Book 15
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I am aware, also, that there is a kind of garland, which is called Ἰάκχας by the Sicyonians, as Timachidas mentions in his treatise on Dialects. And Philetas writes as follows:— Ἰάκχα—this is a name given to a fragrant garland in the district of Sicyon— She stood by her sire, and in her fragrant hair She wore the beautiful Iacchian garland.
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Seleucus also, in his treatise on Dialects, says, that there is a kind of garland made of myrtle, which is called Ἐλλωτὶς, being twenty cubits in circumference, and that it is carried in procession on the festival of the Ellotia. And he says, that in this garland the bones of Europa, whom they call Ellotis, are carried. And this festival of the Ellotia is celebrated in Corinth.
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There is also the θυρεατικός. This also is a name given to a species of garland by the Lacedæmonians, as Sosibius tells us in his treatise on Sacrifices, where he says, that now it is called ψίλινος, being made of branches of the palm-tree. And he says that they are worn, as a memorial of the victory which they gained, in Thyrea,See the account of this battle, Herod. i. 82. by the leaders of the choruses, which are employed in that festival when they celebrate the Gymnopeediæ.The Gymnopædiæ, or Festival of naked Youths, was celebrated at Sparta every year in honour of Apollo Pythæus, Diana, and Latona. And the Spartan youths danced around the statues of these deities in the forum. The festival seems to have been connected with the victory gained over the Argives at Thyrea, and the Spartans who had fallen in the battle were always praised in songs on the occasion.—V. Smith, Diet. Gr. Lat. Ant. in voc. And there are choruses, some of handsome boys, and others of full-grown men of distinguished bravery, who all dance naked, and who sing the songs of Thaletas and Alcman, and the paeans of Dionysodotus the Lacedæmonian.
