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

Dances, GAMES, MEALS

on the other side, a young girl follows him, teaching her sex how to dance, so that the whole performance is as it were the union of strength and modesty. The gymnopedia is a similar dance among the Lacedzmonians.”

That in Greece dances of boys and young men everywhere enjoyed popularity, need not be expressly confirmed by the testimony of authors. From the overwhelming supply of evidence we can only give a small selection. ‘Thus we read in Lucian (De Saltat., 16): “At Delos no sacrifices are offered without dancing, all being accompanied by music and dance. Choruses of boys assemble together, to the sound of flute and cithara; some of them dance together, and the most expert selected from among them dance in character alone. ‘Therefore the songs composed for these choruses are called hyporchemata, that is to say, dances with songs, of which lyric poetry is full.”

He then enumerates an imposing number of dances, without, however, giving any more detailed account of their nature, so that they are mere names, with which we will not trouble the reader.t Although the dances hitherto discussed are not without the erotic undertone, yet the oldest mention known to me of a dance with a decided erotic element first appears in Herodotus (vi, 126 ff.): Cleisthenes, the mighty ruler of Sicyon, had a daughter as lovely as a picture, named Agariste, for the wooing of whom the most distinguished young men from the whole of Greece and Italy came crowding together. The suitors stayed for a year at the court of Cleisthenes, who during that time tested them thoroughly. Finally, the Athenian Hippocleides, through his wealth and beauty, had the best chance. When the decisive day had arrived, Cleisthenes, atter offering sacrifice, prepared a magnificent feast, after

1 A few more of them may be noticed: the Tray of Sacrifice, the Tongs, Flowers, Mortar, Kneading-Trough, etc. (named from figures evolved), Flight, Boisterousness, Spilling the Meal, etc., etc.

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