Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/261

 GREEK PLAYS IX GEXEKAL. 239 Stage, according to the interior which it was intended to display i. It is said to have been lofty, i. e. as high as the doorway through which it moved, and to have had a seat upon it. in order, of course, that the actor, who was thus produced, might ride safely during tlie evolution 2. It was probably a semicircular stage, the diameter being equal to the breadth of the door through which it moved, i. e. about sixteen feet in the case of the middle door, and it moved on hinges like that door, to which for the moment it corresponded. From various allusions, in which the action of the eKKVKi]iia or i^cocrrpa is metaphorically applied to the revelation or unveiling of those things which generally are or ought to be hidden behind a curtain^, it may be inferred that the TrapaTreraa-fia or hanging scene was always removed before this evolution was performed. The change of scene to the interior was supposed to affect the choras as well as the actors, as we see from the passage in the Agamemnon, to which reference has been already madc"^. ^A ith regard to the exterior, the changes of scene were effected, as we have already mentioned, by the TreplaKTOL (sell. OtpaC) or revolving doors in the form of a triangular prism, which stood be- fore the side-doors on the stao-e, and bv tiu-nins: roimd on a ijivot [m, m), not only indicated the different regions supposed to He in the neighboui'hood of the scene, but were also made use of as ma- ^ Pollux, IT. § 128: XPV TOVTO voeladai. KaS' iKaarrji' dvpav, olovel KaS' eKanTriv oUiav. ^ Id. ibid. : koL to fiev iKKVKX'ijfia eirl ^vuv {•■J'r]bv ^adpov, u iiriKeiTai dp'jvor deiKvvai 8k to. vtto aKr}in]v iv rats oUiais air6pf)T}Ta wpaxd^i'Ta. 3 Cicero, de Provlnciis Consularihus, 6, § 14: quibusciim jam in exostra heluatur, antea post siparium solebat. Polyb. Xl. 16, 18: r-qs r&xrjs iScnrep iiriT-qdes irri ttiv e^ibarpav dva^i^afovcrrjs tt]v v/xerepav dyvoLav. Clera. Alex. Protrept. p. 11, Potter: TT]v yoTjTs'.av TT]v iyKeKpv/j./j.€V7]v avToh olov iirl crKijvrjs tov ^iov roh rrjs akTjBela^ skkv- K-qau 6e7.Tais. Id. -Strom. Vll. p. 886: ov yap CKKi-KXeHv xpV ''o iJ'Var-qpLov. Cf. ^Ilsch. Agam. 1145 : 6 xPV<^f^os ovKer (k Kav/jL/j.dTii:w icfrai. ocdopKiLs, where we have the same thought, with a different allusion. ^ The Scholiast on Aristophanes, Nuhee, 218, where Socrates is introduced as sitting or walking (225: aepo^aTC)) on a Kpe/xddpa, or shelf, says in explanation: irapey KVKrifj.a' Se? yap Kpejxdadai tov ^UKpdTTjv iwi KpefxdBpas Ka6r}ij.ivov Kal toitov d(T€bvTa Kol deaddpievov aiTOv ovtoj irv9ecr6aL. Kp€[xddpa 5e Xe^/eTat., did to outus ain-rjv del fjLeTeojpov dvai Kpep.aiia>r}v. vdv p.h>T0i. rd TrepiTTevoyra [o'/'a] ei's avTTjv elil'daixeu diroTidtadaL i.e. such as cheeses and other stores). And on v. 132, on the words dV Oi^x' KOTTTU) T7]v dvpav, hc remarks : tovto bk irapeyKVKXTjua' del yap avTov eXdeiv Kat Ko-^at TTIV dvpav toO HojKpdTovs. From these passages it is concluded, and reasonably, as we think, by Schonborn [Scene der Hellenen, p. 347), that the TrapeyKVKKrjixa was a practicable projection at the side of the stage. In a secondary application it meant any thing inserted in a play, as a mimic gesticulation between the speeches (^Schol. Xuh. 18, 22^, or a person arbitrarily introduced (^Heliodorus, JEthiop. p. 265, 5 : eTcpov iyiyveTo ■jrap€yKVK)jj.a tov SpdixaTOS 7/ 'KapiKXeia). But it cannot have denoted a simple iKKVrc-t]p.a, as Mliller contends (Kkinc SchrifUn, I. p. 538).