§ 10 The Actors’ Guild
In the course of the fourth century the members of the theatrical profession at Athens, together with the performers in the various lyric and musical contests, formed themselves into a guild, for the purpose of protecting their interests and increasing their importance. The members of the guild were called The Artists of Dionysus. Poets, actors, and chorus-singers, trainers, and musicians all belonged to the guild. When it first came into existence is not known for certain. Sophocles is said to have formed a sort of literary club, which may have been the prototype of the guild; but it is possible that there was no connexion between the two. At any rate it was fully established in the time of Aristotle, by whom it is mentioned.822
The guild was of great value in maintaining and enforcing the various privileges of the members. These were very considerable. Musical and dramatic contests among the Greeks were confined almost entirely to the great religious festivals, and regarded as celebrations in honour of the gods. The professionals who took part in them were ministers engaged in the service of the gods, and their presence was necessary for the due performance of the various observances. To enable them to fulfil their engagements, many of the ordinary laws and regulations were relaxed. In the first place actors and musicians were permitted to travel through foreign and hostile states for the purpose of attending the festivals. Even in time of war their persons and property were ensured from violation. Owing to this custom the actors Aristodemus and Neoptolemus were able to travel frequently to and fro between Athens and Macedonia during the height of the war, and to assist materially in the negotiation of the peace.823 In the second place actors and musicians claimed to be exempt from naval and military service, in order to pursue their professional avocations in Athens and elsewhere. In the time of Demosthenes this immunity from service was occasionally granted, but had not yet hardened into an invariable custom. Demosthenes mentions the cases of two musicians who were severely punished for avoiding military service. One of them was Sannio the chorus-trainer, and the other was Aristides the chorus-singer. Meidias also is said to have used the most strenuous exertions to prevent the chorus of Demosthenes from being exempted from service.824 At this time, therefore, it seems that such immunity was sometimes granted and sometimes not. Later on the Guild of Artists of Dionysus succeeded in getting the Amphictyonic Council to pass a decree, by which the Athenians were bound as a religious obligation to grant exemption from military service to all members of the dramatic and musical profession. In the same decree the duty of allowing them a safe passage through their territories was enforced upon the Greek nation generally. This decree was renewed towards the beginning of the third century at the request of the Guild. A copy of the decree was engraved on stone and erected in the theatre at Athens, and has fortunately been preserved.825 A translation of the more important passages will be of interest, as throwing light upon the position of the theatrical profession at Athens. It ran as follows: ‘It was resolved by the Amphictyonic Council that security of person and property, and exemption from arrest during peace and war, be ensured to the artists of Dionysus at Athens;... that they enjoy that exemption from military service and that personal security which have previously been granted to them by the whole Greek nation; that the artists of Dionysus be exempt from naval and military service, in order that they may hold the appointed celebrations in honour of the gods at the proper seasons, and be released from other business, and consecrated to the service of the gods; that it be unlawful to arrest or seize an artist of Dionysus in time of war or peace, unless for debt due to a city or a private person; that, if an artist be arrested in violation of these conditions, the person who arrests him, and the city in which the violation of the law occurs, be brought to account before the Amphictyonic Council; that the immunity from service and personal security which are granted by the Amphictyonic Council to the artists of Dionysus at Athens be perpetual; that the secretaries cause a copy of this decree to be engraved on a stone pillar and erected in the temple, and another sealed copy of the same to be sent to Athens, in order to show the Athenians that the Amphictyonic Council is deeply concerned in the observance of religious duties at Athens, and is ready to accede to the requests of the artists of Dionysus, and to ratify their present privileges, and confer such other benefits upon them as may be possible.’ In this decree it is very noticeable that dramatic and musical performances are treated throughout as divine observances in honour of the gods, and the actors and other professionals are described as ministers consecrated to the service of religion. The maintenance of their privileges is therefore a sacred obligation in which the Amphictyonic Council is deeply interested.
Another inscription has been preserved referring to the Athenian Guild of Artists of Dionysus.826 It appears that the Guild had a sacred enclosure and altar at Eleusis, where they were accustomed to offer libations to Demeter and Kore at the time of the Eleusinian mysteries. During the disturbances of the Sullan campaigns the altar was dismantled, and the yearly celebrations discontinued. The inscription is a decree of the Guild thanking a certain Philemon for his exertions in restoring the altar and renewing the annual ceremonies.
From the time of the fourth century onwards guilds of actors similar to that at Athens were rapidly formed in various places throughout the Greek-speaking world. In this way the masterpieces of Greek tragedy were made familiar to the most remote districts to which Greek civilization had penetrated. But it is beyond the scope of the present work to trace the progress of the Greek drama outside the limits of Athens and Attica.827