DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1031#0114
CHAPTER XIII.
ATHENS.
The Theatre.
Credit miros audire Tragoedos.
In vacuo lictus sessor plausorque Theatro.
HORAT.
To hear the Tragic Song still Fancy seems
From the void Stage, and praises what it dreams.
The last monument of a similar character to which
I shall now advert, is the Theatre of Athens1. It
lay beneath the southern wall of the Acropolis, near
its eastern extremity. It was there formed by the
sloping rock, in which its seats were scooped, rising
one above another. The curve of each seat was nearly
a semicircle: and of the semicircles thus formed, the
diameter increased with the ascent. Of these seats
of 2rock two only are now visible: they are the
highest; the rest are concealed by the accumulation
1 In Philostiat. V. A. IV. p. 179. oi AStjvaXot eh to QiaTpov to
sir I Tp dicpoiroXeL is an error for utto.
2 Hence the act of the Ko\a£, (Theoph. Char, n.) -rod iratSis iv
Taj 0eaT/)w drpeXopevos to irpotrKefiaXaiov aiirot tfKOffTpaxrai is
explained from the hardness of the seat.
ATHENS.
The Theatre.
Credit miros audire Tragoedos.
In vacuo lictus sessor plausorque Theatro.
HORAT.
To hear the Tragic Song still Fancy seems
From the void Stage, and praises what it dreams.
The last monument of a similar character to which
I shall now advert, is the Theatre of Athens1. It
lay beneath the southern wall of the Acropolis, near
its eastern extremity. It was there formed by the
sloping rock, in which its seats were scooped, rising
one above another. The curve of each seat was nearly
a semicircle: and of the semicircles thus formed, the
diameter increased with the ascent. Of these seats
of 2rock two only are now visible: they are the
highest; the rest are concealed by the accumulation
1 In Philostiat. V. A. IV. p. 179. oi AStjvaXot eh to QiaTpov to
sir I Tp dicpoiroXeL is an error for utto.
2 Hence the act of the Ko\a£, (Theoph. Char, n.) -rod iratSis iv
Taj 0eaT/)w drpeXopevos to irpotrKefiaXaiov aiirot tfKOffTpaxrai is
explained from the hardness of the seat.