Footnote 181:[ (return) ] Acharnians, 1225.
Footnote 182:[ (return) ] SUIDAS, χύτροι
Footnote 183:[ (return) ] 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, κνισάν βωμοΐσι 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 (ίερα τελεΐν) to Dionysus, and to sacrifice to Apollo and to Zeus. (Άπόλλωνι Άποτροπαίω βοūν θυσαι ... Δú Κτησίω βοūν λευκόν.) 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 έπί Ληναίω.
Footnote 184:[ (return) ] θύραζε Kâρες ούκέτ 'Ανθεστήρια.
The dramatic contests at the Lenaeum, like those at the Greater Dionysia, were undoubtedly preceded by sacrifices. The αγων επι Ληναίω could hardly be separated from the Dionysia επι Ληναίω 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 εν αστει and the Anthesteria. Of these, using the comparative degree, he states that the latter were the άρχαιότερα. In his time the dramatic contests εν Λίμναις 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 πιθοίγια, χοές and χύτροι; that there was, in the flourishing period of the drama, no separate festival Lenaea, but that the αγών at the Chytri came to be so called to distinguish it from that at the City Dionysia.
Footnote 185:[ (return) ] 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, τώγωνος Άνθεστηριοισίν, refers to Teos. From the constant use of αγών 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.