§ 6 The Ekkyklema
Several mechanical contrivances are mentioned in connexion with the Greek stage. The most peculiar of these, and the one most alien to all our modern notions of stage illusion, is the ekkyklema.621 We have seen that in a Greek theatre the action always took place in the open air, before some temple or dwelling-place. It was impossible to transfer the scene to the inside of the building because of the continual presence of the chorus in the orchestra. Still, it might sometimes happen that a powerful dramatic effect could be produced, if a deed accomplished indoors was exposed to view. The most natural way of doing this would have been to draw aside the back-scene, and reveal a portion of the interior. But in the Greek theatre, owing to the narrowness of the stage-buildings, such a device was hardly practicable. Even if the stage-buildings had been made deeper, there were obvious objections in the way. The relative position of the auditorium and the stage was such that, if a room had been opened out behind the back-scene, a large part of the audience would not have been able to see into it. In any case, the back part of the room would have been almost in the dark. Further than this, the whole arrangement was far too elaborate for the simple notions of the ancient stage-managers. For these reasons a more primitive device was adopted. Scenes inside the house or palace were revealed by means of the ekkyklema. This was a small wooden platform, rolling upon wheels, which was kept inside the stage-buildings. When it was required to be used, one of the doors in the background was thrown open, and it was pushed forward on to the stage. Upon it was arranged a group of figures, representing in a sort of tableau the deed or occurrence which had just taken place inside the building. It was mostly used in cases where a murder had been committed. The ekkyklema was rolled out upon the stage, and on it were seen the corpses of the murdered persons, the murderers standing beside them with the bloody weapons in their hands. It might be rolled through any of the three doors at the back of the stage. The contrivance was of course a purely conventional one, due to the necessities of the Greek theatre. All pretence of realism and illusion was abandoned. But this was a point on which the Greeks did not lay very much stress. In such matters custom is everything. To a modern spectator, used to elaborate stage effects, the device would appear intolerable. But the Greeks, living at a time when stage decoration was in its infancy, were less exacting in their demands. And when they had once accepted the ekkyklema as a conventional contrivance for exhibiting interiors their plastic genius would enable them to use it to the best advantage. The sudden spectacle of the murderer standing beside his victim’s body, with the instrument of death in his hands, might easily be formed into a most impressive tableau.
The ekkyklema was probably invented towards the middle of the fifth century, about the time when the actor’s booth was first converted into a regular back-scene. It is used twice in the Oresteia. In the Agamemnon, after the murder has been committed, the platform rolls out, and reveals the person of Clytaemnestra, standing over the dead bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra. In the Choephori there is a parallel scene. Orestes is brought into view standing beside the bodies of Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra, and pointing to the net in which his father had been entangled and slaughtered many years ago. He is seized with frenzy, descends from the ekkyklema, and hastens away to the temple of Apollo at Delphi. The platform is then withdrawn into the palace.622 During the rest of the century there are many instances of the use of the ekkyklema in tragedy. In the Ajax the interior of the tent is exposed to view by this contrivance; and at the end of the Antigone the body of Eurydice is exhibited, lying beside the altar at which she has stabbed herself. In the Hippolytus, after the suicide of Phaedra, her dead body is displayed upon the ekkyklema, and Theseus takes from it the letter in which she makes her charge against Hippolytus. In the Electra of Sophocles the door is thrown open at the command of Aegisthus, and the platform rolls out and exhibits Orestes and Pylades standing beside the corpse of Clytaemnestra, which is covered with a cloth. Aegisthus himself removes the cloth, and then Orestes and Pylades descend to