Deipnosophistae

But the Hilarodus, as he is called, is a more respectable kind of poet than these men are; for he is never effeminate or indecorous, but he wears a white manly robe, and he is crowned with a golden crown: and in former times he used to wear sandals, as Aristocles tells us; but at the present day he wears only slippers. And some man or woman sings an accompaniment to him, as to a person who sings to the flute. And a crown is given to a Hilarodus, as well as to a person who sings to the flute; but such honours are not allowed to a player on the harp or on the flute. But the man who is called a Magodus has drums and cymbals, and wears all kinds

of woman's attire; and he behaves in an effeminate manner, and does every sort of indecorous, indecent thing,—imitating at one time a woman, at another an adulterer or a pimp: or sometimes he represents a drunken man, or even a serenade offered by a reveller to his mistress. And Aristoxeus says that the business of singing joyous songs is a respectable one, and somewhat akin to tragedy; but that the business of a Magodus is more like comedy. And very often it happens that the Magodi, taking the argument of some comedy, represent it according to their own fashion and manner. And the word μαγῳδία was derived from the fact that those who addicted themselves to the practice, uttered things like magical incantations, and often declared the power of various drugs.

But there was among the Lacedæmonians an ancient kind of comic diversion, as Sosibius says, not very important or serious, since Sparta aimed at plainness even in pastimes. And the way was, that some one, using very plain, unadorned language, imitated persons stealing fruit, or else some foreign physician speaking in this way, as Allexis, in his Woman who has taken Mandragora, represents one: and he says—

1. If any surgeon of the country says,
2. "Give him at early dawn a platter full
3. Of barley-broth," we shall at once despise him;
4. But if he says the same with foreign accent,
5. We marvel and admire him. If he call
6. The beet-root σεύτλιον, we disregard him;
7. But if he style it τεύτλιον, we listen,
8. And straightway, with attention fix'd, obey;
9. As if there were such difference between
10. σεύτλιον and τεύτλιον.

And those who practised this kind of sport were called among the Lacedæmonians δικηλισταὶ, which is a term equivalent to σκευοποιοὶ or μιμηταί. [*](σκευοποιὸς,, a maker of masks, etc. for the stage; μιμητὴς, an actor.) There are, however, many names, varying in different places, for this class of δικηλισταί; for the Sicyonians call them φαλλοφόροι, and others call them αὐτοκάβδαλοι, and some call them φλύακες, as the Italians do; but people in general call them Sophists: and the Thebans, who are very much in the habit of giving peculiar lames to many things, call them ἐθελονταί. But that the Thebans do introduce all kinds of innovations with respect to words, Strattis shows us in the Phœnissæ, where he says—

1. You, you whole body of Theban citizens,
2. Know absolutely nothing; for I hear
3. You call the cuttle-fish not σηπία,
4. But ὀπισθότιλα. Then, too, you term
5. A cock not ἀλεκτρύων, but ὀρτάλιχος:
6. A physician is no longer in your mouths
7. ἰατρὸς—no, but σακτάς. For a bridge,
8. You turn γέφυρα into βλέφυρα.
9. Figs are not σῦκα now, but τῦκα: swallows,
10. κωτιλάδες, not χελιδόνες. A mouthful
11. With you is ἄκολος; to laugh, ἐκριδδέμεν.
12. A new-seled shoe you call νεοσπάτωτον.

Semos the Delian says in his book about Pæans—

The men who were called αὑτοκάβδαλοι used to wear crowns of ivy, and they would go through long poems slowly. But at a later time both they and their poems were called Iambics. And those,

he proceeds,

who are called Ithyphalli, wear a mask representing the face of a drunken man, and wear crowns, having gloves embroidered with flowers. And they wear tunics shot with white; and they wear a Tarentine robe, which covers them down to their ancles: and they enter at the stage entrance silently, and when they have reached the middle of the orchestra, they turn towards the spectators, and say—

1. Out of the way; a clear space leave
2. For the great mighty god:
3. For the god, to his ancles clad,
4. Will pass along the centre of the crowd.

