presumed that Agamemnon walks up steps on to a low stage – otherwise the carpet
would not have been visible to the front rows of the audience – before entering the
stage building. Nevertheless, all the acting took place out of doors in the open air.
Any interior scenes might be played on the ekkuklema, probably a platform on wheels
which could be rolled out, for example, in the Oresteia to reveal the bodies of
Agamemnon and Cassandra killed offstage by Clytemnestra (acts of violence were
usually committed offstage and reported). There was also a mechane, a crane by which
a god might be lowered from the top of the theatre building, as for example in
Euripides’ Electra when Castor and Pollux descend to tidy up the loose ends of the
plot. This use of the machine has given rise to the phrase ‘deus ex machina’ (‘the god
from the machine’). Gods also appeared on a balcony of the stage building called the
theologeion.
The scale of the proceedings – the nearest spectators were a long way from the
actors and the furthest were very distant indeed – precluded the development of
naturalistic techniques in writing, staging or acting. Aristotle tells us that Sophocles
introduced scene painting (Poetics, 4)but this can only have been very simple in effect;
characters and chorus tell us in words where they are and what they are doing. As
for acting, there must have been a particular style made necessary in large part by
the physical conditions of the theatre. Even given the marvellous acoustics of the
Greek theatre design, much effort must simply have been put into voice projection –
Sophocles is said to have given up acting because he had a weak voice. Part of the
acting style was dictated by conventional forms of attire. All performers (who were
always male) wore masks, and the principal actors also donned special high boots or
buskins called kothurnoi. Nevertheless, individuality was allowed for in the painting
of masks to represent particular characters, and they could be changed from scene
to scene. After he had blinded himself offstage at the end of the play to which he
had given his name, King Oedipus doubtless entered with a blood-stained mask.
Individuality could further be marked by the colourful costumes or by simple props,
like a lyre for Apollo, a sceptre for a king or a broad-brimmed hat for a messenger.
Effects were therefore simple and broad. In the intimate drama of today, much
meaning is conveyed around the playwright’s words by detailed and realistic setting,
by significant small-scale gesture, by facial expression and even by the pregnant
pause. But in the Greek theatre, nuance of gesture and effect would have been quite
pointless, nor could the relation between player and audience be intimate. The chorus
must have been trained in precise harmony and in beauty of movement when seen
from afar; actors must have concentrated on conveying large effects and above all
on giving a clear expressive rendering of the words themselves. And in composing
those words, the playwright took for granted a need for clarity of emphasis in setting
the scene, in announcing the entrances of characters and in making their emotional
reactions fully explicit.
148 THE GREEKS