Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

DIONYSjA. DIONYSIA. 4 l'ig goats and deer skins round the loins, covering held with the highest degree of merriment and
the face with large leaves of different plants; and, freedom; even slaves enjoyed full liberty during
lastly, in the wearing masks of wood, bark, and its celebration, and their boisterous shouts on the
other materials, and of a complete costume belong- occasion were almost intolerable. It is here that
ing to the character." Drunkenness, and the we have to seek for the origin of comedy, in the
boisterous mutsic of flutes, cymbals, and drums, jests and the scurrilous abuse which the peasants
were likewise common to all Dionysiac festivals. vented upon the bystanders from a waggon in
In the processions called 5faioo (from aelayw), which they rode about (Kcc6ios /p' &kaYev ).
with which they were celebrated, women also took Aristophanes ( Vesp. 620 and 1479) calls the comic
part in the disguise of Bacchae, Lenae, Thyades, poets'rpuvypot, lee-singers; and comedy,'rpvuyW[a,
Naiades, Nymphs, &c., adorned with garlands of lee-song (SAc/arn. 464, 834; Athen. ii. p. 40);
ivy, and bearing the thyrsus in their hands (hence from the custom of smearing the face with lees of
the god was sometimes called OqXxsUopcpos), so wine, in which the merry country people indulged
that the whole train represented a population in- at the vintage. The Ascolia and other amusespired, and actuated by the powerful presence of ments, which were afterwards introduced into the
the god. The choruses sung on the occasion were city, seem also originally to have been peculiar to
called dithyrambs, and were hymns addressed to the rural Dionysia. The Dionysia in the Peiraeeus,
the god in the freest metres and with the boldest as well as those of the other demes of Attica, beimagery, in which his exploits and achievements longed to the lesser Dionysia, as is acknowledged
were extolled. [CHORUS.] The phallus, the both by Spalding and Bickh. Those in the
symbol of the fertility of nature, was also carried Peiraeeus were celebrated with as much splendour
in these processions (Plut. De Cupid. Divit. p. as those in the city; for we read of a procession, of
-527, D; Aristoph. Acl/arn. 229, with the Schol.; the performance of comedies and tragedies, which
1-lerod. ii. 49), and men disguised as women, at first may have been new as well as old pieces;
called lOtiqpaXAot (Hesych. s. v.; Athen. xiv. p. but when the drama had attained a regular form,
622), followed the phallus. A woman called only old pieces were represented at the rural
Aleuvoqdpos carried the ALimov, a long basket con- Dionysia. Their liberal and democratical character
taining the image of the god. Maidens of noble seems to have been the cause of the opposition
birth (eavy71dppoi) used to carry figs in baskets, which these festivals met with, when, in the time
which were sometimes of gold, and to wear gar- of Peisistratus, Thespis attempted to introduce the
lands of figs round their necks. (Aristoph. Achaor. rural amusements of the Dionysia into the city of
1. c.; Lysistr. 647; Natal. Com. v. 13.) The in- Athens. (Plut. Sol. c. 29, 30; Diog. Laert. Sol.
dulgence in drinking was considered by the Greeks c. ] 1.) That in other places, also, the introducas a duty of gratitude which they owed to the tion of the worship of Dionysus met with great
giver of the vine; hence in some places it was opposition, must be inferred from the legends of
thought a crime to remain sober at the Dionysia. Orchomenos, Thebes, Argos, Ephesus, and other
(Lucian, De Calumn. 16.) places. Something similar seems to be implied in
The Attic festivals of Dionysus were four in the account of the restoration of tragic choruses to
number: the Awovm lta IaT' /&ypo's, or the rural Dionysus at Sicyon. (Herod. v. 67.)
Dionysia, the Aivata, the'APVOE-r4Tpa, and the The second festival, the Lenaea (from Aqv's,
AmoviYa eiv e-aset. After Ruhnken (Auctaer. ad the wine-press, from which also the month of
Hesyc/s. vol. i. p. 199) and Spalding (Ab/iandl. Gamelion was called by the Ionians Lenaeon), was
de}r Berl. Acad. von 1804-1811, p. 70, &c.) had celebrated in the month of Gamelion; the place of
declared the Anthesteria and the Lenaea to be only its celebration was the ancient temple of Dionysus
two names for one and the same festival, it was Limnaeus (from Ai'/LYv, as the district was origenerally taken for granted that there could be no ginally a swamp, whence the god was also called
doubt as to the real identity of the two, until in Amcuvaseysvs). This temple, the Lenaeon, was
1817, A. Biickh read a paper to the Berlin situate south of the theatre of Dionysus, and close
Academy ( iom Unterscttiede der A ttisclten Lenaee, by it. (Schol. ad A}istoph. bRa. 480.) The
A:2zthesierien und liiadl. Dionysien, published in Lenaea were celebrated with a procession and
1319, in the Ab/handl. d. Berl. Acad.), in which scenic contests in tragedy and comedy. (Demosth.
he established by the strongest arguments the c. Mid. p. 517.) The procession probably went
difference between the Lenaea and Anthesteria. to the Lenaeon, where a gaat (r'pdyos, hence the
An abridgment of Bbckh's essay, containing all chorus and tragedy which arose out of it were
that is necessary to form a clear idea of the whole called Tpa7yKlS Xopds, and Tpa8Lyrpsa) was sacriqcluestion, is given in the Philological 5Museumn, ficed, and a chorus standing around the altar sang
vol. ii. p. 273, &c. A writer in the Classical lrlu- the dithyrambic ode to the god. As the dithyramb
seum, Th. Dyer (vol. iv. p. 70, &c.), has since was the element out of which, by the introduction
endeavoured to support Ruhnken's view with some of an actor, tragedy arose [CHORUS], it is natural
new argumnents. The season of the year sacred that, in the scenic contests of this festival, tragedy
to Dionysus was during the months nearest to the should have preceded comedy, as we see from the
shortest day (Plot. De El' ap. Delph. 9), and the important documents in Demosthenes. (I. c.) The
Attic festivals were accordingly celebrated in the poet who wished his play to be brought out at the
Poseideon, Gamelion (the Lenaeon of the Ionians), Lenaea applied to the second archon, who had the
Anthesterion, and Elaphebolion. superintendence of this festival as well as the
The Aonso-ta tcaor' a&ypo's, or utKpa', the rural or Anthesteria, and who gave him the chorus if the
lesser Dionysia, a vintage festival, were celebrated piece was thought to deserve it.
in the various demes of Attica in the month of The third Dionysiac festival, the Ant/testeria,
Poseideon, and. were under the superintendence of was celebrated on the 12th of the month of
the several local maigistrates, the demarchs. This Anthesterion (Thucyd. ii. 15); that is to say, the
was doubtless the most ancient of all, and was second day fell on the 12th, for it lasted three