which the ancient scholiast and modern editors rightly interpret as a prayer for victory in the contest.
But if this were the extent of the influence which the fact of there being a contest exercised upon Greek drama, the matter might quickly be dismissed. Actually, however, the system involved deeper consequences. It is unnecessary here to rehearse the cumbersome process by which the judges were appointed and rendered their decision upon dramatic events (see [p. 272], below). While designed to prevent bribery or intimidation, it had two other effects as well. One was that, since we have no reason to believe that the choice of judges was restricted in any way or that they were not selected from the entire free population, the judges would therefore represent the average intelligence and taste, and a poet who cared for victory had to accommodate himself to this situation and could not make his appeal merely to the superior attainments of the favored, intellectual class. Secondly, like most officials at Athens, the judges were liable to be called to account for their conduct. In fact on the second day after the conclusion of the City Dionysia a special popular assembly was held in the theater for the express purpose of airing complaints concerning the management of the festival; and if the judges were thought to have been recreant to their duties or guilty of favoritism, action could be taken against them at that time while the popular anger was still hot and by the votes of the very persons whose wishes had been balked. The total effect of these arrangements was to render the judges extremely sensitive to the public’s expression of opinion, which was manifested by whistling, catcalls, applause, knocking the heels against the seats, etc. Especially in the dithyrambic contests, where tribal rivalry entered in, feeling sometimes ran very high and personal encounters were not infrequent. To quell such riotous disorders it became necessary to appoint certain officials to maintain order, like sergeants-at-arms. In view of these conditions, it is not surprising that Plato[304] complains that the choice of victor had practically been intrusted to a general show of hands and that the necessity of pleasing the popular taste had corrupted the very poets themselves. Let us consider just how this tendency manifested itself.
First of all, then, in the Knights, Aristophanes appeals to the audience to impress the judges by a hearty burst of applause; cf. vss. 544 ff.:
So seeing our Poet began
In a mood so discreet, nor with vulgar conceit rushed headlong before you at first,
Loud surges of praise to his honour upraise; salute him, all hands, with a burst
Of hearty triumphant Lenaean applause,
That the bard may depart, all radiant and bright
To the top of his forehead with joy and delight,
Having gained, by your favour, his cause.