Note 99: — XXV.—MUSIC AND DANCING. (Wall-Cases 54-56.)

In private life dancing was regarded by the Greeks rather as an entertainment to be provided by hired performers than as a recreation in which guests could take their part.99 Hence with them men and women did not dance together as in the modern fashion. The demand for dancing girls to entertain the guests at banquets led to the training of large numbers of this class. A vase (No. 656), placed in the lower part of Case 54, shows dancing girls being instructed in their art. They repeatedly appear on Greek vases dancing before the feasting guests (e.g. on E 68 in Case E in the Third Vase Room, the interior of a cup in the style of Brygos). These girls often carried castanets when dancing, as may be seen on the lekythos (No. 657) and in the relief from Melos (No. 658).