[113] Some would interpret this passage as meaning that Cratinus was the first to observe the aesthetic law that not more than three persons should participate in the same conversation (cf. Rees, The So-called Rule of Three Actors in the Classical Greek Drama, p. 9, n. 1). When the only speakers were the individual choreutae, who were twenty-four in number, such a restriction must have been unheard of. On the other hand, if it should prove true that Megarian actors were brought in before the time of Cratinus, then we must suppose that their number was at first in excess of three and was reduced to three by him. Of course, the use of but three actors in the tragedy and comedy of this period would automatically result in not more than three persons participating in a conversation and so in the observance of the aesthetic law. This statement, however, is subject to the qualification that the chorus leaders continued to have speaking parts both in comedy (see [p. 44], above), and in tragedy (cf. [pp. 164 f.] and [169], below), and that a fourth actor was occasionally employed (cf. [pp. 171] and [182], below). In any case I am of the opinion that conscious formulation of the aesthetic law was not made until Hellenistic times (see [pp. 187 f.], below).
[114] Cf. Aristophanes’ Knights, vss. 522 f., Rogers’ translation.
[115] Cf. “The Introduction of Comedy into the City Dionysia,” University of Chicago Decennial Publications, VI, 266 ff.
[116] Cf. Columbia University Lectures on Greek Literature, p. 130.
[117] Cf. Cornford, op. cit., pp. 179 and 193, n. 1; see [p. 48], above.
[118] It is unfortunate that there is at present no satisfactory book dealing with the Greek theater on the structural side. English readers are practically restricted to Haigh’s The Attic Theatre, revised by Pickard-Cambridge in 1907, which devotes nearly one hundred pages to a summary and criticism of the different views. But this work has already been off the press for a decade and on the main issue, viz., as to whether the Greek theater of the classical period was provided with a raised stage for actors, makes too many concessions to the traditional view. For German readers, on the other hand, the situation is not a great deal better. Dörpfeld’s book has been before the public for over twenty years, and in the interim his opinions have necessarily changed on many points. He has promised a thoroughly revised second edition, which is demanded also by the excavation of additional theaters and by the publication of numerous special articles. But it is hardly likely that this promise will ever be redeemed. The only comfort is to be derived from the fact that, as works of major importance have appeared, Dörpfeld has promptly published critiques which have often been of such length as to furnish convenient restatements of his views. These more recent works in German, however, have attempted merely to force a modification of certain details in Dörpfeld’s position; they are in no wise calculated to serve as independent presentations of the whole matter or as a means of orientation for the uninitiated.
From the extensive bibliographical material which is available it is manifestly impossible to cite more than a fraction here. The outstanding books are Dörpfeld-Reisch, Das griechische Theater (1896), defended against reviewers and partially modified in “Das griechische Theater Vitruvs,” Athenische Mittheilungen, XXII (1897), 439 ff., and XXIII (1898), 326 ff.; Puchstein, Die griechische Bühne (1901), answered by Dörpfeld in Athenische Mittheilungen, XXVIII (1903), 383 ff.; and Fiechter, Die baugeschichtliche Entwicklung des antiken Theaters (1914), summarized by its author and criticized by Dörpfeld in Jahrbuch d. arch. Instituts, Anzeiger, XXX (1915), 93 ff. and 96 ff., respectively. Other important publications are von Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, “Die Bühne des Aischylos,” Hermes, XXI (1886), 597 ff.; Todt, “Noch Einmal die Bühne des Aeschylos,” Philologus, XLVIII (1889), 505 ff.; Capps, “Vitruvius and the Greek Stage,” University of Chicago Studies in Classical Philology, I (1893), 3 ff.; Bethe, Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Theaters im Alterthum (1896), and “Die hellenistischen Bühnen und ihre Decorationen,” Jahrbuch d. arch. Instituts, XV (1900), 59 ff. (answered by Dörpfeld in “Die vermeintliche Bühne des hellenistischen Theaters,” ibid., XVI [1901], 22 ff.); Petersen, “Nachlese in Athen: Das Theater des Dionysos,” ibid., XXIII (1908), 33 ff.; and Versakis, “Das Skenengebäude d. Dionysos-Theaters,” ibid., XXIV (1909), 194 ff., answered by Dörpfeld, ibid., pp. 224 ff. Still other titles will be cited as they are needed in the discussion. See also [p. 221], below. For reports on the excavations of various theaters the reader should consult the bibliographical references given by Dörpfeld-Reisch and Fiechter in their footnotes.
[119] For a slight variability in the application of the word orchestra see [p. 83] and nn. [1] and [2], below; see also [p. 72, n. 3].
[120] Fig. 22 is specially drawn and does not exactly reproduce any single theatrical structure. Fig. 23 is taken, simplified and slightly altered, from Dörpfeld-Reisch, Das griechische Theater, Pl. VIII (a).
[121] Dörpfeld claims that the name was given because the speakers stood there in addressing the public assemblies and that the same place was known as the theologium when used by divinities; cf. Athenische Mittheilungen, XXIII (1898), 348 f., and XXVIII (1903), 395, and Jahrbuch d. arch. Instituts, Anzeiger, XXX (1915), 98. Reisch thought that logium was the name of some kind of special structure in the orchestra; cf. Das griechische Theater, p. 302. Inscriptions prove the presence of a logium in the Delian theater in 279 B.C. (εἰς τὸ λογεῖον τῆς σκηνῆς) and 180 B.C. (τὴν κατασκευὴν τῶν πινάκων τῶν ἐπὶ τὸ λογεῖον); cf. Homolle, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, XVIII (1894), 162 and 165, and Robinson, American Journal of Philology, XXV (1904), 191; but they do not make its nature clear. Personally I am of the opinion that at Athens speakers always stood in the orchestra to address the public assemblies until the building of the Nero stage about 67 A.D.; cf. Flickinger, Plutarch as a Source of Information on the Greek Theater (1904), p. 55, and see [p. 102], below. My present view, therefore, is that logium suffered a change of meaning, being first applied to the top of the proscenium and being used for elevated action of various kinds, as explained in the text, and afterward being applied to the stage as the place of actors and public speakers. In either case, it referred to the same general part of the theater, viz., an elevated platform in front of the scene-building. But the original application of this term is one of the most perplexing problems in connection with scenic antiquities, and it is earnestly to be hoped that additional evidence may be brought to light which will unmistakably reveal its earlier history. The word does not appear in literature until Roman times (thrice in Plutarch), but then indisputably means “stage.” See next paragraph in text.