Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/302

 276 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN periactos is turned only in the Acharmans and in the Lysistrata ; and in the latter there are four or five of these indications of a dif- ferent point of approach to the stage from a distance. In making a selection from the extant Greek plays, we shall commence with the only complete _Trilogy, the Orestea, or, as it may have been once called, the Agamemnonia of ^schylus, and shall then take those of the other plays which furnish the most various examples of a complete theatrical exhibition. The scene of the Agamemnon of jEschylus represents the palace of the Atreidag, and the open space immediately before it. The front of the palace is adorned with altars of various gods, especially those to whom the herald addresses himself on entering the stage (vv. 503 sqq.), and that of Apollo Agyieus was of course one of them (v. 1085). The palace was represented as rising to a con- siderable height, for the watchman, who speaks the prologue to the Tragedy, is able to command from his elevated position a view of the surrounding country, as far at least as the Arachnsean moun- tains (v. 309). As Pollux mentions the aKoirrj and (ppvfcrcopLov among the parts of the theatre, the question has been raised whether the watchman is posted on the roof of the palace or on some de- tached elevation. But it is clear from the words of the poet that the sentinel must have been on the palace itself (v. 3: are- 7<xfc9 ^ArpecScjv. v. 301 : ^ArpetBodv 69 roBe aKrjTrret aT6<yo<;)y and the balcony of the Siareyla would furnish the proper elevation. That a flat roof without battlements is intended is shown by the state- ment that he gazed lying down and leaning on his elbows like a dog (vv. 2, 3: koc/j,c6/jL6vo^ ajKaOev kvv6<; Slktjv), i. e. in the attitude familiar to us from the posture of the sphinx, which is the conven- tional form of the watchful guardian. The right hand periactos represented the city of Argos, and the left the road to the coast. The watchman, who introduces the play, speaks the prologue from his post on the roof and then makes his exit by a door sup- posed to lead into the palace, for he had already summoned the inmates of the royal house (v. 26). The chorus then enters (v. 39) by the right-hand parodos, and the anapaests are recited while they are moving to the thymele and taking their post around it. During these evolutions Clytsemnestra with her attendants enters the stage by the center door (v. 83), and, after making her offerings at the altars before the palace, goes off