Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/74

 56 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. As we have before remarked, it was not till the Athenians had recognized the supremacy of the Delphian oracle, that the Dorian choral worship was introduced into Attica, and it was then applied to the old Dionysian religion of the country with the sanction of the Pythian priestess, as appears from the oracle which we have quoted ahove, and from the legend in Pausanias, that the Delphian oracle assisted Pegasus in transferring the worship of Bacchus from Eleutherce to Athens Consequently the cyclic chorus would not be long in finding its way into a country so predisposed for its reception as Attica certainly was; and there is every reason to believe that the Dorian lyric drama, perhaps with certain modifi- cations, accompanied its parent ^. The recitations by rhapsodes were a peculiarly Ionian entertain- ment, and therefore, no doubt, were common in Attica from the very earliest times. At Brauron, in particular, we are told that the Iliad was chanted by rhapsodes^. Now the Brauronia was a festival of Bacchus, and a particularly boisterous one, if we may believe Aristophanes To this festival we refer the passage of Clearchus, quoted by Athenteus^, in which it is stated that the rhapsodes came forward in succession, and recited in honour of Bacchus. By a combination of these particulars, we can at once establish a connexion between the worship of Bacchus and the rhapsodic recitations. Before, however, we consider the important inferences which may be derived from these facts, we must enter a little into the state of affairs in Attica at the time when the Thes- pian Tragedy arose. The early political dissensions at Athens were, like those be- tween the pojoulus and the 2)lehs in the olden times of Roman history, the consequences of an attempt on tlie part of the inferior ■^ I. 2, 5 : ui rrjs ^Attiktjs. Kal Bpavpcxjuia eoprr] 'Apr^/xtSt Bpavpwviq, dyeraL Kal Oierai al'|. Does this mention of the sacrifice of a goat point to the rites of the ^gicores ? 5 At the beginning of the Seventh Book, p. 275 B: ^^ay-qaLa, ol be ^ayrjaLOTroa-ia TrpoaayopevovaL r-qu eoprrjv. e^iXnre de avrrj, KaOdrrep t] tQv paf/cx}5uiv, -qu -qyov Kara Trv tQiv AiovvcrluiV iv ■^ irapLovres eKaaroi rq) Bet^ olov rt/^V direreKovv rrju paxpcpdtav. Welcker reads eKdaru} tG)v deCJv, and takes quite a different view of this passage, except so far as he agrees with us in referring it to the Brauronia {Eii. Cycl. p. 39^)'
 * Pax, 874, and Schol.