the stage, and the platform is drawn back again. In the Hecuba the sons of Polymestor, who have been slaughtered inside the tent, are made visible to the spectators by means of the ekkyklema. In the Hercules Furens Hercules is exhibited lying prostrate between the bodies of his wife and children, with his face covered up, and his limbs chained to the broken column which he had thrown down in his frenzy. Amphitryon then comes out of the palace, and loosens his chains. Later on Theseus arrives, and uncovers his face and helps him to rise. He then descends to the stage, and the ekkyklema is rolled back into the palace. Lastly, in the Electra of Euripides, the bodies of Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra are shown to the audience by means of this device.623
The ekkyklema is also occasionally used in Comedy. Aristophanes, on two occasions, employs it in a burlesque sort of way, when he is introducing tragic poets on the stage. In the Thesmophoriazusae, Euripides and Mnesilochus call at the house of Agathon to borrow some female clothing. Agathon is rolled out on the ekkyklema, lends them some articles which are brought to him from inside the house, and then, when he is tired of their importunity, orders himself to be ‘rolled in again as fast as possible’. In the Acharnians Dicaeopolis goes to the house of Euripides to borrow a tragic dress. Euripides is upstairs in his study writing tragedies, and cannot come down, but allows himself to be rolled out, and supplies the necessary dresses.624 These two passages in Aristophanes, where the mechanism of the apparatus is carefully emphasized in order to add to the ridicule, are very valuable as evidence concerning the structure of the ekkyklema. The device is also used in the Clouds to show the inside of the phrontisterion. The disciples of Socrates are seen hard at work on their studies, with globes, diagrams, black-boards, and other scholastic materials round about them. In the Knights, when the Propylaea is thrown open, and reveals a vision of ancient Athens, with Demos dressed up in the antique style, the spectacle may possibly have been produced by means of the ekkyklema.625
From the examples of the use of the ekkyklema which have just been cited we may gather some further particulars as to its character and construction. It appears that persons upon the ekkyklema could easily descend to the stage, and that persons on the stage could easily touch those on the ekkyklema. It follows that it must have been a low platform, not much above the level of the stage. As regards its length and breadth, it was evidently large enough to support several persons. At the same time it cannot have been of any very great size. Its width must have been less than the width of the doors in the background, to permit of its being rolled through them. Its depth cannot have been very great, because of the narrowness of the Greek stage. In the Acharnians, when Euripides is rolled out, he is represented as still sitting in his room upstairs. But it is unlikely, as some suppose, that in this case the platform was made taller than usual, to produce the effect of an upper story. As Euripides has to hand various articles to Dicaeopolis, who is standing on the stage, there cannot have been much difference of level between the two. The exact mechanism of the ekkyklema, however, remains uncertain. It is practically undisputed that the grooves or rails found at Eretria, running on to the later stage straight from its back-scene were intended for some such contrivance to run on.626 On the other hand it has been argued from the use of certain words in the scholiast’s descriptions that the ekkyklema must have revolved on a pivot,627 and it has been suggested that the mechanism was like that of which a diagram is given in the accompanying figure, where ss is the stage, ww the back-scene, a shows the ekkyklema at rest and not in use, b shows it in process of being rolled round for use, c shows it after being rolled out. This, however, finds no confirmation in anything in the ruins; the straight rails at Eretria are against it, and the words referred to may be explained by the use of a windlass or similar mechanism used in rolling out the ekkyklema. Judging from the width of the rails at Eretria, the width of the ekkyklema may have been about ten feet, and the doors must therefore have been rather larger. The suggested revolving ekkyklema might afford more standing room, but there is not sufficient evidence of its existence.
