Note 396 — Chapter III · THE THEATRE

Dörpfeld (p. 69) denies that there was ever a wooden stage between the wings of the Lycurgean building. He thinks the space was originally filled up with a wooden proscenium, of the same height as the later Hellenistic one of stone; and that both these proscenia served as backgrounds, and not as stages. He argues that if there had been a stage, it must have been made of stone. But if he is justified in assuming the existence of an early wooden proscenium, we are surely justified in assuming the existence of a stage of the same material.