Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/81

 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 63 was one of those writers of gnomic poetry, whom we have con- sidered as the successors of the Epopoeists, and from whose writings the Attic tragedians modelled their dialogue. Now we know that Pisistratus endeavoured, as far as was consistent with his own de- signs, to adopt the constitution of Solon, and always treated his venerable kinsman with deference and respect. May not a wish to reconcile his own plans with the tastes and feelings of the super- seded legislator have operated with him as an additional reason for attempting to unite the old epic element with the rites of the Dio- nysian religion, which his political connexions compelled him to transfer from the country to the city ? may not such a combination have been suggested by his early recollections of the Brauronia? did the genius of the Icarian plan the innovation, or was he merely instrumental towards carrying it into effect ? was the name Thespis originally borne by this agent of Pisistratus, or was it rather a sur- name, derived from the common epithet of the Homeric minstreP, and implying nothing more in its connexion with the history of the drama, than that it arose from a combination such as we have described ? But whatever reason we may assign for the union of the rhap- sody with the Bacchic chorus, it seems pretty clear that this union was actually effected in the time of Pisistratus. And herein con- sists the claim of Thespis to be considered as the inventor of Attic Tragedy. Arion's satyrical chorus, and even the lyric drama of Epigenes, may have been imitated at Athens soon after their intro- duction in the Peloponnesus. The cyclic chorus was performed as a separate affair till the latest days of Athenian democracy^, and the Pyrrhic dance, which was adopted by the Satyrs, was also a 1 Horn, Od. I. 328 : Tov 5' virepw'Cbdev <ppeal awdero dicTrtv doidi)!/ KovpT] 'I Kapioio. VIII. 498 : ws dpa TOt irpd^pojv 6eds Loiraae 6e<nriv dotSi^u. XVII. 385 : Tj Kal d^aiTLv doidbv, 6 Keu TepTrrjcnv ddbwv. See Buttmanii's Lexilogus, I. p. 166. It was very common to invent names for persons from their actions, or for persons to change their own names according to their profession. Thus Helen is called the daughter of Nemesis, Arion the son of Cycleus, and Tisias changed his name into Stesichorus, by which alone he is known at the present day (above, p. 37, and see Clinton's F. H. Vol. I. p. 5) ; so that Thespis may even be an assumed name. 2 Lys. dTToS. 5w/)o5. p. 698.