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Morphology of the Lyric Chorus
{18|19} The first step in comprehending what unites the participants in the choral performance is to study the various elements that make up a female lyric chorus during the Archaic period. To understand not only the formal character, but also the dynamic aspect of this unity, I shall study its function as much as its formal structure. The lyric Greek chorus is basically composed of a number of dancers, male or female, called chorus-members and a person, male or female, who directs them, called the choregos. Beginning with the members of the chorus, I shall examine the different elements, number, age, order, and so on, that render them a homogeneous group, then the relationships (blood relations, companionship, and so on) that bind them together. Since the choregos is defined right away by his/her role as director of the group, I shall then examine the function of this position, central to the organic system of the chorus, and how it influences the chorus members. But since the activity of the choregos can only be determined dialectically, in relation to that of the singers, its definition will lead us back to an examination of the chorus as a coherent whole. And finally, the problem of the choral forms and literary genres, through which the female chorus is expressed in ancient Greece, will be addressed.
But before analyzing the components of the lyric chorus and going on to the choral group as a whole, I have to deal briefly with a semantic problem: the term χορός in its use during the Archaic period as well as in the definitions in ancient lexicons, corresponds to two distinct entities. The Suda, for example, gives the double meaning that we already find in epic poetry: 1. ensemble, a “body” of singers, 2. the space in which the singers move. [1] In collecting evidence for my investigation, I have used only the first meaning of the word; [2] in the first case, the term χορός in its ancient use can refer to the group of singers as well as to their activity, the choral dance. [3] But selecting only texts that use the term χορός {19|20} in the above manner would be to commit the kind of semiotic abuse mentioned in the introduction. Many sources describe obviously choral scenes without mentioning the word, and I have therefore incorporated into my corpus several passages in which the activity of a group of young girls or women corresponds to ἑλίσσειν, dance in a circle, ὀρχεῖσθαι, leap and dance, or μέλπεσθαι, sing and dance together. My criterion thus basically follows a signified, the female choral performance.
Let us therefore begin by examining how the group of singers is formed.
2.1 The chorus-members
Let me start by noting that the technical term χορευτής, a participant in a chorus, does not appear in lyric poetry before Pindar; but thereafter it is widely used in tragedy. Derived via -τής from the verb χορεύω, to dance in a chorus, also used for the first time in Pindar, it is a noun referring to a person who engages in activities implied by participation in the χορός. [4] The feminine form of χορευτής is represented by the term χορῖτις found in Callimachus and in {20|21} Nonnus. In contrast to χορευτής, χορῖτις is used in a strictly choral context and always in the plural. [5]
But in most of the sources, the quality of choreutes does not have any specific signifier. It is indicated on the level of the signified by certain semantic features such as ‘collective,’ ‘song,’ ‘dance,’ etc. The aim of the following analysis is to determine the semantic features that characterize the group formed by the chorus-members in contrast to the choregos who stands alone.
2.1.1. The number of chorus-members
In tragedy and comedy, choruses were made up of a fixed number of participants, men and women. The note in the Suda, mentioned above in connection with the definition of the term χορός, gives fifteen members for the tragic chorus and twenty-four for the comic, a number that corresponds both to information from other sources and to what can be gleaned from the plays themselves. Philological opinion agrees with the number twelve for the choruses of Aeschylus, fifteen for those of Sophocles and Euripides, and twenty-four in Ancient Comedy; similarly for the fifty-member chorus of the dithyramb. [6] But in the case of the women’s lyric chorus, the only information we have on its number comes from fragment 1 of Alcman and the commentaries on it. [7] To avoid the vicious circle mentioned in the introduction, I am forced to turn to contemporary iconography of the Archaic lyric period, or to model choruses in mythology.
In figured representations of female choruses the number of chorus-members, far from being fixed, varies between two and seventeen, the commonest numbers being three, four, six, and seven. [8] It must be noted, however, that the lowest numbers are often the result of having to squeeze the chorus into a relatively small space.
The numbers ten and eleven as indicated in the Alcman fragment are well vouched for. The oldest images seem to indicate even larger numbers than those we know from Alcman. The oldest example cited by Tölle has for instance two {21|22} choruses, one of nine boys and one of sixteen girls, all nude. The girls’ chorus is preceded by a boy playing the lyre and a second boy who seems to be conducting the chorus, and the chorus of adolescent boys follows that of the girls. [9] On the other hand, a hydria in the Louvre has represented on its neck a chorus of fifteen women, clothed. [10]
The number ten is found in representations of the female chorus from the end of the eighth century to the middle of the fifth. A geometric water pitcher in Munich shows a chorus of ten girls, all exactly the same, dressed in long robes. [11] The girls are holding hands and the chorus winds right round the neck of the pitcher. The leading girl has no distinguishing attribute; the last one, however, wears a crown. On the Agora in Athens, a similar representation from the beginning of the seventh century can be found, also on the neck of a proto- Attic hydria; here we see a chorus of ten women holding hands. [12] They are all of the same height; dressed in long white robes, their hair apparently in a net, their heads all turned upwards as if singing. Finally, an Attic crater found at Falerii and dated between 460 and 450 shows us ten girls walking along holding hands, an eleventh woman at their head, dressed slightly differently, playing a pipe; [13] the young girls’ mouths are slightly open and everything gives the impression that they are singing, accompanied by the pipe player.
A hydria and an amphora from Athens, both geometric, show us two choruses composed of eleven women. [14] As we have seen on the geometric objects, the two choral scenes are represented round the neck of the vases. Again, the women are of the same height, hold hands, and wear long robes. In both cases, the eleven chorus members are identical.
The margin of variation in the choruses represented in myth is also very wide. The number of chorus members can be as great as fifty; for instance in the Iphigenia at Aulis of Euripides, the third stasimon contains the description of the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, and the fifty daughters of Nereus dance the marriage dance in a circle; in the Iphigenia in Tauris, the same Nereides enliven with their chorus the house of Amphitrite. [15] This same number occurs again for {22|23} the Danaides when Pindar—who actually gives the number as forty-eight—shows them reunited in a chorus with their father while waiting for the results of the competition he organized for their suitors. Occasionally the number is larger, as in Callimachus’ Hymn to Artemis, where he has two choruses, one of sixty Oceanides and the other of twenty Nymphs. [16]
The number of participants in the choruses of mythology rarely descends below seven; [17] the latter number appears rather frequently, for the Pleiades, the Hyades and the Muses, also for the chorus of seven young men and seven young women formed by Theseus after his victorious exit from the labyrinth of Crete. [18] We know that the number seven rivals nine for the Muses, and, since the composition of the chorus of Muses, as of the Pleiades, has varied throughout history, we should hesitate to take the numbers cited as final.
In addition, the example of the chorus of twelve in Aeschylus’ Suppliants representing the fifty Danaides, or the example of the fifteen members in Euripides’ Suppliants speaking for the seven mothers of the Seven against Thebes, show the gulf that can separate myth from reality in the choral performance. [19] Moreover, the number of members of a mythological chorus is not precise: this {23|24} is the case for example of the chorus of Nymphs surrounding Artemis; led by the goddess, it is the mythological model of a young women’s chorus.
Neither the figured representations nor the myths can offer the same uniformity of information that we have for a particular ritual used for various festivals. Although one cannot often distinguish the myth from the ritual practice, it can be presumed that, in contrast to tragedy where the myth must accommodate an extrinsic theatrical convention, the ritual coincides more or less faithfully with the legend, which often explains it in narrative format. Nevertheless, the variations found in figured representations and in myths are repeated from one ritual to the next.
The number fifty is represented by the chorus (the word itself is not used) of young women and men who sang a threnody on the occasion of the death of the daughter of Clytias of Megara. [20] The ceremony is repeated each year: the rite of the “Tears of the Megarians” thus gives an example of an annual ritual and of the legend from which it springs. In another context, the young Lacedaemonian women who form a chorus to sing Helen’s epithalamium in the 18th Idyll of Theocritus are twelve in number. But it is difficult to prove that this piece would be so performed in a real marriage ceremony; in fact it is probable that the poem only has a literary function and the chorus does not serve as a mythological model for the chorus that would actually sing it at a wedding, as is doubtless the case for the Marriage of Hektor and Andromache of Sappho. [21] But the possibility still exists that the number twelve may reflect a canon adhered to when choruses were formed for performing epithalamia.
In support of the idea that the chorus was divided into two when performing the poem, or that two choruses competed, interpreters of Alcman’s fragment 1 have often cited the various rites connected with the group called the “sixteen women of Elis” and celebrated on the occasion of the Heraia of Olympia. [22] Pausanias says that these sixteen women were to form two choruses, one for Physkoa, the other for Hippodameia. As the text itself indicates, the first of these choruses was to perform dances in honor of Dionysus, the second in honor of Hera, so there were two separate performances. Pausanias gives no indication {24|25} of the number of chorus members taking part, and it is forcing the text to say that the women of Elis were the people who danced for Physkoa and Hippodameia. [23] From Pausanias’ text we are consequently unable to prove either the existence of a chorus made up of sixteen members, or of a chorus divided into two half-choruses of eight members each, or of a competition between two rival choruses. The Spartan parallel of a Doppelkollegium of women bearing the name Dionysiades and Leukippides will be discussed below. [24] The word χορός is not used here either, although the term Dionysiades implies it. [25] What we can learn for the moment is that the Dionysiades, according to Pausanias, numbered eleven.
2.1.2. The sex of the chorus-members
As I mentioned in the introduction, since it is impossible to create a complete corpus of evidence about the chorus, I cannot give statistics as to the frequency of male versus female choruses. In the myths, female choruses, particularly those made up of girls, are more frequent on the whole than male choruses. Similarly, choral performances in rites seem to be associated more frequently with women, and this tendency is confirmed by the plastic images. In Crowhurst’s studies covering the period from 800 to 350 B.C., there are 81 women’s choruses to 28 men’s. For the Archaic period alone, according to Tolle’s data, the picture is more balanced, although women’s choruses are preponderant. [26] In addition to the male and female choruses there are mixed choruses, a few examples of them among the visual representations. Written documents mention a famous case, that of the chorus of Theseus; I will discuss this later. [27] Thus myth and iconography agree that a chorus group is a form more frequently feminine than masculine. {25|26}
2.1.3. The age of the chorus-members
Female choruses fall into roughly two classes in both myth and ritual. Either the members are in the period between puberty and marriage, or they have made the transition into marriage. The former are still girls and are called κόραι, παρθένοι, νεάνιδες, or νύμφαι, while the others are married women and thus considered adults; they are called γυναῖκες. The signified of these terms will have various shades of meaning according to context. For instance, the word νύμφη designates a woman at the moment of leaving adolescence and becoming married; in a specific context, this term might mean either the young girl at the end of the age of a παρθένος as fiancée, or the young married woman until her first childbirth. [28]
The male choruses have the same division, and the illustration of this correspondence with the female division between adolescence and adulthood can be found in the mixed choruses where the girls are together with the ephebes, ἔφηβοι, ἠΐθεοι, κοῦροι, and the women with the adult men, ἄνδρες. This division is also seen in Timaeus who recounts that in Croton the daughter of Pythagoras was at the head (ἡγεῖσθαι) of the girls (τῶν παρθένων) when she herself was a girl and that she took over the leadership of the women (τῶν γυναικῶν) when she became an adult. [29]
A third category is formed by the choruses of παῖδες, or children. This term is unfortunately imprecise in its semantics and, used in a choral context, can refer to a chorus of boys as well as to a chorus of pubescent girls. Because of the sexual ambiguity of the prepubescent child, the term παῖς does not have a gender mark. Moreover, its signified covers both the prepubescent and the adolescent periods; consequently it can designate children or adolescents of both sexes. [30]
To the extent that this classification of the two sexes into three categories—child, adolescent, adult—can be expressed formally, it is reflected in the visual images of choral performances. Crowhurst speaks of young girls in representations of the Artemis ritual at Brauron and of young adults on vases {26|27} from Clazomenae and in matrimonial ceremonies, and women in other cases. [31] These categories are determined naturally by certain characteristics of the signifier, such as stature, development of the breasts, nudity, richness of the costume. The use of these marks does not seem to have been very rigorously systematized during the Archaic period, and codes other than age can be used, such as the presence of a certain piece of clothing signifying a particular kind of ceremony. There can be many interpretations, and Crowhurst’s findings should only be considered as indicative.
The majority of the evidence I have gathered concerns the second category, that of the παρθένοι or virgins. This term, used in addition to young girls and adolescent girls, should not mislead: in Greece it embodies a concept very different from the one imposed upon our culture by twenty centuries of piety concerning the Virgin Mary. It refers to that particular status of the young woman who is pubescent but not yet married: the many Greek legends about young girls who have a child is proof, among others, that the term παρθένος by no means denotes a physical state of virginity, but simply the status of a young woman who is not yet married. [32] The status of adolescent, however, shows a variety of features that separate the girl from the child and from the married woman, yet at the same time relate her to them. Based on a physiological phenomenon, that of puberty, it is characteristic of a transitional period. Sexual ambiguity is its characteristic: still children, young virgins often have masculine characteristics, and, being sexually undifferentiated, they are often associated with the ephebes; as women, they arouse the desire of men but flee their attentions. [33] The semantic polyvalence of this image of the young girl will grow richer as my study progresses.
Several sources describe a chorus of young women with the emphasis, denoted by the word ἥλικες, on the fact that all the chorus-members are the same age. This semantic feature is noticeable in one of Pindar’s Pythians, where he describes the sound of the nuptial song “which the virgins of the same age love to sing” (ἅλικες παρθένοι). We find it again in Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae where Andromeda, personified by the relative of Euripides, expresses her ardent wish when she is in the hands of the Phrygian to rejoin the choruses of young girls of her own age (ἡλίκων νεανίδων). A similar desire is expressed by the chorus members of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris who, in exile, hope to rejoin the choruses of virgins of their own age (ἡλίκων θιάσους). [34] This component of the female chorus takes us back to the foundations of lyric poetry, where it is {27|28} also pertinent for the male chorus. A very mutilated fragment of Sappho gives us a glimpse of a group of young girls (παρθένοι) celebrating a ritual at night (παννυχισδο.[), and the poem, very probably an epithalamium, ends with an injunction to the newly married young man to wake up and join the men of his age (στεῖχε σοὶς ὐμαλικ[ας). And a new papyrus fragment of Alcman, a more complete interpretation of which I give below, describes the choregoi as being of the same age as the girls in the choruses they lead (ἅλι[κ]ε̣ς νεανίαι φίλοι). [35]
All these examples concern young women’s choruses, and are therefore to be placed in the period of adolescence coinciding with the status of πάρθενος. Perhaps the term ἥλικες has to do with a system of stages within adolescence for girls, as it does for boys in Sparta. [36] For that particular town, as we shall see, it is possible to reconstruct from the sources a system of age categories or age-classes with six different levels.
For young women, the examples are far less clear. However, some do give indications along these lines. Among the various rituals of the Heraia overseen by the sixteen women of Elis, Pausanias mentions a race (ἅμιλλα δρόμου) organized for young women (παρθένοις): [37] the latter were divided into three groups, the youngest (νεώταται), older girls (αἱ τῇ ἡλικίᾳ δεύτεραι), and the eldest (πρεσβύταται); each category had a race of its own.
Another text, the famous passage from Aristophanes’ Lysistrata on the education of young Athenians, indicates an age classification within the period of childhood. [38] The women in revolt, as staged by the author, indicate in effect that {28|29} at seven years old the young Athenian was an arrephoros, at ten years an aletris, then she played the bear (ἄρκτος) in the festivals of Brauron, and finally, having turned into a beautiful young maiden (παῖς καλή), she performed the duties of the kanephoros. This passage does not mention a choral performance and is therefore not in agreement with later sources. However, these same sources, analyzed by Brelich, attest to the fact that the system of age levels is not simply a reconstruction by Aristophanes, as has been suggested, but is based on an institutional reality. Whether it was still in force during the classical period or whether, and this is more probable, it was the reflection of an older institution, this four-stage system brought the Athenian child up to adolescence. The vagueness of the text about the last two stages does not tell us whether it covers adolescence too, or if it stops short of it. Comparison with the system of Spartan ephebes and information from other sources, showing that the duties of the kanephoros were performed by young women who were about to be married (αἱ μέλλουσαι γαμεῖσθαι/αἱ ὥραν ἔχουσαι γάμου), weights the balance on the side of the first term of the alternative. [39]
Two sources give the age of the girls taking part in a chorus and indicate that all have the same age. Callimachus states that the young Oceanides, of whom Artemis wanted sixty to make up a chorus, were all nine years old (πάσας εἰνέτεας, πάσας ἔτι παῖδας ἀμίτρους). [40] On the other hand, in the Ephesian ritual that serves as background to the first loves of Habrocomes and Antheia, the ephebes forming the cortege with Habrocomes at the head are all the same age as their leader, who is sixteen years old. Xenophon of Ephesos, who describes the scene, adds that Antheia, fourteen years old, is in the flower of her youth, and the analogy with the troop of boys suggests that the girls led by Antheia are the same age as she. [41]
The women’s choruses, then, can be divided into three categories: those for children, those for adolescents, and those for adults. There are some suggestions of the existence of a system of several stages corresponding to age, extending through childhood and adolescence up from the status of παῖς to the threshold of marriage. This system no doubt differed from city to city, as did that of the ephebes; it had probably changed over time, which would explain the differences in the few documents that substantiate it. In any case, the chorus seems often to have been connected with a precise age-class, and the frequent use of the term (ὁμ)άλικες expresses the relationship between chorus-members of the same age. {29|30} I will call this relationship ‘contemporary,’ considering it as a semantic feature of the chorus.
Choruses of adolescents differ from those of children and women in the frequency with which they are mentioned in the sources. I think it is possible to deduce from this relative frequency, in spite of concerns about using raw statistics, that choral activity was characteristic of young women. This relationship between female adolescence and chorus participation is particularly noticeable in the Phoenician Women by Euripides, where he associates dancing in a chorus (χορεῖαι) with the activities proper to adolescent girls (παρθενεύματα): Antigone’s place is no longer among the girls, but near her mother to help prevent her brothers from killing each other. [42]
2.1.4. The collective character of a group of chorus-members
A collective name is often given to a group of women forming a chorus and almost always to choruses of young virgins. Among choral groups in myths there are the Muses, the Nymphs, the Nereides, the Danaides, the Emathides, the Amazonides, and so on; among choruses or groups of women performing a regular ritual are the Deliades or the Lesbiades.
If the signifiers of these names and their morphology are analyzed, we see that they are almost all derivatives in -ιδ- and -αδ-. Semantically, such derivatives are most often characteristic of terms signifying the feminine. The suffix -ιδ- denotes subordination and belonging; it is used to form many patronymics and some terms denoting geographic association. The suffix -αδ- is often used to form terms indicating geographic association; it is most often found in the names of groups of women who serve a god or goddess (Dryads, Orestiads, Maenads, etc.). [43]
We saw that the Nereides, like the Danaides, formed a chorus of fifty young women: the Nereides are the daughters of Nereus, the Danaides, those of Danaos, as is obvious. The Emathids, opposing the Muses in a musical competition, were born, according to legend, in Emathia. [44] The Deliades form a girls’ chorus dedicated to the service of Apollo at Delos—I shall define their role later—and {30|31} the Lesbiades are the women taking part in a beauty contest on Lesbos. [45] A geographic designation is also given to the Muses, who are often called the Pierides, the daughters of Pieria if not Olympiades, daughters of Olympos or Helikoniades, daughters of Helicon. Virgil gives the Nymphs the eponym of Oreades: they were the young virgins who came down from the mountains to form a chorus around Artemis their mistress; Callimachus says that twenty of them were attendant on the goddess, and he calls them Amnisides, daughters of the River Amnisos in Crete. [46]
The signifiers in -ιδ- and -αδ- therefore often include the semantic features ‘female’ and ‘collective’ and always the feature ‘geographical/family association.’ Used in the context of a choral performance, the bond between the chorus-members created by age is widened by the bond of their common origin.
The feature ‘family association,’ derived from a component that appears frequently in this corpus, often has a quite explicit signifier. Comparing the group of followers of Nausicaa to the chorus of Nymphs around Artemis, Homer calls the latter daughters of Zeus (Διὸς κοῦραι). The Nereides are clearly described by Euripides as daughters of Nereus (κόραι Νηρέως). Callimachus uses the term daughters of the Arestorides (παῖδες Ἀρεστοριδᾶν) to describe the band (ἴλα) of young Argive virgins (παρθενικαί) in the service of Athene: he uses the same procedure on the second level. [47] The Muses themselves are called successively θύγατρες, κόραι, παῖδες, παρθένοι, and τέκνα of Zeus and Mnemosyne. In the description of the rite, the young women (παρθένοι) singing and playing the lyre for Artemis in Ephesos are called daughters of the Lydians (Λυδῶν κόραι). [48] The ‘family association’ is therefore a semantic feature essential in defining the band of young women; it also constitutes a feature characteristic of the divinities of adolescence such as Apollo and particularly Artemis.
The ‘geographical association’ constitutes the signified of a term used from time to time in the context of the choral performance; the term is ἐπιχώριος ‘local, of the country.’ The young women in the (fictive) ritual that is the {31|32} backdrop to the meeting of Habrocomes and Antheia, and who walk in procession before the citizens of Ephesos, are girls from the region (τὰς ἐπιχωρίους παρθένους). Xenophon of Ephesos, who tells the story, also calls this festival, dedicated to Artemis, ἐπιχώριος. [49] In the ritual dedicated at Patras to Artemis Triclaria and Dionysus Aisymnetes, to which I shall return, the children who place ears of wheat on the banks of the River Meilichos as a gift to Artemis before going into the Temple of Dionysus are children of the region (ὁπόσοι τῶν ἐπιχωρίων παῖδες, says Pausanias). [50] The fact that the festival was organized by nine chosen men and nine chosen women, in other words by a mixed group, leads one to suppose that the children performing the rite for Artemis and Dionysus also belonged to both sexes. And, according to Bacchylides, the young women of Aegina celebrated a local festival on their island (ἐ[πιχω]|ρίαν ἄθυρσιν), to which I shall return later. [51] The term ἐπιχώριος consequently denotes the place of origin of the chorus members. Since the native land tends to become merged with a group of families, ‘geographical association’ and ‘family association’ are not far apart, and in expressions such as Λυδῶν κόραι, the daughters of the Lydians/of Lydia, they become one.
To end these reflections on terms signifying belonging, the appearance in Callimachus of the term χορίτιδες, the chorus members, is noteworthy; it is doubtless a neologism. In the Hymn to Artemis the poet uses it to designate the chorus of sixty Oceanides, all nine years old, and in the Hymn to Delos the chorus that dances while the men sing the hymn of Olen on the island of Apollo. [52] The word was formed on analogy with feminine words in -τις from the masculine in -της, such as βουλευτής changing to βούλευτις, a woman councilor, δημότης changing to δημότις, a woman of the same deme, and so on. [53] Semantically, these words always refer to ‘belonging’ in some category. A second process has been added to the first, namely, the derivative in -ῖτις (ἀνδρωνῖτις, κεραμῖτις, etc.). The words formed according to this process are feminine and generally belong to the vocabulary of technology. In χορῖτις, it is the morphological aspect that was the determining factor, since the meaning, in common with other words in –ῖτις, is only represented by the feature ‘feminine.’ {32|33} The form χορῖτις instead of χορεῦτις implies this second derivation process, [54] but because of the meaning that the primary derivation brings, it is reasonable to attribute to χορίτιδες, in addition to ‘feminine’ and ‘plural,’ the character of ‘belonging to a group,’ as denominatives in -ιδ- or -αδ- suggest.
2.1.5. The “companionship” of the chorus-members
The third Pythian of Pindar adds to the age similarity of the chorus members a “companionship” bond, friendship signified by the word ἑταίρα, the (female) companion, the (female) comrade. In Pindar’s poem, the young women of the same age (ἅλικες παρθένοι) who sang the nuptial song for Coronis are all said to be companions (ἑταῖραι) of the young bride. According to a textual restoration, Bacchylides described the young virgins who sang for the Nymph Aegina with the same word. And Virgil uses the word for companion when speaking of the virgins who were the followers of Artemis (ex virginibus sociis). [55] Here it seems that the bond between the chorus members depends on the friendship of each of them with a girl who is in another position and has a function different from that of the chorus-members. It is this relationship between the girls in a group and a particular girl that Callimachus expresses when, in the scene of the marriage of Akontios and Kydippe, he says that the young girls singing the nuptial song for the heroine are all the same age and that Kydippe herself is their companion (ἥλικες αὐτίχ’ ἑταίρης ᾖδον ὑμεναίους). [56]
This same relationship is expressed in the adjective (φίλος, dear, used for example by Euripides’ relative in the passage quoted earlier from the Thesmophoriazusae of Aristophanes to invoke, in imitation of Andromeda, the young women of his own age whose choruses he would like to rejoin (φίλαι παρθένοι). [57] This bond of friendship between young men or young women, based on belonging to the same age group, is often found in Homer, and the terms φίλος, ἑταῖρος, and ὁμηλικίη are used for it. [58]
The various semantic studies of the way the terms ἑταῖρος and φίλος were used in epic poetry have shown that, besides a generic meaning referring to men {33|34} under the authority of a leader such as the companions of Odysseus, the term ἑταῖροι is more particularly descriptive of a group of free men, generally sons of aristocratic families, who belong to the same tribe, and who, under a leader, play the same role—in the case of Homeric poetry that of the warrior. [59] The term ἑταῖρος generally indicates a subordinate relationship with the person leading the group, and this would explain the frequent use of θεράπων in conjunction with ἑταῖρος. [60] The term φίλος is also used in this context; its sense accentuates the legal aspect of “companionship,” recalling the oath taken by the hetairoi when they dedicated themselves to their leader. [61]
This short detour by way of epic poetry shows how the terms ἑταῖρος and φίλος contain bonds of both subordination and equality uniting the members of a group in ancient Greece. This dual character is also applicable to female choral groups of the same age, the members of which obey, as we shall see, the orders of the choregos to whom they are bound by ties of friendship and camaraderie.
2.2. Formal organization of the chorus
2.2.1. Circular form
In contrast to the tragic chorus grouped in a rectangle, the lyric chorus is generally circular, as the κύκλιος χορός of the dithyramb will be later. [62] Turning to choruses in myth, we note that Theseus “weaves” the seven boys and seven girls he has brought from Athens into a circle to celebrate the gods after his victory over the Minotaur. This chorus reappears under a slightly different form in the Hymn to Delos of Callimachus; led by Theseus, the chorus dances in a circle round the altar of Delos (κύκλιον ὠρχήσαντο). [63] The chorus of {34|35} Theseus is particularly interesting in that the dance they performed became, as we shall see later, the mythological model of a dance performed in the Aphrodisia round the horned altar at Delos, called the Crane Dance.
