Chapter XXII: Appendix: D (1)

The following extracts are from a series of inscriptions containing the accounts of the priests of Apollo at Delos. These priests had charge of the various public buildings in the island, including the theatre. The part of their accounts which refers to the theatre is of great interest, because of the light which it throws on the theatrical architecture of the time. A collection of the notices concerning the theatre is given by Homolle in Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, 1894, pp. 161 ff. The most important passages are given below.

290 B.C. τοῖς τὴν σκηνὴν ἐργολαβήσασι καὶ τὸ προσκήνιον ΗΗΗΗΔ.

282 B.C. Ἡρακλείδῃ εἰς τὸ προσκήνιον γράψαντι πίνακας δύο μισθὸς δραχμαὶ 𐅂𐅂𐅂Ι· Ἀντιδότῳ τοῦ προσκηνίου γρά[ψαν]τι πίνακας δύο . . . . . . . . . . . . Θεοδότῳ πίνακα εἰς τὸ προσκήνιον ποιήσαντι μισθὸς δραχμαὶ ΔΔΔ· εἰς τοῦτο κατε[χρήσθη ξύλον] ἐλάτινον τῶν ὑπαρχόντων . . . . . ἀπὸ τούτων ἠλεί[ψα]μεν τὰς θύρας πάσας . . . . . . καὶ ὅσα ἔδει τῆς σκηνῆς τῆς ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ.

281 B.C. τοὺς πίνακας εἰς τὸ θέατρον ἀνενέγκασι ΙΙΙ . . . . . . . χαλκοῦ εἰς τὴν σκηνὴν μνᾶς ΙΙ.

279 B.C. (δραχμὰς) ἃς ἐξέτεισε Ἀρίγνωτος Ἀντιπάτρου ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐγγύης ἧς ἠγγύητο Δίαιτον Ἀπολλοδώρου τῆς τοῦ θεάτρου περιοικοδομίας τὸ καθ’ αὑτὸν μέρος . . . . . . τορνίσκον εἰς τὸ θέατρον ἐργασαμένῳ Ἀντιγόνῳ Καΐκου, παρέχοντι αὐτῷ πάντα εἰς τὸ ἔργον πλὴγ ξύλων, μισθὸς . . . . . . . τοῦ θεάτρου τὴν ὀρχήστραν καὶ τοὺς ὁλκοὺς ἀνακαθάραντι καὶ τὸν χοῦν ἐξενέγκασι μισθωτοῖς, ἀρχιτέκτονος ἐγδόντος, μισθὸς 𐅃𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . . . . τῆς σκηνῆς τὸ τέγος καταλείψαντι Ἕρμωνι Δ𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . εἰς τὸ [λογε]ῖον τῆς σκηνῆς (ξύλον). . . .

276 B.C. [ἐργο]λάβαις τοῦ θεάτρου τῶν ὁλκῶν τὴν δευτέραν δόσιν Χ𐅅.

274 B.C. [ἀγαγοῦσι εἰς] τὸ θέατρον ἀπὸ τοῦ νεωκορίου λίθους οὓς εἰργάσατο . . . . . . . συστήσαντι τὸ παρασκήνιον . . . . . . . . . . . [ἀπενέγκαντι εἰς] τὸ θέατρον λίθους τῶν ἐκ Τήνου δύο καὶ ἐκ τοῦ σταδίου . . . . . . . . . ἐγλαβόντι τὴν πρισμὴν τῶν στοῶν τῶν εἰς τὰς σκηνάς . . . . . τῷ τοὺς ἥλους ἐγλαβόντι [τοὺς εἰς τὰς σκ]ηνὰς καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια τὴμ μνᾶν 𐅂𐅂 ἀπεστησάμεθα κατὰ τὴν συγγραφὴν μνᾶς τριάκοντα ἑπτὰ μετὰ τοῦ ἀρχιτέκτονος καὶ τῶν ἐπιμελητῶν . . . . . . . . Θεοδήμῳ τῷ ἐγλαβόντι ποιῆσαι τὴν σκηνὴν τὴν μέσην καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια τὰ κάτω δραχμῶν ΗΗΗΗ𐅄ΔΔΔΔ𐅃𐅂𐅂𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . . Ἐπικλύτῃ τῷ ἐγλαβόντι τὰς σκηνὰς τὰς παλαιὰς . . . καὶ ἐπισκευάσαι καὶ τὰς ἐπάνω σκηνὰς καινὰς ποιῆσαι δύο καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια τὰ ἄνω καινὰ ποιῆσαι δύο καὶ τοῖς παλαιοῖς πίναξι τῶν παρασκηνίων περι . . . σαι καὶ τὰς ἐξώστρας καὶ τὴν κλίμακα καὶ τοὺς βαθμοὺς ἐπισκευάσαι 𐅄ΔΔΔ𐅃𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . . τοῖς ἐγλαβοῦσι γράψαι τὰς σκηνὰς καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια τά τε ἐπάνω καὶ τὰ ὑποκάτω δραχμῶν ΧΧ𐅅 . . . . . . . . . . τῷ ἐγλαβόντι . . . . σαι τὸ παρασκήνιον τὸ ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ δραχμῶν ΗΗΗ𐅄ΔΔΔΔ . . . . . . . . . Θρασυλέῳ τῷ ἐγλαβόντι ἐργάσασθαι τὸ ἐπιστύ[λιον] . . . . \ΙΟΥ . . . . . . Ἀρχέλᾳ . . . καταχρίσαντι τὸ τεῖχος τῆς σκηνῆς κατὰ τὴν συγγραφὴν ἀπέδομεν τὸ γινόμενον ἀρχιτέκτονος κελεύοντος καὶ τῶν ἐπιμελητῶν.

269 B.C. τὴν σκηνὴν τὴν ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ ἀνακαθάρασι 𐅂Ι . . . . . . . . . . παρὰ Τέλλωνος ἀτράκτους δύο ὥστε κλίμα[κα] εἰς τὸ θέατρον 𐅂𐅂𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . . . .Θεοδήμῳ κλιμακτῆρας παρασχόντι καὶ κατασκευάσαντι 𐅂𐅂𐅂ΙΙΙ . . . . . . . . . Διονυσίῳ ἐγλαβόντι τὴν ὀρχήστραν τοῦ θεάτρου καταχρῖσαι τὴν πρώτην δόσιν ἔδομεν . . . . . . . . . Σωσιμένει Ἀντιγόνου τῶν λίθων τῶν τῆς εἰς τὸν θησαυρὸν (?) ἔδομεν . . . . . . Ἀντίκῳ τῆς διόδου τῆς ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ . . . . . . . . Ἀντίκῳ Καΐκου ἐγλαβόντι καθάραι τὸν τόπον τῇ διόδῳ τῇ ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ πάντα κύκλῳ ἔδομεν . . . . . . . . . Ἀριστοκλεῖ καὶ Καλλιμένει τῆς λιθείας τῆς εἰς τὸ παρασκήνιον ἐκ ποδῶν πεντακοσίων ἔδομεν . . . . . . . . . . . . Φιλανδρίδει Παρίῳ τῆς [λιθείας] τῆς εἰς τὰς κρηπῖδας [τὰς] ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ ἐγλαβόντι πόδας χιλίους ἔδομεν . . . . . . . . . . λίθων τῶν εἰς τὸ θέατρον . . . . . . . . .

250 B.C. τὸ θέατρον ἀνακαθάραι . . . . . . . . . κλεῖς καὶ χελώνιον ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰνωπὸν καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ Ἡράκλειον καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν σκηνήν . . . . . . . . . . . Παρμένοντι ἀνακαθάραντι τὴν ἐπαγωγίδα τὴν ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ . . . . . . . Ὠφελίωνι τοὺς κρουνοὺς διακαθάραντι τοὺς ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ . . . . . . . . . Νεογένει ἐπιγράψαντι ἐπὶ τὸ προσκήνιον . . . . . . . . . . . τῆς λιθείας τῆς εἰς τὸ θέατρον ἐξέδομεν πόδας διακοσίους, τὸμ πόδα δραχμῶν 𐅃𐅂𐅂 . . . . . . . . . . . . τῆς ἐργασίας τοῦ ἐπιθεάτρου ἐξέδομεν πόδας διακοσίους . . . . . . . . . Εὐκλείδει ἐργολαβήσαντι τὸν ὀρθοστάτην καὶ τὸν καταληπτῆρα θεῖναι καὶ ἐργάσασθαι ἐν τῷ ἐπιθεάτρῳ . . . .

