11. To conclude; as in Attica, so among the Dorians, comedy connected itself with the _country festivals_ of Bacchus; and, as Aristotle says,(1626) originated from the extemporaneous songs of those who led the Phallic processions, which were still customary in many Greek cities at the time of that philosopher. Of this, Sicyon furnishes an example. There was there a dance called Ἀλητὴρ,(1627) which was probably of a Phallic nature; and also a comic entertainment, called the Phallophori,(1628) in which the actors, with their heads and faces adorned with flowers, but unmasked, came into the theatre, in stately garments, some at the common entrance, some at the scene-doors; the Phallophorus, his face smeared with soot, walked first from among them, and, after giving notice that they came with a new song in honour of Bacchus, they began to ridicule any person they chose to select. Thus too the Phlyaces of Tarentum were probably connected with the worship of Bacchus, whose festivals were accompanied with similar rejoicings in Sicily.(1629) Yet the rites of Demeter sometimes gave rise among the Dorians to lascivious entertainments of this kind, as we learn from the description in Herodotus of the Æginetan choruses of women at the festival of Artemis and Auxesia, which provoked others of their sex by riotous and insulting language.(1630) These mockeries were, however, only the humour of the moment, and were merely accessaries to certain dances and songs; but among the Megarians, comedy, we know not by what means, obtained a more artificial character, and a more independent form. Chapter VII. § 1. Origin of comedy at Megara. § 2. Life and drama of Epicharmus. § 3. Traces of theatrical representations on painted vases. § 4. Political and philosophical tendency of the drama of Epicharmus. § 5. Mimes of Sophron. § 6. Plays of Rhinthon. § 7. Origin of tragedy at the city festivals of Bacchus. § 8. Early history of the Doric tragedy. § 9. Character of the Doric lyric poetry. § 10. Doric lyric poets. § 11. Origin of the Doric lyric poetry. § 12. Character of the Doric style of sculpture.