The fifty Nereides of Euripides who live in the house of Amphitrite form several circular choruses (χοροὶ ἐγκύκλιοι), and in another tragedy they are seen again performing round dances (κύκλια ἐχόρευσαν) to celebrate the marriage of Thetis and Peleus. Similarly, the virgins of Delos, the Deliades, dance in a circle when they sing the paean in honor of Apollo. [64] In the latter passage, Euripides uses the term εἱλίσσω; the signified of this word combines the features ‘to dance’ and ‘circularity.’ In the former passage, the expression κύκλια ἐχόρευσαν is coupled with εἱλισσόμεναι. This verb is used frequently by Euripides to describe the dances of the lyric chorus and those of the female chorus. In one of the Orphic Hymns, the Fates and the Graces together form a circular chorus. And in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, the circle formed by the public round the young girls of the chorus from which Hermes abducts Aphrodite suggests a circular form. Finally, Callimachus in his Hymn to Artemis, describes the Nymphs who make a circle of their chorus round Artemis; in imitation, the Amazons make a circular chorus when they dance, armed, round the statue of the goddess. [65]
With this plurality of signifiers (κύκλος, κύκλιος, ὅρμος, εἱλίσσω, etc.), a new semantic feature appears, that of ‘circularity.’ As regards this semantic play, the expression κύκλιοι χοροὶ παρθένιοι, the circular choruses of girls, used by Euripides in Helen to describe the choruses from which Kore was abducted, is significant in that it confirms the link between ‘circularity’ and ‘lyric chorus’ in the signified and more specifically between the semantic features ‘lyric chorus’ + ‘female’ + ‘adolescent.’ [66] It is appropriate here to recall that Hesychius himself defined the chorus as a circle or a crown. [67] {35|36}
A second feature, implied by the first, can be added: the semantic component ‘center,’ generally expressed by the adjective μέσος. The center of the chorus is filled either by a cult object (altar, statue of a divinity), or by the person who, as we shall see, directs the chorus. This feature of ‘center’ is important in the Homeric image of the chorus and the music. On the shield of Achilles forged by Hephaistos, a child plays the lyre in the middle of (ἐν μέσσοισι) boys and girls bearing grapes, who sing and dance. Further on, in another scene represented on the Shield, the crowd surrounds the chorus (understood as the place itself), on which boys and girls are dancing in a circle; in the center (κατὰ μέσσους) of these concentric circles two acrobats perform complicated movements. In the Odyssey, Demodokos places himself in the center (ἐς μέσον) of the chorus when he sings the story of the loves of Ares and Aphrodite; he is encircled by young men, experienced dancers, who stamp the ground. [68]
In Hesiod’s Shield, Apollo plucks the lyre in the middle (ἐν μέσῳ) of the chorus of Immortals. Also occupying the center (ἐν μέσαις) of the chorus of the Muses is the same god, whose actions are described at length, playing the lyre in Pindar’s Fifth Nemean. Another god, Poseidon, takes a similar central place at the heart of the chorus of dolphins, “lovers of the Muses,” who form a circle round him. [69]
If we move from people, human or divine, in the center of the chorus to cult objects in the same place, we find, in addition to the examples cited of the chorus of Theseus dancing round the altar at Delos and the Amazons dancing round the statue of Artemis, that the chorus of Euripides’ Trojan Women is remembered to have celebrated Artemis by dances performed round her temple. A fragment of Aeolic poetry has Cretan women circling an altar, and at Keos, round Apollo’s altar during the celebration of the Pythia, danced the chorus of girls that included Ktesylla when Hermochares saw her and fell in love with her. [70]
And this image of the chorus as a circle round a center was strong enough to elicit a simile found in both Callimachus and Longus. The first describes the Cyclades surrounding the island of Delos as though they formed a chorus; in the second, Chloe is encircled by her sheep as though by a chorus. [71] In chapter 4, we shall see that this circular pattern had an influence on the form of education (ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία) dispensed in the lyric chorus. {36|37}
In her analysis of the iconography of the ancient chorus Tölle distinguishes two main categories among the examples she collected: [72] the Kreisreigen and the Langreigen. Tölle notes on the one hand that the second category, corresponding usually to a procession, is more frequent than the first, while the first is referred to in the Homeric descriptions just cited. Crowhurst comes up with a similar distinction between the Processional and the Circular. According to Crowhurst, the processional further divides into two sub-categories: marriage processions and sacrificial processions. [73]
Crowhurst observes with acuity that the circular is represented mainly on terra-cotta objects, while vases usually show the processional type. Evidently the classification depends in large part on the material used in the representation, with the result that the larger proportion of the processional type found by Tölle has to do with the high number of choral illustrations on vases. We find ourselves face to face with one of those cases in which the signifier—if it is a matter of a non-linguistic signifier—is not directly related to the signified. The connection is actually obliterated by the inability of the Greek painter to paint a circular object in perspective; the circular form of the chorus can only really be expressed in space on a terra-cotta object.
The total of processional signifiers does not correspond at all to an equal number of signifieds. Crowhurst points out that most of the images of processions should actually be interpreted as circular choruses. It is quite likely that a third category, a “V formation,” where two halves of a chorus stand opposite each other and march in two lines towards someone in the center, only represents a technique for showing the circle of a chorus on a flat surface. [74] A fourth category, with fewer examples than the first two, has the chorus formed in lines of two to five members each, following the person who leads them. [75] This is characteristic of marriage processions, and an example of it can be found on a Corinthian crater from the middle of the sixth century in which two groups of three girls, walking abreast and dressed in the same cloaks, follow the chariot bearing the newlyweds; between the two groups of three young women there are two male figures. [76] It should be noted that representations of this type are relatively recent, dating mostly from the middle of the sixth century. But it would be wrong to conclude that a new choral form was making its appearance at this time. Once more the signifier is deceptive, and it is quite possible that the painters from the eighth and seventh centuries did not have the technical skill to render rows of dancers in depth. {37|38}
As in literary documents, the image of the circular chorus is shown moving around a central point. This point can be an object, a tree, a log of wood or an altar—always a cult object—or it can be a person, generally someone playing a pipe or lyre. The chorus-members are represented in two different positions, either facing the center or facing away from it. [77] The terra-cotta of Hanover, published by Tölle, shows five female figures held up by a round disk; they form a circle around a woman playing a pipe at whom they direct their gaze; this image dates from the sixth century. But this type of terra-cotta is much older and is already found in Minoan art. The group of Palaikastro, dating from late Minoan III, represents five or six dancers—three little figures are extant—circling round a lyre player. [78] This model is found in numerous Cypriote terra-cottas dating from the eighth and seventh centuries. The plastic images of the chorus encircling a central object or person are therefore chronologically relevant to my research. Here again the feature of ‘circularity’ is related to that of ‘center.’
The iconography of the lyric chorus is thus divided into two large categories: one processional, the other circular. [79] A third, less important, category of disposition in rows can be added. This classification has two consequences. First, the rectangular formation of the tragic chorus should probably be included in this third class. The tragic chorus would therefore originate in a lyric form, and the dichotomy between tragic chorus characterized by ‘rectangle’ and lyric chorus characterized by ‘circularity’ is probably not as marked as my remarks at the beginning of the paragraph would suggest. Second, the visual images reveal a feature of the lyric chorus not apparent in written documents, that of ‘procession.’ Thus the semantic complex ‘lyric chorus’ does not necessarily imply ‘circularity’ and its correlate ‘center,’ but ‘procession’ and ‘circularity’ are both semantic components subordinate to that of ‘lyric chorus’; they are in an exclusive, disjunctive relationship with respect to the feature that subsumes them.
2.2.2. The arrangement of the chorus-members
Within the chorus, the order in which the singers stand in line is not without meaning. The word τάξις is used by the anonymous author of the commentary on Aratus when he explains the word ὁμοστοίχους, in the same line, used by Alcman to describe the young girls dancing in formation in the same chorus (τὰς {38|39} ἐν τάξει χορευούσας παρθένους). [80] This expression appears also in a quotation from Alcman concerning a cosmological description of the four overlapping spheres of ether, air, water, and earth. He explains that these spheres were called στοιχεῖα because each of them was placed στοίχῳ καὶ τάξει, in line and in order, which means that each one formed a well-ordered, circular line, like Alcman’s choruses of young girls. And the commentator adds that the letters of the alphabet are also called στοιχεῖα because their elements weave (πλέκεσθαι, [81] στοίχῳ καὶ τάξει) the syllables. The idea of ‘line’ is therefore intimately connected with the idea of ‘order’ (order in which the elements forming the line are placed).
I must get rid of a misunderstanding here. The use of the word στοῖχος in the context of the lyric chorus does not mean that the chorus was arranged in rows like the tragic chorus. Pollux, who describes the disposition of the choruses forming a rectangle in the theater, clearly distinguishes between the rows (ζυγά) and the lines (στοῖχοι) formed by the singers: given the rectangular form of the chorus, the rows were shorter than the lines. [82] The tragic chorus was made up of three lines of five people who came on stage in rows of three; the comic chorus consisted of four lines of six, therefore placed in rows of four. The military sense of the words ζυγόν and στοῖχος should also prevent confusion.
Therefore the second choral scene on Achilles’ shield is not a case in which the properties ‘circularity’ and ‘rectangle’ would exist together. [83] The poet tells us that the young people danced sometimes in a circle, as the image of the potter’s wheel (τροχός) indicates, sometimes in lines (ἐπὶ στίχας) that moved towards each other. However, the presence of the word στίχες, the meaning of which is more ambiguous than that of στοῖχος, does not imply ‘rectangle’ by itself; the sense of these two terms is simply based on the image of an ordered line. [84] The movement of the lines not being parallel (ἀλλήλοισι) and the {39|40} context indicating circularity (the crowd surrounds the chorus, two acrobats perform in its center), the chorus of young people described by Homer does not take the form of a rectangle; the chorus probably sometimes separated into two or several lines which danced in a circle in opposite directions to each other. This passage from the Iliad therefore cannot be used to attribute to Homer the connection between lyric chorus and rectangular form, as seen in vase paintings from the middle of the sixth century.
On the other hand, the line can be associated with the processional form. This is the case with the group of young persons at the head of which are Habrocomes and Antheia in the Ephesiaca of Xenophon of Ephesos. [85] The retinue walks in line (κατὰ στίχον οἱ πομπεύοντες), as would be expected; but what is significant is that Xenophon uses the word κόσμος (ὁ τῆς πομπῆς κόσμος ἐλέλυτο) to describe it, going so far as to use τάξις for the group of young women with Antheia at their head (ἦρχε δὲ τῆς τῶν παρθένων τάξεως Ἀ.); in dealing with the problem of the choregos I shall show how the procession is ordered and its importance.
As for the circular form, there is a description of the way the chorus-members are arranged in the choral group vivid enough to serve as a comparison: in the Cyropedia, Xenophon compares to the chorus the phalanx that regroups, each soldier taking the place assigned to him and with which he is familiar. [86] Here again, the semantic feature ‘order’ is associated with the trait ‘line’ or ‘row.’ Then again, the orator Aristides, desiring to reinforce the ideas of harmony and order, takes the example of the carpenter who assembles (εἰς τάξιν τίθησιν) the ribs of a ship, or the mason who arranges stones to make a wall: such is the χοροποιός, the chorus master, adds the orator, implying the chorus master in his function as organizer of the chorus. [87]
As in the tragic and comic choruses, where the place assigned to each varies according to his qualities, the positions in the lyric chorus are not all equally valuable. [88] Plutarch relates an anecdote, and a saying uttered successively by two important Spartan people: [89] he tells that Agesilas (afterwards Damonidas) while still a child was placed, for the celebration of the feast of the Gymnopaidiai, in an insignificant position (ἄσημος / ἄτιμος) in the middle of a chorus of young ephebes; Agesilas is said to have remarked that he would show {40|41} that the positions assigned were not those that necessarily corresponded to the qualities of their occupants, but that it was up to the chorus members themselves to make the positions assigned to them distinguished by their personal value. In his long discussion about the educational and homosexual customs of the Cretans, to which we shall return, Strabo recounts that the young Cretans who had the honor of being taken up by an older lover filled the most notable positions in the choruses and in the races; [90] these young ephebes wore a special garment that distinguished them from their companions who had not been selected.
The order imposed on the chorus is also reflected in the semantic components of the words used to describe it. The commonest verb, widely used in choral lyrics, particularly by Pindar and Bacchylides, is ἵστημι. [91] The root of this verb is found in nouns designating the places of honor in the tragic chorus, where the παραστάται are those nearest the choregos, himself called πρωτοστάτης. [92] But the most significant verb is found in one of the Homeric Hymns to Artemis; here the word ἀρτύνειν, to organize, assemble, is applied to the chorus of the Muses and Graces. Theocritus uses a similar verb (ἀρτίζειν) when he describes the chorus formed by the Nymphs in the water. [93] Derived from a common root ἀρ-, the terms in this family denote the idea of assembling something solid, firmly articulated, constructed according to a certain plan. Their signified possesses the semantic components of ‘articulation’ and ‘order’. [94] These features are comparable to those contained in the verb mentioned earlier, πλέκειν, to weave, to braid. [95]
The arrangement of the choral group is one of the basic elements in the Platonic theory of dance and of music. [96] Plato explains that the gods gave men rhythm and harmony to distinguish them from children and animals who have neither a sense of order nor of disorder in their movements (οὐκ ἔχειν αἴσθησιν {41|42} τῶν ἐν ταῖς κινήσεσιν τάξεων οὐδὲ ἀταξιῶν, οἷς δὴ ῥθυμὸς ὄνομα καὶ ἁρμονία). In Platonic theory it is in the bosom of the choruses during adolescence that men acquire the quality that characterizes them, namely, order. Under the direction (χορηγεῖν) of the gods, men correct their bodies and voices by overcoming the disorganized movements of youth. The pleasure that is felt (χαρά) is even, according to Plato, at the etymological root of the word χορός. [97] This introduction to rhythm and harmony in the bosom of the choruses is the first step in education, according to the philosopher’s theory. It is the achievement of Apollo and the Muses who, singing and dancing, take on the role of choregos (συγχορευτάς τε καὶ χορεηγούς) in the choruses of men. [98] shall return in chapter 4 to this philosophical view of the lyric chorus as means of education.
In the choruses of young women I am considering, we find it is usually one adolescent alone who distinguishes herself from her companions. She is given the attribute of ‘beauty,’ and is put in the place of honor in the middle of the others. In the Odyssey, Nausicaa stands out from the girls around her by her beauty, like Artemis among her chorus of Nymphs. [99] In the same way as the divine Huntress, a head taller than her companions, is easily recognizable (ἀριγνώτη), so Nausicaa shines among her followers (ὣς ἥ γ’ ἀμφιπόλοισι μετέπρεπε παρθένος ἀδμής). Artemis herself stands out because of her stature and the brilliance of her appearance when she sings in the chorus of the Graces, the Seasons, and Aphrodite dancing on Olympus under the direction of Apollo. [100]
The young girl who left Lesbos and was regretted by Sappho appears (ἐμπρέπεται) among the women of Lydia like the moon among the stars. Actually, this passage has no explicit reference to a chorus and is difficult to interpret. [101] Again, it is Helen who shines with an extraordinary light among the four times sixty young women of her age who exercise with her on the banks of the Eurotas (ἁ χρυσέα Ἑ. διαφαίνετ’ ἐν ἁμῖν); Helen, whom Aristophanes shows, at the end of Lysistrata, in her function as leader of the chorus of young Laconians, describing her as good-looking (ἁγνὰ χοραγὸς {42|43} εὐπρεπής). [102] The same connection between the attributes ‘to surpass’ and ‘beauty’ is made in the scene of Artemis’ procession described by Xenophon of Ephesos; the author of the Ephesiaca tells us that the beauty (κάλλος) of Antheia surpassed (ὑπερεβάλλετο) that of the other young women. [103]
Places in the chorus are thus assigned according to the value of the person, and for choruses of young women this value is measured by their beauty. Attached to this unique beauty is a precise function: like the chorus director Helen, Nausicaa conducts (ἤρχετο) the movements of the girls surrounding her. It is this role, undertaken only by outstanding women, that I shall now analyze.
2.3. The choregos
2.3.1. Terminology
The various definitions of the word χορηγός and its derivatives as given by Hesychius indicate three functions: 1. the director may be the one who instructs the chorus (διδάσκαλος), 2. he may be the one who finances it (idea of δόσις), 3. he/she is the one who sets it going, who gives the signal (for the dances or the songs) to begin (ἐξάρχων). [104] Of these three functions, the second excludes the two others; it belongs to the director of the dithyramb whose role it is to set up the chorus and assure its finances; he chooses a χοροδιδάσκαλος, a teacher of dance and singing, to instruct the chorus; when performing the dithyramb, the chorus is led by a κορυφαῖος, as is the case for the dramatic choruses. [105] This function is therefore not relevant to my study. Ignoring for the moment the first {43|44} of Hesychius’ definitions, which I shall discuss later, I shall turn my attention to the third.
The ancients usually made the connection between the word χορηγός, the leader, and the verb ἡγέομαι, to lead, and gave it a corresponding meaning: this is the case in the Suda which takes Hesychius’ second and third definitions and explains the terms as ὁ τοῦ χοροῦ ἡγούμενος, καὶ δότης, the one who conducts the chorus, and the one who finances it; [106] this is also Athenaeus’ procedure when he relates that Demetrius of Byzantium, in the fourth book of his work On Poems, recalled that the choregoi were not those who paid for the choruses, but those who conducted them (καθηγούμενοι). [107] This study of an originary definition is based on the etymology of the word (καθάπερ αὐτὸ τοὔνομα σημαίνει).
Modern scholars are divided concerning this etymology and have only partially found fault with it. Chantraine’s view is that all the words in -αγός / -ηγός, related to ἡγέομαι as regards meaning, are morphologically derived from the verb ἄγω. The evolution of the meaning of ἄγω ‘to push,’ replaced by ἐλαύνω, ‘to lead,’ ‘to conduct,’ which then competes with ἡγέομαι, has resulted in a semantic contamination of the two terms. [108] Their gradual move towards synonymy was hastened by the analogy between the two signifiers. The correspondence between their signifiers and signified has resulted in the formation of proper names such as Ἀγησίστρατος along with Ἀγησίλαος or Ἁγησιχόρα alongside Ἀγέλαος.
The semantic feature ‘leading (the chorus)’ having been identified etymologically with the term χορηγός, it is now time to see whether other signifiers include in their signifieds a similar semantic feature. Of the rich terminology used to designate the leader of the chorus, the word χορηγός seems the most ancient: it is widely used in Alcman, and in Aristophanes in a Laconian context. [109] However, it is not the only signifier of the function it refers to. In Plutarch’s anecdote about Agesilas, the chorus master of the chorus organized for the Spartan Gymnopaidiai is referred to in one of the versions of the story by the word χοροποιός, he who forms the chorus, in the other, by the expression ὁ τὸν χορὸν ἱστώς, he who sets up the chorus; in this second version concerning Damonidas and no longer Agesilas, Damonidas speaks to the leader of the chorus, addressing him as χοραγός. In a third version he is called ὁ ἄρχων, {44|45} probably a shortened form of ὁ τοῦ χοροῦ ἄρχων, he who commands the chorus. [110]
It is in this context that the isolated term [χο]ροστάτις used by Alcman in fragment 1 should be seen; in its masculine form χοροστάτης, it is defined by Pseudo-Zonaras as ‘he who commands the chorus’ (ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ χοροῦ); [111] this recalls the designation of the χοραγός in the third version of Plutarch’s anecdote. The formation of χοροστάτης goes back to the verb ἵστημι, a term that refers in a choral context to the assembling of the chorus. The question is whether ἵστημι should be taken in its transitive or intransitive sense, since the term χοροστάτης refers either to the one who is placed at the head of the chorus or the one who assembles it, depending on whether the verb is intransitive or transitive. I have mentioned the use of the words πρωτοστάτης and παραστάτης in the context of the dramatic chorus. There is also a term προστάτης, where ἵστημι has an intransitive sense. Προστάτης refers to a political or military leader when he is placed at the head of a group. It is used once by Athenaeus, concerning rites with choral performances, to designate the choregos. Before Athenaeus, Xenophon had shown through the character of Socrates the analogy between the political, military, and choral functions of a προστάτης. [112] The morphology of the compound noun χοροστάτης differs from παρα-, προ-, and πρωτοστάτης. The first is a “verbales Rektionskompositum,” like Διόδοτος or οἰκοφόρος; the first part of this compound is dependent on the second, which has a transitive sense; etymologically, χοροστάτης thus refers to a person who puts in place/who establishes (ἵστησι) the chorus. The second two are “nominale Determinativkomposita” of the category Bahuvrîhi; the second part of these terms has a passive or intransitive value, as for example in πρωτόγονος, where the first part with its adverbial value qualifies the second. Πρωτοστάτης and προστάτης thus refer to a person who has been placed/who finds himself in the first position/at the head of, and παραστάτης, a person who has been placed/is found at the side of. [113] The morphological formation and transitive meaning of χοροστάτης are paraphrased in the Birds of Aristophanes when Apollo, the {45|46} divine choregos, is described as the lyre player who sets up choruses of the gods: θεῶν ἵστησι χορούς. [114]
From χοροστάτης are formed the noun χοροστασία and the verb χοροστατέω. The former, used by Callimachus, refers to the idea that the chorus is being organized; Athena’s love for the Nymph Chariklo is such that the chorus of young followers of the goddess is not organized and their songs do not resound unless Chariklo is leading them (ἁγεῖτο). Among lexicographers, the latter is a participle defined by the act of setting a chorus going (κατάρχων), of initiating the singing and dancing. [115]
The signifier and the signified of χοροποιός and of χοροστάτης are analogous. Moreover, Plutarch uses them indiscriminately to refer to the choregos charged with the organization of the chorus of the Spartan Gymnopaidiai. In an Orphic Hymn we find the term χοροποιός referring to Apollo, and Aristides, in a significant comparison, explains that the χοροποιός, literally the one who “makes” the chorus, assembles the chorus members like the carpenter constructing ships assembles beams and like the mason constructing a wall arranges stones (εἰς τάξιν τίθησιν). In this metaphor we find the feature ‘order’ implied in the term τάξις and in words such as ἀραρίσκω formed on the root ἀρ-. [116] As for χοροστάτης, the activity of the χοροποιός is broken down into its constituent terms in an expression found at the beginning of the Theogony: Hesiod sings of the Muses who assemble their choruses on top of Mt. Helicon (χοροὺς ἐνεποιήσαντο καλούς). [117] It must also be noted that here the Muses organize their own chorus: they are both chorus-members and choregoi. In a parallel passage in the Birds of Aristophanes, Apollo on the other hand exercises his function as choregos and remains apart from the choruses. The situation in Hesiod however has a parallel with the use of ἵστημι. In one of the epigrams of the Palatine Anthology, the Nymphs are said to form choruses with the inhabitants of the woods (χορείαν στᾶσαν). On the other hand, the Graces, as a group, are qualified by Euripides as χοροποιοί: their activity, described by a {46|47} derivative of the verb ποιεῖν, corresponds exactly to that of the Muses in Hesiod. [118]
Another “verbales Rektionskompositum” formed in the same way as χοροστάτης and χοροποιός is χορολέκτης. This term is used much more rarely and later than the first two. It is found only in Aelian where it occurs twice; cited, however, in a passage that paraphrases a discussion of Hecataeus of Abdera on the Hyperboreans, it might perhaps originate with that author. In any case, it is mentioned alongside χοροποιός in a list of technical terms cited by Pollux having to do with the chorus. [119] Etymologically, the word refers to the one who chooses the chorus if λέγω is taken in its earlier sense, thus perhaps attesting to its ancient origins in spite of its later appearance. The meaning given by ancient dictionaries differs from the etymological meaning to the point that the Suda writes the word χοροδέκτης, and explains it by ὁ τοῦ χοροῦ προεξάρχων, the one who stands at the head of the chorus and gives the signal to dance. [120] The Suda adds to the definition a citation, also by Aelian, from a military context; this citation gives only the second part of a comparison in which an action is compared with the fact of receiving a place assigned by the χοροδέκτης (παρά τινος χοροδέκτου λαβεῖν τὴν στάσιν). To the duty of giving the starting signal is added the assigning of places to the participants, the arranging of the chorus. With the term στάσις, we return to the etymological meaning of χοροστάτης and the feature of ‘establishing’ included in ἵστημι.
Turning now to the meaning of the word χορολέκτης as it is used in context, the second passage by Aelian reverts to the first definition of the word as given in the Suda: Aelian explains that in fishing, a watcher signals the arrival of the fish in the same way as the general gives the signal for battle, or the χορολέκτης gives the note for the chorus (τὸ ἐνδόσιμον). Similarly, in the first passage, Aelian says that among the Hyperboreans the swans join in the human choruses and that their harmony is so perfect that the singing is never out of tune: everything happens as though the χορολέκτης had given them the note (ἐκ τοῦ χορολέκτου τὸ ἐνδόσιμον λαβόντες). The semantic features of the signified of χορολέκτης are twofold: ‘to arrange (the chorus)’ and ‘give the note.’
The role of the person who gives the signal for the dance or the song is also referred to as ἀρχέχορος. In this word, not discussed by ancient lexicographers, {47|48} it is easy to recognize a “verbales Rektionskompositum” orientation of the type φερέοικος, in which the first member of the compound governs the second, the contrary of what happens in χοροστάτης. Consequently, the etymological meaning of the word would be the one ‘who commands/begins the chorus.’ It is this idea of ‘beginning’ that seems to stand out in Euripides’ use of the word in the Trojan Women: [121] after the sack of Troy, Hecuba addresses the women and virgins of the city and wants to intone a song for them (ἐξάρξω μολπάν) like the mother bird to her little ones; but, she adds, under the circumstances, the song could not be the same as the one she intoned before the Trojans’ misfortunes, with a Phrygian rhythm beaten with the foot which gives the cue to the chorus (οἵαν ποδὸς ἀρχεχόρου πληγαῖς Φρυγίαις ἐξῆρχον). The cue given by Hecuba was for the song as well as for the dance: she intones the song for the chorus-members and gives them the dance rhythm at the same time. But ἀρχέχορος used as a noun can also indicate a person. The term appears in an inscription from Lesbos, listing among the numerous religious duties of an island dignitary that of chorus master for Artemis and Apollo Maloeis. The position must have been important because, according to Thucydides, Apollo Maloeis was honored at a feast celebrated by the whole population of the island. [122] Here it seems that the use of the term implies the less specific feature of ‘to command.’ The purpose of the following section will be to examine whether the semantic features defined here after analyzing the signifieds can be understood as the modalities of a unique function.
