice that it is furnished at the top
with hooks, like a scaling-ladder; this at once suggests the passage in Athenaeus Mechanicus (? 210 B.c., acc. to
Fig. D.
Liddell and Scott) (p. 29, Wesch., quoted by A. Muller, Buhnenaltertliumer, p. 25), κατασκεύασαν 8ε' τινες εν
πολιορκία κλιμάκων 'γένη παραπλήσια τοΐς τιθεμενοις εν τοις θεάτροις προς τα προσκήνια τοΐς ύποκριταΐς. It
is not of course to be imagined that the great Attic dramatists devised situations in which actors and chorus would
have to approach one another by means of scaling-ladders, but, as has been repeatedly pointed out, we have no
evidence for the very high stage in the fifth century; a lower platform is more probable upon every ground;
and in a revival of a well-known old play in later times exceptional devices might well be tolerated that
would have brought ridicule on a contemporary play-wright.
Besides the doors already referred to, we have in some instances a representation of the decoration of the
scena, above and behind the proscenium ; in E it is decorated with Ionic columns. In E the platform itself has
a continuous facing, and it seems to be a wooden structure, with a stone frons scenae behind it. If so, it may best
serve to give us a notion of the probable appearance of our wooden platform in front of the great portico at
Megalopolis.
In D we see a frons scenae which is of wood, as well as the proscenium, which is decorated with hangings
of drapery. We see it here in side view, and the peculiar feature of this picture is that the actors are in the act
of mounting the steps from the orchestra on to the stage. It is a comic scene, and shows how advantage could
be taken of this device for comic purposes.
To sum up, these South Italian vase-paintings, owing doubtless to their reproduction of usages which
survived locally in various stages of development, afford us most valuable illustrations of the use of a raised
platform or stage for dramatic purposes in Greek theatres, and thus supplement the evidence on the same subject
which we derive from literary sources and from architectural remains.
E. A. G.
4 Pollux iv. 123, reading anenplvero ϊον.,.ατο.
98
[CHAP. IV.
is offered by I), which must be considered in its proper place. In some cases there are also doors represented,
leading on to the top of the platform through the scene behind it, for the use of the actors.
In A we see a simple platform or table of the roughest description, just like what we may suppose the
primitive ε’λεός to have been, the ‘ table upon which one man used to mount,4 and enter into dialogue with the
chorus ’ in the first days of the drama. From this the development through B, a rather more regularly built
wooden platform, to the architectural proscenium we see in C, is easy and obvious. The only thing that at
first may seem puzzling is the height. Though this is proportionately greater in C, the scale of the figures shows
that it does not, as represented, approach the prescribed height of 10 to 12 feet. But it is clear that the
architecture is a mere adjunct to the scene, and that it is so much abridged in the representation that no
inferences as to relative size can be drawn from the picture; nor indeed would any inference upon this matter
occur to one accustomed to the conventions of Greek vase-painting, in which, for example, the columns of a
house or temple are not usually represented as higher than a man. Still, with this reservation, we may perhaps
see an increase of height in the platform even upon these vases, as it advances from the simplest to the most
complicated form: even in the height of the platform relative to that of the actors there is a perceptible increase,
and the architectural decoration seems to imply a still greater increase ; viewed in this way, the column front in
C may very well be intended to represent one of these proscenia, 10 to 12 feet in height, with which we are
familiar both from the description of Vitruvius and from extant examples.
An interesting feature in some of these platforms is offered by the flight of steps serving to connect stage
and orchestra, as in B, D, E. That in E is of peculiar importance, when we notice that it is furnished at the top
with hooks, like a scaling-ladder; this at once suggests the passage in Athenaeus Mechanicus (? 210 B.c., acc. to
Fig. D.
Liddell and Scott) (p. 29, Wesch., quoted by A. Muller, Buhnenaltertliumer, p. 25), κατασκεύασαν 8ε' τινες εν
πολιορκία κλιμάκων 'γένη παραπλήσια τοΐς τιθεμενοις εν τοις θεάτροις προς τα προσκήνια τοΐς ύποκριταΐς. It
is not of course to be imagined that the great Attic dramatists devised situations in which actors and chorus would
have to approach one another by means of scaling-ladders, but, as has been repeatedly pointed out, we have no
evidence for the very high stage in the fifth century; a lower platform is more probable upon every ground;
and in a revival of a well-known old play in later times exceptional devices might well be tolerated that
would have brought ridicule on a contemporary play-wright.
Besides the doors already referred to, we have in some instances a representation of the decoration of the
scena, above and behind the proscenium ; in E it is decorated with Ionic columns. In E the platform itself has
a continuous facing, and it seems to be a wooden structure, with a stone frons scenae behind it. If so, it may best
serve to give us a notion of the probable appearance of our wooden platform in front of the great portico at
Megalopolis.
In D we see a frons scenae which is of wood, as well as the proscenium, which is decorated with hangings
of drapery. We see it here in side view, and the peculiar feature of this picture is that the actors are in the act
of mounting the steps from the orchestra on to the stage. It is a comic scene, and shows how advantage could
be taken of this device for comic purposes.
To sum up, these South Italian vase-paintings, owing doubtless to their reproduction of usages which
survived locally in various stages of development, afford us most valuable illustrations of the use of a raised
platform or stage for dramatic purposes in Greek theatres, and thus supplement the evidence on the same subject
which we derive from literary sources and from architectural remains.
E. A. G.
4 Pollux iv. 123, reading anenplvero ϊον.,.ατο.