Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/294

284 284 On the Attic Dionysia. Lenaeon was within the city, and that the entertainments originally exhibited there were afterwards transferred to the theatre, which was of course built at no great distance from the hallowed ground. Accordingly Hesychius (iVjOta) calls it TO ev Aiovmov Oearpov (see Ruhnken. Auct. Em.) and Pausanias (i. 20) describes the Lenaeon, without mentioning its name, in exact accordance with the passages above quoted : To? /^LovvcTov Se edTL Trpo^ no Oearpo) to apyaioTaTov epov, dvo ce elcriv evTo^ tov TvepijooXov vaoi koI /lovv(Tol^ 6 re 'EXevOepev^ Kai ov ' AXKa/uevrj^ eTroLrjcrev €X€<pavTo^ Kai y^pvaov. The same precincts are described by Hesychius in another passage by a different name: AiimvayGve^' Ai/uvai ev A9i]vaL£ Toiro^ dvetjuevo^ /^^lovvcrtp oirov Ta Arjvaia fjyeTOc It was therefore the Lenaean Bacchus to whom the place called Limnae was consecrated, and the same god was honoured by the festival of the Anthesteria. Ruhnken considers all this as evidence for his opinion. It might however be just as well used to prove that the great Dionysia were the same festival as the Anthesteria : for they are no less inti- mately connected with the same sacred inclosure : and as after the erection of the theatre the spectacles before exhibited at the Lenaea on the wooden scaffolding in the Lenaeon were transferred to the new building, so there can be no doubt that the entertainments of the great Dionysia were anciently performed on the boards of the Lenseon. Nothing therefore can be inferred as to the identity of the festivals from the identity of the place, and as little from that of the god, since from a variety of causes, which any one conversant with the religious worship of the Greeks may easily imagine, the same god might become the object of two distinct fes- tivals. On the other hand this evidence as to the locality of the Lenaean festival, seems conclusive arainst those who maintain its identity with the rural Dionysia : and several of them have in fact seen no other way of eluding the force of the inference, than by resorting to very violent proceedings with the text of some of the obnoxious passages. Nor is the derivation of the name Lenaea, from the winepress, inconsistent with the fact, that the festival was celebrated within the city. The spot on which the winepress the erection of which it was supposed to comme-