2.3.2. The function of the choregos
An etymological analysis, morphological in character, has produced analogous if not synonymous meanings for the terms χοροστάτης, χοροποιός and χορολέκτης. This meaning contains the feature ‘to organize,’ the object affected being, of course, the chorus. This operation of “ordering” the chorus depends on a previous choice of participants and has to do with assigning a place to each of them. The word χορηγός on the other hand implies the feature ‘to conduct’; conducting the chorus takes place after its organization. Definitions given by ancient lexicographers show that the meaning of the terms χορηγός, χοροστάτης and χορολέκτης has a common denominator in the words (προ)εξ-/κατάρχων; on the other hand, the terms χοροποιός and ἀρχέχορος are not {48|49} found in these same lexicographers. The signified linked to these components in -άρχω is that of ‘to give the signal,’ or ‘to give the note.’ In the following, I prefer the more general designation of ‘beginning.’ The function is similar to that of the modern orchestra conductor: the perfection of the performance he leads depends largely on the precision of his attack. In the same way, the choregos gives the tone and indicates precisely the start of the dance, keeping together the voices and the steps of the chorus for the remainder of the performance. In brief, the terms used by the Greeks when mentioning the function of the choregos have three principal components: ‘organizing,’ ‘beginning,’ and ‘conducting.’ Since all of these terms can be used for one and the same person who functions as leader, it is presumed that all three are contained in the function. This is what must now be examined, not etymologically, but through the usage of the words in context, as has been done for the terms χορολέκτης and ἀρχέχορος.
From now on, I shall not use the words themselves as pointers, but instead those figures that typically assume the function of the choregos. Reference to the unifying signifier, superior to the nouns describing the function of the choregos, will show how the three features I have isolated by studying the various terms are articulated in one unique function. And a semantic examination of certain choregoi will provide a procedure for verifying the definitions given in the ancient dictionaries and the morpho-semantic study just undertaken.
To do this, and at the same time to stay within the bounds of choral performances by women, I have chosen to analyze two mythological figures who direct a chorus of young girls and a mixed chorus respectively: the first is Apollo, director of the Muses’ chorus, the second Theseus, director of a chorus of fourteen Athenian adolescent boys and girls dancing round the altar at Delos. Passing from myth to historical reality, I will analyze two figures from lyric poetry and will end by comparing the results of the analyses with the evidence furnished by the iconography.
At the conclusion I should be able to define all the ways in which the choregos, male or female, of a chorus of women functions in Archaic Greece.
2.3.2.1. Apollo: The myth
The Iliad shows us Apollo entertaining the gods at their feasts, playing the lyre while the Muses sing; Homer’s poem has fixed the canonical image of the god accompanying with his instrument the songs of a chorus under his command. This image has a variation in Hesiod’s Shield where the chorus is not composed of the Muses but of all the Immortals; Apollo’s role is still that of lyre player (κιθάριζε φόρμιγγι), but the Muses have the more specific function of giving the tone for the song (ἐξῆρχον ἀοιδῆς). The distribution of roles is exactly the same as in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, where the Muses sing (ὑμνεῦσιν) of the gods and mortals while the Graces, the Seasons, and other female goddesses dance (ὀρχεῦνται) to the accompaniment of Apollo’s lyre in {49|50} their midst (ἐγκιθαρίζει). [123] Two passages, in Pindar and Aristophanes, clarify the role of the instrumental accompaniment and connect it with the semantic features ‘to conduct’ and ‘to organize.’ In the Fifth Nemean, Apollo is seated in the center (ἐν μέσαις) of the Muses, playing the lyre and conducting (ἀγεῖτο) the various songs they sing (ἄειδ’ ὁ χορός / παντοίων νόμων). Pindar then lists the subjects sung by the Muses, specifying which one they start with (αἱ δὲ πρώτιστον μὲν ὕμνησαν Διὸς ἀρχόμεναι σεμνὰν Θέτιν). Again the semantic feature ‘to begin’ is used together with the song of the Muses, while ‘to conduct’ is implied by Apollo’s playing the lyre. In the Birds of Aristophanes, Apollo answers the song of the nightingale with the notes of his lyre, and thus arouses choruses of the gods (ἀντιψάλλων φόρμιγγα θεῶν ἵστησι χορούς). A connection can be made between the god playing his instrument and the idea of ‘to organize.’ [124] But the most precise description, and the most complete, for the manner in which the instrumental accompaniment is the agent that directs the chorus is found in the First Pythian: the lyre is defined as the common property of Apollo and the Muses, it is the lyre that gives the rhythm for the steps of the chorus (βάσις), it marks the start of the feast (ἀγλαΐας ἀρχά), the songs of the singers follow its cues (πείθονται δ’ ἀοιδοὶ σάμασιν). [125] And Pindar adds in a substantive remark that it is the playing of the lyre that marks the start of the preludes that lead the choruses (ἀγησιχόρων προοιμίων ἀμβολὰς τεύχῃς). Thus the instrumental accompaniment gives the signal for the dance and the singing, since it starts the prooimia that lead the chorus. The melody played by Apollo on the lyre as a kind of introduction has then to be distinguished from the prooimion itself which, in this probable citharodic performance, is sung by a singer and danced by the chorus. [126] {50|51}
Doubtless this action took shape in the form of a sort of instrumental prelude. Apollo gives introductory notes on the lyre, probably the musical theme of the song that follows; at the same time he gives the chorus the rhythm of the dance and the tone for the song. In spite of the inferior role of the lyre accompaniment compared with the song (ἀναξιφόρμιγγες ὕμνοι, says Pindar at the beginning of the Second Olympian), yet, whatever the form, danced or sung, of these prooimia, Apollo’s instrument gives the signal for the chorus and the dance to begin. These introductory notes are comparable to those played by the orchestra or on the organ to introduce an aria in classical opera or a song sung in the Lutheran Church. [127] By means of the prelude and the instrumental accompaniment following it, the choregos starts the performance, keeps the chorus together, and conducts the singers. The terms ‘to organize,’ ‘to begin,’ and ‘to conduct’ are thus the component and complementary elements of the leader’s function as deduced from the figure of Apollo. This semantic complex corresponds exactly to the engraved image of the choruses of Apollo and the Muses on the cedar chest of Kypselos at Olympia, according to Pausanias. There, one could see the Muses in the act of singing (ᾄδουσαι), with Apollo playing the prelude (ἐξάρχων ᾠδῆς); an epigram as commentary described Apollo with the Muses dancing round him (ἀμφ’ αὐτόν: visual image of ‘circularity’ and ‘center’), and Apollo giving them the note (χαρίεις χορὸς, αἷσι κατάρχει). [128] {51|52}
This image must be modified, however, since the passages cited from the Shield attributed to Hesiod and from the Fifth Nemean of Pindar associate the semantic element of ‘to begin’ with the song of the Muses rather than with Apollo’s prelude on his instrument. In both passages, however, Apollo’s lyre is mentioned, so it must be acknowledged that the prelude was played in two parts, instrumentally and vocally. In addition, in the Shield, the prelude sung by the Muses is clearly distinguished from the activity of the rest of the chorus formed by the Immortals. One can suppose that the chorus of the gods refrained from dancing, as in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo where the same three-part division is found between instrumental accompaniment, song, and dance. [129] It is probably right to understand Plato in this way when he says that Apollo Musagetes, Dionysus and the Muses play the role of chorus-members (συνεορτασταί / συγχορευταί) and choregoi for humans, since it is they who set in motion and lead the choruses of men (κινεῖν τε ἡμᾶς καὶ χορηγεῖν). [130]
The Muses can function as choregoi in the same way as Apollo, since the beginning of their songs, models for men, works like the prelude of Apollo’s lyre: both imply the semantic element ‘to begin,’ both establish the rhythm and the tone, “the rhythm and the harmony,” to use Plato’s terms, for human choruses. Thus, in one of the few extant fragments of Alcman, the one who recites the poem can invoke the Muse and ask her to sing a new song (ἀοιδὲ μέλος νεοχμόν) and to start singing for the young women (ἄρχε παρσένοις ἀείδην): the connection between the mythical song of the Muses and its function as prelude for the chorus of adolescents who are preparing to perform their own song is clear. In the same way, Stesichorus can qualify the Muse with the word ἀρχεσίμολπος, initiator of the song and the dance. [131]
Other gods play the role of choregos, for instance, Artemis, whose image in the midst of her chorus of Nymphs we have already seen. In the Homeric Hymn dedicated to her, we see her enter the house of Apollo at Delphi, dispense with her huntress’ attributes and organize the chorus of the Muses and Graces (καλὸν χορὸν ἀρτυνέουσα). [132] Then she conducts the singing and dancing for which she gives the signal to begin (ἡγεῖται ἐξάρχουσα χορούς); the Muses and {52|53} Graces then sing (ὑμνεῦσιν) the praises of Leto and of her children. Again, in an Apollonian context, we find the ideas of ‘organizing,’ ‘beginning,’ and ‘conducting’ attributed to a single person. Unfortunately, there is nothing to indicate the way in which Artemis exercises this function. [133]
The example of Apollo shows that the direction of the chorus has three complementary elements: ‘to organize,’ ‘to begin,’ and ‘to conduct.’ To this basic system can be added another that takes into account the means by which the chorus is directed. Apollo’s activity also has the attribute ‘musical accompaniment’; however, when a chorus larger than that of the Muses is present, Apollo shares his function with the Muses: his role as leader is still marked by the semantic feature ‘instrumental accompaniment,’ but the Muses take over the direction of the chorus by means of the ‘song.’
2.3.2.2. Theseus: myth and ritual
Theseus is also a complex mythological figure of a choregos who directs a chorus of young women. It is interesting therefore to examine how he too acts as director and conductor of a chorus. According to the scholia of the Iliad, Theseus, on leaving the Cretan Labyrinth, had woven a circular chorus at Knossos of seven girls and seven adolescent boys from Athens in honor of the gods. An analogous chorus appears in the Hymn to Delos by Callimachus; it dances in a circle round the Delian altar to the sound of the lyre (περὶ βωμὸν ἐγειρομένου κιθαρισμοῦ κύκλιον ὠρχήσαντο). It is made up of children who have escaped from the Labyrinth (σὺν παίδεσσιν) and is conducted by Theseus (χοροῦ δ’ ἡγήσατο). [134] In Callimachus the performance of this chorus led by the Athenian hero is displaced from Crete to Delos, corresponding to the descriptions of it given by Plutarch and Pollux. Plutarch reports that Theseus came ashore at Delos on returning from Crete and there consecrated the statue of Aphrodite given him by Ariadne; he continues by saying that the Athenian hero performed a choral dance (ἐχόρευσε μετὰ τῶν ἠιθέων χορείαν) round the altar “of the horns” (ἐχόρευσε δὲ περὶ τὸν κερατῶνα βωμόν) with the boys who were with him—Plutarch does not mention girls. The dance must have recalled the twists and turns of the Cretan Labyrinth (μίμημα τῶν ἐν τῷ Λαβυρίνθῳ περιόδων καὶ διεξόδων), and thus followed alternating and circular movements (παραλλάξεις καὶ ἀνελίξεις). This information in an abridged version can be found in Pollux. [135] {53|54}
These descriptions of Theseus’ chorus use the terms ‘circle’ and ‘center’ frequently. The chorus organized by the hero in Crete or Delos is circular and has a central point. [136] Theseus leads the chorus (ἡγήσατο) and also “weaves” it (ἔπλεκεν), so that his actions imply the features ‘to conduct’ and ‘to organize.’ However, the most significant part of his duties as choregos is the lyre accompaniment mentioned by Callimachus.
Pausanias confirms that the lyre is indeed in the hands of the choregos, since on the chest of Kypselos he is represented next to Ariadne, holding a lyre. The chorus is not mentioned by Pausanias, but it can be seen in its completeness on the famous François vase. [137] This vase shows us a line of seven girls and seven boys arranged alternately holding hands and coming out of a boat. The line is led by Theseus playing his lyre and moving towards Ariadne. He is dressed much more sumptuously and richly than the young people following him; his hair is more elaborate, and his stature, greater than that of the other chorus-members, signifies the importance of his role. Because his head is missing, we unfortunately cannot see whether he is beardless like the male chorus-members he is leading, nor can we know whether he is singing to the accompaniment of his lyre. The chorus does not have the circular form suggested by the written documents, but its linearity indicates the semantic feature ‘procession.’ The presence of the boat suggests a different moment of the legendary ritual than we see in the texts, and it is difficult to decide whether the scene is situated in Crete or at Delos. [138] But since my analysis is at the moment essentially morphological, it {54|55} is the exterior attributes distinguishing the leader from the rest of the chorus and the use of the lyre as a way of conducting the chorus that are the important elements.
Plutarch and Pollux include in their information about the myth the fact that the choral dance performed at Delos was the pretext for a ritual still celebrated on the island at the time of Plutarch (ἔτι νῦν ἐπιτελεῖν Δηλίους λέγουσι); the legend of Theseus’ performance therefore represents the aition of the dance, then called the Crane Dance. Pollux describes the choreography, saying that the chorus formed a line, one behind the other (ἕκαστος ὑφ’ ἑκάστῳ κατὰ στοῖχον), and at each end of the line was a choregos (τὰ ἄκρα ἑκατέρωθεν τῶν ἡγεμόνων ἐχόντων); the dance steps executed were those created by the chorus of Theseus round the altar of Delos when it imitated the movements required to leave the Labyrinth. The chorus leaders were given the title γερανουλκός, which means literally “the one who pulls the crane.” This term is found in the Lexikon of Hesychius, who attributes to the γερανουκλός the function of ‘to begin,’ ‘to set the chorus going’ (ὁ τοῦ χοροῦ τοῦ ἐν Δήλωι ἐξάρχων); by using the verb ἐξάρχειν, the feature ‘to begin’ is illustrated, corresponding to the lexicographic definitions of the terms χοραγός and χοροστάτης. [139] In the myth, the figure of Theseus as choregos is then characterized by the features ‘to organize’ and ‘to conduct,’ the latter actualized by the feature ‘musical accompaniment.’ In the description of the rite founded by the myth, we find the third concept of the semantic complex, that of ‘to begin.’
It is true that the presence of two ἡγεμόνες, placed according to Pollux at the head of the chorus performing the rite, poses a problem. The solution can be partially found in the interpretation given to the movements in the Crane Dance. Diels and Latte imagine that the chorus was divided into two lines, with a leader {55|56} at the head of each; it would have thus had the form of a lambda. [140] Crowhurst has shown however that the majority of the iconographic representations, on which the interpretations of Diels and Latte depend, show circular choruses. [141] Whether or not one accepts Lawler’s interpretation of the Crane Dance as the dance of a serpent or, more probably, follows Detienne in associating the movements of the dance with the intelligent migration routes of the crane itself, [142] the most striking parallel between the description by Pollux and the one by Plutarch is the mixed choral dance depicted on the shield of Achilles. The movements of the Homeric chorus, both circular or alternating, correspond exactly to the ἀνελίξεις and the παραλλάξεις used by Plutarch to describe Theseus’ dance at Delos. Add to this similarity of form a true affinity found in the Homeric scholia which, when describing the chorus made by Theseus on issuing from the Labyrinth, gloss exactly that passage in the Iliad where there is mention of the chorus shown on the shield of Achilles. These scholia also explicitly identify the chorus formed by Daedalus, and used by Hephaistos as a model for its representation on the shield of Achilles, with the Theseus chorus. [143]
Thus the presence, in the rite, of one ἡγεμών at each end of the chorus line imitating Theseus’ chorus at Delos can probably be explained by the alternating movements that this chorus performed, according to Plutarch, and these are matched by the chorus described by Homer. It is nonetheless true that the actual direction of the choral group was certainly carried out by a single leader, as the example of Theseus’ mythical chorus shows, with its paradigmatic value.
These analogies of the form of the chorus engaged in the Delian rites of the Aphrodisia with the mythological chorus of the Athenian hero and with the choral group represented by Hephaistos on Achilles’ shield in the Iliad lead me to {56|57} think that this ritual chorus was similarly composed of young people. [144] It would then be one of the rare examples of a mixed chorus performing a ritual, one of those mixed choruses, however, attested so frequently in the iconography, and the “weaving” of the mixed dance could be interpreted as a mimetic image of the civic texture the girls and the boys will be accomplishing in their future union. [145] To the extent that the chorus imitating the mythical choral performance of Theseus can be identified with the mixed chorus mentioned by Callimachus just before his description of the rite carried out by the hero on returning from Crete, we can form an idea of how it was executed. [146] The Alexandrian poet says in effect that on this occasion men or youths accompanied with songs a nomos composed by the legendary poet Olen, while women or maidens performed choral dances. Unfortunately, the uncertainty about whether the nomos mentioned by Callimachus was simply a melody, and the absence of any mention of a leader directing this performance, means that one cannot match it term by term with the mythological performance of Theseus’ chorus. I shall return to this later.
For the moment, I conclude that the choregos as represented by Theseus is once again useful for complementing the features ‘to organize,’ ‘to begin,’ and ‘to conduct,’ the second of these having been obtained, it is true, by analyzing the ritual that underlies the myth formed around the Athenian hero. It seems that {57|58} Theseus directed his mixed chorus with a ‘musical accompaniment,’ as did Apollo.
2.3.2.3. The choregos and choral lyric: Alcman and Pindar
Information about the function of the choregos is also found in the fragments of poems, themselves sung by a chorus. Leaving aside fragments 1 and 3 of Alcman, in a papyrus fragment, published some years ago and attributed to that author, there are two other references to the choregos. [147]
Part of a treatise on the lyric poets, in which the controversial problem of the Lydian origins of Alcman is discussed, this fragment is in the form of a hypomnema; it is a running commentary on a poem, a few words of which are cited as lemma to each section commented. According to the two readable quotations in the fragment, the chorus that says I/we (ἁμῶν, line 16) is addressing its leader, a certain Agesidamos, son of Damotimos. This Agesidamos has some connection, not clear in the fragments of commentary, with the Dioskouroi. The chorus reciting the lines asks him to be the head (ἄρχε) of a certain chorus of the Dymainai, calling him σιοφιλὲς χ̣ο̣[ρα]γε | Ἀ. κλεε[νν]ὲ Δαμοτιμίδα, “choregos beloved of the gods, illustrious son of Damotimos.” Without wishing to give a circular interpretation, it is impossible not to recall the expression ἁ κλεννὰ χοραγός of the first fragment (line 44). [148] According to the commentary, Alcman continues describing the noble and handsome choregoi, those youths still without beards whose age is, broadly speaking, that of the chorus-members (ἁμῶν ἅλι[κ]ε̣ς νεανίαι φίλοι); if it is true that the terms ἅλικες and φίλοι suggest the features ‘contemporary’ and ‘companionship’ defined earlier, [149] it is striking to see them used to qualify the bond between chorus and leader. Despite their leading position, they are still adolescents. On the other hand, the Dymainai mentioned in line 8 probably refers to the chorus itself, which is addressing Agesidamos and executing the song of Alcman. [150] {58|59}
We know nothing about Agesidamos; the morphology of his name is related to names of kings of the Eurypontid dynasty. [151] Agesidamos was quite probably someone belonging to the circle of citizens in possession of power and wealth in Sparta. The morphology of the name suggests just such a powerful position, and the presence in Ἀγησίδαμος of the verb ἡγέομαι, to lead, recalls the proper name Ἁγησιχόρα of the choregos in fragment 1; I shall return to this later. [152] Note also that the performance of Alcman’s poem offers an example of a chorus of young girls led by an adolescent of the opposite sex.
This role of leader of a female chorus while still adolescent recalls the description by Proclus of the festival of the Daphnephoria. An exceptional case, the description of the ritual is reflected in a poem, doubtless composed for the occasion. This text is the only Partheneion of Pindar that has come down to us in an acceptably readable state. [153] The Daphnephoria was a Boeotian festival, celebrated every eight years in honor of Apollo Ismenios or Galaxios. During it, young women carried branches of laurel to the sanctuaries of the god and sang hymns in his honor. The Daphnephoria proper was a procession, the form of which originated in a myth reported by Proclus. At the head of the procession walked a boy who still had a father and mother (ἄρχει δὲ τῆς δαφνηφορίας παῖς ἀμφιθαλής). Beside him, his nearest relation carried the staff, called the κωπώ, entwined with laurel branches, flowers and various objects of symbolic value. The child was followed by a third person called daphnephoros, dressed in a particular manner and bearing the laurel branches. Behind him came a chorus of young girls with suppliant boughs, singing hymns. Pausanias briefly describes this same ritual in the book he devoted to Boeotia, but he speaks only of children carrying laurel wreaths, some of whom dedicated a tripod to the god; [154] at this festival, he says, a young boy of good family, handsome and strong, was named priest of Apollo Ismenios for a year and bore the title daphnephoros. This other version of the rite allows us, I think, to see in the παῖς ἀμφιθαλής and the daphnephoros one and the same person. [155] This child would be helped by his {59|60} nearest relative to carry the κωπώ. He is the chorus master of the girls who follow him: the term ἄρχει used in Proclus’ description implies ‘to command’ and the choral performance is characterized by the semantic feature ‘procession.’ Here, as for the Muses’ chorus, the sung portion belongs to the choral group; it is therefore probable that the child daphnephoros played the instrumental accompaniment for the procession; however, there is no evidence to back this up.
In the Pindar poem, the chorus composed of young girls (feminine nouns used in lines 6, 33ff. and 38f., ἐμὲ δὲ πρέπει παρθενήϊα φρονεῖν) begins by celebrating in song the family of Aioladas and his son Pagondas (lines 9ff.). The praise of a certain Agasicles who seems to be the son of Pagondas follows (lines 38ff.). The chorus then takes up the proper occasion of its song (νῦν, line 66): it asks the father of Damaina to conduct it (ἅγεο, line 67) and then sings the praises of its leading girl who walks behind the father of Damaina (τ]ὶ̣ν ἕ̣ψεται, line 67) near the “laurel with its beautiful leaves.”
In spite of resemblances with the ritual that Proclus presents, there are still difficulties in identifying the functions of the persons celebrated by Pindar’s chorus. If Proclus’ description corresponds word for word with the ritual for which Pindar composed his Daphnephorikon, it is possible that the Agasicles mentioned in line 38 is the child daphnephoros of Proclus. The father of Damaina, his nearest relative (he may be the maternal uncle of Agasicles), would then be the bearer of the κωπώ. As for the young girl who walks at the head of the chorus (πρώτα), and whom Pindar calls simply θυγάτηρ (line 68) without saying whose daughter, she is probably Damaina mentioned in the preceding line. The possibilities of identification are numerous, particularly since Proclus’ text lends itself to the various interpretations we have seen. [156] {60|61}
For our purposes, the importance of Proclus’ description of the Daphnephoria ritual and of the indirect indications in Pindar’s poem lies in the fact that it is a young man who directs a chorus of girls (ἄρχει Procl., the ἁγ̣έο̣ of Pind. line 67 refers to the adult bearer of the κωπώ); this chorus does not dance, it walks in a procession (ἐπακολουθεῖ Procl., ἕψεται, βαίνοισα Pind. lines 67 and 70) and is responsible for the part of the ceremony that is sung (ὕμνοι Procl., ἀοιδὰν πρόσφορον Pind. line 37). Besides singing the praises of its leader, the chorus also celebrates the girl who occupies the first place among them (πρώτα, line 68), and the woman by the name of Andaisistrota who prepared her (ἃν {61|62} ἐπάσκησ̣ε, line 71). In Pindar’s Daphnephorikon, two people occupy positions of importance in the chorus: the child daphnephoros (and the adult who accompanies him) and a girl; but the function of the educator who prepares the chorus is performed by a third person, Andaisistrota, whose task will be discussed later. [157] The role of the child daphnephoros reminds us of Agesidamos, the beardless choregos of fragment 10(b) P = 82 C of Alcman. [158] If we agree that in Pindar’s poem Agasicles plays that role and that he is the son of the family of Aioladas and Pagondas—which corresponds to the παῖς οἴκου δοκίμου of Pausanias—the social position of the choregos is similar to that of Agesidamos, one of the noble choregoi ([ἀ]γερώχως χο|[ρα]γώς) praised by the chorus in Alcman’s poem. [159]
In Pindar, the girl who follows the daphnephoros corresponds probably to the adolescent girl whom Alcman qualifies as φιλόψιλος in a context of which we are unfortunately ignorant. This expression, meaning literally ‘she who likes to be like a feather,’ is defined by the Suda, using the significant terms of ἵστασθαι and ἄκρος χορός, as ‘she who likes to be placed at the head of the chorus.’ [160] This position belongs to the choregos, since Hesychius, in a probably mutilated definition, explains the Spartan word ψιλάκερ by the expression to direct the chorus (τὸ ἡγεῖσθαι χοροῦ). [161] Given the metaphor that associates the choregos’ position with the image of a feather, it is likely that the Dionysus figure who was celebrated as a local divinity at Amyklai (according to Pausanias) was a winged god, not because, according to Pausanias’ etymology, he gives men wings by means of wine (!), but because of his function as choregos. This same metaphorical use of ψίλον allowed Lobel to restore a ἁπαλὸ[ν ψίλ]ον, tender feather, in the passage of Alcman’s fragment 3 where Astymelousa, the young girl praised by the chorus, is successively compared to a shining star crossing the sky, to a golden bough, and to a slender feather (line {62|63} 66ff.); this last comparison as we shall see may refer to the function of choregos she probably performed. [162]
It should not be forgotten that most of the interpretations explaining the meaning of terms with -ψιλος, using feather in a metaphorical sense, depend upon equating, as does Pausanias, the Dorian form ψίλον and the common form πτίλον, the feather. These interpretations are subject to discussion, since ψίλον, the feather, is related homonymically to ψιλός, naked. [163] If the explanation of the expressions as metaphors of nudity does not convince, it is different for the word ψίλινοι that refers, with the term θυρεατικοί, to the wreath made of palm branches worn by the leaders of the choruses (τοὺς προστάτας τῶν ἀγομένων χορῶν) presented at the Spartan Gymnopaidiai. Given that the context of this ritual, in which three choruses representing the three age classes of Spartan society sing compositions by Alcman and the Paeans by Dionysodotus, is Dorian and that it connotes nudity, it is difficult to determine if the term used for the wreaths characteristic of this festival comes from an analogy with the nudity of the choregoi participating in the ritual or from relating the function of the choregos to those who wore them. If one accepts the formation of the term ψίλινοι from the Dorian form ψίλον, one can equally well imagine a semantic analogy between the image of the palm leaf and the image of a large feather. [164]
2.3.2.4. Other examples of the role of the choregos
In his treatise on the dance, Lucian describes the Necklace Dance (ὅρμος), a dance by a chorus that forms according to Lucian “a necklace woven of moderation and courage.” [165] Danced by young boys and girls who form a circle that suggests a necklace, it is led by an adolescent boy (ἡγεῖται μὲν ὁ ἔφηβος), followed by a young girl (ἡ παρθένος δὲ ἕπεται). The role of the boy is to dance the steps that may be useful in war; the girl to teach the chorus to dance according to the feminine conventions (τὸ θῆλυ χορεύειν διδάσκουσα). Thus {63|64} the courage of which the chorus is “woven” is the masculine element; moderation, the feminine element. This shows that the choregos, while performing an educational function, may be of the same age as the chorus, as is the case in the ceremony honoring Artemis at Ephesos, described by Xenophon of Ephesos: Habrocomes and Antheia are as old as the adolescents in the groups they lead. [166] Note also that each leader gives a lesson that corresponds to the sex of the group led; I shall return to this below. The Necklace Dance is an example of a choral performance where the chorus is activated by a dance rather than by vocal or instrumental accompaniment.