180 B.C. [ξύλον . . . . κατεχρήσθη εἰς] τὴν κατασκευὴν τῶν πινάκων τῶν ἐπὶ τὸ λογεῖον.

The earliest notices refer to the old wooden structure. The erection of a stone theatre was apparently begun about 275 B.C., and completed in the course of the third century. A large part of this theatre still remains. But the stone proscenium of the Vitruvian type, of which the foundations are preserved, was probably a later work constructed in the second century B.C. This proscenium is not enclosed by side-wings (παρασκήνια), but open at both ends (see Fig. 12). But the inscription for 269 B.C. expressly mentions τῆς λιθείας τῆς εἰς τὸ παρασκήνιον. Hence it is probable that in the stage-buildings erected in the middle of the third century the stage was of wood, and was terminated at each end by stone side-wings. In the second century, when a regular stone proscenium was erected, these side-wings were removed (see Dörpfeld, Griech. Theater, p. 148).

The word σκηνή is used in the inscriptions in two senses. It denotes (1) the stage-buildings as a whole, e.g. τοὺς κρουνοὺς τοὺς ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ, (2) the wall at the rear of the stage, or the boards by which that wall was covered, e.g. τὴν σκηνὴν τὴν μέσην καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια, τὰς σκηνὰς καὶ τὰ παρασκήνια. This wall or boarding is called ἡ μέση σκηνή as opposed to the παρασκήνια on each side, and αἱ ἐπάνω σκηναί in opposition to the προσκήνιον underneath (so Homolle, l.c., p. 165). Apparently the whole building was only two stories, and the back-scene rose one story above the stage. Bethe, however (Prolegomena, p. 234), suggests that there were three stories; that ἡ μέση σκηνή denoted the middle story, and αἱ ἐπάνω σκηναί the top story, of the back-scene; the bottom story being concealed behind the προσκήνιον. But as only two stories are mentioned in connexion with the side-wings (τὰ παρασκήνια τά τε ἐπάνω καὶ τὰ ὑποκάτω), it seems unlikely that the central part of the building should have had more than two.

Some of the technical terms are new. The lines of seats in the early theatre are called ὁλκοί, as resembling furrows dug in the slope of the auditorium. The horizontal passage dividing the upper belt (διάζωμα) of seats from the lower is the δίοδος. The word περιοικοδομία seems to denote the wall by which the outside of the auditorium was enclosed and supported where necessary. The ἐπιθέατρον must have been the upper belt of seats. The ὀρθοστάτης and καταληπτήρ are explained by Homolle as a sort of balustrade and coping by which the top of the auditorium was finished off. The κλῖμαξ and κλιμακτῆρες may have been the steps leading up from orchestra to stage; but this is not certain. See on these points Homolle, l.c., pp. 163 ff.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Dem. Androt. § 68, and schol. ad loc.; Meid. § 10, &c.

[2] Dem. Meid. §§ 51-3.

[3] See below, p. 9.

[4] C. I. A. iii. 240-384. Hesych. s.v. νεμήσεις θέας.

[5] Dem. Meid. §§ 8-10.

[6] Ibid. § 180.

[7] Ibid. § 178.

[8] See esp. Aristoph. Ran. 1008 ff., 1054 ff.; Plat. Rep. 598 D, E.

[9] Plut. Solon, p. 95 B. ἀρχομένων δὲ τῶν περὶ Θέσπιν ἤδη τὴν τραγῳδίαν κινεῖν, καὶ διὰ τὴν καινότητα τοὺς πολλοὺς ἄγοντος τοῦ πράγματος, οὔπω δὲ εἰς ἅμιλλαν ἐναγώνιον ἐξηγμένου κτλ.

[10] Aristot. Poet. c. v.

[11] For dramatic exhibitions in other parts of Greece, see The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 436.

[12] Gilbert (Die Festzeiten der attischen Dionysien, 1872) and more recently Dörpfeld (Das griechische Theater, p. 9) have attempted to show that the Lenaea was only a part of the Anthesteria, and that the Anthesteria was only the Athenian counterpart of the Rural Dionysia. Gilbert was refuted by Schömann, Alterth. ii. 579-99. Wachsmuth, Abhandl. der Sächs. Gesell. der Wissensch. xviii. p. 33 ff., and Körte, Rhein. Mus., 1897, p. 168 ff., show that an inscription C. I. A. ii. 834 b proves that there must have been a considerable interval between the Lenaea and Anthesteria. It is an account of the sums expended by the ἐπιστάται Ἐλευσινόθεν in B.C. 329-328. In col. ii. 46 we read ἐπιστάταις ἐπιλήναια εἰς Διονύσια θῦσαι ΔΔ; in ii. 68, twenty-two lines later, εἰς Χοὰς δημοσίοις ἱερεῖον κτλ. (The adjective ἐπιλήναιος is also found in the papyrus of Ath. Pol. c. 57, and the inscription confirms the reading ἐπιληναίων, which editors alter to ἐπὶ Ληναίῳ). [The whole subject of the Dionysiac festivals has been investigated afresh by Nilsson (Studia de Dionysiis Atticis, 1900), who proves at length the separateness of the four festivals.]

[13] Dem. Meid. § 10.

[14] See below, p. 9.

[15] [See articles on Dionysus in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl., and Preller-Robert, Griech. Mythologie.]

[16] Paus. i. 29; Philostrat. Vit. Soph. p. 549.

[17] Διονύσια τὰ ἐν ἄστει C. I. A. ii. 341, 402, 404; Διονύσια τὰ ἀστικά Thuc. v. 20; Διονύσια τὰ μεγάλα Athen. Pol. c. 56, C. I. A. ii. 312, 331; Διονύσια Athen. Pol. c. 56.

[18] This is proved by the inscription on the chief seat at the theatre, Ἱερέως Διονύσου Ἐλευθερέως (C. I. A. iii. 240).

[19] νίκη ἀστική Diog. Laërt. viii. 90. To produce plays at the City Dionysia was ἐν ἄστει διδάσκειν Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 67, or εἰς ἄστυ καθιέναι Arg. ii. Aristoph. Aves: cf. διδασκαλία ἀστική Plut. X Orat. 839 D.

[20] The feast of Asclepius and the Proagon were on the 8th of Elaphebolion, Aeschin. Ctesiph. § 67; the Proagon took place ‘a few days’ before the City Dionysia, Schol. ibid.: the City Dionysia cannot therefore have begun before the 10th. The festival must have terminated on the 15th, since after it came the Pandia, the next day the ἐκκλησία ἐν Διονύσου, and the next day, when the first assembly mentioned by Aeschines and Demosthenes took place, was the 18th. See Aeschin. Ctes. § 68; Fals. Leg. § 61; Dem. Meid. § 8.

[21] Stormy weather sometimes interfered with the proceedings. In the time of Demetrius a snowfall prevented the procession. Theophr. Char. 3; Plut. Demetr. p. 894 B.

[22] Aeschin. Ctes. § 43; cf. Dem. Meid. § 74.

[23] Aristoph. Ach. 505, 506; Thuc. v. 23.

[24] The procession must have been on the first day, for (1) in Dem. Meid. § 10 it comes first in the list of proceedings, (2) it was not till after the procession was over that the statue was placed in the theatre to witness the dramatic and dithyrambic contests.

[25] Paus. i. 29. 2, 38. 8; Philostrat. Vit. Soph. p. 549.

[26] Menand. Fragm. 558 (Kock).

[27] Plut. Cupid. Divit. 527 E.

[28] C. I. A. ii. 420, 470, 471.

[29] C. I. A. ii. 471, 741.

[30] Dem. Meid. § 22; Athen. p. 534 C.

[31] Xen. Hipparch. iii. 2.

[32] Philostrat. Vit. Soph. p. 549.

[33] C. I. A. ii. 470, 471. Hence Aristophanes in the Frogs selects Dionysus as the most experienced of dramatic critics. Cf. also Aristoph. Eq. 536 θεᾶσθαι λιπαρὸν παρὰ τῷ Διονύσῳ. Late writers (Philostrat. Vit. Apoll. p. 161; Dio Chrys., orat. 31, p. 631 R) protest against shedding human blood in gladiatorial combats in the very orchestra visited by the god Dionysus.

