comenius

evolution of the building

changes of drama

poets - greek and roman

masks, costumes and scenery

drama as social event

Theatrical masks

Masks were used in all three categories of ancient Greek theatre, that of tragedy, satiric drama and comedy. They originate from the Dionysiac feasts during which the participants used to paint their faces with the dark coloured dregs of the new wine and to decorate their heads with leaves and branches. 

In ancient Greek theatre the female roles were acted by men, while the gender was also indicated by the flesh colour, white for women, dark for men.

Members of chorus are getting ready for the performance. The right actor is wearing his shoes (“kothornoi”). Near him on the ground there is his mask. The left actor has already worn his mask. Half of 5 cen. B.C. Boston, Museum of Fine  Arts

Apulian red-figure bell krater. Dionysus with mask & Pan with Oenochoe. c. 410 BC-390 BC

Scene from Aristophanes' Birds.  End of 5th. B.C. Collection of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California

The mask was made of cloth dipped in gypsum and pressed on a matrix so as to obtain the desired form. Then it was covered with a thin layer of plaster and finally the features of the character were painted on it. The shape of the mask was like tat of helmet since it was covering not only the face but also the entire head. The mouth was very big as to facilitate the speech, while the opening provided for the eyes was, on the contrary, very small. Indicative of the size of the mask’s eyes is that not only the white of the eye is painted but, occasionally, even the iris itself. Characteristic element of the tragic mask was the volume, especially the upper part of the mask in Λ shape that contributed a lot to the impressive appearance of the actor.

 

Reconstruction of masks for Greek tragedy by Chris Vervain, 2005	Reconstruction of mask  for Greek  tragedy	Dedicative tragic  mask of copper. End of 4 cen. B.C. Archaeological Museum of Pereus

Hellenistic period

During the Hellenistic period masks obtained a strong portrait character. According to Pollux, a Roman writer whose writing (Onomastpicture) refers to the 3 century B.C., there were 76 types of masks: 24 in tragedy, 4 in the satyr drama and 44 in comedy. Masks do not correspond to a specific personality but represent an individual character, therefore they must be regarded as psychograph. Masks during this period become larger (onkos).

Young Man with Onkos  2nd-1st c. BCParis, Louvre Museum Terracotta

It is quite probable that certain plays required the use of two masks by the hero, indicative of his situation as in the case of Oedipus, before and after his blindness, but this probability remains only a hypothesis due to the scarcity of information concerning the technicalities of a performance.

Tragic masks

There were six masks of old men: The oldest one was called Xyrias (character who was presented shaved in clue of bereavements). Then, comes Lefkos (White) and Spartopolios. Those three characters are personalities that suffer. The next person Melas Anir symbolizes the masculine man. The two characters that follow are Xanthos Anir (Blonde man) and Xanthoteros Anir (Blonder man). The first one appears to represent a hero, while the second one is the hero who suffers. Those two basic types of masks accompany eight young men all of them without beard and each one with different character.

Drawings of mask. Late Hellenistic period

The feminine characters were also eight: Two were of big age, Polia Katakosmos (with carefree white hair) and Eleftheron Gradion (with dark hair in the length of shoulders that show that they were cut in clue of bereavements). The next five masks belong to young women while the last shows a daughter. The five young women are Katakomos Ohra (pale with carefree hair), Mesokouros Ohra (pale, with her hair cut), Mesokouros Prosfatos (with her hair cut recently), Kourimos Parthenos (the young girl with her hair cut) and Etera Kourimos Parthenos (a second girl with the same characteristics as the previous one). All the feminine characters express pain and bereavement.

TheaterMasks.  c. 350 BC-100 BC Earthenware Modelled Hellenistic Athens. Greece. Copenhagen. Nationalmuseet

A third team of characters is constituted by the servants called Therapontes. They are six and they have common characteristic their hairstyle (short hair) and the perikranon (a leather cap). Three of them are men, Diftherias (dressed with leather clothes), Sfinopogon and Anasimos and three are women, Oiketikon Gradion, Oiketikon Mesokouron and Diftheritis. Those masks do not represent a specific personality but present a character.

