Deipnosophistae

But Aeschylus was not only the inventor of becoming and dignified dress, which the hierophants and torch-bearers of the sacred festivals imitated; but he also invented many figures in dancing, and taught them to the dancers of the chorus. And Chamæleon states that he first arranged the choruses; not using the ordinary dancing-masters, but himself arranging the figures of the dancers for the chorus; and altogether that he took the whole arrangement of his tragedies on himself. And he himself acted in his own plays very fairly. And accord- ingly, Aristophanes (and we may well trust the comic writers in what they say of the tragedians) represents Aeschylus himself as saying—

1. I myself taught those dances to the chorus,
2. Which pleased so much when erst they danced before us.

And again, he says,

I recollect that when I saw ' The Phrygians,' when the men came on who were uniting with Priam in his petition for the ransom of his son, some danced in this way, some in that, all at random.

Telesis, or Telestes, (whichever was his right name,) the dancing-master, invented many figures, and taught men to use the action of their hands, so as to give expression to what they said. Phillis the Delian, a musician, says, that the ancient harp-players moved their countenances but little, but their feet very much, imitating the march of troops or the dancing of a chorus. Accordingly Aristotle says, that Telestes the director of Aeschylus's choruses was so great a master of his art, that in managing the choruses of the Seven Generals against Thebes, he made all the transactions plain by dancing. They say, too, that the old poets, Thespis, Pratinas, Carcinus, and Phrynichus, were called dancing poets, because they not only made their dramas depend upon the dancing of the chorus, but because, besides directing the exhibition of their own plays, they also taught dancing to all who wished to learn. But Aeschylus was often drunk when he wrote his tragedies, if we may trust Chamæleon: and accordingly Sophocles reproached him, saying, that even when he did what was right he did not know that he was ding so.

Now the national dances are the following:—the Lace- dæmonian, the Trœzenian, the Epizephyrian, the Cretan, the Ionian, the Mantinean, which Aristoxenus considers as the best of all, on account of its movement of the hands. And dancing was considered so creditable an employment, and one requiring so much talent, that Pindar calls Apollo a dancer:—

1. Prince of dancers, prince of grace,
2. Hail, Phœbus of the silver quiver.

And Homer too, or one of the Homeridæ, in one of the hymns to Apollo, says—

1. How deftly Phœbus strikes the golden lyre,
2. While strength and grace each moving limb inspire!

and Eumelus, or Arctinus, the Corinthian, somewhere or other introduces Jupiter himself as dancing, saying—

1. And gracefully amid the dancing throng,
2. The sire of gods and mortals moved along.

But Theophrastus says that Andron of Catana, a flute-player, was the first person who invented motions of the body keeping time to music, while he played on the flute to the dancers; from whom dancing among the ancients was called Sicelizing. And that he was followed by Cleophantus of Thebes. Among the dancers of reputation there was Bulbus, mentioned by Cratinus and Callias; and Zeno the Cretan, who was in high favour with Artaxerxes, mentioned by Ctesias. Alexander also, in his letter to Philoxenus, mentions Theodorus and Chrysippus.

The Temple of the Muses is called by Timon the Phliasian, the satiric writer, the basket, by which term he means to ridicule the philosophers who frequent it, as if they were fattened up in a hen-coop, like valuable birds:—

1. Aegypt has its mad recluses,
2. Book-bewilder'd anchorites,
3. In the hen-coop of the Muses
4. Keeping up their endless fights.

. . . . till these table orators got cured of their diarrhea of words; a pack of men, who from their itch for talking appear to me to have forgotten the Pythian oracle, which Chameleon quotes—

1. Three weeks ere Sirius burns up the wheat,
2. And three weeks after, seek the cool retreat
3. Of shady house, and better your condition
4. By taking Bacchus for your sole physician.

And so Mnesitheus the Athenian says that the Pythia enjoined the Athenians to honour Bacchus the physician. But Alcæus, the Mitylenæan poet, says—

1. Steep your heart in rosy wine, for see, the dog star is in view;
2. Lest by heat and thirst oppress'd you should the season's fury rue.

And in another place he says—

1. Fill me, boy, a sparkling cup;
2. See, the dogstar's coming up.

And Eupolis says that Callias was compelled to drink by Protagoras, in order that his lungs might not be melted away before the dogdays. But at such a time I not only feel my lungs dried up, but I may almost say my heart too. And Antiphanes says—

1. A. Tell me, I pray you, how you life define.
2. B. To drink full goblets of rich Chian wine.
3. You see how tall and fine the forest grows
4. Through which a sacred river ceaseless flows;
5. While on dry soils the stately beech and oak
6. Die without waiting for the woodman's stroke.

And so, says he, they, disputing about the dogstar, had plenty to drink. Thus the word βρέχω, to moisten or soak, is often applied to drinking. And so Antiphanes says—

1. Eating much may bring on choking,
2. Unless you take a turn at soaking.

And Eubulus has—

1. A. I Sicon come with duly moisten'd clay.
2. B. What have you drunk then? A. That you well may say.