connected together by a sequence of subject more or less loose, but
afterwards unconnected and on distinct subjects, through an innovation
introduced by Sophocles, if not before--the tragic poet added a fourth
or satyrical drama; the characters of which were satyrs, the
companions of the god Dionysus, and other historic or mythical persons
exhibited in farce. He thus made up a total of four dramas, or a
tetralogy, which he got up and brought forward to contend for the
prize at the festival. The expense of training the chorus and actors
was chiefly furnished by the choregi,--wealthy citizens, of whom one
was named for each of the ten tribes, and whose honour and vanity were
greatly interested in obtaining a prize. At first these exhibitions
took place on a temporary stage, with nothing but wooden supports and
scaffolding; but shortly after the year 500 B.C., on an occasion when
the poets Aeschylus and Pratinas were contending for the prize, this
stage gave way during the ceremony, and lamentable mischief was the
result. After that misfortune, a permanent theatre of stone was
provided. To what extent the project was realised before the
invasion of Xerxes we do not accurately know; but after his
destructive occupation of Athens, the theatre, if any existed
previously, would have to be rebuilt or renovated, along with
other injured portions of the city."

Curtius says:--

"Thespis was the founder of Attic tragedy. He had introduced a
preliminary system of order into the alternation of recitative and
song, into the business of the actor, and into the management of dress
and stage. Solon was said to have disliked the art of Thespis,
regarding as dangerous the violent excitement of feelings by means of
phantastic representation; the Tyrants, on the other hand, encouraged