Note (return) — THE TEMPLE ON THE ACROPOLIS BURNT BY THE PERSIANS.

Bekker's Anecdota include mention, also, 135 of the wooden seats of this temporary theatre. Pollux adds 136 his testimony that the wooden seats were in the agora. Photius gives the further important information that the orchestra first received its name in the agora. 137 There can be no doubt that in very early times, there were dramatic representations in the agora in honor of Dionysus; and there must therefore have been a shrine or a precinct of the god in or close to the agora. The possibility of presentation of dramas at Athens, especially in these early times, unconnected with the worship of Dionysus and with some shrine sacred to him, cannot be entertained for a moment. It is commonly accepted that dramas were represented during two festivals in Athens,--at the contest at the Lenaeum and at the City Dionysia. The plays of the latter festival were undoubtedly given in the extant theatre; but of the former contest we have an entirely different record. Harpocration say 138 merely that the Limnae were a locality in Athens where Dionysus was honored. A reference in Bekker's Anecdota is 139 more explicit. Here the Lenaeum is described as a place sacred to (ιερον) Dionysus where the contests were established before the building of the theatre. In the Etymologicum Magnum 140 the Lenaeum is said to be an enclosure (περίαυλος) in which is a sanctuary of Dionysus Lenaeus. Photius declares 141 that the Lenaeum is a large peribolus in which were held the so-called contests at the Lenaeum before the theatre was built, and that in this peribolus there was the sanctuary of Dionysus Lenaeus. The scholiast to Aristophanes' Frogs says 142 that the Limnae were a locality sacred to Dionysus, and that a temple and another building (οϊκος) of the god stood therein. Hesychius mentions 143 the Limnae as a locality where the Lenaea were held, and says that the Lenaeum was a large peribolus within the city, in which was the sanctuary of Dionysus Lenaeus, and that the Athenians held contests in this peribolos before they built the theatre. Pollux speaks 144 of the two theatres, καϊ Διoνυσίακòν θέατρον καϊ ληναϊκóν. Stephanus of Byzantium quotes 145 from Apollodorus that the "Lenaion Agon" is a contest in the fields by the wine-press. Plato implies 146 the existence of a second theatre by stating that Pherecrates exhibited dramas at the Lenaeum. If the Lenaea and the City Dionysia were held in the same locality, it is peculiar that in all the passages concerning the Lenaeum and the Limnae we find no mention of the Greater Dionysia. But our list of authorities goes still further. Aristophanes speaks 147 of the contest κατ' αγρούς. The scholiast declares that he refers to the Lenaea, that the Lenaeum was a place sacred (ιερόν) to Dionysus, eν αγρούς) and that the word Λήναιον came from the fact that here first stood the ληνος or wine-press. He adds 148 that the contests in honor of Dionysus took place twice in the year, first in the city in the spring, and the second time εν αγροϊς at the Lenaeum in the winter. The precinct by the present theatre, as we know, was sacred to Dionysus Eleuthereus. In this temenus no mention has been found of Dionysus Λίμναιος or Λήναιος.