DOI Kapitel:
Division C: The road immediately east and south of the Acropolis, from the street of Tripods to the shrine of Demeter Chloe
DOI Kapitel:Section XII
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0445
SEC. XII
OF ANCIENT A THENS
273
they are intersected more than two-thirds of the way up by a
diazoma, utilised as a road passing through from the side where
the Odeion was to the precinct of Asklepios. The structure of
the koilon was supported by a massive retaining wall, portions of
which on the western side can clearly be seen in the subjoined
view (fig. 17). The seats were divided into thirteen wedges
(κερκίδε?), divided by fourteen flights of steps (κλίρ,ακες).
These with the diazoma afforded easy entrance and exit.
The ordinary poros stone seats are marked oft' into the spaces
allotted to each person. The accommodation was, according
to modern ideas, very limited, somewhat less than a crowded
pit; the space-marks are vertical lines — still clearly to be seen
•—cut at intervals of about 13 inches on the face of the poros
stone seats.
Though the present arrangement dates from Lycurgus, it
seems possible, and even probable, that there may have been stone
seats of some kind before his time. According to tradition
(preserved by Suidas),36 the Athenians began to build their
stone theatre in the 70th Olympiad (500-496 B.C.), when, on
the occasion of a contest between TEschylus, Choerilus, and
Pratinas, the wooden standing - place (ίκρια) of some other
structure gave way. Any such building would be interrupted
by the Persian war. It is, however, of little mythological
importance whether we conceive of the audience at the plays
of the great tragedians of the fifth century B.C. seated on
stone or wooden seats. The koilon would indeed have no
mythological interest at all but for the row of honorary chairs.
A conspectus of these is given in fig. 19, to facilitate reference
on the spot. Though the chairs themselves are of the date
of Lycurgus, the inscriptions are all late,37 and vary in elate,
as will be seen from the list. In as many as fourteen of the
chairs it is evident that an earlier inscription has been obliterated
to make way for the present one. A good instance of this is
the second to the left (facing) from the central seat of the priest
of Dionysos (G 2)—z>., that of Pythochrestos Exegetes, the
interpreter appointed by the Pythian oracle.
The following is a complete list of the inscriptions, with their
probable dates appended ; it is based on the Corpus of Attic
Inscriptions. Some of the titles represent, as will be seen, cults
and attributes elsewhere unknown ; others have been discussed in
various parts of the commentary :—
T
OF ANCIENT A THENS
273
they are intersected more than two-thirds of the way up by a
diazoma, utilised as a road passing through from the side where
the Odeion was to the precinct of Asklepios. The structure of
the koilon was supported by a massive retaining wall, portions of
which on the western side can clearly be seen in the subjoined
view (fig. 17). The seats were divided into thirteen wedges
(κερκίδε?), divided by fourteen flights of steps (κλίρ,ακες).
These with the diazoma afforded easy entrance and exit.
The ordinary poros stone seats are marked oft' into the spaces
allotted to each person. The accommodation was, according
to modern ideas, very limited, somewhat less than a crowded
pit; the space-marks are vertical lines — still clearly to be seen
•—cut at intervals of about 13 inches on the face of the poros
stone seats.
Though the present arrangement dates from Lycurgus, it
seems possible, and even probable, that there may have been stone
seats of some kind before his time. According to tradition
(preserved by Suidas),36 the Athenians began to build their
stone theatre in the 70th Olympiad (500-496 B.C.), when, on
the occasion of a contest between TEschylus, Choerilus, and
Pratinas, the wooden standing - place (ίκρια) of some other
structure gave way. Any such building would be interrupted
by the Persian war. It is, however, of little mythological
importance whether we conceive of the audience at the plays
of the great tragedians of the fifth century B.C. seated on
stone or wooden seats. The koilon would indeed have no
mythological interest at all but for the row of honorary chairs.
A conspectus of these is given in fig. 19, to facilitate reference
on the spot. Though the chairs themselves are of the date
of Lycurgus, the inscriptions are all late,37 and vary in elate,
as will be seen from the list. In as many as fourteen of the
chairs it is evident that an earlier inscription has been obliterated
to make way for the present one. A good instance of this is
the second to the left (facing) from the central seat of the priest
of Dionysos (G 2)—z>., that of Pythochrestos Exegetes, the
interpreter appointed by the Pythian oracle.
The following is a complete list of the inscriptions, with their
probable dates appended ; it is based on the Corpus of Attic
Inscriptions. Some of the titles represent, as will be seen, cults
and attributes elsewhere unknown ; others have been discussed in
various parts of the commentary :—
T