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Dancing Bacchante

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Dancing Bacchante.jpg Panathenaeac dance, about the 4th century B.CThumbnailsGreek figures in a solemn dance. From a vase at BerlinPanathenaeac dance, about the 4th century B.CThumbnailsGreek figures in a solemn dance. From a vase at BerlinPanathenaeac dance, about the 4th century B.CThumbnailsGreek figures in a solemn dance. From a vase at BerlinPanathenaeac dance, about the 4th century B.CThumbnailsGreek figures in a solemn dance. From a vase at BerlinPanathenaeac dance, about the 4th century B.CThumbnailsGreek figures in a solemn dance. From a vase at BerlinPanathenaeac dance, about the 4th century B.CThumbnailsGreek figures in a solemn dance. From a vase at Berlin

Dancing Bacchante. From a vase in the British Museum.

According to some authorities, one of the most primitive of the first class, attributed to Phrygian origin, was the Aloenes, danced to the Phrygian flute by the priests of Cybele in honour of her daughter Ceres. The dances ultimately celebrated in her cult were numerous: such as the Anthema, the Bookolos, the Epicredros, and many others, some rustic for labourers, others of shepherds, etc. Every locality seems to have had a dance of its own. Dances in honour of Venus were common, she was the patroness of proper and decent dancing; on the contrary, those in honour of Dionysius or Bacchus degenerated into revelry and obscenity.