File:The Greek theater and its drama (1918) (14782002844).jpg

Identifier: greektheateritsd00flic (find matches)
Title: The Greek theater and its drama
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Flickinger, Roy C. (Roy Caston), 1876-1942
Subjects: Greek drama -- History and criticism Theater -- Greece
Publisher: Chicago : University of Chicago Press
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image:
Aeschylus' satyric drama entitled Prometheus the Fire-Kindler
is preserved a line "O goat, you will mourn (lose) your beard,"
which was addressed by Prometheus to a satyr who wished to
kiss a flame and which has been used as proof that the choreutae
were caprine in appearance.³ Again, in Sophocles' Trackers
occur the words: "For though you are young with a flourishing
¹ Fig. 9 is taken from the Journal of Hellenic Studies, XI (1890), PI. XI, and is
reproduced by permission of the Council of the Hellenic Society.
² Reisch, op. cit, pp. 456 f., considers the goat-men Pans, or choreutae in some
such comedy as Eupolis' Alyes.
³ Cf. Nauck, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, p. 69, fr. 207:
rpdyos yeveiov apa irevdriffeii av ye.
The use of the nominative rpiyos instead of a vocative is harsh, and Shorey,
Classical Philology, IV (1909), 433 ff., interprets the line as an abbreviated
comparison with ws omitted: " <If you kiss that fire> , you'll be the goat (in the
proverb) who mourned his beard.' Of course, this play must have been written
considerably before 456 B.C., the year of Aeschylus' decease.
Text Appearing After Image:

FIG. 10
A BRITISH MUSEUM PSYKTER BY DURIS OF ABOUT 480 B.C. PROBABLY SHOWING INFLUENCE OF
CONTEMPOREANEOUS SATYRIC DRAMA
See p. 31 n. 3

INTRODUCTION 31
beard, you revel as a goat in the thistles. Finally, in Eurip-
ide's Cyclops the chorus speak of wandering about "with this
poor goatskin cloak."² Although these passages do not con-
stitute proof that the dramatic satyrs were of caprine appear-
ance, they gain considerably in point if we may suppose that
they were, and to that extent they confirm the evidence of the
British Museum crater.
Such, then, is the penultimate stage in the evolution of the
satyric chorus, and many authorities are content to stop here.
But there remains evidence for a still earlier stage. A Britis
hMuseum psykter by Duris (Fig. 10)³ represents ten "choreutae"
and a herald, and a British Museum cylix by Brygus contains two
scenes, in one of which three "choreutae" are attacking Iris
before Dionysus and his altar and in the other Hermes and
Heracles are protecting Hera from four "choreutae."⁴ These
vases belong to about 480 B.C., and the "choreuta" upon them
have human feet, no horns, no loin-bands, and equine ears

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