And the Phallophori,

says he,

wear no masks; but they put on a sort of veil of wild thyme, and on that they put acanthi, and an untrimmed garland of violets and ivy; and they clothe themselves in Caunacæ, and so come on the stage, some at the side, and others through the centre entrance, walking in exact musical time, and saying—

1. For you, O Bacchus, do we now set forth -
2. This tuneful song; uttering in various melody
3. This simple rhythm.
4. It is a song unsuited to a virgin;
5. Nor are we now addressing you with hymns
6. Made long ago, but this our offering
7. Is fresh unutter'd praise.

And then, advancing, they used to ridicule with their jests whoever they chose; and they did this standing still, but the Phallophorus himself marched straight on, covered with soot and dirt.

And since we are on this subject, it is as well not to

omit what happened to Amœbeus, a harp-player of our time, and a man of great science and skill in everything that related to music. He once came late to one of our banquets, and when he heard from one of the servants that we had all finished supper, he doubted what to do himself, until Sophon the cook came to him, and with a loud voice, so that every one might hear, recited to him these lines out of the Auge of Eubulus:—

1. O wretched man, why stand you at the doors
2. Why don't you enter'? Long ago the geese
3. Have all been deftly carved limb from limb;
4. Long the hot pork has had the meat cut off
5. From the long backbone, and the stuffing, which
6. Lay in the middle of his stomach, has
7. Been served around; and all his pettitoes,
8. The dainty slices of fat, well-season'd sausages,
9. Have all been eaten. The well-roasted cuttle-fish
10. Is swallow'd long ago; and nine or ten
11. Casks of rich wine are drain'd to the very dregs.
12. So if you'd like some fragments of the feast,
13. Hasten and enter. Don't, like hungry wolf,
14. Losing this feast, then run about at random.

For as that delightful writer Antiphanes says, in his Friend of the Thebans,—

1. A. We now are well supplied with everything;
2. For she, the namesake of the dame within,
3. The rich Bœotian eel, carved in the depths
4. Of the ample dish, is warm, and swells, and boils,
5. And bubbles up, and smokes; so that a man,
6. E'en though equipp'd with brazen nostrils, scarcely
7. Could bear to leave a banquet such as this,—
8. So rich a fragrance does it yield his senses.
9. B. Say you the cook is living
10. A. There is near
11. A cestreus, all unfed both night and day,
12. Scaled, wash'd, and stain'd with cochineal, and turned;
13. And as he nears his last and final turn
14. He cracks and hisses; while the servant bastes
15. The fish with vinegar: then there's Libyan silphium,
16. Dried in the genial rays of midday sun:—
17. B. Yet there are people found who dare to say
18. That sorcerers possess no sacred power;
19. For now I see three men their bellies filling
20. While you are turning this.
21. A. And the comrade squid
22. Bearing the form of the humpback'd cuttlefish,
23. Dreadful with armed claws and sharpen'd talons,
24. Changing its brilliant snow-white nature under
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25. The fiery blasts of glowing coal, adorns
26. Its back with golden splendour; well exciting
27. Hunger, the best forerunner of a feast.

So, come in—

1. Do not delay, but enter: when we've dined
2. We then can best endure what must be borne.

And so he, meeting him in this appropriate manner, replies with these lines out of the Harper of Clearchus:—

1. Sup on white congers, and whatever else
2. Can boast a sticky nature; for by such food
3. The breath is strengthen'd, and the voice of man
4. Is render'd rich and powerful.

And as there was great applause on this, and as every one with one accord called to him to come in, he went in and drank, and taking the lyre, sang to us in such a manner that we all marvelled at his skill on the harp, and at the rapidity of his execution, and at the tunefulness of his voice; for he appeared to me to be not at all inferior to that ancient Amœbeus, whom Aristeas, in his History of Harp-players, speaks of as living at Athens, and dwelling near the theatre, and receiving an Attic talent a-day every time he went out singing.

