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The Lenaea, which was " Dionysia/' and distinguished from other feasts of Dionysus, when necessary, as "that in the Lenaeon," was celebrated in the month of officially called Gamelion, that is to say about the middle of January. - It began with a procession, under the direction of the King-Archon, which ended at the Lenaeon, The precinct, which gave its name to the feast, was almost certainly named from the wine-press (Aijvoc) a sacred model of which was probably kept in the " In the contests at the Lenaea of temple.

Preaching was, happily, unknown its effect. to in Athens. When Greeks spoke of teaching they generally meant an incitement to creative and spon- THE DIONYSIA 49 taneous thought, not an inculcation of precepts or a repeating of information but preaching as distinct from teaching is generally a rhetorical obfuscation of already obsolete issues by a person secure from immediate criticism or questioning. So great is the confusion of modern terms that those who desire a serious drama seern to imagine that the stage should be vised as a pulpit.

What Corpus Christi was for the mediaeval man could not be explained by a study of the Mystery plays, since the great procession was part of the festival : and so we must first concentrate our attention upon the effect of the Dionysia which was not due to drama. That it is - opened with a procession which began at sunrise, conveying the god from the temple on the slope of the Acropolis to a temple in the Academy. A great concourse was marshalled by the members of the family who had this right; magistrates, soldiers, artists, and simple citizens were there, with strangers and visitors to Athens.