river, nearly opposite to the modern Racca. Geogra- | it as placed on the great road leading from Thermopy phers are wrong in removing it to Ul-Deer. (Wil-læ by Lamia to the north of Thessaly, speaks of it in liams, Geogr. of Asia, p. 129, seqq.) This ford was the following terms: "You arrive," says the historipassed by Cyrus the Younger in his expedition against an, "after a very difficult and rugged route over hill Artaxerxes; afterward by Darius after his defeat by and dale, when you suddenly open on an immense Alexander at Issus; and near three years after by Al- plain like a vast sea, which stretches below as far as the exander in pursuit of Darius, previous to the battle of eye can reach." The town was situate on a very lofty Arbela. (Xen., Anab., 1, 4.—Plin., 5, 24.—Steph. and perpendicular rock, which rendered it a place of Byz., s. v.) great strength. The modern name is Thaumacos. Dodwell describes the view from this place as the most wonderful and extensive he ever beheld. W. Gell gives Thaumakon as the modern name. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 1, p. 414.) THAPSUS, I. now Demsas, a town of Africa Propria, on the coast, southeast of Hadrumetum, where Scipio and Juba were defeated by Cæsar. It was otherwise a place of little consequence. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. | 10, pt. 2, p. 241.)-II. A town of Sicily, on the eastern coast, not far to the north of Syracuse. It was situate on a peninsula, which was sometimes called an island, and which now bears the name of Macronisi. The place probably obtained its name from the peninsula producing the dayos, a sort of plant or shrub used for dyeing yellow. (Thucyd., 6, 4.—Bloomfield, ad Thucyd., l. c.) Sir THAUMANTIAS, an appellation given to Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, as the daughter of Thaumas (Wonder.-Hes., Theog., 265). THEANO, I. daughter of Cisseus, and sister of Hecuba. She married Antenor, and, being priestess also of Minerva, was prevailed upon by her husband to deliver up to him the Palladium, which he treacherously gave into the hands of the Greeks. (Hom., Il., 6, 298.- Pausan., 10, 27.-Dict. Cret., 5, 8.)-II. The wife of Pythagoras. She was a native of Crotona, and the first female, it is said, that turned her attention to philosophy. She was also a poetess. (Suid., s. v. Diog. Laert., 8, 42, seqq.—Menag., ad Diog., l. c.)-III. A daughter of Pythagoras. (Auct., Vit. Pythag., ap. Plut.-Menag., ad Diod., 8, 42.)-IV. The mother of Pausanias. She was the first, as it is reported, who brought a stone to the entrance of Minerva's temple to shut up her son, when she heard of his perfidy to his country. (Vid. Pausanias I.) THEATRUM: under this head it is proposed to give a brief sketch of the ancient drama, arranged under proper heads : 1. History of Tragedy from its rise to the time of Eschylus. THASUS, an island in the Egean, off the coast of Thrace, and opposite the mouth of the Nestus. It received, at a very remote period, a colony of Phoenicians, under the conduct of Thasus (Herod., 6, 47. — Scymn., Ch., v. 660), that enterprising people having already formed settlements in several islands of the Egean. (Thucyd., 1, 8.) They were induced to possess themselves of Thasus, from the valuable silver-mines which it contained, and which, it appears, they afterward worked with unremitting assiduity. Herodotus, who visited this island, reports that a large mountain on the side of Samothrace had been turned upside down (άνεστραμμένον) in search of the precious metal. Thasus, at a later period, was recolonized by a party of Parians, pursuant to the command of an oracle to the father of the poet Archilochus. From this document, quoted by Stephanus, we learn that the ancient name of the island was Eria. (Pliny, 4, 12.) It is said by others to have been also named The drama owes its origin to that principle of imiChryse. (Eustath., ad Dion. Perieg., p. 97.) His- tation which is inherent in human nature. Hence its tiæus the Milesian, during the disturbances occasioned invention, like that of painting, sculpture, and the by the Ionian revolt, fruitlessly endeavoured to make other imitative arts, cannot properly be restricted to himself master of this island, which was subsequently any one specific age or people. In fact, scenical repconquered by Mardonius, when the Thasians were resentations are found among nations so totally sepcommanded to pull down their fortifications, and re-arated by situation and circumstances, as to make it move their ships to Abdera. (Herod., 6, 44.) On the impossible for any one to have borrowed the idea from expulsion of the Persians from Greece, Thasus, to- another. In Greece and Hindustan the drama was at gether with the other islands on this coast, became the same period in high repute and perfection, while tributary to Athens; disputes, however, having arisen Arabia and Persia, the intervening countries, were between the islanders and that power on the subject of utter strangers to this kind of entertainment. The the mines on the Thracian