TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 711 
point to the same conclusion, that the drama in Greece criginated in the worship 
of the dead long before the cult of Dionysus spread from Thrace. 
(2) The claim of the Dorians, though quoted by Aristotle (‘ Poetics,’ 3), is not 
endorsed by him. The long a in the dialect of the Attic chorus-dialect is not 
necessarily Doric, as it existed also in old Attic and other dialects ;1 and as 
Dorians were not admitted to Athenian religious ceremonies (Herodotus, v. 72), 
it is difficult to see why their dialect should have been adopted in them. Arion, 
moreover, who invented the dithyramb (Herodotus, i. 23), was not a Dorian, 
but a Lesbian. 
(3) The only really Dionysiac part of tragedy is the Satyric drama, which is 
of northern origin (v. above), and was appended to the old local ritual when the 
cult of Dionysus was superimposed on that of Adrastus or other local hero. 
(4) The instances already quoted and the recitation of a hero’s fate at his 
tomb (eg., in the Choephoroi of AMschylus) indicate that the thymele was 
originally the shrine or tomb of the local hero. 
The development effected by Thespis consisted, not in the introduction of an 
actor into the ceremony or in the use of ‘ tragic dances’ for ‘moral purposes, but 
in the separation of what had hitherto been a piece of religious ritual from its 
local shrine, and the conversion of it into a distinct form of literary performance 
which could be enacted anywhere. It is in this sense that Thespis ‘ carried about 
his plays on wagons.’ The analogy of medizval drama is exact: originally a 
piece of religious ritual performed in church, and based ona particular set of 
incidents, it became detached both from locality and topic, and fell into the hands 
of ‘ strolling players.’ 
5. The So-called Tomb of Mena at Negadeh, in Upper Egypt. 
By Joun Garstane, B.Litt. 
A special piece of work undertaken by the Beni Hasan Excavation Com- 
mittee was the re-excavation of the royal tomb at Negadeh, which was discovered 
and opened some years ago by M. de Morgan, who has since published the results 
of his investigations.* This new examination was made during March of the 
present year, and the method adopted was to search through all the earth previously 
thrown out of the interior, as well as to clear and clean up the tomb structure itself. 
The plans and descriptions published by De Morgan, supplemented by Borchardt,® 
are faithful, and require no serious revision. Interest chiefly turns, therefore, to the 
objects newly found in the débris and in an undisturbed deposit within a niche 
inside the structure. All the pottery, which was mostly in fragments, was 
examined and specimens were collected. A great quantity of alabaster was found 
and brought away, together with fragments of obsidian, crystal, diorite, breccia, 
and other materials familiar in the archaic period. Many of these were found to 
fit, and in some cases complete, vases previously recovered, and are now placed 
in the museum at Cairo. The best objects of art are a fish and a cat, both 
ae in ivory, each about four inches in length, and a large pendant of crystal. 
out a hundred clay jar-sealings, some in good preservation, were found to be 
mostly duplicates of those published by De Morgan, with a few new examples 
which are difficult to read. These constitute a chief source of historical material 
for the period; but in addition there were found four ivory tablets, inscribed, and 
the portion of a fifth. These are as follows: 
a. Small ivory tablet bearing name of Narmer, alternatively transcribed Bezau 
(broken). 
b. Small ivory tablet with the name of Neith-hetep upon the reverse ; obverse, 
he number 135 (complete), 
1 Ridgeway, Harly Age of Greece, i. 67. 2 Le Tombeau Royal de Negadeh. 
3 Das Grab von Menes. 
