the forerunner of the actor, but he was himself an actor (únoKρITS 2). If, therefore, the difference between the lyric Tragedy of the Dorians and the regular Tragedy of the Athenians consisted in this, that the one had actors (vπoкpiraì) and the other had none, we must look for the origin of the complete and perfect Attic Drama in the union of the rhapsodes with the Bacchic chorus.

There can be little doubt that the worship of Bacchus was introduced into Attica at a very early period; indeed it was probably the religion of the oldest inhabitants, who, on the invasion of the country by the Ionians, were reduced, like the native Laconians, to the inferior situation of TEрíoikot, and cultivated the soil for their conquerors. Like all other Pelasgians they were naturally inclined to a country life, and this perhaps may account for the elementary nature of their religion, which with its votaries was thrown aside and despised by the ruling caste. In the quadripartite division of the people of Attica the old inhabitants formed the tribe of the Ægicores or goatherds, who worshipped Dionysus with the sacrifice of goats. But though they were at first kept in a state of inferiority and subjection, they eventually rose to an equality with the other inhabitants of the country. There are very many Attic legends which point to the original contempt for the goatherd's religion, and its subsequent adoption by the other tribes. This is indicated by the freedom of slaves at the Dionysian festivals, by the reference of the origin of the religion to the town Eleuthera, by the marriage of the King Archon's wife to Bac

Soph. Antig. 666:

Τοῦδε [ἄρχοντος] χρὴ κλύειν

Καὶ σμικρὰ καὶ δίκαια καὶ τἀνάντια

(i. e. μɛyáλa kai adika), from Solon's well-known line:

̓Αρχῶν ἄκουε καὶ δίκαια κἄδικα, as it ought to be read.

2 When Aristotle says, (Rhet. iii. 1,) Eię rǹv тpayıkǹv kai pa¥ydíav ö↓è παρῆλθεν (ἡ ὑπόκρισις), ὑπεκρίνοντο γὰρ αὐτοὶ τὰς τραγῳδίας οἱ ποιηταὶ τὸ Tрorov, he evidently means by the word inóкpioic the assumption of the poet's person by another; which we conceive to have been the original, as it is the derived, meaning of the word. Compare vóоxua, &c. We think it more than probable that the names of the actors, pwraywviorns, &c. were derived from the names of the rhapsodes who recited in succession (ἐξ υπολήψεως) in the ῥαψῳδῶν ay@veg. See Pseudoplat. Hipparch. p. 228, and the other passages quoted by Welcker, Ep. Cycl. p. 371, fol.

3 On the early worship of Bacchus in Attica see Welcker's Nachtrag, p. 194, fol. and Phil. Mus. ii. p. 299–307.

chus; and we may perhaps discover traces of a difference of castes in the story of Orestes at the Anthesteria. It was natural, therefore, that the Ægicores, when they had obtained their freedom from political disabilities, should ascribe their deliverance to their tutelary god, whom they therefore called 'EXEú0Epos: and in later times, when all the inhabitants of Attica were on a footing of equality, the god Bacchus was still looked upon as the favourer of the commonalty, and as the patron of democracy.

As we have before remarked, it was not till the Athenians had recognized the supremacy of the Delphian oracle, that the Dorian choral worship was introduced into Attica, and it was then applied to the old Dionysian religion of the country with the sanction of the oracle, as appears from the oracle which we have quoted above, and from the legend in Pausanias, that the Delphian oracle assisted Pegasus in transferring the worship of Bacchus from Eleuthera to Athens. Consequently the cyclic chorus would not be long in finding its way into a country so predisposed for its reception as Attica certainly was; and there is every reason to believe that the Dorian lyric Drama, perhaps with certain modifications, accompanied its parent.

