[314]. The Thiasi, &c., among the Greeks, appear all to have had their patron divinities, of whom the most common were Heracles, Phœbos-Apollo, and Dionysos. This circumstance has been noticed by Vandale: Plerumque, (sicut ὀργεώνων collegia) cœtus ac fraternitates Baccho, Herculi, Apollini, aliisve Diis consecratæ: quibus Diis ab harum fratriarum membris, ut peculiaribus patronis sacrificabatur: atque hinc convivia inter φράτορας celebrabantur: ad quæ communes illi sumptus sive impensas pariter conferebant. Dissert. ix. p. 730.
[315]. Arrian de Venat. c. xxxiii. p. 383. Schneid.
[316]. Van Holst, c. ii. p. 46.
[317]. Harpocrat. p. 85. Bekk. It would, however, appear that payment might be avoided by pleading poverty: speaking of the hypocrite, πρὸς τοὺς δανειζομένους, says Theophrastus, καὶ ἐρανίζοντας, ὡς οὐ [πωλείφήσεν]. Charact. c. i. p. 5.
[318]. Poll. viii. 37, 101, 144.
[319]. Harpocrat. v. πληρωτὴς; where doubtless we must read with Salmasius (Miscell. Defens. C. ii. p. 27) ᾑρημένοις, for ἐωνημένοις, though Bekker retains the old lection, p. 155. Cf. Van Holst, p. 56.—Athenæus describes a festival called Phagesiposia in which every one who passed by was compelled to repeat a rhapsody in honour of Bacchos. (vii. 1.) There was also at Alexandria a curious festival called Lagenephoria, in which every person brought his own portion, and his own bottle, and reclined on a couch of grass or reeds. (2.)
[320]. Athen. vi. 35. Van Holst, de Eranis, pp. 30, 59.
[321]. Arist. Ethic. viii. 11.
[322]. Van Holst, de Eranis, p. 60.
[323]. Bœckh, Corp. Inscrip. pt. ii. p. 162.