In addition to the passages already mentioned, there are two other places in the extant dramas where the scholiasts say that the ekkyklema was employed. But they appear to have been mistaken in both cases. The first instance is in the Thesmophoriazusae. The action of this play begins before Agathon’s house, but after about three hundred lines is transferred to the front of Demeter’s temple, where the women hold their assembly. At this point there is a stage-direction to say that ‘the Thesmophorion is rolled out’.628 If these words mean that the scene was laid in the interior of the temple, and that the ekkyklema was rolled out in order to represent it, the suggestion is undoubtedly wrong. It would be absurd to imagine that the rest of the play was transacted on a small platform like the ekkyklema. But possibly the author of the note was referring, not to the ekkyklema, but to some mechanism by which he believed that the necessary change of scene was brought about. The second place is the well-known scene at the beginning of the Eumenides.629 The play opens with the speech of the priestess, delivered in front of the temple. Then, when she departs, the interior of the temple is suddenly brought into view, and shows us Orestes kneeling before the altar, with the sleeping Furies round about him, and Apollo and Hermes standing close by. To suppose, as the scholiast suggests, that this effect was produced by the ekkyklema, is hardly possible. The platform would have been far too small to accommodate a whole tragic chorus, together with three actors. At the same time, though the explanation of the scholiast appears impracticable, it is difficult to suggest any other way in which the scene might have been acted. We cannot assume that the back-scene was drawn apart, and disclosed the inside of the temple in a set-piece, after the modern fashion. This mode of revealing interiors was apparently never used on the Greek stage. If it had been possible, there would have been no need to invent the ekkyklema. It has been suggested that the spectacle was not really exhibited to the audience; that Apollo, Hermes, and Orestes appeared alone in front of the temple; that the ghost of Clytaemnestra called to the Furies through the temple door; and that it was not until then that the Furies came into sight, rushing out in obedience to her summons. But the general character of the scene, and the expressions used in the course of the dialogue, appear to be fatal to this supposition.630 In fact, the difficulty is one for which no satisfactory solution has yet been found.
The ekkyklema seems to our notions such a rude device, that many critics have been led to deny its existence, at any rate during the classical period. They allow that it must have been used in later times, as it is described in detail by Pollux: but they refuse to believe that it could have been tolerated by the Athenians of the fifth century.631 The evidence, however, in its favour is too strong to be set aside in this way. The passages in which it is parodied by Aristophanes correspond so closely with the descriptions of Pollux that they must obviously refer to the same mechanical device.632 There are also the numerous other scenes in which an interior is revealed. It is difficult to see how the Greeks, with their peculiar stage arrangements, could have acted these scenes, except by some such contrivance as the ekkyklema. Those who deny its existence explain away these passages in various ways. They say that in many cases the bodies might have been carried out on to the stage, or arranged just outside the door, so as to be visible to the spectators. On other occasions they suppose that the back-scene was drawn aside, and showed the interior of the building. But there are several scenes to which none of these explanations would apply. In the Hercules Furens Hercules is shown chained to the broken column, and we cannot suppose that the column was carried out on to the stage. Nor can the spectacle have been exhibited inside the palace front. It must have been outside; since Amphitryon, as soon as Hercules begins to rouse himself, proposes to fly within the palace for refuge.633 In the same way the scholars of Socrates cannot have been carried out, along with their globes and diagrams. Yet they too must have appeared upon the stage, and not inside the building; for it is explained to Strepsiades that they cannot remain long ‘in the open air outside’.634 It is impossible, therefore, to account for these and other scenes in the way suggested.635 They must have been effected by the ekkyklema. As for the objection that the ekkyklema was a device too clumsy for the refined taste of the fifth century, though admissible in later times, this is a kind of argument which is not supported by experience. The history of the drama in many countries shows that the greatest literary and dramatic excellence may coexist with the utmost simplicity and clumsiness in the stage arrangements. It was so in England and it was so in France. The drama of these two countries reached its highest point at a period when the art of stage decoration was in a most primitive condition. On general grounds it would be more reasonable to assume that the ekkyklema was impossible to the Hellenistic Greeks, than that it was impossible to the Greeks of the time of Sophocles. If the former could tolerate it, the latter are not likely to have made any difficulty.
A contrivance called the exostra is occasionally referred to by the grammarians, and is mentioned in a Delian inscription of the third century B.C. The name implies that it was something which was ‘pushed out’ upon the stage. The metaphorical use of the word in Polybius and Cicero proves it to have been a platform on which objects were exhibited in a conspicuous manner. It is probable, therefore, that the statement of the ancient writers is correct, and that the exostra was merely the ekkyklema under another name.636