[Footnote 161: PROCLUS, To Hesiod Op. 504.]
[Footnote 162: MOSCHPUL., [Greek: kata ton mena ton Lenaiôna].]
[Footnote 163: TZETZES, [Greek: mena de Lenaiôn].]
[Footnote 164: Et. Mag., [Greek: Lenaiôna].]
[Footnote 165: _C.I.G._, I. 523. [Greek: I'ameliônos kittôseis
Dionyson thi].]
Thucydides tells us[166] that the Ionian Athenians carried the
festival Anthesteria with them from Athens, and that they
continued until his day to celebrate it. The Anthesteria are
thus older than the Ionic migration, which took place under the
sons of Codrus.[167] The story of Pandion and Orestes from
Apollodorus places the establishment of the Choes in the time
of this mythical Athenian king. The first and third months of
the Ionic year[168] are the same as those of the Attic. There
can hardly be a doubt, then, that their second month, Lenaeo,
was also carried with the emigrants from the parent city, where
at that time it obtained.
[Footnote 166: II. 15.]
[Footnote 167: BOECKII _Vom Unterschied der Lena._, _Anthest.
und Dion._ s. 52.]
[Footnote 168: The entire argument on the question of the month
is open to the objection that too much weight is given to such
men as Tzetzes and all the tribe of minor scholiasts, whose
opportunities for accurate knowledge were, in many respects,
vastly inferior to those of scholars of our own day. It is easy
indeed to say that their testimony is worth nothing. But where
shall we stop? It is urged that the connection of the Lenaea
with an Attic month Lenaeo arose from an attempt on the part of
the commentators to explain names as they found them. It is
said that this conflict of the authorities proves that there
never was an Attic Lenaeo. This may be true; and the man who
will prove it to be so, and furthermore will give us the
accurate history of the Attic and the Ionic calendars, will do
a great service to Greek scholarship. But he must have at hand
better sources than we possess to-day. Though the later Greek
commentators on the classics have made many amusing and stupid
blunders, though we need not hesitate to disregard their
teaching when it comes into conflict with better authority, or
with plain reason, still they have told us that which is true.
They often furnish us with all that we know of older and better
authors, whose works were their authority. Therefore, unless I
have found testimony against them, I have followed their
teaching. Both here and elsewhere I give their words for what
they are worth; not that I rank Proclus with Thucydides, or the
Et. Mag. with Aristophanes,--but from the conviction that so
remarkable a concurrence of testimony in so many different
writers has not yet been successfully explained away, and could
not indeed exist unless their testimony were founded on a basis
of fact.]
This gives a time, however remote it may be, when the Athenians
still had the month Lenaeo, yet we hear of no festival Lenaea
among the Ionian cities. It would thus seem that this had lost
its force as an independent festival before the migration.
Gamelio is said to have received its name from the Gamelia, the
festival of Zeus and Hera. It is hard to believe that while the
Page 70 much more brilliant Lenaea remained in the month, the name
should have passed to the always somewhat unimportant Gamelia.
What reason could be found for this naming, unless that the
Lenaea had first been transferred to the Anthesteria, as all
the testimony tends to prove? This supposition gives an easy
explanation of the repeated reference to Lenaeo as an Attic
month, of the change of the name to Gamelio, and even Tzetzes'
association of the Pithoigia with the Lenaea,--an association
which arises necessarily, if the Lenaea once formed part of the
Anthesteria. The impossibility of transferring in its entirety
a festival which has become rooted in the customs of a people,
is also seen. That remnant of the Lenaea in Lenaeo, the
Ambrosia, survived till quite late in Attic history. It is not
difficult, then, to understand why the other references to the
Lenaea as a separate festival do not agree as to the month.
