Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/263

 GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 241 understand such passages as the following (Ovid, Metamorphoses, in. 111—114): Sic, ubi tolluntur festis aulaea theatris, Surgere signa solent, primumque ostendere vultum, Cetera paullatim, placidoque educta tenore Tota patent, imoque pedes in margins ponunt. Here the reference is to the drawing up of the cui'tain at the end of an act, when the figures, which were embroidered on it (Virgil, Georg. ill. 25), were gradually displayed to the audience, the head rising first, just as the armed men rose from the ground when Cad- mus sowed the serpent's teeth. Conversely, Horace says (2 Epist. I. 189): Quattuor aut plures aulsea prerauntur in horas, Dum fugiunt equitum turmge peditumque catervae: that is, the curtain was down, as the play was going on for four hours or more, while the spectacle, as in one of Mr Charles Kean's revivals, went on as an episode in the play. Scene-painting {<TK7)voypa(f)ia, aKLaypacfiia) in the days of Aga- tharchus became a distinct and highly-cultivated branch of art. When the scene exhibited its most usual representation, — that of a house, — the altar of Apollo Agyieus was invariably placed on the stage near the main entrance. There are many allusions to this both in Tragedy and Comedy ^ The theatre at Athens was Avell supplied with machinery calcu- lated to produce startling effects. Besides the periacti, which were used occasionally to introduce a sea-deity on his fish-tailed steed, or a river-god with his urn, there was the deoXoyecov, a platform sun-ounded by clouds, and suspended from the top of the central scene, whence the deities conversed with the actors or chorus. Sometimes they were introduced near the left parodus, close to the pertactoSf by means of a crane turning on a pivot, which was called the fjL7]')(avri'^. The y€pavo<; was a contrivance for snatching up an actor from the stage and raising him to the OeoXoyelov ; and by the alodpai, an arrangement of ropes and pullies, Bellerophon or Try- gseus could fly across the stage. Then there was the fipovrelov, a contrivance for imitating the sound of thunder. It seems to have consisted of bladders full of ^ See e.g. ^schyl. Agam. 1051, 6. ' Jul. Poll, IV. 128: 7] fxrjxavT] 5e Oeovs deiKPVffi Kal "Hpwas rovi iv ddpi, BeXXepo- (povras, rj nepcrets* koL Kelrat /card ttjw dpiaTepau trdpobov virkp rriv (XKrjvriv to v{/os. Hence the phrase Deus ex Machina. D. T. G. 16