Satyrs
Satyrs EuropeSpirits of the wild in Greek and Roman mythology. Bestial in their desires and behaviour, they were portrayed as either horses or goats, and usually associated with Dionysus, the potent god of vegetation, wine, and ecstasy. Almost the same are the Sileni, whose aged features included horses' ears.
When in the sixth century BC Pratinas introduced the satyr-play at the end of a sequence of tragedies, the Sileni provided the actors' distinctive costume but suffered a transformation into comic drunkards. Tragedy in Greece was a religious ceremony in the sense that it formed part of the festivals of Dionysus. Amongst the overseas Chinese of South-east Asia a similar tradition flourishes today; plays are performed on a permanent stage facing a Buddhist or a Taoist temple on the opposite side of the road. In Athens the citizens watched tragedies in the Theatre of Dionysus, on the eastern side of the Acropolis.
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