Satyr masks

Few are the information that we have about the satyr  masks. Polydeykis reports only four. First comes Satyros Polios (the man with grey hair), then follows Satyros Geneion, third comes Satyros Ageneios and finally Seilinos Pappos. The first three satyrs differ only in the age. All of them have wide big noses, pointed ears of goat and slovenly hair. Only Papposatyros has more human form and long beard.

Name vase of the Pronomos painter showing Dionysos and the cast of a satyr play. The actors are holding their masks. End of 5 cen. B.C.  Naples, National Museum

Ancient comedy’s masks

The masks of ancient comedy are constituted by three teams. The first team is composed by fakes, the second one by portraits and the third one by imaginary creations. All masks cause the laughter. In contrast, those presented by girls were different, realistic, almost didn’t look as if they were masks. In ancient comedy appear on the scene contemporary people such as philosophers, poets and politicians.

Terracota figure of an actor. He wears a mask identified as the brother- keeper’s of the New comedy.  2th century BC, probably of Myrina, Asia Minor. London, British Museum

Ancient Greek costumes

There is little information on theatrical costumes. This is due to the materials they have been made of. Still we have some information drawn from depictions on ancient vases.

Costumes have been a very important factor of the production, because they could determine the characters by gender or social status. The costumes allowed the audience to know who the actor was trying to portray.  In the early productions actors have been using body painting. Little by little they started using animal skins, ears, even feathers (see Aristophanes’ Birds).

When the poets introduced real costumes, they imitated the contemporary dressing: the “chiton” and the “hemateon”. The chiton was made of linen or silk and it was worn long ( see picture below). The hemateon was an exterior cloth, worn over the shoulders. It was usually made of wool. Both chiton and hemateon were decorated depending on the occasion. For theatrical use the clothes have been more decorated than usually.

 

Fragment of a vase of Tarento. An actor, who wears chiton and Thracian boots , is holding  a mask. 4 cen.  B.C.  Wurzburg, Museum Martin von Wagner

Phlyax scene: master and a thieving slave? Side A from an Apulian red-figured bell-krater, ca. 380 BC–37BC

In order to play female roles, since the actors were always men, they were wearing a “prosterneda” (in front of the chest, to imitate female breasts) and “progastreda” in front of the belly.

The actors used to put on ordinary shoes, such us loose fitting boots and laced boots. In some scholars’ opinion, the actors used shoes with high heels (“kothornoi”). We cannot be sure about that, because we do not have a clear evidence from the pottery. In the later years (2^nd century BC), it is sure that these shoes with high heels (“kothornoi”) have been introduced.

Theatrical machines

The permanent facade of the scene was used to hide the stage properties and the machinery. Several types of machines were used in ancient drama.

Periaktoi: Drama was set before a temple or a palace. To indicate a change of scene, the periaktoi were introduced. Periaktoi were three-sided prisms—each side painted to represent a different locality—, put on the left and right side of the scene. Turning around their axon, they changed the background of the scene.

Periaktos

The Aeorema: It was a crane by which the gods were appearing on the scene (deus ex machina). Evidence for the use of it in the 5th century is given in the comedies of  Aristophanes. A character in his play Peace ascends to heaven on a dung beetle and appeals to the scene shifter not to let him fall. In the time of Euripides it was used for the epilogue, at which point a god descended from heaven to give an end to the complications in the plot, a convention that became known as deus ex machina(“god from a machine”).

Aeorema

The Ekkyclema: a wheeled-plattform was used to display the results of offstage actions, such as the bodies of murder victims (because a murder or a suicide never took  place in front of the spectators). The ekkyklēma, like the periaktoi, was an expedient for open-air theatre, in which the possibilities for creating realistic illusions were limited.

The Ekkyclema	The Ekkyclema

A realistic picture of an interior scene under a roof could not be shown. So the Greeks in order to represent the interior of a palace, for example, wheeled out a throne on a round or square podium.

New machines were added in the Hellenistic period, by which time the theatre had almost completely lost its religious basis. Among these new machines was the hemikyklion, and the stropheion, which were put on orchestra. The revival of thunders and thunderclaps was made by vronteion, a machine behind the stage, and keraunoskopeion, a machine on the roof of the stage.

The haroneia klimaka was a chthonic corridor, a way down to the world of deads, by which chthonic gods and eidola of dead people were coming up.