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"Why Should I Dance?": Choral Self-Referentiality in Greek Tragedy Author(s): Albert Henrichs Reviewed work(s): Source: Arion, Third Series, Vol. 3, No. 1, The Chorus in Greek Tragedy and Culture, One (Fall, 1994 - Winter, 1995), pp. 56-111 Published by: Trustees of Boston University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20163565 . Accessed: 18/05/2012 08:24
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"Why Should IDance?": Choral Self-Referentiality

ALBERTHENRICHS

inGreek Tragedy

How

can we know

the dancer from the dance?

?Yeats

An

the beginning,

there

was

the

"chorus"?a

collec

tive of khoreutai musical

song and

the dance-song {khoreia).1 Greek performing culture is defined by khoroi whose performance combines
dance, a feature which characterizes numerous forms of

cultic poetry and which choral lyric, whether cultic or not, shares chorus forms the with drama. The polymorphous Dionysiac nucleus of Greek comedy and satyr-play, in historical as well as structural terms. But what about tragedy? How strong are itsDio
nysiac credentials? Should we give credence to the anonymous Hel

lenistic wit who Dionysos"

On the

declared that tragedy had "nothing (ou??v jtq?? t?v Ai?vuoov)?2

Dionysos is very prominent

to do with
number

contrary,

in a large

tragedies, in Sophocles no less than in Aeschylus or Euripides, but the complexity of his presence within the dramatic and religious structures of these plays has only recently begun to of extant
receive the attention it deserves. For the past two hundred years,

the vast majority of scholars interested in Attic tragedy and its antecedents has proceeded on the plausible assumption that the tragic chorus, like the chorus of comedy and satyr-play, originated in choral performances connected with the cult of Dionysos.3 that Dio Many scholars believed, with Aristotle and Nietzsche, more to with the had do of and with the nysos question origins of the chorus with the than tragic primitive archetype full-fledged
genre as we know it. In their quest for origins, they even con

structed hypothetical rituals, which they imposed on, or extrapo lated from, extant plays. Fortunately the study of the Dionysiac dimension of tragedy has moved into an important new phase. In
recent years, the concept of ritual continuity and of a tragic chorus

defined
lenged

as a replica of its remote ritual ancestors

by a growing number of critics who prefer

has been chal

to situate trag

Albert

Henrichs

57

edy

and

its

chorus

more

concretely

in

the

contemporary

framework of the polis religion and of actual Dionysiac cult. In an influential article, Simon Goldhill in particular has emphasized the
complex social "context for performance"?the competing civic

identities of poet, performers, and audience; the conflict between the political values encoded in the "preplay ceremonials" and their in the actual plays; and the polarity of Dionysos problematization as reflected in the transgressive mood of the Dionysiac festivals, which provided the cultic setting for dramatic contests inAthens.4
More relevant to my concerns is yet another approach, that

which

representation of Dionysos and his explores within the actual worship plays, as distinct from their external set in cult. Charles ting Dionysiac Segal, Froma Zeitlin, and Richard Seaford have all emphasized the ambivalence of Dionysos as a fun damental concept behind the tensions and ambiguities of certain plays.5 In a series of related studies, Renate Schlesier has focused on the role of Dionysiac ritual and of maenadic identities in the
construction comprehensive of dramatic treatment character.6 ever of Most the recently, of in the first in presence Dionysos

the dramatic

Greek tragedy, Anton Bierl has produced a cohesive synthesis inte grating the tragic Dionysos with the Dionysos of Attic cult and of theater.7 The combined work of these scholars represents a radical reassessment of the ways Dionysos and his religion are brought
into play by all three tragedians. From now on, students of tragedy

will have to reckon with the fact that in their efforts to connect tragedy more directly with its cultic context (and to revitalize the roots of Attic drama?), the tragic poets set individual Dionysiac
characters, entire plays, and indeed the tragic genre as a whole in a

distinct Dionysiac ambience. As Bierl this strated, tendency gained momentum is most In century. Aeschylus, Dionysos dramatize Dionysiac myth.8 Sophocles frame of reference, but tends to confine
ics?a reminder of the ritual connection

has abundantly demon in the course of the fifth prominent in plays that expands Dionysos
between

the Dionysiac to choral lyr

choral perfor

mance

in tragedy and inDionysiac cult.9 But it is not until the late emerges as a full plays of Euripides that the tragic Dionysos fledged symbol of tragic ambiguity and dramatic self-reflex as Nietzsche iveness.10 Far from suppressing Dionysos, claimed,

Euripides takes advantage of every conceivable dimension of the of the three god and deserves to rank as the most Dionysiac
tragedians.

