Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/102

 34 HISTORY OF GREECE. ally, a large proportion of them being actively engaged h it,- and receiving some training for the purpose as an ordinary branch of education. Neither the song nor the dance, under such conditions, could be otherwise than extremely simple. But in process of time, the performance at the chief festivals tended to become more elaborate, and to fall into the hands of persona expressly and professionally trained, the mass of the citizens gradually ceasing to take active part, and being present merely as spectators. Such was the practice which grew up in mosl parts of Greece, and especially at Athens, where the dramatic chorus acquired its highest perfection. But the drama nevei found admission at Sparta, and the peculiarity of Spartan life tended much to keep up the popular chorus on its ancient footing. It formed, in fact, one element in that never-ceasing drill to which the Spartans were subject from their boyhood, and it served a purpose analogous to their military training, in accustoming them to simultaneous and regulated movement, insomuch that the comparison between the chorus, especially in his Pyrrhic, or war- dances, and the military enomoty, seems to have been often dwelt upon." In the singing of the solemn paean in honor of Apollo, at the festival of the Hyakinthia, king Agesilaus was under the or- ders of the chorus-master, and sang in the place allotted to him ; 3 while the whole body of Spartans without exception, the old, 1 Plato, Legg. vii, p. 803. -Biiovra KOI. atiovra KOI 6pxov/j.nf /Aewf avru) irapaaKevu&iv dvvarbv eh>ai, etc. : compare p. 799 ; Maximus Tyr. Diss. xxxvii, 4 ; Aristophan. Kan. 950-975 ; Athcnceus, xiv, p. 626; Polyb. iv, 30; Lucian, De Saltatione, c. 10, 11, 16, 31. Compare Aristotle (Problem xix, 15) about the primitive character and subsequent change of the chorus; and the last chapter of the eighth book of his Politica: also, a striking passage in Plutarch (De Cupidine Divitia- rum, c. 8, p. 527) about the transformation of the Dionysiac festival at Chaironeia from simplicity to costliness. 8 Athenseus, xiv, p. 628; Suidas, vol. iii, p. 715, ed. Kustcr; Plutarch, Instituta Laconica, c. 32, KU//tJ<5i'af Kat rpnywJ/af OVK ijKpourrd^oi^^ [tf/Tt. Iv crxovftfi, HTJTE kv Kat&ia, UKOVUGI TUV uvriAeyovruv roif vo/Mif, which exactly corresponds with the ethical view implied in the alleged convers:> don between Solon and Thespis (Plutarch, Solon, c. 29 : see above, ch. xi, roL'ii, p. 195), and with Plato, Legg. vii, p. 817. ray&i] imb roi VOOOTTOIOV, r*v Tratava TV d
 * Xenophon, Agesilaus, ii, 17. oiK/ids UTTI'^&UV elf TO. '"fanh tfia. OTTO*