Timaeus also testifies to the age parallel between choregos and chorus-members when he tells, as I have mentioned, that at Croton the daughter of Pythagoras led (ἡγεῖσθαι) the girls of the town when she was an adolescent, and that she kept the same function for the women when she became an adult. Saint Jerome, who relates the same anecdote, adds that she directed a choral group (choro virginum praefuisse): the verb ἡγεῖσθαι used by Timaeus can therefore be taken in the choral sense of ‘to conduct,’ ‘to perform the role of choregos.’ [167]
The disparity of sex between leader and chorus seen in the poems of Alcman and Pindar is confirmed in Aegina. The inhabitants of the island, as the legend goes, having stolen the statues of Damia and Auxesia from the people of Epidaurus, founded a sanctuary in honor of the goddesses. They instituted sacrifices and choruses of women (σφεα καὶ χοροῖσι γυναικηίοισι ἱλάσκοντο) whose role it was to mock other women of the region. These choruses were directed by men and numbered ten for each goddess. [168]
Note that in two descriptions of choral performances, it is only the mention of an instrument accompanying them that suggests the presence of a leader. The young women in the chorus depicted on Hesiod’s shield sing (ὑμέναιος ὀρώρει) to celebrate a wedding ceremony; they lead their chorus to the sound of the lyres (αἱ δ’ ὑπὸ φορμίγγων ἄναγον χορόν), and a chorus of youths sings to the sound of the pipes (ὑπὸ συρίγγων). In Callimachus’ Hymn to Artemis, the Amazons seem to form their own chorus themselves (κύκλῳ στησάμεναι χορὸν εὐρύν) round the statue of Artemis Oupis; but they are not without a conductor, since the music of pipes (ὑπήεισαν σύριγγες) accompanies their armed dance and gives them the rhythm. On the other hand, in the Epithalamium for Helen by Theocritus, the twelve maidens who make up the chorus (χορὸν ἐστάσαντο) in front of the marriage chamber sing and dance (ἄειδον δ’ ἄρα πᾶσαι ἐς ἓν μέλος ἐγκροτέοισαι ποσσί) without mention of instruments or any means of directing the chorus. [169] This is an isolated case, however, probably evoked by the literary character of Theocritus’ Idyll. {64|65}
An exception of a different kind is found in an epigram in the Palatine Anthology describing the activity of a chorus of women (Λεσβίδες, note the form in -ιδ-) conducted by the poet Sappho. [170] This description first shows the chorus members going to the temple of Hera, and the ‘procession’ image is thus realized; then they form a fine chorus in honor of the goddess (καλὸν στήσασθε θεῇ χορόν). It is Sappho herself who gives the signal with her lyre to begin (ὔμμι δ’ ἀπάρξει Σ. ἔχουσα λύρην). This production would have been relevant to the Apollonian type if the chorus members did not just dance (ὀρχηθμός), and if Sappho did not just play the lyre, but also sang (ὕμνον). The Alexandrian description of Sappho’s musical activity conforms of course to the tradition that makes her compositions monodies rather than choral songs. But it is essential to note that here too Sappho assumes the leadership, and if the semantic feature ‘song’ is no longer appropriate to what the chorus members do, but rather to what the leader does, the musical performance nevertheless remains choral. This type of choral performance is not far from citharodic performance, to which I shall return shortly. [171]
A perusal of these different performances by female or mixed choruses leads me to distinguish two basic modalities of the chorus: the first corresponds to the model of the Apollonian example and the legend of Theseus, in which the chorus is directed by someone playing an instrument (pipe or lyre: ‘musical accompaniment’); the semantic features ‘dance’ and ‘song’ are characteristic of the chorus’ performance. The second type includes choral performances in which the leader’s role is characterized by the word ἡγέομαι, without there being any visible means of directing the chorus. The two main representatives in this category are the two fragments of Alcman and Pindar. Perhaps the chorus was directed through the dance, as Lucian seems to indicate for the Necklace Dance. The presence of a choral I/we in the two lyric fragments tells us at any rate that the vocal part of the performance was the responsibility of the chorus, while the meters used imply ‘dance.’ If the activity of the chorus in the second case is characterized by the same features ‘song’ and ‘dance’ as in the first, ‘dance’ is probably used in place of ‘musical accompaniment’ in referring to the function of the choregos. On the other hand, in the execution of the Pindaric Daphnephorikon, the dance of the chorus in a circle is replaced by a procession. {65|66} The feature ‘(choral) dance’ is thus alternately combined with ‘circularity’ and ‘procession,’ as was seen in the analysis of iconographic documents of choral scenes.
2.3.3. Figurative representations of the choregos
In the iconographic examples of a choral performance, the absence of the linguistic signifier invites us to take into consideration, when analyzing the image of the choregos, all the figures from among the rest of the chorus members who show different characteristics. It is noticeable that one or two figures are distinguished from the group by attributes that vary case by case in almost every representation of a choral scene.
In Crowhurst’s corpus, a third of the scenes has an instrumentalist—lyre player or piper—in addition to the male or female chorus. The lyre player is generally a man, whether the chorus is male, female, or mixed. [172] He may stand at the center of the chorus or at the head, depending on whether the representation includes ‘circularity’ or ‘procession.’ There is an evident relationship between these lyre players and the mythological models of the choregos such as Apollo and Theseus. Two examples directly illustrating the legend of Theseus have already been given, and it will suffice to add the example of the geometric hydria from the Museum of Archaeology in Cambridge, published by Tölle; this is a fine example of a circular chorus in the shape of a V: two groups of women, dressed in long robes, face the player of a five-stringed lyre, who is naked. [173] The arrangement of the chorus in this scene suggests the word ‘dance,’ since the V-formation indicates ‘circularity.’
If the feature ‘musical accompaniment,’ signified by the lyre, applies to the choregos, it is more difficult in this whole category of representations to determine to whom the feature ‘song’ applies. [174] Given our doubt about how {66|67} Greek artists represented singing in choral iconography, it is practically impossible to know if the almost total absence of singing either among the chorus-members or among the choregoi is due solely to technical deficiency regarding the signifier, or if it should be attributed to the signified; in the latter case, representations would be numerous where neither the choregos nor the chorus was singing. But the contradiction is evident with written documents that regularly show, either for the choregos or for the chorus-members, the feature ‘song.’ I conclude therefore that the absence of the feature ‘song’ in figurative representations is only real on the level of the signifier; however, I shall use this kind of conclusion prudently in order to avoid the vicious circle of a reinterpretation of texts based on iconography!
In Crowhurst’s corpus, only the depictions of performances of the dithyramb show choruses unambiguously singing. However, Crowhurst cites some examples older than the red figure images of dithyramb performances in which the chorus, generally women, seems to be in an attitude of song. [175]
The results of Crowhurst’s analysis of choral activity show that the pipe player accompanying a women’s chorus can be either male or female, but the one who plays for a male chorus is always a man. From a morphological point of view, the choruses can have the feature of ‘circularity’ or of ‘procession’; in the latter case, as when the choregos is a lyre player, the piper can lead the chorus, walking at its head or facing the singers who walk in a line towards him. A good example of this second form is found on a Klazomenian amphora of the middle of the sixth century discovered at Benha in Egypt; [176] a line of sixteen girls holding hands walks towards a female pipe player dressed exactly as they are. The last in line carries a wreath.
There are cases in which a piper and a lyre player are both present, playing for the same chorus. Such scenes are rare: Crowhurst has four, and two of those date from the fourth century, although one of them, it is true, is in the Archaic style. The most interesting of the two dating from the Archaic period is on the neck of a proto-Attic hydria discovered at Aegina and dating from the beginning of the seventh century. [177] Nine girls, dressed in long robes and holding hands, in the same manner as found on all the necks of proto-Attic hydrias, form a line headed by a piper and lyre player. The two instrumentalists are nude, and there is no indication that the lyre player is also singing; however, their position at the head of the chorus clearly indicates the combination of ‘leading (the chorus)’ and ‘instrumental accompaniment.’ In all scenes that have both a pipe- and {67|68} lyre-player, the chorus is made up of young girls in a format always implying ‘procession.’ Except on the hydria just mentioned, the instrument players are, like the chorus members, always female. These are some of the rare examples of women playing the lyre at the head of a chorus.
From a diachronic point of view, in the corpora considered by Tölle and Wegner and covering the Archaic period, choruses with a pipe player at the head are rare in comparison with those led by a lyre player. [178] The first example on a vase is the scene painted on the neck of the hydria just cited, with, in addition, a chorus of twelve male figures following a single piper. This gradual appearance of a piper at the head of the chorus corresponds to what is found in literary texts, where the principal models of the choregos, Apollo and Theseus, are lyre players. But one should not forget that a terra-cotta of the eighth century shows three figures, whose sex is difficult to determine, surrounding a piper. [179]
There is one other figure, besides the piper and citharist, who has distinguishing features compared with the rest of the chorus, and that is the dancer who is often represented at the head of the chorus. Scenes of this type can be divided into two categories: the dancer is either executing the same steps as the chorus, in which case he differs by stature, sex, or clothing, or he is doing something different, generally an acrobatic dance. In these two categories the dancer-leader is male. There is a third type that Crowhurst calls the late arrival; here the dancer, executing an acrobatic movement, follows the chorus instead of leading it. [180] A geometric Attic hydria in Berlin shows a V-shaped chorus made up of seven nude females dancing around a nude male figure defined as a dancer-leader, and a geometric Argive vase has an acrobatic dancer following a procession of at least six young women, perhaps led by a lyre player. [181]
But four scenes that are somewhat outside Crowhurst’s categories are of particular interest for my analysis. On an Attic black figure bowl dating about 570, a chorus of girls is depicted standing in a line and holding hands. [182] Each of them dances with a different step, which gives the illusion of their rapid movement towards an altar behind which another woman, most likely a priestess, is standing. The last chorus-member holds a branch and is closely followed by a nude young man of the late arrival dancer type who holds her arm and to whom she looks back. But the most significant element, besides the presence of the priestess and a woman sitting in the background watching the {68|69} procession (perhaps a goddess), is the attitude of the girl at the head of the chorus. Dressed more richly than the others, she gestures either in salutation or as an invitation to the chorus that follows her to take part in the action round the altar behind which is the priestess; as she gestures, she turns her head to the girls behind her. The priestess holds a basket in which there are various objects, among them a phallus; this element motivated Ashmole to identify the scene as a depiction of the revealing of the phallus, one of the sequences in the ritual of the Thesmophoria. In this case, the nude young man joining the chorus might be seen as the παῖς ἀμφιθαλής, participating in this ceremony (according to literary sources). For the moment I shall retain only the absence of the feature ‘instrumental accompaniment’ and the role of ‘leading (the chorus)’ that many indications attribute to the first choreutes of the choral group.
Another illustration of particular interest, in relief on the neck of an earthenware jar dating from the second quarter of the seventh century, consists of a procession scene. [183] Four girls dressed in richly embroidered robes follow a woman of taller stature carrying a scepter. Her chiton is very elaborate and her hair is dressed differently from that of the girls who make up the procession. Over their heads the chorus holds an object that shows the same decorative motifs as their clothes—and which was first interpreted as a chest but was then identified, rightly, as a veil carried in offering. This resulted in a second identification, that of the scene in the sixth book of the Iliad, in which Hecuba offers a peplos, the finest she owns, to Athena. [184] She goes to the temple of the goddess followed by the noblewomen of the city [185] and hands the veil to Theano, Athena’s priestess, before telling her of the Trojan women’s vow. Song is not absent from the scene, since the act of consecration of the peplos is accompanied by the ritual cry of the companions of Hecuba (αἱ δ’ ὀλολυγῇ πᾶσαι Ἀθήνῃ χεῖρας ἀνέσχον). This almost complete correspondence between written document and image underlines a comparison of the distinctive features that mark the figure of the choregos. In Homer, it is Hecuba’s social status that gives her the right to head the procession of the Trojan women; on the Boeotian pithos, it is her stature, scepter, clothing, and coiffure that distinguish her as leader from the rest of the chorus and that indicate her status. On the other hand, without our referring to the iconography, the passage in Homer could not have been included among my sources on the chorus, since it lacks a signifier—except for ὀλολυγή—that clearly indicates the choral performance. {69|70}
The excavations near Paestum undertaken before and during the war uncovered an astonishing collection of metopes in the Archaic style dating from the middle of the sixth century. [186] Decorating Hera’s temple on the banks of the Sele, five of these metopes represent a choral scene. Four couples of young women follow a ninth who, in the attitude I have defined as being that of a choregos, looks back at the chorus dancing in her wake. This young woman has recently been identified as Helen, and the whole scene represents the abduction of Helen by Peirithoos and Theseus; as we shall see, the literary tradition confirms that Helen was kidnapped as she was performing a choral dance in the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia. [187] According to the version of the story provided by the metopes of Paestum, the scene took place in the temple of Hera. What is significant in this interpretation of an iconographic document with reference to a literary source of somewhat conjectural character is that the features of the female figure of metope 3 have led to the identification of the very model of the adolescent choregos, Helen; in addition, the signs marking this scene suggested to its interpreter the beauty contests that were part of the cult pertaining to Hera. I shall discuss this further.
The choral scene called the “partheneion,” mentioned in connection with the number of women composing the female chorus, must be added to the evidence for the dancing choregos. [188] On this red figure crater, the ten chorus-members are led by a female piper. Besides the function of choregos assumed by the piper, the attitude of the first in line signifies a leading function that I shall call an annex function. Her behavior resembles that of the female leader at the head of the procession, which could be related to the festival of the Thesmophoria in two ways: she is looking back at the chorus following her (it is true that two of them have the same attitude), and she makes a gesture of invitation with her left hand. To this can be added clothing somewhat different from that of the others who are, however, not dressed homogeneously. This gesture of invitation or salutation seems to be a characteristic of a choregos at the head of a chorus in scenes where the chorus moves towards an instrumentalist or a cult object. [189]
The role of choregos divided between two individuals is characteristic of several illustrations, two examples of which are taken from black figure lekythoi signed by the Amasis painter. The first of these flasks has a wedding scene on the body, and on the shoulder two chorus scenes, [190] the first of which shows {70|71} six of the chorus forming a V on each side of a sitting lyre player; none of them is marked as playing the role of the leader. In the second scene, three girls are moving towards a pipe player, also seated; the girl at the head of the line looks backwards at her companions in the gesture we have defined as conducting the chorus. She therefore shares this function with the piper.
The second lekythos has, on the same area, a chorus of eight forming a V. [191] Each of the girls heading the lines moving towards a central point is marked by her backward glance and gesture of invitation with the left hand, as was described previously. These two seem to share the position of choregos with two beardless youths who precede them and both of whom have the same invitational gesture. One of them is also looking back. It is noticeable that one of the groups of girls runs, while the other walks. The center of the scene is occupied by a veiled woman sitting on a throne, flanked by two bearded men. The principal scene on this vase depicts a veil being woven. This is thought to be the making of Athena’s peplos for the Panathenaic rites, or the veil of a young bride, before the wedding ceremony. Whether the occasion is religious or matrimonial, it is almost certain that the choral scene represented here is related to the principal scene and that the woman in the center of the chorus in the first scene is the receiver of the peplos woven in the second.
A general comparison of the vase images I have just enumerated with the image of the female chorus offered by the texts is of course hindered by the almost total absence of an iconographic signifier for the feature ‘song.’ The Apollonian model (‘instrumental accompaniment’ for the leader, ‘song’ + ‘dance’ for the chorus) is well represented in the iconography, as also is the citharodic model (‘song’ + ‘instrumental accompaniment’ for the leader, ‘dance’ for the chorus). We find no parallel, however, for the double model of the chorus of Muses who sing and dance and of a larger chorus implying the single feature ‘song’ as offered by certain Apollonian scenes. It should be noticed though that insofar as the leader is a woman, the absence of ‘song’ is paralleled in literature by the mythological model of Artemis as choregos.
The disparity in sex between chorus-members and choregos is widely agreed upon and is backed up by texts, particularly those of Alcman and Pindar. The figure of the παῖς ἀμφιθαλής of the Daphnephoria is encountered again in the form of an acrobatic dancer in several iconographic scenes showing the feature ‘procession’; however, he is generally placed at the end of the chorus, in the late arrival position. But one of the most remarkable points made by these late arrival scenes is the possible sharing of the leader’s role by, for example, an instrumentalist and a chorus-member. This situation parallels that of Pindar’s Daphnephorikon, in which the girl who is a principal chorus-member receives the praises of the chorus after they have celebrated the child heading the procession. {71|72}
In spite of the possibilities offered by these morphological analogies between written and iconographic evidence, we must not be taken in by the diversity present in both domains, since it doubtless corresponds to the widespread distribution of choral performances in the most varied rites. Nevertheless, it is possible to make a clear distinction between the figure of the choregos, even if he/she has a double, and the homogeneous character of the chorus-members.
2.3.4. The distinctive qualities of the choregos
In the two areas where the existence of female choral performances is recorded, in legendary stories and cultural practice, the leader is set apart by her higher social position. It may be difficult to speak of a social hierarchy among the gods, but it is true that in the Greek pantheon Apollo occupies a higher position than the Muses, whose chorus he directs. The same holds for Artemis among her Nymphs or, in the epic legend, for Nausicaa, daughter of King Alkinoos, surrounded by her attendants, and for Hecuba leading the procession of Trojan women. Theseus, son of the king of Athens, holds a similar position at the head of the chorus formed by the young Athenians saved from the Labyrinth. Pausanias says that the child-choregos of the Daphnephoria was the child of a prominent family, as were Agasicles of Pindar’s Daphnephorikon or Agesidamos of Alcman’s fragment 10 (b) P = 82 C. Plutarch’s anecdote about Agesilas, the future king of Sparta, can be explained in this way; because of his prominence, the organizer of the chorus in which he was supposed to take part was obliged to put him at the head of the chorus. [192] The elevated social status of the choregos is spatially marked by the position he occupies in relation to the rest of the chorus. In the processional type of chorus this position corresponds to the head of the line; for the circular type it is generally the center of the group.
And, according to the best ethical canons of Archaic aristocracy, the leader adds to the nobility of his birth the complementary quality of beauty that characterizes the true καλὸς κἀγαθός. According to Proclus, the child-daphnephoros must be beautiful and strong, and, as I have shown in discussing the qualities of the female choregos, one of the chorus participants is generally distinguished from her companions by her exceptional beauty. [193] The function of choregos is bound up with this quality of beauty. Thus Helen, the ἁγνὰ χοραγός of the Lysistrata of Aristophanes, is distinguished by her comeliness (εὐπρεπής) from the young chorus that surrounds her, or Antheia, in the procession described in the Ephesiaca in which she directs the order of young women (ἦρχε τῆς τῶν παρθένων τάξεως), is so beautiful that the onlookers prostrate themselves as she passes, confusing her with Artemis. But the choregos is marked both by ‘nobility’ and ‘beauty,’ which together give ‘value’ {72|73} in the aristocratic sense of the word. [194] In the iconography, the same features are represented by a taller stature, richer clothes, and a more elaborate headdress than the other chorus-members.
As regards sex and age, distinguishing characteristics are less clearly defined. Both in literary evidence and figured documents, a women’s chorus may be directed by a man or a woman. The contrary is not true, however, because the male chorus is always directed by a man; likewise for the mixed chorus, even if it is double-headed, as in the Necklace Dance described by Lucian.
From the point of view of age, the choregos and chorus are, generally speaking, ‘contemporaries,’ as are the chorus-members among themselves. In fragment 10 (b) P = 82 C, Alcman, as we have seen, uses the term ἥλικες to signify one of the bonds uniting the choregoi with the chorus of the Dymainai. The iconography represents Theseus without a beard—which corresponds to the term ἀγένειοι in the same fragment of Alcman—like the young Athenians who make up the chorus. Equality of age is one of the basic characteristics that unites Habrocomes and Antheia with the groups of youths and maidens that each heads. In all the choral images on the necks of geometric Attic vases, the girl at the head of the line formed by the chorus following her is drawn in the same way as the other chorus members; the case of the παῖς ἀμφιθαλής of the Theban Daphnephoria would then be an exception to the general rule of age equality between choregos and chorus-members. However, if one acknowledges that the young dancer of the late arrival type in the iconography can be identified with the child who still has his father and mother, as the texts say, this exception is void. Indeed this child is generally represented as being as tall as the female chorus-members whose chorus he rejoins. Recalling the polysemia of the term παῖς, [195] he will be called a young man rather than a child.
In spite of the uncertainty surrounding the age of the female chorus-members in the iconography, most of the representations imply the feature ‘adolescent’ and this situation corresponds to the one found in written documents; we can then deduce from the preceding remarks that the age of the choregos, male or female, for a chorus of young men or of young women is generally that of adolescence. But, as we shall see in the last chapter, during adolescence, the choregos is, according to his/her leading position, slightly more mature than the companions belonging to his/her chorus. Still adolescent, he/she appears as the one who, within the group of the chorus-members, is about to reach the status of an adult.
And finally, it has to be pointed out that the choregos can be doubled in his/her role as conductor of the group by the girl occupying the first place in the line. It seems therefore that, particularly in iconographic evidence, the leader may receive a certain amount of assistance in conducting the chorus from the principal chorus-member. {73|74}
2.4. The activity of the chorus
Since song, dance, and musical accompaniment are the three basic elements associated with Greek music, [196] the chorus is generally marked by one or two features that are not present in the function of the choregos. There are however two exceptions to this general rule: the feature ‘dance’ is generally shared by both chorus and choregos. On the other hand, if the feature ‘instrumental accompaniment’ is the sole attribute of the function of the choregos, that of ‘song’ characterizes either the activity of the choregos or that of the chorus, but rarely both at the same time. In one or other of the texts under consideration, it can occur that one of these three features may not be present. This of course should not be presumed to indicate the absolute non-existence of one of these features at the level of the signifier, as was true in the iconography in the case of ‘song.’ We must take into account here the form first imposed by the texts.
The interaction of the choregos’ musical activity and that of the chorus makes it unnecessary to review the interpretations already discussed to decide on the modalities of the chorus’ activity. But the solution to the problem posed in the introduction concerning the definition of the partheneion as a literary genre justifies a comparison of female choral performances possessing the features ‘song’ and ‘dance’ with the lyric genres, the forms of which were already well defined in the Archaic period. I have tried to show elsewhere that some of the lyric forms defined by the Alexandrian school in their attempt to classify the work of Archaic lyric poets was already quite consistent at that time: they are the paean, the dithyramb, the kitharodia, the threnody, and the nuptial song, to which can probably be added the hymn. [197] Since the partheneion only seems to have existed as a lyric genre beginning with the Alexandrian period, as I have mentioned before, I thought it interesting to see whether interpretations of certain female choral performances might be classified among the Archaic categories of lyric or if the partheneion represented already, even if not so called, a specific category apart from the five original lyric genres. An examination of this question should produce a possible classification of the lyric songs written for female choruses.
2.4.1. The hymn
In the example of the chorus of the Muses directed by Apollo, the activity of the Muses implies the feature ‘song.’ Parallel to the verb ἀείδω, often used when referring to the sung section of a chorus, Greek authors make use of the term ὕμνος and its derivatives when referring to the singing of Apollo’s {74|75} mythological chorus; [198] this is the case in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. This same term is used with regard to other female choruses, such as the Deliades who sing (ὑμνήσωσιν) of Apollo, Artemis, and Leto, and then evoke the memory of various heroes (μνησάμεναι ἀνδρῶν τε παλαιῶν ἠδὲ γυναικῶν ὕμνον ἀείδουσιν); their hymn is also referred to as ἀοιδή (καλὴ συνάρηρεν ἀοιδή), which shows that these two terms were synonymous. [199] However, in contrast to ἀοιδή, the word ὕμνος was used by the Alexandrians to describe a poetic genre. Consequently, the question is whether the hymn corresponded in the Archaic period to a specific choral form with a specific content. In the same way as the song of the Deliades is about gods and certain heroes, the Muses in the Hymn to Apollo sing of the privileges of the gods and the miseries that befall men; in the Hymn to Artemis they celebrate Leto and her children, as do the Deliades; in Pindar they begin their song by addressing Zeus, then sing of the deeds of Thetis and Peleus. The hymn thus defines itself as a song in which gods and heroes are celebrated. Independently of their probably recited form and of their function as prooimia, this corresponds also to what can be said about the content of the Homeric Hymns, which were referred to by the term ὕμνος already at the time of their composition. [200] However, this word has a wider application in Archaic lyric, where it refers not only to choral singing, but to songs sung at banquets. The songs sung by the chorus of young Boeotians during the Daphnephoria procession are called hymns both by Pindar and Proclus, and as in the case of the Homeric Hymns, certain lyric compositions are not only termed hymns by the critics, but their internal naming process also uses the term {75|76} ὕμνος. [201] It is only with Plato that hymn begins to take on the narrower meaning of a ‘prayer addressed to a god.’ [202]
The semantic variety of songs contained in the term ὕμνος is remarkable not only for content but also for execution. The hymns, according to Athenaeus who probably refers back to Aristoxenos, could be danced or sung without any movement in the chorus. [203] A similar situation is reflected in certain descriptions of female choral performances in which the feature ‘song’ is designated by the term ὕμνος: if the ceremony of the Daphnephoria implies the feature ‘procession,’ the song of the Deliades as it is described in the Hymn to Apollo apparently includes neither the feature ‘dance’ nor ‘procession.’
However, since the song, in almost all the examples in the corpus, is connected with the dance, the absence of the feature ‘dance’ in these choral performances is probably due only to the accidents of tradition. In any case, the use of ὕμνος is not limited to this particular situation.
The very general meaning of the term does not indicate a defined lyric genre to which a certain category of songs sung by female choruses would belong. It is quite different for the other lyric genres I have listed.
