Note 516 — Chapter III · THE THEATRE (continued 2)

[Flickinger (The Meaning of ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς in Writers of the Fourth Century, Chicago, 1902) tries to show that ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς in Aristotle and Demosthenes does not mean ‘on the stage’ in any sense which would imply an elevated stage, but simply ‘at the performance’, ‘as part of a play’, &c., like ἐπὶ θέατρον later. He succeeds in interpreting the passages consistently with this, and in showing that in later writers the words often bore this meaning. But the changed application of many technical terms, e.g. ὀρχήστρα, θυμέλη, &c., in later writers shows that no reliance is to be placed on the supposed analogy; and the other meaning still seems by far the most natural in Aristotle. Dörpfeld (Deutsch. Littztg. 1901, p. 1817) thinks that the absence of the expression ἀπὸ τῆς ὀρχήστρας to balance ἀπὸ τῆς σκηνῆς is very significant as proving that all performers alike were in the orchestra. It needs only the most elementary logic to dispose of this argument. Cp. Müller, Unters. zu den Bühnenalt., for the full history of the words σκηνή, &c.]