Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Thymele

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

THYM'ELE or THYM'ELA (θυμέλη). Properly, a Greek word, meaning literally a place for sacrifice, such as a temple or an altar; but expressly used to designate the altar of Bacchus in a Greek theatre, which was a square platform, with steps up to it, situated in the centre of the orchestra (see the ground-plan s. THEATRUM. 2., on which it is marked B.) It was used for various purposes; to serve as an altar, to represent a funereal monument, or any similar object required in the representation of the piece; to conceal the prompter, who was placed immediately behind it, while the pipe-player (tibicen), and occasionally the leader of the chorus, took their station upon it. In a Roman theatre, there was no thymele, because their orchestra was entirely appropriated to the accommodation of spectators, like our pit.