Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1144 TRAGOEDIA. TRAGOEDIA.
plays as early as B. C. 524. He is said by Suidas pany were not of necessity thereby divested of
to have written 150 pieces: fromn the title of one their epic and legendary character (HIorace, Ai.
of them, the " Alope," its subject seems to have Poet. 222, speaks of the'" incolumi gravitate"),
been a legend of Attic origin. (Pans. i. 14. ~ 3; though they were obliged to conform to their situBode, p. 60.) That he excelled in the Satyrical ation and suffer some diminution of dignity, from
drama invented by Pratinas, is indicated by the their position. Hence Welcker (Nac/traeg, p. 331)
line of an unknown author, - observes, the Satyrical drama, which, so to speak,'HvicKa Herv,3aAie'us Xv XoipiLos ez 2a-rt'poLS, was " the Epos turned into prose, and interspersed
with jokes made by the chorus," is well spolken of
and if he wrote anything like the number of dra- as a " playful tragedy " (7raL(ovua TpaTy8la),
mas ascribed to him, it is also evident that the being both in form and materials the same as tracustom of contending with Tetralogies must have gedy. Thus also Horace (Ar. Poet. 231) says:
been of early origin, for there were only two dra- utire leve
matic festivals during the year. - - -Intereit Satyris panulun pudibunda protervis
Phrynichus was a pppil of Thespis, and gained
his first victory in the dramatic contests B. C. 511. alluding in the first line to the mythic or epic eleInI his works, the lyric or choral element still pre-'ment of the Satyric drama, which he calls Tragoedominated over the dramatic, and he was distin- dia, and in the second representing it as being
guished for the sweetness of his melodies, which rather ashamed of its company. The scene was of
in the time of the Peloponnesian wlvr were very course laid in the supposed haunts of the Satyrs,
popular with the admirers of the old style of music. as we learn from Vitruvins (v. 8): "Satyricae
The esteem in which his "ambrosial songs" were scenae ornantur arboribus, montibus reliquisque
then held is shown in several passages of Aristo- agrestibus rebus," all in keeping with the incidents
phanes (.lves, 748, T/esim. 164), and in the line of the pieces, and reminding the spectators of the
(Vesp. 219) where the dicasts are made to chaunt old Dithyramb and the god Dionysus, in whose
the old Sidonian sweet songs of Phrynichus, honour the dramatic contests were originally held,
KaZl /IWUplPOYVES yea Wrn T~ve must however observe that there were some'ApXaLOCEXLatL15vomppvViLXVpavT. characters and legends, which as not presenting
any serious or pathetic aspects, were not adapted
"Sidonian " being an allusion to the play which he for tragedy, and therefore were naturally approwrote called the Phoenissae. The first use of priated to the Satyric drama. Such were Sisy.female masks is also attributed to him (Suidas, in phus, Autolycus, Circe, Callisto, Midas, Omiphale,
vit.), and he so far deviated from the general prac- and the robber Skiron. Hercules also, as lie aptice of the Attic tragedians as to write a drama pears in Aristophanes (Rance) and the Alcestis
on a subject of cotemporary history, the capture of Euripides, was a favourite subject of this drama,
of Miletus by the Persians, B..C. 494. (Herod. vi. as being no unfit companion for a drunken Silenus
21.) and his crew. (Miuller, 295.) The Odyssee also,
We now come to the first writer of Satyrical says Lessing (Leben des Sophocles, ~ 115), was in
dramas, Pratinas of Phlius, a town not far from general a rich storehouse of the Satyrical plays;
Sicyon, and which laid claim to the invention of but though the Cyclops of Euripides, the only
tragedy as well as comedy. (Bode, p. 35.) For satyrical play extant, was taken from it, the list
some tim:. previously to this poet, and probably as of Satyric pieces given by Welcker (NAIchtrag, p.
early as Thespis, tragedy had been gradually d- 284-322) hardly confirms this assertion.
parting more and more fiom its old oharacteristics, We now come to the improvements made in
and inclining to heroic fables, to which the chorus tragedy by.Aeschylus, of which Aristotle (Poet.
of Satyrs was not a fit accompaniment. But the iv. ~ 16) thus speaks:-" He first added a second
fun and merriment caused by them were too good actor and diminished the parts of the chorus, and
to be lost, or displaced by the severe dignity of made the dialogue the principal part of the actioni"
the Aeschylean drama. Accordingly the Satyrical (Tbv XhAoio 7rp&cTaCYWVesoT'V rapEpe CEma'es). lte
drama, distinct from the recent and dramatic tra- also availed himself of the aid of Agatharchus, the
gedy, but suggested by the sportive elemlent of the scene-painter, and improv d the costumne of' his
old Dithyramb, was founded by Pratinas, who actors by giving them thick-soled boots (/EgcTaX: )
however appears to have been surpassed in his own as well as the masks, which he made more expresinvention by Choerilus. It was always written by sive and characteristic. Horace (Ar. Poet. 278)
tragedians, and generally three tragedies and one thus alludes to his improvements: —
Satyrical piece were represented together, which in
some instances at least formed a connected whole, Aeschyls, et modicis instravit pulpita tinis
called a tetralogy (rerpaXoyia). The Satyrical Et docuit magnumque loqui, nitique cothurno
piece was acted last, so that the minds of the
spectators were agreeably relieved by a merry The custom of contending with trilogies (rpLXoyiLat),
after-piece at the close of an earnest and engrossing or with three plays at a time, is said to have been
tragedy. The distinguishing feature of this drama also introduced by him. In fact he did so much for
was the chorus of Satyrs, in appropriate dresses tragedy, and so completely built it up to its "' towerand masks, and its subjects seem to have been inig height," that he was considered the father of it.
taken from the same class of the adventures of The subjects of this drama, as we have before intiBacchus and of the heroes as those of tragedy; nmated from Plutarch, were not connected with the
but of course they were so treated and selected, worship of Dionysus; but rather with the great
that the presence of rustic satyrs would seem ap- cycle of Hellenic legends and some of the myths
propriate. In their jokes and drollery and naYvete of the Homeric Epos. Accordingly he said of him.
consisted the merriment of the piece; for the kings self (Athen. viii. p. 347, e) that his dramas were
iad heroes who were introduced into their com- but scraps and fragments from the great feasts of