58

"WHYSHOULD IDANCE?" In this paper I propose to apply this new understanding

aspect of tragedy as

of the

tragic

Dionysos

to a fundamental

performa

tive poetry which only tangentially,

choral voice, and

Bierl, Schlesier, and Segal have touched upon namely the intricate interplay of choral dance,
ritual performance. All tragic choruses sing as

well
who,

as dance.
in their

I am concerned with
refer to their own

the relatively
dancing. Choruses

few choruses
who draw

song,

attention
dance-song

to their ritual role as collective performers

in the orchestra invariably locate their

of the choral
performance

the concrete dramatic context and ritual self-reflexively within ambience of a given play. An integral aspect of this practice is the in the articulation of choral pivotal role assigned to Dionysos identity. For lack of a better term, I call this phenomenon
erentiality?the self-description of the tragic chorus

choral self-ref
as performer

of khoreia.11 According
or "self-reflexivity" on takes comedy?reflects

to Goldhill,

dramatic
d'?tre

"self-reflexiveness"
that matter, something it

place when its own raison

for tragedy?or, as theater,

achieves most
not apply this

poignantly
concept is a central

in Euripides.12 Whereas
Bierl of the is fully larger aspect

Goldhill
that of

does
choral ritual,

to the chorus,

aware picture in Attic as dancers

self-referentiality as well as "metatheatrical," Choruses found addressing in comedy and

self-reflexivity own performance as well as

drama.13 can But be self

their

satyr-play14

in tragedy.

reflexivity
entiality, tragedy.15

in its various forms, including that of choral self-refer

is more As common, and more self-referential emphatic, comic in comedy choruses often than in in tragedy, refer

to their dancing
tion, of Dionysiac occasion.16 Dramatic

in the ritually marked

cult, or of extra-dramatic

context

of divine
on

invoca
a ritual

khoreia

choruses

who

refer

to their

own

dancing

while

invok

as Apollo, Artemis, ing divinities associated with khoreia?such in the most explicit form of rit and especially Dionysos?engage ual self-referentiality available to them. Since some comic and
many tragic choruses perform other rituals such as prayer, lament,

supplication,
dance-songs,

and the conjuration

the concept of ritual

of ghosts

in the course of their

in the choral

self-referentiality

odes of Attic drama clearly possesses a much wider application than can be explored in this paper. Rites reenacted within the dra matic framework of a particular play may be perceived as "ficti
tious rituals for mythical characters," but it is also the case that

Albert Henrichs every ritual performed

place within the

59

verbally by a tragic or comic chorus takes

ritual ambience of the dance-song.17

concrete

Choral dancing
of ritual

in ancient Greek culture always constitutes

whether the dance is performed

a form
con

performance,

in the

text of the dramatic festival or in other cultic and festive settings. The external setting in the sanctuary of Dionysos Eleuthereus and in the distinctly cultic ambience of the City Dionysia reinforces the ritual function of choral dances
Choruses mance who comment do so not as dancers

in tragedy.
on capacity their in their own perfor as characters in

self-referentially only

the drama but also as performers: while

identity, In fact ceive onstage they they their and

emphasizing

their choral

their role as dramatic characters. temporarily expand a more as dramatic acquire they per identity complex as an emotional to the events reaction choral dance assume a ritual posture which functions as a link

between

the cultic reality of the City Dionysia and the imaginary religious world of the tragedies. Far from "breaking the dramatic as some scholars have sug illusion" outright and unconditionally,
such choruses invite the audience to participate in a more

gested,

integrated experience,
orchestra merges with

one inwhich
the more

the choral performance

performance of

in the
the rit

imaginary

uals of polytheism that take place in the action of each play.18 can be found in all three tragedians, Choral self-referentiality
but the frequency with which they employ it varies a great deal, as

does their handling

recognized tematic been as a treatment used who

of it.19Despite
aspect To be of exists. sure,

its relevance,
the the

it has not been

no sys has in

defining

and chorus, tragic term "hyporcheme"

widely

to characterize verbally recognize

those their

self-referential choral

choruses while

Sophocles

performance

being physically
shown, when the doing huporkh?ma mistaken so

engaged
was assumption

in the dance.20 But as A. M. Dale has

a misnomer from late of a antiquity, on as an antonym stasimon implies stasimon stationary

is to perpetuate understood that

chorus.21 All tragic choruses dance, and if dancing alone were the It is criterion, all choral odes could be described as huporkh?mata. were ever that the odes of choral highly unlikely, however, tragedy classified as huporkh?mata its prior to late antiquity.22 Despite term atten the virtue has the of problems, huporkh?ma focusing
tion on choral of dancing voice the unity as an to choral song and on accompaniment as constitutive of choral and movement aspects

identity and discourse.23 The huporkh?ma

ascribed to Pratinas by

6o

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?:

