288 ON THE REPEESENTATION OF CERTAIN
- 0 woe-worn father CEdipus, the towers
That girt the city, as mine eyes inform me. Are still far off: but where we stand the while A consecrated grove displays itself, Thick set with bay-trees, olive-trees, and vines; And from within, with closely ruffled plumes. The nightingales make sweetest melody. Then sit thee down on this rough stone: thine age May hardly brook such lengthened pilgrimage." From this it is clear, that the center of the stage represents this grove of the Eumenides as surrounded by a low dry-stone dyke, on which the blind wanderer takes his seat (v. 19). The entrance to the grove substitutes brazen steps for the stones of the wall (v. 57 : ov S* iTriarelpei^ toitov ')(6ovo^ KoXetrai rrjaSe ycCkico'rrov'^ o3o9. v. 192 : avrov' iMT^Kert rovh^ avrtireTpov ^r^jjuaro^ €^(o TToBa Kklvr)<;). In the immediate neighbourhood of the grove was seen the pool, against which (Edipus is warned by the chorus (vv. 155, sqq.). The right-hand i^eriactos exhibited a view of Colonos, and near it was seen, probably as a picture, the statue of the hero of the place (v. 59 : roz/S' iTTirorr^v l^okwvov) . In the interval between this and the grove the scenery gave a distant view of Athens. To the left of the grove we may presume that there was a perspective representation of the country of Attica between Colonos and the Theban borders, from which CEdipus and his daughter have travelled. All five doors of the stage must have been used in the course of the piece. After (Edipus has taken his seat on the fence of the sacred inclosure, a man of Colonos enters from the right and informs him that he has violated holy ground. The stranger, however, does not venture to remove him, but departs by the door by which he had entered to summon the chorus, and to bear the tidings to Theseus (v. 298). When he has made his exit, An- tigone leads her father quite within the grove (v. 113 : /cat //,' e^ ohov iroha Kpv-^frov Kar ak(To<^). The chorus then enters by the right-hand parodos, and though in search of (Edipus, it does not mount the stage. For when the blind king comes forth from the grove (v. 138), the chorus is engaged in spying round the outside of the enclosure (v. 55: Xevcrcrcov 'irepl irav T€fjL6vo<i), and it addresses him as still at a distance, though he is standing on the narrow stage (v. 162 : yu-erao-ra^', aTrojBaOi' iroXka Keev6o<^ epaTvec /cXvet9, w iToXviio'xff oKaTo). The conference between