A triad of contests is given by Demosthenes[169] where he
quotes the law of Evegoras with reference to the Dionysiac
festivals: the one in Piræus with its comedies and tragedies,
[Greek: e epi Lenaiô] with its tragedies and comedies, and the
City Dionysia with the chorus of boys, procession, comedies and
tragedies. Here are three different contests in three different
places; and the Anthesteria and Lenaea are included under
[Greek: e epi Lenaiô pompe]. The purpose of the law was to
preserve absolute security and freedom to both person and
property on the days of the festivals named. Not even an
overdue debt could be collected. In so sweeping a law the
Anthesteria could hardly fail to be included; for at no Attic
festival was there more absolute liberty and equality. In
Suidas[170] we learn that the revellers at the Chytri, going
about on carts, jested and made sport of the passers by, and
that later they did the same at the Lenaea. Thus he gives
another proof of the connection between the two festivals, and
shows that [Greek: o epi Lenaiô agôn] became a part of the
older Anthesteria after the invention of comedy, and that even
then the old custom was kept up. In Athenæus we find[17l] the
Page 71 Samian Lynceus sojourning in Athens and commiserated as passing
his time listening to the lectures of Theophrastus and seeing
the Lenaea and Chytri, in contrast to the lavish Macedonian
feasts of his correspondent. The latter in the same connection
says[172] that certain men, probably players, who had filled a
part in Athens at the Chytri, came in to amuse the guests. The
marriage which he is attending then took place after the
Chytri. It is not likely, therefore, that in "the Lenaea and
Chytri" he is referring to two festivals separated by a month
of time. He speaks, rather, of two acts of the same
celebration.
[Footnote 169: _Mid._ 10.]
[Footnote 170: SUIDAS, [Greek: ek tôn amaxôn sôômmata].]
[Footnote 171: ATHENÆUS, IV. p. 130.]
[Footnote 172: Ibid. III. 129.]
The frogs in Aristophanes claim the temenus [Greek: Limnais] and
speak of their song at the Chytri. The scholiast cites[173]
Philochorus, saying that the contests referred to were the
[Greek: chutrinoi].
A suspected passage in Diogenes Laertius declares (III 56) that
it was the custom to contend with tetralogies at four
festivals, the Dionysia, Lenaea, Panathenaea, and Chytri. If
the passage is worth anything, it adds new testimony that there
were dramatic representations at the Anthesteria. The Menander
of Alciphron, also, would hardly exclaim[174] over [Greek:
poious chutrous], unless the contest were one in which he, as
dramatist, could have a part.
No other of the extant dramas has been so much discussed in
connection with the question as the _Acharnians_. Those who
hold that the Lenaea and Anthesteria were entirely separate,
have affirmed that the play opens on the Pnyx in Athens, that
the scene changes to the country-house of Dicaeopolis in
Cholleidae, at the season of the country Dionysia in the month
Posideo. Later the time of the Lenaea in the month Gamelio is
represented. Finally the locality is again Athens at the
Anthesteria in Anthesterio. In fact, we are told, the poet has,
in the _Acharnians_, shown his true greatness by overleaping
all restraints of time and place and giving his fancy free
rein. But this is making the _Acharnians_ an isolated example
among the Greek plays which have come down to us. Changes of
scene are foreign to the nature of the Greek drama, as is
acknowledged by A. Miller.[175]
[Footnote 173: _Schol._ ARIST. _Frogs._ 218.]
[Footnote 174: _Alciphron Ep._ II. 3. 11.]
[Footnote 175: _Bühnenalt_., 161.]
That the beginning of the play is on the Pnyx, there is no
question. In v. 202, Dicaeopolis declares: "I will go in and
Page 72 celebrate the Country Dionysia." This is held to be a statement
of the actual time of year represented in this portion of the
play, and also to indicate the change of place from Athens to
the country. That the country festivals to the wine-god in the
different demes were held on different dates, we learn from the
fact that companies of actors went out from Athens to make the
tour of these provincial festivals.[176] We know, too, that
these rural celebrations were under charge of the
demarchs.[177] In the passage from the _Acharnians_ just cited,
there is no statement that this is the season when the demes
were accustomed to hold their annual Bacchic celebrations.
Rather, in his joy in his newly concluded peace, the hero
declares that he will _now_ hold this festival in honor of the
god of the vine. No surprise is felt at this exceptional date,
particularly as, by his statement below,[178] he has been
prevented for six years from holding the festival at its proper
season. This last passage, however, is the strongest authority
for a change of place in the action. Certainly, if the reading
is correct, in the light of all the remainder of the comedy we
should naturally translate: "in the sixth year, having come
into my deme, I salute you gladly." But we do no violence to
the construction if we say that [Greek: elthô es ton demon]
means "going
(_forth_) to my deme." Unquestionably up to the end of the
first choral ode at v. 236, the action has gone on in Athens.
