Part 9

Köhler in _C.I.A._, led by the other inscriptions found with these four, says that the lists do not contain mention of all the festivals at which public sacrifices of cattle were made in that portion of the year covered by the inscriptions, but that these are to be considered only as records of the hide-money which was to be devoted to particular uses. As a matter of fact, however, nearly all the public festivals of importance, as well as some of less note, are included in these lists; and it would be difficult to demonstrate that they do not contain a complete record of the public hide-money for the portion of the year in which these festivals fall.

In these inscriptions the peculiarity with reference to the Dionysia is the same which we find in all other accounts which seem to give a complete record of these festivals. Only three are mentioned as held under public authority. Did the omission Page 75 of the Lenaea and Anthesteria occur only in this case, we might, following Köhler, admit that the hide-money from this

## particular festival was not devoted to this special purpose,

and that for this reason the name did not appear in these records. But since in no case are there more than three mentioned; and since the third name is one which covers all celebrations in honor of Dionysus at the Lenaeum, this assumption cannot be granted. The important point, and one that cannot be too strongly emphasized, is that neither in these nor in any other inscription or official record is there any mention of the Lenaea or Anthesteria as such. The official language appears always to have been, as here: [Greek: Dionysia epi Lenaiô] or: [Greek: e epi Lenaiô pompe], or, where the dramatic contest alone was intended: [Greek: o epi Lenaiô agôn]. Once only in the 5th century[180] do we find [Greek: Lenaia] used; and here it is synonymous with [Greek: o epi Lenaiô agôn]. Wilamowitz has well said that [Greek: lenaia] as a name of a separate festival is an invention of the grammarians. Aristophanes, in the passage from the _Acharnians_, shows that this name may have been used commonly for the dramatic contest at the Lenaeum, and we know from Thucydides that Anthesteria was also used of the entire festival. It is impossible that in a record like the hide-money inscriptions, the official title [Greek: Dionysia epi Lenaiô] should be employed to cover two festivals separated by an interval of a month.

[Footnote 180: _Acharnians_, 1155.]

But was the Anthesteria a state festival, at which public sacrifices of cattle were made? The story of its institution by Pandion shows that it was public from the beginning. Aristophanes informs us[181] that it maintained this character; for the Basileus awarded the prize at the Choes. The question of sacrifice requires fuller treatment.

Suidas[182] and a scholiast[183] to Aristophanes quote from Theopompus the story of the establishment of the Chytri. On the very day on which they were saved, the survivors of the flood introduced the celebration of this day of the Anthesteria by cooking a potful of all sorts of vegetables, and sacrificing it Page 76 to the Chthonian Hermes and those who had perished in the waters. The scholiast adds that sacrifice was offered to no one of the Olympian gods on this day.

[Footnote 181: _Acharnians_, 1225.]

[Footnote 182: SUIDAS, [Greek: chutroi].]

[Footnote 183: Schol. ARISTOPH., _Frogs_. 218.]

In Suidas we find a hint of the other ceremonies on the Chytri. According to him, there were sacrifices to Dionysus as well as to Hermes. This suggests that the Chytri was but one day of the Anthesteria, and, though the worship of the departed may have been the older portion of the celebration, it was later overshadowed by the festivities in honor of the wine-god. As the text of his argument in his oration against Midias, Demosthenes cites four oracular utterances, two from Dodona, the others probably from Delphi. In the first the god calls upon the children of Erechtheus, as many as inhabit the city of Pandion, to be mindful of Bacchus, all together throughout the wide streets to return fit thanks to the Bromian, and crowned with wreaths, to cause the odor of sacrifice to rise from the altars. In this oracle, Athens is the city of Pandion, because it was reported that under his rule the worship of Dionysus was introduced into the city. This and the other commands from Dodona and Delphi concerning Dionysus refer to the introduction of the worship of the god; for in every one the statement is absolute; there is no reference to a previous worship and a backsliding on the part of the people, [Greek: knisan bômoise] of the first oracle can refer only to a sacrifice of animals. Stronger still is the statement in the fourth oracle (from Dodona) where the command is given to fulfil sacred rites ([Greek: iere telein]) to Dionysus, and to sacrifice to Apollo and to Zeus. ([Greek: Apollôni Apotropaiô Boun thusai ... Du Ktesiô boun leucon].) The command "to mix bowls of wine and to establish choral dances," in the second and fourth oracles, serves as an explanatory comment on "return fit thanks to the Bromian" in the first. "Let free men and slaves wear wreaths and enjoy leisure for one day," must refer to the Pithoigia. In this feast the slaves had a part, and enjoyed a holiday. Hence the saying[184] "Forth, slaves, it is no longer the Anthesteria." In obedience to the oracles then, public sacrifices could not have been lacking at the Anthesteria. Therefore, this festival must have been officially known as the Dionysia [Greek: epi Lenaiô].

