13.
We have the testimony of the poets in favour of these opinions. Pindar, in the Dithyrambus, which begins in this manner;
“formerly the dithyrambus used to creep upon the ground, long and trailing.”
After mentioning the hymns, both ancient and modern, in honour of Bacchus, he makes a digression, and says,
“for thee, O Mother, resound the large circles of the cymbals, and the ringing crotala; for thee, blaze the torches of the yellow pine;”
where he combines with one another the rites celebrated among the Greeks in honour of Dionysus with those performed among the Phrygians in honour of the mother of the gods. Euripides, in the Bacchæ, does the same thing, conjoining, from the proximity of the countries,719 Lydian and Phrygian customs.
“Then forsaking Tmolus, the rampart of Lydia, my maidens, my pride, [whom I took from among barbarians and made the partners and companions of my way, raise on high the tambourine of Phrygia, the tambourine of the great mother Rhea,] my invention.
“Blest and happy he who, initiated into the sacred rites of the gods, leads a pure life; who celebrating the orgies of the Great Mother Cybele, who brandishing on high the thyrsus and with ivy crowned, becomes Dionysus’ worshipper. Haste, Bacchanalians, haste, and bring Bromius Dionysus down from the Phrygian mountains to the wide plains of Greece.”
And again, in what follows, he combines with these the Cretan rites.
“Hail, sacred haunt of the Curetes, and divine inhabitants of Crete, progenitors of Jove, where for me the triple-crested Corybantes in their caves invented this skin-stretched circle [of the tambourine], who mingled with Bacchic strains the sweet breath of harmony from Phrygian pipes, and placed in Rhea’s hands this instrument which re-echoes to the joyous shouts of Bacchanalians; from the Mother Rhea the frantic Satyri succeeded in obtaining it, and introduced it into the dances of the Trieterides, among whom Dionysus delights to dwell.”720
[Pg 186]
[CAS. 479]
And the chorus in Palamedes says,
“Not revelling with Dionysus, who together with his mother was cheered with the resounding drums along the tops of Ida.”
