Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/43

 DEMETER AND APOLLO. 25 called Satyrs, who were sometimes coiifomided with the former, though their origin appears to have been quite different ; for while the Sileni were real divinities of an elementary religion, the Satyrs were only the deified representatives of the original worshippers Avho probably assumed as portions of their droll costume the skin of the goat, which they had sacrificed as a welcome offering to their wine-god^. Such was the religion of Bacchus as it appeared in Greece ; and there is no doubt that it was speedily accepted by the Pelasgian and Achgean tribes ; that it presented the duplicate form, which it had exhibited in its eastern home ; that the mixed religion be- came prevalent both within and without the Peloponnese ; and that the Dorians, having a pair of deities corresponding in many re- spects to those objects of elementary worship which they found established in most of the countries they subdued, very naturally adapted their own religion to the similar one already subsisting; and that accordingly Dionysus took or maintained his place by the side of Apollo even in the Delphic worship. In addition to the circumstances which adapted the religions themselves to an amalgamation such as we find in their ultimate form, there were features in the rites of Dionysus, even in their most ancient halting-places in Crete and elsewhere, which recom- mended them to the martial tastes of the northern Hellenes. The dances of the Curetes and Corybantes were decidedly military^, and the Bacchic rites, at least as adopted by the Spartans, had a gymnastic character, which accorded well with the rigorous train- ing of the female population in Laconia'*. From this brief sketch it will be seen that the connexion of the worship of Dionysus, Demeter, and Apollo, in which we recognize the earliest appearances of dramatic rites, was due to the common ^ Strabo, p. 466: tovtovs yap rivas dai/xova^ rj Trpo7r6ovs BeCjv^ k.t.X. p. 471 : ^'o^ ort ov irpoiroXoL deujv (xovov dXXd Kal avTol deol irpocf-qyopevdrjaav. 2 Varro, de R. R. I. 2, 18, 19; Virgil, Georg. II. 376 — 383; Ovid, Fast. i. 349 — 360; Eurip. Bacch. 138. 3 Strabo, p. 466. Hesych, : Atoj'i'cridSes. ev "ZTrdpTrj Trap6ivoi, ai ev rois Aiofvciois bpofiov dy upi^ofxepai. Pausan. ill. 13, 7: t(^ 5^ rjpujl' tovt(j) {Aiovvaov ijyep.bvi.) irplv tj t<^ 6€(^ dvov<jLv al Atot-wcrtdSes koI al AevKiinrides [L AevKoirodes], rds 5^ aWas eV5e/ca ds Kal avras Aiofv- CLadas dvoixd^ovcTL, ravraLS dpofxov irporideaai-v dyCjva' dpdv 5^ ovtu crcplcni' rjXdev e/c AeXcpuv. Something of the same kiud appears to be alluded to in Eurip. Bacch. 853 sqq. : dp' iv vauvvxl-OiS xopo?? dr/cru irork XevKbv 7r65' dva^aKx^^ovaa.
 * There were races at Sparta between young women in honour of Bacchus.