The Pyrrhic Dance in its early stage was a kind of war dance, as the performers employed every type of arms. The figures of the dance represented a kind of mimic battle, and the movements of the dancers were generally light, rapid, and eminently characteristic. There were figures representing the pursuit or retreat of an enemy; then again there were movements and positions of the body by which spear thrusts, darts, and wounds generally could be avoided. Other kind of movements suggested aggressive actions, striking with the sword or using the arrow. All these movements were performed in the most accurate rhythm to the music of flutes. The number of the ancient Greek dances is so large that we can count on this occasion only those which are already known more or less through classic literature. Wide popularity was enjoyed by the _Lysistrata_, _Dipoda_, _Bibasis_, _Hymnea_, and the stage dances, _Cordax_, _Emmeleia_, _Hormos_, _Endymatia_ and the celebrated religious Mysteries of Aphrodite, Apollo, Demetrius, Dionysius, etc. Most of those elegant female dancers whom we find represented on ancient bas-reliefs, with their heads crowned, reeds in their hands raised above them, are executing the _Dipoda_, which Aristophanes has used as the climax in his celebrated comedy _Lysistrata_. This is what the author himself writes of the dance: ‘Come here to celebrate Sparta, where there are choruses in honor of the gods and the noise of dancing, where, like young horses, the maidens on the banks of the Eurotas rapidly move their feet, and their dresses are agitated like those of bacchanals, brandishing the thyrsus and sporting, and the chaste daughter of Leda, the lovely leader of the chorus, directs them. Now come, bind up your hair, and leap like fawns; now strike the measured tune which cheers the chorus.’ It is said that the simple, flowing chitons which they wore as garments flowed freely with the movements of their limbs, or fell in naturally graceful lines appropriate to the poses they assumed. A dance of wonderful agility was that of the _Bibasis_. According to Max Müller, a Laconian maiden danced the _Bibasis_ a thousand times more than any other girl had done. The peculiarity of this dance was to spring upward from the ground and perform a _cabriole en arrière_, striking the feet together behind before alighting. The _cabriole_ is executed by the modern dancers with both feet in the air; and both legs act in the beating movement, rapidly separating and closing. To this a leap, called _jetté_, in the modern terminology, was probably added. The upward spring was made first from one foot and then from the other and striking the heels behind. The number of the successful strokes was counted, and the most skillful performer received the prize. It is said that Æschylus and Sophocles improved considerably the _Bibasis Dance_, musically and choreographically, for both authors were accomplished musicians and dance authorities.