HELENE FOLEY radically during the fifth century: the performance was probably more amateurish when poets like Aeschylus were their own first actors. Never theless, by the fourth century a good actor, says Aristotle in his discussion of delivery in the Rhetoric, wins prizes by suiting his voice to different emotional modes and varying both the volume and pitch(depth or shrill ness)of his voice and his vocal rhythms(1403b26-33. In his view, a suc- cessful contemporary actor like Theodorus could make his voice seem to be he voice of a particular speaker and not someone else(1404b18-22) The voices of females and old men were generally thought to be shriller than those of mature males and appropriate for the higher pitch of lamentation.25 In comedy at least we know that actors such as Euripides relative in Aris- tophanes' Thesmophoriazusae amused by adopting an exaggeratedly fem nine voice when disguised as a woman(gunaikieis, 267-68) Presumably actors, like the Japanese onnagata(an actor specializing in womens parts), could carry off a more refined and naturalistic version of this same vocal difference. Aristotle remarks that Callipides and others were censured fo their acting style when representing lower-class women(Poet. 1462a8-10) Plutarch(Quaest. conv. 7.71lc)uses standard theatrical language when de- scribing slaves trained to perform Platonic dialogues by suiting the charac ter(ethei), modulation of the voice(phones plasma), gesture(schema), and delivery to the part (existing masks, hupokeimenon prosopon). Epictetus praises the late-fourth-century actor Polus for his brilliance in performing Oedipus as both king and beggar; o when Sophocles Trachiniae offered the protagonist the opportunity to play both the very feminine heroine Deianeira and her hypermasculine spouse Heracles, it is hard to believe the actor did not welcome a comparable chance to display his versatility. Lucian speaks of the talents needed to produce walking(badizon), speaking(boon he roikon), and glancing in a fashion suitable to a dignified tragic hero(Pis cator 31). He makes clear in two passages(Piscator 31, Nigr. 11) that a womanish actor with a weak womanish voice is also not suited even to im- portant tragic female(as well as male)roles, but he does seem to distinguish in his discussions the acting and voice required for male and female parts nevertheless: "Even Helen or Polyxena would never suffer such a man to resemble them too closely, let alone Heracles(Piscator 31, trans. A.R. Harmon, Loeb edition). The kinds of gestures spoken of in these two Lucian passages, such as characteristic ways of walking or glancing, were also thought to be critical to acting throughout antiquity and we can infer from he texts of the tragedies themselves that certain gestures were more ofte used by some characters than others. For example, supplication or gestures involved in lamentation were more characteristic of women or old and for- eign men, whereas military gestures were more characteristic of younger men 25. [Arist. I Pr. 11.16. 11.62; see Hall 1999, 117. Terms such as orus. gunaikophonos, gunaikodes, mikros, I l(in Schenkl 1916. 412): P offer similar onidge1988 give actors opportunities for the display of their acting skills. wiles (2000, 160) also agrees that Greek actors must have adjusted their voices to suit different roles This content downloaded from 145.97 173 155 on Wed. 01 Feb 2017 10: 50- 30 UT Allusesubjecttohttp://aboutjstor.org/terms6 Helene Foley radically during the fifth century; the performance was probably more amateurish when poets like Aeschylus were their own first actors. Never￾theless, by the fourth century a good actor, says Aristotle in his discussion of delivery in the Rhetoric, wins prizes by suiting his voice to different emotional modes and varying both the volume and pitch (depth or shrill￾ness) of his voice and his vocal rhythms (1403b26–33). In his view, a suc￾cessful contemporary actor like Theodorus could make his voice seem to be the voice of a particular speaker and not someone else (1404b18–22). The voices of females and old men were generally thought to be shriller than those of mature males and appropriate for the higher pitch of lamentation.25 In comedy at least we know that actors such as Euripides’ relative in Aris￾tophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae amused by adopting an exaggeratedly femi￾nine voice when disguised as a woman (gunaikieis, 267–68). Presumably actors, like the Japanese onnagata (an actor specializing in women’s parts), could carry off a more refined and naturalistic version of this same vocal difference. Aristotle remarks that Callipides and others were censured for their acting style when representing lower-class women (Poet. 1462a8–10). Plutarch (Quaest. conv. 7.711c) uses standard theatrical language when de￾scribing slaves trained to perform Platonic dialogues by suiting the charac￾ter (ethei), modulation of the voice (phones plasma), gesture (schema), and delivery to the part (existing masks, hupokeimenon prosopon). Epictetus praises the late-fourth-century actor Polus for his brilliance in performing Oedipus as both king and beggar;26 when Sophocles’ Trachiniae offered the protagonist the opportunity to play both the very feminine heroine Deianeira and her hypermasculine spouse Heracles, it is hard to believe the actor did not welcome a comparable chance to display his versatility.27 Lucian speaks of the talents needed to produce walking (badizon), speaking (boon he￾roïkon), and glancing in a fashion suitable to a dignified tragic hero (Pis￾cator 31). He makes clear in two passages (Piscator 31, Nigr. 11) that a womanish actor with a weak, womanish voice is also not suited even to im￾portant tragic female (as well as male) roles, but he does seem to distinguish in his discussions the acting and voice required for male and female parts nevertheless: “Even Helen or Polyxena would never suffer such a man to resemble them too closely, let alone Heracles” (Piscator 31, trans. A. R. Harmon, Loeb edition). The kinds of gestures spoken of in these two Lucian passages, such as characteristic ways of walking or glancing, were also thought to be critical to acting throughout antiquity and we can infer from the texts of the tragedies themselves that certain gestures were more often used by some characters than others. For example, supplication or gestures involved in lamentation were more characteristic of women or old and for￾eign men, whereas military gestures were more characteristic of younger men. 25. [Arist.] Pr. 11.16, 11.62; see Hall 1999, 117. Terms such as oxus, gunaikophonos, gunaikodes, mikros, and ichnos are used to describe female voices. 26. Epictetus Dissertationes, frag. 11 (in Schenkl 1916, 412); Pickard-Cambridge 1988, 169. 27. Aeschylus’ Persae and Euripides’ Bacchae or Hippolytus offer similar opportunities. See Demetr. Eloc. 195 on the general need to give actors opportunities for the display of their acting skills. Wiles (2000, 160) also agrees that Greek actors must have adjusted their voices to suit different roles. This content downloaded from 145.97.173.155 on Wed, 01 Feb 2017 10:50:30 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms