Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/117

 ^SCIIYLUS. 99 his Tragedy with all sorts of imposing spectacles and intro- duced the custom of contending with Trilogies, or with three plays at a time. He seems also to have improved the theatrical costumes, and to have made the mask more expressive and convenient, while he increased the stature of the performers by giving them thick soled boots {dp^vXat, Kodopvot'). In short, he did so much for the drama, that he was considered as the father of Tragedy^, and his plays were allowed to be acted after his death ^. We shall find, in the remaining Tragedies of ^schylus, most ample confirmation of what we have said respecting his political opinions, and also of Cicero's statement, that he was a Pytha- gorean s. Even the improvements which are due to him are so it is a tertiary predicate (Donalds. Gr. Gr. 489 sqq.), and is used tropically, just as Aristotle elsewhere uses x^PVY^^^) &c. metaphorically. Compare Plut. 3fii.s. p. 667, Wyttenb. : TrpuTayojPLcrTovarjs tt}s Troirjcreus, tCou 5' avXrjTU)]/ virripeTOVvTwv tols didaaKO.- Xots. 1 Primum Agatharchus Athenis, ^schylo docente tragcediam, scenam fecit, et de ea commentarium reliquit. Vitruv. Prsef. Lib. Yii. 2 Post hunc [Thespin] personae pallgeque repertor honestae ^schylus, et modicis instravit pulpita tignis, Et docuit magnumque loqui, nitique cothumo. Horat. Epist. ad Pis. 279. So Suidas : Alax^^os evpe TrpoawTreta deij^a Kal xpw/iacrt Kexpicrp-eva ^eiv tovs rpayi- Ko6s, Kal rats dpj3vac5, rats Kaovp.ivaLS e/i/Sdratj, KexpV'^dai. The Aristophanic -^schylus alludes to these improvements in the costumes. Ran. 1060. Compare Athen. i. p. 21, and Philost. Vit. Ax>oll. VI. 11: iadripLacri re irpQiTos eKoajxTjcxev a 7rp6cr(f>opou TJpuai re Kal 7}pwtcriv ijadrjaOac. Vit. Gorg. I. 9 : iadrjrl re t7}v rpayipdlav KaracTKevdaas Kal dKpijSavTi v-^riKd^, Kal rjpibojv etdeaip. There are many allusions to the dp^uXai of the actors in the Greek Tragedians themselves. ^ — "Odev ^Adrjva'ioi irarepa pkv avrbv ttJs rpayijjdlas rjyovvTO. Philost. Vit. Apoll. VI. II. And thus the Chorus in the Ranee address him : 'AW tS IT p Cot OS tQv '^HWtivuv Tvpydjcras p-qpara crep.vd, "Kal KoapLTjcrat rpayiKov Xijpop. v. 1004. So Quintilian: Tragcedias ^^J'^'mms in lucem ^schylus protulit. X. i. '^ " 'E^'dXow 5e Kal redpeZra els Aiopvaia. Td yap tov Alax^Xov xf/rjcpiaapipuv dpebidda-KeTO, Kal epiKa €K KaiPTJs. Philostr. Vit. Apoll. vi. 11. — Also, Vit. Anonym. — Aristophanes alludes to this custom of re-exhibiting the dramas of ^schylus in the opening of the Achar7iians, where Dicaeopolis complains : dX udvPTjdrjv erepop ad rpaywdcKOP, ore 577 KexvPV TrpoadoKu>p top Alax^^op, 6 5' dpe^irep' ' ecaay', c3 Qeoypi, top x^P^'^-' v. 9 &c. Upon which the Scholiast remarks: rt^^s 5e peylaTTjs ^tvx^ -n-apd 'Adrjpaiocs 6 Alax'J- os, Kal p.6pov avTOv to, dpdp.aTa prj(piapaTi. koip(3 Kal /ierd ddpaTOP ididd<7K€T0. The allegation of the poet {Ranee, 868) : "Ort 7} TTolrjais ovxl (TVPT^dpTjKe pot, is also supposed by the Scholiast to refer to this decree. Quintilian assigns a very different reason for this practice, when, speaking of ^schylus as ' rudis in plerisque et incompositus,' he goes on, 'propter quod correctas ejus fabulas in certamen deferre posterioribus poetis Athenienses permisere, suntque eo modo multi coronati.' x. i. What authority he had for such an assertion does not now appear." Former Editor. 5 Veniat JEschylus, non poeta solum, sed etiam Pythagoreus ; sic enim accepimus. Cicero, Tvsc. Disp. 11. 9. 7—2