The recitations by rhapsodes were a peculiarly Ionian entertainment, and therefore, no doubt, were common in Attica from the very earliest times. At Brauron, in particular, we are told that the Iliad was chanted by rhapsodes'. Now the Brauronia was a festival of Bacchus, and a particularly boisterous one, if we may believe Aristophanes. To this festival we refer the passage of Clearchus, quoted by Athenæus', in which it is stated

· καὶ αὕτη ἡ γυνὴ ὑμῖν ἔθνε τὰ ἄῤῥητα ἱερὰ ὑπὲρ τῆς πόλεως, καὶ εἶδεν ἃ οὐ προσῆκεν αὐτὴν ὁρᾷν ξένην οὖσαν, καὶ τοιαύτη οὖσα εἰσῆλθεν οἱ οὐδεὶς ἄλλος ̓Αθηναίων τοσούτων ὄντων εἰσέρχεται ἀλλ ̓ ἡ τοῦ βασιλέως γυνή, ἐξώρκωσέ τε τὰς γεραιρὰς τὰς ὑπηρετούσας τοῖς ἱεροῖς, ἐξεδόθη δὲ τῷ Διονύση γυνή, ἔπραξε δὲ ὑπὲρ τῆς πόλεως τὰ πάτρια τὰ πρὸς τοὺς θεούς, πολλὰ καὶ ἅγια καὶ ánópoηra, Pseud. Demosth. in Neær. p. 1369-70. Above p. 9.

5 1. 2, 5. συνελάβετο δέ οἱ καὶ τὸ ἐν Δελφοῖς μαντεῖον.

It seems that the oscilla on the trees referred to the hanging of Erigone, which probably formed the subject of a standing drama with mimic dances like the Sicyonian Tragedies, with which the dramas of Epigenes were connected. Welck. Nachtr. p. 224.

Does this

7 Hesych. Βραυρωνίοις. τὴν Ἰλιάδα ᾠδον ῥαψῳδοὶ ἐν Βραυρῶνι τῆς ̓Αττικῆς. καὶ Βραυρωνία ἑορτὴ ̓Αρτέμιδι Βραυρωνία ἄγεται καὶ θύεται αἴξ. mention of the sacrifice of a goat point to the rites of the Ægicores ?

8 Pax, 874, and Schol.

• At the beginning of the Seventh Book, p. 275, Β: Φαγήσια, οἱ δὲ Φαγησιοπόσια προσαγορεύουσι τὴν ἑορτήν. ἐξέλιπε δὲ αὕτη, καθάπερ ἡ τῶν ῥαψῳδῶν, ἣν ἦγον

that the rhapsodes came forward in succession, and recited in honour of Bacchus. By a combination of these particulars, we can at once establish a connexion between the worship of Bacchus and the rhapsodic recitations. Before, however, we consider the important inferences which may be derived from these facts, we must enter a little into the state of affairs in Attica at the time when the Thespian Tragedy arose.

The early political dissensions at Athens were, like those between the populus and the plebs in the olden times of Roman history, the consequences of an attempt on the part of the inferior orders in an aristocracy of conquest' to shake off their civil disabilities, and to put themselves upon an equality with their more favoured fellow-citizens. Solon had in part effected this by taking from the Eupatrids some of their exclusive privileges, and establishing a timocracy in the place of the aristocracy. At this time, Athens was divided into three parties; the Пladiator, or the landed aristocracy of the interior; the Пápado, the people dwelling on the coast on both sides of Cape Sunium; and the Διάκριοι οι Ὑπεράκριοι, the highlanders who inhabited the northeastern district of Attica'. The first party were for an oligarchy, the last for a democracy, and the second for a mixture of the two forms of government'. The head of the democratical faction was Pisistratus, the son of Hippocrates, of the family of the Codrids, and related to Solon: he was born at Philaidæ, near Brauron, and therefore was by birth a Diacrian. Having obtained by an artifice the sovran power at Athens, he was expelled by a coalition of the other two factions. After a short time, however, Megacles, the leader of the Paralians, being harassed (TEρIEλavνóμεvoç') by the aristocratic faction, recalled Pisistratus

κατὰ τὴν τῶν Διονυσίων· ἐν ᾧ παριόντες ἕκαστοι τῷ θεῷ οἷον τιμὴν ἀπετέλουν τὴν ῥαψῳδίαν. Welcker reads ἑκάστῳ τῶν θεῶν, and takes quite a different view of this passage, except so far as he agrees with us in referring it to the Brauronia. (Ep. Cycl. p. 391.)

