278 On the Attic Dtonysia. This last statement is incorrect with regard to the order of the months: for Hermaeus in this respect corresponds to Anthes- terion. But Boeckh has shown by a table of the Attic months for three years beginning with Gamelion, compared with the Boeotian, in which the intercalation is supposed to take place at the end of the year, that if the Boeotian period of intercala- tion differed from the Attic, Hermaeus might coincide with Gamelion, sometimes once in three years, sometimes once in two years ^ Hence notwithstanding that Lenaeon was the Attic Gamelion, it might be correctly compared with Hermaeus. The words of Proclus, KaO* ov tci Arjvata Trap AOrjvaiot^^ can only be referred to the Attic month Gamelion, and prove that not only in the earliest times, but in those of the authors from whom Proclus drew his statement, the Lenaea were cele- brated in that month. Hesychius indeed omits the mention of Gamelion, but this is no reason for suspecting any interpo- lation in the words of Proclus, since it would be difficult to conceive how the ancients covild compare Hesiods wintry Lenaeon with Anthesterion, even setting the express testimonies to the contrary out of the question. Hesychius speaks of Hermaeus, considering it, with Proclus, as coinciding with Gamelion. Another commentator, whose words are subjoined to those of Proclus, says that Lenaeon received its name ^id to Tov^ divov^ ev avTw elaKojmi^eaOai^ adding that it was the begin- ning of winter : then another etymology is suggested : Sid rd Arjvaia^ o eaTiv epia^ Kai TrpopaTocopav Kai aLyiooopav KaKov-^ jixev^ apparently in allusion to j3ovSopa : and again, rj eirei^ C^iovvdip eiroLOVv eoprrjp tco /uiji/t tovtcv^ tjv 'A/uj^poacav <5 This supposes the Boeotian period to have been the octaeteris, in which the years of intercalation are 3, 5, 8, so that intercalation took place once in the second, twice in the third year — To understand the author's reasoning, the reader has only to make out two parallel lists of the Attic and Boeotian months for three consecutive years, beginning with Gamelion — Bucatius, and supposing an intercalation in the first Attic year. Then the intercalary month, Poseideon ii, will correspond to Bucatius of the next Boeotian year, and the next Gamelion to Hermans; but the intercalation at the end of the second Boeotian year will bring the third Gamelion again opposite to Bucatius. The author adds " If the Attic and Boeotian intercalary years did not, as is here assumed, follow one another so that the Boeotian intercalary year was always next to the Attic reckoned from Gamelion, and if a year intervened between them, then in every three years in which an intercalation took place, Hermaeus coin- cided with Gamelion twice, and Bucatius but once."
