The Significance of the Parodoi in the Greek Theater

Kelley Rees uses a combination of literary and archaological evidence to uncover the nature of the parodos in Greek drama. The parodos refers both to the entrance ramps to the right and left of the stage and also to the section of the play following the prologue in which the chorus enters the orchestra. In this paper Rees examines the lines from Pollux that seem to contradict each other as to the direction in which the harbor lies. From this, he addresses the conception that one parodos always was meant to lead to the harbor and the other to the countryside, ultimately rejecting it due to contradictory evidence in a number of plays. The piece provides an interesting examination of ancient performance practice from the limited evidence available and in reading it, one gains a sense of the process by which guesses are made about the nature of Greek drama.