Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/325

 TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN TAKTICULAR. 299 That Polyphemus appeared as a giant is necessary to the plot of the piece, and something more than a cothurnus was required to give him such a height as would justify him in addressing Ulysses as dvdpcoTTLcr/ce (316). How the exaggeration of stature was ma- naged does not appear, but the experience of oiu* own pantomimes shows that a very little ingenuity would produce all the necessary results. One thing seems quite clear — that his enormous mask was rather of the comic than of the tragic pattern, and that he was re- presented with a ludicrously extravagant mouth, like an ogre as he was. The chorus says to him (356), evpeia^ (fxipvyyo^^ w KvKco-ylr, dvaarofiov to ;^etXo?, and the comic masks show that no limits were imposed on the dramatic artist in this respect. The gluttony of Hercules in the Alcestis, which, as we have seen, took the place of the satyric drama in the Tetralogy to which it belonged, places that hero on a footing not altogether unlike that of Polyphemus in the Cyclops, and it is not improbable that liis mask also partook of the comic character. A Hercules in this capacity is represented on a vase with a great loaf in one hand and a club in the other, and in full pursuit of a handmaiden who is running from him with a pitcher of wine ^. Without being quite so ridiculous as this picture makes him, the Hercules of the Alcesti's is represented as a wine-bibber and a gourmand in the house of mourning (747 sqq.), and must have reminded the spectators of the same demi-god as he had appeared in many Comedies. For the rest, the Alcestis is tragic enough, and the representation did not differ essentially from that of a regular Tragedy. The scene repre- sents the palace of Admetus at Pherje, which occupies the centre. The guest-chambers stand by themselves to the left of the palace (543: %ci)pi? ^evcove^ elacv, cf. 546 sqq.). The corresponding door to the right indicates the road to Larissa and the tomb of Alcestis (835 : opOrjv Trap oIjjlov, rj Vl Adpcaaav cpepec, TVfjb^ov KaTO'ijrec ^eaTov iic TrpoaaTiov). And while the left hand j^eriactos represents the approach from distant parts, the other side-scene shows us the neighbouring city of Pheras, from which the chorus, which enters the orchestra by the corresponding parados, is supposed to come. Apollo comes forth from the middle door (23 : XecTrco fjueXdOpcov Tcovhe <j)iXTdT7)v crTeyrjv), and probably leaves the stage by the left periactos (76), from whence also Thanatos had entered sword in ^ Panofka, Mas. Blacas, PI. xxvi. B; "Wieselcr, Supplement, Taf. A, No. 26.