Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/298

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HEADERTEXT.
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288 On the Attic Dioyiysia. are omitted here again : which however would only indicate that this festival was not solemnized with a public banquet at the expense of the state, and therefore did not contribute to the ^epixaTLKov. The name of the festival immediately pre- ceding the Lenaea is lost, all but the concluding letters AYEI- QNTQN, out of which Boeckh, by a very easy correction and supplement, extracts e/c /lovv(jl(jov tmv KaT aypov^^ which brings the order of the festivals in this inscription into har- mony with that given by the grammarians and in the law of Evagorus. The victims of which an account is here rendered under the head of the rural Dionysia, were probably those sacri- ficed on the occasion of the procession mentioned in the law as made tu) ^lovvcko ev Yleipaiei. IV. We may now proceed to examine the arguments which Ruhnken draws from Aristophanes, and on which he relies as the firmest support of his proposition. Nos rem ex una Aristophane ita demo7istr emits ^ ut nullus dubitationi locus relinquatur. His proof is grounded principally on the chronological data in the Acharnians. In v. 96O {^25 Bekk.) Lamachus wants to buy some dainties, to celebrate the Choes : ei^ tov^ Xoas* avrw jueracovvai twv KiyXiJov : and the same season is afterwards alluded to in the question (1171 Bek.), TOL<; yiovcrl ycip ti^ avfifioXd^ eTrpaTrero; as the inroad of the enemy which occasioned the conflict, had been before announced at the same time (1040) vtto toi)s Xoa? yap Kai ^vTpov^ avToiai tl^' HyyeiXe XtjcTTa^ ejmfiaXeLV ^oLcoTiov£. The play then was acted during the festival which included the Xo€9. But from other passages (487 and 1J19)^ avrol yap ecrimev^ ovirl Arjvaio) t ayijdv^ and 09 7 6//e irov TXrjfxova Aijvaia ')^opy]ywv aTreKXeLcr a^enrvov^ it is equally clear that it was exhibited at the Lenaea, as the an- cient didascalia expressly asserts. It follows that this is the same festival with the Choes. Those who have confounded it with the rural Dionysia, which are mentioned in the earlier part of the play, have overlooked that Dicseopolis is represented as returning to Athens, and enjoying the festivities of the Lenaea, after having celebrated the rural Dionysia in the country. Moreover the Frogs were also exhibited at the Lenaea, and yet in that play (215) the chorus intimates that it was performed at the Chytri : for they sing : (pOe^iOjueff