Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/251

 GREEK PLAYS TN GENERAL. 229 entered either from the hill above by doorways in the upper por- tico (utiu), or by staircases in the wings of the lower facade (s s)^. The orchestra (b) was a levelled space twelve feet lower than the front seats of the kolXov, by which it was bounded. Six feet above this was a boarded stage (e), which did not cover the whole area of the orchestra, but terminated where the line of view from the central cu7iet was intercepted by the boundary line. It ran, however, to the right and left of the spectators' benches [et, et), till it reached the sides of the scene. The main part of this platform, as well as an altar of Bacchus in the centre of the orchestral circle {d), was called the Ov/JLeXr)^. The segment of the orchestra not covered by this platform was termed the Kovlarpa, arena, or "place of sand." In front of the elevated scene, and six feet higher than the platform in the orchestra (i. e. on the same level with the lowest range of seats), was the irpoa-K-qviov, men- tioned above (c), and called also the Xoyelov, or " speaking-stage." There was a double flight of steps {/cXcfiaKrrjpe^;) from the arena {fcovLcrrpa) to the platform in the orchestra (j:)), and another of a similar description from this orchestral platform to the irpocrKrjvLov or real stage {q). There were also two other flights of steps lead- ing to the orchestral platform from the chambers below the stage (f]i,fh). These were called the yap(£iVioi KXifiaKe^;, or " Charon's stairs," and were used for the entrance of spectres from the lower world, and for the ghostly apparitions of the departed. There was another entrance to the thymelic platform, which led to the outer Allusiou is made to these reserved seats, in the Equites, 669 : KX^ojj/. 'AttoXw ae vt) ttjv irpoedpiav tt]v e/c IlvKov. 'AXKavT0Tr(Jb)S. 'I5oi) irpoebpiav olov '6poixal g'' e7w 'E/c TTjs Trpoedptas ^crx^-Tov dewpievov. From whence and elsewhere we may infer, that eminent public services were rewarded by this highly-prized irpoedpia. It is a great matter with the vain-glorious man in Theophrastus : rod dedrpov KudrjaOai, orav y Bia, TrXrjaiov twv arpaTTfyivv. Char. II. ^ Kolster maintains (SophoHeiscJie Studlen, p. 25) that at Athens the only entrances for the spectators were those to the right and left of the orchestra, for that the stage lay to the south ; and to the north, at the back of the theatre, where the rocks of the Acropolis rose, there could have been no entrance. ^ The student should remark the successive extensions of meaning with which this word is used. At first it signified the altai- of Bacchus, round which the cyclic chorus danced the dithyramb. Then it signified the platform, on which this altar stood, and which served for the limited evolutions of the chorus. Lastly it denoted any platform for musical or dramatic performances, so that in the later writers the thymele is identi- fied with the proscenium, which extended as far as the centre of the orchestral circle in the Roman theatres (see Jakrb. f. Phil. u. Pddag. Li. i, pp. 22 — 32). We believe that in the time of Euripides, at all events, the thymele signified the platform for the chorus, and not merely the altar which stood upon it : see Eurip. Eleclr. 7 1 2 sqci.