An ekkyklema () was a wheeled platform used in ancient Greek theatre. From at least the middle of the fifth century BCE, it was used to reveal events conceived of as having happened within the , a structure behind the stage which usually represented some sort of interior space. Since early manuscripts of ancient Greek plays did not include stage directions, modern scholars must infer its use from evidence within the plays' dialogue, as well as from marginal notes (scholia) added by post-classical scholars to surviving manuscripts.
It is debated how often the was used in the original performances of known plays, and whether it featured in the plays of Aeschylus, the earliest tragic playwright whose works survive. Most scholars agree that it was used in Sophocles's tragedy Ajax (first performed in 442 or 441 BCE) and in certain tragic plays by Sophocles's contemporary Euripides. In tragedy, its function was often to reveal the aftermath of violent scenes which could not be shown on stage; in particular, to reveal corpses of characters killed within the . More direct evidence for the use of the is found in three fifth-century BCE comedies by Aristophanes, where it is referenced in dialogue often parodying the use of the device in tragic drama. Its use may have increased after the fifth century BCE, and it has been conjectured as featuring in a later fourth-century BCE work of New Comedy by the Athenian Menander.
Name and description In ancient Greek theatre, the action took place in front of the , a structure which formed the backdrop to the play and usually symbolised some sort of closed-off space away from the audience's sight, such as a house, palace or cave. The was a small, wheeled platform, which could be wheeled out into the performance area through the doors of the with an actor or actors upon it. Some ancient sources suggest that it may have been revolved or turned. During the Hellenistic period (32330 BCE), a similar device, called the (), was also used.
The device is not specifically mentioned in Aristotle's Poetics, a fourth-century BCE work of dramatic theory whose surviving parts concern tragedy. The word is first attested in the , a second-century CE dictionary written by the lexicographer Julius Pollux, though the corresponding verb (, ) is used to describe its operation in the comedy Acharnians by the Athenian Aristophanes, first performed in 425 BCE. The Onomastikon describes it thus:
The same definition – that the was used to reveal events imagined as taking place within a house behind the stage – is found in the Suda, a Byzantine encyclopaedia dating to the tenth century CE, and in a marginal note (scholium) of the Hellenistic period in a manuscript of the tragedy Hippolytus by Euripides.
Use in ancient Greek theatre
John Gould calls the "one of the stranger conventions of fifth-century stagecraft". Since early manuscripts of Greek plays did not include stage directions, its use must be inferred from clues in the plays' dialogue. The earliest secure evidence for its use is in the comedic Acharnians and Thesmophoriazousai, both written by Aristophanes and first performed in 425 and 411 BCE respectively. It was used relatively rarely in Greek tragedy. It has been conjectured by several scholars, including Karl Otfried Müller, A. M. Dale and Augusta Webster, to have been used at various points in the plays of Aeschylus (), though Oliver Taplin rejects these suggestions and considers that the device was probably not invented until after Aeschylus's death. Martin Revermann suggests that the parodic use of the in Aristophanes's Acharnians, where it is used as part of a scene involving the tragic playwright Euripides, implies that it was regularly employed when staging tragic drama but more unusual in comedy.
Uvo Hölscher argues that, while the is primarily used to reveal interior scenes to the audience, its invention cannot be explained as a means of fulfilling this function, since Hellenistic drama commonly performed such scenes on the stage in front of the ; he suggests that it was developed for dramatic reasons, to allow "the sudden revelation of a startling sight". Eric Csapo suggests that the device was primarily associated with bringing tragic gods and heroes onto and off the stage, while Jacques Jouanna characterises it as being used for "the visible proof of acts that decency did not allow [the playwright] to show the spectators", particularly the display of corpses.
The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, where all known Greek plays were initially performed, underwent substantial renovations at some point after the middle of the fifth century BCE; these probably date to around 350 BCE. As part of these, a stone platform, approximately 7 by 3 metres (23 by 10 ft), was constructed extending out from the . Scott Scullion suggests that this was intended to support the , though Alan Hughes considers that it is both too short for this function, given that the would be rolled almost beyond the , and unnecessarily wide for the probable dimensions of the . Several mentions of the use of the are made in post-classical scholia in manuscripts of ancient plays: modern scholars consider that many of these pertain to scenes which would not necessarily have involved the device when originally performed. It has been suggested that this may reflect greater use of the in performances of ancient drama after the fifth century BCE.
