Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/57

 THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 39 notices which have come down to us, to draw up an accurate description of this Bacchic chorus as it was exhibited at Corinth in the days of Periander. Of our authorities, the two most explicit are the earliest and the most recent, which stand related to one another as text and com- mentary. Herodotus tells us that " Arion was the most eminent cithara-player of his time, and that he was the first, as far as Herodotus knew, who made poems for the Dithyramb, who gave a name to these poems, and regularly taught the Chorus ; and that he did this at Corinth " The lexicographer Suidas gives the same information, but at greater length, and in such a manner as to show that Herodotus was by no means his only authority. He says : born about the 38th Olympiad. Some have told us that he was a scholar of Alcman. He is said to have been the inventor of the tragic style ; and to have been the first to introduce a standing- chorus, and to sing the Dithyramb ; and to give a name to what was sung by the Chorus ; and to introduce Satyrs speaking in versed" As these accounts are in strict agreement with one another, and with all the scattered and fragmentary notices of Arion which we meet with elsewhere 3, we may conclude that we have here a true tradition, and proceed to interpret it accordingly. It appears, then, that the following were the improvements which the Me- thymnffian citharoedus introduced into the Corinthian Dithyramb. 1. He composed regular poems for this dance ^. Previously, t]ie leaders of the wild irregular Comus, which danced the Dithyramb, bewailed the sorrows of Bacchus, or commemorated his wonderful birth, in spontaneous effusions accompanied by suitable action, for which they trusted to the inspiration of the wine-cup. This is the meaning of Aristotle's assertion that this primitive Tragedy was "extempore" (avroa'x^eBiaa-TLKri^), and some such vicAV of the ^ Herod. I. -23: ' kpiova — ebvra KiOapifdbv tCov Tore eovrojv ovSevbs dejjrepov' Kal didvpajx^ov, TrpCjTOv avdpixnrwv rdv -q/xeis td/xeu, iroL-qaavTo. re Koi ovofidcravTa Kal didd^avTa if KopifBu}. 2 Suidas : 'Apluv 'M-rjOvfJ.vatos, XvpiKos, Kv/cXe'ws viSs, yeyove Kara t7]v r{ oXv/MTridda' Tives 5e Kai ixndrjrrjv'WKixdvos laToprjaau avrbv. ^ypaxpe 8^ aafiara, wpooifxta eis ^tttj /3'. "K^yerai 5^ /cat rpayiKOv rpoirov evperrjs yeviaOaL, Kal irpwros x^P^^ aTrjcrai. Kal diOvpafM^ov q.(Tai Kal dvofxdaai to (^do/xevou virb tov xopov Kal aaTvpovs elaeveyKdv ^fxfj.erpa Xiyovras. 3 Dio, II. p. loi ; Phot. Cod. 239, p. 985; Schol. Find. 01. xiii. 18; Schol. Aristoph. Aves, 1403. ^ This is the true force of the phrases Troirjcrac, q^aai t6 didvpafi^oi'. ° Aristot. Poet. c. iv.
 * ' Arion, the Methymnsean, a lyric poet, the son of Cycleus, was