Wilamowitz calls attention [153] to another fact. In classic times the contests of the Lenaea are Διονύσια τα επι Ληναίω, and the victories are νικαι Ληναϊκαί; the Megala Dionysia are always τα εν αστει, and the victories here νικαι αστικαί. These words certainly imply a distinction of place. How early these expressions may have been used, we learn from the account of Thespis. Suidas [154] is authority that Thespis first exhibited a play in 536 B.C.; and the Parian Marble records [155] that he was the first to exhibit a drama and to receive the tragic prize εν αστει.
Footnote 151:[ (return) ] I. 20. 3.
Footnote 152:[ (return) ] I. 29. 2.
Footnote 153:[ (return) ] Die Bühne des Aeschylos.
Footnote 154:[ (return) ] v. Thespis.
Footnote 155:[ (return) ] C.I.G., II. 2374.
But it has also been contended that Limnae and Lemaeum do not refer to the same locality. It is clear from what has been said, however, that the Lenaea and the Greater Dionysia must have been held in different localities. So if Limnae and the Lenaeum do not refer at least to the same region, there must have been three separate sanctuaries of Dionysus; for no one will claim that the Greater Dionysia can have been held in the Limnae if the Lenaea were not celebrated there. But as we have seen, Hesychius (v. Λίμναι) declares that the Lenaea were held εν Λίμναις. The scholiast to Aristophanes says [156] that the Chytri were a festival of Dionysus Lenaeus; so the Chytri as well as the Lenaea must have been celebrated in the Lenaeum. Athenæus in the story of Orestes and Pandion speaks [157] of the temenus εν Λίμναις in connection with the Choes. In Suidas (χόες), however, we learn that either Limnaeus or Lenaeus could be used in referring to the same Dionysus. Such positive testimony for the identity of the Lenaeum and the sanctuary in the Limnae, cannot be rejected.
Footnote 156:[ (return) ] Acharnians 960.
Footnote 157:[ (return) ] X, 437 d.