Athenaios

recreates

an

ambience

of

animated

choral

performance

(xetax?e?v), stamping by shouting (ouX?c) that is closely related to the (jiaTayeiv), and pipe-playing associations of the "hypor prevailing mood and the Dionysiac in in this paper.24 In the chemes" found tragedy and discussed on the rhythmic movements absence of reliable information of
tragic choruses as well as on the music that accompanied them,

(XOoevuxxTCt) characterized

choral odes that emphasize choral dancing, whether or not we are particularly revealing as choose to call them huporkh?mata, they dramatize a fundamental function of the tragic chorus that
remains otherwise inaccessible to us.

While

extremely
in

rare in the extant plays of Aeschylus,

the specific sense that concerns us

choral
can be

self-referentiality

found in four of the seven plays of Sophocles.

becomes even more frequent, and grows more

This phenomenon
complex, in Euripi

des. For the purposes of the present paper, Imust proceed selec tively, with the main emphasis on Sophocles, who fully develops this choral convention. What ismore, Sophocles invariably assigns identities to choruses who comment on their explicit Dionysiac own performance.25 The god of the theater, of the mask, of ritual
madness, paragon and of of ecstatic identity. dancing is thus represented too, choral as the divine choral In Euripides, self-referen

tiality ismore prominently connected with Dionysos and his ritu als than with any other deity, not only in the two plays that are patently Dionysiac, Bakkhai and Kyklops, but also in plays whose
Dionysiac ambience is less obvious, such as Herakles, Ion, and

Phoinissai. A full discussion

of Euripidean choruses who associate their dancing with Dionysos will be presented elsewhere.26 By way of example, however, Iwill conclude with a chorus from the Elek tra in order to show how Euripides experimented with the conven tion of ritual self-referentiality in deliberate departure from his

predecessors.

I.

Aeschylus:

The khorostasia

of the Erinyes

Unlike Sophocles, Aeschylus invested some of his choruses with a ritual identity that is not predicated on the choral dance.27 In Per
sians, for instance, the Queen pours chthonian libations to conjure

up the ghost of Dareios, while the chorus assists her verbally by chanting hymnic invocations addressed to the heroized king and

Albert Henrichs

61

the powers of the underworld (623-80). In Seven against Thebes (265-70), Eteokles asks a disheartened female chorus to stop sup plicating the statues of the gods, to adopt a more aggressive ritual stance and to raise "the sacred ololugm?s" leoov (268 oko\vy\ibv the shrill that ev\ievf\ Jiauovioov), triumphant cry accompanied the sacrificial slaughter of animals, but the sacrifice never takes place.28 The choruses of Suppliants and Libation Bearers sustain even more distinct ritual roles and enact them onstage, but they do
so without making reference to their own dancing.

In the Eumenides,
self-referentiality to

however, Aeschylus
enhance the chthonian

does make use of choral

character and ritual

identity of the Erinyes who

run, has taken refuge

form the chorus. Orestes,

and, as a suppliant,

still on the
clasps the

in Athens

image of Athena. When they finally catch up with him, the Erinyes make their move and declare that neither Apollo nor Athena can save Orestes from becoming the victim of their devouring wrath. is drawn into the polarization Orestes, polluted and marginalized, between Olympian and chthonian forces so that his ritual status is defined in opposite terms by the two opposing groups of divini ties: in the eyes of the Olympians, he is a suppliant fearing for his in need of divine assistance {Eum. 79f., 92, life and desperately 242f., 409); for the Erinyes, however, he is a criminal who must die as the ritual victim of a corrupted sacrifice, to be eaten alive rather
than "slaughtered by the altar" {Eum. 304-05).29 It is at this point

that the Erinyes

Orestes, an attack

launch an intense verbal and physical

combining the two basic modes of

attack on
choral per

formance {khoros 307, mousa 308), the song {humnos 306, 331, 344) as well as the dance {orkh?smoi 370), in an agitated display of ritualized violence. In an anapestic prelude (307-20) to the first stasimon (321-96), the Erinyes begin their dance-song with an emphatic articulation of choral self-referentiality, the earliest in extant tragedy (307-11):

aye ?f] xai %oqov ?i|>a)|i?v, ercei \xovoav OTvyzQ?v ?e?oxnxev, ajto(|>aiv??9ai ?i^ai te X?%r] xa xax' ?vGocojrov? cb? ?mvcau? oxotoi? ?\xr\. Come
for we

let us join in the dance

are ready to perform

{khoros),

62

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

our grisly song and to tell how our ensemble

apportions lots among mortals.