[34] In the lists of victors at the City Dionysia (C. I. A. ii. 971 a-e, iv. 971 f-h) the contests enumerated are always the same, viz. παίδων, ἀνδρῶν, κωμῳδῶν, τραγῳδῶν. Cp. Athen. Pol. c. 56 χορηγοὺς τραγῳδοῖς καθίστησι τρεῖς ... ἔπειτα παραλαβὼν τοὺς χορηγοὺς τοὺς ἐνηνεγμένους ὑπὸ τῶν φυλῶν εἰς Διονύσια ἀνδράσιν καὶ παισὶν καὶ κωμῳδοῖς κτλ. Dem. Meid. § 10 καὶ τοῖς ἐν ἄστει Διονυσίοις ἡ πομπὴ καὶ οἱ παῖδες ⟨καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες⟩ καὶ ὁ κῶμος καὶ οἱ κωμῳδοὶ καὶ οἱ τραγῳδοί. (The words καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες have obviously fallen out.) Cp. also C. I. A. ii. 553 (list of victors παισὶν ἢ ἀνδράσιν).

[35] Dem. Meid. § 156 loosely calls the choruses of men αὐληταὶ ἄνδρες, and the author of the first Argument to the speech, misled by this, states that there were αὐλητῶν χοροί at the City Dionysia. But other passages in the speech, e.g. §§ 15, 17, show that the expression means not that the men were flute-players, but that they sang dithyrambs accompanied by the flute. See Wieseler, Das Satyrspiel, pp. 46-8.

[36] [Marmor Par. ep. 46. For the archon v. Munro, Class. Rev. xv. p. 357. For choregia v. Capps, Introduction of Comedy to the City Dionysia, p. 27 ff.]

[37] Schol. Aeschin. Timarch. § 11 ἐξ ἔθους Ἀθηναῖοι [κατέστησαν] κατὰ φυλὴν πεντήκοντα παίδων χορὸν ἢ ἀνδρῶν, ὥστε γενέσθαι δέκα χορούς, ἐπειδὴ καὶ δέκα φυλαί. λέγονται δὲ οἱ διθύραμβοι χοροὶ κύκλιοι, καὶ χορὸς κύκλιος.

[38] Dem. Meid. § 13; Antiphon orat. vi. §§ 12, 13.

[39] Lysias xxi. § 2; Dem. Meid. § 5 τῆς φυλῆς ἀδίκως ἀφαιρεθείσης τὸν τρίποδα. The choregus of a dithyrambic chorus was said χορηγεῖν τῇ φυλῇ. Plut. X orat. 835 B ἐχορήγησε κυκλίῳ χορῷ τῇ αὑτοῦ φυλῇ ἀγωνιζομένῃ διθυράμβῳ: Isaeus v. § 36 οὗτος γὰρ τῇ μὲν φυλῇ εἰς Διονύσια χορηγήσας τέταρτος ἐγένετο, τραγῳδοῖς δὲ καὶ πυρριχισταῖς ὕστατος. (Bentley’s emendation, τέταρτος ἐγένετο τραγῳδοῖς, καὶ πυρριχισταῖς ὕστατος makes Dicaeogenes fourth in the tragic contest, in which there were never more than three competitors.)

[40] In the time of Aristotle the choregi in comedy were appointed by the tribes. But this was a late innovation, and produced no change in the character of the contest. See chap. ii. § 2.

[41] C. I. A. ii. 971 (printed in Appendix B). Ibid. ii. 1234 ff.

[42] Marm. Par. ep. 43 ἀφ’ οὗ Θέσπις ὁ ποιητὴς [ἐφάνη], πρῶτος ὃς ἐδίδαξε [δρ]ᾶ[μα ἐν ἄ]στ[ει, καὶ ἐ]τέθη ὁ [τ]ράγος [ἆθλον], ἔτη.... The date is mutilated, but must have fallen between 542 and 520, the preceding and subsequent epochs. Suidas s.v. Θέσπις (ἐδίδαξε δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς πρώτης καὶ ξʹ ὀλυμπιάδος) doubtless refers to the same contest, which may therefore be assigned to B.C. 536-5.

[43] [Capps (The Introduction of Comedy into the City Dionysia) renders it highly probable that choregia was not introduced until about B.C. 502.]

[44] Suidas s.v. Χοιρίλος. The same lexicon, s.v. Πρατίνας, says that Pratinas composed fifty plays, of which thirty-two were satyric: but it is unsafe to draw inferences from this as to relative proportion of satyric plays and tragedies in these early days, since the numbers may refer merely to the plays which happened to be preserved in the time of the grammarians.

[45] Suidas s.v. Πρατίνας.

[46] Arg. Aesch. Persae.

[47] Arg. Aesch. Sept. c. Theb.

[48] Arg. Aesch. Agam.

[49] Args. Eur. Alcest., Med., Hippol.

[50] Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 8; Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 67.

[51] Athen. Pol. c. 56; C. I. A. ii. 972, 973, 975.

[52] Cp. Diog. Laërt. iii. 56. Θρασύλλος δέ φησι καὶ κατὰ τὴν τραγικὴν τετραλογίαν ἐκδοῦναι αὐτὸν (sc. τὸν Πλάτωνα) τοὺς διαλόγους, οἷον ἐκεῖνοι τέτρασι δράμασιν ἠγωνίζοντο, Διονυσίοις, Ληναίοις, Παναθηναίοις, Χύτροις, ὧν τὸ τέταρτον ἦν σατυρικόν· τὰ δὲ τέτταρα δράματα ἐκαλεῖτο τετραλογία. Thrasyllus was a philosopher of the time of Tiberius. The passage οἷον ... τετραλογία is probably an explanatory interpolation by Diogenes himself. The statement that the four plays of a tetralogy were performed at four different festivals is absurd in itself, and abundantly disproved by inscriptions and other evidence (e.g. Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 67).

[53] Plut. Pericl. p. 154 E.

[54] Plut. l.c.; Id. X orat. 839 D διδασκαλίας ἀστικὰς καθῆκεν ἓξ ... καὶ ἑτέρας δύο Ληναϊκάς; Anthol. Pal. vii. 37 ἡ δ’ ἐνὶ χερσὶν | κούριμος, ἐκ ποίης ἥδε διδασκαλίης;

[55] That the word τετραλογία was applied only to a group of four plays connected in subject is proved by the statement of Suidas (s.v. Σοφοκλῆς) that Sophocles abandoned the practice of exhibiting ‘tetralogies’, though we know that he exhibited four plays at a time; and also by the application of the word by Greek writers to the Oresteia of Aeschylus (Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1155), the Pandionis of Philocles (Schol. Aristoph. Av. 282), the Lycurgeia of Aeschylus (Schol. Aristoph. Thesm. 135), and the Lycurgeia of Polyphradmon (Arg. Aesch. Sept. c. Theb.). All these were groups of plays on a single subject.

[56] Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1155 τετραλογίαν φέρουσι τὴν Ὀρεστείαν αἱ Διδασκαλίαι (i.e. the Διδασκαλίαι of Aristotle). The other passages where τετραλογία occurs in a dramatic sense are Diog. Laërt. iii. 56, ix. 45; Schol. Plat. Apol. p. 330; Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1155, where it is said that the grammarians Aristarchus and Apollonius disregarded the satyric plays and spoke only of trilogies; Schol. Av. 282, Thesm. 142; Arg. Aesch. Sept. c. Theb. τριλογία is found only in Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1155; Diog. Laërt. iii. 61; Suidas s.v. Νικόμαχος.

[57] Aristoph. Thesm. 135, Ran. 1124. See, on these titles, The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 114.

[58] [Donaldson, Theatre of the Greeks, p. 118, suggests possible connexions; but they are highly conjectural.]

[59] [Other critics, however, suppose that the final scene was added in some later revision of the play, after Sophocles’ Antigone had been written, or when it became customary to present single plays of Aeschylus (see below, p. 74), which would often be shorter than those of other poets, and might therefore be lengthened by the addition of a scene.]

[60] Cp. Hor. Ars Poet. 225 ff.

[61] Suidas s.v. Σοφοκλῆς· καὶ αὐτὸς ἦρξε τοῦ δρᾶμα πρὸς δρᾶμα ἀγωνίζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ μὴ τετραλογίαν. The words seem to imply that he exhibited only one play at each festival: but the didascalic records show that this cannot have been the case. Probably, therefore, Suidas has misunderstood and misquoted his authority, who meant to say that Sophocles exhibited not single plays but groups of plays unconnected in subject. The suggestion of Oehmichen (Philol. Wochenschr., 1887, p. 1058) that after the reform of Sophocles each poet exhibited one of his plays on each successive day of the competition, and that this is what Suidas means, is rendered most improbable by the fact that tetralogies were still occasionally written; and that Sophocles would have no power, as poet, to make such a change in the arrangement of the festival.

