Evening star., 1927-12-04

of the Parthenon and look down
from the Acropolis to the sea.
The blue .Egean lies some eight
miles away, smiling complacent.
ly under the sun. On that island
across the bay King Xerxes sat, and
in those waters, SO quiet now, the
Greeks rewon their liberties. Nearer
is the Piraeus, with it's shipping. IKE
toy boats on a lake; closer stlli the
road which was once walled in from
the city to the port, and at the bot
tom of the hill the modest homes ana
narrow streets Of Athens.
But here at our feet, rising from the
level below almost to where we stand,
Is one of the great places in human
history. 1t is the Theater OF Diony-
sus, where every year, with drama,
festival and song, the Greeks COM
memorated their joyous and suHerlng
god. Thirty thousand seats, once OF
wood, then of marble and stone, range
themselves in long half circles, row
upon row, narrowing down at the base
of the Acropolis to meet the stage. In
these carved and ornamented seats at
the front the officials of the city sat
and the priests of Dionysus. This
plain semi.circular space, paved with
great slabs, was the stage itself AT
the rear was the actors booth-the
skene or scene" It's front might be
transformed to represent temple or
a palace and it's roof supported
strange contrivance of pulley ana
crane. designed to let down, as from
heaven, the deus eX machina the god
from the machine), whose intervention
was used by pious-or lazy-drama-
lists to unite their knotted plots. 9th
erwise the stage and the seats lay
open to the sky. No rain was to DE
feared in the season of festival, every
Abreeze was welcome and the stars were
sufficient covering.
x + * *
To reach 10000 Athenians, rising
tier on tier against the hill. con-
siderable voice was necessary. There.
fore the actors, even of the women's
parts. were always men; a special
shoe. the cothurnus, gave them added
height, and the masks they wore,
besides making their roles distin-
guishable from afar, gave resonance
and carriage to their speech. Dramatis
personae originally meant the masks
of the drama" (per-sonare, to speak
through. Actors. dramatists. chorus
and musicians were organized in a
union called the Artists Of Dionysus."
Their profession was far better hon.
ored than in medieval or modern
Europe: they were exempt from mil.
itary service, and were allowed safe
passage through the lines in time
Of war. 1t was an honor, not a dis
grace, to play part upon the stage.
and so give life and action to a
philosophy.
Almost as important as the actors
were the members Of the chorus;
before Sophocles it dominated the
scene. Indeed, the majority of Greek
plays We're named from the chorus:
Suppliants. Persian Women, Trojan
Women, Choephori, Eumenides. Bac-
chae, Wasps, Frogs. The chorus
served partly as vehicle for the
poets interpretations, explanations
and views, and partly as a convenient
vocal curtain between the episodes OF
the play. Their lines were chanted
to the accompaniment OF single
flute. Often they interspersed their
songs with dance; and so the stage
was called an orchestra" (orcheomai,
l dance) Most Of the expense Of an
Athenian dramatic production lay in
the training of the chorus: usually
some wealthy citizen had here to come
to the rescue of the state. Plutarch
tells US that the representation of
six plays cost Athens more than the
war against Persia--presumably ex-
cluding the sack Of the capital. There
was an admission charge of cents:
but many people could not afford so
high a price. and Pericles made him.
self popular by arranging for the
practically free admission OF the poor.
The audience was highly heteroge-
neous: men, boys and women (of a