Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/55

 THE TEAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 37 flute of the Comiis to the lyre of the Chorus, it multiplied the ap- poggiaturas of the flute accompaniment^. Instead of assuming more and more a dramatic form, it is expressly described as having been distinguished from Tragedy and Comedy by its expository style, and by the pre-eminence given to the poet's own individuality". Instead of approximating to the language of ordinary life, it became more and more turgid, bombastic, affected, and unnatural. Even Lasos himself indulged in an excess of artificial refinement. He composed odes, from which the sibilants were studiously excluded ; and his rhythms were conveyed in prolix metres, which dragged their slow length along, in full keeping with the pompous phraseo- logy, which was to the last days of Greek literature regarded as a leading characteristic of the Dithyramb^. Pindar, the great pupil of Lasos, speaks with disapprobation of this style of Dithyramb, which however, his own better example failed to correct : '' For- merly," he says, "the Dithyramb crawled along in lengthy rhythms, and the s was falsified in its utterance'*." Again, while the Dithy- ramb, as reformed by Arion, clung to the antistrophic and epodic forms introduced into the chorus by his contemporary Tisias, who derived his better-known surname Stesichorus from the stability which he thus gave to the movements of his well-taught body of dancers^, the Dithyramb of Lasus eventually became monostrophic, 1 Plut. Mus. p. 666, Wyttenb. : Ada-os 5^ 6 'Ep/xLOvevs etj rrjv Sidvpafx^LKrju dyoryTjp fi€Ta(XT'r}(Tas tovs pvdfiovs Kal rrj rQ>v avXwv irdXvcpwviq. KaraKoKovBrjcras TrXeloai re (pd6y- yois Kal 5c€ppi./x/j.4voLS xPV<^<^/^^os et's fxerdOecnu ttjv TvpovTrdpxovaav rjyaye fiovaiK-Ziu. 2 Plat, de Eejmbl. in, p. 394 C : 6tc ttjs iroL-qcews re koI fj-vdoXoyias 17 fih did [iiiir}' crews 0X17 ecrrtV, (Jiairep av X^76is rpayixibia re Kal KOJfXipSia, r/ 5^ 5t' d7ra77eXtas avTou tov iroL7}TOv, evpoLS d' du avrrju p-dXiard irov ev didvpdfi^ois. ^ See Aristoph. Pax, 794 — 7; Aves, 1373 sqq. Hence Sidvpafi^dbdris signifies tumid and bombastic. Plato, Cratyl. p. 409 c. Cf. Hipp. Maj. p. 292 C. Dionys. Hal. de culm, vi Dem. p. 1043, 10. Philostrat. p. "21, 6: XSyoiv idiau ov ^idvpaix^wb-rj, on which the Scholiast, published by G. I. Bekker (Heidelbergae, 1818), says: didvpafi- ^wdrj auud^Tois dj^Sfiaai cre/j.uvvofxh'rjv Kal e/croTrwrdrots irXdafiaai iroLKiXXoixivTiv' tolovtoi yap oi 8t6vpa/x(3oi are 5iopvcriu}v reXeruiv dtpcop/xrjfx^poi. ^ Fraym. 47: JJplu [xh elpwe axoivoTiueid t doiZd dLdvpdfi^uv Kal TO adv Ki^daXou dvdpdnroLaiv dwb aro/xdrajv. The adjective a-xot-vorepris refers to rhythm, as appears from Herraogenes, de Invent. IV. 4 (Vol. III. p. 158, Walz), who after defining the Kofxfia and the kQXov says: t6 5^ virep TO T^pwcKov cxoLvoTeves KeKXrjTai xPV'^'-l^'^v Trpooi/jLiois /xaXiaTa Kal rats tQv irpooiixlwv Trepi^oXats. The second line alludes to the u>bal d(nyp.oc of Lasus : see Athen. viii. p. 455 c. ^ See the explanations given by the grammarians and lexicographers of the pro- verbial phrases irdvra oktuj, Tpia I^Trjaixopov, and ovbe rd Tpia 'ETrjcrtx^pov yLyvujaKeis. With regard to the significance of his name, as applicable to the Bacchic Chorus in particular, it is worthy of remark that when the Delphic oracle (apud Dem. Mid. p. 531) enjoins the establishment of the Dorian form of Dionysiac worship at Athens, it expressly uses the phrase larduai x°P^^-