2.4.2. The paean
Of the songs that could be sung by female choruses some have had a specific name since the Archaic period. Among these is the paean. For instance, the chorus of old men in Euripides’ Hercules Furens states its intention of singing paeans for Herakles, following the example of the Deliades who sing the paean (παιᾶνα ὑμνοῦσι) for Apollo as they dance round his temple (εἱλίσσουσαι καλλίχοροι). As regards the signifiers, the link between the terms ὑμνέω and παιάν is evident, and it is repeated in the subsequent lines where the paeans sung by the chorus are called ὕμνοι. [204] The term hymn is clearly taken here in its wider sense of ‘choral song,’ and the word paean refers to a certain category of hymns which I shall define. Another example of a girls’ chorus singing a paean is found in Euripides; before her sacrifice, Iphigenia asks the chorus of girls from Chalcis to entone a propitiating paean to Artemis (ἐπευφημήσατε, ὦ νεανίδες, παιᾶνα… Ἄρτεμιν); this song is accompanied by the chorus moving round the {76|77} temple and the altar of the goddess (ἑλίσσετ’ ἀμφὶ ναὸν ἀμφὶ βωμὸν Ἄρτεμιν). [205] Here, as in the choral execution of the Deliades, the dance that gives rhythm to the paean is marked with the features ‘circularity’ and ‘center.’
These two enactments of the paean by a chorus of young women represent exceptions, however. The paean was usually sung by a male chorus, but the occasions for which adolescent girls performed it nevertheless correspond exactly to its intended purpose. The paean is defined as a song of propitiation or gratitude, two complementary aspects of the prayer addressed to the gods. Sung as early as the Archaic period for occasions such as battles, banquets, or marriages, it was addressed to Apollo, or to Artemis, both of whom were the protecting gods with power over calamities. [206] Different from the hymn, the paean was at this time a true poetic genre with a content determined by 1) its function of propitiation or gratitude for a misfortune avoided, and 2) by its recipients Apollo and Artemis. The signified of this song will later be enlarged to contain all songs addressed to gods or human beings possessing power to influence events. [207] Morphologically, the paean could assume different forms, as we shall see later.
If, in Euripides, it is girls who sing the paean, earlier evidence shows it was performed by young men, with female choruses accompanying the song with ritual cries. The term used to designate this form of accompaniment is ὀλολύζω and its derivatives. The paean sung by the Trojans on the occasion of Hektor’s marriage to Andromache, as described by Sappho, is given its rhythm by the voices of their women (γύναικες δ’ ἐλέλυσδον). Bacchylides has a scene describing the return of Theseus from Poseidon’s abode: the young Athenian girls make the sea resound with their voices (κοῦραι ὠλόλυξαν), while their male companions sing the paean (ἠΐθεοι παιάνιξαν). Similarly, later, in Xenophon, before the Greek army crosses the Centrites the soldiers sing a paean and shout their war cries (ἐπαιάνιζον πάντες οἱ στρατιῶται καὶ ἀνηλάλαζον), accompanied also by the cries of the women who follow the army (συνωλόλυζον δὲ καὶ αἱ γυναῖκες ἅπασαι). [208] The opposite situation also {77|78} occurs, for instance, when the chorus of the Trachiniae sings on the return of Herakles to Deianeira. For this song of triumph and gratitude the terms ὁλολυγή and ἀλαλή (ἀνολολύξεται δόμος ἀλαλαῖς) are used; from the men are only heard cries in honor of Apollo (κοινὸς ἀρσένων κλαγγά), while the young girls sing the paean (ὁμοῦ δὲ παιᾶνα, παιᾶν’ ἀνάγετ’, ὦ παρθένοι) and songs to Artemis and the Nymphs. [209] Again, the two protecting deities are associated with the paean, but the roles within the chorus are reversed, and it is the girls who are in control of the interpretation of the song. Here the execution of the paean implies the features ‘dance’ and ‘instrumental accompaniment (pipe)’ (ἀείρομ’ οὐδ’ ἀπώσομαι τὸν αὐλόν).
Morphologically, terms such as ὀλολύζω consist of the voicing and naming of an onomatopoeia. The cries that signify the act of ὀλολύζειν are interpreted variously as the cries of invocation during a ritual song or the regular repetition by the chorus of the words of a refrain. [210] Although there are some exceptions to this rule, the ololyge is the function of a female chorus. The Trojan women who follow Hecuba in the propitiatory offering of a veil to Athena punctuate this ritual act by cries of invocation. The same ritual cries accompany the sacrifice of the ox that Nestor dedicates to Athena in the Odyssey, and when the young women cry in the Panathenaic festival it is also to Athena. In these cases the cries are accompanied by dances (ὀλολύγματα παννυχίοις ὑπὸ παρθένων ἰαχεῖ ποδῶν κρότοισιν). The cries with which Hera’s sanctuary on Lesbos resounds when the women of the island hold their annual beauty contest are also described by Alcaeus with the word ὀλολυγή (περὶ δὲ βρέμει ἄχω θεσπεσία γυναίκων ἴρα[ς ὀ]λολύγας ἐνιαυσίας). [211] Although not always associated with the paean, the ololyge has the same aims of propitiation and thanks and generally appears in a ritual context on occasions when a god’s protection is needed, or to thank him/her for help given.
Probably born of the cry of invocation to Apollo, the paean—and its feminine counterpart, the ololyge—is a poetic form which shows distinctive features as early as the Archaic period, in contrast to the hymn and the hyporchema, which became lyric genres only during the Alexandrian period. {78|79} Although the paean has a flexible form, its content is determined—propitiation or gratitude—and it has a fixed destination, addressed to the deities who have power over the forces that are too strong for men. That being so, the number of occasions for which it was needed was vast.
It should be added that the paean is not a choral song in the strict sense of the term. It was performed either by the whole chorus, or by one voice with the chorus joining in with dance steps and the refrain. The latter form was not much used, it is true, for the paean, and is never found in a context in which a women’s chorus would take part. [212] On the other hand, it leads us to other choral forms performed either by a mixed chorus or by a chorus of young women.
2.4.3. The dithyramb
But before moving on to choral forms in which the choregos sings most of the sung part of the performance, I shall speak briefly about the second lyric genre, the dithyramb, which had a definite shape as early as the Archaic period, and, like the paean, was sung for a deity, in this case mainly Dionysus. [213]
I had at first excluded this genre from my corpus a priori, given the literary form it assumed in the classical period, particularly in Athens. But in spite of its rarity, there is some evidence that the dithyramb in its ritual form could be sung in the Archaic period by a women’s chorus. An epigram attributed to Simonides shows that the ololyge of the women in the chorus of the Seasons could accompany a dithyramb. It is a similar situation to that of the paean, where the cries of a girls’ or women’s chorus answered the song of the chorus-members singing the ritual song itself. On the other hand, the ritual song that the women of Elis, according to Plutarch, addressed (ὑμνοῖσαι) to Dionysus can be considered a dithyramb. The presence in this song of a refrain suggests that this dithyramb was sung by a single woman and that the chorus of her companions took up the refrain. [214] I shall return to this, but for the moment I shall limit myself to saying that in interpreting the dithyramb, as also the paean, the feature ‘song’ can be assumed by a single person, probably the choregos, while the {79|80} chorus-members mark the rhythm with their dance and punctuate the song with repetitions of a refrain.
2.4.4. The citharodic nomos
Among the examples cited, the singing of a choral performance is done by the choregos or by the chorus-members, with the latter predominant; there are other situations in which the choregos sings the main song and the chorus dances or sings an accompaniment. This is a category of choral performances called kitharodia, [215] related to a lyric genre called the citharodic nomos. The naming of this genre goes back no further than Plato, in contrast to the paean and the dithyramb, and it is only as a reconstruction that it figures among the five lyric genres with forms already defined in the Archaic period. [216]
The citharodic type of performance is also found in female and mixed choruses. The Homeric description of the famous song of Linos depicted on Achilles’ shield is one source: [217] this song is performed on the occasion of a harvest rite by a child accompanied by a chorus of youths and maidens dancing {80|81} and calling out (μολπῇ τ’ ἰυγμῷ). The use of the term ἰυγμός in this context shows that the accompanying cries of the chorus have the same type of refrain as the ololyge accompanying the paean. [218] To describe the child’s performance of the Linos song, Homer uses the verb ὑπαείδω; the prefix ὑπο- shows that the song serves only as an accompaniment to the melody played on the lyre by the child. Thus we find ourselves with a choral performance in which the song, sung by the choregos (a role marked by the central position of the child playing the song of Linos in the midst of the chorus), is subordinate to the purely musical performance.
This type of performance can also be found at Delos. During the festival of the Aphrodisia, mentioned in connection with Theseus, a male chorus sang an accompaniment to a “nomos” (οἱ μὲν ὑπαείδουσι νόμον) composed by Olen, the legendary poet, while the women danced the rhythm (αἱ δὲ ποδὶ πλήσσουσι χορίτιδες). [219] The meaning of accompaniment implied by the verb ὑπαέιδω, used to describe the activity of the male chorus, shows that the performance of this “nomos” was probably done by a single individual, a choregos not mentioned in Callimachus’ text, as in the case of the song of Linos. But the term νόμος is too general to allow us to classify this choral performance as a citharodic nomos with certainty. [220] Olen’s nomos could conceivably be a simple melody without words; this melody would then be accompanied by a choral song with words or, as in the case of the ololygai which punctuate the paean, by ritual cries of invocation or repetitions of a refrain according to the sense given to ἀείδω. The passage in Callimachus is too vague to decide between one or the other solution.
The aition of this ritual musical performance of Olen’s nomos is represented by the singing of the mixed chorus of Theseus around the horned altar at Delos on his return from Crete. [221] The differences between this mythical performance and the cultural practice as described by Plutarch and Pollux have already been discussed. Comparing this description with other sources that include the Delian {81|82} rite of the Aphrodisia, we should find that the chorus described by Callimachus would be identical with the one that performs the Crane Dance. The presumption that this chorus and that of Theseus have the same structure leads me to suppose, at the head of the singers and dancers mentioned by Callimachus, a choregos carrying a lyre in the image of Theseus. If Olen’s nomos is citharodic, this choregos would be the singer; in that case, he would have the same function as Homer’s child. If it is a matter of a simple melody, he would play it on the lyre. In light of these uncertainties, it is also possible to imagine that the Crane Dance and the performance of Olen’s hymn are two different events performed in the same ritual and having the same aetiological legend: for the first, girls and boys would be mixed in the chorus; in the second, each person would have a specific role of singer-accompanist (male) or dancer (female).
Finally, if the feature ‘song (of accompaniment)’ is assured by the male part of the chorus, and the feature ‘dance’ marks the activity of the female part, in Homer’s represented performance of the song of Linos these two features are included in the activity of the whole of the chorus. The great diversity of the modalities of performance is once more in evidence.
2.4.5. The threnody
This type of monodic performance with choral accompaniment is characteristic of yet another form regarded as choral, namely the threnos, a lyric genre referred to by this name as early as Homer. In the Homeric poems, the funeral song is sung by a soloist of either sex with a rhythmic accompaniment of exclamations by a chorus of women. Thetis, learning of her son’s sorrow at the death of Patroklos, begins a long lamentation which heralds the start of the laments (ἐξῆρχε γόοιο) of her sisters and attendants, the Nereides. The Nereides thus merely punctuate the monody of Thetis by their cries. Similarly, during Hektor’s funeral, the threnos is sung by bards, probably professional singers, responsible for starting the singing of the threnos (ἀοιδοὺς θρήνου ἐξάρχους); the Trojan women reply in chorus with cries of lamentation (ἐπὶ δὲ στενάχοντο γυναῖκες); this is followed by the successive laments of Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen that incite the keening of the women around them (the formula ἐξῆρχε γόοιο is repeated three times). [222] The use in these different passages of the terms ἔξαρχος and ἐξάρχω, by making the feature ‘to begin’ a reality, indicates {82|83} that Thetis, the bards, Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen all play the role of the choregos for the chorus of women who punctuate their songs with ritual cries. [223]
The numerous terms for the lamentations that accompany the funeral chant (ὀδρυμός, οἶκτος, ὀλοφυρμός) show the importance of the ritual refrain in the threnody. The ἰάλεμος, another ritual cry accompanying the song, has even given its name to funeral music and become a synonym for threnos, just as the invocation αἴλινος (originally αἲ Λίνον) subsequently referred to the entire song sung in honor of Linos. [224] The origin of the term παιάν is analogous, formed on the cry of invocation ἰὴ/ἰὼ Παιάν, which itself has its origin in the name of the god involved: Paian-Apollo. The morphological origin of this signifier suggests that the paean had an implementation similar to the Homeric threnody. The existence of a refrain in the paean is confirmed by Athenaeus, who describes a typical refrain of this sort. [225] It corroborates what I said at the end of the discussion of the paean concerning the swing between the choral form and the monodic form of this song. The cult songs addressed to Dionysus doubtless were also performed variously. Called διθύραμβος or ἰόβακχος, they take their names from their refrains, which themselves refer to the god sung in the poem. [226]
2.4.6. The epithalamium/hymenaeus
The fact that this song originates in a cry of invocation used as a refrain leads us to the fifth lyric form, the epithalamium or hymenaeus, which has had, within the parameters of the corpus of women’s choruses, distinct characteristics since the Archaic period. In the same way as the paian and the iobakkhos, the nuptial song took its name from the refrain that interrupts it at intervals. It is this refrain, Ὑμὴν ὦ Ὑμέναιε, that Kassandra chants in the scene in which she {83|84} imagines her wedding before the temple of Apollo, inviting the young Trojan women of the chorus to celebrate with her her marriage in song and dance (βοάσαθ Ὑμέναιον). This same cry can already be found in one of Sappho’s Epithalamia in the form ὐμήναον. [227]
If the passage cited from Euripides’ Trojan Women suggests a performance in which the wedding song is sung by a single person accompanied by dancing and by repetitions of the refrain by the chorus, other sources have a choral song sung by a women’s or a mixed chorus. The only exception to these patterns is in the wedding scene on Achilles’ shield: only the young men dance to the pipe and the lyre, while the women admire from their doorways the nuptial procession in which the bride is led to the house of her future husband. But the description of the nuptial song itself is reduced in the Homeric scene to the mention of the raising of the ritual cry (πολὺς δ’ ὑμέναιος ὀρώρει). An analogous description of the νυμφαγωγία is taken up in the Shield attributed to Hesiod, where it begins with the same words. But the poet says that choruses followed the young bride surrounded by her attendants. One, composed of men, sings (ἵεσαν αὐδήν) to the pipe, the other, composed of women, dances (ἄναγον χορόν) to the lyre. [228]
Other texts with a choral performance of the epithalamium/hymenaeus cite choruses of young girls exclusively; these singers are generally the contemporaries and friends of the young bride. Thus Pindar can speak of “the clamor of the nuptial songs with their multiple sounds that the young girls, companions of the same age, like to sing when evening comes” (παμφώνων ἰαχὰν ὑμεναίων, ἅλικες οἷα παρθένοι φιλέοισιν ἑταῖραι ἑσπερίαις ὑποκουρίζεσθ’ ἀοιδαῖς). The twelve young girls forming the chorus that sings the epithalamium for Helen in Theocritus are all Spartan, the principal adolescents of the town. They sing and dance (ἄειδον δ’ ἅμα πᾶσαι ἐς ἓν μέλος ἐγκροτέοισαι ποσσὶ περιπλέκτοις) and the palace of the heroine resounds with the nuptial song (ὑπὸ δ’ ἴαχε δῶμ’ ὑμεναίῳ). [229]
In Aeschylus it is the voices of the Oceanides singing the nuptial song of Prometheus at his marriage with Hesione, and, in Euripides, the dances of the fifty daughters of Nereus who celebrate with a chorus the marriage of Thetis and Peleus (εἱλισσόμεναι κύκλια πεντήκοντα κόραι γάμους Νηρέως ἐχόρευσαν). In this last choral performance of the epithalamium only the feature ‘dance’ is realized. But Euripides in the Phaethon offers a complete performance of the {84|85} nuptial song. At the beginning of the play, it is the servants in the palace who want to sing for the wedding of Phaethon (ὑμέναιον ἀεῖσαι, line 97), but it is finally a group of young women, different from the tragic chorus made up of the attendants, who have the honor of singing the nuptial song. Merops conducts them (γαμηλίους μολπὰς ἀϋτεῖ παρθένοις ἡγούμενος, lines 217f.), and they dance in a circle in the palace round the altars of the gods and particularly around Hestia’s altar (χορεῦσαι κἀγκυκλώσασθαι, line 247). [230] Like the paean, the hymenaeus or epithalamium shows itself to be a flexible choral form, adapting itself to the demands of the occasion on which it is sung. It does not actually refer only to the song accompanying the νυμφαγωγία, but also to the one sung at the wedding banquet and to the Ständchen sung in front of the door of the bridal chamber (epi-thalamion in the proper meaning of the term). It even extends its double name to the song meant to awaken the young couple on the morning after their wedding night. [231] It nevertheless remains associated with the different moments of the wedding ceremony and to that extent constitutes, as does the paean, a lyric genre usually performed by a chorus of young women, dating back to the most ancient period.
2.4.7. Other choral performances
There are naturally a number of women’s choral productions that do not enter into the five lyric categories I have just defined. Listing them would include, to be exhaustive, all the choral performances left aside in the preceding analysis and might seem superfluous. I shall list them anyway, at least partially, as it will {85|86} enable me to complete the analysis of the terms describing the different features involved in women’s choral activity that I began in the study of the hymn. This analysis will conclude my reflections on the modalities of the activity of choruses and will be a counterpart to the analysis of the inclusive term χορός which opened this chapter. In that case I analyzed the signified of the term into its constitutive elements (semantic features), starting with its signifier; now I shall reconstruct it by studying the signifiers of those elements.
The choral performances by women that do not fit into the lyric categories defined above are in the first place characterized by the single semantic feature ‘dance.’ For example, this is the case of the dance executed by the Amazons round the statue of Artemis in Ephesos while their queen, Hippo, performs a rite for the goddess: the armed dance of the young women is accompanied by a melody played on the pipe. The term used for this dance is ὀρχέομαι. This same verb also describes what the chorus of Cretan women does when they dance round an altar in the fragment of Aeolic poetry of uncertain attribution cited above. [232] Euripides frequently uses the term εἱλίσσω to express the same feature; the chorus, followers of Iphigenia, thus “turn” in imagination when they dream of the choruses of their native country. [233]
But in the majority of the sources for my corpus, the choral dance is connected with the song; a performance of this type reproduces the Apollonian model. One of the terms frequently used to indicate this double feature is the verb μέλπω and its derivatives. Its signified includes the features ‘song’ and ‘dance.’ [234] This meaning of μέλπω and its derivatives is confirmed by certain passages, generally extracts from lyric texts, which explain it by its two semantic features. Bacchylides, in a passage mentioned above from the epinikion he offered on the victory of Pytheas the Aeginetan at the Nemean Games, describes one of the young girls of the island who, compared to a carefree fawn perhaps playing the role of choregos, celebrates ([αἰ]νεῖ) the Nymph Aegina by dancing with her companions (θρώισκουσα). The young girls take up the praises of the Nymph (μἐλπουσι τ[εὸν κλέο]ς), and then sing of the glories of the heroes who took part in the Trojan War. [235] It is possible to see in this scene the performance of a prelude of invocation to the goddess, protector of the island, sung by a single girl, the choregos, and accompanied by the chorus dancing. This prelude would be followed by the choral song proper; taken up by {86|87} the chorus, the song would consist of a long mythical narration, like those of Stesichorus.
In the Second Paean of Pindar, the celebration at Delos by Apollo is described simply by the term μολπαί, while at Delphi the god is celebrated by songs and dances of a chorus of young girls χορὸν [ταχύ]ποδα, αὐδᾷ). On the other hand, to the mention in the Third Pythian of a chorus of girls celebrating Pan and the Great Mother (Ματρὶ, τὰν κοῦραι σὺν Πανὶ μέλπονται) there probably corresponds a fragment of a poem, composed by the same author and classified in the Separate Partheneia, in which the chorus celebrates the same deities in song and dance. [236] Finally, the term μέλπω is used twice by the chorus of Trojan women of Euripides to describe the choruses of young girls who celebrated the arrival in Troy of the Greek horse. In the first passage, ἔμελπον is separated into κρότον ποδῶν, the thud of the dancers’ feet, and βοὰν εὔφρονα, their songs of joy. In the second, the accusative Διὸς κόραν governed by ἐμελπόμαν suggests the celebration of the goddess by a song of invocation, while χοροῖσι denotes the dance. [237]
Another term is sometimes used in a choral context parallel to μέλπω: the verb παίζω and its derivatives. As to its meaning, it has too often been connected with ‘game,’ because of its derivation from the word παῖς. Its recurrence in the text of the Shield describing the dancing at the marriage ceremony shows on the contrary that this verb is intimately connected with the activity of dancing and singing. But when it is used in a choral context, it refers to the dancing of the young girls’ chorus, particularly during a ceremony dedicated to Artemis. [238] This particular use of the verb παίζω in a choral context allows us to interpret as a choral scene the passage where Nausicaa plays ball with her attendants. [239] This game of ball was probably accompanied by the songs and dances of the girls round the daughter of Alkinoos, and we should certainly understand in its essential meaning the expression ἤρχετο μολπῆς that defines Nausicaa’s role; since it is she who gives the signal for the song and dance, she is acting as the choregos of her attendants. In the same way, the Nymphs, to whom these girls are compared and whose actions are also described {87|88} by the term παίζω, certainly make up a choral group, and Artemis is their choregos.
It is evident that the number of choral performances that do not fit into the five genres listed above is high. They can extend, if we stay within the domain of songs in popular tradition, from the simple game such as the tortoise, in which young girls run around a companion asking her rhythmic questions, to the ritual song sung by the young women of Bottiaia in Thrace at a given sacrifice in memory of their Athenian origins. [240] Mention of this cult song brings us to the next chapter in which I shall examine the ritual and religious elements of the singing and dancing performed by women’s choruses.
The results of the analysis up to this point show that the partheneion as lyric genre did not exist in the Archaic period, nor did its name. The female performances I have examined, mostly undertaken by young girls, only partially fit the lyric categories defined for this period; this fact leads me to conclude that the poems performed by female choruses do not constitute a well-defined genre, but were composed and performed in response to diverse occasions, as is the case for most of Greek lyric production. [241] The Alexandrian definition of partheneion as a literary genre appeared only as an aid to sorting out a production that was otherwise difficult to classify. The definition of partheneion as a poem written for a chorus of young girls in honor of other young girls confirms how difficult it is to find distinctive features for it. But the judgments of Dionysius of Halicarnassus and of Aristoxenos on the particular style and tone of the partheneia allow us to recognize at least a certain distinctiveness. [242]
Nor does the diversity of modalities of female choruses give us a clear classification. The richness of possibilities of combination of the two actors—the choregos and the chorus-members—undertaking this performance, and the features characterizing their respective activities—’song,’ ‘song of accompaniment,’ ‘dance,’ and ‘instrumental accompaniment’—are the basis for this diversity. There are, however, permanent features evident for each individual participant, such as ‘conducting’ or ‘beauty’ for the choregos and ‘contemporary’ or ‘companionship’ for the group of chorus-members. These features will be examined as we continue the analysis. {88|89}
Footnotes
[ back ] 1. Sud. s.v. χορός (2) (X 410 Adler); see also sch. A Homer Il. 18.590 and sch. BT ad loc. The definition given by the sch. Lond. Dion. Thrac. 452, 12 Hilgard applies to the tragic chorus, as the location of the definition, between σκοπός and τραγῳδία, shows. For the epic use of χορός compare e.g. Homer Il. 18.590 to Il. 16.183.
[ back ] 2. With this double meaning already in Alcman, see frr. 27.3 = 84.3 and 45 P = 113 C; see Chantraine, Dict. étym., s.v. χορός.
[ back ] 3. The etymology of the term χορός does not help much in understanding the term (on the usefulness of the etymological analysis, see P. Guiraud, L’étymologie, Paris 21967, pp. 109ff.). The ancients were already hesitating between various etymological explanations of the term. EM 813.46ff. (see also EGud. 569.3ff. Sturz) gives three possible derivations of the word: 1. χαίρειν = to rejoice, 2. χῶρος in the sense of ‘limited space, closed like a circle,’ 3. χείρ = the hand. The first of these explanations goes back to Plato, Leg. 654a, who affirms in the voice of the Athenian that the gods have given men rhythm and harmony so that they may experience the pleasure (ἡδονή) that comes from their concordance; hence also the origin of χορός, the chorus, as if from χαρά, joy, pleasure; see Lonsdale, Dance, pp. 32ff. and 47. The second derivation corresponds to the spatial sense of χορός as found in Homer, along with the meaning of the word highlighted in my research. The third is used by EM 813.44ff. (with v.l. in manuscript V, see EGud. 568.51ff. Sturz) to explain the term χορηγός; the choregos then would be the one directing the chorus with his/her hand. This derivation has been brought back into favor recently by Tölle, Reigentänze, pp. 56f., who supports her thesis with representations of human figures, and sees in the hand movements of the chorus members and in the chain they form an essential element of the chorus; Tölle places this semantic trait of the signified χορός among the basic etymological elements of her signifier, and consequently she attributes the morphological and semantic origins of χορός to χείρ. [ back ] Recent etymological dictionaries are much more prudent and, according to Frisk, GrEW, s.v. χορός, all the derivations of the term given so far must be considered hypothetical. Because it corresponds to the result of one of my own semantic investigations (see below, pp. 53ff.), I mention the proposition of F. Froehde, “Etymologien,” BKIS 10, 1886, pp. 294–301 (p. 301) who compares χορός with the Lithuanian word záras = row, order, management, and who attributes to the word the first meaning of ‘row,’ ‘order.’
[ back ] 4. Pind. P. 12.27 and fr. 99 M; on the formation of the word, see Schwyzer, Gr. Gr. I, pp. 499f., and Risch, Wortbildung, pp. 34f.
[ back ] 5. Call. Dian. 13 and Del. 306; for a morphological analysis of the word, see below p. 32.
[ back ] 6. See Pickard-Cambridge, Festivals, pp. 234ff. The scholion commenting on Aristoph. Eq. 589 notes that if the comic chorus was made up of men and women, there were thirteen men and eleven women and the distribution was the same if the chorus was made up of women and children.
[ back ] 7. See Choeurs II, p. 132.
[ back ] 8. Brinkmann, JVA 130, p. 128; Ferri, RIA 3, pp. 310ff.; Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 205ff.; Tölle, Reigentänze, pp. 55f. with n. 64. Tölle covers the “early” Greek period (from the geometric to the proto-Attic), while Crowhurst covers the period from 800 to 350 B.C. This explains certain discrepancies between the two. Wegner, Musik, only cites representations of the Homeric period; see E. Reisch, RE 3 (1899), s.v. Chor, col. 2380. Crowhurst gives a statistical picture at the end of his vol. II of the occurrence of the various numbers of chorus members.
[ back ] 9. Tübingen Univ. 2657 (1 Tölle with pll. 1–2, 156 Wegner with pl. U1b).