[62] Schol. Aristoph. Av. 282; Schol. Plat. Apol. p. 330 (Bekk.); Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 30.

[63] C. I. A., ii. 973 (quoted in Appendix B).

[64] [If the inscription C. I. A. ii. 971 c recorded by Pittakis, L’ancienne Athènes, p. 168, is reliable, an old tragedy was performed in B.C. 387-386. The phrase used is παλαιὸν δρᾶμα παρεδίδαξαν οἱ τραγῳδοί: but the interpretation of this fragment is full of difficulties, see Wilhelm, Urkunden dramat. Aufführungen in Athen, p. 22 ff. The use of the expression παρεδίδαξαν (cf. παραχορήγημα) seems to show that at this date the performance of an old tragedy was exceptional; while in the inscription recording the years 341, &c., it would seem to be treated as a regular part of the festival.]

[65] Suidas s.v. Θεοδέκτης; Steph. Byz. s.v. Φάσηλις.

[66] Plut. X Orat. 839 D.

[67] Aristot. Rhet. iii. 11.

[68] See The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 444 ff.: and (for the City Dionysia in the second century A.D.) cp. C. I. A. iii. 78; Philostr. Vit. Soph. p. 549; Paus. i. 29, ii. 38, 8.

[69] Aristot. Poet. ch. v. καὶ γὰρ χορὸν κωμῳδῶν ὀψέ ποτε ὁ ἄρχων ἔδωκεν, ἀλλ’ ἐθελονταὶ ἦσαν.

[70] C. I. A. ii. 971 a (quoted, Appendix B) [B.C. 463 is the latest possible date of the events referred to in this part of this inscription. Capps (Introduction of Comedy into City Dionysia) with great probability dates them 473-472; he fixes the date of the granting of a comic chorus (whether at the Lenaea or City Dionysia is uncertain) by the archon at 487, when, according to Suidas s.v. Χιωνίδης, Chionides began to exhibit; and the date of the first choregia in tragedy at about 502. This would justify sufficiently Aristotle’s ὀψέ ποτε. Suidas’ date for Chionides’ first exhibition is not really inconsistent with the Dorian tradition recorded by Aristotle that Epicharmus was πολλῷ πρότερος Χιωνίδου καὶ Μάγνητος, since the generally recorded date of the former, B.C. 488 onwards, is most probably a ‘floruit’ date, based on the time of his first performances at Syracuse, not the date of the beginning of his career at Megara Hyblaea, which may have been a good deal earlier. Capps shows ground for believing that Aristotle and Suidas—the former directly, the latter perhaps indirectly—obtained their knowledge from the official records, and are therefore quite reliable. At the head of the inscription, C. I. A. ii. 971 a, are the words πρῶ]τον κῶμοι ἦσαν τ[ῶν ..., which must originally have formed part of the general heading of the whole inscription, whose earlier columns are lost. Capps conjectures (with some reason) that it originally ran ἀπὸ (name of archon) ἐφ’ οὗ πρῶτον κῶμοι ἦσαν τῶν ἐν ἄστει Διονυσίων οἵδε ἐνίκων. But κῶμοι cannot mean ‘comedies’, as Köhler and Wilamowitz assumed when they dated the beginning of choregia in comedy by this inscription. Cf. Wilhelm, Urkunden dramatischer Aufführungen in Athen, pp. 11 ff, 241 ff.]

[71] Args. Aristoph. Nubes, Pax, Aves.

[72] Arg. Aristoph. Plutus (festival uncertain); Ath. Pol. c. 56 (City Dionysia); C. I. A. ii. 972 (Lenaea), 975 (City Dionysia). [If C. I. G. xiv. 1097 is rightly restored and interpreted by Wilhelm, l.c., p. 195 ff., it would seem as if there were five competitors as early as B.C. 434 at the Dionysia; this is very difficult to reconcile with the consistent mention by the Arguments of three only.]

[73] Arg. Aristoph. Vespae. [The passage, however, is almost certainly corrupt, and most editors are now agreed that in its existing form, according to which Philonides brought out both the Προάγων and the Σφῆκες, it cannot stand; and that even if both plays can have been the work of Aristophanes, they cannot both have been produced by Philonides. For the various emendations, vide Kanngiesser, Über die alte komische Bühne, p. 270; Petersen, Fleck. Jahrb. lxxxv. p. 662; Leo, Rhein. Mus. xxxiii. p. 404; the introductions to Rogers and van Leeuwen’s editions of the Wasps; and a brief summary in Excursus I of Starkie’s edition. It is very doubtful whether there is good evidence for the practice alluded to, as regards the fifth century B.C.]

[74] C. I. A. ii. 972. [The inscription leaves no room for doubt here, except for the remote possibility that there may have been two poets of the name Diodorus. Capps, Amer. Journ. Archaeol., 1900, argues almost conclusively that the inscription is to be dated 290-288, and not 353, the date given by Mr. Haigh, and generally accepted until recently.]

[75] C. I. A. ii. 972. [Mr. Haigh wrote 353, but see note on previous page.]

[76] C. I. A. ii. 975 (quoted, Appendix B). [If Capps is right in dating the fragment 975 f between B.C. 308 and 290, the practice must have been begun by that date; see Amer. Journ. Arch., 1900, p. 89 ff., but Wilhelm, Urkunden dramat. Aufführungen in Athen, p. 68, disputes the date, and with some reason. See also Wilhelm, ibid., p. 149. The practice is proved for the early part of the second century by fragment a.]

[77] [The evidence for this is a fragment of an inscription published by Wilhelm, loc. cit., p. 27 ff., and connecting with C. I. A. ii. 971 h. See Appendix B. The expression used παλαιὸν δρᾶμα παρεδίδαξαν οἱ κωμῳδοί (cp. παραχορήγημα), when compared with the expressions used in 975 a, &c., shows that the performance was exceptional, and the play is not mentioned; cp. the parallel expressions in the case of tragedy, p. 19, supra, n. 1.]

[78] C. I. G. 1585, 1587, 2759; Athen. Mitth., 1894, pp. 96, 97; Ἐφημ. Ἀρχαιολ., 1884, pp. 120, 124, 126; Rangabé, Antiq. Hellén., vol. ii. no. 965.

[79] The fact that inscriptions (C. I. A. 971 a-e, iv. 971 f-h) and the law of Evegorus, quoted Dem. Meid. § 10, all mention first chorus of boys, then choruses of men, then comedy, then tragedy, proves nothing, as there is nothing to show that the contests are being spoken of in order of performance, rather than in order of relative importance.

[80] Arist. Poet. ch. xxiv. suggests that an epic poem should be shorter than the old epics, and about equal to that of the tragedies offered at one hearing (τὸ πλῆθος τῶν τραγῳδιῶν τῶν εἰς μίαν ἀκρόασιν τιθεμένων). A performance of four tragedies a day would give about 6,000 lines of tragedy (including satyric drama), while the Iliad contains about 15,000 lines, and the Odyssey about 12,000.

[81] Aristoph. Av. 785 ff. οὐδέν ἐστ’ ἄμεινον οὐδ’ ἥδιον ἢ φῦσαι πτερά. | αὐτίχ’ ὑμῶν τῶν θεατῶν εἴ τις ἦν ὑπόπτερος, | εἶτα πεινῶν τοῖς χοροῖσι τῶν τραγῳδῶν ἤχθετο, | ἐκπτόμενος ἂν οὗτος ἠρίστησεν ἐλθὼν οἴκαδε, | κᾆτ’ ἂν ἐμπλησθεὶς ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς αὖθις αὖ κατέπτετο. Müller (Griech. Bühn., p. 322) and others take ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς to mean generally ‘to us in the theatre’. But in that case there would be no point in the sentence. There is obviously a contrast between ὑμεῖς, the spectators, and ἡμεῖς the comic chorus. The same contrast is emphasized in the previous group of trochaics, vv. 753-68. Lipsius accepts the change of τραγῳδῶν to τρυγῳδῶν (‘the other comic choruses’ as opposed to ἡμεῖς, the Birds), and infers that all the comedies were performed in one day by themselves (Ber. der K. S. Ges. der Wiss. zu Leipzig, philol.-histor. Classe, 1885, p. 417). But the change is quite gratuitous and makes the whole passage feeble and obscure.

