return is of the greatest importance in reference to our present object. “There was a woman," says Herodotus, "of the Pæanian Deme, whose name was Phya: she was nearly four cubits in stature, and was in other respects comely to look upon. Having equipped this woman in a complete suit of armour they placed her in a chariot, and having taught her beforehand how to act her part in the most dignified manner possible, (καὶ προδέξαντες σχῆμα οἷόν τι ἔμελλε εὐπρεπέστατον φαίνεσθαι ἔχουσα') they drove to the city." He adds, that they sent heralds before her, who, when they got to Athens, told the people to receive with good will Pisistratus, whom Athena herself honoured above all men, and was bringing back from exile to her own Acropolis. Now we must recollect who were the parties to this proceeding. In the first place, we have Megacles, an Alcmæonid, and therefore connected with the worship of Bacchus; moreover, he was the father of the Alemæon, whose son Megacles married Agarista the daughter of Cleisthenes of Sicyon, and had by her Cleisthenes, the Athenian demagogue, who is said to have imitated his maternal grandfather in some of the reforms which he introduced into the Athenian constitution3. One of the points which Herodotus mentions in immediate connexion with Cleisthenes' imitation of his grandfather is his abolition of the Homeric rhapsodes at Sicyon, and his restitution of the Tragic Choruses to Bacchus. May we not also conclude that Megacles the elder was not indifferent to the policy of the father of his grandson's wife in this respect? The other party was Pisistratus, who was, as we have said, born near Brauron, where rhapsodic recitations were connected with the worship of Bacchus; the strong hold of his party was the Tetrapolis, which contained the town of Oenoë', to which, and not to the Boeotian town of the same name, we refer the traditions with regard to the introduction of the worship of Bacchus into Attica": his party doubtless included 1. See the passages quoted by Ruhnken on Timæus, sub v. xnuatičóμevos (p. 245-6) to which add Plat. Resp. p. 577. A. Éknλýttetai vñò Tŷs Twν Tuрavvi κῶν προστάσεως ἤν προς τοὺς ἔξω σχηματίζονται...... ἐν οἷς μάλιστα γυμνὸς ἄν ὀφθείη τῆς τραγικῆς σκευῆς. 2. See Welcker's Nachtrag, p. 250 3. Herod. v. 67. ταύτα δὲ, δοκέειν ἐμοὶ, ἐμιμέετο ὁ Κλ. μητροπάτορα, Κλ. τὸν Σικυώνος τύραννον. Κλεισθένης γαρ ἐν Σικυῶνι ἀγωνίζεσθαι τῶν ̔Ομηρείων ἐπίων εἵνεκα. 4. See the passages quoted by Elmsley on the Heracl. 81. 5. The Deme of Semachus was also in that part of Attica. οὗτος τὸν ἑωυτοῦ ῥαψῳδοὺς ἔπαυσε the Ægicores, (who have indeed been considered as identical with the Diacrians',) and these we have seen were the original possessors of the worship of Bacchus: finally, there was a mask of Bacchus at Athens, which was said to be a portrait of Pisistratus2; so that upon the whole there can be little doubt of the interest which he took in the establishment of the rites of the Ægicores as a part of the state religion. With regard to the actress, Phya, we need only remark that she was a garland-seller3, and therefore, as this trade was a very public one, could not easily have passed herself off upon the Athenians for a goddess. The first inference which we shall draw from a combination of these particulars is, that the ceremony attending the return of Pisistratus was to all intents and purposes a dramatic representation of the same kind with that part of the Eumenides of Æschylus, in which the same goddess Athena is introduced in a chariot, recommending to the Athenians the maintenance of the Areopagus3. Before we make any further use of the facts which we have alluded to, it will be as well to give some account of the celebrated contemporary of Pisistratus to whom the invention of Greek Tragedy has been generally ascribed. Thespis was born at Icarius, a Diacrian deme, at the beginning of the sixth century B. C. His birth-place derived its name, according to the tradition, from the father of Erigone', and had always been a seat of the religion of Bacchus, and the origin of the Athenian Tragedy and Comedy has been confi 1. See Wachsmuth, i. 1, p. 229. Arnold's Thucydides, p. 659—60. 