ide of
the Acropolis, our Athenian citizen will find himself at once on holy
ground. He is within a _temenos_ or precinct, a place "cut off" from the
common land and dedicated to a god. He will pass to the left (Fig. 2, p.
144) two temples standing near to each other, one of earlier, the other
of later date, for a temple, once built, was so sacred that it would
only be reluctantly destroyed. As he enters the actual theatre he will
pay nothing for his seat; his attendance is an act of worship, and from
the social point of view obligatory; the entrance fee is therefore paid
for him by the State.

The theatre is open to all Athenian citizens, but the ordinary man will
not venture to seat himself in the front row. In the front row, and
that only, the seats have backs, and the central seat of this row is an
armchair; the whole of the front row is permanently reserved, not for
individual rich men who can afford to hire "boxes," but for certain
State officials, and these officials are all priests. On each seat the
name of the owner is inscribed; the central seat is "of the priest of
Dionysos Eleuthereus," the god of the precinct. Near him is the seat "of
the priest of Apollo the Laurel-Bearer," and again "of the priest of
Asklepios," and "of the priest of Olympian Zeus," and so on round the
whole front semicircle. It is as though at His Majesty's the front row
of stalls was occupied by the whole bench of bishops, with the
Archbishop of Canterbury enthroned in the central stall.

The theatre at Athens is not open night by night, nor even day by day.
Dramatic performances take place only at certain high festivals of
Dionysos in winter and spring. It is, again, as though the modern
theatre was open only at the festivals of the Epiphany and of Easter.
Our modern, at least our Protestant, custom is in direct contrast. We
tend on great religious festivals rather to close than to open our
theatres. Another point of contrast is in the time allotted to the
performance. We give to the theatre our after-dinner hours, when work is
done, or at best a couple of hours in the afternoon. The theatre is for
us a recreation. The Greek theatre opened at sunrise, and the whole day
was consecrated to high and strenuous religious attention. During the
five or six days of the great _Dionysia_, the whole city was in a state
of unwonted sanctity, under a _taboo_. To distrain a debtor was illegal;
any personal assault, however trifling, was sacrilege.