Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/150

 92 COMPARATIVE ARCHITECTURE. the orchestra this platform was raised is a question that has been much debated in recent years. The most probable view seems to be the following : — (i.) In pre-vEschylean drama, before regular theatres were made, an actor mounted on a table, probably the table-altar of the god Dionysos, and held a dialogue with the dancers or chorus. The rude table stage illustrated on some vases from South Italy may represent a local retention of this primi- tive custom. (2 ) In the fifth century B.C. no direct evidence is available ; but a low wooden stage is practically certain, connected by means of a ladder with the orchestra. (3.) The fourth century is the earliest period in which there is monumental evidence. At Megalopolis a platform of wood from 3 feet 3 inches to 4 feet 6 inches high appears probable, with a stone colonnade behind it. At Epi- dauros there was a wooden floor supported by a wall 12 feet high. (4.) In Hellenistic and Roman times, Vitruvius tells us, the Greek stage was 10 to 12 feet high, and this statement is borne out by many extant examples. Tlie Theatre of Dionysos, Athens, (No. 17), completed b.c. 340, in which thirty thousand spectators could be accommodated, is the prototype of all Greek theatre?, and was the one in which the plays of the great Athenian dramatists were produced. The Theatre, Epidauros, was constructed by the architect Polycleitos, and is the most beautiful as well as the best pre- served example extant. The circle of the orchestra is complete, and is about 66 feet across, the entire theatre being 378 feet in diameter. Thirty-two rows of seats forming the lower division are separated by a broad passage idiazoma) from twenty rows above. Twenty-four flights of steps diverge as radii from bottom to top. THE PALACES AND DOMESTIC BUILDINGS. The excavations lately carried out by Dr. Arthur Evans at Knossos in Crete (page 54), and those by the Italians at Pha^stos, in the same island, have revealed palaces more remote in date than the Mycenaean period, to which is given the name " Minoan." The excavations of the Palace of King Minos, Knossos, show the remains of a remarkable structure laid out on a plan afterwards used in the Roman palaces and camps. This building is believed to date from about e.c. 2000, and was unfortified. Underneath the upper palace were found the remains of an earlier one, which is believed to date from about b.c 3000. About five acres of this remarkable structure have been uncovered. The apartments, round a central oblong courtyard (about 180 feet by go feet), are constructed in several stories, which are reached by staircases. Some remarkable wall frescoes and coloured plaster ceilings, an olive press with huge oil jars, and the remains of a system of drainage, with terra-cotta drain pipes, were discovered.