1 See Arnold's Thucydides, vol. i. p. 620. We think the fact that one of the classes in Attica was called the "Hopletes," points to a conquest of Attica in remote times by the Ionians.

2 Herod. i. 59: στασιαζόντων τῶν παράλων καὶ τῶν ἐκ τοῦ πεδίου ̓Αθηναίων τῶν ὑπερακρίων προστάς.

3 Plutarch. Sol. xiii. p. 85. ἦν γὰρ τὸ μὲν τῶν Διακρίων γένος δημοκρατικώτερον, ὀλιγαρχικώτατον δὲ τὸ τῶν Πεδιέων, τρίτοι δὲ οἱ Πάραλοι μέσον τινὰ καὶ μεμιγμένον αἱρούμενοι πολιτείας τρόπον. Comp. Arnold's note on Thucyd. ii. 59.

4 Herod. i. 60.

and gave him his daughter in marriage. The manner of his 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 Alcmæon, whose son Megacles married Agariste, 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 constitution'. One of the points, which Herodotus mentions in immediate connexion with Cleisthenes' imitation of his grandfather, is the 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 a ruler who was so nearly connected with him by marriage? 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 Enoë, to which, and not to the Boeotian town of

* See the passages quoted by Ruhnken on Timæus, sub v. oxnμarilóμevos, (p. 245 6.) to which add Plat. Resp. p. 577, Α. : ἐκπλήττεται ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν τυραννικῶν προστάσεως ἣν πρὸς τοὺς ἔξω σχηματίζονται . . . ἐν οἷς μάλιστα γυμνὸς ἂν ὀφθείη τῆς τραγικῆς σκευῆς.

See Welcker's Nachtrag, p. 250.

7 Herod. v. 67 : ταῦτα δὲ, δοκέειν ἐμοὶ, ἐμιμέετο ὁ Κλ. οὗτος τὸν ἑωυτοῦ μητροπάτορα, Κλ. τὸν Σικυῶνος τύραννον. Κλεισθένης γὰρ . . ῥαψῳδοὺς ἔπαυσε ἐν Σικυῶνι ἀγωνίζεσθαι τῶν Ομηρείων ἐπέων εἵνεκα. Mr. Grote has shown good reasons for believing that the poems recited at Sicyon as Homeric productions were the Thebais and the Epigoni. Hist. Gr. vol. ii. p. 173, note. See the passages quoted by Elmsley on the Heracl. 81.

the same name, we refer the traditions with regard to the introduction of the worship of Bacchus into Attica: his party doubtless included 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 Pisistratus; 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 garlandseller', 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 Areopagus'.

4

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'; it had always been a seat of the religion of Bacchus, and the

9 The Deme of Semachus was also in that part of Attica.

1 See Wachsmuth, i. 1, p. 229. Arnold's Thucydides, p. 659–60.

2 ὅπου καὶ τὸ ̓Αθήνησι τοῦ Διονύσου πρόσωπον ἐκείνου τινές φασιν εἰκόνα. Athenæus, xii. p. 533, c.

3 στεφανόπωλις δὲ ἦν. Athen. xiii. p. 609, c.

4 Solon (according to Plutarch, c. xxx.) applied the term voкpives0aι to another of the artifices of Pisistratus. Diogen. Laërt. Solon. i. says, Oiomiv ikóλvoev (ò Σόλων) τραγωδίας ἄγειν τε καὶ διδάσκειν ὡς ἀνωφελῆ τὴν ψευδολογίαν. ὅτ ̓ οὖν Πεισίστρατος ἑαυτὸν κατέτρωσεν, ἐκεῖθεν μὲν ἔφη ταῦτα φῦναι.

This seems to be nearly the view taken of this pageant by Dr. Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, 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.

• Suidas, Θέσπις, Ικαρίου πόλεως ̓Αττικῆς.

7 Leake on the Demi of Attica, p. 194.

8 Bentley fixes the time of Thespis' first exhibition at 536 B. C. Steph. Byz. 'Ikapia. Hygin. Fab. 130. Ov. Met. vi. 125.