Dithyramb
Attic relief (4th century BCE) depicting an aulos player and his family standing before Dionysos and a female consort, with theatrical masks displayed above. The dithyramb (Ancient Greek: διθύραμβος , dithyrambos ) was an ancient Greek hymn sung and danced in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility; the term was also used as an epithet of the god: [1] Plato, in The Laws , while discussing various kinds of music mentions "the birth of Dionysos, called, I think, the dithyramb." [2] Plato also remarks in the Republic that dithyrambs are the clearest example of poetry in which the poet is the only speaker. [3] However, in The Apology Socrates went to the dithyrambs with some of their own most elaborate passages, asking their meaning but got a response of, "Will you believe me?" which "showed me in an instant that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers who also say man...