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This individual was allowed to step out of line. He waved his arms and gesticulated while he spoke (that is to say he "acted" while the others merely stood by and sang) and he asked a lot of questions, which the bandmaster answered according to the roll of papyrus upon which the poet had written down these answers before the show began.
這位合唱隊隊員獲得了離開行列的特權，他一邊說話，一般揮舞雙臂，做出種種手勢（這意味著，當別的人站在一旁唱頌的時候，他卻是在"表演"）。他大聲問出許多問題，樂隊領隊則根據詩人事先寫在紙莎草紙上的答案，-一予以回答。
This rough and ready conversation-the dialogue-which told the story of Dionysos or one of the other Gods, became at once popular with the crowd. Henceforth every Dionysian procession had an "acted scene" and very soon the "acting" was considered more important than the procession and the meh-mehing.
這一粗糙且事先準備好的談話，就是戲劇里"對白"的前身。它通常是講述酒神狄俄尼索斯或其他某個神的故事。這種新穎形式一出現，立刻大受群眾的歡迎。由此，每一個酒神游行儀式里，便都有了這樣一段"表演場面"。過了沒多久，"表演"變得比游行本身以及咩咩合唱更重要了。
Aeschylus, the most successful of all "tragedians" who wrote no less than eighty plays during his long life (from 526 to 455) made a bold step forward when he introduced two "actors" instead of one. A generation later Sophocles increased the number of actors to three. When Euripides began to write his terrible tragedies in the middle of the fifth century, B.C., he was allowed as many actors as he liked and when Aristophanes wrote those famous comedies in which he poked fun at everybody and everything, including the Gods of Mount Olympus, the chorus had been reduced to the r?le of mere by-standers who were lined up behind the principal performers and who sang "this is a terrible world" while the hero in the foreground committed a crime against the will of the Gods.
埃斯庫羅斯"是古希臘最成功的"悲劇家"，在其漫長的一生里（公元前526－455年），他寫了大約80部悲劇。他做過一個大膽的創新，為合唱表演引入兩名"演員"來取代原來的一名"演員"。其后，京福克勒斯"把演員的數量增為三人。公元前5世紀中期，當歐里庇德斯"開始創作他那些讓人毛骨悚然的悲劇時，他開始視劇情需要使用演員，想用多少便用多少。當阿里斯托芬寫作他嘲笑所有人、所有事。甚至奧林匹斯山眾神的著名喜劇時，合唱隊已經被降到旁觀者的地位。他們列隊站在主要角色的身后，當前臺的英雄犯下了違反神意的罪行時，他們便齊聲高唱，"啊，這是個何等恐怖的世界！"