{stasis)

The

Erinyes

announcing
cally,

initiate their provocative choral performance by their intention "to join in dance"; they do so emphati
person utterance that combines the performative

in a first

force of the hortatory

exhortation aye ?f|.30

subjunctive with
By characterizing

the equally performative

their song as \iovoav

oTuyep?v, they alert the audience to the intimidating, monstrous nature of their dance-song, with its emphasis on the spilling of blood, black magic, and the total otherness of the infernal realm and its inhabitants.31 Two lines later, the Erinyes refer to their own choral ensemble
as "our stasis" (oxao?? aur|). Exceptionally, the term stasis here

a collective of divinities represented by a group of choral performers. Apart from a possible parallel in Pindar's third Dithy ramb, the closest analogues can be found in the Choephoroi.32 describes
At who Ch. 114 only Elektra's moments xfj?e before . . . ox?oei had refers the to the female chorus carrying entered orchestra

libations for the dead king and positioned themselves next to his tomb to assist Elektra in her ritual chores; similarly, at Ch. 458 (choral) oxao?? ?? Jiayxoivo? ??e is "a collective self-reference"
to the chorus In all band" performing three or "our instances, the conjuration commentators As an indicator more of of Agamemnon's render choral In stasis self the ghost.33 as "our most

company."34 the word

referentiality,

however,

is much

poignant.

the phrase oxcxot? ?\xr\ harks back to %oqov ch|KDU?V Eumenides, the here and has the same performative force. By emphasizing and now of the choral performance, the first person possessive
auT|, much like the deictic rj?e in xfj?e . .. ox?oei and oxao?? ...

??e,
tragic

applies
chorus

the chorocentric
and reinforces

conventions
the

of choral song to the

connotation of

performative

oxao??. and comedy,

first person.35 of language khorostatis

In choral
The choral ("she

lyric as well as in the choral odes of tragedy is always expressed in the choral self-referentiality
term stasis specifically recalls such the the conventional as and formation, who sets in particular or up, positions, expressions chorus")

khorostasia
words as well

("the positioning
as their action,

of a chorus").36 Through
the Erinyes thus affirm

their role

the most

conspicuous

ritual aspect of their dramatic

identity?their

Albert Henrichs

63

as performers of the khoreia in the orchestra. What follows is the first stasimon, the dance-song signaled by the phrase oxao?? ?uT| and performed by the Erinyes once "they had reached their
station (oxao??) in the orchestra."37

It appears actually
around explicit

from the phrase %oqov chpcouxv that the Erinyes circle joined hands and may have formed a magical
Here to as choral elsewhere dancing in the serves lyrics as a of prelude tragedy, the to other

Orestes.38 reference

performed verbally by the chorus in the course of their stasimon. In this case the ritual takes the form of an incantation designed to incapacitate Orestes before the murder trial. The same type of destructive magic is attested for classical ritual activities Athens as "binding of curses known by dozens spells" (xaxa?eouxn) inscribed on lead tablets and found inwells, tombs, and even private homes.39 How sinister the "musical skills" of the Erinyes really are, and how destructive their power, becomes

"the mother manifest after their invocation of Nyx personified, who gave birth to me, mother Night" Thus fortified, (321f.).
their avenging power culminates in the sinister performance of

the "Binding Song" (306, 331f., 344f. iSfxvo? ??ouxo?) in the first stasimon (328-33=341-46):

imbedded

?m ?? xa> xeOuuivcp
xo?e fx?Xo?, Jiaoaxojr?,

jtaoa(|)OQ? cj)Qevo?a?f|?, i3|xvo? ?? 'Eqivikov ??ouxo?

uxyxxo?,

c|)Qev?)v, ck|)?q
a?ov? ?ooxoic.

