298 On the Attic Dionysia. semblance between some features of the two festivals held in Poseideon and Anthesterion. The former is the season which, by the consent of almost all nations, has been dedicated to mirth and jollity. Its festival corresponded to the Roman Sa- turnalia. But at the Anthesteria likewise presents were made, and the slaves enjoyed a temporary freedom^ as is signified by the verse, GJjOa^e lap6<s^ ovkct ' AvOe(jTr}pia' It does not however appear that the custom of making presents prevailed at the rural Dionysia: at the Anthesteria it may have arisen out of the usage already mentioned, according to which the guests carried their own viands to their hosts banquet. The other practice, of extending the gladness of the season to the slaves, which was common to both festivals, may be satisfac- torily explained from the character of the God, the dispenser of joy and freedom, without the supposition of any historical connexion. The mode in which Thucydides speaks of the Anthesteria, is so far from confirming Spalding'^s argument, that it leads to a directly opposite conclusion. The historian,, after relating (ii. 15) that it was the revolution effected by Theseus that first made Athens a great city, proceeds to illus- trate and corroborate his assertion by the fact, that the ancient temples were found either on the hill, or at its foot on the south side within the limits of the ante-Thesean city. Among the rest he mentions the sanctuary of Dionysus ev Aifxvat^^ the god in whose honour the more ancient Dionysia were celebrated in Anthesterion, at Athens as in Ionia. From this it seems clear that the Anthesteria did not arise out of the Union, but existed before it. These he calls the more ancient, evidently in comparison with the festival of Elaphebolion, which was the most splendid and celebrated, and was probably instituted to represent those of the various rural districts. The month may have been chosen, if not with a view to the season of the year, on the ground tjiat it was the next after Poseideon which was not already occupied by a kindred festival. The Cecropian city, like many other places in Attica, had two Dionysian festi- vals, which were attached to peculiar local traditions and usages, and v/hich survived after many others in the country had fallen into disuse. Both were celebrated in the same sanctuary of Bacchus, the Lenaeon, in the Marsh, which ori- ginally lay a little way out of the city, and so might lead anti-
