Now the sound of flutes is heard and the chorus of initiates enter. Dionysus and Xanthias crouch down, where they are, to listen (vs. 315). Immediately the orchestra, which has just been a subterranean lake, is changed to the imagination into a flowery meadow (vss. 326, 351, etc.). At vs. 431 Dionysus starts up from his lurking-place and inquires of the chorus, “Could you tell us where Pluto dwells hereabouts?” and the coryphaeus promptly replies: “Know that you have come to the very door” (vs. 436). Dionysus orders his slave to pick up the baggage, walks across the orchestra (_DE_), and raps at the central door (_E_), which represents the palace of Pluto (vss. 460 ff.). We need continue no further, for the remainder of the play contains nothing that is noteworthy for our present purpose; but it is already evident how closely the successive situations of the comedy correspond to the physical conditions and arrangements of a stageless theater. To those who would apply Vitruvius’ account to the fifth-century theater, this play presents ineluctable difficulties; there is insufficient room for Charon’s boat on a Vitruvian or any other kind of a Greek stage, Dionysus must appeal to his priest who is some eighty feet away,[182] Xanthias has no lake to run around, and Dionysus must inquire the way to Pluto’s palace when he would be standing considerably nearer to it than the chorus. [Illustration: FIG. 45 STONE CHAIR OF THE PRIEST OF DIONYSUS OPPOSITE THE CENTER OF THE ORCHESTRA IN ATHENS See p. 90, n. 1] It was a convention in the earlier fifth-century plays that if the chorus and one actor were before the audience, an incoming actor should speak first to the chorus and ignore the other actor for the time being (see pp. 165 f., below). This convention was oftentimes extremely awkward and unnatural; but if both actors had stood on a stage several feet above the chorus it surely would have been altogether impossible.[183] The only tangible argument for a stage of any height in the fifth century is afforded by the occurrence of the words ἀναβαίνειν (“to ascend”) in Aristophanes’ _Acharnians_ (vs. 732), _Knights_ (vs. 149), and _Wasps_ (vs. 1342), and καταβαίνειν (“to descend”) in his _Wasps_ (vs. 1514) and _Women in Council_ (vs. 1152). All of these plays, except the last, were performed prior to Aristophanes’ _Frogs_, which we have already seen to be incapable of presentation in a staged theater. In my opinion, then, these words are best explained on the basis of the slight difference in level between the orchestra and the floor of the proscenium colonnade, which was probably elevated a step or two above the orchestra and was often used by the dramatic performers (see p. 68, above, and pp. 238 f., below).[184] Since the _Acharnians_ was produced in 425 B.C., the appearance of ἀναβαίνειν in that play is valuable as affording a _terminus ante quem_ for the introduction of a wooden proscenium at Athens.