Over

our

victim

this is the chant {melos), striking him mad, out of his mind, harming his brain, a hymn {humnos) from the Erinyes, binding
the

the brain,

lacking
to mortals.40

lyre, withering

Combined
tion of the

here with

song, first introduced

Erinyes envisages Kassandra

the ritual dance is the theme of the perverted in the Agamemnon, where the choral func
is also the Erinyes anticipated.41 as a There cacophonous the prophetess X0Q?? and

64

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

a bloodthirsty X(b|Lio? of revellers drunk on human blood the royal palace while singing a baleful song occupying
1186-93, culminating in v\ivovoi ?' i5|ivov ... jto xaQXOV

and {Ag.

?xrrv).

In the "Binding
becomes dramatic

Song" of the Eumenides,

reality. As the Erinyes

that prophetic
pronounce their

vision
curse,

they stamp the floor of the orchestra with their feet and claim that the highest aspirations of men are destroyed "by the onslaught of our black raiment and the malicious dancing of our feet" (371 oqx^ou.o?? x' ?m(|)6ovoi? jio?o?). The feet of the Erinyes thus epitomize their choral identity as performers of the dance; at the same time, their feet function as instruments of destruction that an act in incantation the of physically perform sympathetic thus go magic.42 Ritual performance and choral self-referentiality hand in hand, reinforcing each other. As we shall see, similar patterns recur in Sophocles and Euripides, who tend to endow their self-referential choruses with a distinct Dionysiac identity. The Aeschylean Erinyes seem to foreshadow this trend. As per formers of the binding song they exemplify the kind of frenzy? "a fury not of wine" {Eum. 860)?which they threaten to inflict
on Orestes; like maenads, they dance wildly and carry snakes

{Ch. 1049E); and at Eum. 500, they even refer to themselves

uxxiva?e?, "mad women," a word that connotes Dionysiac ritual

as

not only in tragedy, but already in Homeric epic.43 Still, the Erinyes ultimately dance and curse in vain. Their binding song is followed by the stage epiphany of Athena at the
beginning persuades of the the next scene. to Her intervention their curses to save into Orestes blessings, Erinyes transform

scene of the trilogy, magic is replaced by court. by the homicide Again, the pattern is paradigmatic. established by Aeschylus Invariably in tragedy, ritual remedies employed to gain undue advantage, to enhance and, in the closing cult and bloodshed
one's social status, or to redress one ill by the commission of

another ultimately prove ineffective and lead to a transformation of those who turn to them.44 This applies not only to tragic
characters who perform rituals but also to choruses who get

carried away and place excessive confidence in their dancing. The Erinyes, although divinities, exemplify the pattern; Sophoclean
choruses will develop many variations on it.

and turning to Sophocles, we But, before leaving Aeschylus would do well to reexamine the ritual atmosphere that surrounds in Aeschylus. In the the only case of choral self-referentiality

Albert Henrichs
Eumenides, the dramatic scenario that the intervention

65

precedes

of Athena
sive rituals

is designed
focus

to build the ritual momentum.

qua matricide, who

The
seeks

succes
refuge as

on Orestes

a suppliant first at Delphi, then in Athens. At Delphi, Apollo purifies Orestes of his bloodguilt by means of animal blood. In Athens, Athena responds to Orestes' prayer and rescues him from this the Erinyes' incantations and sacrificial violence. Against the dance-song of the Erinyes highly ritualized background, becomes the dramatic vehicle for choral self-definition. At the
same time, their ritual remedies?including the choral dance?

fail, as the fate of the ritual victim is reversed and the status of the victimizer is ritually redefined in the final scene of the play. The failure of ritual to effect remedy is an essential tragic motif, not only in the Oresteia, but also in post-Aeschylean tragedy. In the Eumenides, however, this motif is used for the first time to
articulate the tragic ambivalence of choral performance.

II.

"Why Dance?":

Choral Voice

and Performance

I now come to what is arguably the best remembered and least in all of tragedy? understood case of choral self-referentiality the second stasimon of Oidipous Tyrannos, which culminates,
significantly, in a formal prayer. In the preceding scene, Iokaste

has ridiculed and rejected Apollo's oracles concerning the murder the veracity of the of Laios (707-25, 851-58). By discrediting
Delphic oracle and of its human ministrants, she precipitates a

ritual crisis at the very moment Thebes is threatened with extinc tion and the voice of Apollo appears to be the city's only hope. The implications of the crisis are addressed by the chorus in terms intimately linking the challenge to divine authority with their own dancing and choral identity. The close correlation between polis religion and choral perfor mance is underscored by the parallel pattern of metrical respon
sion and verbal of repetition the chorus. that In the concerned connects closing about lines the two of the startling second of pronouncements strophe,

the Theban

elders,

ascendancy

the impious, call their own dancing into question?"If such actions are held in honor," ei y?o ai xoiai?e Jio?^eic x?uxai, the chorus asks, "why should I dance?" xi ?e? (ie xooe?eiv; (895-96). In the corresponding lines of the antistrophe, the scope of their

66

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?^

concerns

broadens

as

their

sense

of

religious

crisis

intensifies.

