In comedy the situation was somewhat different. Except in mythological parodies the stories are independent of tradition and newly invented, and usually are very slightly attached to any definite locality. As a result the plays of Old Comedy are generally thought of, somewhat vaguely, as taking place in Athens, though this fact is seldom expressly stated, and we rarely have any indication as to precisely where in the city the scenic background is supposed to stand. Occasionally we hear of the Pnyx (_Acharnians_, vs. 20) or Chloe’s temple (_Lysistrata_, vs. 385). But there is not a word in the _Clouds_ or in the _Women at the Thesmophoria_ to show where in Athens Socrates’ thinking-shop or Agathon’s house is situated. A shift of scene is not uncommon. At the beginning of the _Frogs_, Dionysus visits his brother Heracles. Since no other location is specified, this scene is probably laid in Athens.[301] At vs. 182 the orchestra represents the subterranean lake, and at vs. 436 the chorus informs Dionysus that he has reached Pluto’s door (see pp. 88-90, above). By the time of New Comedy, unless we are definitely informed to the contrary, the scene is so uniformly laid in Athens that there was no necessity of saying so. It is true that Athens is mentioned in Plautus’ _The Churl_, vss. 1 ff.: “Plautus asks for a tiny part of your handsome walls where without the help of builders he may convey Athens,” but it is evident that these words were added by the Roman poet to the original and so are no exception to the Greek practice. That the action did customarily take place in Athens is expressly stated in Plautus’ _Menaechmi_, vss. 8 ff.: “And this is the practice of comic poets: they declare that every thing has been done at Athens, so that their play may seem more Greek to you.” So thoroughly was this principle ingrained in the playwrights’ consciousness that they were in danger of a lapse when they evaded it. Thus Calydon is the imaginary scene of Plautus’ _The Carthaginian_ (cf. vs. 94); nevertheless at vs. 372 one character says to another, “If you will but have patience, my master will give you your freedom and make you an Attic citizen,” as if they were in Athens! When the poet, as in this instance, deviated from the usual scene of action, he had one of the actors, generally the prologus, warn the audience by saying, “This town is Ephesus” (Plautus’ _The Braggart Captain_, vs. 88); “Diphilus wished this city to be named Cyrene” (Plautus’ _The Fisherman’s Rope_, vs. 32), etc. It is only natural that this same period should witness the rise of the convention that the side entrance (parodus) at the spectators’ right led to the harbor or the market place and that at their left into the country, since the scene was regularly placed in Athens and since these were the actual topographical relationships in the Athenian theater (see p. 233, below). So firmly was this convention established that in Plautus’ _Amphitruo_, Thebes, an inland town, is