Note 232 — Chapter II · THE PREPARATION FOR THE CONTESTS

Suidas s.v. νεμήσεις ὑποκριτῶν· οἱ ποιηταὶ ἐλάμβανον τρεῖς ὑποκριτὰς κλήρῳ νεμηθέντας, ὑποκρινομένους (? ὑποκρινουμένους) τὰ δράματα· ὧν ὁ νικήσας εἰς τοὐπιὸν ἄκριτος παραλαμβάνεται. Obviously ὁ νικήσας denotes, not the victorious poet, nor yet the actor who acted for him, but the actor who won the prize for acting. Τοὐπιόν apparently means ‘the next festival’. The victorious actor was allowed to act at the next festival as a matter of course. The ‘three actors’ are the three protagonists required at each tragic contest, and not the three actors required by each poet. This is proved by the words ὧν ὁ νικήσας, which imply that the three actors mentioned all took part in the actors’ contest. But the actors’ contest was limited to the protagonists; the subordinate actors had nothing to do with it. See above, p. 42.