So

long as the oracles given to Laios are discredited and Apollo in his cultic honors," xo??auxxu xuxa?? is "nowhere manifest divine order Ajt?Mxdv ?ux|)avf|?, the chorus fears the worst?"the has perished," ?ooei ?? x? Oe?a (909-10) .45 The laconic locution x? Oe?a epitomizes the sum total of poly theism, including the entire range of divine and human interaction and reciprocity: the divine world order, the observance of cult,
and the performance of ritual, down to the consultation of oracles

and to the very dance performed by the khoreutai in the orchestra as they sing. Khoreia did not take place in a religious vacuum;
it meant "to serve the gods through the medium of the dance."46

Divinities

such as Dionysos, Apollo, and Artemis are integral to choral dancing, in the choral songs of tragedy as well as in actual cult. In the wake of an impiety that abrogates Apollo's oracles
neglects his worship, the chorus worries that the entire poly

and

theistic system may be disintegrating. Still, it comes as a surprise that the Theban elders question should I their status as performers of the choral dance?"Why
dance?" As Jeffrey Rusten puts it, this is "an odd question coming

from the old men of Thebes, who as characters

than performers) are not really dancing

in this play (rather

Nothing in the

at all."47

play has prepared the audience

of the chorus in the orchestra

for this question;

gives it context.

only the dancing

Generations of

interpreters have been intrigued by the implicit collapsing of past and present, of illusion and reality, of the choral voice echoing in and for the distant past and the citizen chorus performing
the present.48 Among recent commentators, Dawe is reluctant to

accept Sophocles' tive function of

Chorus who are

fusion of the dramatic character and performa is precisely what the the chorus: "Xope?eiv
acting in this play are doing, and there are some

who feel that at this moment Sophocles is in a sense breaking in a parabasis."49 Yet the dramatic illusion, like Aristophanes and Dodds had no doubt scholars of the caliber of Wilamowitz that this chorus is "dropping its mask" or "stepping out of the
play" in the by commenting self-referentially on its own performance orchestra.50

observed that while modern As early as 1889, Wilamowitz theatergoers lack imagination and expect the playwright not to tamper with the "dramatic illusion," the Athenian audience was more flexible and had no problem with O. T. 896 or other

Albert Henrichs
instances accept the of choral self-reference: as truth, are "They are mindful yet

67

completely of

involved,

stage

action

the real world?

that the chorus is their chorus and that the festive occasion belongs to their god."51 Thirty years ago, Dodds spelled out what this means for the chorus in Oidipous "If by this they Tyrannos: mean merely 'Why should I, a Theban elder, dance?' the question is surely is irrelevant and even slightly ludicrous; the meaning
'Why should I, an Athenian citizen, continue to serve in a chorus?'

In speaking of themselves
into the the contemporary parabasis."52

as a chorus,
as

they step out of the play

choruses do in

world,

Aristophanes'

Do they really? The matter is perhaps slightly more complex for the tragic chorus?whose identity ismore integrated with the
dramatic action?than is the case in comedy, where the chorus

can function as the explicit mouthpiece and alter ego of the poet. Stinton insisted, opposing Dodds, that far from requiring "extra
dramatic reference," xi ?e? u.e xooe?eiv; "can be accommodated

the dramatic convention: dancing is a normal part of worship, so the phrase simply anticipates the other acts of worship within
mentioned One ship" could in the argue, following against by the stanza."53 Stinton, chorus that qua But the dramatic it isn't specific quite "acts so simple. of wor consist

envisaged

character

exclusively
of which more, ein in one

of oracular
requires ritual

consultation
dances Stinton not an or

and prayer
choral

(897ff.), neither
Further the khoreu the dramatic to me to just the

ask why might was the orchestra or of to this

seems integral

performance. to think that part of

convention, as narrow

particular the xi ?e?

confine

play's u.e

drama. x?QB^eiv;

It seems exclusively

mythical
to the

past as it is to insist that this chorus could be oblivious

action, or even alienated from it.

