1 THE USE OF THE HIGH-SOLED SHOE OR BUSKIN BY KENDALL K. SMITH "THE HEN the centre doors of the dressing-house open and Oedipus comes forth (the first actor). He seems taller than an ordinary man, because he has on the buskin (or tragic boot) and because he is wearing the lofty tragic mask, which rises high above his own head."- Brander Matthews.1 Such is the popular conception of a Greek tragic actor. Scholars who have taken a deeper interest in the subject tell us that this buskin had a sole at least four inches high, and often, perhaps usually, reached a height of eight or ten inches. Even the most conservative agree that actors in classic Greek tragedy walked about in shoes with soles of more than ordinary thickness. In the face of such unanimity of opinion it may seem strange that I have ventured to investigate the subject afresh. It was the doubt expressed by Professor Edward Capps, of the University of Chicago, that first prompted my investigation of the evidence on the use of the buskin or high-soled shoe in the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ. This evidence I found to be both insufficient and contradictory; but I present it in full in the hope that it may be valuable for reference, even though it lead us to no positive conclusion. Many difficulties arise in treating a subject of this nature. None of the works of art have been accessible except through publications, and these in many cases, I fear, inexact. For this reason my calculations of the height of different soles is only approximate. Furthermore, I 'The Development of the Drama, p. 57, New York, 1903. 2 Boettiger, Kl. Schr. I3, p. 283, Leipzig, 1850. Flach, Das griechische Theater, p. 24, Tübingen, 1878. Genelli, Das Theater zu Athen, p. 84, Berlin and Leipzig, 1818. Donaldson, The Theatre of the Greeks, p. 280 ff., London, 1875. Geppert, Die allgriechische Bühne, p. 272, Leipzig, 1843; and the more recent authorities. have not had time to take up the problem of the Roman tragic boot which Dierks1 says did not have a high sole. Consequently I may have used evidence for the Greek buskin which belonged to the Roman cothurnus. In any case, it has not been my purpose to discover the shape or size of the buskin, but simply to find out if the classic period made use of the high sole. EVIDENCE FROM CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE Two passages from Aristophanes furnish all the evidence from contemporary literature on which can be based arguments in support of the high-soled tragic shoe; and this evidence is extremely uncertain. In Ranae, 35, we see Dionysus before the door of Heracles. The latter is surprised to see his visitor in such outlandish garb and exclaims, 45 ff., ἀλλ ̓ οὐχ οἷός τ ̓ εἴμ ̓ ἀποσοβῆσαι τὸν γέλων 2 ὁρῶν λεοντῆν ἐπὶ κροκωτῷ κειμένην. τίς ὁ νοῦς; τί κόθορνος καὶ ῥόπαλον ξυνηλθέτην; So Heracles is convulsed with laughter because of the absurd dress in which Dionysus appears. The latter is Heracles so far as the lion-skin and club are concerned, but his own cloak and shoes reveal his true identity. The kółopvos, therefore, was the shoe of Dionysus, and in course of time came to be the tragic actor's foot-gear when the revelries in honor of the Wine-God had developed into the tragic drama. Crusius argues, rejecting the idea that Dionysus here appears in women's garments. He says, "Mir wenigstens scheint es durch keinen Wink des Dichters angezeigt, dass der Gott nicht in seinem üblichen Prachtgewande, sondern geradezu als Weib vermummt auf die Bühne gekommen sei. . . . Auch die Fussbekleidung der tragischen Schauspieler darf in der Hauptsache als ein Ueberlebsel aus jener ältern Zeit angesehen werden; mit andern Worten: der sicher bezeugte kółoρvos des Dionysos war ursprünglich mit dem der tragischen Schauspieler identisch." If this passage shows the κółopvos to be strictly the shoe of Dionysus, and retained as such by the later tragic actors, then the second passage 1 Dierks, De Tragicorum Histrionum Habitu apud Graecos, p. 18, Göttingen, 1883. 2 Crusius, Zu den Bühnenalterthümern, in Philologus, XLVIII, p. 702 ff. from Aristophanes, Av. 994, may be fairly assumed to carry on this thought. True, no Dionysus, nor yet one of his followers, is the person wearing the shoe, but the pompous swing of the verses at this point may well herald the entrance of some heroic personage in tragic garb. At these lines we discover the Founder of "Cloud-Cuckoo-Town" busy on his great undertaking, but troubled by all sorts of pestering artists, among them the geometrician Meton. When Meton enters, Peithetairos exclaims, 992 ff., Πει. ἕτερον αὖ τουτὶ κακόν. τί δ ̓ αὖ σὺ δράσων; τίς δ ̓ ἰδέα βουλεύματος; and Meton replies, Με. γεωμετρῆσαι βούλομαι τὸν ἀέρα ὑμῖν διελεῖν τε κατὰ γύας. Crusius (1. c.) says of this passage, "Kock1 bezog den Ausdruck auf die tragische Fussbekleidung und übersetzt mit Hemsterhuis