the center one being more imposing than the other two and opening onto a low stone platform measuring perhaps 12 feet across. The skene seems to have been constructed of wood in the earliest period of Greek drama; however, by the Hellenistic era it was made of stone (Whitman 373-4).
To one side of the stage (about 180' x 25' at the theatre of Dionysus) was the mechané, or machine, "a device [perhaps a crane] for making gods appear in the sky or fly through it" (Whitman 373). Other device
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