§ 2 Size of the Chorus
The tragic chorus, being a direct descendant of the old dithyrambic choruses, originally consisted of fifty members.859 After all connexion between tragedy and the dithyramb had been severed, the number of the choreutae in a tragic chorus was reduced to twelve. It has been suggested that this number was due to the practice of each poet exhibiting four tragedies at a time. It is supposed that the original chorus of fifty was divided as equally as possible among the four tragedies, so that each chorus came to consist of twelve members. The conjecture is a plausible one, but cannot be regarded as certain, owing to the scantiness of our information concerning the early history of tragedy. The size of the tragic chorus remained unaltered until the time of Sophocles, and in all the earlier plays of Aeschylus twelve choreutae are employed. Sophocles raised the number from twelve to fifteen.860 After his time there was no further change during the great period of the Attic drama. The tragic chorus was always composed of fifteen persons. The various technical terms which refer to the arrangement of the tragic chorus are all based on the supposition that it is a chorus of fifteen. It is not quite certain whether the innovation of Sophocles was adopted by Aeschylus in his later plays. The Oresteia of Aeschylus was brought out ten years after the first appearance of Sophocles; and it has been contended that the chorus in this trilogy contained fifteen members. There is hardly sufficient evidence to determine the matter with any certainty.861 On general grounds it seems probable that Aeschylus should have followed the example of Sophocles. At any rate there is no doubt that after the middle of the fifth century the number of the choreutae was fixed at fifteen.862 The satyric chorus was of the same size as the tragic—a natural result of the intimate connexion between tragedy and the satyric drama.863 The comic chorus, as long as it continued to be an integral part of the play, invariably consisted of twenty-four members. All the authorities are unanimous on the subject.864 These were the numbers adopted in the various kinds of drama throughout the classical period of Greek literature. But in later times, after the dramatic choruses had been reduced to insignificance, and merely provided the music between the successive acts, their size, at any rate in some theatres, appears to have been diminished. Thus the comic chorus at the Delphic Soteria contained only seven members; and the tragic chorus depicted on the wall-painting at Cyrene is also a chorus of seven.865 Whether these cases were exceptional, or whether seven had now come to be the usual number of a theatrical chorus, there is no evidence to show.
The size of the chorus in the Greek drama was regulated by conventional rules, and no change was made to suit the requirements of a particular play. For instance, in the Supplices of Aeschylus the number of the Danaides was fifty, but the chorus probably consisted of twelve maidens who did duty for the fifty. In the Supplices of Euripides the actual suppliants were the seven wives of the slaughtered chieftains, but the chorus was raised to its proper number by the addition of female attendants. It has sometimes been suggested that in the Eumenides, where the Furies are twelve or fifteen instead of three, legendary tradition was sacrificed to theatrical requirements. But, as there is no evidence to show that the number of the Furies had been settled at three as early as the time of Aeschylus, it is quite possible that in this case the usual size of the chorus was not inappropriate.