dramatic

Dodds
positions

and Stinton are both right, or, rather, half right?their

are not mutually exclusive, but each emphasizes one

side of the equation at the expense of the other. Dancing is indeed in the mythical as well as the real "a normal act of worship," world. But the dancing to which the Theban elders refer is more properly, and more immediately, a function of their choral identity
than it is of their dramatic character?it takes place in the concrete

space of the orchestra where they perform, yet it is simultaneously projected into the imaginary past of the dramatic action, as if this chorus were dancing in Thebes as well as in Athens.54 This is
not an isolated instance of a chorus of Athenian citizens imagining

68

"WHYSHOULD IDANCE?"

themselves to be singing and dancing in another time and place, while actually performing before an Athenian audience. As I shall argue later, choral projection is a device frequently used by in the Sophocles and Euripides to integrate choral performance the world of the drama onstage.55 It illuminates the paradox of how the conditions threatening to undermine the ritual status of this chorus can be located in mythical Thebes, while the festival of Dionysos, which provides the setting for their dancing, is an integral part of the polis religion of fifth
century Athens.

orchestra with

Is it at all conceivable,
concerns perception expressed of the by chorus

as some critics believe,56 that the religious

the chorus qua character In other reflect words, the qua performer? poet's was the

ritual status of Athenian tragic choruses jeopardized by changes in the religious climate during the early years of the Peloponnesian War? Only Sophocles and his audience would know the answer, its poi but the very ambivalence that gives xi ?e? u,e xooeiieiv; gnancy suggests that the boundaries between the realm of the imagination and the realm of the polis were more fluid than we might
we are

think. The Athenian

to move easily without

audience was
qualms

better equipped
the two

than

between

realms.

Much

of the polis of the here and now was a construct of the imagination, composed of the fictional fragments of the past, and
the mythical past was perceived as a primordial image

conversely,

of the polis. Tragedy

mediators between the

functioned
two realms,

as one of the most

at least in Athens.

effective

What does this mean for the tragic chorus? Choral performance takes place in both worlds. The dramatic role of the chorus is acted out in the highly ritualized realm of myth, a world inhabited by gods and mortals who interact through the medium of cult; at the same time, however, the dancing of the tragic chorus, its ritual function, occurs in the contemporary world of Athens and within a cultic framework rooted in Panhellenic as well as local Athenian cult.57 Throughout tragedy, ritual and cult function as common denominators which mediate between the dramatic past
and the present.

identity of cles, is defined by an integral part of a central aspect of The

this particular chorus, as presented by Sopho their ability to perceive their performance as the polis religion, both past and present.58 If that religion is called into question, the ritual equally questionable, and

identity of the tragic chorus becomes

Albert Henrichs its dramatic status doubtful. For a Greek audience, out ritual dancing would be an empty place indeed, without a khoros would be a trag?idia akhoros?a in itself.59 Uvo H?lscher once suggested that the

69

a world with and a tragedy contradiction self-doubts of

the Theban elders stem from their innate fear of the ultimate sources of the pollution afflicting Thebes?parricide and incest? and from their concern with ritual purity, that "revered purity in all words and deeds" (864f. e?oejrxov ayve?av X?ycov ?oy v xe jr?vxoov).60He argues that since ritual purity is the prerequisite for any ritual performance,
elders are reluctant to dance

including choral dancing,

because the mere

the Theban
of such

thought

crimes has rendered them impure and thus ritually unfit for the this concern for ritual transcends dance. According to H?lscher, the dramatic action and collapses the distance between the dra
matic character and the ritual function of the chorus.

While
extant

doing
tragedy

justice to the uniqueness

which questions its own

of the only
status as

chorus

in
of

performer

the choral dance, H?lscher's interpretation fails to locate the of this chorus within the broader conven exceptional self-scrutiny tion of choral self-referentiality. Like the vast majority of inter preters of xi ?e? u? xooe?eiv; before and after him, he too ignored the fact that the choruses of more
Eumenides dancing. Yet to Bakkhai, H?lscher was comment

than a dozen

tragedies,
on right their track

from
own when

self-referentially on the demonstrably

he identified the concern for ritual expressed by the Theban

as the conceptual self-awareness reflects a more link their tion ritual connecting as choral dancers. their dramatic I propose character that this

elders
with connec of as

performance,

truth and that the entire range general as dramatized the functions by tragedians,

the common
self-reference

denominator
in extant

that underlies

all instances of choral

tragedy.

takes many forms, such as sacrifice, libation, purification from pollution, and dancing, including suppliancy, divination, Ritual in the orchestra. Regardless of the occasion, ritual always provides continuity through repetition and the prescribed rhythm of the ritual process, which follows its own immutable in tragedy thus creates its own timetable. Ritual as dramatized it is performed in the past space, its own temporality, whether choral dancing
or in the present.61 More than any character onstage, the tragic

chorus
ritual

in the orchestra
performance;

collectively
so not

embodies
as a voice

that continuity
in the drama,

of
nor

it does

70

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?

