Now the national dances are the following:—the Lace- dæmonian, the Trœzenian, the Epizephyrian, the Cretan, the Ionian, the Mantinean, which Aristoxenus considers as the best of all, on account of its movement of the hands. And dancing was considered so creditable an employment, and one requiring so much talent, that Pindar calls Apollo a dancer:—
Prince of dancers, prince of grace,And Homer too, or one of the Homeridæ, in one of the hymns to Apollo, says—
Hail, Phœbus of the silver quiver.
How deftly Phœbus strikes the golden lyre,and Eumelus, or Arctinus, the Corinthian, somewhere or other introduces Jupiter himself as dancing, saying—
While strength and grace each moving limb inspire!
And gracefully amid the dancing throng,But Theophrastus says that Andron of Catana, a flute-player, was the first person who invented motions of the body keeping time to music, while he played on the flute to the dancers; from whom dancing among the ancients was called Sicelizing. And that he was followed by Cleophantus of Thebes. Among the dancers of reputation there was Bulbus, mentioned by Cratinus and Callias; and Zeno the Cretan, who was in high favour with Artaxerxes, mentioned by Ctesias. Alexander also, in his letter to Philoxenus, mentions Theodorus and Chrysippus.
The sire of gods and mortals moved along.