2. ὅπου καὶ τὸ Ἀθήνησι τοῦ Διονύσου πρόσωπον ἐκείνου τινές φασιν εἴκονα. Athenæus, xii. p. 533. C. 3. στεφανόπωλις δὲ ἦν. Athen. xiii. p. 609. C. 4. Solon (according to Plutarch, c. xxx.) applied the term roкpiveobat to another of the artifices of Pisistratus. Diogen. Laert. Solon i. says, éσwv ékwλvoev (ò Zóλwv) τραγωδιάς ἄγειν τε καὶ διδάσκειν ὡς ἀνωφελῆ τὴν ψευδολογίαν. ὅτ' οὖν Πεισίστρατος ἑαυτὸν κατέτρωσεν ἐκεῖθεν μὲν ἔφη ταῦτα φῦναι. 5. This seems to be nearly the view taken of this pageant by Mr Thirlwall, Hist. of Grecce, Vol. II. p. 60. Mr Keightley is inclined to conjecture from the meaning of the woman's name (Phya-size) that the whole is a myth. 6. Suidas, Θέσπις, Ικαρίου πόλεως ̓Αττικής. 7. Leake, on the the Demi of Attica, p. 194. 8. Bentley fixes the time of Thespis' first exhibition, at 536. B. C. 9. Steph. Byz. Tapia. Hygin. Fab. 130. Ov. Met. vi. 125. dently referred to the drunken festivals of the place1: indeed it is not improbable that the name itself may point to the old mimetic exhibitions which were common there. Thespis is stated to have introduced an actor for the sake of resting the Dionysian chorus. This actor was generally, perhaps always, himself. He invented a disguise for the face by means of a pigment prepared from the herb purslain, and afterwards constructed a linen mask, in order, probably, that he might be able to sustain more than one characters. He is also said to have introduced some important alterations into the dances of the chorus, and his figures were known in the days of Aristophanes". These are almost all the facts which we know respecting this celebrated man. It remains for us to examine them. It appears, then, that he was a contemporary of Pisistratus and Solon. He was a Diacrian, and consequently a partizan of the former; we are told too that the latter was violently opposed to him. He was an Icarian, and therefore by his birth a worshipper of Bacchus. He was an TokρITs: and from the subjects of his recitations it would appear that he was also a rhapsode; here we have again the union of Dionysian rites with rhapsodical recitations which we have discovered in the Brauronian festival. But he went a step farther: his rhapsode, or actor, whether himself, or another person, did not confine his speech to mere narration; he addressed it to the chorus, which carried on with him by means of its coryphæi, a sort of dialogue. The chorus stood upon the steps of the thymele, or altar of Bacchus, and in order that he might address them from an equal elevation, 1. Athen. ii. p. 40. ἀπὸ μέθης καὶ ἡ τῆς κωμῳδίας καὶ ἡ τῆς τραγῳδίας εὕρεσις ἐν Ἰκαρίῳ τῆς Αττικής εὑρέθη. 2. See Welcker, Nachtrag. p. 222. 3. Ὕστερον δὲ θέσπις ἕνα ὑποκριτὴν ἐξεῦρεν ὑπὲρ τοῦ διαναπαύεσθαι τὸν χορόν. Diog. Laërt. Plat. lxvi. 4. Plutarch, Sol. xxix. ὁ Σόλων ἐθεάσατο τὸν θέσπιν αὐτὸν ὑποκρινόμενον STEP Vos y Tois nadaíois. See also, Arist. Rhet. iii. 1. and Liv. vii. 2. 5. Welcker, Nachtrag. p. 271. Thirlwall's History of Greece, vol. II. p. 126. 6. Aristoph. Vesp. 1479. 7. Plutarch. Sol. xxix. xxx. and p. 40. note 4. 8. The names of some of his plays have come down to us: they are the ̓Αλκηστις, Πενθεύς, Φορβάς, Ἱερεῖς, Ηίθεοι, Gruppe must have founded his supposition that Ulysses was the subject of a play of Thespis, (Ariadne, p. 129.) on a misunderstanding of Plut. Sol. xxx. in which he was preceded by Schneider, (de Originibus Trag. Gr. p. 56.) he was placed upon a table (eλeos)', which was thus the predecessor of the stage, between which and the thymele in later times there was always an intervening space. The waggon of Thespis, of which Horace writes, must have arisen from some confusion between this standing-place for the actor and the waggon of Susarion?. Themistius tells us that he invented a prologue and a rhesis. The former must have been the prooemium which he spoke as exarchus of the Dithyramb; the latter the dialogue between himself and the chorus, by means of which he developed some myth relating to Bacchus some other deity. Lastly, there is every reason to believe, that Thespis did not confine his representations to his native deme, but exhibited at Athens3. or From a comparison of these particulars respecting Thespis with the facts which we have stated in connexion with the first return of Pisistratus to Athens, we shall now be able to deduce some further inferences. It appears then, that a near approximation to the perfect form of the Greek Drama took place in the time of Pisistratus: all those who were concerned in bringing it about were Diacrians, or connected with the worship of Bacchus the innovations were either the results. or the concomitants of an assumption of political power by a caste of the inhabitants of Attica, whose tutelary god was Bacchus, and were in substance nothing but an union of the old choral worship of Bacchus, with an offshoot of the rhapsodical recitations of the old epopæists". 