period for comedy brought with it the humbling of gods and heroes; which was done through the domesticizing of these characters within the different performances. Middle Comedy took on many of the factors of satyr plays but adapted the performances to be what was desired by the public at that time. These plays have been said to be performed well into the Hellenistic and Roman eras. Extant examples The only satyr play to survive in its entirety is Euripides' Cyclops, based on Odysseus' encounter with the cyclops Polyphemus, in Book 9 of the Odyssey. Aeschylus was noted for his satyr plays, the largest fragment of which to have survived being his Dictyulci ('The Net Fishers') in which the baby Perseus is washed up on the shore with his mother Danae and is found by Silenus and the satyrs. There are large fragments of a satyr play of Sophocles called Ichneutae ('The Trackers') in which the satyrs are employed by Apollo to track down his stolen cattle and discover the baby Hermes. Smaller fragments of other satyr plays exist, and the genre continued to be written and performed as late as the 2nd century AD, though most have wholly vanished. Even a fragment of music survives from a satyr play. Costumes The chorus members wore masks in accordance with Bacchic tradition. The earliest reliable testimony is supplied by the Pandora Vase dating from the middle of the 5th century BC. On that vase, the satyrs are portrayed as half men and half goats, wearing goat’s horns on their heads, thus referring to the goat deities of the Doric type. A later representation can be seen on the Pronomos Vase, found in Naples. The goatish element has disappeared and the satyrs resemble the old Ionic Sileni who were horse deities. The performers are wearing horse tails and short pants with attached phallus, a symbol of Dionysiac worship. Haigh claims that the Doric satyrs were the original performers in Attic tragedy and satiric drama, whereas the Ionic element was introduced at a later stage. See also The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, a play Clark: A gonzomentary, a mockumentary film using Satyr play techniques Notes References Brockett, Oscar (1999) The History of Theatre Texas: University of Texas at Austin Press. Csapo, Eric and Miller, Margaret C. [eds.] The Origins of Theatre in Ancient Greece and Beyond. From Ritual to Drama Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Easterling,