Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (6.1890-1897 (1897))

DIONYSUS iv Aureus.

351

The dramatic contests at the Lecireum, like those at the Great
Dionysia, were undoubtedly preceded by sacrifices. The aywv
e7rt A?;rat&)could hardly be separated from the Dionysia hrl At^vaCcp.
Therefore the hide-money inscriptions are also authority that
Lenrea and Anthesteria are but two references to the same festival.

Thucydides, as we have seen,75 knew of but two Dionysia in
Athens itself; those iv aarec and the Anthesteria. Of these,
using the comparative degree, he states that the latter were the
apy^aioTepa. In his time the dramatic contests iv Aifivai<; 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 Ilarpocration tells us was called TriOocyia,
%o'e? and %vTpoi; that there was, in the flourishing period of the
drama, no separate festival Lenaja, but that the ayd>v at the Chytri
came to be so called to distinguish it from that at the City Dionysia.

It is interesting in connection with Thucydides' statement that
the Ionian Athenians in his day still held the Anthesteria, to ex-
amine 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 representa-
tions were to follow. C. I. G. 3044, T(L<y6>vos ' AvOearripLoicnv,
refers to Teos. From the constant use of djcov referring to the-
atrical 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 Epony-
mus had the Great Dionysia in charge. In the following section,
the Archon Basileus is said to have control, not of the Lenrea or
of the Anthesteria—for neither is mentioned by name,—but of the
Lionysia iirl A^vaup. The Basileus and the Epimeleta> together
directed the procession; but the Basileus alone controlled the

« ii. 15.