Editing Puppetry (section)

====Ancient Greece and Rome====
[[File:5016 - Archaeological Museum, Athens - Dolls - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 13 2009.jpg|thumb|Ancient Greek terracotta puppet dolls, 5th/4th century BC, [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]]]]
Although there are few remaining examples of puppets from [[ancient Greece]], historical literature and archaeological findings shows the existence of puppetry. The [[Greek language|Greek]] word translated as "puppet" is "νευρόσπαστος" (''nevrospastos''), which literally means "drawn by strings, string-pulling",<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dneuro%2Fspastos νευρόσπαστος] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308014252/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dneuro%2Fspastos |date=2021-03-08 }}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> from "νεῦρον" (''nevron''), meaning either "sinew, tendon, muscle, string", or "wire",<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dneu%3Dron νεῦρον] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308111113/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dneu%3Dron |date=2021-03-08 }}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> and "σπάω" (''spaō''), meaning "draw, pull".<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dspa%2Fw σπάω] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308023828/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dspa%2Fw |date=2021-03-08 }}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref><ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/resolveform?type=start&lookup=neurospast&lang=greek List of Ancient Greek words related to puppetry] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308045759/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/resolveform?type=start&lookup=neurospast&lang=greek |date=2021-03-08 }}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> [[Aristotle]] referred to pulling strings to control heads, hands and eyes, shoulders and legs.<ref>Mulholland, John, ''Practical Puppetry'', p.9</ref> [[Plato]]'s work also contains references to puppetry. The ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]'' were presented using puppetry. The roots of European puppetry probably extend back to the Greek plays with puppets played to the "common people" in the 5th century BC. By the 3rd century BC these plays would appear in the Theatre of [[Dionysus]] at the [[Acropolis]].<ref name="blumenthal"/>

In ancient Greece and [[ancient Rome]] clay dolls, and a few of ivory, dated from around 500 BC, were found in children's tombs. These dolls had articulated arms and legs, and in some cases an iron rod extending up from the tops of their heads. This rod was used to manipulate the doll from above, as it is done today in Sicilian puppetry. A few of these dolls had strings in place of rods. Some researchers believe these ancient figures were simply toys and not puppets, due to their small size.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sagecraft.com/puppetry/definitions/historical/chapter1.html|title=We've moved|website=Sagecraft.com}}</ref>