1. Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Theatre (Greek Mimes)
We know the most about comic and tragic performances given at official festivals in Greece.
This is because these events generated records and commentary that were preserved for later study.
However, Greece had numerous forms of popular entertainment that were significant parts of Hellenistic life.
Many of these types were grouped under the heading of “mime,” which applied to both scripts and performers.
Mime was a variety entertainment that could include short playlets, mimetic dance, imitations of animals and birds, singing, acrobatics, juggling, and more!
The posture, costume, and lack of mask of this figure indicate that he is a “mime” – a non-traditional actor.
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2. Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Theatre (Greek Mimes)
Small troupes of mimes may have performed at banquets, market fairs (on temporary stages), and on other occasions as early as the 5th century BCE.
Mimes were probably the first professional entertainers.
Mimes were the first theatrical performers to include women!
Mimes were also the first to perform regularly without masks.
Some did employ masks, however.
Mime performers performed with and without masks, depending on the production.
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3. Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Theatre (Greek Mimes)
Short mime playlets may have originated in either Megara or Sicily in the 6th century BCE.
Mime did not truly flourish until Hellenistic times.
Mime “plays” ranged from improvised skits, to sung dialogues, to danced stories.
After 300 BCE, mime performers increasingly appeared at festivals.
They had their own guilds with names like the Mime Association and the Parasites of Apollo.
Statue of a mime dancer.
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4. Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Theatre (Greek Mimes)
In southern Italy, mimes were called phlyakes.
Rhinthon of Tarentum is said to have formalized this type of mime.
Only a few fragments of plays survive, which are burlesques of tragedy.
These have received the most attention from historians because a series of vases from southern Italy were once thought to depict scenes of these performers.
The vases have since been dated to a century before any phlyax plays, and are now connected to Middle Comedy instead.
A vase painting that indicates various mime performers.
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5. Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Theatre (Greek Mimes)
Paintings show that the stage was a raised platform (heights varied) resting on pots or decorative columns.
Draperies or painted panels hung between the pots/columns.
Steps led from the ground level to the stage.
The façade at the back of the stage varies from painting to painting:
A portico and a door
Columns and decorative motifs
Window/gallery on an upper level
Props included trees, altars, thrones, chests, and tables
This vase depicts what the stage for mime performances may have been.
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