orchestra
orchestra, part of the theatre in which the senate sat
- The place where the Senate sat in the theatre, the orchestra: in orchestrā senatorum sunt sedibus loca destinata, Vitr. 5, 6; Juv. 7, 47; Suet. Caes. 39; id. Aug. 35; 44; id. Claud. 21 et saep.—
- B Transf., the Senate (poet.): similesque videbis Orchestram et populum, Juv. 3, 178.—
- II Another place on the stage, acc. to Fest. p. 181 b; cf. Müll. ad h. l.
orchistra, scena
orcestra vel pulpitus,gligmanna yppe
~a, locus in theatro
analogium pulpito scene, quod orchestrum [v. l. orcestra, orchestra ] dicitur, simile
item ab horreo hec ~a, -e, i. antiqua sedes nobilium, que in capitolio habebatur
seet ffor worthy men : orcestra ‥ vel orcistra
a chayere, cathedra, orcestra
ante aram virginis et matris in orcistram conscendit
tu terrena sapis, hec celica, mergeris Orco, / hec orchestra [gl.: catedra ] Dei fertur ad astra Deo
a byschope sete , ~a
- , ὀρχήστρα, part of the theatre in which the senate sat, Iu.—Poet., the Senate, Iu.
ORCHESTRA[THEATRUM]
(ὀρχήστρα). Literally “the dancing place,” from ὀρχέομαι. The space of the Greek theatre situated in front of the stage, in which the chorus went through its evolutions. In the Roman theatre it was absorbed in the area occupied by the audience. See chorus; theatrum.
Literally "the dancing place", circular or nearly circular space of the Greek theater situated in front of the stage, in which the chorus went through its evolutions.
Description: At the center of the orchestra was the thymele ("a place for sacrifice, an altar"), a reference to drama's religious associations. It is thought that this altar served as a platform, on which stood the leader of the chorus (the coryphaios) or the flute-player. The orchestra, the nucleus of the Greek theater building is thought to have its origins in Cycladic civilization, in the rectangular "theatral areas" in the Minoan palaces in Crete. It is argued that the earliest orchestras in Greece proper followed that same rectangular outline, and the more familiar circular arena was a later development. Archaeological evidence shows traces of a rectangular arena on the Athenian Acropolis, north of the Erechtheum, in the earliest strata. Another theory suggests that the circular form was employed in Greece from the earliest times. For this more widely accepted theory, the evidence is the circular stone-paved threshing floor of the Greek villages, around which would gather the harvesters. It is thought there was a gradual transition from this early primitive community gathering to the more formal art of dance-drama.
- Theater
- Thymele