In tragedy and satyr plays In tragedy, scenes of bloodshed are almost never made visible to the audience, but instead take place offstage. The would be used to reveal the results of those actions, bringing part of the interior scene (imagined to have taken place within the ) out into view. It was primarily used for revealing dead bodies, such as Hippolytus's dying body in the final scene of Euripides's play of the same name, or the corpse of Eurydice draped over the household altar in Sophocles' Antigone. A. M. Dale argues that it was also used to move items of scenery to indicate a change of scene, and suggests Aeschylus's Eumenides (first performed in 458 BCE) and Sophocles's Ajax (first performed in 442 or 441 BCE) as examples where a bush or a statue may have been brought onto and off the stage using it. She further suggests that it would have been used at the end of Aeschylus's Net Haulers, a satyr play, to move a chest containing the characters Danaë and Perseus out of the onto the stage; Hölscher accepts this possibility as congruent with what he considers to have been uses of the in Aeschylean tragedy.
Scholars debate precisely which scenes in Greek tragedy would have involved the . The earliest play for which its use is generally agreed is Sophocles's Ajax, in which it is believed to have been used was used to stage the final monologue and suicide of the titular character, though Michael Ewens has argued that dramatic considerations make it more likely that these events were instead performed in the orchestra, at the far front of the performance area, and Andrew Brown has suggested that Ajax's body was concealed behind "some boscage in the doorway" of the rather than being removed via the . It is also generally agreed to have been used in Euripides's Hippolytus, first performed in 428 BCE, and to depict the re-entrance of the title character near the end of the same playwright's Herakles, first performed around 416 BCE, showing him bound and surrounded by the bodies of his family, whom he has killed in a divinely induced fit of madness.
The may also have been used to show Clytemnestra standing over the bodies of her husband Agamemnon and his slave Cassandra in Aeschylus's Agamemnon, following their offstage murders supposedly within the , and for the parallel scene later in the play's sequel, The Libation Bearers, when Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, is revealed to have killed his mother and her lover Aegisthus in revenge; its use for the latter is claimed by a scholium made in one surviving manuscript of the play. Jacques Jouanna suggests that the device was used for a similar scene at the end of Sophocles's Elektra, first performed around 420–414 BCE, to reveal Orestes, his companion Pylades, and the corpse of Clytemnestra to Aegisthus. Hölscher suggests that it may also have been used to reveal the blinding Oedipus at the end of Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannos, first performed around 429 BCE, but states that this would not have been dramatically necessary, and that the only certain use of the in Sophocles is that in the Ajax. Aristophanes of Byzantium, a Greek scholar active in the third and second centuries BCE, criticised Euripides for a second use of the in his Hippolytus (to introduce the character Phaedra), though modern scholars consider that it was not necessarily used here.
In Euripides's Medea, Jason calls to Medea, who has just murdered their children, to open the door of the to bring their bodies out; Donald J. Mastronarde comments that this would lead the audience to expect the use of the , but that this expectation is then subverted when Medea is instead revealed by means of a (crane), lifting her and the children's bodies above the stage on a prop chariot. Karl Reinhardt suggested in 1949 that the was used in Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound to bring onstage a large dummy representing the title character, in which his actor would be concealed – Taplin rejects this as contrary to the conventional use of the to reveal interior scenes, and as requiring an excessively large door in the . Taplin also rejects the common suggestion that the was used at various points in Aeschylus's Libation Bearers. T. B. L. Webster suggested in 1970 that the would have been brought out at the beginning of Sophocles's Philoctetes and then left on the stage as an item of scenery, to provide a setting for the title character's threat to throw himself from a cliff; John Davidson calls this "highly unlikely", since the extra height gained by ascending the would have still left the actor considerably lower than many of the spectators in the theatre's tiered seats.
In comedy
The use of the in comedy can be inferred from the use of etymologically related words, such as "roll out", around the introduction of a character. In this genre, it is commonly used to parody tragic drama by introducing characters with comedically excessive fanfare. In the comedies of Aristophanes (), the is primarily associated with Euripides and his fellow fifth-century playwright Agathon. In the Acharnians (first performed in 425 BCE), Aristophanes has the protagonist Dikaiopolis visit Euripides at his home; the latter's doorkeeper complains that he cannot be seen, as he is "inside and not inside", and the playwright subsequently rolls himself out on the . Similarly, in the Thesmophoriazusae, first performed in 411 BCE, Agathon is wheeled onstage on an . It was also used by Aristophanes at the beginning of The Birds, first performed in 414 BCE, to bring the character Epops out of the woods: Scott Scullion calls this "the exception that proves the rule" that the is only used to reveal the interior of a dwelling, and suggests that the humour of the moment rested on the fact that a forest cannot, as Epops orders it to be, literally "opened" like a door.