THEATRICAL DEVICES 2
Possible
Forms of the Ekkyklema
Ekkyklema (‘a wheeled-out thing’) is a
platform on wheels rolled out through a door in the skene (see drawing
on left), used to indicate that whatever is on the platform (actors and
props) is supposed to be viewed as an interior scene . The platform
was circular or semicircular and may have revolved on a pivot (see drawing
the right). This device may have
been employed to allow the audience to view the activities of the students
in the Thinkery (an interior scene) in Aristophanes' Clouds and
was most likely used in his Peace when the statue of Peace with
her attendants was displayed. Aristophanes
made fun of the ekkyklema in his Acharnians, when the poet
Euripides is brought out of his house with this device (408), and in the
Thesmophoriazusae
(Ladies' Day), when the poet Agathon is presented to the audience
in the same way (96; 265).
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