[82] [See p. 69.]

[83] [Either connected with ληνός ‘wine-press’ or λῆναι = βάκχαι, vid. Appendix C.]

[84] [See Appendix C for authorities and for a discussion of the site of the Lenaeum and its relation to the temple of Dionysus ἐν Λίμναις.]

[85] [See Appendix C.]

[86] Bekk. Anecd. p. 235, 6; C. I. A. ii. 834 b, col. 2, where the expenditure on the Lenaea is placed about the middle of the sixth prytany, i.e. in Gamelion. [Nilsson, Studia de Dionysiis Atticis, pp. 1-37, confirms the date here given, after a very full discussion.]

[87] Plat. Symp. 223 c; Theophrast. Char. 3.

[88] Aristoph. Ach. 501 ff.

[89] Dem. Meid. § 10 καὶ ἡ ἐπὶ Ληναίῳ πομπὴ καὶ οἱ τραγῳδοὶ καὶ οἱ κωμῳδοί. That there were no dithyrambs at the Lenaea is proved by this passage, and by C. I. A. ii. 553, which enumerates the festivals at which dithyrambic choruses competed, viz. City Dionysia, Thargelia, Prometheia, Hephaesteia. C. I. A. ii. 1367, recording a dithyrambic victory at the Lenaea, is of comparatively late date.

[90] Suidas s.v. τὰ ἐκ τῶν ἁμαξῶν σκώμματα.

[91] C. I. A. ii. 972 (see Appendix B).

[92] Hence in Diod. Sic. xv. 74 δεδιδαχότος Ληναίοις τραγῳδίαν (of Dionysius’ victory in 367), the expression διδάσκειν τραγῳδίαν probably means ‘to compete in the tragic contests’, and implies nothing as to the number of plays presented. Cf. Plat. Symp. 173 A ὅτε τῇ πρώτῃ τραγῳδίᾳ ἐνίκησεν Ἀγάθων, ‘won his first tragic victory’.

[93] Athen. p. 217 A.

[94] Diod. Sic. xv. 74; Plut. X Orat. 839 D; C. I. A. ii. 977 b, c (see Appendix B).

[95] [C. I. A. ii. 1289 shows that tragedy was still performed in B.C. 307-306. This is the last mention of it. (Capps, Amer. Journ. Arch., iv. p. 76.)]

[96] C. I. A. iii. 1160.

[97] See above, p. 20, note 2.

[98] [Capps (Introduction of Comedy into the City Dionysia, p. 25) shows that whether the victory of Chionides recorded by Suidas was won at the Dionysia or Lenaea, there is no reason for doubting the existence of contests in 487 B.C., on the evidence of inscriptions. C. I. A. ii. 977 d as it stands must have been preceded by another column of names of victors, which would almost certainly take us back as far; and there was room for the name of Chionides above that of Magnes in 977 i (Dionysian victors) in a position which would imply an early date for his first victory; cp. also Amer. Journ. Philol. xx. pp. 396, 397.]

[99] Arg. to Acharn.

[100] Args. to Acharn., Equit., Vesp., Ran.

[101] See p. 21, note.

[102] [If Capps is right, C. I. A. ii. 975 f proves that old comedies were acted at the City Dionysia at a date between 308 and 290, but this date is very uncertain; see p. 22, note. C. I. A. ii. 972, col. 1, which Capps, followed by Wilhelm, dates soon after B.C. 290, does not show any sign of the practice; it may have begun at the City Dionysia, and have been afterwards extended to the Lenaea; but it is not easy to believe this without confirmatory evidence; and the difficulty is avoided if Capps’ date for 975 f is not accepted.]

[103] [C. I. A. ii. 977 gives lists of tragic and comic poets and actors. In the case of the comic poets and actors, some names (those of Agathocles and Biottus) are known from 975 d to belong to the middle of the second century; but it is not certain to what festival the part of this inscription in which their names occur (fragm. m) belongs.]

[104] Schol. Aristoph. Plut 954; Plut. Phoc. c. 30.

[105] See The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 128, note 4.

[106] C. I. A. ii. 972, col. II.

[107] Athen. p. 217 A; Plat. Symp. 173 A.

[108] Diod. Sic. xv. 74.

[109] The Acharnians, Equites, Vespae, and Ranae at the Lenaea; the Nubes, Pax, and Aves, at the City Dionysia.

[110] C. I. A. ii. 977 d, i.

[111] [See Capps, Amer. Journ. Philol. xx. p. 396, who remarks that Aristophanes (Equit. 517 ff.) referring to the great poets of the past, omits Teleclides and Hermippus, who had been very successful at the Lenaea, and was especially disappointed at failing to obtain a ‘City victory’ with the Nubes in 423, after his two Lenaean victories. The reason suggested, however, for the omission of these two poets can hardly be correct, as Cratinus, who is mentioned, was also especially successful at the Lenaea.]

[112] [Nilsson (Studia de Dionysiis Atticis, p. 108) shows that the festival was probably not celebrated in all the demes at precisely the same time, though it always took place after the autumn sowing, being in fact in origin a ceremony designed to secure the fertility of the new-sown seed. Cf. Plat. Rep. v. p. 475 D ὥσπερ δὲ ἀπομεμισθωκότες τὰ ὦτα ἐπακοῦσαι πάντων χορῶν περιθέουσι τοῖς Διονυσίοις οὔτε τῶν κατὰ πόλεις οὔτε τῶν κατὰ κώμας ἀπολειπόμενοι. There must also have been time for the troupes of actors to move from one place to another.]

[113] See Aristoph. Ach. 69, 241 ff. Also Plut. de Cup. div. p. 527 D; id. Non suav. viv. sec. Epic. p. 1098 B; Heraclitus fr. 127 Byw.

[114] Dem. Meid. § 10; C. I. A. ii. 164, 467, 468, 589, 741; iv. 2, 834 b; Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 13.

[115] Dem. de Cor. § 180; Aeschin. Timarch. § 157.

[116] C. I. A. iv. 574 b, c, g.

[117] Ibid. ii. 469, 470, 594.

[118] C. I. A. iv. 1282 b, 1285 b.

[119] Ibid. ii. 585.

[120] Isaeus viii. § 15. We also hear of such celebrations at Brauron (Ar. Pax 874, with Schol.; Schol. in Dem. Conon. § 35; Suidas s.v. Βραύρων); and at Myrrhinus (C. I. A. ii. 575, 578).

[121] Dörpfeld u. Reisch, Griech. Theat. p. 109 ff.

[122] In addition to the instance at the Peiraeeus recorded above, the only known example is at Salamis, C. I. A. ii. 470 Διονυσίων τῶν ἐν Σαλαμῖνι τραγῳδῶν τ[ῷ καινῷ ἀγ]ῶνι, if the restoration be correct.

[123] Dem. de Cor. § 262.

[124] [It must be admitted that it is not easy to reconcile this with Aristot. Poet. ix, where it is said that even the well-known plays or legends are well known only to few, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ γνώριμα ὀλίγοις γνώριμά ἐστιν, ἀλλ’ ὅμως εὐφραίνει πάντας. Aristotle may be speaking particularly of his own day, when probably few poets or plays had the celebrity enjoyed by the plays of the three great tragedians of the previous century.]

[125] [Vid. J. E. Harrison, Proleg. to the Study of Greek Religion, c. i.]

[126] This seems to be the meaning of Plut. x orat. 841 F εἰσήνεγκε δὲ καὶ νόμους (sc. Lycurgus), τὸν περὶ τῶν κωμῳδῶν ἀγῶνα τοῖς Χύτροις ἐπιτελεῖν ἐφάμιλλον ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ, καὶ τὸν νικήσαντα εἰς ἄστυ καταλέγεσθαι, πρότερον οὐκ ἐξόν, ἀναλαμβάνων τὸν ἀγῶνα ἐκλελοιπότα. The contest must be the same as the ἀγῶνες Χύτρινοι quoted from Philochorus by Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. 220. [See Nilsson, Studia de Dionysiis Atticis, p. 57.]

[127] Philostrat. Vit Apoll. p. 158.

[128] Schol. Aristoph. Aves, 445; Suidas s.v. ἐν πέντε κριτῶν γόνασι.

