together to open the casks of new wine, and to welcome with various rejoicings the renewed fertility of nature.[1] On such occasions they were accustomed to celebrate the praises of their benefactor, the god of wine and vegetation, in a kind of hymn called the dithyramb; and from this hymn Greek tragedy is descended.[2] The dithyramb, like the rest of the Bacchic usages, was probably in its earliest form an importation from Phrygia, being sung to melodies in the Phrygian style, and accompanied by the flute—an instrument closely associated with Phrygian music.[3] It is mentioned for the first time in literature by Archilochus, the iambic poet of the seventh century; but had doubtless become familiar to the Greek populations at a much earlier date.[4] It was cultivated with special enthusiasm at Thebes, Corinth, and Naxos—all important centres of Dionysiac worship.[5] In Attica, where it was destined eventually to acquire the greatest celebrity, it would form a conspicuous element, from remote times, in the spring festivals of Dionysus.
The dithyramb belonged to that type of performance which is called a choral dance; in other words, it was a hymn chanted by a chorus, and accompanied by illustrative gestures and motions.[6] Its object was to describe in song various episodes
- ↑ This is shown by the fact that tragedy was the principal feature at the City Dionysia, the great spring festival; while at the Lenaea, the winter festival, it was an importation of later date, and was always subordinate to comedy. There is also the fact that the dithyramb, the source of tragedy, was never performed at the Lenaea in classical times, but was an important element in the festivities at the City Dionysia. On these points see the Attic Theatre, p. 37.
- ↑ Aristot. Poet. c. 4 ἡ μὲν (τραγῳδία) ἀπὸ τῶν ἐξαρχόντων τὸν διθύραμβον (ηὐξήθη). Cp. Themistius, or. 26, 316 D; Diog. Laërt. 3. 56; Athen. p. 630; Evanthius de Comoedia, p. 4 (Reifferscheid).
- ↑ Aristot. Pol. 8. 7; Proclus, Chrestomathia, c. 14 (p. 383 Gaisford).
- ↑ Archilochus, frag. 77
ὡς Διωνύσοι' ἄνακτος καλὸν ἐξάρξαι μέλος
οἶδα διθύραμβον, οἴνῳ συγκεραυνωθεὶς φρένας. - ↑ Hence Pindar, in different poems, ascribed the invention of the dithyramb to Thebes, Corinth, and Naxos respectively (Schol. Pind. Ol. 13. 25).
- ↑ It is clear that ὄρχησις (mimetic dancing) played a large part in the early dithyramb. Thus Aristotle (Poet. c. 4) says that tragedy was originally ὀρχηστικωτέρα. The early tragic poets, whose dramas were mainly lyrical, were called ὀρχησταί (Athen. p. 22). The name of the dithyrambic dance was τυρβασία (Pollux, 4. 104).
