proskenion
Area between the orchestra and skene.
Description: Also called the okribas, as its surface consisted of a wooden platform. The orchestra gradually lost its role as an acting place, and in later plays the action takes place on the proskenion, an area which projected in front of the skene (the word proskenion means "something set up before the skene"). It is in Classical times that the plays were acted in front of the skene between the paraskenia on the ground floor of the orchestra and not on a ( raised) proskenion, the stage between the paraskenia. In the Classical period there was no raised stage other than the small porches in front of the entrance to the skene or a set of steps leading from the orchestra into the skene. It is not until Hellenistic times that the proskenion is a raised stage, projecting in front of the skene (which may be two stories high). The frontal elevation of this structure was a row of columns or pillars, surmounted by an entablature, called the hyposkenion. Doors and movable panels (pinakes) of wood were provided in the intercolumniations. The flat roof supported by this colonnade was a long and narrow platform known as the proskenion-loeion. It is in the Hellenistic period that the actors spoke from the proskenion. The roof of the later proskenion is at the same level as the floor of the upper story of the skene. Sometimes the proskenion extends farther forward than the paraskenia and has sloping ramps for side entrances.
- hyposkenion
- paraskenion
- proskenion
- skene