Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/308

 282 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN And there is every reason to conclude that the altars or statues of the deities mentioned by her also adorned the stage. The time intended is the morning after the arrival of Orestes, who has come straight from Argos (cf. v. 282 : iroraLvtov yap ov k.t.X.), followed by the Furies, and whom Apollo has purified while his persecutors slept. After the prologue, the eccyclema rolls out the chorus who are sleeping round the altar^, the hero appears on the stage between Apollo and Hermes, and the latter accompanies him, as he sets forth on a long journey by sea and land, before he reaches Athens the object of his wishes (vv. 75 sqq.). While Orestes and Hermes leave the stage by the left-hand side-door, Apollo retires into the grove, for of course he cannot appear in his temple till v. 179, when he expels the intruders. After the stage is cleared (v. 94), the dvaTrlecr/jLa immediately exhibits the apparition of Clytaem- nestra's ghost. That the sleeping chorus had been visible while Apollo was speaking is clear from the words of the god (v. 67: raoSe ra? /iiapyov<; 6pd<;) ; and that the interior was shown by the eccyclema, perhaps by a two-fold evolution, is distinctly stated by the Scholiast, who says : Bevrepa yiverao (pavracria' crrpacpevTa yap p.ri')(avr) pbara evhrjXa iroiei rd Kara to jjiavrelov oj? e^ei. The words of Apollo, V. 201: too-ovto /uLtjko^ efcretvov yov, show that they w^ere still in the temple in spite of his order to quit it, and it is plain that they do not depart until they have said (229, 230) : iyoj 8 ayet yap atfxa HTjrpc^ou 5i/caj, fiirei/jii Tovde <pQ)Ta KaKKvvrjyiris. And they immediately leave the stage in single file by the left- hand door by which Orestes and Hermes had made their exit. Apollo, after reciting his three lines (232 — 234), returns to his tem- ple, the eccyclema is withdrawn, and the whole scene is changed. Between the first and second acts we must suppose a consider- able interval of time, during which Orestes has traversed many a region by land and sea (v. 240: o/moLa 'xepaov koI OaKaaaav eKire- 1 Botticlier has made tLe costume of the chorus in this play the subject of a special dissertation {die Farienmaske im Traiierspiel und auf den BildwerTcen der alten Griechen, Weimar, 1801, Kleine Schriften, I. pp. 189 — 277), and he has given two pictures of the theatrical Fury, one representing all the repulsive and loathsome features which seem to have belonged to the yEschylean choi us, and the other exhi- biting the usual type of theatrical beauty and splendid costume, but indicated as a minister of vengeance by the serpent-locks, and by the serpent and torch which she carries in her hands. He believes (p. 138 [271]) that the latter was the only personi- fication of the Fury admitted on the stage after the time of Pericles and Phidias.