DANCES. preserved now among any other people of Greece; and since that has fallen into disuse, their wars also have been brought to a conclusion; but it continues in use among the Lacedæmonians alone, being a sort of prelude preparatory to war: and all who are more than five years old in Sparta learn to dance the Pyrrhic dance.
But the Pyrrhic dance as it exists in our time, appears to be a sort of Bacchic dance, and a little more pacific than the old one; for the dancers carry thyrsi instead of spears, and they point and dart canes at one another, and carry torches. And they dance in figures having reference to Bacchus, and to the Indians, and to the story of Pentheus: and they require for the Pyrrhic dance the most beautiful airs, and what are called the "stirring" tunes.
30. But the Gymnopædica resembles the dance which by the ancients used to be called Anapale; for all the boys dance naked, performing some kind of movement in regular time, and with gestures of the hand like those used by wrestlers: so that the dancers exhibit a sort of spectacle akin to the palæstra and to the pancratium, moving their feet in regular time. And the different modes of dancing it are called the Oschophoricus,[1] and the Bacchic, so that this kind of dance, too, has some reference to Bacchus. But Aristoxenus says that the ancients, after they had exercised themselves in the Gymnopædica, turned to the Pyrrhic dance before they entered the theatre: and the Pyrrhic dance is also called the Cheironomia. But the Hyporchematic dance is that in which the chorus dances while singing. Accordingly Bacchylides says—
There's no room now for sitting down,
There's no room for delay.
And Pindar says—
The Lacedæmonian troop of maidens fair.
And the Lacedæmonians dance this dance in Pindar. And the Hyporchematica is a dance of men and women. Now the best modes are those which combine dancing with the singing; and they are these—the Prosodiacal, the Apostolical (which last is also called [Greek: parthenios]), and others of the same kind. And some danced to the hymn and some did not; and some danced in accompaniment to hymns to Venus and Bacchus, and to the Pæan, dancing at one time and resting at another. And, a vine-branch with grapes on it, and [Greek: pherô], to bear.]
- ↑ From [Greek: oschê
