Ancient Art and Ritual | Page 8

the net. Sympathetic magic is, modern psychology teaches us,
in the main and at the outset, not the outcome of intellectual illusion,
not even the exercise of a "mimetic instinct," but simply, in its ultimate
analysis, an utterance, a discharge of emotion and longing.
But though the utterance of emotion is the prime and moving, it is not
the sole, factor. We may utter emotion in a prolonged howl, we may
even utter it in a collective prolonged howl, yet we should scarcely call
this ritual, still less art. It is true that a prolonged collective howl will
probably, because it is collective, develop a rhythm, a regular
recurrence, and hence probably issue in a kind of ritual music; but for
the further stage of development into art another step is necessary. We
must not only utter emotion, we must represent it, that is, we must in
some way reproduce or imitate or express the thought which is causing
us emotion. Art is not imitation, but art and also ritual frequently and
legitimately contain an element of imitation. Plato was so far right.
What exactly is imitated we shall see when we come to discuss the
precise difference between art and ritual.
* * * * *
The Greek word for a rite as already noted is dromenon, "a thing
done"--and the word is full of instruction. The Greek had realized that
to perform a rite you must do something, that is, you must not only feel
something but express it in action, or, to put it psychologically, you
must not only receive an impulse, you must react to it. The word for
rite, dromenon, "thing done," arose, of course, not from any
psychological analysis, but from the simple fact that rites among the
primitive Greeks were things done, mimetic dances and the like. It is a
fact of cardinal importance that their word for theatrical representation,
drama, is own cousin to their word for rite, _dromenon_; drama also
means "thing done." Greek linguistic instinct pointed plainly to the fact
that art and ritual are near relations. To this fact of crucial importance
for our argument we shall return later. But from the outset it should be

borne in mind that in these two Greek words, dromenon and drama, in
their exact meaning, their relation and their distinction, we have the
keynote and clue to our whole discussion.
* * * * *
For the moment we have to note that the Greek word for rite, dromenon,
"thing done," is not strictly adequate. It omits a factor of prime
importance; it includes too much and not enough. All "things done" are
not rites. You may shrink back from a blow; that is the expression of an
emotion, that is a reaction to a stimulus, but that is not a rite. You may
digest your dinner; that is a thing done, and a thing of high importance,
but it is not a rite.
One element in the rite we have already observed, and that is, that it be
done collectively, by a number of persons feeling the same emotion. A
meal digested alone is certainly no rite; a meal eaten in common, under
the influence of a common emotion, may, and often does, tend to
become a rite.
Collectivity and emotional tension, two elements that tend to turn the
simple reaction into a rite, are--specially among primitive
peoples--closely associated, indeed scarcely separable. The individual
among savages has but a thin and meagre personality; high emotional
tension is to him only caused and maintained by a thing felt socially; it
is what the tribe feels that is sacred, that is matter for ritual. He may
make by himself excited movements, he may leap for joy, for fear; but
unless these movements are made by the tribe together they will not
become rhythmical; they will probably lack intensity, and certainly
permanence. Intensity, then, and collectivity go together, and both are
necessary for ritual, but both may be present without constituting art;
we have not yet touched the dividing line between art and ritual. When
and how does the dromenon, the rite done, pass over into the _drama_?
The genius of the Greek language felt, before it consciously knew, the
difference. This feeling ahead for distinctions is characteristic of all
languages, as has been well shown by Mr. Pearsall Smith[6] in another
manual of our series. It is an instinctive process arising independently

of reason, though afterwards justified by it. What, then, is the
distinction between art and ritual which the genius of the Greek
language felt after, when it used the two words dromenon and drama
for two different sorts of "things done"? To answer our question we
must turn for a brief moment to psychology, the science of human
behaviour.
* * * *