coast, a war ensued, and Chinese, again, have from time immemorial possessed the Thasians were besieged for three years. On their a regular theatre. The ancient Peruvians had their surrender their fortifications were destroyed, and their tragedies, comedies, and interludes; and even among ships of war removed to Athens. (Thucyd., 1, 101.) the savage and solitary islanders of the South Sea, a Thasus once more revolted, after the great failure of rude kind of play was observed by the navigators who the Athenians in Sicily, at which time a change was discovered them. Each of these people must have ineffected in the government of the island from democ-vented the drama for themselves. The only point of racy to oligarchy. (Thucyd., 8, 64.) According to connexion was the sameness of the cause which led Herodotus, the revenues of Thasus amounted to two to these several independent inventions; the instincthundred, and sometimes three hundred, talents annu-ive propensity to imitation, and the pleasure arising ally. These funds were principally derived from the mines of Scapte-hyle, in Thrace (6, 48).-The capital of the island was Thasus.-Thasus furnished, besides gold and silver, marbles and wine, which were much esteemed. (Plin., 35, 6.-Senec., Epist., 86. Athen., 1, 51.) The soil was excellent. (Dion. Perieg., v. 523.) The modern name of the island is Thaso or Tasso. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 1, p. 333.) THAUMACI, a city of Thessaly, in the district of Phthiotis, and in a northwest direction from the head waters of the Sinus Maliacus. It is said to have derived its name from the singularity of its situation, and the astonishment (Vavua) produced on the minds of travellers upon first reaching it. Livy, who describes from it when successfully exerted. The elements of the Grecian Drama are to be sought in an age far antecedent to all regular historic record. In those remote times, the several seasons of the year had among the Greeks their respective festivals. That religion, which peopled with divinities wood, and hill, and stream, and gave to every art and event of ordinary life its peculiar deity, entered largely into the feelings and customs of these annual festivities. Among an agricultural population like that of early Greece, Dionysus, at what time soever his name and worship had been introduced, as the inventor of wine and god of the vineyard, possessed, of necessity, a distinguished sacrifice and feast.-Music and poetry, wherever they exist, are almost invariably employed in the services a. rus, in the sublimity of its odes and splendour of the a companiments, became one of the most imposing show i among the public spectacles of Greece. In the mar time, the representation of the laughter-loving Satyn had been moulded into a more regular body, and cosm ued to delight the populace with their grotesque pearance and merry pranks. It is here that we f divine worship. In Greece, pre-eminently the land of the song and the lyre, this practice prevailed from the most ancient times. At the periodic festivals of their several deities, bands of choristers, accompanied by the pipe, the lute, or the harp, sang the general praises of the god, or episodic narrations of his various achievements. The feasts of Bacchus had, of course, their sacred choruses; and these choruses, from the cir-discover something of a dramatic nature. The cumstances of the festival, naturally fell into two ers of the Dithyramb were mere choristers; they a classes of very different character. The hymns ad- sumed no characters, and exhibited no imitation. The dressed immediately to the divinity, round the hal- performers in the Satyric chorus had a part to sustan lowed altar during the solemnity of the service, were they were actors in the strictest sense of the ward. grave, lofty, and restrained. The songs inspired by Moreover, in their extemporaneous bursts of descrip the carousals of the banquet, and uttered amid the rev- tion, remark, jest, and repartee, a kind of dialogue elries of the Phallic procession, were coarse, ludi- was introduced; irregular, no doubt, and wild yet crous, and satirical, interspersed with mutual jest and still a dialogue. Here, then, in this acting and the gibe. The hymn which accompanied the opening sac-dialogue, we have, at once, the elements and the rifice was called divpaubos, a term of doubtful ety-sence of the drama.-The Satyric chorus, hie be mology and import. Perhaps, like the repulsive sym-Dithyramb, had found an early entrance into the De bol of the Phallic rites, its origin must be referred to rian cities, and was particularly cultivated at Pa an Eastern clime.-Besides the chanters of the Dithy-a town of Sicyon. În Attica, the future scene of the ramb and the singers of the Phallic, there was, proba- perfected drama, there remains no direct record of bly from the first introduction of Bacchic worship, a these Dionysian representations until the middle f third class of performers in these annual festivals. the sixth century before our era. At that time Thes Fauns and Satyrs were, in popular belief, the regular pis, a native of Icaria, an Athenian village, as attendants of the deity; and the received character of struck with the possibility of introducing various these singular beings was in admirable harmony with provements into the Satyric chorus.