Page:The Tragic Drama of the Greeks (1896).djvu/22

10 the night time, upon the mountain ridges. The ministers were chiefly women. Clothed in fawn-skins, like the Bacchantes, and with snakes in their hair and blazing torches in their hands, they rushed along the heights in a state of delirious fury, clashing their cymbals, blowing their flutes, and making pretence to hunt the wild animals, to tear them in pieces, and to devour the raw flesh. This orgiastic mode of worship, with its oriental frenzy and mysticism, seems to have found little favour among the Athenians; and no trieteric festivals were ever established in Attica. Hence it will be unnecessary, in discussing the origin of the Attic drama, to take into consideration this particular phase of Dionysiac enthusiasm.

Before leaving the subject of Dionysus it may be interesting to supplement and illustrate the preceding description of his cultus by some account of the manner in which he was represented in works of art. His outward appearance, as there portrayed, differed very considerably at successive periods; and the variety of type, in this case as well as in that of the other gods, shows a gradual progress from rude simplicity to grace, dignity, and refinement. The earliest statues of Dionysus were mere pillars of stone, with the head of a bearded man, antique in style and expression, carved upon the top. Various adornments, such as chaplets of ivy and vine-leaf, strings of fruit, and branches laden with country produce, denoted the rustic nature of the god. In course of time the rudeness of this first conception was partially modified, the stone pillar being replaced by a stiff kind of figure with hands and feet; but the general presentment remained very much the same. The specimen which is here given (fig. 1), with its pointed beard, and formal and elaborate ringlets, exhibits the usual characteristics of early Greek art. These primitive representations of the deity were never entirely discarded by