THE EQUINOX
(now) inspiring it, at one time in processional hymns, at
another in standing songs, turning and re-turning in the
dance.
“Then when each band has feasted (that is, has sung
and danced) apart by itself, drinking of God-pleasing
(nectar), just as in the Bacchic rites men drink the wine
unmixed, then they join together, and one chorus is
formed of the two bands, in imitation of the joined
chorus on the banks of the Red Sea, because of the
wonderful works that had been there wrought. For the
sea at God’s command became for one party a cause of
safety and for the other a cause of ruin.
[Philo here refers to the fabled dance of triumph of the
Israelites at the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, when
Moses led the men and Miriam the women in a common
dance ; but the Therapeuts all over the world could not have
traced the custom to this myth.]
“So the chorus of men and women Therapeuts, being
formed as closely as possible on this model, by means of
melodies in parts and harmony—the high notes of the
women answering to the deep tones of the men—produces
a harmonious and most musical symphony. The ideas
are of the most beautiful, the expressions of the most
beautiful, and the dancers reverent; while the goal of
the ideas, expressions, and dances is piety.
“Thus drunken unto morning’s light with this fair
drunkenness, with no head-heaviness or drowsiness, but
with eyes and body fresher even than when they came to
the banquet, they take their stand at dawn, when, catch-
ing sight of the rising sun, they raise their hands to