3. The Greek Theatre

The action of a Greek tragedy takes place outdoors in broad daylight, in front of a temple or house (usually a palace, sometimes a military hut, in Euripides' Electra, a farmer's cottage).

Orchestra (dancing floor): this is the center of a Greek theatre and perhaps the oldest part. Originally the orchestra was circular. It is here that the chorus does its routines (singing and dancing); some of the action also takes place in the orchestra. It is very likely that an altar was a permanent fixture in the orchestra.

Skene (scene, stage building): a flat-roofed building at the back of the orchestra, where actors change costumes and masks and from which or to which appropriate entrances and exits are made.

Stage: possibly there was a slightly raised platform separating the actors from the chorus (but not raised so much as to prevent interaction between actors and chorus).

Theologeion ("god-platform"): the top of the stage building furnished a third level of action. From here was delivered the prologue of the Agamemnon and the part of Medea in the exodos of her play. From here too the gods delivered speeches (at the ends of Hippolytus, Electra, Orestes).

Ekklyklema (ecclyclema, "thing rolled out"): a device rolled out of the skene to reveal what has taken place in the house [perhaps used for the death tableaux in Agamemnon & Choephoroe; used in Hippolytus and in Sophocles' Electra].

Mechane (machine or flying machine: cf. deus ex machina): a crane used to fly in gods who take part in the plays [possibly used in Medea, Orestes, Electra of Euripides].

The use of painted scenery is still being debated. There may have been movable placards to show changes in scene (as in the Eumenides). According to Aristotle Sophocles invented scene-painting (skenographia). This may mean the representation of architectural elements in perspective (cf. Simon, p. 22).

The audience: the Greek tragedies were popular entertainment. Everybody went: men, women, children; free and slave; citizen and foreigner. Tickets were subsidized by the state. Wealthy citizens were called upon to finance the training of the chorus: this was a public service (leitourgia) of similar importance to the fitting out of a warship. There is some dispute over whether women attended, but the weight of the evidence suggests that they did.