Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/53

 THE TRAGIC CHOEUS. — ARION. 35 We have treated more at length of these three sorts of choral dances, because each of them had its representative in the dramatic poetry of a later age. This appears from a curious passage in Athena3us, probably derived from some author of weight^; " There are," he tells us, " three dances in scenic poetry, the Tragic, the Comic, and the Satyric; and likewise three in lyric poetry, the Pyrrhic, the Gymnopcedic, and the Hyporchematic ; and the Pyrrhic indeed corresponds to the Satyric, for they are both rapid;" (he had given just before a reason for the rapidity of the Satyric dance). "Now the Pyrrhic is considered a military one, for the dancers are boys in armour; and swiftness is needed in war for pursuit and flight. But the Gymnopcedic dance is similar to the Tragic which is called emmeleia; both these dances are conspi- cuously staid and solemn. The Hyporchematic dance coincides in its peculiarities with the Comic, and they are both full of mer- riment," The Bacchic hymn, which was first raised to the rank of choral and lyric poetry among the Dorians, was the Dithyramh, which is regularly opposed to the Pcean"^. Originally, no doubt, it was nothing more than a Comus, and one too of the wildest and most Corybantic character. A crowd of worshippers, under the influence of wine, danced up to and around the blazing altar of Jupiter. They were probably led by a flute-player, and accompanied by the Phrygian tamborins and cymbals, which were used in the Cretan worship of Bacchus ^ The subject of the song was properly the birth of Bacchus*, but it is not improbable that his subsequent adventures and escapes may have been occasionally celebrated^; and it is a reasonable conjecture that the Coryphaeus occasionally assumed the character of the god himself, while the rest of the ^ Athen. p. 630 D. He quotes Aristocles, Aristoxenus, and Scamo. With regard to the Hyporcheme cf. Athen. 21 D: 17 hk BadOWeios [lipxv<^i-^] IXapcoripa' Kal yap vir6pxVP-<^ Ti- TOVTov dtaridecrdac. 2 Plut. De EI Delphico, p. 593: fii^o^bav yap, Alax'j'Xos (prjal, irpiirei di9ijpafx.^ov 6/J,apTeip (TTLiyKOLVov Aiouijcru)' tQ bk _' kiroKKwvL] iraiava Teray/x^urjv Kal auKppova fiovaav. Ibid. p. 594 : t6v iikv 6XK0P eviavrhv irataui xP^^t^'- ""epi rds dvaias, dpxofJ.iuov S^ X^cfxCivos iireyelpavres didvpa/x^op, rbv S^ iraiava KaraTraOcravTes rpeh ju.7}vas dur' eKeivov TOVTOV KaTaKaXovvTac t6u debv. See also above, p, 32, note 7. 3 Euripides, Bacch. 123 — 133, distinctly identifies the worship of Bacchus with the Corybantic adoration of Demeter. diOvpa/x^os ey6fM€vos. ^ This may be inferred from Herod, v. 67: Kal 8r] vpSs, rk irddea avrov TpayiKottn XopoT<ri iyipaipov tov p.h Ai6vv<Tov oii TifiiiovTe^, rbv B^ "khprjaTOv. 3—2
 * Plato, Legg. iii. p. 700 B : Traiioves ^Tcpov, Kal &Wo Aiovitrov y^veais, ot/iai,