On the Attic Dionysia, 293 passage above quoted, uses the words Ai/i/aia Kal Xvtoov^ OecoptoVf but this does not mark the nature of the spectacle ^^ And Alciphron, in coupling the Xoe9 with tcl ev 7-019 QedrpoL^ Arivaia^ appears to distinguish between different entertainments. Philochorus, quoted by the Scholiast on the Frogs (218)5 speaks of a^ywi^es o ^vrpivoi KoXov/ievoL^ which does not suggest the idea of a dramatic contest. Philo- stratus relates (V. Ap. iv. 7.) that Apollonius was disap- pointed at finding nothing but mystical ceremonies and reli- gious poetry and music exhibited in the theatre at Athens during the Anthesteria, when he expected to have heard mono- dies and pieces of music, such as belonged to tragedy and comedy. These passages contribute little toward deciding the question. But there are two others which appear to prove that dramatic spectacles formed part of the amusements at the Chytri. One is an extract from Thrasyllus, given by Diogenes Laertius iii. 56^ in which it is said of the tragic poets : TerpacTL cpa/uiaaLV rjycovl^orro /iovvaLOL^^ ArjvaioL^, YlavaOrjvaioLf^, Xfrpot?, coi/ to TCTapTov rjv aaTvpLKov. Here however it is clear that the four names are an interpolation of some very ignorant and injudicious person, whose authority cannot have the slightest weight. But the mention of the Chytri may have been suggested by the remembrance of an institution of the orator Lycurgus, relating to the same fes- tival, which is thus described in the Lives of the Ten Orators (Plut. VI. p. 253) : elarji/eyKe ce kul vo^ov^^ tov irepl tcov KwjuicoccoVf aycova tol^ ^vTpoi^ ewLTeXelv eCpajULWou ev tw deaTptOy Kal rrov viKrjaavra eh aarv KaraXeyeaOai^ irporepov ovK e^oV, avaXa/ufiai^cov tov aywva e/cXeXoiTrora, to which is subjoined another law, regulating the mode of performing the plays of the three great tragic poets. The passage has been variously interpreted. Petitus (de leg. Att. p. 841) understood it as containing a direction, that the comedians should exhibit rival performances at the Chytri. Spanheim mentions two interpretations (Ran. p. 298), one that the comedians should give a spectacle at the Chytri, rivalling those of the theatre, another that comedies should be performed in the theatre in '^ This remark is certainly true: but the author does not seem to have observed that it entirely destroys the force of the argument drawn in a preceding page from the words of Isaeus as to the dramatic exhibitions at Phlyai.
