304 On the Attic Dionysia. this he proceeds as follows : (p. 207.) In a similar sense, it appears to me, we ought to understand the other Attic legend concerning the worship of Bacchus, which relates, that an image of Bacchus Eleuthereus was brought by Pegasus with the sanction of the oracle from Eleuther^ to Athens. The name of Pegasus is derived from the springs which this re- ligion hallowed. Amphictyon was represented in a groupe of figures in clay, entertaining Bacchus with other gods : for in an Amphictyonic confederacy there must always be a variety of gods. The same king made ordinances, regulating the mixture of wine and the mode of drinking, according to gravity and decency. A legend explains the characteristic ceremony of the festival (the (paXXaycoyiai) by the circum- stance, that Pegasus was not at first well received by the Athenians. It is not improbable that some old families in the city may have resisted the introduction of these rites : but in such legends there are scarcely any limits to the free- dom of fiction. Philochorus on the other hand explains the Aiovvao^ 6p96^ in the temple of the Seasons, as a sign that men ought to keep their heads up, and not drink to excess ; a practical edifying application, suited to an age which was incapable of entering into the spirit of a physiological reli- gion. The degree in which this incapacity prevailed, is proved by the language of Phanodemus, Theophrastus, Ti- moth^us &c. (above p. 299) which shews that even the true relation of Bacchus to Limnae (the Attic Nysa), and to water in general, was no longer understood or was explained away. But according to this tradition Bacchus had in fact been en- tertained in the deme of Semachus, by Semachus and his daughters, to whom he gave the roeskin, and from whom his priestesses descended (Steph. B. ^rj/ua-x^L^ai)^ Semachus according to Philochorus was in the district of Epacria, pro- bably toward the Boeotian frontier, which is also supposed to have been the situation of Icaria. The cooperation of the oracle may have been a matter of fact : it is also possible that a connexion may have been formed with Eleutherae, as a place eminently distinguished for the worship of Bacchus, and that an image may have been brought thence. But it is probable that this took place after the union of the Attic dimcpLKTtove^^ which is expressed by the name of Amphictyon,
