File:The Greek theater and its drama (1918) (14597740909).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:
the scene-building, the proscenium being not yet introduced.
It has also been suggested, on the basis of certain vase paintings
(Fig. 73),³ that an actual porch (prothyron) was sometimes built
¹ Fig. 72 is taken from Puchstein, Die griechische Bühne, Fig. 3.
² Cf. Ridgeway, Dramas and Dramatic Dances of Non-European Races, p. 83
³ Fig. 73 is taken from Baumeister, Denkmäler, Fig. 980. Within the prothy-
ron are the king of Corinth and his daughter, Jason's second wife. The latter is
being assisted by her brother. In front lies an opened box which contained th
epoisoned gifts. From the other side the queen comes rushing. In the foreground
is Medea slaying one of her children, while a youth tries to rescue the other. In

THE INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 237
extending from the center of the proscenium or taking the place
of a proscenium and extending from the center of the scene-
building's front wall. But perhaps these paintings are only
conventionalized representations of the proscenium colonnade
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 73.—A Fourth-Century Vase in Munich Representing the Vengeance
of Medea.
See p. 236, n. 3
itself. In any case it is important to observe that no background
corresponding to the scene-building is indicated on the vases.
Now it will be noted that these theatrical arrangements
made no provision for an interior scene. The dramatic action
was necessarily laid in the open air, usually before a palace,
_________
the center is Oistros, the demon of madness, mounted upon a dragon chariot.
Further on Jason is hastening to aid his boys, and on the extreme right is the ghost
of Aeetes, Medea's father. The design is apparently not based upon Euripide'
sMedea. Cf. Earle's edition, pp. 60 f.

238 THE GREEK THEATER AND ITS DRAMA

private house, or temple. Though occasional plays, like Mr.
Louis Parkers Pomander Walk, show that the thing can still be
managed, in general modern dramatists would be paralyzed by
such a requirement. Nor is it correct to state that the classical
poets "seldom had occasion to show an interior scene."

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