§ 2 Mechanical Arrangements for the Scenery
The scenery consisted of painted curtains or boards, attached to the wall at the back of the stage.583 As the mechanical arrangements for fixing them up have not been described by any of the ancient writers, a detailed account of the matter is impossible. But some facts can be deduced from the testimony of the existing dramas. In every Greek play the action was supposed to take place in the open air. The scene was generally laid before some building or tent, or in a country district with a rock or cavern in the background. The upper portion of the painted scene represented merely the sky, and was probably the same in all dramas. The lower portion delineated the building or landscape which the particular play required. It used to be commonly supposed that this lower portion projected two or three feet in front of the upper; that the back-scene was not a flat surface from top to bottom, but that a narrow ledge or platform ran across from wing to wing about half-way up.584 The object of this hypothesis was to provide room for the ‘distegia’. The distegia was a contrivance which enabled actors to take their stand upon the roof of a palace or private house.585 Eight or nine instances of its use are to be found in the existing Greek plays. Thus the Agamemnon of Aeschylus opens with the watchman sitting upon the roof of the palace at Argos, and waiting for the beacon’s signal. In the Phoenissae of Euripides Antigone and the attendant mount upon the roof to get a view of the army encamped outside the city. In the concluding scene of the Orestes Hermione, Orestes, and Pylades are seen standing upon the roof of the palace. Examples also occur in comedy. In the Acharnians the wife of Dicaeopolis views the procession from the roof of the house. At the commencement of the Wasps Bdelycleon is seen sleeping upon the roof, and later on his father Philocleon tries to escape through the chimney. At the end of the Clouds Strepsiades climbs up a ladder to the roof of the phrontisterion, in order to set it on fire. In the Lysistrata Myrrhina and Lysistrata are seen upon the battlements of the Acropolis. The distegia may also have been used in that scene of the Supplices where Evadne appears upon the summit of a cliff, and then flings herself down.586 In all these cases it used to be imagined that the standing-room for the actor was provided in the way described; that the lower part of the scene projected two or three feet, and so furnished a permanent platform in the background. But this theory is improbable on several grounds. We have seen that the distegia was only employed in comparatively few instances. It seems unlikely, therefore, that an elaborate structure of this kind should have been erected merely to meet these occasional requirements. Further than this, if the scene had been divided in half by a horizontal line, and the lower half had protruded several feet, this arrangement, though suitable enough when the background was a palace, would have been absurdly inappropriate when a country district was to be represented. It is also questionable whether the ancient stage was wide enough to permit the arrangement. If may have been possible in early times; but the Vitruvian stage, which was only ten feet across, can hardly have been encroached upon to the extent of two or three feet. It is far more probable that the back-scene was flat from top to bottom. This supposition is more in harmony with the simple style of the ancient scenery. As for the distegia, it was provided most likely by a projecting balcony or upper story, which might be introduced when required, without encroaching upon the narrow stage. Such balconies were not uncommon in Greek and Roman houses.587 And that they were used in the theatre is expressly stated by Vitruvius, who tells us that the houses in comedy were of the type called ‘Maeniana’, or houses with projecting galleries.588 In ordinary cases the distegia would resemble a structure of this kind. But where the surroundings were exceptional, as in the Lysistrata, it might easily be decorated in such a way as to conform to the rest of the scenery.
If the scene represented a dwelling-house, there were windows in the upper story, out of which the characters could peer upon the stage. Such windows are mentioned by Vitruvius, and instances of their use occur in the extant comedies. For example, Philocleon, in the Wasps, tries to escape out of an upper window, and in the Ecclesiazusae the old woman and the young girl are seen looking out of one.589 It need hardly be remarked that the doors of the building represented by the painted scenery would correspond more or less closely with the permanent doors in the back-wall, so as to admit of easy ingress and egress to the actors. In the same way, if the scene was a cavern in a country region, the entrance to the cavern would be made to correspond with the central door in the wall at the back. Concerning the manner in which the scenery was finished off at the top nothing can be laid down for certain. It is not even known whether the stage was covered with a roof or not. But the analogy of Roman theatres, and the general convenience of the arrangement, are in favour of such a covering.590