[112] [Nilsson (Studia de Dionysiis Atticis, p. 108) shows that the festival was probably not celebrated in all the demes at precisely the same time, though it always took place after the autumn sowing, being in fact in origin a ceremony designed to secure the fertility of the new-sown seed. Cf. Plat. Rep. v. p. 475 D ὥσπερ δὲ ἀπομεμισθωκότες τὰ ὦτα ἐπακοῦσαι πάντων χορῶν περιθέουσι τοῖς Διονυσίοις οὔτε τῶν κατὰ πόλεις οὔτε τῶν κατὰ κώμας ἀπολειπόμενοι. There must also have been time for the troupes of actors to move from one place to another.] [113] See Aristoph. Ach. 69, 241 ff. Also Plut. de Cup. div. p. 527 D; id. Non suav. viv. sec. Epic. p. 1098 B; Heraclitus fr. 127 Byw. [114] Dem. Meid. § 10; C. I. A. ii. 164, 467, 468, 589, 741; iv. 2, 834 b; Aelian Var. Hist. ii. 13. [115] Dem. de Cor. § 180; Aeschin. Timarch. § 157. [116] C. I. A. iv. 574 b, c, g. [117] Ibid. ii. 469, 470, 594. [118] C. I. A. iv. 1282 b, 1285 b. [119] Ibid. ii. 585. [120] Isaeus viii. § 15. We also hear of such celebrations at Brauron (Ar. Pax 874, with Schol.; Schol. in Dem. Conon. § 35; Suidas s.v. Βραύρων); and at Myrrhinus (C. I. A. ii. 575, 578). [121] Dörpfeld u. Reisch, Griech. Theat. p. 109 ff. [122] In addition to the instance at the Peiraeeus recorded above, the only known example is at Salamis, C. I. A. ii. 470 Διονυσίων τῶν ἐν Σαλαμῖνι τραγῳδῶν τ[ῷ καινῷ ἀγ]ῶνι, if the restoration be correct. [123] Dem. de Cor. § 262. [124] [It must be admitted that it is not easy to reconcile this with Aristot. Poet. ix, where it is said that even the well-known plays or legends are well known only to few, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ γνώριμα ὀλίγοις γνώριμά ἐστιν, ἀλλ’ ὅμως εὐφραίνει πάντας. Aristotle may be speaking particularly of his own day, when probably few poets or plays had the celebrity enjoyed by the plays of the three great tragedians of the previous century.] [125] [Vid. J. E. Harrison, Proleg. to the Study of Greek Religion, c. i.] [126] This seems to be the meaning of Plut. x orat. 841 F εἰσήνεγκε δὲ καὶ νόμους (sc. Lycurgus), τὸν περὶ τῶν κωμῳδῶν ἀγῶνα τοῖς Χύτροις ἐπιτελεῖν ἐφάμιλλον ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ, καὶ τὸν νικήσαντα εἰς ἄστυ καταλέγεσθαι, πρότερον οὐκ ἐξόν, ἀναλαμβάνων τὸν ἀγῶνα ἐκλελοιπότα. The contest must be the same as the ἀγῶνες Χύτρινοι quoted from Philochorus by Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. 220. [See Nilsson, Studia de Dionysiis Atticis, p. 57.] [127] Philostrat. Vit Apoll. p. 158. [128] Schol. Aristoph. Aves, 445; Suidas s.v. ἐν πέντε κριτῶν γόνασι.