[129] There is no consecutive account in any ancient writer of the mode of selecting the judges and of voting. Our knowledge of the subject has to be pieced together from the three following passages: (1) Plut. Cim. p. 483 E ἔθεντο δ’ εἰς μνήμην αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν τῶν τραγῳδῶν κρίσιν ὀνομαστὴν γενομένην. πρώτην γὰρ διδασκαλίαν τοῦ Σοφοκλέους ἔτι νέου καθέντος, Ἀψεφίων ὁ ἄρχων, φιλονεικίας οὔσης καὶ παρατάξεως τῶν θεατῶν, κριτὰς μὲν οὐκ ἐκλήρωσε τοῦ ἀγῶνος, ὡς δὲ Κίμων μετὰ τῶν συστρατήγων προελθὼν εἰς τὸ θέατρον ἐποιήσατο τῷ θεῷ τὰς νενομισμένας σπονδάς, οὐκ ἀφῆκεν αὐτοὺς ἀπελθεῖν, ἀλλ’ ὁρκώσας ἠνάγκασε καθίσαι καὶ κρῖναι δέκα ὄντας, ἀπὸ φυλῆς μιᾶς ἕκαστον. (2) Isocrat. xvii. § 43 Πυθόδωρον γὰρ τὸν σκηνίτην καλούμενον, ὃς ὑπὲρ Πασίωνος ἅπαντα καὶ λέγει καὶ πράττει, τίς οὐκ οἶδεν ὑμῶν πέρυσιν ἀνοίξαντα τὰς ὑδρίας καὶ τοὺς κριτὰς ἐξελόντα τοὺς ὑπὸ τῆς βουλῆς εἰσβληθέντας; καίτοι ὅστις μικρῶν ἕνεκα καὶ περὶ τοῦ σώματος κινδυνεύων ταύτας ὑπανοίγειν ἐτόλμησεν, αἳ σεσημασμέναι μὲν ἦσαν ὑπὸ τῶν πρυτάνεων, κατεσφραγισμέναι δ’ ὑπὸ τῶν χορηγῶν, ἐφυλάττοντο δ’ ὑπὸ τῶν ταμιῶν, ἔκειντο δ’ ἐν ἀκροπόλει, τί δεῖ θαυμάζειν εἰ κτλ. (3) Lysias iv. § 3 ἐβουλόμην δ’ ἂν μὴ ἀπολαχεῖν αὐτὸν κριτὴν Διονυσίοις, ἵν’ ὑμῖν φανερὸς ἐγένετο ἐμοὶ διηλλαγμένος, κρίνας τὴν ἐμὴν φυλὴν νικᾶν. νῦν δὲ ἔγραψε μὲν ταῦτα εἰς τὸ γραμματεῖον, ἀπέλαχε δέ. καὶ ὅτι ἀληθῆ ταῦτα λέγω Φιλῖνος καὶ Διοκλῆς ἴσασιν. ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἔστ’ αὐτοῖς μαρτυρῆσαι μὴ διομοσαμένοις περὶ τῆς αἰτίας ἧς ἐγὼ φεύγω, ἐπεὶ σαφῶς ἔγνωτ’ ἂν ὅτι ἡμεῖς ἦμεν αὐτὸν οἱ κριτὴν ἐμβαλόντες, καὶ ἡμῶν εἵνεκα ἐκαθέζετο. The first of these passages refers to a dramatic contest, the third to a dithyrambic one. It is uncertain to which the second refers. But there is no reason to suppose (with Oehmichen, Bühnenwesen, p. 206) that the mode of selecting the judges was different in the dramatic and the dithyrambic contests. That there were ten urns for the names on the preliminary list of judges is inferred from the plural ὑδρίαι in Isocrates. That a second list of judges was appointed by lot from the larger list _before_ the commencement of each contest, and that this second list consisted of ten persons, one from each of the ten tribes, seems to be proved by the words of Plutarch, κριτὰς μὲν οὐκ ἐκλήρωσε τοῦ ἀγῶνος ... ἀπὸ φυλῆς μιᾶς ἕκαστον. That there was another selection of judges by lot _after_ the contest, and that the number of judges who actually decided the result was smaller than the number of those who sat through the performance and voted, is proved by two expressions in the above passages: (1) ἔγραψε μὲν ταῦτα εἰς τὸ γραμματεῖον, ἀπέλαχε δέ, i.e. he voted in my favour, but his vote was not drawn; (2) ἡμῶν εἵνεκα ἐκαθέζετο. Καθίζειν and καθέζεσθαι were the regular words used of a judge at a contest. It is clear therefore that the person here referred to sat through the performance as a judge, but that after the performance was over his vote was not drawn by lot.

The above conclusions are those of Petersen (Preisrichter der grossen Dionysien). Mommsen (Bursian’s Jahresbericht, lii. pp. 354-8) raises some objections. He suggests (1) that the plural ὑδρίαι is merely rhetorical, and that there was only one urn for all the names, (2) that the selection of a second list of judges _before_ the contest is not mentioned by Lysias, and was probably a fiction of Plutarch’s. It may be replied that Lysias had no occasion to refer to this preliminary ballot. He was not giving an account of the entire system of judging, and therefore only mentioned the points which enforced his argument. Still, it must be confessed that the evidence about the judges is very fragmentary, and that Petersen’s scheme depends largely on conjecture.

[130] Dem. Meid. § 17 ὀμνύουσι παρεστηκὼς τοῖς κριταῖς. Aristoph. Eccles. 1163 μὴ ’πιορκεῖν, ἀλλὰ κρίνειν τοὺς χοροὺς ὀρθῶς ἀεί.

[131] Special seats were assigned to the judges at Alexandria, and no doubt the Attic custom was followed there: cp. Vitruv. vii. praef. § 5 cum secretae sedes iudicibus essent distributae.

[132] Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 13 καὶ προσέταττον τοῖς κριταῖς ἄνωθεν Ἀριστοφάνην ἀλλὰ μὴ ἄλλον γράφειν. Lysias iv. § 3 ἔγραψε μὲν ταῦτα ἐς τὸ γραμματεῖον.

[133] This follows from Lysias iv. § 3 ἐβουλόμην δ’ ἂν μὴ ἀπολαχεῖν αὐτὸν κριτὴν Διονυσίοις, ἵν’ ὑμῖν φανερὸς ἐγένετο ἐμοὶ διηλλαγμένος, κρίνας τὴν ἐμὴν φυλὴν νικᾶν. νῦν δὲ ἔγραψε μὲν ταῦτα εἰς τὸ γραμματεῖον, ἀπέλαχε δέ.

[134] Aristoph. Aves 445-7 ΧΟ. ὄμνυμ’ ἐπὶ τούτοις, πᾶσι νικᾶν τοῖς κριταῖς | καὶ τοῖς θεαταῖς πᾶσιν. ΠΕ. ἔσται ταυταγί. | ΧΟ. εἰ δὲ παραβαίην, ἑνὶ κριτῇ νικᾶν μόνον.

[135] Vita Aeschyli; Suidas s.v. Αἰσχύλος.

[136] See above, p. 28.

[137] The number of his plays is given as 123 by Suidas, and as 104 or 130 in the Life.

[138] Vita Eur.

[139] Args. to Eur. Alcestis and Medea.

[140] Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 8; Suidas s.v. Νικόμαχος.

[141] Arg. to Soph. Oed. Tyr.

[142] Lysias iv. § 3.

[143] Dem. Meid. §§ 5, 17, 65.

[144] Andocid. Alcibiad. § 20 ἀλλὰ τῶν κριτῶν οἱ μὲν φοβούμενοι οἱ δὲ χαριζόμενοι νικᾶν ἔκριναν αὐτόν.

[145] Aul. Gell. N. A. 17. 4.

[146] Plut. Demosth. 859 D εὐημερῶν δὲ καὶ κατέχων τὸ θέατρον ἐνδείᾳ παρασκευῆς καὶ χορηγίας κρατεῖσθαι.

[147] Id. Nicias, 524 D.

[148] Xen. Memor. iii. 4. 3.

[149] Isaeus v. § 36.

[150] Aeschin. Ctesiph. § 232.

[151] Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 13.

[152] Plato, Legg. 700 C-701 A. 659 A-C.

[153] [Cp. Butcher, Harvard Lectures, p. 173 ff.]

[154] Alciphron ii. 3; Plut. An seni &c. p. 785 B; Athen. p. 217 A στεφανοῦται Ληναίοις; Aristid. vol. ii. p. 2 (Dindf.) τοῦτον στεφανοῦν καὶ πρῶτον ἀναγορεύειν.