-He saw that the merry Dionysia. The goat, as an animal espe- incessant round of jest, and gambol, and grimaceb cially injurious to the vines, and, therefore, peculiarly came, in the end, exhausting to the performers and obnoxious to the god of the vineyard, was the appro-wearisome even to the spectators. Accordingly. priate offering in the Bacchic sacrifices. In the horns Icarian contrived a break in the representation (Dag and hide of the victim, all that was requisite to furnish Laert., Plat., 66), by coming forward in person (Past satyric guise was at hand; and thus a band of mum- Vit. Sol., c. 29), and, from an elevated stand, descr mers was easily formed, whose wit, waggery, and gri-bing in gesticulated narration some mythological str mace would prove no insignificant addition to the When this was ended the chorus again commend amusements of the village carnival.-In these rude their peformances. The next step was to add ha festivities the splendid drama of the Greeks found its spirit to these monologues, by making the chorus a origin. The lofty poetry of the Dithyramb, combined part in the narrative through an occasional exch with the lively exhibition of the Satyric chorus, was at tion, question, or remark. This was readily suggested length wrought out into the majestic tragedy of Soph- by the practice of interchanging observations already ocles. The Phallic song was expanded and improved established among the members of the chorus. A into the wonderful comedy of Aristophanes. In the thus was the germe of the dialogue still farther first rise of the Bacchic festivals, the rustic singers veloped. In order to disguise his features, and so used to pour forth their own unpolished and extempo- produce a certain degree of histrionic illusion, The raneous strains. By degrees, these rude choruses as-pis is said first to have smeared his face with ver sumed a more artificial form. Emulation was excited, and contests between neighbouring districts led to the successive introduction of such improvements as might tend to add interest and effect to the rival exhibitions. It was probably now that a distinction in prizes was made. Heretofore a goat appears to have been the ordinary reward of the victorious choristers; and the term rpayudia (rpáуov ¿ðý), or goat-song, to have comprehended the several choral chantings in the Dionysia. To the Dithyramb a bull was now assigned, as a nobler meed for its sacred ode; the successful singers of the Phallic received a basket of figs and a vessel of wine; while the goat was left to the Satyric chorus. Subsequently, when the Dithyramb and the drama had become established in all their perfection throughout the cities of Greece, the general prize was a tripod, which was commonly dedicated by the victor to Bacchus, with a tablet, bearing the names of the successful composer, choragus, and tribe.-The Dithyramb was at a very early period admitted into the Doric cities, and there cherished with peculiar attention by a succession of poets; among whom Archilochus of Paros, Arion of Methymne, Simonides of Ceos, and Lasus of Hermione were especially distinguished. Under their hands the rude extemporaneous hymn of a peasant chorus was gradually refined into a laboured composition, lofty in sentiment, studied in dic tion, and adorned with all the graces which music, rhythm, and the dance could supply. Thus fostered by the patronage of city communities, and so improved by the skill and talent of rival poets, the Dithyrambic cho then with a pigment prepared from the herb purs, a actor with his episodic recitations was so important less directly upon the theme of the interwoven diaan advance, as leading directly to the formation of logue.-In correspondence with these alterations in dramatic plot and dialogue; and the other improve-tone and composition, the actor and the choristers ments, which imparted skill, regularity, and unity to must have assumed a different aspect. The performthe movements of the chorus, were of so influential a ers were now the representatives, not of Silenus and description, that Thespis is generally considered the the Satyrs, but of heroes, princes, and their attendants. inventor of the drama. Of tragedy, properly so call- The goatskin guise and obstreperous sportiveness ed, he does not appear to have had any idea. Stories, were laid aside for the staid deportment of persons more or less ludicrous, generally turning upon Bac- engaged in matters of serious business or deep afflic chus and his followers, interwoven with the dance and tion, and a garb befitting the rank and state of the sevthe song of a well-trained chorus, formed the drama eral individuals employed in the piece. Nor are we of Thespis.