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282

282 On the Attic Dionysia, was also peculiarly applied to the first day, YliOoiyia^ or else that there was a fourth day distinguished by this name. The first of these conjectures is merely ungrounded, unless such an authority as that of Tzetzes be thought to support it; but the second labours under the additional difficulty, that this fourth day is omitted in every detailed description of the festival, where there was apparently just as much reason for mentioning it as any of the other three. Ruhnken^s opponents are able to produce a greater number of witnesses to the identity of the Lensea and the rural Dionysia. Stephanus Byzantinus has an obscure and seemingly mutilated article, in which he appears to confirm this opinion : Ar^vaio^ aytjov ^lovuaov ev aypol^ airo rod Xrjvov' AiroWoccopo^ ev TpLTO) '^poviKWv. Kai AfjvdiKO^^ Kal Aiivateifs. ecTTi Se Kal ^rj/uo^. The object of the Lexicographer was a geographical one, and this mention of the festival must have been merely incidental, though in the extract we now read it is put foremost. We cannot even gather the opinion of ApoUodorus with safety from such a statement. But if it were worthy of the utmost credit that his name could give to it, we should still learn nothing more from it, than that there was a festival or a contest called Arjvaio^ or ArjvdiKo^j celebrated ev dypoT^* It would still remain to be proved that this was the same with that known by the name of TO, ep ay poLS Atovvcrca. For as the Anthesteria, though celebrated in the city, were distinct from the Dionysia ev acrreL^ so might the rural Dionysia be from the Lenaea, though the latter were celebrated ev aypoT^. But it seems most probable that the statement in Stephanus is only a premature inference from the etymology which he subjoins, which would not prove anything as to the ultimate locality of the festival. There are however two passages in the Scholiast on Aristophanes which assert the same thing more distinctly. In the first (Acharn. 201) we read, ra Kar aypov^^ rd A^mia Xeyofxeva* evOev tcl Arivata Kal 6 eTTiKr}- vaios ay(ov TeXeiTai tw Aiovvaw. Arivaiov yap eaTiv ev dypo7s ep6v rod Aiovvaov^ Std to TrXeKTovs evravOa yeyo- vevaiy ri cia to irptJoTov ev tovtw too tottw )]v6v reOrjvai. In the second, 503 : o Twr Aiovvo-icov ctywv ereXe^To ^l^ rev €Toi/v, TO fxev TvpwTov eapos ev aarci, ore o cjjopot AOiivijaiu