Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/49

Rh gave scope for much more action and development of plot; the third performer being capable, like the other two, of appearing in different characters. In one instance, indeed, that of the Œdipus at Colonos, four performers appear to have been indispensable, unless we adopt the conjecture that the actor who took the part of Ismene also appeared in that of Theseus, and had a mute double to take his place in the scene where Ismene appears with Theseus but does not speak. It need hardly be said that the performers were in all cases men; and that the choral odes, among the many purposes which they answered in the construction of a Greek drama, served also to give time for the change of dress which this multiple personation required. (3.) The change which raised the number of the chorus from twelve, to which Æschylos had reduced it, to fifteen, was connected probably with details of their movement during the strophes and