or emotion, of ravenous hunger gets a name, and thereby a personality,
though a less completely abstracted one than Death or Summer. We do not
know that the ceremony of Driving out Ox-hunger was performed in the
spring, it is only instanced here because, more plainly even than the
Charila, when the king distributes pulse and peas, it shows the relation
of ancient mimic ritual to food-supply.

If we keep clearly in mind the _object_ rather than the exact _date_ of
the Spring Song we shall avoid many difficulties. A Dithyramb was sung
at Delphi through the winter months, which at first seems odd. But we
must remember that among agricultural peoples the performance of magical
ceremonies to promote fertility and the food supply may begin at any
moment after the earth is ploughed and the seed sown. The sowing of the
seed is its death and burial; "that which thou sowest is not quickened
except it die." When the death and burial are once accomplished the hope
of resurrection and new birth begins, and with the hope the magical
ceremonies that may help to fulfil that hope. The Sun is new-born in
midwinter, at the solstice, and our "New" year follows, yet it is in the
spring that, to this day, we keep our great resurrection festival.

* * * * *

We return to our argument, holding steadily in our minds this
connection. The Dithyramb is a Spring Song at a Spring Festival, and the
importance of the Spring Festival is that it magically promotes the
food-supply.

* * * * *

Do we know any more about the Dithyramb? Happily yes, and the next point