[Footnote 184: [Greek: Thuraxe Kares ouket Anthesteria].]

Page 77 The dramatic contests at the Lenaeum, like those at the Greater Dionysia, were undoubtedly preceded by sacrifices. The [Greek: agôn epi Lenaiô] could hardly be separated from the Dionysia [Greek: epi Lenaiô]. Therefore the hide-money inscriptions are also authority that Lenaea and Anthesteria are but two references to the same festival.

Thucydides, as we have seen,[185] knew of but two Dionysia in Athens itself; those [Greek: en astei] and the Anthesteria. Of these, using the comparative degree, he states that the latter were the [Greek: archaiotera]. In his time the dramatic contests [Greek: en Limnais] were in their glory, yet he mentions but one celebration in this locality. So here also we must conclude that Anthesteria was the name of the whole festival which Harpocration tells us was called [Greek: pithoigia, choes] and [Greek: chutroi]; that there was, in the flourishing period of the drama, no separate festival Lenaea, but that the [Greek: agôn] at the Chytri came to be so called to distinguish it from that at the City Dionysia.

[Footnote 185: II. 15.]

It is interesting in connection with Thucydides' statement that the Ionian Athenians in his day still held the Anthesteria, to examine the record of this festival in the Ionic cities of Asia Minor. To be sure we have very little information concerning the details of this celebration among them; but we do find two statements of importance. _C.I.G._ 3655 mentions certain honors proclaimed at the Anthesteria in the theatre in Cyzicus. Comparison with similar observances at Athens indicates that theatrical representations were to follow. _C.I.G._ 3044, [Greek: tôgônos Anthesterioisin], refers to Teos. From the constant use of [Greek: agôn] referring to theatrical performances in connection with the festivals of Dionysus the word can hardly mean anything else here. So these two inscriptions, referring to two colonies, add their testimony that dramas were presented also at the Anthesteria in Athens.

Finally, Aristotle's _Politeia_ falls into line with the hide-money records. In § 56, the statement is made that the Archon Eponymos had the Megala Dionysia in charge. In the following section, the Archon Basileus is said to have control, not of the Lemaea or of the Anthesteria--for neither is mentioned by name,--but of the Dionysia [Greek: epi Lenaiô]. The Basileus and the Epimeletae together directed the procession; Page 78 but the basileus alone controlled the [dramatic] contest. Here again, it is inconceivable that either Anthesteria or Lenaea should be omitted; so both must be included under Dionysia [Greek: epi Lenaiô].

We thus find our position supported by inscriptions of undoubted authority, and by a list of names ranging in time from before Aristophanes to the 9th century A.D., and in weight from Thucydides and Aristotle to the Scholiasts.

If the Limnae were not by the existing theatre of Dionysus, where were they? Not on the south side of the Acropolis, as a careful examination of the ground proves. In our study of the theatre-precinct, we found that the earth here in antiquity was at a much higher level than at present, while immediately outside the wall of this precinct to the south, the ground was considerably lower than it is now. The present height of the theatre-precinct is 91.4 m. above the sea level; of the Odeum, 97.7 metres; of the Olympieum, 80.8 m.; of the ground within the enclosure of the Military Hospital due south from the theatre, 75 m.; of Callirrhoe in the Ilissus opposite the Olympieum, 59 m.; of the Ilissus bed opposite the theatre, 50 m. From the present level of the theatre to the bed of the stream there is a fall of more than 41 m.; the fall is about equally rapid along the entire extent of the slope to the south of the Acropolis, while the soil is full of small stones. Surely, it would take more than the oft-cited handful of rushes to establish a swamp on such a hillside. We have, however, excellent geological authority that from the lay of the land and the nature of the soil, there never could have been a swamp there. The Neleum inscription[186] can be held to prove nothing further than that, as Mr. Wheeler suggests, the drain from the existing theatre ran through this precinct. We must therefore seek the Limnae elsewhere.

[Footnote 186: _Am. Journal of Archæology_, III. 38-48.]

