By what gradations, however, the village chorus was transformed into the Dithyrambic, the Dithyrambic into the Satyric, and the Satyric again into the Tragic, it now appears impossible to ascertain; but it seems to be quite clear,[967] that in many ancient tragedies the number of the chorus was fifty,[968] as, for example, in the “Judgment of the Arms,” by Æschylus, in which silver-footed Thetis appeared upon the stage accompanied by a train of fifty Nereids.[969] Again, according to certain ancient authors,[970] in the Eumenides of Æschylus, the chorus of Furies at first amounted to fifty, which, rushing tumultuously, with frightful gestures and horrid masks,[971] into the orchestra, struck so great a terror into the people, particularly the women[972] and children, that their number was afterwards reduced by law. I am aware that several distinguished scholars think very differently on this subject; some maintaining, that the chorus of Furies always consisted of fifteen, while others reduce their number to three. But, though both these opinions have been supported with much learning and ingenuity, it seems difficult to admit either the one or the other. In the first place, since every thing connected with the stage was in a state of perpetual fluctuation, since the masks and costume were repeatedly altered, since the number of the actors was augmented, since almost every arrangement of the theatre, and every characteristic of the poetry, underwent numerous modifications; the chorus, also, it is probable, submitted to the same alterations or reforms till it settled in that tetragonal figure[973] and determinate number which it afterwards preserved, as long as the legitimate drama existed in Greece. ----- Footnote 967: Poll. iv. 108. Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 210. Footnote 968: Cf. Schol. ad Æschin. Tim. Orator. Att. t. xii. p. 376. Tzetz. ad Lycoph. p. 251, sqq. See also Müller, Dissert. on the Eumenides of Æschylus, p. 54. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 587.—“Nous savons que sur les Théâtres Grecs les femmes dansaient dans les chœurs.”—Winkel. Mon. Ined. iii. p. 86. I have found no proof in any ancient author that this was the practice among the Greeks. Footnote 969: Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 848. Footnote 970: Vit. Æschyl. p. vi. Footnote 971: Bœttiger, Furies, p. 2. Poll. iv. 110. Schol. Aristoph. Av. 298. Eq. 586. Footnote 972: According to Mr. Bœttiger, however, “chez les anciens Atheniens les femmes n’ont jamais assisté aux représentations théatrales.”—Furies, p. 3, note. But, in addition to the proofs of the contrary, accumulated in the preceding book, the reader may consult the testimony of Aristides, who severely blames his countrymen for allowing their wives and children to frequent the theatres, t. i. p. 518, cf. p. 507.—Jebb. He speaks, indeed, more particularly of the Smyrniotes; but Smyrna was an Ionian colony.—Herod. i. 149. Footnote 973: Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 209. -----