Dramatic performances in Greece were a part of the worship of the wine-god Dionysos, and in consequence attendance in the theatre at Athens was a religious duty as well as a pleasure. The audience was composed of the citizens, both men and women, and visitors from other states and cities. In early times the playwright acted in his own play, but later the profession of actor was distinct from that of poet. Women’s parts were taken by men.

Plays were performed by daylight in the open air, in theatres so constructed that most of the audience was at a considerable distance from the actors. These circumstances naturally had a great effect upon the conventions of the theatre and the manner of acting, as effects must be broad, characters must be typical rather than individual, and facial play was impossible (fig. 17). Early in the history of the Greek drama masks for the actors were introduced, and continued in use for both tragedy and comedy. They were usually made of linen stiffened with clay and painted, though cork and wood were also used. The pupils of the eyes were perforated so that the actor could see, and the mouth was always open. In Case 1 are two terracotta masks, possibly made for use, one of a satyr (see tail-piece, p. 18), the other of a young woman, and two little masks representing comic characters. In the same room above Case 4 is a large tragic mask of marble (fig. 15). This fine piece of decorative work is modeled after the masks worn by the heroes of the tragic stage. Above the tragic mask rose a projection called onkos which increased the apparent height of the wearer. For the same purpose a shoe with a very thick sole, the kothornos, was worn; the height of onkos and kothornos varying with the importance of the character. The dress of the tragic actor corresponded in a general way with that of every-day life, but the chiton was long, and the costumes were frequently bright in color and decorated elaborately with woven or embroidered bands.

A group of terracotta statuettes from Athens (Sixth Room, Case L) gives a vivid picture of the actors of the Old Comedy, that of Aristophanes and his contemporaries. By a convention of the stage, all comic actors, even those who played young women’s parts, were grotesquely padded, and over the padding male characters wore an elastic woolen covering much like the modern jersey, which is represented by dots in the statuettes. The man’s chiton was always ridiculously short. Women wore the long chiton and himation. On examining these figures we see that they include certain stock characters which were used over and over by playwrights. The figure on the left hand in the lowest row represents an old man, probably an irascible old father. His mask is made so as to present a kindly expression on one side and an angry one on the other. The actor turned to the audience the side which expressed his feelings at the moment. The statuette at the left of the top row seems to be of the same general type. The right-hand figure in the top row is Herakles (fig. 20); that on the right hand of the lowest row is probably Odysseus, both favorite comic characters. Another represents a slave who has stolen a purse and has taken refuge at an altar upon which he sits weighing his pelf in both hands (fig. 16). Besides these there are a young woman and a middle-aged matron, an old nurse with a baby, and a street vendor with a basket. The scheming slave, another stock character of ancient comedy, stands in a thoughtful attitude at the left hand of the second row from the top.

In the Seventh Room (Case H 2) is a bronze statuette of an actor in the New Comedy (fig. 19). The ridiculous dress of the earlier period has been discarded for a fringed himation, but the mask is still worn. This actor seems to be declaiming a passage “full of sound and fury” accompanied by sweeping gestures.

In the same case is a statuette of an actor of mimes or pantomimes, in itself a masterpiece of the grotesque (fig. 18). These performances were generally satires upon contemporary life, and were immensely popular in Greece and Italy, being sometimes provided as entertainment for guests after dinner. The actors did not wear masks and probably relied much upon gestures and facial play for their effects.

In Rome as well as in Athens the drama was connected with religious festivals and the funerals of the great, but it encountered much opposition from the more old-fashioned moralists and was never so popular as were grosser amusements. The actors were frequently slaves, though citizens engaged in this profession in increasing numbers under the late Republic and the Empire, but their occupation deprived them of certain civil rights and affected their social standing; while at Athens parts in both tragedies and comedies were taken by citizens, who lost nothing in public estimation by so doing. This in itself shows the marked difference in the Greek and Roman attitudes. Roman tragedy was closely modeled upon the Athenian, and the plays of Menander and his contemporaries, translated and adapted by Plautus and Terence, became Roman comedy, from which the classic comedy of modern Europe is derived. More popular, however, were the farces and pantomimes of various kinds, in which the native influence was strong, the dialogue and gestures being largely extemporaneous, thus affording an opportunity to a clever actor for displaying all his skill.