Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

FESTIVALS

or less practical jokes common at festivals of Dionysus. Many who took part in this procession (which may be compared to the modern masked ball) appeared in costume, with special preference as Nymphs, Hours, Bacchantes, and Satyrs; and it is evident that the light clothing prescribed by mythological tradition invited all kinds of erotic jokes. There was of course no lack of wanton dances, as they are described vividly and beautifully by Longus (ii, 36) in his graceful narrative of the love of Daphnis and Chloe. We read there: “The spectators lay there in silence and enjoyed themselves. But Dryas got up and ordered him to play a song to Dionysus on the pipe, and afterwards danced a measure to celebrate the vintage. In the dance he at one time imitated the gathering of the grapes, at another the bringing of the baskets, then treading the grapes, filling the casks, and lastly, tasting the must. Dryas represented all this in his dance so cleverly and clearly that the spectators believed that they saw the vines, winepresses, and casks, and Dryas really drinking.”’ Many who took part in the festival drove there in carriages, from which they played all kinds of foolish tricks and jokes, so the ‘‘ jokes from the carriage” (e& aueéns ‘Ppileav) became a proverbial expression. We may see in this the original of the drives up and down the Corso in Rome with throwing of confetti and similar pranks. It does not require special mention that the new wine flowed in streams, as at all the festivals of Dionysus, but it deserves notice that contests in singing solemn dithyrambs took place, as was already the custom at the country Dionysia, and that dramatic performances were given, the scene of which was the Lenzeum, whence the feast took its name. The Leneum was a district sacred to Dionysus on the south of the Acropolis, with two temples and a theatre.

In the next month, Anthesterion, the Anthesteria were celebrated; on the first day the fermented

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