Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/327

 TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PAETICULAR. 301 and the city miglit both be represented on the stage ^; it is held bj the most recent authority that the scene is from first to last confined to xlthens^. This view of the matter seems to us to be supported by the words of the poet himself. At the point where the scene must change, if it changes at all, from Athens to the country, Dica^opolis says distinctly that he will go within [elcFLwv) and celebrate the rural festival of Bacchus (v. 22). This can only mean that he enters the house already seen on the stage. Then it is clear that he is at Athens (eV ^AOrjvaLOL^, v. 492), and at the Lenasa (v. 504), when he makes his final defence in answer to the chorus. Finally, it is expressly intimated that the market, which Dicceopolis opens, is in the city itself, for the Megarian says on entering (v. 730) : dyopa V 'A6dvaL<; %at/3e, ISleyapevaiv (^iXa^ "All hail! Market of Athens, dear to the Megarians." We have no doubt then that the scene is from first to last at Athens. The centi'e represents the house of Dic^eopolis, whose part is played by the protagonist, and the balcony above the center door serves for the flat roof of the house from which his wife views the festive procession (v. 262: ai) h co yvvat, Oew yH diro rev reyov^). Dicseopolis performs the ceremonies of the rural Dionysia at Athens, because, like the other country proprietors, he has been obliged to take up his abode in the city, and to acquiesce in the utter ruin of his farm, as he expressly says (v. 512 : Kufiol yap icTTtv d/iTreXLa KeKOfxpieva), Of the two other main doors, that on the right represents the house of Euripides, that on the left the house of Lamachus, who must be a near neighbour of Dica^opolis (see w. 1071 sqq). The right-hand periactos gave a view of Athens in the neighbourhood of the Pnyx, and the benches (^Xa) are placed on that side of the stage for the com- mittee-men and the other representatives of the assembly (see V. 25). The left-hand periactos represents first the road to Laced^emon (v. 175) and Megara (v. 728), and it is turned to represent the road to Thebes (v. 860). At the beginning of the play, Dicseopolis enters from the center door and proceeds towards the right where he takes his place in the Pnyx. The herald, with the committee-men {TrpvrdveL^), Amphitheus and the other citizens, enter (v. 40) from the door behind the right- hand periactos. From the same side the ambassadors appear 1 Bockh, iiher die Lenden, p. 91. ^ Schonborn, pp. 307 sqq.