Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

The Origin of Tragedy

671

It would seem, in fact, that the Lenaean festival made important
contributions, not only to Greek literature, but also to Greek art.

A. Frickenhaus has recently attempted to prove that a whole
series of Athenian vases extending throughout the.fifth century
B.C. represents scenes from the Lenaia1. Late black-figured vases,
mostly lekythoi, show a wooden pillar decked with a bearded
Dionysiac mask and sprigs of ivy: sometimes the mask is dupli-
cated, and drapery added beneath it, or a flat-cake above it. As a
rule, four Maenads are grouped about the dgalma2. Red-figured
vases, usually stdmnoi, complicate the scene. The god is more
elaborately dressed, though he never acquires arms. Before him is
a table, on which offerings of wine etc. are placed. The entourage
still consists of Maenads3. In one case the pillar is not decked
at all, but a Maenad on the left is carrying the infant god4.
Various scholars from G. Minervini (1850)5 onwards have inter-
preted the masked pillar as the Theban Dionysos Perikidnios.
M. Mayer (1892)6 suggested Dionysos Orthos, whom C. Robert
(1899)7 identified with Dionysos Lenazos. Combining these hints,
Frickenhaus argues that at some date later than the ninth and
earlier than the sixth century B.C. the cult of the Theban Dionysos
came to the Lenaion, which he locates outside the Dipylon gate.
Here year by year the birth of Semele's son was celebrated, his
pillar decked, and his table spread8. In the absence of a definite
inscription certainty is unattainable. But it will probably be
conceded that the vases in question do illustrate the ritual of an
Attic festival of Dionysos, and that this festival may well be the
Lenaia9. If so, these vases strengthen our contention that the

1 A. Frickenhaus Lenaenvasen {Winckelmannsfest-Progr. Berlin lxxii) Berlin 1912
pp. 1—40 with figs, in text and 5 pis.

2 Id. ib. pp. 4—6, 33 f. (nos. 1—10).

3 Id. ib. pp. 6—16, 34—39 (nos. 11—27 and 29).

4 Id. ib. p. 20f., 39 (no. 28).

5 G. Minervini Monnmenti antichi inediti posseduti da Raffaele Baro'ne Naples 1850
i. 34 ff.

6 M. Mayer in the Ath. Mitth. 1892 xvii. 265—270 and 4461".

7 C. Robert Der miide Silen [Winckelmannsfest-Progr. Halle 1899) P* 11 •

8 A. Frickenhaus op. cit. pp. 27—32.

9 The rites of the Rural Dionysia are so imperfectly known that we cannot rule them
out as confidently as does Frickenhaus op. cit. p. 26: ' Auch die landlichen Dionysien,
wie sie Aristophanes in den Acharnern schildert, konnen nichts mit unseren Vasen zu tun
haben.' It must not be forgotten that precisely at Acharnai there was a cult of Dionysos
Kissos (Paus. 1. 31. 6 with J. G. Frazer ad loc), who was near akin to Dionysos Peri-
kidnios (O. Kern in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. v. 1016). Moreover, the Rural Dionysia
was but the country counterpart of the Athenian Lenaia [supra p. 666, infra pp. 673, 688).

Within the last few months E. Petersen ' Lenaen oder Anthesterien' in the Rhein. Mus.
1913 lxviii. 239—250 has attempted to prove that the vases discussed by Frickenhaus