feasts celebrated in honour of Bacchus by the ancients. The two most remarkable were called the greater and lesser. The latter called lenae, from a word signifying a wine-pref, were held in the open fields about autumn; the greater, called Dionysia, from one of the names of Bacchus, were celebrated in the city, about the spring-time. Both these feasts were accompanied with games, spectacles, and theatrical representations; and it was at this time the poets contended for the prize of poetry. Those who were initiated into the celebration of these feasts, represented, some Silenus; others, Pan; others, Satyrs; and in this manner appeared in public, night and day, counterfeiting drunkenness, dancing obscenely, and committing all kinds of licentiousness and debauchery. See Bacchus.