Now the dances of peace are of two classes:--the first of them is the more violent, being an expression of joy and triumph after toil and danger; the other is more tranquil, symbolizing the continuance and preservation of good.

In speaking or singing we naturally move our bodies, and as we have more or less courage or self-control we become less or more violent and excited.

Thus from the imitation of words in gestures the art of dancing arises.

Now one man imitates in an orderly, another in a disorderly manner: and so the peaceful kinds of dance have been appropriately called Emmeleiai, or dances of order, as the warlike have been called Pyrrhic.

In the latter a man imitates all sorts of blows and the hurling of weapons and the avoiding of them; in the former he learns to bear himself gracefully and like a gentleman.