Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/321

 TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN TARTICULAR. 295 tills ruin and conflagration. On the contrary, we must conclude that, though shaken, it remains standing. For Dionysus summons Pentheus to come forth from his palace (v. 914: e^cdc TrapoiOe BcoficLTcov), and, at the end of the play, distinct reference is made to the triglyphs of the frieze to which the head of the Supposed lion is to be affixed according to the oldest mode of adorning the Zophorus (v. 1212 sqq.): alpecrdo} a^(l:v tttjktQiu irpbs olkovs KXifiaKcjv 7rpoaau.^d<j€LS ws TraaadXevcrrj Kpdra TpLyv<pOL$ rode iovTos. 6v Trdpetfii drjpevcras iyu). Cf. 1238 sqri. : ] <pip(j} 5" iv d'XevaiCTLP, cjs opas, Ta.de Xa^oOffa TdpicTela aolcL Trpos SopLois d)S tv Kpeiidcdrj. AVhen therefore Dionysus says (v. 633), Bw/xar epp-q^ev ')(aiJLa^e crvvreOpavcorai 8' airav, he refers only to the prison, for at the very time he makes this statement he says that he has come forth from the house (636 : ijavxo'^ 3' eV/Sa? iyw hcoixdrcov rjKw 7rp6<^ vfia^) ; that he hears the foot-fall of Pentheus within his palace (638 : '^jrocpec yovp ap^vKrj Boficov ecrco) ; and that he will soon come forth to the vestibule (e? irpovwirt avrlx r)Ket]. The progress of the action and the entrances and exits of the performers are easily described. At the opening of the play Dio- nysus is supposed to come from distant regions : he enters by the left-hand periactos, and the chorus, who came from Asia with him, appear after the prologue, by the corresponding parodos (v. 65). As the god says that he is going to Cith^eron to join his worship- pers there, he must cross the stage and make his exit (64) by the right-hand periactos. After the first choral song (170) Teiresias enters from the cit}^, i. e. by the right side-door, and summons Cadmus, who comes forth from the middle door, or from the palace (178). As Pentheus has been abroad, he must make his first entrance, like Dionysus, from the left periactos (215). Cadmus and Teiresias leave the stage by the right periactos (369), and by the same entrance the satellites of Pentheus, who had remained on the stage during the chorus, appear (434), bringing Dionysus with them. At the end of the act (518) the god is conveyed to the prison, which, as has been mentioned, was to the left of the palace. And it appears from v. 616 that Pentheus accompanies him, for the purpose of putting on the chains with his own hands.