The Origin and Purpose of the Three-Actor Rule*

summary:

This paper explores the motivation for the “three-actor rule” and attempts to define its purpose, arguing that the limitation was a practical one due to the use of a lottery to match actors to poets. The archon who presided over the lottery had to know how many actors would be involved, but the choregos actually hired the actors, and he was able to hire extra (speaking and silent) actors after the lottery if he chose. For a certain time in the middle of the fifth century the poets were both able and eager to experiment with different numbers of actors.