But here, we are told, comes the change of place. In v. 202
Dicaeopolis has declared that he is "going in." What does he
enter but his house in the city? At v. 236 the chorus also is
in Athens. In v. 237, the voice of Dicaeopolis is heard from
within--his _country_ house, it is said; and in v. 238 the
chorus is as suddenly before this same house! Such rapid
changes might easily take place on a modern stage, but are of a
character to excite remark in an ancient theatre. If there was
a change here, the second scene must have represented
Cholleidae with the three houses of Dicaeopolis, Lamachus, and
Euripides; and the three must be in the same deme; for the
Bacchic procession of Dicaeopolis appears at v. 241, and is
broken up by the chorus at v. 280. As soon as Dicaeopolis, by
Page 73 his by-play, has obtained permission to plead his cause, he
turns (v. 394) to the house of Euripides to borrow the wardrobe
of one of the tragic heroes. Then, when his defense has divided
the chorus, the first half call upon the gorgon-helmeted
Lamachus (v. 566) to bear them aid, and that warrior appears
from his house.
[Footnote 176: HAIGH, _Attic Theatre_, p. 47.]
[Footnote 177: EHMICHEN, _Bühnenwesen_, s. 195.]
[Footnote 178: _Achar._, 266 f.]
Now the common enemy has prevented the celebration of the
Country Dionysia for six years. How is it possible, under such
circumstances, to conceive of Euripides as composing tragedies
in the country? How could the general Lamachus be living out of
the city in such a time of danger? Certainly the play itself
gives us authority that this scene also is in Athens. At v. 241
Dicaeopolis would go forth with his procession to hold the
rural Dionysia in his deme. Prevented from doing so, he is from
this on busy with the duties and pleasures of the Choes. His
altercation with the chorus and with Lamachus ended, he (v. 623
f.) announces that he will open a market for all Boeotians,
Megarians, and Peloponnesians. He sets up (v. 719) the bounds
of his markets, and appoints three "himantes" as agoranomi.
These officials are suggestive of those busy at the
Anthesteria.[179] The first customer, from Megara comes in
with: "Hail, agora in _Athens_" (v. 729), and brings for sale
pigs suitable for sacrifice at the Mysteries (v. 747 and 764).
The Lesser Mysteries came in Anthesterio first after the
Anthesteria.
[Footnote 179: MOMMSEN, _Heortologie v. Anthesteria._]
There is no change of place in the course of the action. The
scene, the Pnyx with the houses of Dicaeopolis, Lamachus, and
Euripides near by, remains the same. There is no indication of
a jump in time from Posideo to Gamelio, and again from Gamelio
to Anthesterio.
Amid all the preparations for the Anthesteria made in the play,
two statements cannot fail to attract attention. In v. 504 f.
the poet informs us that this is not the Greater Dionysia, when
strangers, tribute-bearers, and allies were present. It is the
contest at the Lenaeum. In v. 1150 f. the chorus frees its mind
concerning the miserly fashion in which Antimachus treated them
at a previous celebration of the Lenaea. Shall we say that the
poet, in order to speak of things present before the eyes of
Page 74 the Athenians, steps, in these two passages, entirely outside
the action of the play? By no means. The poet is dealing with a
vital issue. He is fighting against the ruinous war. The power
of his genius is shown by the masterly manner in which he uses
the moment which was present to his hearers. The victor at the
Choes sat among the spectators; the very walls of the theatre
had hardly ceased to resound with the din of the carousers.
Here, or elsewhere, there is mention of but one [Greek: epi
Lenaiô agôn], that is the Lenaea, or the dramatic contest at the
Anthesteria.
In fixing the date of the "Dionysia at the Lenaeum," we have
the authority of some interesting inscriptions which have been
collected in Dittenberger S.I.G. II. 374. They are the record
of moneys obtained from the sale of the hides of the victims
sacrificed at various festivals of the Attic year. A portion of
each of four separate lists has been preserved. In the first
and fourth of these, as they stand in Dittenberger, three
Dionysiac festivals are mentioned: that at Piraeus, the
Dionysia e? aste?, and the Dionysia [Greek: en astei]. The third
list ends with the Dionysia in Piræus. The remaining incription
mentions two Dionysiac festivals, the one at the Lenaeum, and
that e? aste?. The part of the record which should cover the
Dionysia at Piræus is wanting. The calendar order of all the
festivals mentioned is strictly followed.
Köhler in _C.I.A._, led by the other inscriptions found with
these four, says that the lists do not contain mention of all
the festivals at which public sacrifices of cattle were made in
that portion of the year covered by the inscriptions, but that
these are to be considered only as records of the hide-money
which was to be devoted to particular uses. As a matter of
fact, however, nearly all the public festivals of importance,
as well as some of less note, are included in these lists; and
it would be difficult to demonstrate that they do not contain a
complete record of the public hide-money for the portion of the
year in which these festivals fall.