-The Satyric chorus had by this time to suppose that, as the actor was still but one, so been admitted into Athens; contests were set on foot; never more than one personage was introduced. For and the success which attended the novelties of Thes- it is very probable that this one actor, changing his pis sharpened, no doubt, the talents of his competi- dress, appeared in different characters during the course tors. This emulation would naturally produce im- of the play; a device frequently employed in later provement upon improvement: but we discover no times, when the increased number of actors made such leading change in the line of the incipient drama until a contrivance less necessary. This actor sometimes the appearance of Phrynichus, the son of Polyphrad-represented female personages; for Phrynichus is stamon and the pupil of Thespis. At the close of the ted to have first brought a female character on the sixth century before Christ, the elements of tragedy, stage. Thus, from the midst of the coarse buffoonerthough still in a separate state, were individually so ies and rude imitations of the Satyric chorus, did tragefitted and prepared as to require nothing but a master dy start up at once in her proper, though not her perhand to unite them into one whole of life and beauty. fect, form. For, mighty as had been the stride toThe Dithyramb presented in its solemn tone and lofty wards the establishment of the Serious Drama, yet in strains a rich mine of choral poetry; the regular nar- the exhibitions of Phrynichus we find the infancy, not rative and mimetic character of the Thespian chorus the maturity, of tragedy. There was still many an exfurnished the form and materials of dramatic exhibi- crescence to be removed; many a chasm to be filled tion. To Phrynichus belongs the chief merit of this up; many a rugged point to be smoothed into regularcombination. Dropping the light and farcical cast of ity; and many an embryo part to be expanded into the Thespian drama, and dismissing altogether Bac- its full and legitimate dimensions. The management chus with his satyrs, he sought for the subjects of his of the piece was simple and inartificial even to rudepieces in the grave and striking events registered in the ness. The argument was some naked incident, mymythology or history of his country. This, however, thologic or historical, on which the chorus sang and was not a practice altogether original or unexampled. the actor recited in a connected but desultory succesThe fact, casually mentioned by Herodotus (5, 67), sion. There was no interweaving or development of that the tragic choruses at Sicyon sung, not the adven-plot; no studied arrangement of fact and catastrophe; tures of Bacchus, but the woes of Adrastus, shows no skilful contrivance to heighten the natural interest that, in the Cyclic chorus at least, melancholy incident of the tale, and work up the feelings of the audience and mortal personages had long before been intro- into a climax of terror or of pity. The odes of the duced. There is also some reason for supposing that chorus were sweet and beautiful; the dances scienthe young tragedian was deeply indebted to Homer in tific and dexterously given; but then these odes and the formation of his drama. Aristotle distinctly at- dances still composed the principal part of the performtributes to the author of the Iliad and Odyssey the ance. (Aristol., Probl., 19, 31.) They contracted primary suggestion of tragedy, as in his Margites was the episodes of the actor, and threw them into comgiven the first idea of comedy. (Pact., 4, 12.) Now parative insignificance. Nay, not unfrequently, while It is an historical fact, that, a few years before Phryn- the actor appeared in a posture of thought, wo, or conichus began to exhibit, the Homeric poems had been sternation, the chorus would prolong its dance and chantcollected, revised, arranged, and published by the care ings, and leave to the performer little more than the part of Pisistratus. (Cic., de Orat., 3, 34.) Such an of a speechless image. In short, the drama of Phrynevent would naturally attract attention, and add a ichus was a serious opera of lyric song and skilful deeper interest to the study of this mighty master; dance, and not a tragedy of artful plot and interesting and it is easy to conceive how his unσels Spaμari- dialogue. Such was Phrynichus as an inventor. Still Kaí, as Aristotle terms them, would strike and operate we must remember, in tracing the inventive improvers upon a mind acute, ready, and ingenious, as that of of tragedy, that the real claims of Phrynichus are not Phrynichus must have been. At any rate, these two to be measured by what he finally achieved through facts stand in close chronological connexion-the first imitation of others, but by the productions of his own edition of Homer, and the birth of tragedy properly so unassisted ingenuity and talent. In this view, those called.