ge
crowds of spectators who stood along the side of the road and laughed.
But soon this business of tree-hawing grew tiresome and the Greeks
thought dullness an evil only comparable to ugliness or sickness. They
asked for something more entertaining. Then an inventive young poet
from the village of Icaria in Attica hit upon a new idea which proved a
tremendous success. He made one of the members of the goat-chorus step
forward and engage in conversation with the leader of the musicians who
marched at the head of the parade playing upon their pipes of Pan.
This individual was allowed to step out of line. He waved his arms and
gesticulated while he spoke (that is to say he "acted" while the others
merely stood by and sang) and he asked a lot of questions, which the
bandmaster answered according to the roll of papyrus upon which the poet
had written down these answers before the show began.

This rough and ready conversation--the dialogue--which told the story
of Dionysos or one of the other Gods, became at once popular with the
crowd. Henceforth every Dionysian procession had an "acted scene" and
very soon the "acting" was considered more important than the procession
and the meh-mehing.

AEschylus, the most successful of all "tragedians" who wrote no less
than eighty plays during his long life (from 526 to 455) made a
bold step forward when he introduced two "actors" instead of one. A
generation later Sophocles increased the number of actors to three. When
Euripides began to write his terrible tragedies in the middle of the
fifth century, B.C., he was allowed as many actors as he liked and
when Aristophanes wrote those famous comedies in which he poked fun
at everybody and everything, including the Gods of Mount Olympus, the
chorus had been reduced to the role of mere bystanders who were lined up
behind the principal performers and who sang "this is a terrible world"
while the hero in the foreground committed a crime against the will of
the Gods.

This new form of dramatic entertainment demanded a proper setting, and
soon every Greek city owned a theatre, cut out of the rock of a nearby
hill. The spectators sat upon wooden benches and faced a wide circle
(our present orchestra where you pay three dollars and thirty cents for
a seat). Upon this half-circle, which was the stage, the actors and the
chorus took their stand. Behind them there was a tent where they made
up with large clay masks which hid their faces and whi