We know that from time immemorial the potters plied their trade in the Ceramicus, because here they found the clay suitable for their use. The so-called Theseum is 68.6 m. above the sea-level; the present level at the Piræus railroad station, 54.9 m.; at the Dipylum (and here we are on the ancient level), only 47.9 m. Out beyond the gate comes a long slope, extending Page 79 till the Cephissus is reached, at an elevation of 21 m. So the Dipylum is over 43 m. below the present level of the theatre-precinct; and it is the lowest portion of the ancient city. Here, therefore, in the northwest part of the city, is where we should expect from the lay of the land and the nature of the soil to find the marshes. Out in the open plain beyond this quarter of the city to-day, after every heavy rain, the water collects and renders the ground swampy. With the Dipylum as a starting-point, there is no difficulty in supposing that, in very ancient times, the Limnae extended to Colonus Agoraeus, to the east into the hollow which became a portion of the agora in the Ceramicus, and to the west into the depression between Colonus Agoraeus and the Hill of the Nymphs. The exact extent and character of the low ground in these two directions can only be determined by excavating the ancient level, which, as it appears to me, has not been reached by the deep new railroad cutting running across this section north of the so-called Theseum.

The excavations of Dr. Dörpfeld between Colonus Agoraeus and the Areopagus, have shown that the ruins and the ancient street at this point have been buried to a great depth by the débris washed down from the Pnyx. Unfortunately, these diggings have not been extensive enough to restore the topography of the west and southwest slopes of Colonus Agoraeus.

We have abundant notices, besides those already given, of a precinct or precincts of Dionysus in this section. Hesychius speaks[187] of a house in Melite where the tragic actors rehearsed. Photius repeats[188] the statement almost word for word. Philostratus mentions[189] a council-house of the artists near the gate of the Ceramicus. Pausanias (I. 2. 5), just after entering the city, sees within one of the stoas the house of Poulytion which was dedicated to Dionysus Melpomenus. He speaks next of a precinct with various [Greek: agalmata], and among them the face of the demon of unmixed wine, Cratus. Beyond this precinct was a building with images of clay, representing, among Page 80 other scenes, Pegasus, who brought the worship of Dionysus to Athens. This building also was plainly devoted to the cult of the wine-god. In fact, the most venerable traditions in Athens, with reference to Dionysus, centre here. All the various representations here are connected with the oldest legends. Pausanias (I. 3. 1.) says that the Ceramicus had its very name from Ceramus, a son of Dionysus and Ariadne.

[Footnote 187: HESYCH. [Greek: Meliteôn oikos].]

[Footnote 188: PHOTIUS. [Greek: Meliteôn oikos].]

[Footnote 189: PHILOST. _Vit. Soph._ p. 251.]

We have already seen that an orchestra was first established in the agora. Timæus adds[190] that this was a conspicuous place where were the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton, which we know to have stood in the agora.

The scholiast to the _De Corona_ of Demosthenes[191] says that the "hieron" of Calamites, an eponymous hero, was close to the Lenaeum. Hesychius words this statement differently, saying that [the statue of] the hero himself was near the Lenaeum. We know that the statues of eponymous heroes were set up in the agora. Here again the new Aristotle manuscript comes to our support, telling us (_Pol_. c. 3) that the nine archons did not occupy the same building, but that the Basileus had the Bucoleum, near the Prytaneum, and that the meeting and marriage of the Basileus' wife with Dionysus still took place there in his time. That the Bucoleum must be on the agora, and that the marriage took place in Limnaean-Lenaean territory, have long been accepted. The location of the Limnae to the northwest at the Acropolis must thus be considered as settled.

Dr. Dörpfeld maintains that the ancient orchestra and the later Agrippeum theatre near by, mentioned by Philostratus,[192] lay in the depression between the Pnyx and the Hill of the Nymphs, but considerably above the foot of the declivity.

[Footnote 190: TIM. _Lex. Plat._]

[Footnote 191: DEMOS, de Corona, 129, scholium.]

[Footnote 192: PHILOSTRATUS, _Vit. Soph._, p. 247.]

From the passage of the _Neaera_ quoted above we know that the old orchestra could not have been in the sacred precinct of Dionysus Limnaeus, for this was opened but once in every year, on the 12th of Anthesterio,[193] while the Chytri and therefore [Greek: o epi Lenaiô] were held on the following day. This involves too that the Pithoigia as well as the "contests at the Page 81 Lenaeum" could not have been celebrated in the sanctuary [Greek: en Limnais], though portions of each of these divisions of the Anthesteria were held in the Lenaeum, which contained the Limnaea _hieron_.

[Footnote 193: See also THUCYDIDES above.]