-Taking, then, the ode and the tone of the claims must almost entirely be restricted to the comDithyramb, the mimetic personifications of Homer and bination of the poetry of the Cyclic with the acting of the themes which additional tradition or even recent the Thespian chorus; the conversion of Satyric gayeevents supplied, Phrynichus combined these several ty into the solemnity and pathos of what was thencematerials together, and so brought them forward under forth peculiarly styled Tragedy. In all succeeding the dramatic form of the Thespian exhibition. Thus, alterations and additions, Phrynichus seems to have at length, does tragedy dawn upon us.-These changes been simply the follower of Æschylus. - Between in the character of the drama necessarily produced Phrynichus and Eschylus two other tragedians, Chœricorresponding alterations in its form and manner. The lus and Pratinas, intervened, of whom very little is recitative was no longer a set of disjointed, rambling episodes of humorous legend, separated by the wild dance and noisy song of a Satyr choir, but a connected succession of serious narrative or grave conversation, with a chorus composed of personages involved in the story, all relating to one subject, and all tending to one result. This recitative again alternated with a series of choral odes, composed in a spirit of deep thought and lofty poetry, themselves turning more or known. The dramas of Choerilus appear originally to have been of a Satyric character, like those of Thespis. In his later days he naturally copied the improvements of Phrynichus; and we find him, accordingly, contending for the tragic prize against Phrynichus, Pratinas, and Eschylus, Olymp. 70, B.C. 499; the time when Æschylus first exhibited. His pieces are said to have amounted to a hundred and fifty (Suid., s. v.); not a fragment, however, remains; and, if we may trust Hermeas and Proclus, the commentators on Plato, | old countryman himself comes last, chanting the Phal the loss is not very great.-Pratinas was a native of Phlius, and a poet of higher talent. He too attempted the new style of dramatic composition, and once obtained a tragic victory. But the manifest pre-eminence of the youthful Eschylus probably deterred the Phliasian from continuing to cultivate the graver form of the art, and led him to contrive a novel and mixed kind of play. Borrowing from tragedy its external form and mythological materials, Pratinas added a chorus of Satyrs, with their lively songs, gestures, and movements. This new composition was called the Satyric Drama. The novelty was exceedingly welltimed. The innovations of Thespis and Phrynichus had banished the Satyric chorus, with its wild pranks and merriment, to the great displeasure of the commonalty, who retained a strong regret for their old amusement amid the new and more refined exhibitions. The Satyric drama gave them back, under an improved form, the favourite diversion of former times; and was received with such universal applause, that the tragic poets, in compliance with the humour of their auditors, deemed it advisable to combine this ludicrous exhibition with their graver pieces. One Satyric drama was added to each tragic trilogy, as long as the custom of contending with a series of plays, and not with single pieces, continued. Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were all distinguished Satyric composers; and in the Cyclops of the latter we possess the only extant specimen of this singular composition. As regards the changes produced by Æschylus in the drama, vid. Eschylus. 2. Dramatic Contests. 00 lic song, while the wife, stationed upon the house-p The precise time at which the contests of the drama commenced is uncertain. The Arundel Marble would make them coeval with the first inventions of Thespis. On the other hand, Plutarch assures us that no scenic contests were established until some years after the early Thespian exhibitions. (Vit. Sol., 29.) The true account appears to be this: The contests of the Dithyrambic and Satyric choruses were almost contemporaneous with their origin. Those of the Dithy-ed; at the latter, the tragedies at least were alway ramb continued without interruption to the latest pe- new pieces. At the time of the greater Drony riod of theatric spectacle in ancient Greece and al- there was always a great concourse of strangers though the great improvements of Thespis might, for Athens: deputations bringing the tribute from the the moment, excite admiration rather than competi- several dependant states, visitants from the cities tion, yet doubtless his distinguished success soon alliance, and foreigners from all parts of the civilized stimulated others to attempt this new and popular world: for these Atovuota were the dramatic Oy kind of entertainment, and rival the originator. Un- of Greece. (Aristoph., Acharn., 474.)