covering the legs as far as the ankles, and the arms down to the hand, and over this a tight-fitting tunic, leaving arms and legs free (compare Fig. 163). Here it is evident that the lower garment takes the place of our tricot; the arms and legs are supposed to be bare. If the object was to represent absolute nudity, the tunic was replaced by a close-fitting vest, usually provided with a false stuffing, on which the breasts and navel were marked. To this was sometimes added the comic phallus, a remnant of the old coarse popular jokes, in which the Older Comedy frequently indulged. But in the New Comedy it fell gradually into disuse, and was entirely absent from the representations of ordinary life, though introduced into farces which burlesqued the myths and tales of the heroes.
We give here several examples of pictures from ancient comedy. In Fig. 163, the meaning of which is not clear, the stage has on its left side a scaffolding covered in with a roof, to which a staircase leads; on the floor of this erection lie a bundle of beds or carpets, a cap, and a litter. Chiron, whose name appears on the plate, is climbing up the staircase with difficulty, and bending down leaning on his rough knotty stick; a slave is pushing him up from behind, while Xanthias, standing on the top of the stairs, seizes hold of his head as though to draw him up. In the background we see two not specially attractive nymphs, of whom only the upper part is visible; these again are designated in the inscription; the youth on the right, in the himation, and without a mask, is not one of the actors. Possibly this is a representation of the sick Chiron seeking healing at a sanctuary of the nymphs. The costume and the tricots, as well as the grotesque masks, are worthy of notice. The vase painting in Fig. 164 has not been satisfactorily
explained. It is evident that Hercules is engaged in some love adventure, as is proved by the lion's skin in which the actor, who is jesting with a girl, is dressed, and the club which rests beside him. The figure on the right probably represents an old woman; on the left is a man contemplating the scene. With the exception of the girl and the woman in the middle, the masks are extreme caricatures; the costume of the two men resembles that in Fig. 163. Fig. 165, a Pompeian wall-painting, may be here compared, because it evidently imitates Greek prototypes, and the scene represented in the centre belongs to the later comedy. The one actor with a curious head-dress and a spear seems to be a sort of _Miles Gloriosus_, the man in a reverential position speaking to him a parasite. The three youths who stand near wear no masks, and it is therefore doubtful whether they are to be regarded as part of the representation in the character, perhaps, of statists, who may have appeared without masks. Two old men to the right and left of the central scene, seated on a somewhat lower plane, and leaning on their knotty sticks, with serious official mien, are doubtless theatrical police, who had to keep order during the performance. It is not easy to say what place in the theatre they were supposed to occupy.