DOI chapter:
Division A: The Agora and adjacent buildings lying to the west and north of the Acropolis, from the city gate to the Prytaneion
DOI chapter:Section V
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0278
ιο6
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. A
rest for ever. The Pnyx was the scene of the celebration.
Half the fun of the piece turns upon that. It was an actual fact
that for three or four days the women who celebrated the Thes-
mophoria held possession of that Pnyx which the women of the
Ecclesiazousae would like to have held for always. If the play
is taken in a straightforward sense, this admits of no question.
The point of the play is not in the least the strong-minded women
in the Ecclesiazousae, it is in the main Euripides himself and
the scandals he attributed to them. The mise en scene, the
assembly, the female herald, the prayer, the debate, the resolu-
tion are simply suggested by the actual fact that the Thesmo-
phoria is celebrated on and about the Pnyx. If proof were
wanted of this, we have it from the lips of the chorus. When
Mnesilochus is discovered, they sing the search-song as they
dance round seeking for another man interloper-
“ Search the whole Pnyx, and search the tents, and search the entrance-
places round,
If by chance some other man be in the precinct skulking found.”
And the commentators must needs darken counsel by explaining
that “ the Thesmophorion might rightly be called the Pnyx—-for
in the temple, as though it were a Pnyx, was held the assembly
concerning Euripides.” Therefore the words πυκνά ττασαν,
etc., will mean “ Thesmophorium totum et tentoria huic templo
vicina.” That the women on the Pnyx are also within the Thesmo-
phorion precinct is clear from a later passage. When Euripides
comes fooling in in the character of Menelaos he says to Mnesi-
lochus-
“ What manner of land is this our bark hath touched ?
Mnes. ’Tis Egypt.
Eur. Woe is me, where have we sailed ? ”
And one of the women indignantly breaks in-
“ Don’t you believe a word the idiot says.
Confound his lies. Why, this is the Thesmophorion.”
We have no other conclusion open to us than this, that the
Pnyx district, or at least a portion of it used ordinarily as a place
of assembly for the men, and even then under the guardianship
of the Thesmophoroi, became for a few days yearly a sacred
precinct under the title of Thesmophorion.200 Here, on the wide
open space, were pitched the tents where every woman had her
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. A
rest for ever. The Pnyx was the scene of the celebration.
Half the fun of the piece turns upon that. It was an actual fact
that for three or four days the women who celebrated the Thes-
mophoria held possession of that Pnyx which the women of the
Ecclesiazousae would like to have held for always. If the play
is taken in a straightforward sense, this admits of no question.
The point of the play is not in the least the strong-minded women
in the Ecclesiazousae, it is in the main Euripides himself and
the scandals he attributed to them. The mise en scene, the
assembly, the female herald, the prayer, the debate, the resolu-
tion are simply suggested by the actual fact that the Thesmo-
phoria is celebrated on and about the Pnyx. If proof were
wanted of this, we have it from the lips of the chorus. When
Mnesilochus is discovered, they sing the search-song as they
dance round seeking for another man interloper-
“ Search the whole Pnyx, and search the tents, and search the entrance-
places round,
If by chance some other man be in the precinct skulking found.”
And the commentators must needs darken counsel by explaining
that “ the Thesmophorion might rightly be called the Pnyx—-for
in the temple, as though it were a Pnyx, was held the assembly
concerning Euripides.” Therefore the words πυκνά ττασαν,
etc., will mean “ Thesmophorium totum et tentoria huic templo
vicina.” That the women on the Pnyx are also within the Thesmo-
phorion precinct is clear from a later passage. When Euripides
comes fooling in in the character of Menelaos he says to Mnesi-
lochus-
“ What manner of land is this our bark hath touched ?
Mnes. ’Tis Egypt.
Eur. Woe is me, where have we sailed ? ”
And one of the women indignantly breaks in-
“ Don’t you believe a word the idiot says.
Confound his lies. Why, this is the Thesmophorion.”
We have no other conclusion open to us than this, that the
Pnyx district, or at least a portion of it used ordinarily as a place
of assembly for the men, and even then under the guardianship
of the Thesmophoroi, became for a few days yearly a sacred
precinct under the title of Thesmophorion.200 Here, on the wide
open space, were pitched the tents where every woman had her