Since the beginning of the pandemic, wearing a mask has become a subject of debate. Some people think that we should all wear one and others do not want to be submitted to an obligation. The origin of the mask is very old. Wearing a mask during plagues has been one way for doctors to protect themselves. Drawings or paintings show doctors wearing masks in the 16th or 17th centuries CE with beaked noses and the upper parts filled with aromatic herbs. Doctors also wore gloves and long dresses.
Masks were used in early periods for burials. The most famous one is the so-called “Mask of Agamemnon” discovered during excavations at Mycenae.
In ancient Greece, some masks were undoubtedly worn for sacrifices for Dionysos. Thereafter, masks were worn during representation in theater.
The Greek word for a mask is προσωπεῖον [prosōpeion][1] or πρόσωπον [prosōpon] which also means “face, countenance”.
As for the use of masks, it seems that Thespis, who is said to be at the start of theater representations, is said to have started the use of masks for actors (with linen masks) to hide the face of actors who portrayed different characters in a play.[2]
These origins are summarized as follows by the Encyclopædia Britannica:
The first time theatre truly freed itself from religious ritual to become an art form was in Greece in the 6th century BCE when the dithyramb was developed. This was a form of choral song chanted at festivals in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine, fruitfulness, and vegetation. Originally, it celebrated his rejuvenation of the earth; later, it drew on Homeric legends for its subject matter. According to Greek tradition, the actor and playwright Thespis invented the drama when he augmented the chorus of the dithyramb with a single actor who wore masks to portray several different characters.[3]
And also in an article by Marcel Detienne:
Icarion’s Accomplices
Let us begin in Icarion, an ancient village in Attica, known as Dionyso today. It is here that one of the oldest encounters between Apollo and Dionysus takes place. Situated on the edge of Athens, Icarion is also the home of Thespis, {71|72} the first tragic author: he invents the actor and the mask, and is triumphant at the Great Dionysia of Athens, between 536 and 533 BCE.[4]
Aristotle says that he does not know when or who started the use of masks for comedy:
Indeed it is only quite late in its history that the archon granted a chorus for a comic poet; before that they were volunteers. Comedy had already taken certain forms before there is any mention of those who are called its poets. Who introduced masks or prologues, the number of actors, and so on, is not known.
Aristotle Poetics 1449b[5]
In this gallery we are going to show different masks from the classical world.
Notes
[1] LSJ: Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940.
Online at Perseus
[2] Blanshard, Alastair J.L. 2015. Classical world: all that matters. page 71. London: Hodder & Stoughton
[3] Article on Ancient Greece: Dramatic genres, Encyclopædia Britannica, online.
[4] Detienne, Marcel. 2009. Comparative Anthropology of Ancient Greece Hellenic Studies Series 17. Washington, DC. Center for Hellenic Studies. Chapter 3: “Forgetting Delphi Between Apollo and Dionysus”. Online at the Center for Hellenic Studies.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Detienne.Comparative_Anthropology_of_Ancient_Greece.2009
[5] Aristotle. Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 23, translated by W.H. Fyfe. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1932.
Online at Perseus
Image credits
Silanion (attributed). Bronze tragic mask, mid-4th century BCE
Photo: Giovanni Dall’Orto, attribution license, via Wikimedia Commons
Sculpture of a theater mask of Hellenistic period. National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Photo: DerHexer Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. via Wikimedia Commons
Mosaic showing theatrical masks of tragedy and comedy. Roman, 2nd century CE. Capitoline Museums, Palazzo Nuovo.
Photo: antmoose. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. via Wikimedia Commons
Golden mask, funerary offering, grave IV, Circle A, Mycenae. 2nd half of 16th century BCE. National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Photo: Kosmos Society
Terracotta figurine of theatrical mask representing Dionysos. c 200–1 BCE. Louvre.
Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Golden mask from Grave V, Grave Circle A, Mycenae, 16th century BCE
National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Photo: Kosmos Society
“Mask of Agamemnon”. Golden mask from Grave V, Grave Circle A, Mycenae, 16th century BCE
National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Photo: Kosmos Society
Melpomene Muse of Tragedy, holding a Mask, 1st century CE. Louvre.
Photo: Kosmos Society
Comedy mask Theater Mask Pentelic Marble. Type of the “ruler slave” 2nd century BCE. National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Photo: Kosmos Society
Four masks. National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Photo: Kosmos Society
Mask drama Female figure of tragedy, Theater mask. Pentelic marble. Found at Dionysos, Attica. 3rd century BCE. National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Photo: Kosmos Society.
Relief Of Theater Masks, Marble, Pompeii, Naples, MANN
Photo: Kosmos Society
Statue of an Actor, Terracotta, Pompeii near the Theater, Naples, MANN
Photo: Kosmos Society
Statue of an Actor, Terracotta, Pompeii near the Theater, Naples, MANN
Photo: Kosmos Society