In these inscriptions the peculiarity with reference to the
Dionysia is the same which we find in all other accounts which
seem to give a complete record of these festivals. Only three
are mentioned as held under public authority. Did the omission
Page 75 of the Lenaea and Anthesteria occur only in this case, we
might, following Köhler, admit that the hide-money from this
particular festival was not devoted to this special purpose,
and that for this reason the name did not appear in these
records. But since in no case are there more than three
mentioned; and since the third name is one which covers all
celebrations in honor of Dionysus at the Lenaeum, this
assumption cannot be granted. The important point, and one that
cannot be too strongly emphasized, is that neither in these nor
in any other inscription or official record is there any
mention of the Lenaea or Anthesteria as such. The official
language appears always to have been, as here: [Greek: Dionysia
epi Lenaiô] or: [Greek: e epi Lenaiô pompe], or, where the
dramatic contest alone was intended: [Greek: o epi Lenaiô agôn].
Once only in the 5th century[180] do we find [Greek: Lenaia]
used; and here it is synonymous with [Greek: o epi Lenaiô agôn].
Wilamowitz has well said that [Greek: lenaia] as a name of a
separate festival is an invention of the grammarians.
Aristophanes, in the passage from the _Acharnians_, shows that
this name may have been used commonly for the dramatic contest
at the Lenaeum, and we know from Thucydides that Anthesteria was
also used of the entire festival. It is impossible that in a
record like the hide-money inscriptions, the official title
[Greek: Dionysia epi Lenaiô] should be employed to cover two
festivals separated by an interval of a month.
[Footnote 180: _Acharnians_, 1155.]
But was the Anthesteria a state festival, at which public
sacrifices of cattle were made? The story of its institution by
Pandion shows that it was public from the beginning.
Aristophanes informs us[181] that it maintained this character;
for the Basileus awarded the prize at the Choes. The question
of sacrifice requires fuller treatment.
Suidas[182] and a scholiast[183] to Aristophanes quote from
Theopompus the story of the establishment of the Chytri. On the
very day on which they were saved, the survivors of the flood
introduced the celebration of this day of the Anthesteria by
cooking a potful of all sorts of vegetables, and sacrificing it
Page 76 to the Chthonian Hermes and those who had perished in the
waters. The scholiast adds that sacrifice was offered to no one
of the Olympian gods on this day.
[Footnote 181: _Acharnians_, 1225.]
[Footnote 182: SUIDAS, [Greek: chutroi].]
[Footnote 183: Schol. ARISTOPH., _Frogs_. 218.]
In Suidas we find a hint of the other ceremonies on the Chytri.
According to him, there were sacrifices to Dionysus as well as
to Hermes. This suggests that the Chytri was but one day of the
Anthesteria, and, though the worship of the departed may have
been the older portion of the celebration, it was later
overshadowed by the festivities in honor of the wine-god. As
the text of his argument in his oration against Midias,
Demosthenes cites four oracular utterances, two from Dodona,
the others probably from Delphi. In the first the god calls
upon the children of Erechtheus, as many as inhabit the city of
Pandion, to be mindful of Bacchus, all together throughout the
wide streets to return fit thanks to the Bromian, and crowned
with wreaths, to cause the odor of sacrifice to rise from the
altars. In this oracle, Athens is the city of Pandion, because
it was reported that under his rule the worship of Dionysus was
introduced into the city. This and the other commands from
Dodona and Delphi concerning Dionysus refer to the introduction
of the worship of the god; for in every one the statement is
absolute; there is no reference to a previous worship and a
backsliding on the part of the people, [Greek: knisan
bômoise] of the first oracle can refer only to a sacrifice of
animals. Stronger still is the statement in the fourth oracle
(from Dodona) where the command is given to fulfil sacred rites
([Greek: iere telein]) to Dionysus, and to sacrifice to Apollo
and to Zeus. ([Greek: Apollôni Apotropaiô Boun thusai ... Du
Ktesiô boun leucon].) The command "to mix bowls of wine and to
establish choral dances," in the second and fourth oracles,
serves as an explanatory comment on "return fit thanks to the
Bromian" in the first. "Let free men and slaves wear wreaths and
enjoy leisure for one day," must refer to the Pithoigia. In this
feast the slaves had a part, and enjoyed a holiday. Hence the
saying[184] "Forth, slaves, it is no longer the Anthesteria." In
obedience to the oracles then, public sacrifices could not have
been lacking at the Anthesteria. Therefore, this festival must
have been officially known as the Dionysia [Greek: epi Lenaiô].
