of the muse. Yet even
this was not universal. The mimes of Sophron, so passionately admired by
Plato, were written in prose, and were scenes out of real life conducted
in dialogue. The exquisite feast of Adonis ({~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH PERISPOMENI~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}) in
Theocritus, we are told, with some others of his eclogues, were close
imitations of certain mimes of Sophron--free translations of the prose into
hexameters.

It will not be improper, in this place, to make a few remarks on the
remarkable character and functions of the chorus in the Greek tragic
drama.

The chorus entered from below, close by the orchestra, and there, pacing
to and fro during the choral odes, performed their solemn measured dance.
In the centre of the _orchestra_, directly over against the middle of the
_scene_, there stood an elevation with steps in the shape of a large
altar, as high as the boards of the _logeion_ or moveable stage. This
elevation was named the _thymele_ ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}), and served to recall the
origin and original purpose of the chorus, as an altar-song in honour of
the presiding deity. Here, and on these steps the persons of the chorus
sate collectively, when they were not singing; attending to the dialogue
as spectators, and acting as (what in truth they were) the ideal
representatives of the real audience, and of the poet himself in his own
character, assuming the supposed impressions made by the drama, in order
to direct and rule them. But when the chorus itself formed part of the
dialogue, then the leader of the band, the foreman, or _coryphaeus_,
ascended, as some think, the level summit of the _thymele_