The Attic Theatre: A Description of the Stage and Theatre of the Athenians, and of the Dramatic Performances at Athens

A scholarly historical study written in the late 19th century. It examines the physical theatres, staging practices, machinery, festivals, competitions, and personnel of Athenian drama, drawing on inscriptions, archaeological remains, and ancient texts. The work aims to reconstruct how Attic performances actually looked and operated, emphasizing institutional and technical details rather than literary criticism. The opening of the work sets out its purpose and method, explains the reliance on inscriptions, excavations, and scattered ancient notices, and notes how later revisions incorporate new finds and debates about stage-buildings and performance space. Prefaces review shifting scholarship (especially controversies around the Greek stage), additions of evidence and illustrations, and updated appendices; a contents overview maps chapters on contests, preparation, theatre architecture, scenery and machines, actors, chorus, audience, and inscriptions. The narrative then begins with the religious and civic character of Athenian drama, performed only at Dionysiac festivals and organized as state-run competitions with prizes and juries. It details the City Dionysia—its grand procession, dithyrambic contests by tribe, and tragic program of three poets each presenting three tragedies plus a satyr play (often in linked trilogies/tetralogies, especially under Aeschylus), later shifting to fewer new plays and occasional revivals. Comedy appears later at the City festival (three, then five poets, one play each) and eventually includes revivals chiefly from the New Comedy. The Lenaea is sketched as a smaller, winter, largely Athenian festival where comedy predominates, while Rural Dionysia feature widespread revivals across Attica and the Anthesteria has only minor performative elements. Finally, the selection and voting process for judges is described—carefully randomized and oath-bound, yet sometimes vulnerable to pressure and bribery—before the discussion breaks off.