The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Philosophy
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
28. There is also a kind of satyric dance called the Sicinnis, as
Aristocles says in the eighth book of his treatise on Dances; and the
Satyrs are called Sicinnistæ. But some say that a barbarian of the name
of Sicinnus was the inventor of it, though others say that Sicinnus
was a Cretan by birth; and certainly the Cretans are dancers, as is
mentioned by Aristoxenus. But Scamon, in the first book of his treatise
on Inventions, says that this dance is called Sicinnis, from being
shaken (ἀπὸ τοῦ σείεσθαι), and that Thersippus was the first person
who danced the Sicinnis. Now in dancing, the motion of the feet was
adopted long before any motion of the hands was considered requisite;
for the ancients exercised their feet more than their hands in games
and in hunting; and the Cretans are greatly addicted to hunting, owing
to which they are swift of foot. But there are people to be found who
assert that Sicinnis is a word formed poetically from κινησις,[75]
because in dancing it the Satyrs use most rapid movements; for this
kind of dance gives no scope for a display of the passions, on which
account also it is never slow.
Now all satyric poetry formerly consisted of choruses, as also did
tragedy, such as it existed at the same time; and that was the chief
reason why tragedy had no regular actors. And there are three kinds
of dance appropriate to dramatic poetry,—the tragic, the comic,
and the satyric; and in like manner, there are three kinds of lyric
dancing,—the pyrrhic, the gymnopædic, and the hyporchematic. And the
pyrrhic dance resembles the satyric; for they both consist of rapid
movements; but the pyrrhic appears to be a warlike kind of dance, for
it is danced by armed boys. And men in war have need of swiftness to
pursue their enemies, and also, when defeated,
To flee, and not like madmen to stand firm,
Nor be afraid to seem a short time cowards.
But the dance called Gymnopædica is like the dance in tragedy which
is called Emmelea; for in each there is seen a degree of gravity and
solemnity. But the hyporchematic dance is very nearly identical with
the comic one which is called Cordax. And they are both a sportive kind
of figure.
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