And while some were discussing music in this manner, and others of the guests saying different things every day, but all praising the pastime, Masurius, who excelled in everything, and was a man of universal wisdom, (for as an interpreter of the laws he was inferior to no one, and he was always devoting some of his attention to music, for indeed he was able himself to play on some musical instruments,) said, —My good friends, Eupolis the comic poet says—

1. And music is a deep and subtle science,
2. And always finding out some novelty
3. For those who 're capable of comprehending it;

on which account Anaxilas, in his Hyacinthus, says—

1. For, by the gods I swear, music, like Libya,
2. Brings forth each year some novel prodigy;

for, my dear fellows,

Music,

as the Harp-player of Theophilus says,

is a great and lasting treasure to all who have learnt it and know anything about it;

for it ameliorates the disposition, and softens those who are passionate and quarrelsome in their tempers. Accordingly,

Clinias the Pythagorean,

as Chamæleon of Pontus relates,

who was a most unimpeachable man

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both in his actual conduct and also in his disposition, if ever it happened to him to get out of temper or indignant at anything, would take up his lyre and play upon it. And when people asked him the reason of this conduct, he used to say, 'I am pacifying myself.' And so, too, the Achilles of Homer was mollified by the music of the harp, which is all that Homer allots to him out of the spoils of Eetion,[*](See Iliad, ix. 186. τὸν δʼ εὗρον φρένα τερπόμενον φόρμιγγι λιγείῃ,καλῇ, δαιδαλέῃ, ἐπὶ δʼ ἀργύρεος ζύγος ἦεντὴν ἄρετʼ ἐξ ἐνάρων πτόλιν ʼηετίωνος ὀλέσσαςτῇ ὅγε θυμὸν ἔτερπεν, ἄειδε δʼ ἄρα κλέα ἀνδρῶν. Which is translated by Pope:— Amused at ease the godlike man they found,Pleased with the solemn harp's harmonious sound,(The well-wrought harp from conquer'd Thebæ came,Of polish'd silver was its costly frame,)With this he soothes his angry soul, and singsTh' immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.—Iliad, ix. 245. ) as being able to check his fiery temper. And he is the only hero in the whole Iliad who indulges in this music.

Now, that music can heal diseases, Theophrastus asserts in his treatise on Enthusiasm, where he says that men with diseases in the loins become free from pain if any one plays a Phrygian air opposite to the part affected. And the Phrygians are the first people who invented and employed the harmony which goes by their name; owing to which circumstance it is that the flute-players among the Greeks have usually Phrygian and servile-sounding names, such as Sambas in Aleman, and Adon, and Telus. And in Hipponax we find Cion, and Codalus, and Babys, from whom the proverb arose about men who play worse and worse,—

He plays worse than Babys.

But Aristoxenus ascribes the invention of this harmony to Hyagnis the Phrygian.

But Heraclides of Pontus, in the third book of his treatise on Music, says—"Now that harmony ought not to be called Phrygian, just as it has no right either to be called Lydian. For there are three harmonies; as there are also three different races of Greeks-Dorians, Aeolians, and] Ionians: and accordingly there is no little difference between their manners. The Lacedæmonians are of all the Dorians the most strict in maintaining their national customs and the Thessalians (and these are they who were the origin of the

Aeolian race) have preserved at all times very nearly the same customs and institutions; but the population of the Ionians has been a great deal changed, and has gone through many transitions, because they have at all times resembled whatever nations of barbarians have from time to time been their masters. Accordingly, that species of melody which the Dorians composed they called the Dorian harmony, and that which the Aeolians used to sing they named the Aeolian harmony, and the third they called the Ionian, because they heard the Ionians sing it.

"Now the Dorian harmony is a manly and high-sounding strain, having nothing relaxed or merry in it, but, rather, it is stern and vehement, not admitting any great variations or any sudden changes. The character of the Aeolian harmony is pompous and inflated, and full of a sort of pride; and these characteristics are very much in keeping with the fondness for breeding horses and for entertaining strangers which the people itself exhibits. There is nothing mean in it, but the style is elevated and fearless; and therefore we see that a fondness for banquets and for amorous indulgences is common to the whole nation, and they indulge in every sort of relaxation: on which account they cherish the style of the Sub-Dorian harmony; for that which they call the Aeolian is, says Heraclides, a sort of modification of the Dorian, and is called ὑποδώριος.. And we may collect the character of this Aeolian harmony also from what Lasus of Hermione says in his hymn to the Ceres in Hermione, where he speaks as follows:—

1. I sing the praise of Ceres and of Proserpine,
2. The sacred wife of Clymenus, Melibœa;
3. Raising the heavy-sounding harmony
4. Of hymns Aeolian.

