Page "Dionysos, Greece" Paragraph 17

Out of this first tragic contact between the god Dionysos and the people of Attika, there arose the earliest Dioysiac worship, in the deme called Ikaria or Ikarion, the present day village of Dionysos.

The local inhabitants continued to worship Dionysos for centuries in a festival which included drinking and feasting, singing and dancing, and parading round the village with a goat to sacrifice.

In the 6th century BC, a local man named Thespis combined many of these elements into a new form of worshipful entertainment which he created, Τραγωοιδια or Tragedy.

Every year in the month Poseidonia ( early winter ), the Ikarians would host the drama festival, " Τα Εν Αγροις Διονυσια ’ ( Rural Dionysia ) to honour their favourite god, Dionysos.

They even remembered the local heroes of the myth by putting them in the sky as constellations: Ikarios was the star Arcturus in the consellation Bootes, Erigone was Virgo, and Maera was the Lesser Dog Star, Procyon.