Of the Grecian actors,[912] whose business and profession next require to be noticed, too little by far is known, considering the curious interest of the subject. Their art, however, would appear to have sprung from that of the rhapsodists, who chanted in temples, during religious festivals, and afterwards in the theatres, the heroic lays of Greece. To a certain extent, indeed, the rhapsodist was himself an actor. His art required him to enter deeply into the spirit of the poetry he recited, to suit to the passion brought into play the modulations and inflexions of his voice, his tone, his looks, his gesture, so as vividly to paint to the imagination the picture designed by the poet, and sway the whole theatre by the powerful wand of sympathy through all the gradations of sorrow, indignation, and joy.[913] By some writers, accordingly, the rhapsodist is apparently confounded with the actor, that is, he is considered an actor of epics,[914] though in reality his imitations of character were partial and imperfect. ----- Footnote 912: Vid. Casal. c. 2. Footnote 913: Plat. Ion. t. ii. p. 183, seq. Wolf. Proleg. p. 95. Cf. S. F. Dresig. Comment. Lips. 1734. Gillies, Hist. of Greece, vol. i. c. 6. Footnote 914: Diod. Sic. xiv. 109. xv. 7. ----- Actors formed at Athens part of a guild, or company, called the Dionysiac artificers,[915] among whom were also comprehended rhapsodists, citharœdi, citharistæ, musicians, jugglers, and other individuals[916] connected with the theatre. These persons, though for the most part held in little estimation, were yet somewhat more respectable than at Rome, where to appear on the stage was infamous.[917] Like the rhapsodists, they generally led a wandering life, sometimes appearing at Athens,[918] sometimes at Corinth, or Sicyon, or Epidauros, or Thebes, after the fashion approved among the strollers of our own day. In the course of these wanderings they now and then fell in with rare adventures, as in the case of that company of comedians which, on returning from Messenia towards the Isthmus, was met by king Cleomenes and the Spartan army near Megalopolis.[919] To exhibit the superiority of his power and his contempt for the enemy, Cleomenes threw up, probably with turf and boards, a temporary theatre, where he and his army sat all day enjoying the jokes and wild merriment of the stage, after which, he bestowed, as a prize, upon the principal performers, the sum of forty minæ, or about one hundred and sixty pounds sterling. ----- Footnote 915: Philost. Vit. Soph. ii. 16. Vit. Apoll. Tyan. v. 7. Vandale, Dissert. 380, seq. Footnote 916: Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 121. Athen. v. 49. Animadv. t. viii. p. 196. Footnote 917: Vandale. Dissert, v. p. 383. Footnote 918: