228 PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 



Greek history yields various facts of like meaning. In 

 Sparta 



&quot;The singing chorus danced around it [&quot;the sacrifice . . . burn 

 ing on the altar&quot;] in the customary ring; whilst others represented 

 the subject of the song by mimic gesture.&quot; 



That the Greek drama had a religious origin is shown by the 

 fact that it continued always to have a religious character. 

 Says Moulton, &quot; the performance of every drama was re 

 garded by the ancients as an act of worship to Dionysus. 7 

 And to the like effect is the statement of Mahaffy that &quot; the 

 old Greek went to the theatre to honour and serve his god.&quot; 

 The dramatic element of religious ceremonies was at first 

 mingled with the other elements, as is implied by Grote, 

 who speaks of the importance of the united religious cele 

 brants 



&quot;in the ancient world, and especially in the earlier periods of its 

 career the bards and rhapsodes for the epic, the singers for the 

 lyric, the actors and singers jointly with the dancers for the chorus 

 and drama. The lyric and dramatic poets taught with their own, 

 lips the delivery of their compositions.&quot; 



The process of differentiation by which the drama arose is 

 well shown by the following extracts from Moulton: 



&quot;Only one of these Ballad-Dances was destined to develop into 

 drama. This was the Dithyramb, the dance used in the festival 

 worship of the god Dionysus.&quot; 



&quot;The mysteries of ancient religion were mystic dramas in which 

 the divine story was conveyed.&quot; 



i The Chorus started from the altar in the centre of the orchestra, 

 and their evolutions took them to the right. This would constitute a 

 Strophe, whereupon (as the word Strophe implies) they turned 

 round and in the Antistrophe worked their way back to the altar 

 again.&quot; 



In lyric tragedy &quot;the Chorus appear as Satyrs in honour of 

 Dionysus, to whose glory the legend is a tribute; they maintain 

 throughout the combination of chant, music, and dance.&quot; 



&quot;The work of Thespis was to introduce an Actor, separate alto 

 gether from the chorus.&quot; 

 That along with differentiation of the drama from other 



