Note 674 — Chapter V · THE ACTORS

Viz. the Supplices, Persae, and Seven against Thebes. In the concluding scene of the Seven the part of Ismene would not be taken by a regular actor. Apparently the opening scene of the Prometheus requires three actors, unless we are to adopt the very improbable supposition that the person of Prometheus was represented by a wooden figure, which was nailed to the rock, and from behind which the protagonist spoke the part. [In favour of the lay figure, see Wecklein’s Edition of the Prometheus, Introd. p. 54; Navarre, Annales de la Faculté des Lettres de Bordeaux, Rev. des Études Anciennes, 1901; against it, Bodensteiner, Jahrb. für class. Philol., Suppl.-bd. xix. p. 674; Bethe, Proleg. p. 180, &c.]