[864]. Schol. Aristoph. Av. 1404.
[865]. See Bentley, Dissert. on Phal. i. 251.
[866]. On the form and construction of ancient theatres, see Chandler, Travels, &c., who describes the ruins of the theatre of Teos. i. 110; of Ephesos, 138; of Miletos, (457 feet in length,) 168; of Myos, 191; of Stratonica, 222; of Nysa, built with a blue-veined marble, 245; of Laodicea, 262; of Ægina, ii. 16; of Athens, 113; of Eleusis, 215; on the theatre of Syracuse, see Antiq. of Athens, &c. Supplementary to Stuart, by Cockerel, Donaldson, &c. p. 38.—See a plan of the theatre in the grove of Asclepios at Epidauros, pl. 1. p. 53, and another of that of Dramysos, near Joannina, pl. 3.—(Compare on the Dionysiac Theatre, Leake, Topog. of Athens, p. 53, sqq.)
[867]. Even a provincial theatre is compared by the rustic in Dion Chrysostom to a large hollow valley, i. 229; what then could the Abbé Dubos be thinking of when he wrote, “Il étoit impossible que les altérations du visage que le masque cache furent aperçûes distinctment des spectateurs, dont plusieurs étoient éloignes de plus de douze toises du comédien qui récitoit!”—Reflex. Crit. i. 609.
[868]. Scalig. Poet. i. 21.
[869]. Colonel Leake, Topog. of Ath. p. 59. Cf. Wordsworth’s Athens and Attica, p. 29. The conjecture of Hemsterhuis on the passage of Dicæarchos cannot be adopted. The words must apply to the theatre; for he says the Parthenon charmed the spectators. But this could not apply to the Odeion, which was roofed.
[870]. Poll. iv. 123.
[871]. Tim. Lex. Platon. in v. ὀρχήστρα. p. 104. Poll. iv. 123.
[872]. Poll. iv. 123.—The Cunei, for greater convenience, had particular marks, numbers, or names to distinguish them: the podium of the diazoma of the theatre at Syracuse has an inscription cut on the fascia of the cornice to each cuneus.—Antiq. of Ath. &c. Supplem. to Stuart, &c., by Cockerel, Kinnaird, Donaldson, &c., p. 38.