T H E 



353 



THE 



statue of the goddess. Meursius and others think that tlie 

 procession to the Thesmophorion (the temple of Demeter 

 Thesmophoros) at Athens, which is alluded to by Aristo- 

 phanes (Thetmopbor., 276, &c.), and in which the women 

 walked behind a waggon laden with baskets containing 

 mystic symbols, took place in the afternoon of this day, 

 tli.' whole of which was a sacred day at Athens, on which 

 neither the senate nor the people were allowed to hold 

 their usual meetings. The third day was called KalXiyivna, 

 a surname of Demeter, by which she was invoked on this 

 occasion. (Aristoph., Thesmophor., 296, with the Scholiast.) 

 On this day the women made up for the day of mourning, 

 and indulged in various kinds of merriment in imitation of 

 lambe, who was believed to have created a smile on the 

 lace of the goddess during her grief. Hesychius mentions 

 a sacrifice called Zemia (;;/a) in connection with the 

 Thesmophoria, which was offered to propitiate the goddess 

 for :my neglect or fault that might have been committed 

 during the celebration of her festival ; but whether this 

 sacrifice was oft'ereU at the close of the third day or after 

 the festival, cannot be decided. 



( .Meursius, Graecia Feriata, s. v. etcr/io^opia ; Dictionary 

 fif Greek and Roman Antiq., s. v. Thesmophoria ; Wel- 

 lauer, De Thesmophoriis, Breslau, 1820, 8vo.) 



TIIESPE'SIA (from Seujrcuioc), the name of a genus of 

 plants belonging to the natural order Malvaceae. The 

 species are trees with large entire leaves. The calyx is 

 truncate, and girded by a 3-leaved deciduous involucel ; 

 the fruit is a capsule with 5 cells, each cell is semi-parted, 

 with 4 seeds at the base. 



T. populnea, Poplar Thespesia, has roundish, cordate, 

 pointed, 5-7-veined leaves, with dot-like scales beneath, 

 with the peduncles equal in length to the petioles. This 

 plant is a native of the East Indies, Guinea, and the Society 

 Islands ; and is known, where it grows amongst British 

 colonists, as the umbrella-tree. It attains a height of 

 about 40 feet, and has large yellow flowers with a dark 

 red centre. In the tropics it has gained for itself a sacred 

 regard, and is planted about monasteries and convents ; 

 hence the name Thespesia (divine). There are two species 

 natives of South America: they are all trees, with 

 handsome, showy flowers. In their cultivation they will 

 thrive well in a mixture of loam and sand, and cuttings 

 will strike freely in sand or mould under a hand-glass in a 

 hot-bed. (Don's Miller, vol. i.) 



THESPIS oiffjHc), a native of Icaria in Attica, who 

 lived in the time of Solon and Pisistratus, about 535 B.C. 

 The antient traditions unanimously represent him as the 

 inventor of tragedy. The manner in which this invention 

 is said to have originated is stated differently. According to 

 one account, which is also adopted by Horace, it arose from 

 Thespis travelling during the festival of Dionysus through 

 Attica upon a waggon, on which he performed comic 

 I. This tradition however is based upon a confusion 

 of tragedy with comedy, the invention of which is not 

 ascribed to Thespis by any antient authority. The inven- 

 tion of Thesis ( '(insisted in nothing else than in introduc- 

 ing a person who at the Dionysiac festivals in the city of 

 Athens entered into conversation with the chorus, or related 

 a story to it. The designation of this actor was Hypocrites 

 (virotpiriif), that is, the 'answerer,' because what he -said 

 or acted answered or corresponded with the songs of the 

 chorus. By means of masks, the invention of which was 

 likewise ascribed to Thespis, he was enabled to act different 

 characters one after another. Some writers who considered 

 tlie chorus itself as a second actor, speak of two actors in 

 the time of Thespis, and consequently state that .<Eschylus 

 introduced a third actor. (Themistius, Orat., xxvi., p. 382, 

 edit. Dindorf.) Whether Thespis wrote his plays is not 

 quite certain, although Donatus (De Comoed, et Tragoed., 

 in (Ironovius's T/tr-.iaurus, viii., p. 1387) expressly says so, 

 but the tragedies bearing the name of Thespis in the time 

 ot the Alexandrines cannot be considered as genuine. It 

 is an historical fact that Heraclides Ponticus forged tra- 

 gedies under the name of Thespis ; and the few frajgments 

 of Thespis quoted by antient writers are unquestionably 

 h supposititious works. The tragedies of 

 Thespis must have fallen into oblivion and have perished 

 at the time when the Attic drama reached its perfection : 

 some of his choral songs however appear to have been 

 known as late us the time of Aristophanes, as we may infer 

 from ling scene of the ' Wasps.' We know the 



title* of his tragedies: ' Pentheus,' ' The Funeral 



P. C., No. 1532. 



Games of Pelias or Phorbas,' ' The Priests,' and ' The 

 Youths ;' but of their construction nothing is known, ex- 

 cept that each seems to have commenced with a prologue. 

