Ancient times: a history of the early world

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ...spring feast, where they formed a circle about the chorus, which narrated in song the stories of the gods ( 483). This circle (called the orchestra) was finally marked out permanently, seats of wood for the spectators were erected in a semicircle on one side, but the singing and action all took place in the circle on the level of the ground. On the side opposite the public was a booth, or tent (Greek, siine, "scene "), for the actors, and out of this finally developed the stage. Here we see the circle, or orchestra, with the stage cutting off the back part of the circle. The seats are of stone and accommodated possibly seventeen thousand people. The fine marble seats in the front row were reserved for the leading men of Athens. The old wooden seats were still in use in the days when yEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides presented their dramas here ( 578-582). From the seats the citizens had a grand view of the sea, with the island of yKgina, their old-time rival ( 543); and even the heights of Argolis, 40 miles away, were visible; for orchestra and seats continued roofless, and a Greek theater was always open to the sky. In Roman times a colonnaded porch across the back of the stage was introduced, and such columns of Roman date may be seen in Plate VII, p. 560. For the best-preserved early Greek theater, see tailpiece, p. 393 training and rehearsals for the various choruses. Thousands of citizens too were reading the old plays that had already been presented. For now at length books too had come to take an important 584. nooks place in the life of Athens. Rows of baskets of cylindrical shape held the books which filled the shelves in our Athenian citizen's library. Homer and the works of the old classic poets were...… (more)