1. See Welcker, Nachtrag. p. 248. We think that the joke of Dicæopolis, (Arist. Acharn. 355. seqq.) an allusion to this practice. Solon mounted the herald's bema, when he recited his verses to the people. (V. Plut. c. 8.) 2. See Welcker, Nachtrag. p. 247. Gruppe says quaintly, but, we think, justly; (Ariadne, p. 122.) "It is clear enough that the waggon of Thespis cannot well consist with the festal choir of the Dionysia; and, in fact, this old coach, which has been fetched from Horace only, must be shoved back again into the lumber-room." The words of Horace are, (A. P. 275. 7.) Ignotum tragicæ genus invenisse Camænæ 3. p. 316. Hard. Θέσπις δὲ πρόλογόν τε καὶ ῥῆσιν ἐξεῦρεν. 4. This is the sense which the word pois bears in Hom. Odyss. xxi. 290. 1. See Welcker, Nachtr. p. 269. to by Aristotle when he says, 5. Nachtrag. p. 254. · αὗταρ ἀκούεις ἡμετέρων μύθων καὶ ῥήσιος. The invention of the pois seems also to be referred 6. The conclusions of Gruppe are so nearly, in effect, the same as ours, and so well expressed, that we think it right to lay thein before our readers (Ariadne, p. 127). (6 Thespis We can understand without any difficulty, why Pisistratus should encourage the religion of his own people, the Diacrians or Egicores; and why Solon, who thought he had given the lower orders power enough', should oppose the adoption of their worship as a part of the religion of the state; for in those days the religion and the privileges of a caste rose and fell together. It might, however, be asked why Pisistratus and his party, who evidently in their incroachments on the power of the aristocracy adopted in most cases the policy of the Sicyonian Cleisthenes, should in this particular have deviated from it so far as to encourage the rhapsodes, whom Cleisthenes on the contrary sedulously put down on account of the great predilection of the aristocracy for the Epos". This deserves and requires some additional explanation. Pisistratus was not only a Diacrian or goat-worshipper: he was also a Codrid, and therefore a Neleid, nay, he bore the name of one of the sons of his mythical ancestor, Nestor; he might, therefore, be excused for feeling some sort of aristocratical respect for the poems which described the wisdom and valour of his progenitors. Besides, he was born in the deme Philaïdæ, which derived its name from Philæus, one of the sons of Ajax, and he reckoned Ajax also among his ancestors; this may have induced him to desire a public commemoration of the glories of the antidæ, just as the Athenians of the next century looked with delight and interest at the Play of Sophocles3: and we have little doubt but he heard in his youth, parts of "Thespis developed from these detached speeches of the Choreutæ, especially when they were longer than usual, a recitation by an actor in the form of a narrative; a recitation, and not a song. Thespis, however, was an inhabitant of Attica, an Athenian, and as such stood in the middle, between the proper Ionians and the Dorians. The formation of the epos was the peculiar property of the former, of lyric poetry that of the latter. So long as Tragedy or the tragic choruses existed in the Peloponnese they were of a lyrical nature. In this form, with the Doric dialect and a lyrical accompaniment, they were transplanted into Attica; and here it was that Thespis first joined to them the Ionic element of narration, which, if not quite Ionic, had and maintained a relationship with the Ionic, even in the language." We may here remark, that all the old iambic poets wrote strictly in the Ionic dialect. Welcker has clearly shewn this by examples in the case of Simonides of Amorgus. (See Rheinisch. Museum for 1835, p. 369.) 1. Solon. Bach. p. 94. Δήμῳ μὲν γὰρ ἔδωκα τόσον κράτος ὅσσον ἐπαρκεί. Ι, not Niebuhr's translation of this line wrong? (Hist. Rom. vol. II. note 700.) Comp. Esch. Agamemn. 370. ἔστω ἀπήμαντον ὥστε κἀπαρκεῖν εὖ πραπίδων λαχόντα. 2. Wachsmuth, Hell. Alt. II. 2, 389. 3. See Rheinisch. Mus. for 1829, p. 62. |