 (Themist, Orat., p. 382.) 



Respecting the history of Thespis very little is known. 

 Solon was present at the performance of one of Thespis's 

 plays, and highly disapproved of dramatic performances, as 

 tending to lead men to falsehood and hypocrisy. Towards 

 the end of the career of Thespis tragic contests, were in- 

 troduced at Athens, and Thespis probably contended for 

 the prize with Choerilus and Phrynichus, who is called his 

 disciple. Thespis is also said to have distinguished him- 

 self in orchestic, or the ait of dancing (Athenaeus, i., p. 

 22), which however can only refer to his skill in instruct- 

 ing the chorus. 



(Bode, Geschichte der Dramat. Dichtkunst der Hd- 

 lenen, i., pp. 40-57 ; Miiller, Hist, of the Lit. of Greece, 

 i., p. 292, SEC.) 



THESPRO'TIA (Qtawpuria), a district of the antient 

 Epirus, around the river Acheron. Its boundaries are not 

 distinctly stated by antient writers, but the district seems 

 to have included the coast from the mouth of the Ambra- 

 cian Gulf northwards to the river Thyamis, and the country 

 inland as far as Mount Tomarus. The south-eastern part 

 of Thesprotia, south of the river Acheron, was called Casso- 

 paea, and is sometimes reckoned as a distinct district ; but 

 the other statement appears more correct, since Herodotus 

 makes the Thesproti neighbours of the Ambraciots and 

 Leucadians. (Herod., viii. 47.) 



Thesprotia was one of the chief abodes of the Pelasgi. 

 This is intimated by the legend which makes Thesprotus 

 the son of Lycapn. In Thesprotia was the oracle of Do- 

 dona (Herod., ii. 56), the chief seat of the old Pelasgic 

 religion. [DODONA.] In Thesprotia Aristotle found the 

 Hellenes under their antient name of Graeci (rpawoi, 

 Aristot., Mtiterolng., i. 14.) From this country the Thes- 

 sali migrated to take possession of Thessaly, about sixty 

 years after the Trojan war, having previously left, their 

 original seats in Thessaly, and proceeded into Thesprotia, 

 about eight generations before the Trojan war. (Herod., 

 vii. 176; Thucyd., i. 12; Plutarch, Pyrrh., c. i. ; Velleius, 

 i. 3 ; Clinton's Fasti Hellen., i. 19-20, 28.) 



Its chief cities were Nicopolis, built by Augustus on the 

 peninsula opposite the promontory of Acte, or Actium, 

 m commemoration of his victory over M. Antonius ; Cha- 

 radra, on the west of the Charadrus ; Bucheta, or Buche- 

 tima, on the coast. The above are on the south-eastern 

 side of the Acheron. Above the Acheron were, Cichyrus, 

 formerly Ephyra, on the Acherusian Gulf; Pandosia, 

 higher up the Acheron ; Elatria or Elatia, and Batiae, in- 

 land ; Chimerium, on a promontoiy of the same name, 

 west of the mouth of the Acheron ; north-west of this, Sy- 

 bota : the positions of Bolurus and Torone are unknown. 



[EPIRUS.] 



(Leake ; Pouqueville ; Cramer ; Hoffmann's Griechen- 

 land.) 



THESSALONIANS, Epistles of St. Paul to the. Chris- 

 tianity was introduced among the Thessalonians in A.D. 50, 

 bv St. Paul, when he first passed over from Asia Minor into 

 E"urope to preach the gospel. According to the account 

 in the Acts of the Apostles (ch. xvi.), St. Paul was engaged 

 in communicating to the churches in Asia Minor the 

 decree of the first council of the ' Apostles and elders 

 which were at Jerusalem,' when on his arrival at Troas a 

 vision appeared to him in the night, in the figure of a man 

 of Macedonia, ' who prayed him, saying, Come over into 

 Macedonia, and help us.' In obedience to this call, St. 

 Paul, together with Silas and Timothy, visited the cities of 

 that country, and among the rest Thessalonica, which was 

 at that time the residence of the Roman governor of the 

 province of Macedonia, and a city of great resort. St. Paul 

 found there a synagogue of the Jews, ' and went in unto 

 them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of 

 the Scriptures,' endeavouring to convince them that Jesus 

 was the Christ or Messiah expected by them. Though 

 some of them believed, his success with the Jews does not 

 appear to have been great : but a considerable number 

 of the ' devout Gentiles' were converted, and many women 

 of distinction : so that the Christian church at Thessalonica 

 was composed both of Jews and Gentiles, of whom the 

 latter were the more numerous. The Acts of the Apostles 

 (ch. xvii.) informs us that St. Paul only spent three Sabbat li 

 days in preaching to the Jews ; but from some expressions in 



' VOL. XXIV.-2 Z 



