Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/326

 300 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN hand (28); for as his functions were confined to the earth, there is no reason for the supposition that he ascended by the Charonian steps. From the middle door the handmaiden comes forth (137: dX)C rjK OTrahwv i/c Bo/jlcov rt? ep^j^erat), and returns by the same opening (see v. 209), to announce that the chorus is at hand. This is of course the entrance for Admetus, Alcestis, and their children (244, cf. 410), who retire as they came (434). The same door is used for the entrances of Admetus (509) and the dead Alcestis (606), and for the exit of the former. Pheres comes and retires by the light-hsind periactos (614, 733). By the same way the funeral procession leaves the stage, for it is supposed to be accompanied by the chorus, who depart of course by the corresponding parodos (740, 746). Hercules enters by the left-hand ^er/ac^05 (476), and is conducted to the ^evcove^ at the left of the middle door (550). From this the servant (747) and he (773) reappear; and Hercules goes straight to the tomb by the right-hand door (860), by which he retm-ns with the veiled figure of Alcestis (1006). He does not meet the funeral procession, which re-enters the stage, as it had left it, by i^iQ periactos on the right (861). At the end of the play, Admetus returns to his palace ; Hercules goes forth by the left periactos to encounter his Thracian adventure ; and the chorus de- parts by the right-hand parodos. Although the chorus undoubtedly takes a part in the obsequies of Alcestis, there is no reason to sup- pose that it joins the procession by mounting the stage. A de- parture by the Yigh-t parodos, which was close to the x^it periactos, would suffice to indicate the junction of the choreutas with the actors and their attendants. We now pass on to the representation of the ancient Comedies. The most opposite opinions have been entertained respecting the scenery of the Acharmans ; for while one critic considers it necessary to suppose a total change of scenery from the Pnyx at Athens to the farm of Dicaeopolis, from this to the house of Euripides, and then again to the farm in the country i; while another writer suggests that the Pnyx is represented by the orchestra, and that the curtain is not dropt till the assembly breaks up and the chorus enters (v. 204), so that the scenery is entirely confined to the country 2; while a third concludes that the country place of Dicteopolis was so near to Athens that it ^ Geppert, pp. i6i sqq. ^ Genelli, pp. 257 sqq.