Frazer, in his notes on the passage, says that the dancing of the Lacedaemonian maidens “is said to have been taught the Lacedaemonians by Castor and Pollux (Lucian, De Saltatione, 10)....” “The name Caryae,” he says further, “means ‘walnut-trees,’ and may have been given to the town from the walnut-trees which grew there[87].” Further on Pausanias tells of the Messenians who “waylaid by day the maidens who were dancing at Caryae in honour of Artemis, and seizing the wealthiest and noblest of them, carried them off to a village in Messenia[88].” When dancing in honour of Artemis the maidens were dressed in short chitôn, and carried a basket-like receptacle on their heads[89].
The worship of Artemis, as Curtius has observed, was peculiarly associated with low-lying land and reed-covered marshes. The reeds shared with men in the worship of the goddess, and moved to the sound of the music in her festivals, or, as Strabo says, the baskets danced, or in Laconia maidens crowned with reeds danced[90].
At the Brauronian ceremonies of Artemis it was the custom for young maidens to dance, in honour of the goddess, dressed in saffron robes; in this dance both they and the priestess were called “bears.” The saffron robe, according to Farnell, was “possibly worn in order to imitate the tawny skin of the bear,” but he is doubtful of this; it is, however, very probable, as he says, that in the earliest times of the rite an actual bear-skin was worn by the dancers[91]. This dance was known by the name of Arkteia; quite young girls took part in it, from the ages of five to ten, and it appears to have been a kind of initiation by which they were consecrated to Artemis before arriving at puberty[92].
On the dance called Orkēsis Iōnikē, which was performed in honour of Artemis, see Julii Pollucis Onomasticon, IV. 193. Mention is also made of the dancing in honour of this goddess at Elis, in Pisatid territory, Pausan. VI. xxii. 1; see also Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, II. 445; and for other dances belonging to her worship see Gruppe, op. cit. I. pp. 254, 283, 342, II. 842 and especially 1284; Lobeck, Aglao. II. 1085 ff.
The dancing performed at the festival of Gymnopaediae, also in honour of Artemis, as well as Apollo and Latona, which was held in Sparta at the beginning of July, is referred to by Pausanias; he says:
In the market-place at Sparta there are images of Pythaean Apollo, Artemis, and Latona. This whole place is called Chorus, because at the festival of Gymnopaediae, to which the Lacedaemonians attach the greatest importance, the lads dance choral dances in honour of Apollo[93].
Gruppe draws attention to the dancing performed in honour of Apollo Karneios[94], so also Bekker[95]. Mention may also be made of the Cretan legend of the birth of Zeus which is represented on coins from Tralles; they have the inscription Διὸς γοναί, with Corybantes dancing in honour of the new-born god, and striking their shields[96].
There can be no doubt that every type of dance among the Greeks was in its origin connected with religion; but in the case of some it is evident that they quite lost their religious character. The “Pyrrhic Dance,” which was at one time purely sacred and later lost this character, is an instance[97]. Another is that of the dance called the “Labyrinth,” known also as the “Game of Troy,” and “Ariadne’s Dance[98].” Réville, in referring to it, says that
in certain mythologies it has been observed that all the stars move, turning round the earth and following their regular courses. Nothing more is wanted for these movements of the stars to be likened to a rhythmic and complicated dance. The consequence will be a religious dance in honour of the “army of the heavens.” The dance will develop in a manner apparently entangled, but nevertheless methodical. There were several sacred dances having this character of imitation of the movements of the stars; among others, that of the “Labyrinth,” which was danced in Crete and Delos. The labyrinth itself, with its thousand circuits, was a symbol of the starry heaven, and the dance of the same name must have been a sort of animated representation of it[99].