[ back ] 10. Paris Louvre CA 1333 (15 Tölle with pl. 5); see also the hydria of Marcopoulos (unpublished; 16 Tölle with pl. 6a): there are thirteen girls preceded by a smaller female figure.
[ back ] 11. München AS 6228 (1 Crowhurst, 13 Tölle).
[ back ] 12. Athinai Agora P 10229 (17 Crowhurst, 58 Tölle, 8 Wegner); on the iconographic signifiers of the song, see below p. 66.
[ back ] 13. Roma Villa Giulia 909 (176 Crowhurst); see A. Furtwängler and K. Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei I, München 1900, pp. 80ff. with pll. 17 and 18; according to Crowhurst, Lyric, p. 274, these young women are not singing.
[ back ] 14. Athinai NM 17470 (5 Crowhurst, 17 Tölle, 44 Wegner); Athinai, Coll. Passas (29 Tölle with pl. 10).
[ back ] 15. Eur. IA 1054ff. and IT 425f.; on the chorus of the Nereides, see Hes. Theog. 263f. and Bacch. 17.101ff. In Soph. OC 718f., the Nereides are called ἑκατόμποδες, which allows us to interpret the φορβάδων κορᾶν ἀγέλαν ἑκατόγγυιον of Pind. fr. 122.15 M as a troupe of fifty young women; on this question, see B. A. Van Groningen, Pindare au Banquet, Leiden 1960, pp. 41ff. For the meaning of ἀγέλη see below pp. 214ff.
[ back ] 16. Pind. P. 9.111ff., Call. Dian. 13ff. Other parallels in Reisch, art. cit. n. 8, col. 2380f.; beware of parallels given by Ferri, RIA 3, pp. 308ff., which do not have all the features of ‘chorus.’
[ back ] 17. The examples cited by Brinkmann, JVA 130, p. 128 n. 64, are deceptive; H. Usener, from whose article Brinkmann takes his examples (“Dreiheit,” RhM 58, 1903, pp. 1–47, 161–208 and 321–362), notes that the young women who form a chorus in the tradition of written mythology (Nymphs, Maenads, etc.) usually appear in groups of three (pp. 9ff.); Theocr. 13.43ff., who mentions a chorus of three Nymphs, is an exception; in Eur. Ion 495f., the three daughters of Aglauros form a chorus (see below p. 132). For literary references to the chorus of Nymphs without specifying the number: Hom. Od. 6.105ff.; H. Ven. 261; H. Hom. 19.19ff.; Call. Dian. 170. The young women appearing in groups of three in the literary tradition of mythology were originally often only two, according to Usener (pp. 323ff.): they did not form a chorus, therefore, and the passage from the dyad to the triad comes from a mythical image different from the one of choral formation.
[ back ] 18. On the seven Pleiades and the seven or nine Muses, see W. H. Roscher, Die Sieben- und Neunzahl im Kultus und Mythus der Griechen, Leipzig 1904, pp. 19 and 34ff.; on the chorus of Muses, without specific number, see H. Hom. 27.15 (chorus of the Muses and of the Graces) and Eur. HF 686; on the Pleiades: Eur. El. 467f. and Prop. 3.5.36; on the chorus of seven young men and seven young women formed by Theseus, sch. A Hom. Il. 18.590, Plut. Thes. 15.1, and below pp. 114ff.
[ back ] 19. See Pickard-Cambridge, Festivals, p. 234 n. 6; in the Suppl. of Euripides, it is true, the seven mothers are accompanied by their seven followers.
[ back ] 20. An. Gr. I, p. 281, 26ff. Bekker, see Paroem. Gr. I, p. 117 Leutsch-Schneidewin.
[ back ] 21. Theocr. 18.4; according to Kaibel, Hermes 27, pp. 25ff., Theocritus’ piece is only a typically Alexandrian excuse for giving the aition of the festival of Helen Dendritis celebrated in Sparta, in the Platanistas; the number of twelve young women, as also that of four times sixty cited later, would be appropriate for this ritual; skepticism of this interpretation by Gow, Theocr. II, p. 354; on this subject, see below pp. 192f.; Sapph. fr. 44 V; see Page, Sappho, pp. 71ff., and Burnett, Three Archaic Poets, pp. 219ff.
[ back ] 22. The principal text accounting for this ritual is found in Paus. 5.16.6f.; see also Plut. Mor. 251f.; commentary in Weniger, Elis, pp. 14ff., and Nilsson, Gr. Feste, p. 292; see also below pp. 114ff. and 136f. For the chorus performing Alcman’s fr. 1, see Page, Parth., pp. 55ff., and Choeurs II, pp. 130f.
[ back ] 23. Sic Weniger, Elis, p. 15, corrected among others by R. Hanslik, RE 20 (1941), s.v. Physkoa. The text of Pausanias begins with the phrase αἱ δὲ ἑκκαίδεκα γυναῖκες καὶ χοροὺς δύο ἱστᾶσι and ends with Φυσκόας μὲν δὴ γέρα καὶ ἄλλα καὶ χορὸς ἐπώνυμος παρὰ τῶν ἑκκ. γυν.: the distinction between the two choruses and the sixteen women of Elis is thus repeated; for the meaning of ἵστημι as ‘forming (a chorus),’ see below p. 45. The ritual performed by the sixteen women is one of the valuable cases in which we have the elements of the founding legend along with those of the rite: they are given together in Pausanias’ story, where the use of tenses clearly distinguishes the two levels.
[ back ] 24. Paus. 3.13.7f.; see below pp. 187ff.
[ back ] 25. See below pp. 30ff.; it is probable that the nine young women who pronounce the words of Coll. Alex. fr. lyr. ad. 9 Powell represent a chorus celebrating Demeter.
[ back ] 26. Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 208ff. and II, app., Tölle, Reigentänze, p. 54.
[ back ] 27. Seven mixed choruses in Crowhurst’s corpus (see Lyric, pp. 219ff.); see Tölle, Reigentänze, pp. 54f. On the chorus of Theseus, see below pp. 53ff.
[ back ] 28. For the two meanings of the term, see the parallels given in LSJ, s.v. νύμφη, and Calame, I Greci e l’eros, pp. 96ff.; see also G. Herzog-Hauser, RE 18 (1949), s.v. Παρθένοι, col. 1911.
[ back ] 29. Mixed adolescent choruses: Hom. Il. 18.593 (ἠΐθεοι/παρθένοι); Bacch. 17.125ff. (ἠΐθεοι/κοῦραι); Hdt. 3.48 (ἠΐθεοι/παρθένοι); EM 252.13 (ἔφηβοι/κόραι); Pol. 4.21.3 (παῖδες/παρθένοι); adult mixed choruses: Hom. Od. 23.147 (ἄνδρες/γυναῖκες). [ back ] The anecdote of the daughter of Pythagoras in Timaeus FGrHist. 566 F 131. For the meaning of ἡγεῖσθαι, see below pp. 44f.
[ back ] 30. Call. Del. 298f., contrasting κόραι with παῖδες, is thus obliged to specify παῖδες ἄρσενες; this expression corresponds in the passage to παρθενικαί/ἠΐθεοι, and παῖς then refers to an adolescent; on the other hand, in Dian. 14, παῖδες means little girls of nine not yet pubescent; in Aristoph. Lys. 646, παῖς καλή refers to a young girl who has just arrived at puberty, see also Pol. 4.21.3. Given this, Brelich’s title Paides is ambiguous and the author is aware of it himself (p. 145).
[ back ] 31. Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 208ff.; as far as the representations of the young girls at Brauron are concerned, see now Sourvinou-Inwood. Girls’ Transitions, pp. 33ff.
[ back ] 32. See in particular Hom. Il. 16.179ff., Aristoph. Nu. 530f., and Eur. Ion. 502f.; see now the detailed study by Sissa, Le corps virginal, pp. 97ff. and 110ff.
[ back ] 33. On terms signifying female adolescence, see Fehrle, Keuschheit, pp. 164ff., and Wilamowitz, Herakles III, p. 182. On the ambivalence of the young virgin, see J. -P. Vernant, “Introduction,” in Vernant, Probl. guerre, pp. 10–30 (pp. 15f.).
[ back ] 34. Pind. P. 3, 17ff.; Aristoph. Thesm. 1029ff.; Eur. IT 1143ff.
[ back ] 35. Sapph. fr. 30 V: see Page, Sappho, pp. 125f., and Lasserre, Sappho, pp. 37f. and 132; according to Page’s reconstructions, the poem is addressed to the newly married young man; see also fr. 103, 11 V (γά]μβον ἄσαροι γὰρ ὐμαλικ[); Alcm. fr. 10 (b).15ff. P = 82b C: see below pp. 58ff. Just before marriage, the Deliades consecrate their long hair, which is all of the same age (ἥλικα χαίτην), to the daughters of Boreas: Call. Del. 296ff. (see Mineur, Call. Del., pp. 233f., and below pp. 106f.). The word and the feature ‘contemporary’ characterize the group of four times sixty young women who exercise with Helen near the Eurotas (πᾶσαι συνομάλικες): Theocr. 18.22ff., see below pp. 192ff. Note that these are also ἅλικες, young women of the same age who sing, in Call. Aet. III, fr. 75.42f. Pf., the marriage song for their companion Kydippe.
[ back ] 36. On this subject see below pp. 158f.
[ back ] 37. Paus. 5.16.2.
[ back ] 38. Aristoph. Lys. 641ff.; see Brelich’s long commentary on this difficult passage, Paides, pp. 230ff. and 265ff.; Brelich (p. 273) explains the contradictions in this passage when compared with other sources by certain modifications added to the system during the course of history. C. Sourvinou, “Aristophanes, Lysistrata, 641–647,” CQ 65, 1971, pp. 339–342, suggested there are only two age categories in this passage expressed by the terms arrephoria and arkteia; the terms aletrides and kanephoroi would then refer to the sacred functions corresponding to the two categories; see also, by the same author, a review of Brelich, Paides, JHS 91, 1971, pp. 172–177 (pp. 174f.), and Girls’ Transitions, pp. 136ff. In contrast, Vidal-Naquet, Faire de l’histoire III, pp. 153f. = Le chasseur noir, pp. 197f., thinks it is simply a comic pastiche.
[ back ] 39. Sch. Theocr. 2.66 (pp. 283f. Wendel); this remark also goes for the duties of the arkteia if one agrees with Harp. s.v. ἀρκτεῦσαι (pp. 58, 4f. Dindorf): τὸ καθιερωθῆναι πρὸ γάμων τὰς παρθένους τῇ Ἀρτέμιδι …; see Brelich, Paides, pp. 286ff. For the age of the kanephoros, see Brulé, La fille d’Athènes, pp. 321f. and 405f.
[ back ] 40. Call. Dian. 13f.
[ back ] 41. Xen. Eph. 1.2.2ff.
[ back ] 42. Eur. Phoen. 1265; elsewhere, an expression such as χοροιθαλέας κούρας, ‘the young girls who flourish in the choruses’ (AP 6.287.3), shows linguistically the connection between the semantic features ‘adolescence’ + ‘female’ and ‘choral performance.’
[ back ] 43. Chantraine, Formation, pp. 339f., 341f. and 355ff.; Risch, Wortbildung, pp. 141f. and 146ff.; Schwyzer, Gr. Gr. I, p. 507.
[ back ] 44. Eur. IA 1054ff.; Pind. P. 9.112f.; Ant. Lib. 9.1. See also Call. Dian. 237, who mentions a chorus formed of Ἀμαζονίδες (instead of Ἀμαζόνες); perhaps this term was formed on analogy with names of other choruses of young women: see Bornmann, Hymnus in Dianam, pp. 113f. On the problem posed by the etymology of Πλειάδες, see J. Ilberg in Roscher, s.v. Pleiades, col. 2555f.
[ back ] 45. Call. Del. 256ff.: see below pp. 104ff.; Alc. fr. 130.32ff. V: see below pp. 122f.; Hom. Il. 9.129 has the form Λεσβίδας.
[ back ] 46. Ps. Hes. Scut. 206, Bacch. 1.1ff. (Πι]ε̣ρίδες), Pind. I. 1.65, etc.; Pind. I. 2.34, see Hes. Theog. 1 and Ibyc. fr. S151.24 P (Ἑλικων̣ίδ[ες]); Alcm. fr. 3.1 P = 26.1 C, see Hes. Theog. 25, 52, etc. Verg. Aen. 1.499f.; Call. Dian. 15, see A.R. 3.882.
[ back ] 47. Hom. Od. 6.105; Eur. IA 1056f., chorus of the Νηρῆος κόραι, also in Bacch. 17.102f.; Call. Lav. Pall. 33f.; cf. also the passage just cited of Bacch. 1.1ff.: Δ[ιὸς ὑ-]ψιμέδοντος παρθένοι, | [… Πι]ε̣ρίδες.
[ back ] 48. For the various names of the Muses, see Roscher, Suppl. 1, pp. 176ff.; daughters of the Lydians, Autocr. fr. 1 KA. It is possible that the etymology of κοῦρος, to be compared with κόρος, the branch, in a way expresses metaphorically the line of parentage: see R. Merkelbach, “ΚΟΡΟΣ,” ZPE 8, 1971, p. 80, who follows among others Chantraine, Dict. étym., s.v. κόρος (2), and below, p. 170 n. 249.
[ back ] 49. Xen. Eph. 1.2.2ff.; see Nilsson, Gr. Feste, pp. 244f., and below pp. 93ff.
[ back ] 50. Paus. 7.20.1f.: see below p. 137.
[ back ] 51. Bacch. 13.91 ff.: see below pp. 86f.; note that Bacchylides, line 89, describes the friends forming the chorus as ἀγχίδομος, showing that the girls all come from the same village or from the same region and thus confirming their geographic association; on this term and the word ἄθυρσις, see H. Maehler, Bakchylides, Leiden 1982, II, pp. 266f.; see also Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.21.2, who reports that at Falerii choruses of young girls sang local hymns to Hera (ᾠδαῖς πατρίοις, just as the Argive women did at Argos: but Nilsson, Gr. Feste, p. 46 n. 5, has reservations about the credibility of the examples offered by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
[ back ] 52. Call. Dian. 13 and Del. 306: see also Hsch. s.v. Δύμαιναι (Δ 2600 Latte): αἱ ἐν Σπάρτῃ χορίτιδες Βάκχαι; other parallels in Nonnus: see Bornmann, Dianam, p. 12.
[ back ] 53. Chantraine, Formation, pp. 339f.
[ back ] 54. It is also possible that χορῖτις was formed in the same way as ἱερῖτις or ἱερεῖτις (Aesch. fr. 93 Radt, see Hsch. s.v. ἱερῖτιν [Ι 287 Latte]); Chantraine, Formation, p. 340, derives this word from the verb ἱερεύω; χορῖτις could then have been formed on χορεύω; in the case of ἱερῖτις though, the corresponding masculine form *ἱερεύτης does not exist.
[ back ] 55. Pind. P. 3.17f.; Bacch. 13.83ff.: see R. C. Jebb, Bacchylides, Cambridge 1905, pp. 341f.; Verg. Aen. 11.532f., glossed by Macr. Sat. 5.22.1ff., who uses the terms socia and comes.
[ back ] 56. Call. Aet. III, fr. 75.42f. Pf.
[ back ] 57. Aristoph. Thesm. 1015; see line 1029ff.
[ back ] 58. Hom. Il. 5.325f.: Sthenelos entrusts Diomedes’ horses to Deipylos, ἑτάρῳ φίλῳ, ὃν περί πάσης τῖεν ὀμηλικίης, ὅτι οἱ φρεσὶν ἄρτια ᾔδη; Od. 3.363f.: Telemachus’ retinue is made up of ἑταῖροι, φιλότητι νεώτεροι ἄνδρες ἕπονται, πάντες ὁμηλικίη μεγαθύμου Τηλεμάχοιο; see also Il. 3.174f., Od. 15.196ff., 22.208f., etc.
[ back ] 59. See i.a. Jeanmaire, Couroi, pp. 97ff.; C. Talamo, “Per le origini dell’eteria greca,” PP 16, 1961, pp. 297–303; and H. J. Kakridis, La notion de l’amitié et de l’hospitalité chez Homère, Thessaloniki 1963, pp. 47ff., also below p. 218 n. 42.
[ back ] 60. M. P. Nilsson interprets this relationship as vassalage in “Das Homerische Königtum,” SPAW 1927, pp. 23–40 (= Opuscula Selecta II, Lund 1952, pp. 871–897, partic. pp. 881ff.); see also by the same author, Homer and Mycenae, London 1933, pp. 232ff., and Kakridis, op. cit. n. 59, pp. 78ff.
[ back ] 61. Hom. Il. 4.373, 13.653, 23.77, Od. 12.33, etc.; see Benveniste, Institutions I, pp. 341f., and later, in the context of the developing polis, see W. Donlan, “Pistos Philos Hetairos,” in T. J. Figueira and G. Nagy, Theognis of Megara: Poetry and the Polis, Baltimore-London 1985, pp. 223–244.
[ back ] 62. See Ferri, RIA 3, pp. 299ff.; Ferri concludes however that the circular and square choral formations are both of melic origin (p. 322); on the form of the tragic chorus, see Pickard-Cambridge, Festivals, pp. 239ff.
[ back ] 63. Sch. AB Hom. Il. 18.590 and Call. Del. 310ff.; on Theseus’ chorus, see below pp. 53ff.; on the circle formed by the chorus round the altar, see Latte, Salt., p. 71: to the references given by Latte Sapph. fr. 154 V can be added. On the idea of “weaving” a chorus, see also Luc. Salt. 12, who describes the dance called the “necklace” (ὅρμος); it is a circular dance performed by ephebes and young virgins who mingle their respective qualities (ἐκ σωφροσύνης καὶ ἀνδρείας πλεκόμενον): see below pp. 57f., with n. 145. Nonnus expresses the same idea with the neologism χοροπλεκής: he speaks of marriage hymns that weave the choruses (χοροπλεκέων ὑμεναίων, 6.49) and of Pyrrhichos the Cretan who directed the Corybants, chorus weavers (ἡγεμόνευε χοροπλεκέων Κορυβάντων, 14.33); the chorus of the Corybants includes the feature ‘circularity’ (κυκλάδος ἐστήσαντο σακεσπάλον ἅλμα χορείης, 44.29); see Alcm. fr. 33 P = 200 C = Anon. I ad Arat. 2 (p. 91, 11 Maass), discussed below pp. 38f.
[ back ] 64. Eur. IT 427ff., IA 1055f. and HF 687ff.; see Aristoph. Thesm. 966f.: the chorus of the Thesmophoria intends to follow the rhythm of a circular dance in honor of Apollo, Artemis, and Hera (εὐκύκλου χορείας εὐφυᾶ στῆσαι βάσιν), before dancing the dance of Dionysus.
[ back ] 65. Orph. H. 43.8, cf. H. 55.21: κυκλίαισι χορείαις; H. Ven. 117f.; Call. Dian. 170ff. and 237ff.
[ back ] 66. Eur. Hel. 1312f.
[ back ] 67. Hsch. s.v. χορός (Χ 645 Schmidt): κύκλος, στέφανος; on the metaphorical meaning of στέφανος, alluding to a circular form, see Blech, Kranz, pp. 27ff.
[ back ] 68. Hom. Il. 18.567ff. and 590ff.: see sch. ad loc. cit. below n. 63; Od. 8.256ff., see also Od. 4.17ff.
[ back ] 69. Ps. Hes. Scut. 201ff.; Pind. N. 5.22ff.; PMG fr. ad. 939 P.
[ back ] 70. Eur. Tr. 551ff.; PLF fr. inc. 16 LP; Ant. Lib. 1.1, for this legend see below pp. 93f.
[ back ] 71. Call. Del. 300f.: σὲ μὲν περί τ’ ἀμφί τε νῆσοι κύκλον ἐποιήσαντο καὶ ὡς χορὸν ἀμφεβάλοντο; Long. 2.29.
[ back ] 72. Tölle, Reigentänze, pp. 58ff. and 62ff.
[ back ] 73. Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 283ff. and 289ff.; according to Webster, Chorus, pp. 8f., the processional type appears only in the seventh century.
[ back ] 74. Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 291f. and 293ff.
[ back ] 75. Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 286ff.
[ back ] 76. Vatican 126 (188 Crowhurst); plate in A. Lane, Greek Pottery, London 1948, pl. 37.
[ back ] 77. Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 120ff. and 289ff.
[ back ] 78. Hannover Kestner Mus. 1961.21, plate in Tölle, Reigentänze, pl. 28a; for the Palaikastro group, see Lawler, Dance, pp. 32ff. with pl. 7, and pp. 53f.; according to T. B. L. Webster, From Mycenae to Homer, London 1958, p. 47, this Minoan terra-cotta might represent Apollo and the chorus of the Muses.
[ back ] 79. Brinkmann, JVA 130, p. 127, in place of this classification, gives a corresponding distinction between Gangreigen (προσόδια) and Standreigen (στάσιμα). This designation is used by Wegner, Musik, p. U59; but it is awkward in that it introduces the tragic connotations of στάσιμον.
[ back ] 80. Anon. I ad Arat. 2 (p. 91, 11 Maass) = Alcm. fr. 33 P = 200 C.
[ back ] 81. The sch. A Hom. Il. 18.590 use the same term to describe Theseus forming his chorus in Crete, see above n. 63; on the meaning of στοῖχος for writing, see J. Svenbro, “La cigale et les fourmis: Voix et écriture dans une allégorie grecque,” in Lectiones Boëthianae VII, Stockholm 1990.
[ back ] 82. Poll. 4.108f.; Pickard-Cambridge, Festivals, pp. 239ff. is wrong to call the ζυγά files and the στοῖχοι ranks. It is evident that the chorus was supposed to appear on stage in rows (κατὰ ζυγά), three to a row in tragedy, four to a row in comedy. It then had to turn to face the spectators in such a way that the στοῖχοι became rows and the ζυγά lines. This is why Photius, Lex. s.v. τρίτος ἀριστεροῦ (II, p. 227 Naber), explains that the chorus leader’s (πρωτοστάτης) place was in the middle of the first line (στοῖχος).
[ back ] 83. Hom. Il. 18.590ff., see below pp. 56f.; Tölle, Reigentänze, p. 60, identifies the choreographic figure ἐπὶ στίχας with the choral representations classed as V Formations by Crowhurst (= group VI in Tölle); this is an error of interpretation.
[ back ] 84. For the meanings of these words, see W. Burkert, “Στοιχεῖον: Eine semasiologische Studie,” Philologus 103, 1959, pp. 167–197 (pp. 180f.), who cites the work of his predecessors on the subject.
[ back ] 85. Xen. Eph. 1.2.3 and 1.3.1, discussed below pp. 95f.
[ back ] 86. Xen. Cyr. 3.3.70, see also 1.6.18. Given the date of composition of the Cyropedia, it is not impossible that the tragic chorus served as the comparison here, since its rectangular form corresponds better to the phalanx. Perhaps it is the opposite considering that on analogy with the image of the phalanx, the chorus members of the τετράγωνοι χοροί were called Λακωνίσται: Timaeus FGrHist. 566 F 140.
[ back ] 87. Aristid. Or. 46.156 (II, p. 211 Dindorf); on the function of χοροποιός, see below pp. 46f.
[ back ] 88. See Pickard-Cambridge, Festivals, pp. 240f.
[ back ] 89. Plut. Mor. 208de and 219e, see also Mor. 149a and Xen. Ages. 2.17.
[ back ] 90. Strab. 10.4.21; see below p. 251.
[ back ] 91. Bacch. 11.112, Pind. P. 9.114, fr. 52b. 99 M, etc.; see also the proposal of Wilamowitz to see in the τελλόμεναι χορόν of the fr. dub. 61.1 M of Bacch. a form στελλόμεναι which would be equivalent to ἱστάμεναι; see Hdt. 3.48, Aristoph. Av. 220, Nu. 271, Call. Dian. 242, AP 6.57.7f., 9.189.3, and Paus. 5.16.6; the use of the verb συνίστημι in this same sense in sch. Theocr. 13.25 (p. 262 Wendel) = Call. fr. 693 Pf. to describe the choral dance that the Pleiades choreograph for the first time, emphasizes the collective character (συν-) of the group (see Choeurs II, pp. 75f.); see also Pherecyd. FGrHist. 3 F 120. On the words χοροστάτης, χοροστατέω, χοροστασία and χοροστάς, see below pp. 45f.
[ back ] 92. Aristot. Met. 1018b 26ff. and Phot. Lex. s.v. τρίτος ἀριστεροῦ (II, p. 227 Naber).
[ back ] 93. H. Hom. 27.15; Theocr. 13.43. For the tragic chorus, we also find the verb συγκροτεῖν, to forge, assemble, compose; see An. Gr. I, p. 72, 17f. Bekker.
[ back ] 94. Chantraine, Dict. étym., s.v. ἀραρίσκω, and my own study, “Die Komposita mit ἀρτι- im fruhgriechischen Epos,” MH 34, 1977, pp. 209–220.
[ back ] 95. See above p. 34 with n. 63.
[ back ] 96. Plat. Leg. 653dff.
[ back ] 97. See above n. 3.
[ back ] 98. Plat. Leg. 665a. On this pedagogical function of the choral performance, see below pp. 222ff.
[ back ] 99. Hom. Od. 6.99ff. For an exact definition of the choral aspect of the ball game played by Nausicaa and her followers, see below pp. 87f.; in order to qualify the beauty of Dido, Virgil, Aen. 1.498ff., uses the same comparison with Artemis who surpasses her train of Nymphs. Perhaps it is in this sense that we should interpret the passage by Bacch. 13.84ff. describing a girl carrying her head high (ὑψαυχής), singing of the glory of the Nymph Aegina and leaping like a young doe among her comrades.
[ back ] 100. H. Ap. 194ff.
[ back ] 101. Sapph. fr. 96 V, see fr. 34.1f. V: ἄστερες μὲν ἀμφὶ κάλαν σελάνναν | ἂψ ἀπυκρύπτοισι φάεννον εἶδος, with Page’s commentary, Sappho, pp. 89f.
[ back ] 102. Theocr. 18.22ff. and sch. ad loc. (p. 332 Wendel); Aristoph. Lys. 1315; see also Sen. Med. 75ff. featuring the metaphor of the sun’s light; Wilamowitz, Lyriker, p. 92, adds to the description of Helen’s beauty in Theocritus her quality as choregos; extrapolating from Arg. Theocr. 18 (p. 331 Wendel), he attributes this tradition to Stesichorus (fr. 189 P). Perhaps fr. ad. 926(e) P of the PMG gives an analogous situation. One girl (νεᾶνις) seems to detach herself from the rest, and it is possible that one of her attributes, termed εὐπρεπής, distinguishes her from her companions; the idea of noble beauty characterizing Helen seems to have been transferred from the girl to some attribute that “envelops” her (νιν ἀμφέπει); D. L. Page, Select Papyri III, London-Cambridge, Mass. 41962, p. 395, thinks that this fragment could have come from a partheneion rather than from a dithyramb, as is the case for the other fragments in the same papyrus.