—We may te der Eschylus and his immediate successors the the-timate the importance attached to these scenic ex atrical contests advanced to a high degree of impor- bitions from the care manifested in providing by p tance. They were placed under the superintendence lic enactment for their due regulation and support of the magistracy; the representations were given They were placed under the immediate superintend with every advantage of stage decoration, and the ex- ence of the first magistrates in the state: the repre penses defrayed as a public concern. These contests sentations at the great Dionysia onder that of the were maintained at Athens with more or less splen- chief archon, those at the Lenea under that of his dour and talent for several centuries, long surviving called the king-archon. (Jul. Polluz, 8, 89, str.) her independence and grandeur.-In accordance with To this presiding archon the candidates presented the origin of the drama, its contests were confined to their pieces. He selected the most deserving compo the Dionysia, or festivals of Bacchus, the patron deity sitions, and assigned to every poet thus deemed r of scenic entertainments. These festivals were four thy of admission to the contest three actors by in number, and occurred in the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th together with a chorus. The equipment of these c months respectively of the Attic year. (Donaldson, ruses was considered a public concern, and, as such, Theatre of the Greeks, p. 132, and the authorities quo- like the fitting out of triremes and the other s ted by him, in notis.)-1. The " Country-Dionysia" yia, or state duties, was imposed upon the weather (Tà κar' ȧypovs Siovýσia) were held in all the coun- members of the community. The weirra try towns and villages throughout Attica, in Posei- each tribe selected one of their body to bear the cost deon, the sixth Athenian month, corresponding to the and superintend the training of a chorus. This latter part of December and the beginning of January. dividual was termed Xopnyóc, his office Xoca Aristophanes has left us a picture of this festival in The Choragus was considered as the religious repre the Acharnians (v. 235, &c.). About to offer a sac-sentative of the whole people. Hence his person and rifice to Bacchus, Dicæapolis appears on the stage, with his household marshalled in regular procession. His young daughter carries the sacred basket; a slave bears aloft the mystic symbol of the god; the honest the ornaments which he procured for the occasion were sacred. (Demosth. in Mid., p. 519.) He was said to do the state's work for it (Toupy Eiv.-Coo sult Valckenaer ad Ammon., 2, 16.—Ruhnk., Epsh the number of pieces represented. (Aristot., Poet., 7.) It was the poet's business, therefore, so to limit the length of his play as not to occupy in the acting more than the time allowed It is impossible now to ascertain the average number of pieces produced at one representation. Perhaps from ten to twelve dramas might be exhibited in the course of the day. (Donaldson, Theatre of the Greeks, p. 138.) 3. The Theatre. Crit., 1, p. 54.) The Choragia, the Gymnasiarchy, on which it was placed. (Lysias, ub. supr., p. 202. the Feasting of the Tribes, and the Architheoria, be- -Wordsworth's Athens and Attica, p. 153, seqq.) longed to the class of regularly-recurring state burdens Thus the beautiful choragic monument of Lysicrates, (ėуKÚKOL NEITоupyiai), to which all persons whose which is still standing at Athens, was undoubtedly surproperty exceeded three talents were liable. It was mounted by a tripod.-The merits of the candidates the business of the Choragus to provide the chorus in were decided by judges appointed by lot, and these all plays, whether tragic or comic, and also for the were generally, but not always, five in number. The lyric choruses of men and boys, Pyrrhichists, Cyclian archon administered an oath to them, and in the case dancers, and others. His first duty, after collecting of the Cyclian choruses, any injustice or partiality was his chorus, was to provide and pay a teacher (xopodi- punishable by fine. No prize drama was allowed to dúokaλos), who instructed them in the songs and dan- be exhibited a second time; but an unsuccessful piece, ces which they had to perform; and it appears that Cho- after being altered and retouched, might be again preragi drew lots for the first choice of teachers. The sented. The plays of Eschylus were exempted by a Choragus had also to pay the musicians and singers special decree from this regulation. Afterward (Aul. who composed the chorus, and was, allowed to press Gell., 7, 5) the same privilege was extended to those children, if their parents did not give them up of their of Sophocles and Euripides; but as the superiority of own accord. He was obliged to lodge and maintain these great masters was so decided, few candidates the chorus till the time of performance, and to supply could be found to enter the lists against their produced the singers with such aliments as conduce to strength- tragedies. A law was consequently passed, forbidding en the voice. In the laws of Solon, the age prescribed the future exhibition of these three dramatists, and difor the Choragus was forty years; but this law does recting that they should be read in public every year. not appear to have been long in force. The relative-The whole time of representation was portioned out expense of the different choruses in the time of Lysias