[Footnote 184: [Greek: Thuraxe Kares ouket Anthesteria].]
Page 77 The dramatic contests at the Lenaeum, like those at the Greater
Dionysia, were undoubtedly preceded by sacrifices. The [Greek:
agôn epi Lenaiô] could hardly be separated from the Dionysia
[Greek: epi Lenaiô]. Therefore the hide-money inscriptions are
also authority that Lenaea and Anthesteria are but two
references to the same festival.
Thucydides, as we have seen,[185] knew of but two Dionysia in
Athens itself; those [Greek: en astei] and the Anthesteria. Of
these, using the comparative degree, he states that the latter
were the [Greek: archaiotera]. In his time the dramatic contests
[Greek: en Limnais] were in their glory, yet he mentions but one
celebration in this locality. So here also we must conclude that
Anthesteria was the name of the whole festival which
Harpocration tells us was called [Greek: pithoigia, choes] and
[Greek: chutroi]; that there was, in the flourishing period of
the drama, no separate festival Lenaea, but that the [Greek:
agôn] at the Chytri came to be so called to distinguish it from
that at the City Dionysia.
[Footnote 185: II. 15.]
It is interesting in connection with Thucydides' statement that
the Ionian Athenians in his day still held the Anthesteria, to
examine the record of this festival in the Ionic cities of Asia
Minor. To be sure we have very little information concerning
the details of this celebration among them; but we do find two
statements of importance. _C.I.G._ 3655 mentions certain honors
proclaimed at the Anthesteria in the theatre in Cyzicus.
Comparison with similar observances at Athens indicates that
theatrical representations were to follow. _C.I.G._ 3044,
[Greek: tôgônos Anthesterioisin], refers to Teos. From the
constant use of [Greek: agôn] referring to theatrical
performances in connection with the festivals of Dionysus the
word can hardly mean anything else here. So these two
inscriptions, referring to two colonies, add their testimony
that dramas were presented also at the Anthesteria in Athens.
Finally, Aristotle's _Politeia_ falls into line with the
hide-money records. In § 56, the statement is made that the
Archon Eponymos had the Megala Dionysia in charge. In the
following section, the Archon Basileus is said to have control,
not of the Lemaea or of the Anthesteria--for neither is
mentioned by name,--but of the Dionysia [Greek: epi Lenaiô]. The
Basileus and the Epimeletae together directed the procession;
Page 78 but the basileus alone controlled the [dramatic] contest. Here
again, it is inconceivable that either Anthesteria or Lenaea
should be omitted; so both must be included under Dionysia
[Greek: epi Lenaiô].
We thus find our position supported by inscriptions of
undoubted authority, and by a list of names ranging in time
from before Aristophanes to the 9th century A.D., and in weight
from Thucydides and Aristotle to the Scholiasts.
If the Limnae were not by the existing theatre of Dionysus,
where were they? Not on the south side of the Acropolis, as a
careful examination of the ground proves. In our study of the
theatre-precinct, we found that the earth here in antiquity was
at a much higher level than at present, while immediately
outside the wall of this precinct to the south, the ground was
considerably lower than it is now. The present height of the
theatre-precinct is 91.4 m. above the sea level; of the Odeum,
97.7 metres; of the Olympieum, 80.8 m.; of the ground within
the enclosure of the Military Hospital due south from the
theatre, 75 m.; of Callirrhoe in the Ilissus opposite the
Olympieum, 59 m.; of the Ilissus bed opposite the theatre, 50
m. From the present level of the theatre to the bed of the
stream there is a fall of more than 41 m.; the fall is about
equally rapid along the entire extent of the slope to the south
of the Acropolis, while the soil is full of small stones.
Surely, it would take more than the oft-cited handful of rushes
to establish a swamp on such a hillside. We have, however,
excellent geological authority that from the lay of the land
and the nature of the soil, there never could have been a swamp
there. The Neleum inscription[186] can be held to prove nothing
further than that, as Mr. Wheeler suggests, the drain from the
existing theatre ran through this precinct. We must therefore
seek the Limnae elsewhere.
[Footnote 186: _Am. Journal of Archæology_, III. 38-48.]