Ancient Art and Ritual by Jane Ellen Harrison
page 21 of 172 (12%)
page 21 of 172 (12%)
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howl will probably, because it is collective, develop a rhythm, a
regular recurrence, and hence probably issue in a kind of ritual music; but for the further stage of development into art another step is necessary. We must not only _utter_ emotion, we must _represent_ it, that is, we must in some way reproduce or imitate or express the thought which is causing us emotion. Art is not imitation, but art and also ritual frequently and legitimately _contain an element of imitation_. Plato was so far right. What exactly is imitated we shall see when we come to discuss the precise difference between art and ritual. * * * * * The Greek word for a _rite_ as already noted is _dromenon_, "a thing done"--and the word is full of instruction. The Greek had realized that to perform a rite you must _do_ something, that is, you must not only feel something but express it in action, or, to put it psychologically, you must not only receive an impulse, you must react to it. The word for rite, _dromenon_, "thing done," arose, of course, not from any psychological analysis, but from the simple fact that rites among the primitive Greeks were _things done_, mimetic dances and the like. It is a fact of cardinal importance that their word for theatrical representation, _drama_, is own cousin to their word for rite, _dromenon_; _drama_ also means "thing done." Greek linguistic instinct pointed plainly to the fact that art and ritual are near relations. To this fact of crucial importance for our argument we shall return later. But from the outset it should be borne in mind that in these two Greek words, _dromenon_ and _drama_, in their exact meaning, their relation and their distinction, we have the keynote and clue to our whole discussion. |
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