The Lenaeum must lie [Greek: en Limnais], and therefore on the low ground. A passage in Isæus (8. 35) is authority that the sanctuary of Dionysus [Greek: en Limnais] was [Greek: en astei]; _i.e._, within the Themistoclean walls. So we have it located within narrow limits, somewhere in the space bounded on the east by the eastern limit of the agora in Ceramicus, south by the Areopagus, west by the Pnyx and the Hill of the Nymphs, and north by the Dipylum.

From the neighborhood of the Dionysiac foundations and allusions mentioned by Pausanias immediately upon entering the city, we may be justified in locating this ancient cult of Dionysus [Greek: en Limnais] still more exactly, and placing it somewhere on or at the foot of the southwestern slope of Colonus Agoraeus. More precise evidence of its site we may obtain from future excavation: though as this region lay outside the Byzantine city-walls, the ruins may have been more or less completely swept away.

In view of its position outside of the gate of the ancient Pelasgic city, by the wine-press, we understand why the contest in the Lenaeum was called a contest [Greek: kat agrous]. Because enclosed later within the walls of Themistocles, the Limnae were also referred to as [Greek: en astei]. Situated as they were in the territory of the agora, we see why, although the Archon Eponymus directed the City Dionysia, the Archon Basileus presided[194] over the Anthesteria, and therefore over "the contest at the Lenaeum"; and the agoranomi, the superintendents of the market-place, whose duties were confined to the agora, [Greek: epetelesan tous chutrous].[195]

[Footnote 194: POLLUX VIII. 89, 90. (ARISTOT. [Greek: Athes Politeia].)]

[Footnote 195: MOMMSEN, _Heortologie_, p. 352 note.]

In closing, it may not be without interest to review the picture presented of the most ancient Athens. Behind the nine-gated Pelasgic fortifications lay the city, with its temples, its palace, "the goodly house of Erechtheus," and its dwellings for the people, remains of which can even now be seen within the Pelasgicum. Immediately without the gate stood the Pythium, the Olympieum, the temple of Ge _Kourotrophos_, and Page 82 other foundations. Directly before the entrance, some two hundred paces from the city-walls, was the spring Enneacrounus, whose water was most esteemed by the citizens. Not far from this was the wine-press. Here the people built the first altar, the first temple, the first orchestra, and instituted the first festival in honor of the wine-god, long before the new Dionysian cult was brought in from Eleutherae; and here for centuries were raised every year about the orchestra tiers of wooden seats in preparation for the annual dramatic contests.

JOHN PICKARD, American School of Classical Studies, Athens, 1891.

Page 83

CORRESPONDENCE.

HUNTING DELLA ROBBIA MONUMENTS IN ITALY.

_To the Managing Editor of the American Journal of Archæology:_

_Dear Sir_: Having made a special study of the altarpiece by Andrea Delia Robbia in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, my desire was aroused to examine all the glazed terracotta sculptures of the Delia Robbia school, which form such an important part of Italian Renaissance sculpture. So I sailed for Italy on the 6th of last May, taking with me a good camera and a sufficient number of celluloid films, knowing beforehand that there were many of these monuments which had never been photographed and were consequently imperfectly known. An investigation of this character, which takes one over the mountains and into the valleys, from one end of Italy to the other, may well be described as a hunting expedition; and, though requiring severe labor and constant sacrifices, has in it a considerable element of sport. Although Dr. Bode, of Berlin in various writings has shown a more discriminating knowledge of this subject than other writers, nevertheless the work of Cavallucci and Molinier, _Les Della Robbia_, was more useful to me as a guide and starter. They had catalogued as many as 350 of these monuments in Italy, and briefly described them. But their attributions were uncertain. Prof. Cavallucci told me in Florence that unless he had a document in hand indicating the authorship of a monument he felt great hesitation in making attributions. And I could see, the more I studied his work, that he considered it more important to discover documents than to observe monuments. Here then was a great opportunity to see a large series of monuments, to compare them and allow them to tell their own story in regard to their origin. Having with the aid of geographical dictionaries and government maps located these 350 monuments, I made up my mind to see as many of them as possible. This was no easy task, as they were widely distributed and, as I progressed, the number of uncatalogued monuments constantly increased. I can give here but a bare outline of my trip. Starting at Genoa, I went to Massa and Pisa and Lucca; from Lucca following the valley of the Serchio as far north as Page 84 Castelnuovo. Here I found a fine series of unphotographed monuments, and began to learn that works of the same author and period are very likely to be found in neighboring towns, especially when lying along a valley. Similarly, starting from Pracchia above Pistoia I studied another series of unphotographed monuments at Gavinana, Lizano and Cutigliano. These monuments may prove to be of importance in solving the problem of the authorship of the celebrated Pistoian frieze.