The Greek theater and its dramaFlickinger, Roy C. (Roy Caston)
History
The Greek theater and its drama
Flickinger, Roy C. (Roy Caston)
Drama -- Technique; Greek drama -- History and criticism; Theater -- Greece -- History -- To 500
Vitruvius, of course, made no philological or archaeological study of
the two adjectives but explained them in terms of the theater which
was known to him (see pp. 76 f., above). It should be noted, however,
that Vitruvius mentions only the tragic and comic actors under the term
_scaenici_ and includes under _thymelici_ “the other artists” who perform
in the orchestra. Does the dramatic chorus belong among the latter? Or
is it simply ignored here? The answer is far from certain. If we were
dealing only with new plays, it is conceivable that the choruses were
so detached from the histrionic action as to be able to stand ten or
twelve feet below the actors. But it is well known that some of the
fifth-century tragedies were still popular and frequently acted; and
as we have already seen, they were not amenable to any such method of
staging. In revivals of early masterpieces, then, did all the performers,
actors and chorus alike, appear in the orchestra, as in the old Greek
theaters? Or was the chorus so reduced in size, and its manner of
performance so altered, that it could stand with the actors on the high
and narrow Graeco-Roman stage, as they all certainly did on the low and
broad Roman stage? It is impossible to determine. All that can truthfully
be said is that Vitruvius does not clearly indicate the place of the
dramatic chorus in the Graeco-Roman theater. My own opinion is that he
is speaking of two distinct types of performance and is ignoring the
dramatic chorus.
The same question arises in connection with Pollux. He catalogues
eleven parts of a theater. Of these, only six concern us at present:
σκηνή, orchestra, logium, proscenium, parascenia, and hyposcenium (IV,
123). Dörpfeld thinks that Pollux is describing the Greek Hellenistic
theater,[197] but Pollux was for many years a professor at Athens
and dedicated his work to the emperor Commodus (161-92 A.D.). Unless
his language prevents it, it is more natural to suppose that he had
the Athenian structure of his own day in mind, and this would be the
Nero theater. In that case, every term falls into place. For the Nero
theater logium could refer to the stage alone; and as there would be
no sense in Pollux mentioning two words for stage, and since no other
term for scene-building as a whole (including logium, proscenium, and
parascenia) appears in his list, σκηνή must still mean scene-building
and not stage. Pollux then proceeds to say that “the scene-building
belongs to the actors and the orchestra to the chorus,” and a little
later that “entering at the orchestra they mount to the scene-building
on ladders (steps?).”[198] Believing that Pollux is describing the
Hellenistic theater, Dörpfeld interprets the first of these passages much
as Aristotle’s use of ἐπὶ (ἀπὸ) τῆς σκηνῆς has just been explained. The
second passage he considers a reference to some such unusual incident
as occurs in Aristophanes’ _Clouds_, where an actor is bidden to climb
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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