But these Sub-Dorian songs, as they are called, are sung by nearly everybody. Since, then, there is a Sub-Dorian melody, it is with great propriety that Lasus speaks of Aeolian harmony. Pratinas, too, somewhere or other says—

1. Aim not at too sustain'd a style, nor yet
2. At the relax'd Ionian harmony;
3. But draw a middle furrow through your ground,
4. And follow the Eolian muse in preference.

And in what comes afterwards he speaks more plainly—-

1. But to all men who wish to raise their voices,
2. The Aeolian harmony's most suitable.

"Now formerly, as I have said, they used to call this the Aeolian harmony, but afterwards they gave it the name of the Sub-Dorian, thinking, as some people say, that it was pitched lower on the flute than the Dorian. But it appears to me that those who gave it this name, seeing its inflated style, and the pretence to valour and virtue which was put forth in the style of the harmony, thought it not exactly the Dorian harmony, but to a certain extent like it: on which account they called it ὑποδώριον, just as they call what is nearly white ὑπόλευκον: and what is not absolutely sweet, but something near it, we call ὑπόγλυκυ; so, too, we call what is not thoroughly Dorian ὑπόδωριον.

"Next in order let us consider the character of the Milesians, which the Ionians display, being very proud of the goodly appearance of their persons; and full of spirit, hard to be reconciled to their enemies, quarrelsome, displaying no philanthropic or cheerful qualities, but rather a want of affection and friendship, and a great moroseness of disposition: on which account the Ionian style of harmony also is not flowery nor mirthful, but austere and harsh, and having a sort of gravity in it, which, however, is not ignoble-looking; on which account that tragedy has a sort of affection for that harmony. But the manners of the Ionians of the present day are more luxurious, and the character of their present music is very far removed from the Ionian harmony we have been speaking of. And men say that Pythermus the Teian wrote songs such as are called Scolia in this kind of harmony; and that it was because he was an Ionian poet that the harmony got the name of Ionian. This is that Pythermus whom Ananius or Hipponax mentions in his Iambics in this way:—

1. Pythermus speaks of gold as though all else were nought.

And Pythermus's own words are as follows:—

1. All other things but gold are good for nothing.

Therefore, according to this statement, it is probable that Pythermus, as coming from those parts. adapted the character of his melodies to the disposition of the Ionians; on which account I suppose that his was not actually the Ionian harmony, but that it was a harmony adapted in some a admirable manner to the purpose required. And those are contemptible people who are unable to distinguish the characteristic differences of these separate harmonies; but who are led away by the sharpness or flatness of the sounds, so as to describe one harmony as ὑπερμιξολύδιος, and then again to give a definition of some further sort, refining on this: for I do not think that even that which is called the ὑπερφρύγιος has a distinct character of its own, although some people do say that they have invented a new harmony which they call Sub-Phrygian (ὑποφρύγιος). Now every kind of harmony ought to have some distinct species of character or of passion; as the Locrian has, for this was a harmony used by some of those who lived in the time of Simonides and Pindar, but subsequently it fell into contempt.

"There are, then, as we have already said, three kinds of harmony, as there are three nations of the Greek people. But the Phrygian and Lydian harmonies, being barbaric, became known to the Greeks by means of the Phrygians and Lydians who came over to Peloponnesus with Pelops. For many Lydians accompanied and followed him, because Sipylus was a town of Lydia; and many Phrygians did so too, not because they border on the Lydians, but because their king also was Tantalus—(and you may see all over Peloponnesus, and most especially in Lacedæmon, great mounds, which the people there call the tombs of the Phrygians who came over with Pelops)—and from them the Greeks learnt these harmonies: on which account Telestes of Selinus says—

1. First of all, Greeks, the comrades brave of Pelops,
2. Sang o'er their wine, in Phrygian melody,
3. The praises of the mighty Mountain Mother;
4. But others, striking the shrill strings of the lyre,
5. Gave forth a Lydian hymn."

But we must not admit,

says Polybius of Megalopolis, "that music, as Ephorus asserts, was introduced among men for the purposes of fraud and trickery. Nor must we think that the ancient Cretans and Lacedæmonians used flutes and songs at random to excite their military ardour, instead of trumpets. Nor are we to imagine that the earliest Arcadians had no reason whatever for doing so, when they introduced music into every department of their management of the republic; so that, though the nation in every other respect was most austere in its manner of life, they nevertheless com- pelled music to be the constant companion, not only of their boys, but even of their youths up to thirty years of age. For the Arcadians are the only people among whom the boys are trained from infancy to sing hymns and pæans to regular airs, in which indeed every city celebrates their national heroes and gods with such songs, in obedience to ancient custom.

