Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/329

307 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GItEECE. 307 It was the great endeavour of Greek art to exhibit the character and rank of the individuals whom it grouped together, and to present to the eye a symmetrical image, corresponding with the idea of the action which was to he represented. The protagonist, as the person whose fate was the centre around which all revolved, must therefore occupy the centre of the stage; the deuteragonist and tritagonist approached him from either side. Hence it was an invariable rule for the protagonist never to leave the stage hy either of the side-doors. If, however, he came from abroad, like Agamemnon and Orestes in iEschylus, he passed through the middle door into the interior of the palace, which was his habitation. With regard to the deuteragonist and tritagonist, many difficulties must have arisen from the local meaning attached to the two side doors ; hut, if space sufficed for such detailed explanations, we might show, from numerous examples, how the tragic poets found means to fulfil all these conditions. § 9. Changes of scene were very seldom necessary in ancient tragedy. The Greek tragedies are so constructed that the speeches and actions, of which they are mainly composed, might with perfect propriety pass on one spot, and indeed ought generally to pass in the court in front of the royal house. The actions to which no speech is attached, and which do not serve to develope thoughts and feelings, (such as Eteocles' combat with his brother; the murder of Agamemnon; Antigone's performance of the obsequies of Polynices, &c), are imagined to pass behind or without the scene, and are only related on the stage. Hence the importance of the parts of messengers and heralds in ancient tragedy. The poet was not influenced only by the reason given by Horace,* viz., that bloody spectacles and incredible events excite less horror and doubt when related, and ought therefore not to be produced on the stage : there was also the far deeper general reason, that it is never the outward act with which the interest of ancient the problem must be to preserve the same part for the same actor through all the three plays. I Protag. Agamemnon, guard, herald. I), liter ag. Cassandra, jEgisthus. Trilag. Clytaemnestra. {Protag. Orestes. Deuterag. Electra, ^Egisthus, Exangelos. Tritag. Clytaemnestra, female attendant. j Protag. Orestes. Eumenidea .< Deuterag. Apollo. [Tritag. Pythias, Clytaeranestra, Athene. For Sophocles, the Antigone and the CEdipus Tyranaus may serve as examples, ! Prolog. Antigone, l'i iurydicc, Exangelos. Deuterag. Ismene, guard, Hcemon, messenger. Tritag. Creon. Protag. CEdipus. Deuterag. Priest, Jocasla. servant. Exangelos. Tntag. Cieou Tiresias, messenger.
 * Art. Poet. 180. sq.