[ back ] 103. Xen. Eph. 1.2.5. On the tendency of the Greeks to entrust the position of director to the most beautiful people, see the anecdotes recounted by Ath. 13.565ff.
[ back ] 104. Hsch. s.v. χορηγός (X 641 Schmidt), see also s.v. χοραγείων, χοραγός and χορηγία (X 631, 632 and 638 Schmidt).
[ back ] 105. Pickard-Cambridge, Festivals, pp. 75ff. and 241. See also B. Gentili, Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo III, Roma 1956, col. 1451f. On the semantic and terminological modifications in the words describing the chorus leader introduced by the arrival of tragedy, see E. Reisch, RE 3 (1899), s.v. χορηγός, col. 2423.
[ back ] 106. Sud. s.v. χορηγός (X 400 Adler).
[ back ] 107. Ath. 14.633ab; this piece of evidence dates from the first century B.C.
[ back ] 108. P. Chantraine, Etudes sur le vocabulaire grec, Paris 1958, pp. 88ff., and also Dict. étym., s.v. ἄγω and ἡγέομαι.
[ back ] 109. Alcm. frr. 1.44, 10 (b). 11 and 15 P = 3.44, 82a. 3 and b. 2 C, see 4.6.2 P = 62.2 C (see below p. 58); Aristoph. Lys. 1315, see also PMG fr. ad. 1027 (d) P; on this terminology, see now Nagy, Pindar’s Homer, pp. 350ff.
[ back ] 110. Plut. Mor. 208de, 219e, and 149a; Xen. Ages. 2.17 speaks of χοροποιός (to the Hyakinthia). These terms can also be used in a dramatic context to refer to the koryphaios: see Poll. 4.106, and A. Müller, Lehrbuch der Griechischen Bühnenalterthümer, Freiburg i. Br. 1886, p. 207. The latter however makes no distinction between lyric poetry and drama. On the meaning of (ἐξ)άρχων, see Mullen, Choreia, pp. 12ff.
[ back ] 111. Alcm. fr. 1.84 = 3.84 C; Ps. Zonar. s.v. χοροστάτης (p. 1856 Tittmann).
[ back ] 112. Ath. 15.678b; Xen. Mem. 3.4.3ff.: ἀλλ’ οὐδὲν ὅμοιόν ἐστι χοροῦ τε καὶ στρατεύματος προεστάναι, an opinion that is then refuted by Socrates who concludes that ἀγαθὸς ἂν εἴη προστάτης, εἴτε χοροῦ εἴτε πόλεως εἴτε στρατεύματος προστατεύοι.
[ back ] 113. Schwyzer, Gr. Gr. I, pp. 429, 434f. and 453f., and Risch, Wortbildung, pp. 194ff.
[ back ] 114. Aristoph. Av. 217ff.; see also AP 6.57.7f. See also the definition in the Suda s.v. Στησίχορος (Σ 1095 Adler), this poet’s name: ἐκλήθη δὲ ὁ Στησίχορος ὅτι πρῶτος κιθαρῳδίᾳ χορὸν ἔστησεν; on this subject see the inscription cited below, n. 131, and Nagy, Pindar’s Homer, pp. 362ff.
[ back ] 115. Call. Lav. Pall. 66f., see AP 9.603.2; Hsch. s.v. χοροστασία (X 646 Schmidt); χορός, and χοροστατῶν (X 647 Schmidt): χοροῦ κατάρχων; Sud. s.v. χοροστατῶν (X 411 Adler) gives the same definition as Hsch.; in Callimachus, fr. 305 Pf., we find the compound χοροστάς, formation in -αδ- from χορόν and ἱστάναι (see Schwyzer, Gr. Gr. 1, p. 507), used to qualify the festivals celebrated in honor of Dionysus Limnaios; these festivals are defined literally as “organizing choruses,” and are the occasion for choral performances to take place.
[ back ] 116. Plut. Mor. 208d: see Xen. Ages. 2.17; Orph. H. 34.6; Aristid. Or. 46.158 (II, p. 211 Dindorf); see above pp. 38ff. Parallel with χοροστασία, Poll. 4.106 mentions a term χοροποιία.
[ back ] 117. Hes. Theog. 7f.
AP 6.57.7f.; Eur. Phoen. 786ff.; see Aristoph. Ran. 353: χοροποιὸν ἥβαν; parallel to Apollo’s activity as χοροποιός, cf. also that of Pan: Soph. Aj. 697. On this term see E. Reisch, RE 3 (1899), s.v. χοροποιός.
Ael. NA 11.1= Hecat. Abd. FGrHist. 264 F 12, see 15.5; Poll. 4.106.
Sud. s.v. χοροδέκτης (X 407 Adler): ὁ τοῦ χοροῦ προεξάρχων, ὥσπερ οὖν παρά τινος χοροδέκτου λαβεῖν τὴν στάσιν; see E. Reisch, RE 3 (1899), s.v. χορολέκτης, who forces the evidence by adding to the function of Ordner des Chores of the χορολέκτης, that of Vorsänger und Lehrer. The original meaning of the word suggests the function of selecting the chorus participants as performed by the chorus master in performances of the dithyramb; the word, though, is never used in this context: see Pickard-Cambridge, Festivals, p. 76 n. 5.
[ back ] 121. Eur. Tr. 146ff.: one of the mss. of Euripides’ text has παιδός instead of ποδός; in this case Hecuba would share her role of chorus leader with a child piper or dancer; she would be responsible for directing the singing, and the child for giving the rhythm or melody.
[ back ] 122. 1G XII.2.484.18ff.; see Thuc. 3.3.3. Notice that A. Aloni, “Proemio e funzione proemiale nella poesia greca arcaica,” in Lirica greca e latina: Atti del Convegno di studi polacco-italiano, Roma 1990, pp. 99–130, would consider as prooimia all the initial lines in the compositions of Greek archaic poetry in which the verb (ἐξ)άρχεσθαι is used.
[ back ] 123. Hom. Il. 1.601ff., Ps. Hes. Scut. 201ff., H. Ap. 189ff.; for the meaning of ἐξάρχειν, see Davison, Arch.-Pind., pp. 9ff., and Nagy, Pindar’s Homer, pp. 362ff.; on the musical scene of H. Ap., see Lonsdale, Dance, pp. 52ff. For the iconography of Apollo kitharôidos or leading the Muses, see O. Palagaia, LIMC s.v. Apollo, pp. 200ff., and G. Kokkorou-Alevras, ibid., pp. 268ff. On the meaning of the term προοίμιον as prelude, see M. Constantini and J. Lallot, “Le prooímion est-il un proème?,” in Etudes de littérature ancienne III, Paris 1987, pp. 13–27.
[ back ] 124. Pind. N. 5.22ff., Aristoph. Av. 123ff. Nagy, Pindar’s Homer, pp. 355–356, has shown that in the Pindaric description the Muses begin by singing a προοίμιον, a prelude.
[ back ] 125. Pind. P. 1.1ff., with the comments of O. Kollmann, Das Prooimion der ersten Pythischen Ode Pindars, Wien-Berlin 1989, pp. 33ff., and of C. Brillante, “La musica e il canto nella Pitica I di Pindaro,” QUCC 70, 1992, pp. 7–21.
[ back ] 126. On this whole passage and on the complementarity of ἀναβολή and προοίμιον, see now Nagy, Pindar’s Homer, pp. 353ff., who comments on this citharodic performance; see also A. Gostoli, “L’inno nella citarodia greca arcaica,” in Cassio e Cerri (edd.), L’inno, pp. 95–105; Koller, Musik, pp. 61ff., has attempted to show that the instrumental prelude performed by Apollo to introduce the chorus is analogous to the sung prooimion which often preceded choral performances in rites. Apollo would thus be the model of the κιθαριστής and would function as chorus leader by virtue of the κιθαρῳδία. But the choral performances with the lyre found in Homer (Demodokos: Od. 8.261ff. and 370ff.; song of Linos: Il. 18.566ff., see below pp. 80f.; for a marriage: Od. 23.133ff. and 144ff.) show that the citharodic performance is characterized by ‘song’ and ‘instrumental accompaniment,’ whereas only the latter term is used for Apollo’s musical activity. On the Homeric citharodic performances see H. Abert, RE 11 (1921), s.v. κιθαρῳδία, col. 530f., and Davison, Arch.-Pind., pp. xixf.; on citharody in general see M.L. West, “Stesichorus,” CQ 65, 1971, pp. 302–314 (pp. 307f.), and Pavese, Tradizioni, pp. 230ff. If, in certain traditions (see Procl. ap. Phot. Bibl. 320 a 3ff.), Apollo appears as the founder of νόμος κιθαρῳδικός, the sch. Pind. N. 5.24 (III, p. 94 Drachmann) confirm that all that can be attributed to the god are the melodies and not the songs which introduced the choral performances: see Severyns, Recherches II, pp. 139ff.
[ back ] 127. This definition of the leader’s function is similar to that given by Jul. Ep. 186 for the activity of the χοροστάτης; the etymological analysis of the term gave the semantic feature ‘to organize’; its use in the context adds ‘to begin.’
[ back ] 128. Paus. 5.18.4: see Hitzig-Bluemmer, Paus. II, p. 407. On Apollo as chorus conductor, see Pind. fr. 94c M (ὁ Μοισαγέτας με καλεῖ χορεῦσαι [Ἀ]̣π̣όλ̣λων̣[, which might represent the beginning of one of the Separate Partheneia of Pindar), Sapph. fr. 208 V and Eur. Tr. 328f. (ὁ χορὸς ὅσιος· ἄγε σύ, Φοῖβε, νῦν). On Apollo as choregos, see Koller, Musik, pp. 58ff. The chorus in Eur. Alc. 582ff. expresses the semantic feature ‘circularity’ in its evocation of the young fawns forming a chorus round Apollo who is playing the lyre (χόρευσε δ’ ἀμφὶ σὰν κιτάραν).
[ back ] 129. See H. Ap. 182ff., and C. F. Russo, Hesiodi Scutum, Firenze 1965, pp. 125ff.; Apollo can also accompany the melody played on the lyre with his voice: see H. Merc. 475ff. and 500ff. (μέλπεο καὶ κιθάριζε / θεὸς δ’ ὑπὸ καλὸν ἄεισεν); in these examples, Apollo receives the lyre from Hermes but does not conduct a chorus; the passages cited on this by Wegner, Musik, p. U32, are not pertinent.
[ back ] 130. Plat. Leg. 654a and 665a; on the importance of rhythm in the educational function of the chorus, see below pp. 222f.
[ back ] 131. Alcm. fr. 14 (a) P = 4 C; Stes. fr. 250 P, cited by Ath. 5.180e; see also Himer. Or. 9.3. We should interpret in the same way the inscription on the kylix in the style of Duris found at Naukratis: στησίχορον ὕμνον ἄγοισαι (PMG fr. ad. 938(c) P, plate in JHS 25, 1905, pl. IV, 5); the subject of ἄγοισαι is probably Μοῖσαι: the song interpreted by the Muses serves as a prelude to the choral performance.
[ back ] 132. H. Hom. 27.12ff.; on the figure of Artemis see above p. 42.
[ back ] 133. The function of Pan as χοροποιός has been mentioned: Soph. Aj. 698; Eur. Phoen. 788 defines the Graces as χοροποιοί on Dionysus as choregos, see PMG fr. ad. 1027(d) P and Soph. Ant. 1147: but the leadership of Dionysus has to do with the dithyramb and does not lie within the bounds of my corpus.
[ back ] 134. Sch. AB Hom. Il. 18.590, see above p. 34.; Call. Del. 307ff.; the myth was probably already treated by Sappho, see fr. 206 V.
[ back ] 135. Plut. Thes. 21; Poll. 4. 101; on the political reasons for the legend’s transferring Theseus’ chorus from Crete to Delos, see Calame, Thésée, pp. 118ff. and 424ff. The “horned” altar mentioned by Plutarch corresponds to the altar at Delos in Callimachus; for a description, see Call. Ap. 58ff. (where the altar of the horns is as well “weaved” by Apollo; ἔπλεκεν) with the commentary of F. Williams, Callimachus, Hymn to Apollo, Oxford 1978, pp. 59ff.; the latter was the central altar of the island, but not an altar to Aphrodite as some have thought: see E. Cahen, “L’autel des cornes et l’hymne à Delos de Callimaque,” REG 36, 1923, pp. 14–25, W. Deonna, “Les cornes gauches des autels de Dréros et de Délos,” REA 42, 1940, pp. 111–126, and Mineur, Call. Del., pp. 241ff.
[ back ] 136. See also Hsch. s.v. Δηλιακὸς βωμός, (Δ 817 Latte); L. B. Lawler, “The Dance of the Ancient Mariners,” TAPhA 75, 1944, pp. 20–33, states that the rite of circumambulation described by Hesychius belongs to another festival; it would probably be more exact to say that this rite could be a different sequence in the same festival: see Call. Del. 316ff., with the sch. ad loc. (II, p. 73 Pfeiffer), who mentions a related rite, E. Cahen, Les Hymnes de Callimaque: Commentaire explicatif et critique, Paris 1930, pp. 213f., Bruneau, Cultes de Délos, pp. 26ff.; Mineur, Call. Del., pp. 247ff.; and Calame, Thésée, p. 162.
[ back ] 137. Paus. 5.19.1; Firenze MA 4209 (189 = 172 Crowhurst) (pl. in K. Schefold, Frühgriechische Sagenbilder, München 1964, pll. 50 and 51); for a geometric representation of this chorus, see J. N. Coldstream, “A Figured Geometric Oinochoe from Italy,” BICS 15, 1968, pp. 86–96; other documents in Brommer, Theseus, pp. 83ff., and Calame, Thésée, pp. 207f.
[ back ] 138. K. F. Johansen, Thésée et la danse à Delos, København 1945, pp. 47ff., places the scene in Crete; he separates completely the rite described by the scholia to the Iliad that takes place in Crete, from the ritual celebrated around the altar at Delos; see also C. Dugas, “L’évolution de la légende de Thésée,” REG 56, 1943, pp. 1–24 (pp. 10f.), who sees in the scene on the François vase a dance preceding the slaying of the Minotaur and not one that would follow it, as Johansen supposes. The opposing theory was supported by H. von Steuben, among others, in Frühe Sagendarstellungen in Korinth und Athen, Berlin 1968, p. 36 with n. 107, and H. Herter, RE Suppl. 13 (1973), s.v. Theseus, col. 1143, who gives the whole bibliography pertaining to this. On Theseus represented without a beard, see the vase cited below n. 141 and Brommer, Theseus, p. 43; literary sources of Theseus as a young man: Cat. 64.181, Nonn. 47.300; see Calame, Thésée, pp. 186ff. In some versions of the legends, Theseus is counted as one of the seven adolescents sent to Crete: see H. Steuding in Roscher, s.v. Theseus, col. 690f., and F. Brommer, “Theseus-Deutungen II,” Arch. Anz. 1982, pp. 69–88.
[ back ] 139. Hsch. s.v. γερανουκλός (Γ 404 Latte); on this complex of rites see Nilsson, Gr. Feste, pp. 380ff.
[ back ] 140. H. Diels, Sibyllinische Blätter, Berlin 1890, pp. 91f., and Latte, Salt., pp. 68ff.
Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 293ff., see above p. 37; see München MAK 2443 (175 Crowhurst) (pl. in P. E. Arias and M. Hirmer, Tausend Jahre griechischer Vasenkunst, München 1960, pl. 50), where the circular chorus of Theseus is shown in a precise V formation; for the iconography of the mixed dance led by Theseus, see Brommer, Theseus, pp. 83ff.
[ back ] 142. L. B. Lawler, “The Geranos dance,” TAPhA 71, 1946, pp. 112–130; M. Detienne, L’écriture d’Orphée, Paris 1989, pp. 20ff. See also Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 298ff.; F. Frontisi-Ducroux, Dédale. Mythologie de l’artisan en Grèce ancienne, Paris 1975, pp. 145ff.; and Calame, Thésée, pp. 241f. The mention of a ῥυμός, a rope, in two inscriptions concerning this ritual in honor of Aphrodite has been interpreted to show that it helped the chorus members to follow the movements of the chorus: see Nilsson, Gr. Feste, pp. 380f.
[ back ] 143. Hom. Il. 18.599ff. with sch. AB Il. 18.590f., see above pp. 39f.; Eust. Il. 1166.16ff., affirms that the chorus described by Homer is identical to that of Theseus; Willetts, Cults, pp. 123ff., sees a close relationship between the two choruses; see also J. Duchemin, “Le thème du héros au labyrinthe dans la vie de Thésée,” KΩΚΑΛΟΣ 16, 1970, pp. 30–52.
[ back ] 144. In the scene described by Hom. Il. 18.590ff., two acrobats are in the center of the chorus, and it is they who perform the prelude to the song and dance (ἐξάρχοντες, lines 604f.); so one could attribute to them the role of leaders of the mixed chorus described by Homer. But the two lines mentioning this dance prelude are repeated in Od. 4.15ff.: here we see Telemachos arriving at Sparta, and the two acrobats are joined by a bard. Ath. 5.180de had already noticed this contradiction in the respective functions of the bard and of the two acrobats; he consequently proposed to correct ἐξάρχοντες by ἐξάρχοντος, the subject of which then becomes an understood ἀοιδοῦ; Athenaeus justifies this correction by affirming that the prelude is played on the lyre, in other words by the bard (τὸ γὰρ ἐξάρχειν τῆς φόρμιγγος ἴδιον). Il. 18.605 could be corrected in the same way; Kaibel does this in his edition of Athenaeus when he inserts the line of Od. 4.17 into the later citation (5.181ab) of Il. 18.603–605 (on this see Davison, Arch.-Pind., pp. 10ff.); this mixed choral arrangement could then be interpreted as a citharodic performance; for this see below pp. 80f. with n. 217. However, Luc. Salt. 13f. attributes to the two acrobats the role of leaders of the mixed chorus (see Webster, Chorus, pp. 51f.). It would be tempting to follow Athenaeus’ suggestion and have a single chorus leader, also a lyre player, conducting the chorus of Il. 18.590ff., but the literary and iconographic parallels given by Webster suggest that dancers can also perform the function of leader; then there would be two leaders in Homer, as there are in the rites at Delos.
[ back ] 145. Tölle, Reigentänze, pp. 54f., and Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 219ff.; for the metaphor of weaving, see above n. 63, and for its implications, the study of the geranos dance presented by J. Scheid and J. Svenbro, Le métier de Zeus: Mythe du tissage et du tissu dans le monde gréco-romain, Paris 1994, pp. 110ff.
[ back ] 146. Call. Del. 303ff.; on the rite of the Aphrodisia celebrated at Delos see below pp. 123ff.
[ back ] 147. Alcm. fr. 10(b). 11 and 15 P = 82a.3 and b.2 C, see also fr. 4.6.2 P = 62.2 C (see above n. 109).
[ back ] 148. Alcm. fr. 1.44 P = 3.44 C. It is probable that the color ivory mentioned in line 5f. is what characterizes the relationship between the Dioskouroi and Agesidamos; the χο[ρα]γέ of line 11 figures in the diplomatic transcription given by Page in P. Oxy. vol. 29, p. 6, only in the form of χ̣[ ]̣ε: the fact that the chorus leaders mentioned in line 15 correspond very probably to the beardless young men cited in the following line (γάρ, line 16) and the fact that Agesidamos himself is described as beardless in the commentary that follows, justify Page’s restoration and the function attributed to the young man: see Calame, Alcman, pp. 455ff. Note that Page writes the name of the chorus leader as Ἁγησίδαμος in PMG and Ἀγησίδαμος in the P. Oxy. edition.
[ back ] 149. See above pp. 27ff. and 33ff.
[ back ] 150. On this chorus see below pp. 155f.
[ back ] 151. See Choeurs II, pp. 141f.
[ back ] 152. See Choeurs II, p. 46, and Calame, Alcman, pp. 457f.
[ back ] 153. Procl. ap. Phot. Bibl. 321a 34ff. = sch. Clem. Alex. Protr. 1.10.2 (I, pp. 298f. Stählin); Pind. fr. 94b M: on the question of the classification of Pindar’s Daphnephorika in one of the books of the Partheneia or in the book of the Separate Partheneia see Choeurs II, pp. 167f.
[ back ] 154. Paus. 9.10.4. According to Schachter, Cults of Boeotia I, pp. 84f., the Daphnephoria proper, with the bearing of laurel-branches and wreaths, was a late addition to the original procession with the κωπώ.
[ back ] 155. Severyns, Recherches II, pp. 211–232, comments at length on this passage of Proclus; he vigorously denies (pp. 255f.) that the παῖς ἀμφιθαλής and the daphnephoros are identical, following Nilsson, Gr. Feste, pp. 164f.; in his critique of Wilamowitz, Pindaros, p. 433, Severyns forgets to mention that Wilamowitz also took into account the poem of Pindar, which changes the facts of a simple confrontation between the texts of Proclus and Pausanias. [ back ] The position of ἀμφιβαλής corresponds to a precise function in the rituals concerning adolescence, such as the Pyanopsia at Athens: see L. Robert, “ΑΜΦΙΘΑΛΗΣ,” Athenian Studies presented to W. S. Ferguson, Cambridge, Mass.-London 1940, pp. 509–519 (= Opera Minora Selecta I, Amsterdam 1969, pp. 633–643), who presumes a contamination between the word ἀμφιθαλής, he who has his father and mother, and the word θαλλός, the branch.
[ back ] 156. The problem of identifying fr. 94b M is an excellent example of philological kaleidoscope; if one piece is moved, the whole changes shape. Without repeating the reasons for it, here is the schema of the solution proposed by Wilamowitz, Pindaros, pp. 435f.:[[PLACEHOLDER: Aioladas = Damaina, Pagondas (carries the κωπώ for his son) = Andaisistrota, Agasicles (daphnephoros) the first girl chorus-members]] [ back ] A. Puech, Pindare IV, Paris 31961, pp. 170f., interprets Proclus’ text differently and dissociates Agasicles and his father and grandfather from the son of Damaina and his daughter. Agasicles is the παῖς ἀμφιθαλής, daphnephoros; the son of Damaina is his nearest relative who helps to carry the κωπώ; the daughter of this son is at the head of the chorus. Skepticism expressed by Farnell, Pindar, p. 427, who adopts the views of Puech; similarly by Sbordone, Athenaeum 28, pp. 33ff., who presumes an uncle/nephew relationship between the son of Damaina and Agasicles. This same hypothesis had been put forward by O. Schroeder, reviewing P. Oxy. vol. 4, I, in PhW 24, 1904, coll. 1473–1479 (coll. 1476ff.), who adds that the family of Aioladas was responsible for the chorus, in the Athenian sense of the word, at the festival of the Daphnephoria. In two recent studies, “Da una nuova ispezione di P. Oxy. IV 659 (Pindaro, Partheneia),” MPhL 2, 1977, pp. 227–31, and BICS 31, pp. 83ff., L. Lehnus proposes to read πά[τε]ρ at line 66 instead of πα[ῖ. The new genealogical tree, given by H. Maehler, Pindarus II. Fragmenta, Indices, Leipzig 1989, p. 95, would be:[[PLACEHOLDER: Aioladas, Pagondas = Andaisistrota, Agasicles (παῖς ἀ., δαφνηφόρος) Damaina (χορηγοῦσα)]] [ back ] But nothing in Pindar’s text shows that Agasicles and Damaina are such close relatives, nor that Andaisistrota is the wife of Pagondas. See also Grandolini, AFLFP 20, pp. 10ff., and F. Ferrari, “Tre papiri pindarici: in margine ai frr. 52n (a), 94a, 169a Maehler,” RFIC 119, 1991, pp. 389–405. [ back ] Moreover there is nothing to suggest that Agasicles is the child daphnephoros named by Proclus and Pausanias, unless the expressions ἀνδρὸς δ’ οὔτε γυναικὸς, ὧν θάλεσσιν ἔγκειμαι (line 36) and ἐσθλοῖς γονεῦσιν (line 40) that form the context in which Agasicles is mentioned could be understood as a paraphrase of ἀμφιθαλής! On the other hand, it will not do to forget that a gap of 8 or 23 lines separates the mention of Aioladas and Pagondas from that of Agasicles. Are they all members of the same family? [ back ] Let us remember that Aioladas is again praised in another Daphnephorikon of Pindar of which we have but a short fragment (fr. 94a.11ff. M).
[ back ] 157. See below p. 229.
[ back ] 158. See the suggestion by Treu, RE Suppl. 11, col. 26.
[ back ] 159. Eust. Il. 314.42f.: ἀγέρωχοι δὲ οἱ ἄγαν γέρας ἔχοντες … • δηλοῖ δὲ … οὕτως ἡ λέξις τοὺς σεμνούς, ὡς Ἀλκμὰν βούλεται; see Alcm. fr. 5.1(b).4 P = 79c C, and Calame, Alcman, pp. 429f. and 458f.
Alcm. fr. 32 P = 208 C; Sud. s.v. ψιλεύς (Ψ 101 Adler): ἐπ’ ἄκρου χοροῦ ἱστάμενος, ὅθεν καὶ φιλόψιλος παρὰ Ἀλκμᾶνι, ἡ φιλοῦσα ἐπ’ ἄκρου χοροῦ ἵστασθαι; hence Porson’s correction in Phot. Lex. s.v. ψιλεύς (II, p. 268 Naber), but the text gives only the last two words of the gloss; Hsch. s.v. ψιλεῖς (Ψ 197 Schmidt) is certainly in error when defining this lemma as οἱ ὕστατοι χορεύοντες; note the definition of the gloss ψιλάκερ (see n. 161) immediately preceding. Given the use of φιλόψιλος by Alcman, Pickard-Cambridge (Festivals p. 241) was probably wrong to relate the term ψιλεῖς to the members of the tragic chorus.
Hsch. s.v. ψιλάκερ (Ψ 196 Schmidt, see Schmidt’s note ad. loc.) ψι- for πτι- in Laconian dialect: see F. Bechtel, Die griechischen Dialekte II, Berlin 1923, pp. 319f.; on -ερ for -ες in Laconian words in Hesychius, see Bechtel, ibid., pp. 329f.
Paus. 3.19.6: ψίλα γὰρ καλοῦσιν οἱ Δωριεῖς τὰ πτερά; see Hitzig-Bluemmer, Paus. I, pp. 835f., and Wide, Kulte, p. 162; on Alcm. fr. 3.66ff. P = 26.66ff. C, see the commentary by Lobel, P. Oxy. vol. 24, p. 16, and Choeurs II, p. 105.
Frisk, GrEW, s.v. ψιλός, relates to the signified ‘naked’ the epiclesis ψίλαξ and the choral appellation ψιλεῖς.
