Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/58

 40 THE TRAGIC CHORUS.^ — ARION. case is necessary to explain Archiloclius' boast that lie can play the part of leader in the Dithyramb when the wine is in his head^; for this presumes a sudden impulse rather than a premeditated effort. Arion, however, by composing regular poems to be sung to the lyre, at once raised the Dithyramb to a literary position, and laid the foundations of the stately superstructure which was afterwards erected. 2. He turned the Comus, or moving crowd of worshippers, into a standing Chorus^ of the same kind as that which gave Stesi- chorus his surname. In fact, the steps of the altar of Bacchus became a stage on which lyric poetry in his honour was solemnly recited, and accompanied by corresponding gesticulations. 3. He was the inventor of the tragic style {rpajiKov rpoirov evperTjf;). This means that he introduced a style of music or harmony adapted to and intended for a chorus of Satyrs^. For the word Tpayo<;, " he-goat,'^ was another name for crdrvpos, the goat-eared attendant of Bacchus^; and we have just seen that Suidas specifies the ap- pearance of satyrs " discoursing," or holding a sort of dialogue, in verse, as one of the peculiarities of Arion's new Dithyramb. 4. He gave a name to what was sung by the Chorus ^ What name ? Not BtOvpa/jL^o^;, for that was the common designation in the time of Archilochus, some one hundred years before. As Arion substituted for the riotous Comus a stationary and well-trained Chorus, that which was sung — the dotSri — could not be a Kco/juojSLa or Comedy; but, as being the hymn of a Chorus of rpdyoc or "satyrs," it was naturally termed a Tpa'ycphla^. This name could have nothing to do with the goat, which was the subsequent prize 1 See the lines of Archilochus quoted above, pp. 29, 30. 2 Suidas : xop^v crr^crat. Schol. Pind. : ^crrrjae S^ avrbv [rbv k6kKiov xo/'O'']- This standing chorus nevertheless might perform et,eiyixol and other evolutions on the ground to which it was limited. The Chorus, as a whole, was stationary, though the separate dancers were in motion. 2 On the TpoTToi, "styles" or "harmonies" of Greek music, the student may con- sult Miiller, Hist. Lit. Gr. I. p. 152 [202]. ■* Hesych, : Tpdyovs' (rarvpovs — 5ta to rpdyuu cjra ^x^'*'* Etym. M. : rpayii}8ia 8tc Ta TToXXd oi x^pot e/c (raTvpwu auviaTavTo, ovs eKaXovu rpdyovs. ^' Herodotus says, 6uo,u.daavTa tov didvpa/j-^ou : but Suidas more definitely, dvopidaai TO adofxevov viro rod x^pov. 6 It is pretty clear that Tpayipdia was the name of a species of lyrical poetry ante- cedent to, and independent of the Attic drama. See Bockh in the Appendix to this Chapter. Welcker, Nachtrag, p. 244: "The lyrical Tragedy was a transition step between the Dithyramb and the regular drama. It resembled the Dithyramb in re- presenting by a chorus Dionysian and other myths (hence the Pseans of Xenocritus were called mytlis, because they related heroic talcs), and differed from it in being sung to the lyre, and not to the flute."