In the Middle Ages, masks were used in the mystery plays of the 12th to 16th century.

some authorities maintain that the masks of the ancient theatre were crude affairs with little aesthetic appeal.

Details from frescoes, mosaics, vase paintings, and fragments of stone sculpture that have survived to the present day provide most of what is known of the appearance of these ancient theatrical masks.

Moreover, their use made it possible for the Greek actors—who were limited by convention to three speakers for each tragedy—to impersonate a number of different characters during the play simply by changing masks and costumes.

Heavily coiffured and of a size to enlarge the actor’s presence, the Greek mask seems to have been designed to throw the voice by means of a built-in megaphone device and, by exaggeration of the features, to make clear at a distance the precise nature of the character.

In Greece the progress from ritual to ritual-drama was continued in highly formalized theatrical representations. Masks used in these productions became elaborate headpieces made of leather or painted canvas and depicted an extensive variety of personalities, ages, ranks, and occupations.

When a literature of worship appeared, a disguise, which consisted of a white linen mask hung over the face (a device supposedly initiated by Thespis, a 6th-century-bce poet who is credited with originating tragedy), enabled the leaders of the ceremony to make the god manifest.

In the worship of Dionysus, god of fecundity and the harvest, the communicants’ attempt to impersonate the deity by donning goatskins and by imbibing wine eventually developed into the sophistication of masking.

The mask as a device for theatre first emerged in Western civilization from the religious practices of ancient Greece.

The mask participates as a more enduring element, since its form is physical.

Masks have been used almost universally to represent characters in theatrical performances.

The Eskimo (Inuit) make masks with comic or satiric features that are worn at festivals of merrymaking, as do the Igbo of Nigeria.

In Mexico and Guatemala, annual folk festivals employ masks for storytelling and caricature, such as for the Dance of the Old Men and the Dance of the Moors and the Christians.