episkenion

episkenion

Building erected on the roof of the skene, the facade of the upper storey.

Description: In the earliest Greek theaters it may have consisted of a small building; "the modern equivalent is a penthouse on the top of an apartment house." (Bieber, The History of the Greek and Roman theater, 1939, 125.) In the Hellenistic theater the episkenion was a true second floor, of masonry construction. It was recessed from the roof of the proskenion, and it is thought by some that the area before the episkenion was the theologion in the Hellenistic theater. The facade of the upper story or episkenion was pierced by one or more large openings, sometimes fitted with folding doors, called thyromata.

• Proskenion
• Theologeion
• Thyromata