Such a cumbersome equipment would be fatal to acting as we understand it. The mask at once destroys all chance of that facial play which we deem essential; the padded limbs, heavy garments, and gigantic boots made all life-like motion and _élan_ impossible. This is no doubt one great reason why the playwrights rarely exhibit exciting physical action. Even so, the ludicrous sometimes occurred. Æschines when acting Œnomaus fell and had to be helped up by the chorus-trainer.[183] A natural supposition is that these impedimenta date not from Æschylus but from the period of vulgar elaboration. Certainly, it is not easy to imagine how such scenes as the delirium of Orestes, or the departure of Pentheus in the _Bacchæ_, could have been reasonably carried out—so to say—on stilts; indeed the whole spirit of such plays as _Orestes_, _Ion_, and _Iphigenia at Aulis_ seems utterly alien to such equipment. But it is hard to set aside the voice of all the evidence. The best way would be to surmise that Euripides sometimes dispensed with buskins and the rest—though we should surely expect some allusion to so remarkable a change—for noble as is the work of his predecessors, it could be so performed without too absurd an effect. If Garrick’s audience did not object to his playing Macbeth in a periwig and knee-breeches, it is likely enough that Athens was content with such a Clytæmnestra as Pollux would have us imagine. V. THE PERFORMERS AND THEIR WORK A tragic performance was carried out by actors, extra performers, flute-player, and chorus. All these were men. Extra performers, though they take up very little space in our text, were important to the spectacle. Mutes were often needed. Not only did these figure as attendants, crowds, and the like; they are sometimes important to the plot though they do not happen to speak. The jury of Areopagites in _Eumenides_ is vital; children such as Eurysaces in _Ajax_, and the sons[184] of Medea, are important. Other extra performers were those who had very small speaking or singing parts, such as Eumelus in _Alcestis_. This would seem to mean a fourth actor, but, so slight was the part always[185] allotted, that it is not an unreasonable statement that there were never more than three actors. Thirdly, an extra chorus was occasionally needed for a short scene, as the Propompi in _Eumenides_ and the Huntsmen in _Hippolytus_. Any such extra performer was called a _parachoregema_ (παραχορήγημα, “extra supply”) and was paid by the choregus, as the name shows. (The regular chorus was paid by the State.) At times a chorus sang behind the scenes and was then called a “parascenion”; this function would, if possible, be performed by members of the regular chorus.