[155] Dem. Meid. § 5; Lysias xxi. § 2; Schol. Aeschin. Timarch. § 11; Isaeus vii. § 40; 2nd Arg. to Dem. Meid. p. 510. The monuments of Lysicrates and Thrasyllus, which were surmounted with tripods (Stuart and Revett, Antiquities of Athens, vol. i. chap. iv. pt. 3, vol. ii. p. 31), were in honour of victories with dithyrambic choruses; cp. C. I. A. ii. 1242, 1247.

[156] Marmor Par. epp. 39, 43.

[157] Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 367 τὸν μισθὸν τῶν κωμῳδῶν ἐμείωσαν; Eccles. 102 τὸν μισθὸν τῶν ποιητῶν συνέτεμε; Hesych. s.v. μισθός· τὸ ἔπαθλον τῶν κωμικῶν ... ἔμμισθοι δὲ πέντε ἦσαν. As the competitors in comedy were five, this last passage proves that _all_ the competing poets received a reward of money.

[158] Plut. X orat. 842 A.

[159] Aristoph. Ran. 367, and Schol. ad loc.

[160] Arg. Aristoph. Nub.

[161] Vit. Soph.; Aristid. vol. ii. p. 344 (Dindf.).

[162] C. I. A. ii. 971 a-e, iv. 971 f-h.

[163] Arg. Aristoph. Vesp. ἐνίκα πρῶτος Φιλωνίδης. Arg. Nub. ὅτε Κρατῖνος μὲν ἐνίκα Πυτίνῃ, Ἀμειψίας δὲ Κόννῳ. Arg. Pax ἐνίκησε δὲ τῷ δράματι ὁ ποιητὴς ... δεύτερος Ἀριστοφάνης Εἰρήνῃ.

[164] C. I. A. iv. 971 f.

[165] C. I. A. ii. 971 a-e, iv. 971 f-h. Hence Rose’s ingenious emendation of the conclusion to the first Arg. to the Pax—τὸ δὲ δρᾶμα ὑπεκρίνατο Ἀπολλόδωρος, ἡνίκα ἑρμῆν λοιοκρότης [ἐνίκα Ἕρμων ὁ ὑποκριτής Rose]—must be regarded as very doubtful, as the Pax was produced at the City Dionysia.

[166] C. I. A. ii. 975 a-e: see also note 6 below.

[167] C. I. A. ii. 972, col. ii. The mention of the victorious actor’s name shows that the comic list in this inscription, like the tragic, must refer to the Lenaea.

[168] [C. I. A. ii. 972, col. i, as dated by Capps (Amer. Journ. Arch. xx. p. 74 ff.), who shows almost conclusive grounds for substituting this date for the date 354 hitherto generally accepted, and is followed by Wilhelm.]

[169] [Circ. B.C. 330, according to Capps, l.c. p. 84. The date depends upon the conjectural restoration of some fragments of C. I. A. ii. 977, especially fragment u. If Wilhelm’s restoration of C. I. A. ii. 1289 is correct (Urkunden dramat. Aufführungen in Athen, pp. 149, 209 ff.) there is evidence of contests of comic actors in B.C. 307-6; and the inscription 974 c, elucidated by Wilhelm, l.c., p. 43, shows that there were contests in 313-312; but it is not certain to which festival this inscription belongs. Wilhelm, l.c., p. 253, even infers, from a restoration of C. I. A. ii. 977 l (i′ according to his numbering), that these contests existed as early as the beginning of the fourth or end of the fifth century: the restoration is highly probable, and if it is correct, contests of comic actors can be traced back nearly as far as contests of tragic actors; but again it is uncertain to which festival the inscription refers, and it is going too far to use the combined evidence of this inscription, and the Arg. to the Pax, as emended, to prove the existence of contests at the City Dionysia in 421 B.C.]

[170] C. I. A. ii. 973.

[171] Dem. Fals. Leg. § 246.

[172] C. I. A. ii. 975 b, 972.

[173] Diod. Sic. xiii. 97.

[174] For the City Dionysia see above, pp. 18 and 24. For the Lenaea there is no evidence, but the practice was probably much the same. See p. 26.

[175] Alciphron iii. 48 κακὸς κακῶς ἀπόλοιτο καὶ ἄφωνος εἴη Λικύμνιος ὁ τῆς τραγῳδίας ὑποκριτής. ὡς γὰρ ἐνίκα τοὺς ἀντιτέχνους Κριτίαν τὸν Κλεωναῖον καὶ Ἵππασον τὸν Ἀμβρακιώτην τοὺς Αἰσχύλου Προπομποὺς κ.τ.λ. Athen. p. 584 D Ἀνδρονίκου δὲ τοῦ τραγῳδοῦ ἀπ’ ἀγῶνός τινος, ἐν ᾧ τοὺς Ἐπιγόνους εὐημερήκει, πίνειν μέλλοντος παρ’ αὐτῇ κτλ.

[176] See above, p. 31.

[177] Theophrast. Char. 22 ταινία ξυλίνη.

[178] Lysias xxi. § 4 κωμῳδοῖς χορηγῶν Κηφισοδώρῳ ἐνίκων, καὶ ἀνήλωσα σὺν τῇ τῆς σκευῆς ἀναθέσει ἑκκαίδεκα μνᾶς.

[179] Plut. Themist. 114 C πίνακα τῆς νίκης ἀνέθηκε. Aristot. Pol. viii. 6 ἐκ τοῦ πίνακος ὃν ἀνέθηκε Θράσιππος.

[180] C. I. A. ii. 1289; Bull. Corr. Hell. iii. pl. 5.

[181] Reisch, Griechische Weihgeschenke, p. 118 ff.

[182] Plut. Themist. 114 C. Cp. C. I. A. ii. 1280, 1285 (a metrical inscription), 1289, iv. 1280 b, 1282 b, 1285 b, &c.

[183] C. I. A. ii. 971 a-e, iv. 971 f-h. See Appendix B.

[184] C. I. A. ii. 972, 973, 975. See Appendix B.

[185] C. I. A. ii. 977, iv. 977.

[186] Diod. Sic. xiii. 103; Suidas s.v. Κρατῖνος.

[187] Diog. Laërt. v. 1. 26. A complete list of the quotations from Aristotle’s Διδασκαλίαι is given in Bekker’s Aristotle, vol. v, p. 1572.

[188] See pp. 13 (note 2), 61.

[189] Suidas s.v. Καλλίμαχος; Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 552.

[190] Etym. Mag. s.v. πίναξ.

[191] Trendelenburg, Gramm. Graec. de Arte Tragica Iudiciorum Reliquiae, p. 3 foll.

[192] C. I. A. iv. 971 f. See above, p. 20, note 3. [It is not at all improbable that the extant inscriptions which have been described in this section were to a great extent based on the work of Aristotle himself, this work being itself based on earlier records now lost. It would only be natural that the theatre officials would take advantage of so important a compilation as the Διδασκαλίαι and Νῖκαι Διονυσιακαί of Aristotle, and might well have extracts from it engraved on stone in the theatre. The fact that the last record in C. I. A. ii. 971 belongs to the year 328 B.C. has also led some writers to conjecture that this whole inscription represents the work of Aristotle. This view is confirmed by the fact that Aristotle, with Callisthenes, prepared a record of Pythian victors for the temple of Delphi, which was engraved on stone at the public cost, B.C. 331. (Homolle, Bull. de Corr. Hell. xxii. 261, 631; Bourguet, ibid. xxiv. 504; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscr. Gr. 915.) Cp. Reisch in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl., Art. Didaskaliai; Wilhelm, Urkunden dramatischer Aufführungen in Athen, pp. 13-15. The latter work gives a very complete account of the extant inscriptions.]

[193] Ath. Pol. cc. 56, 57. The archons superintended the various contests themselves, but were assisted by curators in the organization of the processions. These ἐπιμεληταὶ τῆς πομπῆς were ten in number at the City Dionysia. Until 352 they were elected by the people from the general mass of the citizens, and paid the expenses of the procession themselves. After 352 they were chosen by lot, one from each tribe, and received 100 minae from the state to cover expenses. In the third century the system of election was reintroduced. The curators at the Lenaea were also curators of the Eleusinian mysteries (ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν μυστηρίων), four in number, and elected by the state, two from the people generally, one each from the Κήρυκες and Εὐμολπίδαι. See Sandys’ notes ad loc.

[194] Suidas s.v. χορὸν δίδωμι; Athen. p. 638 F; Cratinus fr. 15 (Kock); cf. Aristot. Poet. c. v, Ath. Pol. l.c.

