We come next to a third aspect of the Dithyramb, and one perhaps the
most important of all for the understanding of art, and especially the
drama. _The Dithyramb was the Song and Dance of the New Birth._

Plato is discussing various sorts of odes or songs. "Some," he says,
"are prayers to the gods--these are called _hymns_; others of an
opposite sort might best be called _dirges_; another sort are _pæans_,
and another--the birth of Dionysos, I suppose--is called _Dithyramb_."
Plato is not much interested in Dithyrambs. To him they are just a
particular kind of choral song; it is doubtful if he even knew that they
were Spring Songs; but this he did know, though he throws out the
information carelessly--the Dithyramb had for its proper subject the
birth or coming to be, the _genesis_ of Dionysos.

The common usage of Greek poetry bears out Plato's statement. When a
poet is going to describe the birth of Dionysos he calls the god by the
title _Dithyrambos_. Thus an inscribed hymn found at Delphi[28] opens
thus:

"Come, O Dithyrambos, Bacchos, come.
...
Bromios, come, and coming with thee bring
Holy hours of thine own holy spring.
...
All the stars danced for joy. Mirth
Of mortals hailed thee, Bacchos, at thy birth."

The Dithyramb is the song of the birth, and the birth of Dionysos is in
the spring, the time of the maypole, the time of the holy Bull.