Orotal and Uasar, Dionysos is a solar divinity, judge of the dead, and chief of the gods, but the superstitious reticence of the historian prevents the recital of his esoteric history, and the explanation of its meaning. Although, however, his cult is so widely spread, yet it never appears as indigenous in any non-Semitic regions. It is a novelty and an innovation alike in Skythia, Thrake, and Hellas, and Kam herself is but the debtor of Asia in the matter. First Phoenicians, and subsequently Hellenes, spread the worship; and the Phoenicians themselves are emigrants from Kaldea. The connection between the god and the vine, which, according to many, is all important, and actually the sum and substance of the whole matter, is so comparatively insignificant in the opinion of Herodotos, that he never once refers to it. Of all the writers who have been examined, none have given clearer or more important testimony to the true nature and origin of Dionysos; and though Herodotos, wiser on the point from actual knowledge and research than Euripides, avoids the error of the Lydian theory of the latter, yet this is a mere point of detail, and there is a substantial agreement between the historian and the author of the Bakchai. Herodotos, therefore, joins the cloud of witnesses who, from Homeros downwards, testify in tones of perhaps varying distinctness, yet with one mind and one mouth, that the Zeus of Nysa and son of Semele is a wandering and wondrous stranger, the child of the distant and glowing regions of the Semitic East. With Herodotos closes the line of early Hellenik writers who have treated of the Great Dionysiak Myth. Later authors, from Apollodoros to Nonnos, are in the main either copyists and compilers, who re-echo traditions and legends which in their time had become unmeaning, or else crude Euemerists, like Diodoros Sikelos, whose system compels them to run riot in all manner of absurdities. Their works, often highly ♦ valuable for reference and for the illustration of particular points, are, as a whole, undeserving of separate examination. The god-like Elders of Hellenik song, the poets, epic, lyric, and tragic, have given their testimony, which has been crowned and completed by that of the great Father of History. We shall now, therefore, turn from individual authorities to contemplate Dionysos as he appears in the ordinary life of Hellenik cities, and in the enduring triumphs of Hellenik art. 227 CHAPTER VI. THE HELLENIK CULT OF DIONYSOS. SECTION I. THE FESTIVALS OF DIONYSOS. Subsection I.-The Attik Cult. We have now to notice the Dionysiak cult and ritual as they obtained amongst the Hellenes of the great historical ages; and here the Festivals of the god, of which there were some five-and-twenty, claim especial attention. The four principal Attik Dionysiak festivals were (1) the Dionysia Mikra, the Lesser or Rural Dionysia; (2) the Dionysia Lenaia; (3) the Anthesteria; and (4) the Dionysia Megala, the Greater or City Dionysia. The Rural Dionysia, celebrated yearly in the month Posideon (December-January) throughout the various townships of Attike, was presided over by the demarch or mayor. The celebration occasioned a kind of rustic carnival, distinguished like almost all Bakchik festivals, by gross intemperance and licentiousness, and during which slaves enjoyed a temporary freedom, with licence to insult their superiors, and behave in a boisterous and disorderly manner. It is brought vividly before us in the Acharnes of Aristophanes, which was produced early in B.C. 425, the sixth year of the Peloponnesian War. In this Play Dikaiopolis, the Upright Citizen1 and advocate of peace 1 Cf. Orthagoras, Aristoph. Ek. 916. at any price, influenced doubtless by the peculiarly exposed situation of the town of Acharnai, concludes a separate treaty on his own account with the Spartans and their allies-a felicitous arrangement which enables him to spend his time in Bakchik revelry and devotion. Having commenced with the Rural Dionysia, the Upright Citizen is left when the Play closes apparently celebrating the Anthesteria. Peace being concluded, he exclaims, ‘O Dionysia! I freed from war and ills will go within and celebrate the Rural Dionysia.' The scene then represents him engaged in the celebration, assisted by his wife, daughter, and slaves. 1 Di. Speak words of good omen! Speak words of good omen! Let the Basket-bearer come forward a little : Xanthias set up the phallos erect. You two must hold the phallos erect behind the Basketbearer, And I following will chant the phallic-hymn. O Phales, companion of Bakchos, Fellow-reveller, nightly-rambler-around, Seducer, youth-lover.2 Here we have the simple phallic cult of the personified Priapos, son of Dionysos and Aphrodite, both Oriental divinities, and which, as we have seen, Herodotos states that Melampous obtained from Kadmos the Tyrian. It is remarkable that throughout the whole Play goddesses are never introduced into the licentious ritual of the Upright Citizen. It is to Dionysos alone that he sacrifices, and yet even here amongst the rustics, in the very place of all others where the simple wine-god, if such he were, should stand clearly before us, the vinal 1 Vs. 201-2. 2 A fragment of a phallic song, which, however, calls for no particular comment, is also given in Athen, xiv. Vide Bergk. Poet. Ly. Grae. Car. 3 Cf. Diod. iv. 6. phase is found to be altogether secondary, and it is as a phallic divinity that Dionysos appears on the stage. The highly important phallic element in religious mythology is now at length receiving full recognition, which indeed, in accordance with the customary movements of the human pendulum,1 ere long promises to be somewhat too ample. Some ardent followers of Payne Knight in the present day appear to hold that phallicism is the key to all mysteries, the explanation of all rude stone monuinents, and of an infinity of remains less barbarous, and the illustration and basis of all occult symbolism and mysterious practice. But we may be sure of this, that one key will never open all locks; one fact, however wide in influence and prevading in effect, will never explain in an entirety the whole of the intricate combinations of religious mythology. As previously observed, if we rely solely in our investigations on the explanation afforded by a single principle, we shall inevitably be at fault in numerous instances, and be compelled sooner or later either to abandon the theory or to overstrain it. The thing itself to be dealt with, is complex and diverse in character; so, therefore, must be the elements which form the system of explanation. A judicious combination of principles and methods of treatment, not the arbitrary exclusion of any one of them, will ultimately cut the Gordian knot; for the problem is not insoluble, and the materials requisite for its solution are constantly increasing. The phallic character of Dionysiak worship was. from the nature of the god, inevitable. The essence and power of all kosmic vitality, Erikepeios is, necessarily, when anthropomorphically regarded, a phallic divinity. The religions of the world are, as a matter of course, 1The law of rhythm in its social applications implies that alternations of opinion will be violent in proportion as opinions are extreme' (H. Spencer. The Principles of Sociology, |