CLST 312 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Megaphone, Maenad, Himation

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: CLST 312
• Professor: Savelli

Document Summary

Mask makers were called skeuopoioi: term is very general so this suggests that those who took care of producing masks had other roles in the production. We do(cid:374)"t k(cid:374)o(cid:449) ho(cid:449) (cid:373)asks (cid:449)ere (cid:373)ade (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause (cid:449)e do(cid:374)"t ha(cid:448)e ar(cid:272)heologi(cid:272)al e(cid:448)ide(cid:374)(cid:272)e. Covered the whole head and painted white for women and the paint for men was darker: actors would even wear white undergarments to cover their arms when playing women. Made of organic material like linen and leather this explains lack of archeological evidence. Due to visual restriction of mask it was tough for actors to orient themselves so, due to this, it pro(cid:271)a(cid:271)l(cid:455) (cid:449)as(cid:374)"t a hel(cid:373)et (cid:271)ut like a (cid:373)oder(cid:374) (cid:373)ask so the(cid:455) (cid:272)ould ha(cid:448)e (cid:373)ore use of their ears. Scholars hypothesized that the mask acted as a megaphone but this is probably not true because the mouth hole was very small and probably blocked sound. It was more oratory acting and so having a strong voice was imperative.