Editing Korybantes (section)

==Initiatory dance==

[[File:Korybantentanz.jpg|thumb|Roman relief of a ''pyrrhiche'' or Corybantian dance (Vatican Museums 321)]]

These armored male dancers kept time to a drum and the rhythmic stamping of their feet. Dance, according to Greek thought, was one of the civilizing activities, like wine-making or music. The dance in armor (the "Pyrrhic dance" or [[pyrrhichios]] [Πυρρίχη]) was a male coming-of-age initiation ritual linked to a warrior victory celebration. Both Jane Ellen Harrison and the French classicist Henri Jeanmaire<ref>Harrison 1908/09; Jeanmaire, ''Couroi et Courètes: essai sur l'éducation spartiate et sur les rites d'adolescence dans l'antiquité hellénique,'' Lille, 1939.</ref> have shown that both the Kouretes (Κουρῆτες) and Cretan Zeus, who was called "the greatest ''kouros'' (κοῦρος)",<ref>At Palaikastro the inscribed "hymn of the Kouretes" dates to ca. 300 BCE.</ref> were intimately connected with the transition of boys into manhood in Cretan cities.

The English "Pyrrhic Dance" is a corruption of the original ''Pyrríkhē'' or the ''Pyrríkhios Khorós'' "Pyrrhichian Dance". It has no relationship with the king [[Pyrrhus of Epirus]], who invaded Italy in the 3rd century BC, and who gave his name to the [[Pyrrhic victory]], which was achieved at such cost that it was tantamount to a defeat.