296 On the Attic Dionysia. state, not like those of the rural Dionysia peculiar to the several rural districts, where strangers would have been ex- cluded by religious scruples from taking a share in the local solemnities. As little can it be believed that they were per- mitted to fill so important an office as that of choragus at the Anthesteria, a festival of extraordinary sanctity, which included a variety of mysterious ceremonies, for which none but the wife of the Archon king and some select female attendants (the yepaipai) were held qualified, and to which no other Athenians were admitted. The Lenaea indeed, as well as the Anthesteria, are under the immediate superintendence of the Archon king ; and this would alone be a strong argu- ment against their identity with the rural Dionysia, which were necessarily directed by the several local magistrates, the ^rumap- -^OL. But on the other hand we learn from the abovequoted inscription containing the account of the Sep/maTiKov^ that the Lenaea were celebrated with a public banquet at the expense of the state : whereas at the Choes (as we gather from the anecdote of Demades in Plut. Resp. Ger. Pr. c, 25) each citi- zen received a sum, with which he was to provide for his own repast. Entertainments indeed were given by persons whose office connected them with the festival, as in the Acharnians the priest of Bacchus invites Dicseopolis to a banquet at the Choes : but on this occasion the host provided only the accessa- ries of the feast, such as are described in v. 1055 and the follow- ing lines : the more solid materials and the measure of wine each guest is expected to bring with him (I06l & foil.) So far therefore all the indications we are able to collect, point rather at the diversity than the identity of the Lenaea, and either of the Dionysia with which they have been compared. VI. This result appears to be confirmed by the traditions preserved as to the occasion and nature of the various Dionysia. The name of the Lenaea evidently connects the festival with the operations of the vintage, and separates it from the season and the occupations of the Anthesteria. In the same degree it may certainly at first sight seem to lead us directly to the rural Dionysia. For this was unquestionably the feast of the vintage, held indeed late in the year, but not later than the vintage takes place, in a much more rigorous climate, in some of the vineyards which produce the Tokay wine, Avhere the
