576 



TIIEANO THEATRE. 



fi equented for sea bathing. The population on the 

 island is above 20,000. 



THEANO ; wife of Metapontus, king of Icaria. 

 She was barren, and, her husband being greatly 

 desirous of having heirs, she presented him some 

 suppositions children as her offspring. She after- 

 wards actually became a mother; and when her 

 own children had grown up, she persuaded them to 

 attempt the lives of the others, while engaged in 

 the chase. In the struggle, however, her own 

 children were slain, and Theano died of despair. 



THEATINES ; a religious order of regular 

 priests, founded, in 1524, by St Caietan of Thiene, 

 and the bishop of Chieti (anciently Theate), who 

 was afterwards pope Paul IV. They bound them- 

 selves, besides the usual monastic vows, to preach 

 against heretics, to take charge of the cure of souls, 

 to attend the sick and criminals, and to trust en- 

 tirely to Providence, owning no property, and not 

 even collecting alms, but expecting the voluntary 

 gifts of the charitable. Some of their churches and 

 altars are sumptuous. In Italy, and particularly 

 in Naples, the order is numerous and influential ; 

 and the bishops are chiefly taken from their num- 

 ber. In Spain and Poland, it has also flourished 

 considerably ; but it has not extended much in 

 other countries. See Orders, Religious. 



THEATRE (from the Greek} signified, origin- 

 ally, that part of the play-house where the specta- 

 tors sat, but was often applied to the whole build- 

 ing. Among the Greeks and Romans, play-houses 

 were the chief public edifices next to the temples : 

 they were not then used merely for the purpose of 

 amusement, but the exhibitions which took place in 

 them had, in part, a religious character. Being 

 consecrated to Bacchus (Dionysus), they were often 

 called Dionysian, or Lencean theatres ; the pieces 

 were termed Dionysiaca, and the actors Dionysic 

 artists. Every considerable Greek and Roman city 

 had its theatre ; but at first the dramas, and the 

 places where they were exhibited, were equally 

 rude. A hut, formed without art from the boughs 

 of trees (whence the name scene), was the stage, 

 where, at the feasts of Bacchus, dithyrambics, in 

 honour of the god, were sung to the assembled 

 multitude. Thespis wandered about with a wagon, 

 and upon this performed his rude plays. Susarion 

 (562 B. C.) exhibited his satirical pieces upon a 

 stage of boards ; and gradually the genius of Greece 

 produced those master-pieces of architecture whose 

 remains we still admire. The Romans, their imi- 

 tators, surpassed them in the magnificence and size 

 of their edifices. The first stone theatres were 

 built in the Grecian colonies, in Etruria and Lower 

 Italy ; and at Adria, an Etruscan colony, the re- 

 mains of a theatre are found, which is the oldest 

 known. There were, likewise, stone theatres in 

 Sicily sooner than in Greece ; yet, in the seventieth 

 Olympiad (500 B. C.), the theatre at Athens was 

 of wood ; but, as it fell down during the perform- 

 ance of a piece of Pratinas, on account of the im- 

 mense multitude assembled, a building of stone was 

 begun in the time of Themistocles, which was the 

 first of the kind in Greece, was called the theatre 

 of Bacchus, and afterwards served as a model for 

 all the others. The common form of the theatre 

 was a semicircle ; that of the amphitheatre an el- 

 lipse. The Romans, likewise, for a long time, had 

 only wooden buildings for their scenic representa- 

 tions. These, after the conclusion of the perform- 

 ance for which they were erected, were taken down: 

 there was merely a stage for the players ; the specta- 



tors were obliged to stand. Marcus JEmilius Lepi- 

 dus (died 13 ]J. C.) first built a theatre with seats 

 for the spectators. Soon after, the theatres of 

 Scaurus and Curio were erected, which were dis- 

 tinguished for their size and splendour, but were of 

 wood, and, after the plays were over, were taken 

 down. The theatre of Marcus JEmilius Scaurus 

 a contemporary of Cicero and Coesar, was ex 

 ingly magnificent, and so large that it would MB. 

 tain 80,000 persons. The building was adorned 

 with 360 columns, placed in three rows, one over 

 the other ; the lower row, thirty-eight feet high, 

 was of marble, and ornamented with 3000 statues; 

 the second row was of glass ; the third of wood\ 

 gilt. The theatre of Curio was movable, and was 

 converted from two theatres into an amphitheatre. 

 Pompey was the first who erected a stone theatre 

 in Rome, the remains of which now compose the 

 palace Ursini. It was built after the plan of the 

 theatre of Mitylene, and was finished under 

 Caligula. It held 40,000 persons. After the 

 erection of this, stone theatres were built, not 

 merely in Rome, but also in other cities of the 

 Roman government. ' From this time, also, the 

 stages were covered with marble, and surrounded 

 with marble columns. At Nero's command they 

 were covered with gold ; and as the whole of the 

 theatre, and all that was put upon the stage, was 

 gilt, or adorned with gold, the day in which this 

 happened was called the golden. Behind the stage, 

 in the Roman theatres, which, as is well known, 

 had no roof, a covered colonnade was erected, for 

 the shelter of spectators in bad weather. This was 

 also the case in the theatre of Pompey, which en- 

 closed a place filled with trees and ornamented with 

 fountains and statues. Some time after the Punic 

 war, Quintus Catulus introduced into Rome, from 

 Campania, the custom of covering the theatre and 

 the orchestra with a cloth, to protect the persons 

 present from the weather. The cloth used was 

 commonly dyed with purple and other rich colours. 

 In later times, the finest and most costly linen was 

 employed ; and Nero even appropriated to that 

 purpose a carpet, adorned with gold, in the middle 

 of which his image was wrought, surrounded with 

 stars, guiding the chariot of the sun. In order to 

 lessen the heat caused by such a mass of spectators 

 in such covered theatres, very expensive means 

 were resorted to. Pompey caused the passages, and 

 the steps leading to the seats, to be moistened with 

 water. Afterwards, a mixture of wine and water 

 was used, in which was steeped the best Cilician 

 saffron, in order to produce an agreeable perfume. 

 This was conducted through pipes, concealed in the 

 walls of the theatre, and was raised by pressure to 

 the highest seats. There the pipes had very small 

 openings, through which the liquid issued in a fine 

 rain, and diffused coolness through the whole 

 theatre. There was likewise sometimes a balsam 

 mixed with the wine ; and frequently the statues, 

 with which the theatre was ornamented, were em- 

 ployed in sprinkling it, they being made hollow, and 

 the wine carried through them in pipes. The 

 theatres were built, whenever it was possible, upon 

 the declivity of a hill, in order to be able, conveni- 

 ently, to place the seats for the spectators, like 

 steps, one above another. If the place was level, 

 it was necessary, of course, to support the raised 

 seats artificially. This was less frequently done in 

 the Greek theatres than in the Roman. The form 

 of the building was a semicircle, the ends of which 

 were somewhat prolonged, and were connected by 