"But after this, learning the airs of Timotheus and Philoxenus, they every year, at the festival of Bacchus, dance in their theatres to the music of flute-players; the boys dancing in the choruses of boys, and the youths in those of men. And throughout the whole duration of their lives they are addicted to music at their common entertainments; not so much, however, employing musicians as singing in turn: and to admit themselves ignorant of any other accomplishment is not at all reckoned discreditable to them; but to refuse to sing is accounted a most disgraceful thing. And they, practising marches so as to march in order to the sound of the flute, and studying their dances also, exhibit every year in the theatres, under public regulations and at the public expense. These, then, are the customs which they have derived from the ancients, not for the sake of luxury and superfluity, but from a consideration of the austerity which each individual practised in his private life, and of the severity of their characters, which they contract from the cold and gloomy nature of the climate which prevails in the greater part of their country. And it is the nature of all men to be in some degree influenced by the climate, so as to get some resemblance to it themselves; and it is owing to this that we find different races of men, varying in character and figure and complexion, in proportion as they are more or less distant from one another.

In addition to this, they instituted public banquets and public sacrifices, in which the men and women join; and also dances of the maidens and boys together; endevouring to mollify and civilize the harshness of their nature character by the influence of education and habit. And as the people of Cynætha neglected this system (although they occupy by far the most inclement district of Arcadia, both as respects the soil and the climate), they, never meeting one another except for the purpose of giving offence and quarrelling, became at last so utterly savage, that the very greatest

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impieties prevailed among them alone of all the people of Arcadia; and at the time when they made the great massacre, whatever Arcadian cities their emissaries came to in their passage, the citizens of all the other cities at once ordered them to depart by public proclamation; and the Mantineans even made a public purification of their city after their departure, leading victims all round their entire district.

Agias, the musician, said that

the styrax, which at the Dionysiac festivals is burnt in the orchestras, presented a Phrygian odour to those who were within reach of it.

Now, formerly music was an exhortation to courage; and accordingly Alcæus the poet, one of the greatest musicians that ever lived, places valour and manliness before skill in music and poetry, being himself a man warlike even beyond what was necessary. On which account, in such verses as these, he speaks in high-toned language, and says—

1. My lofty house is bright with brass,
2. And all my dwelling is adorn'd, in honour
3. Of mighty Mars, with shining helms,
4. O'er which white horsehair crests superbly wave,
5. Choice ornament for manly brows;
6. And brazen greaves, on mighty pegs suspended,
7. Hang round the hall; fit to repel
8. The heavy javelin or the long-headed spear.
9. There, too, are breastplates of new linen,
10. And many a hollow shield, thrown basely down
11. By coward enemies in flight:
12. There, too, are sharp Chalcidic swords, and belts,
13. Short military cloaks besides,
14. And all things suitable for fearless war;
15. Which I may ne'er forget,
16. Since first I girt myself for the adventurous work—

although it would have been more suitable for him to have had his house well stored with musical instruments. But the ancients considered manly courage the greatest of all civil virtues, and they attributed the greatest importance to that, to the exclusion of other good qualities. Archilochus accordingly, who was a distinguished poet, boasted in the first place of being able to partake in all political undertakings, and in the second place he mentioned the credit he had gained by his poetical efforts, saying,—

1. But I'm a willing servant of great Mars,
2. Skill'd also in the Muses' lovely art.

And, in the same spirit, Aeschylus, though a man who had acquired such great renown by his poetry, nevertheless pre- ferred having his valour recorded on his tomb, and composed an inscription for it, of which the following lines are a part:—

1. The grove of Marathon, and the long-hair'd Medes;
2. Who felt his courage, well may speak of it.

And it is on this account that the Lacedæmoians, who are a most valiant nation, go to war to the music of the flute, and the Cretans to the strains of the lyre, and the Lydians to the sound of pipes and flutes, as Herodotus relates. And, moreover, many of the barbarians make all their public proclamations to the accompaniment of flutes and harps, softening the souls of their enemies by these means. And Theopompus, in the forty-sixth book of his History, says—

The Getæ make all their proclamations while holding harps in their hands and playing on them.

