Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/233

 GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 215 tragic cliorus cost nearly twice as much as the comic, though neither of the dramatic choruses was so expensive as the chorus of men, or the chorus of flute-players ^ The actors were the representatives not of the people, but of the poet; consequently the choragus had nothing to do with them 2. If he had paid for them, the dramatic choruses would surely have exceeded in expensiveness all the others; besides, the actors were not allotted to the choragi, but to the poets; and were there- fore paid either by these, or, as we rather think, by the state. When a dramatist had made up his mind to bring out a play, he applied, if he intended to represent at the Lenoea, to the king- archon, and, if at the great Dionysia, to the chief archon^ for a chorus, which was given to him^ if his piece was deemed worthy of it^. Along with this chorus he received three actors by lot^, and these he taught independently of the choragus, who confined his attention to the chorus. The most important personage in the formation of every cliorus was the actual leader, precentor, or fugleman, w^hose voice and movements the choreutse followed in all the songs and evolutions of the orchestra''. This functionary was called /copu(^ato9, X^P^^ yye/jicov, %opo7roi09^ also x^P^^'^^'^V^^: ^i^d corresponded no doubt to the i^dp^oyv of the old choruses. It is probable that there were two other fuglemen to take charge of the subordinate divisions of the chorus, when it was broken up into sections ^^, and perhaps the passage in the Eumeiiides, which 1 Demosth. Mid. p. 565. 2 This is sliovn by Bockh, after Heraldus {Puhlic Econonvj, III. ch. 22, p. 455, Engl. Tr.). Notwithstanding, however, what Bockh has said about the passage in Plutarch, Phocion, 19, it seems that the choragus had something todo wdththe costume of the actors, or at least of the supernumeraries who appeared on the stage or in the orchestra. 3 See above, p. 114, note (i). ^ There is some difference of opinion as to the person " who gave the chorus." Some think it was the choragus who was applied to (see Kiister on Aristoph. Eq. 510 ; Ducker on Aristoph. Ran. 94) ; others that it was the archon : this opinion is in itself the most likely to be true, and appears to be confirmed by the words of Aristotle quoted above, p, 70, note (2). ^ Hence xopoi/ ^Lbovai signifies generally to approve or praise a poet. See Plato, Resp. II. p. 383 c, and Aristoph. Ran. in p. 159 supra. ^ This practice subsisted to the last : see Plotinus, ill. 2, p. 484, Creuzer. ^ Aristot. de Mundo, c. 6 : Ko.d6.irep iv X^PV Kopvtpaiov Kardp^afTos avfe-m^xei Trds 6 xo/'os- 8 J. Pollux, IV. § T06. ^ Himerius, p. 558 ; Theodor. Prodr. RJiod. IV. p. 170. 1^ Buttmann, Index in Dem. Mid. s. v. Kopvcpalos, p. 178.