§ 6 Order of Contests at the City Dionysia
Before leaving the subject of the City Dionysia, it may be interesting to say a few words about the performances as a whole, and the order in which they took place. The programme to be gone through was a long one. In the fifth century it consisted of five choruses of boys, five choruses of men, three comedies, and three groups of tragedies, each containing four plays. As to the arrangement of these various items there is not much information.79 But one thing seems certain, that the three groups of tragedies must have been exhibited on three successive days. It is difficult to see what other system was possible. Two groups, consisting of eight dramas, would have been far too much for a single day.80 Nor can we suppose that plays belonging to the same group were performed on different days. If this had been the case, the value of the tetralogic form of composition would have been almost entirely destroyed. Further than this, there is a passage in Aristophanes which seems to prove that tragedies and comedies were produced on the same day. In the Birds,81 which was brought out at the City Dionysia, the chorus remark that it would be a delightful thing to have wings. They say that if one of the spectators was tired with the tragic choruses, he might fly away home, have his dinner, and fly back again in time for the comic choruses. It appears to follow from this that the comedies were performed after the tragedies. As there were three comedies during the fifth century, and three groups of tragedies, the arrangement must have been that each tragic group was performed in the morning of three successive days, and was followed in the afternoon by a comedy. The festival as a whole lasted for five or six days. The first day was taken up by the procession. Three more were taken up by the tragedies and comedies. The remaining one or two days would be devoted to the dithyrambs. Such was the system during the life-time of Aeschylus and Sophocles. In the fourth century, when the number of comedies had been raised to five, the number of tragedies diminished, and a satyric drama and an old tragedy placed at the head of the tragic contests, various rearrangements would be necessary. But there is nothing to show how they were carried out.82