in equal spaces to the several competitors by means of is given in a speech of that orator. ('Anoλ. dwpod., a clepsydra, and seems to have been dependant upon p. 698.) We learn from this that the tragic chorus cost nearly twice as much as the comic, though neither of the dramatic choruses was so expensive as the chorus of men or the chorus of flute-players. (Demosth. in Mid., p. 565.) No foreigner was allowed to dance in the choruses of the great Dionysia. (Petit, p. 353.) If any Choragus was convicted of employing one in his chorus, he was liable to a fine of a thousand drachmæ. This law did not extend to the Lenaa (Petit, p. 353); there the Merokoι also might be Choragi. The rival Choragi were termed avriXÓPN- In the first stage of the art no building was required 70; the contending dramatic poets, and the compo- or provided for its representations. In the country, sers for the Cyclian or other choruses, ávτididáσkaλo; the Dionysian performances were generally held at the performers, avrírexvoi. (Alciphron, 3, 48.)-Du- some central point, where several roads met; as a ring one period in the history of the Athenian stage, rendezvous most easy of access, and convenient in the tragic candidates were each to produce three seri- distance to all the neighbourhood. (Virg., Georg., ous and one Satyric drama, together entitled a Terpa- 2, 382.) In the city the public place was the ordiRoyía; otherwise, omitting the Satyric drama, the three nary site of exhihition. But when, at Athens, tragedy tragedies, taken by themselves, were called a тpinoyía. began to assume her proper dignity, and dramatic The earliest Terpaλoyía on record is that one of Es- contests were becoming matter of national pride and chylus which contained the Perse, and was exhibited attention, the need of a suitable building was soon B.C. 472. From that date down to B.C. 415, a space felt. A theatre of wood was erected. (Photius, s. v. of fifty-seven years, we have frequent notices of tetral- "Ikpia.) Through the weakness of the material or ogies. In B.C. 415, Euripides represented a tetralo- some defect in the construction, this edifice fell begy, one of the dramas in which was the Troades. Af-neath the weight of the crowds assembled to witness ter this time it does not appear from any ancient testi- a representation, in which Eschylus and Pratinas were mony whether the custom was continued or not. In- rivals. (Liban. Arg. in Olynth., 1.-Suidas, s. v. deed, it is matter of great doubt whether the practice IIparivaç.) It was then that the noble theatre of was at any time regular and indispensable. Some- stone was erected, within the Anvalov, or enclosure times, as in the Oresteiad of Eschylus, and the Pan- dedicated to Bacchus. The building was commenced dionid of Philocles, the three tragedies were on a com- in the year 500 B.C., but not finished till about 381 mon and connected subject; in general we find the B.C., when Lycurgus was manager of the treasury. case otherwise. (Aristoph., Ran., 1122.—Id., Av., The student who wishes to form an adequate notion 280.)—The prize of tragedy was, as has already been of the Greek theatre must not forget that it was noticed, originally a goat; of comedy, a jar of wine only an improvement upon the mode of representation and a basket of figs: but of these we have no intima- adopted by Thespis, which it resembled in its general tion after the first stage in the history of the drama. features. The two necessary parts were the vμén, In later times the successful poet was simply reward- or altar of Bacchus, round which the Cyclian chorus ed with a wreath of ivy. (Athen., 5, p. 217.) His danced, and the λoyelov, or stage, from which the acname was also proclaimed before the audience. His tor or exarchus spoke. It was the representative of Choragus and performers were adorned in like manner. the wooden table from which the earliest actor adThe poet used also, with his actors, to sacrifice the dressed his chorus, and was also called õкpıbaç. (Jul. nivíkia, and provide an entertainment, to which his Pollux, 4, 123.)-To form an accurate conception of friends were invited. The victorious Choragus in a the Athenian theatre in all its minutiæ, as it stood in tragic contest dedicated a tablet to Bacchus, inscribed the days of Pericles, is now impracticable. The only with the names of himself, his poet, and the archon. detailed accounts left us on this subject are two, that In comedy the Choragus likewise consecrated to the of Vitruvius, the architect of Augustus, and that of same god the dress and ornaments of his actors. The Julius Pollux, his junior by two centuries. From the Choragus who had exhibited the best musical or the descriptions of these writers, aided and explained by inatrical entertainment generally received a tripod as a cidental hints in other ancient authors, and a reference reward or prize. This he was at the expense of con- to the several theatric remains in Greece, Asia Minor, secrating; and in some cases he built the monument Sicily, and Italy, Genelli, an able scholar and architect |