And it is perhaps on this account that Homer, having due regard to the ancient institutions and customs of the Greeks, says—

1. I hear, what graces every feast, the lyre;

Odyss. xvii. 262.

as if this art of music were welcome also to men feasting.

Now it was, as it should seem, a regular custom to introduce music, in the first place in order that every one who might be too eager for drunkenness or gluttony might have music as a sort of physician and healer of his insolence and indecorum, and also because music softens moroseness of temper; for it dissipates sadness, and produces affability and a sort of gentlemanlike joy. From which consideration, Homer has also, in the first book of the Iliad, represented the gods as using music after their dissensions on the subject of Achilles; for they continued for some time listening to it—

1. Thus the blest gods the genial day prolong
2. In feasts ambrosial and celestial song:
3. Apollo tuned the lyre,—the Muses round,
4. With voice alternate, aid the silver sound.

Iliad, i. 603.

For it was desirable that they should leave off their quarrels and dissensions, as we have said. And most people seem to attribute the practice of this art to banquets for the sake of setting things right, and of the general mutual advantage. And, besides these other occasions, the ancients also established by customs and laws that at feasts all men should sing hymns to the gods, in order by these means to preserve order and decency among us; for as all songs proceed according to harmony, the consideration of the gods being added to this harmony, elevates the feelings of each individual. And Philochorus says that the ancients, when making their libations, did not always use dithyrambic hymns, but

when they pour libations, they celebrate Bacchus with wine and drunkenness, but Apollo with tranquillity and good order.

Accordingly Archilochus says—

1. I, all excited in my mind with wine,
2. Am skilful in the dithyrambic, knowing
3. The noble melodies of the sovereign Bacchus.

And Epicharmus, in his Philoctetes, says—

1. A water-drinker knows no dithyrambics.

So, that it was not merely with a view to superficial and vulgar pleasure, as some assert, that music was originally introduced into entertainments, is plain from what has been said above. But the Lacedæmonians do not assert that they used to learn music as a science, but they do profess to be able to judge well of what is done in the art; and they say that they have already three times preserved it when it was in danger of being lost.

Music also contributes to the proper exercising of the body and to sharpening the intellect; on which account, every Grecian people, and every barbarian nation too, that we are acquainted with, practise it. And it was a good saying of Damon the Athenian, that songs and dances must inevitably exist where the mind was excited in any manner; and liberal, and gentlemanly, and honourable feelings of the mind produce corresponding kinds of music, and the opposite feelings likewise produce the opposite kinds of music. On which account, that saying of Clisthenes the tyrant of Sicyon was a witty one, and a sign of a well-educated intellect. For when he saw, as it is related,[*](This story is related by Herodotus, vi. 126.) one of the suitors for his daughter dancing in an unseemly manner (it was Hippoclides the Athenian), he told him that he had danced away his marriage, thinking, as it should seem, that the mind of the man corresponded to the dance which he had exhibited; for in dancing and walking decorum and good order are honourable, and disorder and vulgarity are discreditable. And it is on this principle that the poets originally arranged dances for

freeborn men, and employed figures only to be emblems of what was being sung, always preserving the principles of nobleness and manliness in them; on which account it was that they gave them the name of ὑπορχήματα(accompaniment to the dance). And if any one, while dancing indulged in unseemly postures or figures, and did nothing at all corresponding to the songs sung, he was considered blameworthy; on which account, Aristophanes or Plato, in his Preparations (as Chamæleon quotes the play), spoke thus:—

1. So that if any one danced well, the sight
2. Was pleasing: but they now do nothing rightly,
3. But stand as if amazed, and roar at random.

For the kind of dancing which was at that time used in the choruses was decorous and magnificent, and to a certain extent imitated the motions of men under arms; on which account Socrates in his Poems says that those men who dance best are the best in warlike exploits; and thus he writes:—

1. But they who in the dance most suitably
2. Do honour to the Gods, are likewise best
3. In all the deeds of war.

For the dance is very nearly an armed exercise, and is a dis- play not only of good discipline in other respects, but also of the care which the dancers bestow on their persons.

