but all this seems, perhaps, not to bring us nearer to Greek drama,
rather to put us farther away. What have the Spring and the Bull and the
Birth Rite to do with the stately tragedies we know--with Agamemnon and
Iphigenia and Orestes and Hippolytos? That is the question before us,
and the answer will lead us to the very heart of our subject. So far we
have seen that ritual arose from the presentation and emphasis of
emotion--emotion felt mainly about food. We have further seen that
ritual develops out of and by means of periodic festivals. One of the
chief periodic festivals at Athens was the Spring Festival of the
Dithyramb. Out of this Dithyramb arose, Aristotle says, tragedy--that
is, out of Ritual arose Art. How and Why? That is the question before
us.


FOOTNOTES:

[19] _Poetics_, IV, 12.

[20] See my _Themis_, p. 419. (1912.)

[21] I, 43. 2.

[22] _Quaest. Græc._ XII.

[23] _Op. cit._

[24] _Quæst. Symp._, 693 f.

[25] The words "in Spring-time" depend on an emendation to me
convincing. See my _Themis_, p. 205, note 1.