2

phased divinity, Professor Max Müller remarks; He is the herald of the gods; so is the twilight. He is the spy of the night, vʊKTòs оTwπтýρ; he sends sleep and dreams; the bird of the morning, the Cock, stands by his side. Lastly, he is the guide of travellers, and particularly of the souls who travel on their last journey; he is the Psychopompos.'1 The officiating ministers at Eleusis,' observes Christie 'were four in number, in imitation of those in Samothrace.' Without absolutely accepting this proposition, we may undoubtedly conclude that the two rituals were by no means unconnected; but it must be remembered that the Mysteries of Eleusis, however subsequently impregnated with Orientalism, were Aryan in origin, whilst those of Samothrake were Semitic. These latter I shall notice subsequently, when speaking of the introduction of the Bakchic cult into Hellas, for the principles of the Dionysiak Myth are to be found in full vigour in the secret Phoenician worship of Lemnos and Samothrake.' 4

SECTION III.

DIONYSOS AND THE DRAMA.

From the theatrical exhibitions of Eleusis we pass, by easy transition, to the stage of Athenai, and here again find Dionysos enthroned in the persons of his two daughters, Tragedy and Comedy, twin representations of his Janus character, and of the double aspect of life, either in the individual or in the abstract.5 The Drama

1 Lectures on the Science of Language, ii. 522; cf. Od. xxiv. i.; Ruskin, Queen of the Air, i. 25-9, where a subtle and elegant partial analysis of the concept of Hermes is given. 2 Disquisitions, 64. 3 Inf. X. i.

Bunsen, Egypt's Place, iv. 235.

5 It will be remembered that I am not speaking of the Hellenik Drama as such, critically, historically, or otherwise, but merely of it in its connection with the god from whose prolific being it sprung.

is That-which-is-done imitatively and representatively: a definition equally true when applied to the drama of life and existence, or to a stage-play; inasmuch as all our actions are imitative and unoriginal, and also representative; and that doubly so, first, because in doing them we aim consciously or unconsciously after an ideal model: 1 and secondly, because in acting we become representatives of other actors, and embody more or less accurately their feelings and circumstances. Thus, in this latter sense, the kings and queens of tragedy and comedy form a parliament selected to their state and dignity by the universal suffrages of mankind, and so chosen because the electors of the world see themselves, i.e., their own feelings, aims, and possibilities reflected with surpassing merit in the individuals of their choice. Human feeling, using the expression in its widest sense as including the power of feeling after truth, makes man the astonishing creature that he is; 2 without it he would be a stone, or at best a plant, or as some have put it, a forked, straddling animal, with bandy legs.' The existence of this property of feeling alone renders the Drama specially so called possible, for plants and trees imitate nothing; we imitate them. And, therefore, the Drama is the expression of feeling in action; but feeling in action is Dionysos the kosmic Life-source, beaming, blushing, blooming, blowing, storming, raging, raving, bearing with him life and death. The Drama, then, in one aspect is but an anthropomorphic crystallisation of Dionysos the Wine-god, yes, the Wine-god, but his wine is not merely the typical juice of the grape, but rather the heat and life-blood that beats through all worlds. Well says Professor Ruskin,

Cf. Emerson, Essay x. Circles. 'The flying Perfect, around which the hands of man can never meet, at once the inspirer and condemner of every success.'

Y

2 What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god!' (Hamlet, II. ii.)

'Wine, the Greeks, in their Bacchus, made, rightly, the type of all passion,'1 which noble word, including in its sweep a wide range of action from righteous anger to holy suffering, leads us to Tragedy, the eldest daughter of Dionysos, Lord of the Drama, herself often styled the Drama, inasmuch as in this world's history the tragic element is the stronger and prevailing one. Tragedy considered etymologically, and with reference to its historic origin, is a song accompanied by a satyrik dance, i.e., one performed by persons in the garb of Satyrs, and these songs in early Hellas were the choric, dithyrambic odes in honour of Dionysos; and so Aristoteles tells us that, 'Tragedy originated in a rude and unpremeditated manner from the leaders in the dithyrambic hymns.' 2 The Chorus, who thus celebrated the god, 'bewailed the sorrows of Bacchus, or commemorated his wonderful birth, in spontaneous effusions, accompanied by suitable action, for which they trusted to the inspiration of the wine-cup.' This Chorus at first' was nothing more than a Comus, and one too of the wildest and most corybantic character. A crowd of worshippers, under the influence of wine, danced up to and around the blazing altar of Jupiter. They were probably led by a flute player, and accompanied by the Phrygian tamborines and cymbals, which were used in the Cretan worship of Bacchus.' 4 Now it was as the kosmogonic Lord of life, and especially as the Sun-god, head of the animated creation and protagonistic principle of vitality, that Dionysos was honoured. Hence the changes and apparent sufferings both of Nature and of the Sun," when imitated and viewed anthropomorphically as the joys and sorrows of Dionysos, occasioned the mixed nature of the dithyrambic celebration, which

