from the life of Dionysus, and at the same time to present these episodes in a concrete form by means of expressive mimicry and pantomime.[1] The singers disguised themselves as satyrs, or companions of Dionysus, to make the representation more lively and picturesque.[2] Dressed in this fashion they danced in a ring round the smoking altar, chanting their recital of the god's adventures, and exhibiting each phase of the story with such passionate realism of gesture, as to make the spectators almost believe that they were present, not at a mere narrative, but at the occurrence of the events themselves.[3]
Choral dances of this kind can hardly be said to exist at the present day; but among the early races of mankind they were a favourite institution, being regularly employed in the service of religion for the purpose of impressing the sacred legends upon the minds of the people. In Greece they were especially common. At Delos, for example, there was a dance called the Crane, to commemorate the escape of Theseus from the Labyrinth. The dancers were arranged in a long line, one behind the other, and went winding to and fro, and in and out, to imitate the intricacies of the Labyrinth.[4] At Delphi the contest between Apollo and the Python was represented in a similar manner.[5] But the choral dance which most nearly resembled the dithyramb was one performed at Crete, in celebration of the birth of Zeus, The chorus were dressed in the guise of Curetes, the mythical saviours of the infant god; and in this costume they sang and acted the whole story—Cronus devouring his children, Rhea in the pangs of child-birth, the
- ↑ Zenobius, 5. 40 τῶν χορῶν ἐξ ἀρχῆς εἰθισμένων διθύραμβον ᾄδειν εἰς τὸν Διόνυσον. Proclus, Chrestomathia, c. 12 ὁ δὲ διθύραμβος γράφεται μὲν εἰς Διόνυσον.
- ↑ Etym. Mag. v. τραγῳδία τὰ πολλὰ οἱ χοροὶ ἐκ Σατύρων συνίσταντο. Cp. Aelian, Var. Hist. 3. 40; Diod. 4. 5. Aristotle (Poet. c. 4) says that tragedy was developed ἐκ σατυρικοῦ. In the later satyric drama, which was intended as a reminiscence of the old style of poetry, the chorus always consisted of satyrs.
- ↑ Evanthius de Comoedia, p. 4 'initium tragoediae a rebus divinis est incohatum, quibus pro fructibus vota solventes operabantur antiqui. Nam incensis iam altaribus et admoto hirco, id genus carminis, quod sacer chorus reddebat Libro patri, tragoedia dicebatur, . . . carmen . . . quod chorus circum aras fumantes nunc spatiatus, nunc consistens, nunc revolvens gyros, cum tibicine concinebat.'
- ↑ Pollux, 4. 101.
- ↑ Plut. Quaest. Graec. c. 12.
