But I could not understand why he (_i.e._ Homer, in _Od._ XI. 581) spoke of the fair dancing grounds of Panopeus till it was explained to me by the women whom the Athenians call Thyiades. The Thyiads are Attic women who go every other year with the Delphian women to Parnassos, and there hold orgies in honour of Dionysos. It is the custom of these Thyiads to dance at various places on the road from Athens, and one of these places is Panopeus. Thus, the epithet which Homer applies to Panopeus seems to allude to the dance of the Thyiads[204]. The finest and most graphic description of this ecstatic dance is that given by Aristophanes in the _Frogs_, 325 ff. which is sung by the chorus of the Mystae: Thou that dwellest in the shadow Of great glory here beside us, Spirit, Spirit, we have hied us To thy dancing in the meadow! Come, Iacchus; let thy brow Toss its fruited myrtle bough; We are thine, O happy dancer; O our comrade, come and guide us! Let the mystic measure beat: Come in riot fiery feet; Free and holy all before thee, And thy Mystae wait the music of thy feet! Spirit, Spirit, lift the shaken Splendour of thy tossing torches! All the meadow flashes, scorches: Up, Iacchus, and awaken! Come, thou star that bringest light To the darkness of our rite, Till thine old men dance as young men, dance with every thought forsaken. Of the dulness and the fear Left by many a circling year: Let thy red light guide the dances Where thy banded youth advances, To be joyous by the blossoms of the mere![205] Iacchus was the name by which Dionysos was known at Eleusis[206]. Pindar, in the Pythian Ode, refers to the dancing of the Thyiads at the annual festival celebrated in honour of Pan, when, according to Herodotus, VI. 105, sacrifice was offered and a torch procession took place: I would pray to the Mother to loose her ban, The holy goddess to whom, and to Pan, Before my gate, all night long, The maids do worship with dance and song[207]. Reference may also be made to Pausanias, V. xvi. 5, where we read of the “Sixteen Women” who get up two choruses, that of Physcoa and that of Hippodamia; the former was loved by Dionysos, and she is said to have been the first to pay reverence to him; and therefore “among the honours which Physcoa receives is a chorus named after her and arranged by the Sixteen Women.” The Thyiads are, as already mentioned, the same as the female Bacchantes often spoken of Pausanias, for example, makes a reference to them: ... Beyond the theatre is a temple of Dionysos; the image of the god is of gold and ivory, and beside it are female Bacchantes in white marble. They say that these women are sacred, and that they rave in honour of Dionysos[208].