WON 



DIOJi 



531 



and banquet*, of which the festival* coniutvd. were under the superin- 

 tradenoe of the several deaurch*. It i inferred from the law of 

 Eragora*, cited by Demosthene* (Mid p. .MT). and an inscription con- 

 tained in Boeokh'* Public Economy of Athens ( Ap|>. viii. i, tint Athens 

 joined, on the occasion of the Rural Dionysia, in the festival eel. 

 at Pineu*. At the dramatic performance* of these rural festivals, 

 play* that had before been represented either nt the Lome* or the 

 Great Dionyiia, u*ed to be repeated. Of the procession, in which was 

 carried the phallus, and in which was sung the phallic hyuin, there is 

 a sketch in miniature in the Achornians ' of Aristophanes (v. -2:10, 

 foL). At all UUMC festivals great licence of speech and conduct was 

 allowed ; but at this the licence was the most unbounded. 



2. J%t Lmtta, so called from a wine-press (Ai)-it), whose erection, 

 in on inclosure called for the same reason Lencrum, lying originally a 

 littl.' out of the city and near a marsh (Atuvoi), it was supposed to 

 commemorate, may, like the Htiral Dionysia, be considered a vintage- 

 festival. Boeokh thinks that a festival that went by the name of 

 A n&roMo wa< the same with the Lemcx The Lenaca were celebrated 

 also among the Ionian states in Asia Minor, they having carried over 

 with them at their migration the custom of the mother-country ; and 

 the Attic month Qamelion, in which the Lemea were held, received in 

 the Ionian calendar the name Lcnieon. In Athens, the Lenica were 

 under the superintendence of the king-archon, and were celebrated 

 with a public banquet at the expense of the state, a procession, and 

 with dramatic exhibitions. As regards these last, we find that they 

 consisted chiefly of new comedies. There are, however, instances of 

 tragedies represented at the Lemea, as also of comedies at the Great 

 Dionysia, in the performances at which festival tragedies greatly pre- 

 dominated. It will help to show the relation between the Lemea and 

 the Great Dionysia that at the former foreigners were not, as at the 

 latter, excluded from choruses, and also that the resident aliens 

 (luroacoi) might at the Lemea serve as clioragi, which again was not 

 permitted at the Great Dionysia. 



3. The Anthetttria, deriving its name from the time of year at 

 which it was held, the month of flowers, is a festival differing mate- 

 rially from the other three, inasmuch as it appears to have compre- 

 hended no public dramatic performances. It is inferred however by 

 Hermann, from a law mentioned in the Lives of the Ten Orators 

 (Pseud. Plut. vi. p. 253), and from other stray allusions to contests 

 taking place at this festival, that plays were now rehearsed before 

 email audiences, which were to be performed at the Great Dionysia in 

 the succeeding month. Neither was there at the Anthesteria, as at 

 the Lemea and Great Dionysia, a public banquet provided by the 

 state ; but a certain sum, it is supposed, was given to each citizen, with 

 which he was to provide his own repast. (Plut. ' Resp. Ger. Pr.' c. 25.) 

 The festival lasted during three days, which respectively bore the 

 names Pithaegia, Choe, and Chytri. On the first day, as is to be 

 inferred from the name, the wine of the preceding vintage was broached 

 and tasted, and on the second, we may suppose, the new wine was 

 drunk. It was on this day that persons were initiated in the mysteries 

 of Dionysus. On the second day there were various games ; on the 

 third, flowers, 4c. were oflered to the god. This was accounted a 

 festival of great sanctity, and included many mysterious ceremonies for 

 which none but the wife of the kiug-archon and a small number of 

 priestesses (ytpaiiMi) were qualified. One ceremony was a mock mar- 

 riage between the king-archon's wife and Dionysus. (Demosth. * X.,< .." 

 p. 1369.) The Antheiteria were, like the Lemca, under the super- 

 intendence of the king-archon. As during the Roman Saturnalia, the 

 slaves enjoyed a temporary freedom during this festival ; it was a 

 custom alio to send presents, and, as at the Roman Quinquatria, to 

 pay one's instructors on the occasion of the Anthesteria. (Athen. 

 x. 437.) 



4. The City or Great Dionysia, or Dlonyiia without any epithet, the 

 most splendid of the four festivals, were under the superintendence of 

 the chief archon (ifxav tiruvvnos). This festival was held at a time 

 when Athens was filled with foreigners, those bringing the tribute 

 from her dependent states, and others. (Aristoph. ' Ach.' 474, &c.) 

 It was celebrated with a public banquet at the expense of the state, 

 with a magnificent procession, and with dramatic performances, which 

 consulted chiefly, as has been said in describing the Lemca, of tragedies. 

 Plays which had once won a prize were not allowed to be repeated, 

 though a special exemption from this rule was granted to the plays of 

 ^GauhyliM upon his death, and subsequently to those of Sophocles and 

 Euripides. 



The times and occasions of the institution of these several festivals 

 ore wrapped in obscurity. The Rural Dionysia, Lentoa, and Anthes- 

 teria, were connected with a rural worship of Dionysus [DlONYSUs], 

 and were, it may be safely said, antecedent to the Great or City 

 Dionysia ; and it is, in comparison with this festival that Thucydides 

 (ii. 15) calls the Anthesteria, more ancient. The Lemea and Anthes- 

 teria were festivals held in the deine Letueus before it was inclosed 

 within the city. The institution of the great Dionysia seems to bo 

 referred to in a legend, which relates that Pegasus brought an linage 

 of Dionysus Eleuthereus from Eleuthcno to Athens. Boeckh connects 

 this with an historical tradition of the migration of the El<Mithcrians 

 from their town to Athens, and conjectures that the migration, and, an 

 he suppose*, consequent Institution of the (jr. . preceded by 



a little the return of the Heraclidcs (1124 B.C.). Welcker, who assigns 



to the epithet Eleuthereus and other epithets of Dionysus a political 

 meaning, connects with the progress of his rites in the Athenian state 

 the progress of political liberty. 



The grand feature* of these festival* were the dramatic performances, 

 the secret rites, and the public processions. Of the dramatic perform- 

 ances we have spoken above. Of the secret rites little is really kn- > n. 

 The processions were what perhaps most distinguished them in the 

 popular eye from the other public festivals of Attica. The Dionysia 

 were a season when riotous merriment and drunkenness were universal. 

 The bounty of the wine god was symbolised in the unlimited enjoy- 

 ment of his worshippers. In the procession Dionysus himself was 

 represented, attended by Nymphs, Lento, Bacchantes, Fauns, Satyrs, &c. 

 The men, drunk with wine, wore disguised with skins and masks, their 

 bodies were painted, they were crowned with garlands of ivy, anil 

 carried thyrsi in their hands ; while the female bacchantes, Ac., danced 

 along in a state of ecstatic phrensy. These Dionysion processions 

 afforded favourable opportunities for the display of the freer form* of 

 Greek art, and some of the most beautiful relievi, sculptured and 

 painted vases, &c., have DionysUn processions or characters for their 

 subjects. Many of these may be seen in the British Museum. The 

 beautiful figure of a bacchante engraved below is supposed to bo the 



[Bacchante, from the British Museum.] 



work of Scopus. The cut of a Dionysian procession is from a large 

 marble vase. 



The bacchanalia, as the Roman festive rites in honour of Bacchus 

 were called, must be distinguished from the Greek Dionysia. The 

 bacchanalia were celebrated every third year, and were hence 

 trieterica. At them a mixed crowd of men and women, intox 

 with wine, clothed in deer-skins and Asiatic robes, and carrying thyrsi 

 in their hands, ran up and down the country shouting, beating drums 

 and cymbals, and crying, " Evoe ! lo Bncche ! Evan ! " &c. They are 

 said to have been introduced into Rome from Etruria, (Liv. xxxix. 8.) 

 Such fearful excesses, however, were early brought into practice at 

 the secret initiatory rites, that in the year 186, B.C., the consuls laid 

 a report of the proceeding before the senate, and afterwards before an 

 assembly of the people, and were, in consequence of the disclosures, 

 invested with extraordinary powers for their suppression. They ac- 

 cordingly issued a proclamation for the suppression of the bacchanalian 

 orgies throughout Italy; and directed all persons known to have 

 participated in the private meetings to be summarily arrested 

 many as 7000 person* are said to have been initiated ; and the trials 