ad quod iter te tam magnifice accinxisti? Wer ohne Voreingenommenheit an die Stelle herantritt, wird dieser Auffassung einen erheblichen Grad von Wahrscheinlichkeit nicht absprechen; ein Mann, der yewμerpĥσαι ВovλeTaι Tòv åépa, kann die tragischen Stelzen gut gebrauchen." "To measure off the air' Meton needed to approach as closely as possible to the clouds. That is why he put on κó@opvoɩ and gave poor Peithetairos such a shock. This rendering of κólopvos as 'buskin' is the common one, and is doubly attractive since Crusius has shown how neatly and aptly this meaning fits the answer of Meton in the lines that follow. If this be the correct interpretation, we have very good evidence that κólopvos was the name of a special shoe worn by actors, and we may perhaps be permitted to assume, as Crusius2 does, that it was of the same general 1 Kock, Kom. d. Aristoph. IV3, p. 184. This line has been very troublesome to critics and has been variously rendered by all who do not emend the text. E. g. Merry, Birds (Notes, p. 54), translates: 'What means this tragic stride (lit. ‘buskin') of your coming here?' and suggests that "possibly κó@opros was a slang phrase for 'swagger.' Cf. Blaydes, Aves, p. 70, 'calceamentum proprie tragicum.' Green, Birds, p. 140, 'cur tam superbe incedis?' 2 Crusius assumes an extremely moderate elevation compared with later times, but yet a considerable sole. character in the classical period as in the second century A.D., when κόθορνος is distinctly used by Pollux and Lucians of tragic shoes with a very high sole. But is this the correct rendering? I have presented the argument of Crusius in as unbiased a way as possible. Now, I must ask what is the common meaning of κόθορνος when used not only by Aristophanes, but by other writers of the classical period? The word occurs thirteen times in classical literature, and it is recorded that one of the plays of the comic poet Philonides was entitled Κόθορνοι. Three times the word is used of a shoe for women alone. I. Ar. Eccl. 344-346, μὰ τὸν Διόνυσον οὐδ ̓ ἐγὼ γὰρ τὰς ἐμὰς ἐς τὼ κοθόρνω τώ πόδ ̓ ἐνθεὶς ἴεμαι. These words merely repeat what he had said at greater length, 311 ff., τί τὸ πρᾶγμα; ποῖ ποθ ̓ ἡ γυνὴ φρούδη 'στί μοι; ἐπεὶ πρὸς ἕω νῦν γ' ἔστιν, ἡ δ ̓ οὐ φαίνεται. ἐγὼ δὲ κατάκειμαι πάλαι χεζητιῶν, τὰς ἐμβάδας ζητῶν λαβεῖν ἐν τῷ σκότῳ καὶ τὰς ἐκείνης Περσικὰς ὑφέλκομαι. The shoes which Blepyros calls κo@ópvw he first designates as his wife's "Persians,' a name suggesting some kind of effeminate oriental foot-gear. They are plainly contrasted with his own ἐμβάδες (Λακωνικαί) which his wife has taken as part of her disguise as a man. 2. It is rare to find such corroborative evidence as is given by a passage from Herodotus, I, 155, κέλευε δέ σφεας κιθῶνάς τε ὑποδύνειν τοῖσι εἶμασι, καὶ κοθόρνους ὑποδέεσθαι · καὶ ταχέως σφέας, ὦ 1 Poll. 4, 115; cf. 7, 85. * Luc. Pro imag. 3; Somn. 26. 3 Poll. 7, 92, ίδια δὲ γυναικῶν ὑποδήματα Περσικαί. βασιλεῦ, γυναίκας ἀντ ̓ ἀνδρῶν ὄψεαι γεγονότας. Here we find the Persian king, Cyrus, advised by Croesus to compel the Lydian men to wear κόθορνοι, and by means of this effeminate foot-gear as well as the effeminate cloaks to turn them into a womanish and unwarlike nation; 'make them women instead of men.' 3. Equally convincing is Ar. Lys. 657-8, εἰ δὲ λυπήσεις τί με, τῷδέ γ' ἀψήκτῳ πατάξω τῷ κοθόρνῳ τὴν γνάθον. If a chorus of women wear it, the κόθορνος is surely a woman's shoe. Another place where the effeminate nature of the κόθορνος may be practically assured by the company it keeps is the fragment of Lysippus, quoted by Pollux, 7, 89,1 βλαύτῃ, κοθόρνῳ, Θετταλίδι. The other two are expressly the shoes of fops and dandies. It would be unnatural for κołópvw to occur, as it does, between these two if its style and use were not similar. It is not difficult to reconcile with this view of the κó@opvos the anecdote about Megacles, the Alcmaeonid, and Croesus, Hdt. 6, 125, κοθόρνους τοὺς εὕρισκε εὐρυτάτους ἐόντας ὑποδησάμενος πρῶτον μὲν παρέσαξε παρὰ τὰς κνήμας τοῦ χρυσοῦ ὅσον ἐχώρεον οἱ κόθορνοι ἐξήιε ἐκ τοῦ θησαυροῦ ἕλκων μὲν μόγις τοὺς κοθόρνους. Even though a man wears them, he has to procure them and wears them because they are large roomy boots and will hold much gold. No contradiction can be found in these words to the other passage from Herodotus (1, 155) which designates the κόθορνος expressly as a woman's shoe or boot. The shape of the boot is what is emphasized by this passage and not the sex of the wearer. If we compare with this passage the words of Xenophon, Hell. 2, 3, 30-31, τὴν δημοκρατίαν μεταστῆσαι εἰς τοὺς τετρακοσίους καὶ ἐπρώτευεν ἐν ἐκείνοις, ἐπεὶ δ ̓ ᾔσθετο ἀντίπαλόν τι τῇ ὀλιγαρχίᾳ συνιστάμενον, πρῶτος αὖ ἡγεμὼν τῷ δήμῳ ἐπ ̓ ἐκείνους ἐγένετο· ὅθεν δήπου καὶ κόθορ 1 Kock, Com. Att. Frag. I, p. 701. 2 A. A. Bryant, Greek Shoes in the Classical Period, in Harv. Class. Stud. X, pp. 83, 89. |