Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/311

289 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 289 fortunes, as with real events, always remained. The swarm of subordi- nate beings — Satyrs, Panes, and Nymphs — by whom Bacchus was sur- rounded, and through whom life seemed to pass from the god of out- ward nature into vegetation and the animal world, and branch off into a variety of beautiful or grotesque forms, were ever present to the fancy of the Greeks ; it was not necessary to depart very widely from the ordinary course of ideas, to imagine that dances of fair nymphs and bold satyrs, among the solitary woods and rocks, were visible to human eyes, or even in fancy to take a part in them. The intense desire felt by every worshipper ol Bacchus to fight, to conquer, to suffer, in common with him, made them regard these subordinate beings as a convenient step by which they could approach more nearly to the presence of their divinity. The custom, so prevalent at the festivals of Bacchus, of taking the dis- guise of satyrs, doubtless originated in this feeling, and not in the mere desire of concealing excesses under the disguise of a mask ; otherwise, so serious and pathetic a spectacle as tragedy could never have origi- nated in the choruses of these satyrs. The desire of escaping from self, into something new and strange, of living in an imaginary world, breaks forth in a thousand instances in these festivals of Bacchus. It is seen in the colouring the body with plaster, soot, vermilion, and different sorts of green and red juices of plants, wearing goats and deer skins round the loins, covering the face with large leaves of dif- ferent plants ; and, lastly, in the wearing masks of wood, bark, and other materials, and of a complete costume belonging to the character. § 4. These facts seem to us to explain how the drama might na- turally originate from the enthusiasm of the worship of Bacchus, as a part of his festival ceremonies. We now come to consider the direct evidence respecting its origin. The learned writers of antiquity agree in stating that tragedy, as well as comedy, was originally a choral song.* It is a most important fact in the history of dramatic poetry, that the lyric portion, the song of the chorus, was the original part of it. The action, the adventure of the god, was pre-supposed, or only sym- bolically indicated by the sacrifice : the chorus expressed their feelings upon it. This choral song belonged to the class of dithyrambs ; Aris- totle says that tragedy originated with the singers of the dithyramb.f The dithyramb was, as we have already seen,]: an enthusiastic ode to Bacchus, which had in early time been sung at convivial meetings by the drunken revellers, but, after the time of Arion (about b. c. 620), was regularly executed by a chorus. The dithyramb was capable of ex- pressing every variety of feeling excited by the worship and mythology Comoedia fere vetus, ut ipsa quoque olim tragaedia, simplex fuit carmen, quod cho- rus circa aras fumantes nunc spatiatus, nunc consistent, nunc revolvens gyros, cum tibicine concinebat. f Ajistot. Poet. 4. axo «r«» I'^a.p^dv'rav rov iifugap-tie*. U
 * One passage will serve for many: Euanthius de tragcedia et comoedia, C. '2.
 * Ch. XIV. § 7.