We have still more convincing testimony that in the great period of the drama the two annual contests at which dramas were brought out were held in different places, in the record of the time when the wooden theatre εν Λίμναις was finally given up, and ό επι Ληναίω αγών became a thing of the past. The change comes exactly when we should look for it, when the existing theatre had been splendidly rebuilt by Lycurgus. The passage is in Plutarch, where he says [158] that this orator also introduced a law that the contest of the comedians at the Chytri should take place in the theatre, and that the victor should be reckoned eις άστυ, as had not been done before. He further implies that the contest at the Chytri had fallen into disuse, for he adds that Lycurgus thus restored an agon that had been omitted. This last authority, however, concerns a contest at the Chytri, the Anthesteria, and is only one of many passages which tend to show that ό επι Ληναίω αγών was held at this festival. The most weighty testimony for making the Lenaea an independent festival, even in historic times, is given by Proclus in a scholium to Hesiod. [159] He quotes from Plutarch the statement that there was no month Lenaeo among the Boeotians. He adds that this month was the Attic Gamelio in which the Lenaea were held. Hesychius makes the same citation from Plutarch [160] as to a non-existence of a Boeotian month Lenaeo, and continues: "But some say that this month is the (Boeotian) Hermaio, and this is true, for the Athenians [held] in this month (εν αυτω) the festival of the Lenaea." The great similarity of the two passages renders it very probable that both were drawn from the same sources. The omission of Gamelio by Hesychius, by referring the εν αυτω back to Lenaeo, makes him authority that the Lenaea were held in that month. This, in turn implies that Proclus may have inserted Gamelio in order to bring the statement into relation with the Attic months of his own day. In the authorities referring to this month is a suggestion of several facts and a curious struggle to account for them. Proclus cites Plutarch to the effect that there was no month Lenaeo among the Boeotians, but, being probably misled by the very passage in Hesiod for which he has quoted Plutarch, he adds [161] that they had such a month. He goes on to state that the month is so called from the Lenaea, or from the Ambrosia. Moschopulus, [162] Tzetzes, [163] and the Etymologicum Magnum [164] repeat this last statement. An inscription [165] referring to a crowning of Bacchus on the 18th of Gamelio may refer to the same festival. Tzetzes alone is responsible for the statement that the Pithoigia came in this month. Through Proclus and Hesychius we are assured of the belief that there was once an Attic month Lenaeo. Proclus, Hesychius and Moschopulus tell us that the Lenaea were at some period held in this month; while Proclus, Moschopulus, Tzetzes, and the inscription assure us that there was another festival of Dionysus in this month; and the first three of these authorities name this festival Ambrosia. A tradition running with such persistency through so many authors affords a strong presumption that there once existed an Attic month Lenaeo, and that the Lenaea were celebrated in that month.
Footnote 158:[ (return) ] [Plut.] Vit. 10 Or.: LYCURG. Orat. VII. 1. 10 p. 841.
Footnote 159:[(return) ] Ptoclus to Hesiod, Op. 504.
Footnote 160:[ (return) ] HESYCHIUS, Ληναιων μην.
Footnote 161:[ (return) ] PROCLUS<, To Hesiod Op. 504.
Footnote 162:[ (return) ] MOSCHPUL., κατα τον μηνα τον Ληναιωνα.
Footnote 163:[ (return) ] TZETZES, μηνα δε Ληναιών.
Footnote 164:[ (return) ] Et. Mag., Ληναιωνα.
Footnote 165:[ (return) ] C.I.G., I. 523. Γαμηλιωνος κιττωσεις Διονωσον θί.
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.