Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

272 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
The Theater of Dionysos on the south slope of the Acropolis, late fourth
century b.c.e., with the sanctuary of Asclepius on the left. Courtesy akgimages,
London: Peter Connolly.
to the year). He also had to write a satyr play, so named because
of its chorus of half-animal, half-human creatures, whose drunken
and licentious antics provided an uproarious coda to the serious
business of tragedy. Comic poets submitted only one drama. It was
the archon’s exclusive responsibility to choose which plays should
be performed. Once he had made his choice of three tragic and three
comic productions, he allocated to each a chorêgos (literally chorus
director), who was a wealthy Athenian or metic. It was the obligation
of the chorêgos to pay all the expenses of the production, chief
of which, as his title implies, was the training and costuming of
the chorus. Plutarch claims that the Athenians actually spent more
money on dramatic productions than they did fighting the Persians
and acquiring their empire (Moral Precepts 349a). It is estimated that
the services of some 1,500 persons were needed to stage all the plays
produced at the City Dionysia each year. This meant that a very
sizeable percentage of the citizen body participated annually in the
theatrical competitions and, if allotment was used, that a majority