[195] Cratinus l.c.

[196] Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 510, 530.

[197] Suidas s.v. Αἰσχύλος; Marm. Par. ep. 56; Vita I Eurip.

[198] Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 504; Arg. Aristoph. Equit.; cf. Suidas s.v. Εὔπολις. [The remarkable didascalic inscription (974 c) printed by Wilhelm, Urkunden dramat. Aufführungen in Athen, p. 45, and reproduced in Appendix B, notices of a certain Ameinias (probably), who won the third place with his play, that ἔφηβος ὢν ἐνεμήθη. Wilhelm shows that this use of νέμειν and its cognates, to signify permission to compete, was a technical one, and quotes conclusive parallels.]

[199] Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 531; Anon. de Com. (Kaibel Com. Fr. p. 8); Suidas s.v. Σαμίων ὁ δῆμος; Arg. Aristoph. Acharn.

[200] Aristoph. Equit. 512-44; cf. Nub. 528-31.

[201] Arg. Aristoph. Plutus; Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 73.

[202] Suidas s.v. Ἀρκάδας μιμούμενοι.

[203] Args. Aristoph. Av., Lysist., Vesp., Ran.

[204] Athen. p. 216 D; Vit. Aristoph.

[205] Plut. X orat. 839 D.

[206] Aristoph. Equit. 512, 513.

[207] Id. Vesp. 1016-22.

[208] Arg. ii to Dem. Meid.

[209] Athen. Pol. c. 56.

[210] Ibid.

[211] C. I. A. ii. 971 d, iv. 971 h.

[212] Lysias xxi. §§ 1-5; Aeschin. Timarch. §§ 11, 12; Harpocrat. s.v. ὅτι νόμος.

[213] Lysias l.c.

[214] In the time of Demosthenes the tribe Pandionis was for three years unable to supply a dithyrambic choregus. Dem. Meid. § 13.

[215] Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 406, who suggests that the system was also extended to the Lenaea. But this is disproved by Lysias xxi. § 4, where the defendant says he was choregus (not synchoregus) to a comic chorus in B.C. 402. The synchoregia cannot, therefore, have been applied to both festivals.

[216] C. I. A. ii. 971 c (tragic choregus at City Dionysia for 387) [but the interpretation of this fragment is very difficult]. Tragic synchoregi occur twice in inscriptions at the beginning of the fourth century (C. I. A. ii. 1280, iv. 1280 b); and are mentioned by Isaeus v. § 36 (B.C. 389) and Lysias xix., § 29 (B.C. 394-389); but as the festival is not mentioned by either author, it may have been the Lenaea, and so no inference can be drawn as to the discontinuance of the synchoregia. In C. I. A. iv. 971 h we find a comic choregus in 329; in C. I. A. iv. 1280 b (beginning of fourth century) and ii. 1280 b (middle of fourth century) we find comic synchoregi, but as the latter inscription was found at a distance from Athens, it may refer to the Rural Dionysia, at which joint choregi were sometimes appointed; e.g. C. I. A. iv. 1282 b mentions three tragic choregi in partnership at Icaria.

[217] The statement of Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 406, that soon after the institution of synchoregi the choregia as a whole was abolished by Cinesias is disproved by Ath. Pol. c. 56, which shows that choregi were a regular institution in the latter half of the fourth century. Capps (Am. J. Arch. 1895, p. 316) conjectures that the scholiast’s error arose from his misunderstanding of the epithet χοροκτόνος, applied to Cinesias as a bad poet, not as a legislator against choruses.

[218] There were still choregi in 319 (C. I. A. ii. 1246, 1247). But Nicanor was appointed Agonothetes immediately after the death of Antipater (Plut. Phoc. 31), who died in 319.

[219] C. I. A. ii. 302, 307, 314, 331, 379.

[220] C. I. A. ii. 314, καὶ εἰς ταῦτα πάντα ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων ἀναλώσας πολλὰ χρήματα. This phrase, however, does not imply that he paid the whole of the expenses; and the formula ὁ δῆμος ἐχορήγει, constantly found in agonothetic inscriptions, seems to show that the people bore a part [e.g. C. I. A. ii. 1289, quoted App. B].

[221] C. I. A. iii. 78 (Agonothetes and choregus together); ibid. 79, 83, 84 (choregi alone); ibid. 1, 10, 121, 457, 613, 721, 810, 1091 (Agonothetes alone).

[222] Demosth. Meid. §§ 13, 14; 2nd Arg. to Meidias, p. 510.

[223] C. I. A. ii. 1246 Νικίας Νικοδήμου Ξυπεταίων ἀνέθηκε νικήσας χορηγῶν Κεκροπίδι παίδων· Πανταλέων Σικυώνιος ηὔλει· ᾆσμα Ἐλπήνωρ Τιμοθέου· Νέαιχμος ἦρχεν. In this case the dithyramb performed was the Elpenor of the celebrated poet Timotheus. When old dithyrambs were performed, and no poet was necessary, a professional trainer was hired to look after the chorus. Such was the διδάσκαλος mentioned by Demosthenes (Meid. § 17).

[224] Antiphon, orat. vi. § 11 ἐπειδὴ χορηγὸς κατεστάθην εἰς Θαργήλια καὶ ἔλαχον Παντακλέα διδάσκαλον κτλ. Pantacles was a poet, and not a mere trainer of choruses, like the διδάσκαλος hired by Demosthenes. This is proved by a passage in Etym. Mag. v. διδάσκαλος· ἰδίως διδασκάλους λέγουσιν οἱ Ἀττικοὶ τοὺς ποιητὰς τῶν διθυράμβων ἢ τῶν κωμῳδιῶν ἢ τῶν τραγῳδιῶν. Ἀντίφων ἐν τῷ περὶ τοῦ χορευτοῦ· ἔλαχόν, φησι, Παντακλέα διδάσκαλον· ὅτι γὰρ ὁ Παντακλῆς ποιητής, δεδήλωκεν Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν ταῖς Διδασκαλίαις. When there was a poet, a professional trainer was not usually required. The poet undertook the training of the chorus.

[225] Aristot. Rhet. iii. 1.

[226] Vita Aesch.

[227] Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 1267.

[228] Vita Soph.

[229] Vita Eur.

[230] Dem. Fals. Leg. §§ 10, 246; de Cor. § 262.

[231] C. I. A. ii. 972.

[232] Suidas s.v. νεμήσεις ὑποκριτῶν· οἱ ποιηταὶ ἐλάμβανον τρεῖς ὑποκριτὰς κλήρῳ νεμηθέντας, ὑποκρινομένους (? ὑποκρινουμένους) τὰ δράματα· ὧν ὁ νικήσας εἰς τοὐπιὸν ἄκριτος παραλαμβάνεται. Obviously ὁ νικήσας denotes, not the victorious poet, nor yet the actor who acted for him, but the actor who won the prize for acting. Τοὐπιόν apparently means ‘the next festival’. The victorious actor was allowed to act at the next festival as a matter of course. The ‘three actors’ are the three protagonists required at each tragic contest, and not the three actors required by each poet. This is proved by the words ὧν ὁ νικήσας, which imply that the three actors mentioned all took part in the actors’ contest. But the actors’ contest was limited to the protagonists; the subordinate actors had nothing to do with it. See above, p. 42.

[233] Aristot. Rhet. iii. 1.

[234] C. I. A. ii. 973.

[235] Schol. Aristoph. Equit. 534; Vita Aristoph. (Dindf. Prolegom. de Comoed. p. 36). The commentator, misunderstanding the expression that certain plays of Aristophanes were brought out by Philonides and Callistratus (ἐδιδάχθη διὰ Φιλωνίδου κτλ.), concluded that these persons were actors.

[236] C. I. A. ii. 972, 975 c and d.

[237] Xen. Hiero ix. 4, Resp. Athen. i. 13. The training-room was called διδασκαλεῖον (Antiphon orat. vi. § 11), or χορηγεῖον (Bekk. Anecd. p. 72, 17; Pollux iv. 106, ix. 42).

[238] Antiphon orat. vi. §§ 11-13; Pollux iv. 106. The agent was called χορολέκτης.

[239] Aristot. Pol. iii. 3.

[240] Antiphon l.c.

[241] Plutarch Glor. Athen. 349 A; Suidas s.v. φαρυγγίνδην· ὡς ἀριστίνδην· σκώπτοντες γὰρ τὴν γαστριμαργίαν τῶν χορευτῶν Ἀττικοὶ οὕτω λέγουσι.