The third day was called the “Feast of Pots” (χύτροι), from a sacrifice offered to Hermes Chthonios and the spirits of the dead, and here they observed the traditional custom of first sacrificing to those who had perished in the Flood of Deucalion. At these sacrifices, pots containing a number of vegetable substances cooked together, played an important part, and these dishes also constituted the meal of this day, on which no flesh was eaten. The ladies of honour also offered sacrifices to Dionysus at sixteen specially erected altars, and there were probably other ceremonies connected with this; in fact, this third day of the “Anthesteria,” with its serious ceremonial, formed a strong contrast to the merriment of the previous days, and suggests a similar contrast between our Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. But even on the “Day of Pots” there was no lack of amusements for the people; sacred choruses were conducted by the poets, but it does not seem that any regular dramas were performed. Possibly dramatic contests had been the custom in earlier times, or else only such competitions were allowed as determined the admission of the poets and actors, who won the prize on this occasion, to competition at the greater Dionysia. The chief festival of Dionysus in Attica was the greater, or city Dionysia, in Elaphebolion (March), which lasted at least five days, and perhaps even longer, and whose chief importance consisted in the plays acted during these days. The first solemn ceremony of the greater Dionysia was in honour of Aesculapius, to whom a public sacrifice was brought. Here, too, there was a procession, in which the statue of Dionysos-Eleutheros was carried; whether it was the old wooden image which was carried at the Lenaea, or the new statue by Alcamenes, is uncertain, but the latter was of gold and ivory, and, therefore, not easily portable; in any case the statue was fetched from the sanctuary at Lenaea, and carried by torchlight to the theatre of Dionysus, where it was set up in the orchestra. On the following day came the procession, in which the sacrificial animals, as well as the presents sent by allies, probably appeared. The procession stopped in the market place, and a cyclical chorus performed a dance round the altar to the Delphic gods who stood there. When they passed on they seem to have fetched away the Dionysus statue from the theatre, and carried it once more in a festive procession to the sanctuary in the Lenaeon. This procession was followed by sacrificial banquets, and on the other days plentiful feasting was also a part of the celebration. The following days were chiefly occupied by the performances, which seem to have followed in some such order as this: First of all, lyric choruses; both men and boys entered, and the expenses, which were heavy, were defrayed by citizens acting as choragi. Perhaps this day was concluded by a “Comus,” as public processions of this kind often followed common banquets, and since it was the god of wine who was specially to be honoured, it was, no doubt, very splendidly equipped. The next days were occupied with representations of tragic tetralogies and comedies; it is not certain whether these lasted two or more days, but it is probable that they continued for three days, and that on each of these a tetralogy was performed in the morning and a comedy in the afternoon. On the evening of the third day of the performances, which concluded the whole festival, the prizes were distributed; in these musical contests they consisted of bulls and tripods. These last were often set up in a public street on a high pedestal by the victors, and hence it acquired the name “Street of Tripods.”
Very different in character from these Dionysiac festivals of Attica were the night celebrations which took place in some parts of Greece, but especially on the Cithaeron and Parnassus, on the Islands, and in Asia Minor, every other year, and in which only women, both married and unmarried, took part. The wild and orgiastic character of these Dionysia originated in Thrace, but spread very quickly, and found much favour among the women, who were inclined to this kind of ecstatic worship. They fell in the middle of winter, about the time of the shortest day; the women dressed for the purpose in Bacchic costume, threw deer-skins over their shoulders, let their hair fly loose, and took in their hands the thyrsus staff and tambourine, and thus wandered to the hills near their homes, and there performed all manner of mysterious ceremonies, sacrifices, dances, etc., amid the wildest merriment resulting from the juice of the grape, which was seldom allowed them. We can form some notion of the wild nature of the proceedings from the descriptions of the poets and artistic representations of Maenads; still, we must always remember that both poets and artists described not so much the customs of their own day as those of mythical or heroic periods, and permitted themselves many exaggerations which did not correspond to reality.
These descriptions of Greek, and especially Athenian, festivities must suffice, and we pass over a number of festivals in Greece and the colonies, of which we know little more than the names. Those who desire a striking picture of a great festival, which, though Oriental in its origin, had become Hellenised, celebrated in a great city in the Alexandrine age, should read the splendid description by Theocritus in his Fifteenth Idyll of the Feast of Adonis at Alexandria.
CHAPTER XII.
THE THEATRE.
Origin of the Greek Drama—The Structure of the Theatre—The Theatre of Dionysus—The Theatre at Syracuse—The Auditorium—The Stage—The Orchestra—Scene-painting—Stage Accessories—The Greek Drama—Tragedy, Comedy, and Satire—The Choragia—Theatrical Masks—Costumes—Conditions of Admission to the Theatre—The Securing of Seats—The Audience.
Greek drama, both tragedy and comedy, originated in the national amusements and performances of the choruses at the Dionysiac festivals. A few words must also be said about the arrangements of the theatre, such as they were at the time of the greatest glory of the drama at Athens. Here, fortunately, we have so large a store of information and monuments still extant, that we can form a very clear picture of these representations, differing as they did entirely from our modern performances.
In spite of the great advance made by Greek drama from the rough popular beginnings till the time of its greatest glory, and in spite of the enormous difference between the tragedies of the three great masters and the comedies of Aristophanes, both in their whole character as well as in the details of their structure and performance, and the cyclic choruses and rustic sports of the old Dionysia, yet there are a few points in which the drama, even in its highest development, shows the traces of its origin. One of these is the custom of giving theatrical representations only at certain festive seasons of the year, and in some way connected with the worship of Dionysus as actual religious acts, though
Fig. 150.