File:The Greek theater and its drama (1918) (14597691130).jpg

Identifier: greektheateritsd00flic (find matches)
Title: The Greek theater and its drama
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Flickinger, Roy C. (Roy Caston), 1876-1942
Subjects: Greek drama -- History and criticism Theater -- Greece
Publisher: Chicago : University of Chicago Press
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image:
ree to worship at any particular
temple or to take part in its festivals as could any other citizen,
and on no infrequent occasions practically the whole body of
citizens was present. In fact, so important was it deemed that
everyone should attend the dramatic festivals that toward the
end of the fifth century it was provided that whoever felt unable
to pay the daily admission fee of two obols should, upon applica-
tion, receive a grant for this purpose from the state. The whole
city kept holiday, and gave itself up to pleasure, and to the
worship of the wine-god. Business was abandoned; the law-
courts were closed; distraints for debt were forbidden during the
continuance of the festival; even prisoners were released from
jail, to enable them to share in the common festivities.² Boys
¹ A drachma contained six obols and was worth about eighteen cents without
making allowance for the greater purchase value of money in antiquity.
² Cf. Haigh, The Attic Theatre (3d ed. by Pickard-Cambridge, 1907), p. i.
Text Appearing After Image:
FIG. 65
A "WAGON-SHIP" OF DIONYSUS AND PROCESSIONAL UPON AN ATTICK SKYPHOS IN BOLOGNA OF ABOUT 500 B.C.
See page 121 n. 2

THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS ORIGIN 121
and slaves were admitted, if their fathers or their masters were
willing to pay their way. It seems, though the evidence is
inconclusive,¹ that despite the oriental-like seclusion of Greek
households even women and girls might attend. They certainly
participated in the ceremonies of the first day. Plato and
Aristotle favored restricting the attendance, but their views
seem to have had no effect. Thus, children and respectable
women who would have invited divorce by being present at real
scenes of that character were allowed to witness the indecencies
of satyric drama and Old Comedy and to listen to the broadest
of jokes. Such is the power of rehgious conservatism.
From these considerations it follows that the attendancei
upon the dramatic performances was enormous, and that the use
of temples to accommodate the spectators was entirely out of
the question. Therefore it became necessary to provide a
separate structure, which in fourth-century Athens could seat
as many as seventeen thousand.

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