Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

332 Daimon and Hero [ch.
from lamentation to rejoicing. In the Theseus rite, we have the
actual muthoi which marked this shift, Eleleu lou lou 1 .
The Spoti/xevov may of course take a somewhat simplified form.
Thus the Kathodos and Anodos of Kore 2 omits the agon, but
probably in all cases where a human representative had to be
chosen, a leader or king, the contest element was present.
It is surely a fact of the highest significance that the Greek word
for actor is agonistes, contester. The shift from sorrow to joy was
integral because it was the mimetic presentation of the death of
the Old Year, the birth of the New. To seek for a threnos we
need not go to a hero's tomb.
To have a fixed ritual form imposed is, like the using of a
beautiful, difficult rhythm—an impediment to the weak, a great
and golden opportunity to the strong. But a ritual form, how-
ever solemn and significant, does not, and did not make great
drama. We see that clearly enough in the folk-plays, that, as
they were before the drama, so have long out-lasted it. With
extraordinary tenacity the old form maintains itself as in the
Carnival plays observed by Mr Dawkins 3 in Thrace and by
Mr Wace 4 in Thessaly and Macedonia. They are nothing but
the life-history of a fertility-daimon ; the story is more complete
than in the Oschophoria ; it takes the daimon from the cradle to
the grave and back again, to life and marriage. Mr Wace from
many scattered and fragmentary festivals constructs the full
original somewhat as follows :
An old woman first appears nursing her baby in her arms, and this child
is in some way or other peculiar. He grows up quickly and demands a bride.
A bride is found for him, and the wedding is celebrated, but during the wedding
festivities he quarrels with one of his companions, who attempts to molest the
bride, and is killed. He is then lamented by his bride, and miraculously
restored to life. The interrupted festivities are resumed, and the marriage is
consummated.
1 Supra, p. 318.
2 Such simplified 5pw,ueea are the Thesmophoria, where we hear of no agon, the
Charila at Delphi (infra, p. 416), the summoning of Dionvsos by trumpets from the
abyss at Lerna. Sometimes the agon is apparently the chief element in the rite as
at the Lithobolia at Eleusis. Sometimes it is softened to a mere XoiSopla, as in the
Stenia.
:i
R. M. Dawkins, The Modern Carnival in Thrace and the Cult of Dionysos,
J. H. S. xxvi. 1906, p. 191. Mr Dawkins' attention was drawn to this festival by
Mr G. M. Vizyenos, a native of Viza (the ancient Bifuy), which is about two hours
west of Haghios Gheorghios, where the festival is now celebrated. Mr Vizyenos
had seen the
Mr Dawkins.
festival as a boy some forty years before it was observed by
4 In a paper to be published in the forthcoming Annual of the British School,
of which Mr Wace has very kindly allowed me to see a proof.