The frogs in Aristophanes claim the temenus Λίμναις and speak of their song at the Chytri. The scholiast cites [173] Philochorus, saying that the contests referred to were the χύτρινοι.
A suspected passage in Diogenes Laertius declares (III 56) that it was the custom to contend with tetralogies at four festivals, the Dionysia, Lenaea, Panathenaea, and Chytri. If the passage is worth anything, it adds new testimony that there were dramatic representations at the Anthesteria. The Menander of Alciphron, also, would hardly exclaim [174] over ποίους χύτρους, unless the contest were one in which he, as dramatist, could have a part.
No other of the extant dramas has been so much discussed in connection with the question as the Acharnians. Those who hold that the Lenaea and Anthesteria were entirely separate, have affirmed that the play opens on the Pnyx in Athens, that the scene changes to the country-house of Dicaeopolis in Cholleidae, at the season of the country Dionysia in the month Posideo. Later the time of the Lenaea in the month Gamelio is represented. Finally the locality is again Athens at the Anthesteria in Anthesterio. In fact, we are told, the poet has, in the Acharnians, shown his true greatness by overleaping all restraints of time and place and giving his fancy free rein. But this is making the Acharnians an isolated example among the Greek plays which have come down to us. Changes of scene are foreign to the nature of the Greek drama, as is acknowledged by A. Miller. [175]
Footnote 173:[ (return) ] Schol. ARIST. Frogs. 218.
Footnote 174:[ (return) ] Alciphron Ep. II. 3. 11.
Footnote 175:[ (return) ] Bühnenalt., 161.
That the beginning of the play is on the Pnyx, there is no question. In v. 202, Dicaeopolis declares: "I will go in and celebrate the Country Dionysia." This is held to be a statement of the actual time of year represented in this portion of the play, and also to indicate the change of place from Athens to the country. That the country festivals to the wine-god in the different demes were held on different dates, we learn from the fact that companies of actors went out from Athens to make the tour of these provincial festivals. [176] We know, too, that these rural celebrations were under charge of the demarchs. [177] In the passage from the Acharnians just cited, there is no statement that this is the season when the demes were accustomed to hold their annual Bacchic celebrations. Rather, in his joy in his newly concluded peace, the hero declares that he will now hold this festival in honor of the god of the vine. No surprise is felt at this exceptional date, particularly as, by his statement below, [178] he has been prevented for six years from holding the festival at its proper season. This last passage, however, is the strongest authority for a change of place in the action. Certainly, if the reading is correct, in the light of all the remainder of the comedy we should naturally translate: "in the sixth year, having come into my deme, I salute you gladly." But we do no violence to the construction if we say that ελθών ες τον δημον means "going (forth) to my deme." Unquestionably up to the end of the first choral ode at v. 236, the action has gone on in Athens. But here, we are told, comes the change of place. In v. 202 Dicaeopolis has declared that he is "going in." What does he enter but his house in the city? At v. 236 the chorus also is in Athens. In v. 237, the voice of Dicaeopolis is heard from within--his country house, it is said; and in v. 238 the chorus is as suddenly before this same house! Such rapid changes might easily take place on a modern stage, but are of a character to excite remark in an ancient theatre. If there was a change here, the second scene must have represented Cholleidae with the three houses of Dicaeopolis, Lamachus, and Euripides; and the three must be in the same deme; for the Bacchic procession of Dicaeopolis appears at v. 241, and is broken up by the chorus at v. 280. As soon as Dicaeopolis, by his by-play, has obtained permission to plead his cause, he turns (v. 394) to the house of Euripides to borrow the wardrobe of one of the tragic heroes. Then, when his defense has divided the chorus, the first half call upon the gorgon-helmeted Lamachus (v. 566) to bear them aid, and that warrior appears from his house.
Footnote 176:[ (return) ] HAIGH, Attic Theatre, p. 47.
Footnote 177:[ (return) ] ΟEHMICHEN, Bühnenwesen, s. 195.
Footnote 178:[ (return) ] Achar., 266 f.