But the eccyclema was also described as a low, trundle platform,[358] large enough to accommodate several persons and narrow enough to be pushed through the doors of the scene-building, and this type would be more suitable for the conditions which obtained in the Athenian theater from about 430 B.C. (see pp. 235 and 292). At this period the scene-building was raised to a second story and embellished with wooden proscenium and parascenia, a crane came into use, etc. Under these conditions the earlier type of eccyclema could no longer be so large nor so easily seen, being hampered in both particulars by the proscenium. On the other hand the new type could be made as long as the scene-building was deep and could be pushed forward as far as might be necessary.[359] Thus in Aristophanes’ _Acharnians_ (425 B.C.), Dicaeopolis appears before the house of Euripides, who is lounging within doors. In response to the former’s knock and summons “to be wheeled out” Euripides says “I will be wheeled out,” and is pushed upon the stage (ἐκκυκλήθητι ... ἐκκυκλήσομαι, vs. 408). The conversation which ensues between Dicaeopolis outdoors and Euripides supposedly indoors does not conclude until vs. 479, when the latter exclaims: “The fellow is insolent; shut the doors.” Perhaps in this instance, for parodic effect, a trundle couch itself is shoved through the door instead of a stationary couch upon a trundle platform.[360] Very similar is the scene in Aristophanes’ _Women at the Thesmophoria_ (about 411 B.C.), where Agathon is wheeled out before Euripides and Mnesilochus. Here again the verbs ἐκκυκλούμενος in vs. 96 and εἰσκυκλησάτω at the conclusion of the scene in vs. 265 do not permit me to doubt that the eccyclema, or a comic substitute, was employed. It is probably no accident that Euripides figures in both of these scenes. He is “hoist with his own petar” as having invented, or been a frequent user of, this mechanism. The passage of tragedy in which most authorities concede the employment of the eccyclema is Euripides’ _The Madness of Heracles_ (vss. 1029-1402). Chronologically this play falls somewhere between the _Acharnians_ and the _Women at the Thesmophoria_. In his madness Heracles has slain his wife and three children within the palace and at last has fallen into a dazed torpor; whereupon his friends have bound him to a broken column. As the chorus chant “Alas! Behold the doors of the stately palace fall asunder” (vss. 1029 f.), the hero bound to a pillar amid the slain is pushed forward on the eccyclema. At vs. 1089 he recovers consciousness and begins to speak; at vs. 1123 Amphitryon loosens him; and at vs. 1163 Theseus enters and finally (vs. 1402) persuades him to descend into the orchestra.