But the earliest and favorite explanation of these terms in antiquity derived them from the fact that a goat was given to the victorious poet as a prize.[33] Knowledge and approval of this interpretation can be traced almost uninterruptedly from the high authority of the _Parian Chronicle_[34] in the third century B.C. onward, and there is no cogent reason for doubting its truth. The other suggestion that the name was derived from the goat which was offered in sacrifice in connection with the performances will be seen not to conflict with this view when it is remembered that in the later dithyrambic contests the prize (a tripod) was not regarded as the personal possession of the victor but was customarily consecrated in some temple or other public place. In my opinion, these explanations have been most unwarrantably abandoned in modern times, and I think a reaction in their favor has set in. They are spoken of respectfully by Dr. Reisch,[35] and Mr. Pickard-Cambridge mentions them exclusively.[36] Now the transfer of the Sicyonian dances from Adrastus to Dionysus would probably happen early in the reign of Clisthenes (_ca._ 595-560 B.C.), and for this very period Eusebius preserves a notice to the effect that “a goat was given to contestants among the Greeks, and from this fact they were called τραγικοί.”[37] I therefore believe that Herodotus, Eusebius (Jerome), and Suidas all refer to the same event: that Clisthenes of Sicyon established the goat prize about 590 B.C. when he surrendered to Dionysus the dances which had previously been performed in honor of Adrastus,[38] that Epigenes was the poet whom Clisthenes employed to initiate this innovation, and that non-satyric choreutae and the terms τραγικός, τραγῳδός, etc., arose in this manner, time, and place. The neatness with which these notices fit together to produce this result renders them comparatively secure from the critical assault which might more successfully be directed against them individually. In any case, it is incumbent upon any skeptic, not merely to reject the later authorities, but also to provide a more satisfactory explanation of Herodotus.