DANCING. freeborn men, and employed figures only to be emblems of what was being sung, always preserving the principles of nobleness and manliness in them; on which account it was that they gave them the name of [Greek: hyporchêmata] (accompaniment to the dance). And if any one, while dancing, indulged in unseemly postures or figures, and did nothing at all corresponding to the songs sung, he was considered blameworthy; on which account, Aristophanes or Plato, in his Preparations (as Chamæleon quotes the play), spoke thus:—
So that if any one danced well, the sight
Was pleasing; but they now do nothing rightly,
But stand as if amazed, and roar at random.
For the kind of dancing which was at that time used in the choruses was decorous and magnificent, and to a certain extent imitated the motions of men under arms; on which account Socrates in his Poems says that those men who dance best are the best in warlike exploits; and thus he writes:—
But they who in the dance most suitably
Do honour to the Gods, are likewise best
In all the deeds of war.
For the dance is very nearly an armed exercise, and is a display not only of good discipline in other respects, but also of the care which the dancers bestow on their persons.
26. And Amphion the Thespiæan, in the second book of his treatise on the Temple of the Muses on Mount Helicon, says that in Helicon there are dances of boys, got up with great care, quoting this ancient epigram:—
I both did dance, and taught the citizens
The art of music, and my flute-player
Was Anacus the Phialensian;
My name was Bacchides of Sicyon;
And this my duty to the gods perform'd
Was honourable to my country Sicyon.
And it was a good answer which was made by Caphesias the flute-player, when one of his pupils began to play on the flute very loudly, and was endeavouring to play as loudly as he could; on which he struck him, and said, "Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness." There are also relics and traces of the ancient dancing in some statues which we have, which were made by ancient statuaries; on which account men at that time paid more attention to moving their hands with graceful gestures; for in this parti-
