A dictionary of Greek and Roman . the Satyric masks used in this species of the Greek dramawere intended to represent SatjTS, Silenus, andsimilar companions of Dionysus, whence the ex-pressions of the countenances and the form of theirheads may easily be imagined. Pollux only men-tions the grey-headed Satyr, the unbearded Satyr,Silenus, and the irdTciTos, and adds that the charac-ters of all the other Satyric masks either resembledthese, or were sufficiently expressed in their names,e. g. the Papposilenus was an old man with a verypredominant animal character. (Compare
A dictionary of Greek and Roman . the Satyric masks used in this species of the Greek dramawere intended to represent SatjTS, Silenus, andsimilar companions of Dionysus, whence the ex-pressions of the countenances and the form of theirheads may easily be imagined. Pollux only men-tions the grey-headed Satyr, the unbearded Satyr,Silenus, and the irdTciTos, and adds that the charac-ters of all the other Satyric masks either resembledthese, or were sufficiently expressed in their names,e. g. the Papposilenus was an old man with a verypredominant animal character. (Compare Eichstadt,de Dramate Comico-Satyrico, p. 81.) A grotesquemask of a Satyr, together with one of the finestspecimens of a tragic mask, is contained in theTownly Gallery in the British Museum, and is re-presented on the following page. As regards the earliest representations of the re-gular drama among the Romans, it is expresslystated by Diomedes (iii. p. 486, ed. Putsch.), thatI masks were not used, but merely the galerus or PES. PETAURUM. 893. wig, and that Roscius Gallus, about the year 100B. c., was the first who introduced the use of should, however, be remembered that masks hadbeen used long before that time in the Atellanae(Fest. s. v. Per sonata), so that the innovation ofRoscius must have been confined to the regulardrama, that is, to tragedy and comedy. As for theforms of Roman masks, it may be presumed that,being introduced from Greece at so late a period,they had the same defects as those used in Greeceat the time when the arts were in their decline,and this supposition is confirmed by all works ofart, and the paintings of Herculaneum and Pompeii,in which masks are represented ; for the masksappear unnaturally distorted and the mouth alwayswide open. The expressions of Roman writersalso support this supposition. (Gellius, v. 7 ; 175.) We may mention here that some of theoldest MSS. of Terence contain representations ofRoman masks, and from these MSS.
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsmithwilliam18131893, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840