And Amphion the Thespiæan, in the second book of his treatise on the Temple of the Muses on Mount Helicon, says that in Helicon there are dances of boys, got up with great care, quoting this ancient epigram:—

1. I both did dance, and taught the citizens
2. The art of music, and my flute-player
3. Was Anacus the Phialensian;
4. My name was Bacchides of Sicyon;
5. And this my duty to the gods perform'd
6. Was honourable to my country Sicyon.

And it was a good answer which was made by Caphesias the flute-player, when one of his pupils began to pay on the flute very loudly, and was endeavouring to play as loudly as he could; on which he struck him, and said,

Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness

There are also relics and traces of the ancient dancing in some statues which we have, which were made by ancient statuaries; on which account men at that time paid more attention to moving their hands with graceful gestures; for in his parti- cular also they aimed at graceful and gentlemanlike motions, comprehending what was great in what was well done. And from these motions of the hands they transferred some figures to the dances, and from the dances to the palæstra; for they sought to improve their manliness by music and by paying attention to their persons. And they practised to the accompaniment of song with reference to their movements when under arms; and it was from this practice that the dance called the Pyrrhic dance originated, and every other dance of this kind, and all the others which have the same name or any similar one with a slight change: such as the Cretan dances called ὀρσίτης and ἐπικρήδιος; and that dance, too, which is named ἀπόκινος, (and it is mentioned under this name by Cratinus in his Nemesis, and by Cephisodorus in his Amazons, and by Aristophanes in his Centaur, and by several other poets,) though afterwards it came to be called μακτρισμός; and many women used to dance it, who, I am aware, were afterwards called μαρκτύπιαι.

But the more sedate kinds of dance, both the more varied kinds and those too whose figures are more simple, are the following:—The Dactylus, the Iambic, the Molossian, the Emmelea, the Cordax, the Sicinnis, the Persian, the Phrygian, the Nibatismus, the Thracian, the Calabrismus, the Telesias (and this is a Macedonian dance which Ptolemy was practising when he slew Alexander the brother of Philip, as Marsyas relates in the third book of his History of Macedon). The following dances are of a frantic kind:—The Cernophorus, and the Mongas, and the Thermaustris. There was also a kind of dance in use among private individuals, called the ἄνθεμα, and they used to dance this while repeating the following form of words with a sort of mimicking gesture, saying—

1. Where are my roses, and where are my violets?
2. Where is my beautiful parsley
3. Are these then my roses, are these then my violets
4. And is this my beautiful parsley?

Among the Syracusans there was a kind of dance called the Chitoneas, sacred to Diana, and it is a peculiar kind of dance, accompanied with the flute. There was also an Ionian kind of dance practised at drinking parties. They also practised the dance called ἀγγελικὴ at their drinking parties. And there is another kind of dance called the Burning of the

World, which Menippus the Cynic mentions in his Banquet. There are also some dances of a ridiculous character:—the Igdis, the Mactrismus, the Apocinus, and the Sobas; and besides these, the Morphasmus, and the Owl, and the Lion, and the Pouring out of Meal, and the Abolition of Debt, and the Elements, and the Pyrrhic dance. And they also lanced to the accompaniment of the flute a dance which they called the Dance of the Master of the Ship, and the Platter Dance.

The figures used in dances are the Xiphismus, the Calathismus, the Callabides, the Scops, and the Scopeuma. And the Scops was a figure intended to represent people looking out from a distance, making an arch over their brows with their hand so as to shade their eyes. And it is mentioned by Aeschylus in his Spectators:—

1. And all these old σκωπεύματα of yours.

And Eupolis, in his Flatterers, mentions the Callabides, when he says—

1. He walks as though he were dancing the Callabides.

Other figures are the Thermastris, the Hecaterides,[*](See Herodotus, i. 55.) the Scopus, the Hand-down, the Hand-up, the Dipodismus, the Taking-hold of Wood, the Epanconismus, the Calathiscus, the Strobilus. There is also a dance called the Telesias; and this is a martial kind of dance, deriving its title from a man of the name of Telesias, who was the first person who ever danced it, holding arms in his hands, as Hippagoras tells us in the first book of his treatise on the Constitution of the Carthaginians.