Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Sicinnista

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

SICINNIS'TA (σικιννιστής). One who dances the sicinnium, a dance of Satyrs, introduced in the Greek Satyric drama (Schol. Vet. ad Aristoph. Nub. 540.), in which the performers accompanied themselves by their own music and singing (Aul. Gell. xx. 3.), as in the annexed illustration (Sicinnista/1.1), from a fictile vase of Italo-Greek workmanship, which is believed to afford a representation of the dance in question. In the original the open mouth and expression of the female figure, both of which are lost in our wood-cut from the minute scale of the drawing, clearly indicate that she is singing. The very peculiar poses and gestures of the performers are, moreover, worthy of attention, because they express the exact attitudes and steps of the modern Neapolitan tarantella, which may be consequently regarded as a relic of this old classic dance.

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  Sicinnista/1.1