The chorus in the Old Comedy, unlike that of the satyric drama, was of the most varied and fanciful character, and was drawn from every possible source. All classes and professions were introduced at some time or another.[885] There were choruses of Poets, Sophists, Athletes, Trades-women, Sorcerers, Knights, Drummers, and so on. Foreign nations were often represented, such as Persians, Macedonians, and Thracian women. Even individuals were multiplied into a species, and produced choruses of Hesiodi and Archilochi. When the members consisted of human beings, they were dressed in the tunic and mantle of ordinary life, with such slight additions as were necessary to mark the different professions and nationalities. The mantle was laid aside for the purpose of dancing, as the dances of the Old Comedy were of a wild and energetic character, and required freedom of action.[886] The masks were of a ludicrous type, with the features distorted.[887] In addition to the human choruses there were also those composed of mythological beings, such as Furies, Amazons, Sphinxes, and Sirens. These would be dressed no doubt in the traditional costume. Many choruses consisted of fanciful and ridiculous personifications. There were choruses of Towns, Islands, and Merchant ships; of Clouds and Seasons; of Dramas and Epistles. In all these cases the dress and general make-up appear to have been of a grotesque character, and only in a remote degree emblematic of the ideas and objects personified. For instance, the Clouds of Aristophanes appeared as women dressed in gaily coloured garments, and wore masks of a ridiculous type, with long noses and other exaggerations. The only resemblance to Clouds was in the colours of the dresses.[888] Probably in other similar cases the personification was carried out in the same rough-and-ready manner. Another class of choruses was composed of various kinds of animals. We have the Birds and Wasps of Aristophanes; and we hear of other poets introducing Goats, Frogs, Vultures, Storks, Ants, Fishes, Bees, Nightingales, and so on. Choruses of this kind appear to have been a favourite institution among the Athenians, quite apart from the drama. A theory has been propounded that they were survivals of an old theriomorphic form of worship, and that they were the original source of the comic chorus.[889] As for their connexion with a primitive type of religion, this is a speculative subject with which we have no concern. But the notion that they were the prototype of the comic chorus is not sufficiently supported by evidence. This chorus consisted originally of the ‘comus’, or band of revellers, who led the phallic processions in honour of Dionysus; and there is no reason to suppose that these revellers were dressed otherwise than as men. The varied character of the later chorus was due to the fancy and imagination of the Attic poets, who introduced all kinds of eccentric beings upon the stage, and among them choruses of animals.