[ back ] 164. Ath. 15.678bc = Sosib. FGrHist. 595 F 5; see Blech, Kranz, p. 310; H. T. Wade-Gery, “Note on the Origin of the Spartan Gymnopaidiai,” CQ 43, 1949, pp. 79–81 (p. 80 n. 3), thinks that these wreaths were made of feathers and that the people who wore them, chorus leaders, are called psileis; however, note that the palm tree, along with the laurel, is one of the trees specifically dedicated to Apollo, the protector of the Gymnopaidiai: see Eur. Hec. 458ff., IT 1098ff., and H. Ap. 116ff. On the bronze figurine found at Amyklai representing a lyre player wearing a wreath, who might be one of the chorus leaders of the Gymnopaidiai, see P. Wolters, “Eine spartanische Apollostatue,” JDAI 11, 1896, pp. 1–10 (p. 7ff.). On the Gymnopaidiai, see below pp. 203f.
[ back ] 165. Luc. Salt. 11f.; see above n. 63.
[ back ] 166. Xen. Eph. 1.2.1ff.: cf. above p. 29.
[ back ] 167. Timae. FGrHist. 566 F 131; Hier. Jov. 1, 42 (XXIII, p. 285 Migne).
[ back ] 168. Hdt. 5.83; other similar rituals quoted by Nilsson Gr. Feste, pp. 413ff., and by Burkert, Religion, pp. 172f.; see below, p. 139.
[ back ] 169. Ps. Hes. Scut. 274ff.; Call. Dian. 240ff.; Theocr. 18.3 and 7.
[ back ] 170. AP 9.189 = Sapph. test. 59 Campbell. To add to the examples cited in this paragraph is a metaphorical use of the relationship chorus/chorus leader: in Eur. Hel. 1454f., the ship that is to take Helen to Sparta is referred to as the chorus leader of the dolphins who make beautiful choruses (χοραγὲ τῶν καλλιχόρων δελφίνων); the image of the chorus of dolphins is repeated in PMG fr. ad. 939.4ff. P, with the animals forming a circle round Poseidon (χορεύουσι κύκλωι).
[ back ] 171. See below pp. 80ff.; this description of how Sappho’s chorus acts is a proof of the irrelevance for archaic poetry of the modern distinction (going back to Plat. Leg. 764de) between choral and monodic poetry: see Harvey, CQ 49, p. 159 n. 3, G. M. Kirkwood, Early Greek Monody: The History of a Poetic Type, Ithaca-London 1974, pp. 9ff., and M. Davies, “Monody, Choral Lyric, and the Tyranny of the Hand-Book,” CQ 82, 1988, pp. 52–64.
[ back ] 172. Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 231ff., see Tölle, Reigentänze, p. 62; a vase from Delos shows a chorus made up of fifteen girls led by a female lyre player who stands in the center of the circle: see C. Dugas and C. Rhomaios, Délos XXI: Les vases attiques à figures rouges, Paris 1952, pl. LVII with pll. V–VII. In this paragraph, as in the study of written documents, I have not differentiated between the various kinds of pipe and lyre: on the use of the terms κίθαρις, φόρμιγξ, αὐλός, and so on, and the forms taken on by the signified of these terms in iconography, see Wegner, Musik, pp. U2ff. and U19ff.
[ back ] 173. Cambridge MCA 345 (49 Tölle, with pl. 18; 72 Wegner with pl. U IIb); unfortunately, the photographs of the vase published by Tölle and Wegner do not show the number of members in the chorus.
[ back ] 174. See Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 268ff.; for Tölle, Reigentänze, p. 67, it is quite simply impossible to represent the act of singing. According to Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 273f., one should not even apply the feature ‘song’ to the chorus of Muses on the François vase in the scene of the wedding of Thetis and Peleus; only ‘dance’ and ‘musical accompaniment’ would be visible: Florence MA 4209 (189 = 172 Crowhurst); for the plates, see above n. 137.
[ back ] 175. Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 192ff. and 270ff.; see Athinai MN 18435 (14 Crowhurst, 55 Tölle), and Athinai Agora P 20873 (17 Crowhurst, 53 Tölle), see above p. 22.
[ back ] 176. Berlin 4530 (76 Crowhurst).
[ back ] 177. Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 236ff.; Berlin 31573 A 1 (13 Crowhurst, 126 Tölle, 69 Wegner), pll. in CVA Berlin I, p. 10 and 1, 1 and 2, description in Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 11f.; error concerning this in Webster, Chorus, p. 10.
[ back ] 178. See Wegner, Musikleben, pp. 39f., and Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 237f.
[ back ] 179. New York MM 2118 (132 Crowhurst).
[ back ] 180. Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 239ff.
[ back ] 181. Berlin 31312 (30 Crowhurst, 52 Tölle, 62 Wegner), pl. in CVA Berlin I, pl. 40; Athinai MN (65 Crowhurst, 101 Tölle, 53 Wegner), pl. in Wegner, Musik, pl. U VI d; see Webster, Chorus, p. 7 with pl. 1. Placed at the head of the chorus, the dancer-acrobat might be called the προχορευόμενος: see Webster, Chorus, pp. 15 and 51f., and L. Threatte, “An Interpretation of a Sixth Century Corinthian Dipinto,” Glotta 45, 1967, pp. 186–194 (with pl.).
[ back ] 182. London BM 1906.12–15.1 (164 Crowhurst); see B. Ashmole, “Kalligeneia and Hieros Arotos,” JHS 66, 1946, pp. 8–10, with pll. 2a and 3a, c, d, e.
[ back ] 183. Boston MFA 529, see R. Hampe, Frühe griechische Sagenbilder in Böotien, Athens 1936, pp. 56ff. with pll. 36 and 37, and Schefold, op. cit. n. 137, p. 42 with pll. 30 and 31.
[ back ] 184. Hom. Il. 6.286ff.
[ back ] 185. Γεραιαί (ll. 287 and 296) also implies ‘aged’; there is therefore an inconsistency between the Homeric story and the illustration, which has no indication of the advanced age of the women following Hecuba as described by Homer, only of their clothes showing their nobility.
[ back ] 186. Paestum metopes Heraion 1–5 (127 Crowhurst), see P. Zancani-Montuoro and U. Zanotti-Bianco, Heraion alia foce del Sele I, Roma 1961, pp. 123ff., with pll. XLI–LIX; the order of the metopes proposed by Zancani is 2, 1, 5, 4, 3.
[ back ] 187. E. Simon, “Die vier Büsser von Foce del Sele,” JDAI 82, 1967, pp. 275–295 (pp. 293ff.); on Helen’s abduction, see below pp. 159ff.
[ back ] 188. See above p. 22 and n. 13.
[ back ] 189. See Crowhurst, Lyric, p. 242.
[ back ] 190. New York 56.11.1 (162 = 166 Crowhurst), pl. in Webster, Chorus, pl. 5; see Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 157f.
New York 31.11.10 (167 Crowhurst), pl. in Webster, Chorus, pl. 4, see Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 159ff., and S. Karouzou, The Amasis Painter, Oxford 1956, pp. 43f. with pll. 43 and 44.1.
[ back ] 192. See above pp. 40f.; Luc. Salt. 8 insists on the fact that among the people of Crete, to dance was an honor, and so it was cultivated by those who wanted power (οἱ βασιλικώτεροι καὶ πρωτεύειν ἀξιοῦντες).
[ back ] 193. See above pp. 42f.
[ back ] 194. See Fränkel, Dichtung, passim, esp. pp. 476ff.
[ back ] 195. See above p. 26.
[ back ] 196. See Plat. Resp. 398d and Arist. Poet. 1447a 22ff.; T. Georgiades, Musik und Rhythmus bei den Griechen, Hamburg 21958, passim.
[ back ] 197. “Réflexions sur les genres littéraires en Grèce archaïque,” QUCC 17, 1974, pp. 113–128; for the partheneion, see Choeurs II, pp. 149ff.; complementary remarks in Käppel, Paian, pp. 34ff., and Nagy, Pindar’s Homer, pp. 108ff.
[ back ] 198. Ἀείδω/ᾄδω: Hes. Scut. 205, Pind. N. 5.23, Paus. 5.18.4; for the meaning of this verb see LfgrE s.v. ἀείδω; for ὑμνέω: H. Ap. 190, H. Hom. 27.19 (in this case, Artemis is the leader), Pind. N. 5.25, see also Eur. Hel. 1345; for this term, see Diehl, RhM 89, pp. 86f. and 91f., and Fowler, Greek Lyric, pp. 94ff. [ back ] A third very generic term is used in Greece to designate choral song, partly in situations where dance is not mentioned: it is μέλος; see e.g. Call. Del. 225ff., where this word refers to the song of Eileithyia sung by the Deliades for the birth of Apollo at Delos; its use parallels that of ὑμνέω (see Alcm. fr. 3.5 P = 26.5 C and Stes. fr. 212.2 P) and of ᾄδειν (Alcm. fr. 14 [a] P = 4 C, Prat. fr. 708.5f. P = fr. 3.3f. Sn.); see below n. 234.
[ back ] 199. H. Ap. 157ff., same in Pind. N. 5.23ff.; see Aloni, L’aedo, pp. 125f.
[ back ] 200. H. Ven. 293, see Wegner, Musik, pp. U32f., and the references on the designation of the Homeric Hymns given in my contribution “Variations énonciatives, relations avec les dieux et fonctions poétiques dans les Hymnes homériques,” MH 52, 1995, pp. 2–19.
[ back ] 201. Choral song: Alcm. fr. 27.3 P = 84 C. Stes. fr. 212.2 P, Ibyc. fr. 282.12 P, Bacch. 6.11, Pind. O. 1.8, etc.; song sung at a banquet (perhaps a scholion): Anacr. fr. 356 (b).5 P: see Smyth, Melic pp. xxviiff., and Gentili, Introduzione, p. 62 with n. 39; for the Daphnephoria, see Pind. fr. 94b.11 M (ὑμνήσω) and Procl. ap. Phot. Bibl. 321b 29f. (πρὸς ἱκετηρίαν ὑμνῶν).
[ back ] 202. Plat. Symp. 177a, Resp. 607a, Leg. 700ab: see Harvey, CQ 49, pp. 165ff.; this same narrow definition of hymn is found in Menander the Rhetorician, 1.18ff. (III, p. 331 Spengel).
[ back ] 203. Ath. 14.631d, see Procl. ap. Phot. Bibl. 320a 19f.
[ back ] 204. Eur. HF 687ff.: contrast the description of the song of the Deliades in the H. Ap. 156ff. to which I just alluded; for the use of ὑμνέω in a lyric composition that could be a paean, see PMG carm. pop. fr. 867 P.
[ back ] 205. Eur. IA 1467ff. and 1480ff.
[ back ] 206. Hom. Il. 1.472ff., Alcm. fr. 98 P = 129 C, Sapph. fr. 44.32f. V; see sch. Lond. Dion. Thrac. 451.12f. Hilgard, and below p. 103. On the numerous occasions for the performance of a paean, see Käppel, Paian, pp. 43ff.
[ back ] 207. See Smyth, pp. xxxviff.; A. von Blumenthal, RE 18 (1939), s.v. Paian, coll. 2345ff.; Severyns, Recherches II, pp. 125ff. (with other bibliographical references); Harvey, CQ 49, pp. 172f.; G.A. Privitera, “Il Peana sacro ad Apollo,” CeS 41, 1972, pp. 41–49; and Käppel, Paian, pp. 71ff.
[ back ] 208. Sapph. fr. 44.31ff. V (ολολυζο[ν] v. l.); Bacch. 17.124ff.: this mixed chorus is probably formed by the seven girls and the seven young men whom Theseus had to bring to Cnossos; then it is made up of the same singers that the hero conducted as choregos in Crete or at Delos, see above pp. 53ff.; D. E. Gerber, “Bacchylides 17.124–29,” ZPE 49, 1982, pp. 3–5; Calame, Thésée, pp. 206ff.; and Käppel, Paian, pp. 174ff. (another solution is proposed by Zimmermann, Dithyrambos, pp. 77ff., who reminds us that this poem of Bacchylides is a dithyramb); Xen. An. 4.3.19; see also Aesch. Th. 267f.: (Eteocles to the chorus) σὺ ὀλολυγμὸν ἱερὸν εὐμενῆ παιώνισον.
[ back ] 209. Soph. Tr. 205ff.; on these different forms of the performance of the paean, see Käppel, Paian, pp. 80ff.; for the tragedy in particular, see I. Rutherford, “Paeanic Ambiguity: A Study of the Representation of the παιάν in Greek Literature,” QUCC 73, 1993, pp. 77–92.
[ back ] 210. Frisk, GrEW, s.v. ὀλολύζω, M. Wegner, RE 17 (1936), s.v. Ololyge; but ἀλαλάζω is often restricted to the war cry: Chantraine, Dict. étym., s.v. ἀλαλά. On the ololyge as a specifically female act, see L. Deubner, “Ololyge und Verwandtes,” APAW 1941, 1; other references in E. Fraenkel, Aeschylus, Agamemnon II, Oxford 1950, pp. 296f.
[ back ] 211. Hom. Il. 6.301: on the role of the choregos assumed by Hecuba, see above p. 43; Od. 3.450ff., see sch. ad loc.: τὸν γὰρ ὀλολυγμὸν Ὅμηρος γυναικείαν εὐχὴν λέγει; Eur. Her. 777ff.: see Deubner, Att. Feste, p. 24; Alc. fr. 130b.18ff. V: see Page, Sappho, p. 208; the ritual cries of a young girls’ chorus are also called βοή: see Eur. Tr. 547.
[ back ] 212. Xen. Cyr. 3.3.58 says e.g. that Cyrus sings a paean (ἐξῆρχεν παιᾶνα) and that his soldiers take it up as a chorus (συνεπήχησαν).
[ back ] 213. On the dithyramb, see particularly Smyth, Melic, pp. xlviiiff., Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, pp. 7ff., and Zimmermann, Dithyrambos, pp. 9ff.
[ back ] 214. Sim. fr. 148 B = Bacch. Epigr. 3 P (see below p. 136 n. 134), Plut. Mor. 299ab = PMG carm. pop. fr. 871 P; on the rite performed by the women of Elis, see below pp. 136f.; the presence of the expression ἐξάρξαι μέλος οἶδα διθύραμβον in the first piece of evidence that we have on this form, in Arch. fr. 120 West, inclines me to think that this song was sung by a single person and the chorus took up certain words as a refrain; on this see G. A. Privitera, “Archiloco e il ditirambo letterario pre-simonideo,” Maia 9, 1957, pp. 95–100, and now Zimmermann, Dithyrambos, pp. 19ff.
[ back ] 215. For more on kitharodia, see the bibliographical references given above n. 126.
[ back ] 216. Plat. Leg. 700b, see art. cit. n. 197, pp. 118f.
[ back ] 217. Hom. Il. 18.566ff. with sch. ABT Il. 18.570 (= PMG carm. pop. fr. 880 P) and Sud. s.v. λίνος (Λ 570 Adler); on Linos’ song see Pind. fr. 128c.6 M, Hdt. 2.79; Eur. HF 348ff. (song sung by Apollo); sch. Eur. Or. 1396 (I, p. 223 Schwartz); Paus. 9.29.6ff.; Ath. 14.619c; and Poll. 1.38. On the meaning of this song: Smyth, Melic, p. 497; Diehl, RhM 89, pp. 106ff.; W. Kroll, RE 13 (1927), s.v. Linos (1); Wegner, Musik, p. U32; Pavese, Tradizioni, pp. 232f.; and below n. 224. Another mixed chorus on Achilles’ shield (Hom. Il. 18.590ff.) could also be included as a citharodic nomos: see above n. 144. According to H. Koller, “Das kitharodische Prooimion: Eine formgeschichtliche Untersuchung,” Philologus 100, 1956, pp. 159–206, these scenes represent the first forms of the citharodic prooimion which he identifies with the type of the Homeric Hymn; it is certainly not correct to pose the problem in such historical terms. [ back ] It is noteworthy that the choral scene in Il. 18.566ff. is described by Athenaeus 1.15d, as well as the choral interpretation accompanying the song sung by Demodokos (Od. 8.260ff.), as being in the “hyporchematic mode.” The reality of these two scenes corresponds exactly to the etymological meaning of ὑπόρχημα: accompanying dance (see Plut. Mor. 748ab and Ath. 14.628d), a dance with a very pronounced mimetic character. It is probably this mimetic aspect of the hyporchematic dance that explains the semantic shift of the term ὑπόρχημα from ‘accompanying dance’ to ‘choral song in which the element of mimetic dance is predominant.’ But this type of song, first named in Plato, Ion 534c, only represented a definite lyric genre in the Alexandrian period: see E. Diehl, RE 17 (1914), s.v. Hyporchema, coll. 338ff.; Koller, Mimesis, pp. 166ff.; Webster, Chorus, pp. 62f. and 95f.; Mullen, Choreia, pp. 13ff.; and Nagy, Pindar’s Homer, pp. 351ff. It is therefore not a genre applicable to my thesis since it had no consistency in the Archaic period.
[ back ] 218. As is the case for ὀλολύζω/ -γή / -γμός, the origin of ἰύζω/ -γμός is onomatopoeic: see Chantraine, Dict. étym., s.v. ἰύζω; the formation of the word is the same as that which determined the morphology of ὀλολύζω; it is characteristic of the verbalization of onomatopoeias ending in a vowel (ἐλελεῦ, ἰύ, οἴ, and so on): cf. Schwyzer, Gr. Gr. I, p. 716. Note that the αἴλινος, the invocatory part of the Linos song, can serve as a simple refrain for a song with words: see Eur. HF 348ff., in which Apollo accompanies his victory song with laments (αἲ Λίνον ἰαχεῖ), and Aesch. Ag. 121.
[ back ] 219. Call. Del. 304ff.; concerning the legendary figure of Olen and the hymns he composed, see G. Knebel in LAW, s.v. Olen; Pavese, Tradizioni, p. 234; and J. Platthy, The Mythical Poets of Greece, Washington D.C. 1985, pp. 138ff.
[ back ] 220. On the nomos, see Smyth, Melic, pp. lviiiff.; Lasserre, Mus., pp. 22ff.; Gentili, Poesia e pubblico, pp. 31ff.; and Nagy, Pindar’s Homer, pp. 89ff. and 357ff. For the influence of Terpander, in Alcman’s Sparta, on the formation of the citharodic nomos, see A. Gostoli, Terpander, Roma 1990, pp. xxxiiiff.
[ back ] 221. See above p. 57.
[ back ] 222. Hom. Il. 18.37ff. and 24.720ff.; see Smyth, Melic, pp. cxxff.; E. Reiner, Die rituelle Totenklage der Griechen, Stuttgart-Berlin 1938, pp. 8ff. and 61ff.; M. Andronikos, Totenkult (Archeologia Homerica Bd. III, Kap. W), Göttingen 1968, pp. W9ff.; M. Alexiou, The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition, Cambridge 1974, pp. 11ff. and 102f.; and M. Cannatà Fera, Pindarus: Threnorum fragmenta, Roma 1990, pp. 8ff. The lamenting can also come from a men’s chorus: see Hom. Il. 18.314ff. For figurative representations of threnodies, see W. Zschietzschmann, “Die Darstellungen der Prothesis,” MDAI(A) 53, 1928, pp. 17–47, and Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. xivff.
[ back ] 223. See Reiner, op. cit. n. 222, pp. 30ff.
[ back ] 224. See Smyth, Melic, pp. cxxiif.; Diehl, RhM 89, pp. 106ff. and 112f.; Reiner, op. cit. n. 22, p. 6f.; and Frisk, GrEW, s.v. ἰάλεμος. For the song of Linos, see Cannatà Fera, op. cit. n. 222, pp. 151ff.; for the corresponding poet’s figures of Ialemos and Linos, see Platthy, op. cit. n. 219, pp. 93 and 103ff.
[ back ] 225. H. Ap. 516ff.: the Cretans follow Apollo along the road to Delphi as they sing the paean (ἰὴ Παιήον’ ἄειδον, οἷοί τε Κρητῶν παιήονες…); here the cry of invocation is used explicitly for the whole song; Ath. 15.696e: τὸ παιανικὸν ἐπίρρημα; on the refrain of the paean, see PMG fr. ad. 933 P; Pind. frr. 52b.35 and 107, 52d.31 and 62 M; Call. Ap. 96ff., etc.; and Käppel, Paian, pp. 65ff.; the existence of a form pa-ja-wo-ne on a tablet from Cnossos (KN V 52.2) does not refute the fact that the paean was named for the refrain that punctuated it: the primitive eponym of the deity determined the ritual cry of the invocation, which itself took its name from this cry; for polemics on this subject, see Privitera, art. cit. n. 207, pp. 41f.
[ back ] 226. Smyth, Melic, pp. xlivf. and lxix, and Fowler, Greek Lyric, pp. 90ff. For the variety in the performance of the dithyramb, Zimmermann, Dithyrambos, pp. 19ff.; for the threnos, see Cannatà Fera, op. cit. n. 222, pp. 36ff.
[ back ] 227. Eur. Tr. 314 and 331; Sapph. fr. 111 V; see Smyth, Melic, pp. cxiiff.; Diehl, RhM 89, pp. 108f.; R. Muth, “‘Hymenaeus’ und ‘Epithalamium’,” WS 67, 1954, pp. 5–45 (especially pp. 7f.); and E. Contiades-Tsitsoni, Hymenaeus und Epithalamium: Das Hochzeitslied in der frühgriechischen Lyrik, Stuttgart 1990, pp. 30ff., who does not add very much; on the refrain and its origin, see Severyns, Recherches II, pp. 198f., and Gow, Theocr. II, p. 361: to the references given by the latter, add Eur. Phae. 227.
[ back ] 228. Hom. Il. 18.491ff.; Ps. Hes. Scut. 273ff.
[ back ] 229. Pind. P. 3.16ff.; Theocr. 18.1ff.; for another type of performance, see Aesch. fr. 43 Radt, and Procl. ap. Phot. Bibl. 321a 17ff., with the commentary of Severyns, Recherches II, p. 193.
[ back ] 230. Aesch. Prom. 555ff.; Eur. IA 1054ff., Phae. 87ff. and 217ff., see also Aristaenet. 1.10; in the Phaethon the chorus that sings the nuptial song is perhaps made up of Heliads: see J. Diggle, Euripides. Phaethon, Cambridge 1970, pp. 76 and 149f., for the meaning of ἐγκυκλόω, see ibid. pp. 160f.; the Epithalamia of Sappho are probably sung by young women: see frr. 30 and 114 V, with the commentary of Page, Sappho, pp. 119ff., and Lasserre, Sappho, pp. 36ff.; note that the song sung by young girls and accompanied by the pipe described in fr. 44.24ff. V by the same author is probably a nuptial song. The poem by Theocritus apparently inspired two poems by Catullus (61 and 62): the first is spoken by the poet himself who acts as choregos calling the young virgins (integrae virgines, lines 36f.) to sing the nuptial song with him; the second is sung alternately by adolescent boys (juvenes, line 1) and girls who are all of the same age (aequales, line 32). For the iconographic sources, see Crowhurst, Lyric, pp. 1ff.
[ back ] 231. Muth, art. cit. n. 227, pp. 30ff.; for the various moments of the nuptial ceremony in which a hymenaeus was sung, see C. Calame (ed.), L’amore in Grecia, Roma-Bari 1983, pp. xviiiff. Like ὑμέναιος, epithalamium is a generic term referring not only to the song sung in front of the nuptial chamber. It is a late name, which explains the Alexandrian classification of Sappho’s bridal songs as epithalamia: see Muth, ibid., pp. 36ff. The two terms cover pretty much the same signified, as proved by Theocr. 18.8, who applies the term ὑμέναιος to the epithalamium he composes for Helen.
[ back ] 232. Call. Dian. 237ff., PLF fr. inc. 16 LP, see above p. 36.
[ back ] 233. Eur. IT 1145, see HF 690 and Tr. 333.
[ back ] 234. On the questions raised by the problem of the original meaning of this term, see Diehl, RhM 89, pp. 88 and 92f., K. Bielohlawek, “Μέλπεσθαι und Μολπή,” WS 44, 1924/25, pp. 1–18 and 125–143, and 45, 1925/26, pp. 1–11, with the remarks of Frisk, GrEW, s.v. μέλπω, on the fragility of the relationship between μέλπω and μέλος; on the meaning of μέλος, see Färber, Lyrik, I, pp. 7f., and H. Koller, “Melos,” Glotta 43, 1965, pp. 24–38.
[ back ] 235. Bacch. 13.83ff., see Maehler, Bakchylides II, pp. 265ff., and above p. 32.
[ back ] 236. Pind. fr. 52b.96ff. M, see also fr. 52f.15ff. M, which mentions the κόραι μελπόμεναι in a similar context: see Käppel, Paian, pp. 235f.; P. 3.77ff. and fr. 95 M, with sch. P. 3.78 (II, p. 81 Drachmann): see the commentary of Lehnus, L’inno a Pan, pp. 68ff., and below, pp. 139f.
[ back ] 237. Eur. Tr. 545ff. and 551ff.
[ back ] 238. Ps. Hes. Scut. 277 and 282, see also Hom. Od. 8.251 and 23.134 and 147; H. Ven. 117ff.; H. Cer. 425; H. Hom. 30.14f.; Autocr. fr. 1 KA; Plut. Mor. 249de. See also H. Ap. 200f. and 206 and IG I 2919 (inscription on an oinochoe dating from about 725), also Orph. H. 23.2 who uses the term χοροπαίγμων and Plat. Leg. 764e who speaks of χορῶν παιδιάν.
[ back ] 239. Hom. Od. 6.100 and 106 with 7.291, see above p. 42; for the ancient lexicons μέλπεσθαι, παίζειν and ὑμνεῖν are synonymous: see Bielohlawek, art. cit. n. 234, pp. 125ff.; on the meaning of παίζειν in a choral context, see now Lonsdale, Dance, pp. 33ff.
[ back ] 240. Poll. 9.125, Eust. Od. 1914.55ff. = PMG carm. pop. fr. 876 (c) P, see Smyth, Melic, p. 504; Plut. Thes. 16.3; and Mor. 298f. = PMG carm. pop. fr. 868 P.
[ back ] 241. On this subject, see Gentili, Introduzione, p. 67, and A&A 36, pp. 5ff.; R. Kannicht, “Thalia: Ueber den Zusammenhang zwischen Fest und Poesie bei den Griechen,” in W. Haug and R. Warning (eds.), Das Fest, München 1989, pp. 29–52; and G. F. Gianotti, “La festa: la poesia corale,” in G. Cambiano et al. (edd.). Lo spazio letterario della Grecia antica I. 1, Roma 1992, pp. 143–175.
[ back ] 242. See Choeurs II, pp. 169f.