3

1 Unto this last,' 124.

2 Poet. iv.; vide inf. VIII. ii. Dithyramb.

3 Theatre of the Greeks, 39.

4 Ibid. 35.

5 Vide sup. IV. iii. 3.

This

was tragedy and comedy combined. Such, then, was the germ and origin of what we now know as Tragedy; its cradle was a Dionysiak combination of satyr, goat, and psychico-solar life-heat worship. But what then is Tragedy, considered with reference to its familiar development? Aristoteles has given us a somewhat painfully elaborated definition, according to which it is an imitation of an action that is important, entire, and of a proper magnitude-by language embellished and rendered pleasurable, [i.e., having rhythm, harmony, and melody], in the way of action-effecting, through pity and terror, the correction and refinement of such passions.'' applies fairly enough to Attik tragedy during the brief period of its perfection, though Aristoteles, himself a schoolmaster, evidently regards the Stage as an important means of improvement for youth, and probably instructed his pupils to draw such moral lessons from the fate of heroes, as an industrious apprentice of the City of London may have deduced in olden days from the career of George Barnwell. But not to wander into suggestions which arise from this definition, Platon seems to me to speak far more deeply and satisfyingly, when he says that real Tragedy is an imitation of the noblest life, which is necessarily that of gods and heroes; 2 and this observation, though far from being in itself a complete definition, yet goes to the very root of the matter. Now a hero has been beautifully defined as 'a god-born soul true to its origin;' and so gods are great heroes, heroes, little gods. But heroes, from the necessity of things, must suffer, and that chiefly for others, and it is evident that voluntary suffering is far higher and nobler than compulsory What nobler concept then, than a voluntarily suffering

1 Poet. V.

2 We, according to our ability, are tragic poets, and our tragedy the best and noblest, for our whole state

is an imitation of the best and noblest life, which we affirm to be indeed the very truth of tragedy' (Laws, vii.).

hero, except indeed a voluntarily suffering god? Hence the passion of gods and heroes, as connected and in divine agreement with the harmony of things, gives Tragedy her lofty theme. And in this delineation

there must ever be an absence of two things,1 (1) a record of crime as such, a Titus-Andronicus-like Newgate Calendar of horrors, which constitutes spurious or bastard Tragedy; and (2) all final triumph of the worser cause, of baseness, or evil, or by whatever name the inharmonious principle may be designated.

2

6

Next, as to Comedy, which, according to Platon, is the common name of all performances intended to cause laughter, and which originated in a rude and unpremeditated manner from those who led off the phallic songs.' Etymologically regarded, it is the song of the Komos, or band of revellers; and whatever may have been the birthplace of Greek Comedy, it was, in fact, the celebration of the vintage, when the country people went round from village to village, some in carts, others on foot, who bore aloft the phallic emblem, and invoked in songs Phales, the comrade of Bacchus,' or personified Priapos. So sprang Comedy into existence, amidst Semitic vintage-shoutings, in honour of the riotous and orgiastic god of earth-life; and thus from Oriental materials, moulded by a gifted family of an Aryan nation, sprang into their familiar forms Tragedy and Comedy. Syria and Egypt had rites and orgies many, but drama none. Yet even the West was, on the whole, scarcely more successful than the East; and in Hellas itself a single city almost monopolised dramatic genius, which could only be maintained in an exalted form, even in its peculiar home at Athenai, during a few brief years. The Drama

1 Laws, vii.

2 Aristot. Po t. iv.

3 Theatre of the Greeks, 70.

4 Cf. Is. xvi. 9, I will bewail the vine of Sibmah: I will water

thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen.'