as a citizen

of

the polis,

but

as

a self-conscious

performer

of

the

Dionysiac dance in the orchestra and as an active ritual participant in the festival of Dionysos. The convention of choral self-referen tiality, which recognizes the performative enables the audience to cross the boundaries
qua tragic character and qua performer,

role of between

the chorus, the chorus

acted

between

the drama

out in the theater and the polis religion that sustains it, and more specifically between the cults of the polis and the rituals performed in the plays.62 This convergence of drama and ritual in the context of role-playing, make-believe, and shifting identities is epitomized by the mask, which transforms the self into the Other
As

and integrates the choral performance of the "mask god" Dionysos.63

a performer of the ritual dance, the

with

the Attic
exists

cult

chorus

simulta

neously inside the dramatic realm of the play and outside of it in the political and cultic realm of the here and now. These two
roles are inseparable, and as we shall see, under certain conditions

they become one and the same. These conditions become much clearer ifwe replace the question "Why should I dance?"?which
carries a threat to abandon the choral performance?with a more

confident statement along the lines of "Let's join in the dance!" .64 Affirmative choral self-reference of {Eum. 307 XOQ?V ch|)CDU?v) this type is common in Sophocles and Euripides; the self-doubt of the chorus in the Oidipous Tyrannos is the sole exception.65 The Salaminian sailors who form the chorus in Aias exclaim: "Now I am bent upon dancing" (701 vi5v y?o e\i?i \x?Xeixooe?oai, the positive equivalent the chorus of old men abandon
ative choral choruses,

the Muses, Mouoa?

utterances whether are not

of xi ?e? [xe xoQe?eiv;), while, similarly, in the Herakles insists: "We will not yet set me dancing" who (685f. oimo) a? \i9 ?xooeuaav).
such old only who or as these young, characters are sometimes male in

xaxajiaijoofxev
tragic or enthusiastic, khoreutai

Invariably, perform
the female, drama fact that or the reluctant but by also the

underscore

in the

orchestra

empowered

playwright
It at the is no end

to recognize
accident of a that strophe

their ritual role and identify with

the and

it.

comes xi ?e? u.e xooe?eiv; question near as the end of the dance-song

well.66 The
their words.

sudden pause of the chorus thus gives visual point

But even this chorus cannot and does not seriously

to

reject their role as khoreutai?they

in the orchestra even as the dramatic

resume their choral dancing

crisis intensifies and their

Albert

Henrichs

71

dancing is overtaken by the revelations onstage, which confirm the validity of Apollo's oracles. Without the choral dance, the on. cannot In stasimon in the third go play particular, the Theban
elders reflect once more on their ritual function and imagine

a choral role for themselves which confinement

convention?they will dance

allows them to escape the of the theater and the constraints of the dramatic
on Mount Kithairon "tomorrow,"

that

is outside
At this

the dramatic
moment of

time,
renewed

in an

imaginary,
the

hopeful
syntax

future.67

self-reflection,

of the choral voice becomes uncommonly intricate, even by Sopho clean standards, as the chorus of elders address Mount Kithairon and make the delicate journey from the orchestra, the locus of their former ritual doubts, to the mountain, the place of their
future choral dance, in a truly performative utterance (O. T.

1086-97): e?jteo ?yo) (x?vxi? ei ux xai xax? yvcouav

ov xov "OXvujtov

??qi?,

ajreiQoov,

cb KxOaiQobv, ovk eor\ x?v a?Qiov jcava?^Tjvov urj ov o? ye xai Jiaxoicoxav O?o?jtou xai xqo(|>?v xai fxax?o' au?eiv, xai xooei3eo0ai \i?)v (b? ?mnoa jtq?? f| (|>?QOvxa xo?? ?^xo?? xuo?vvoi?. ?f|ie Ooi?e, aoi ??
?o?ax' e?r|.

xa?jx'

If indeed I am a prophet and discerning in my judgment, O Kithairon, I swear to you by Olympos,

you will not be unaware you as that tomorrow's full moon exalts fellow-countryman,

nurse and mother of Oidipous, and that you are honored by us in the dance
because you were of service to our kings.

{khoreuesthai),

Phoibos
may The this

of the i?-cry,
be pleasing to you.68 in the parodos, invoked as "the

same

chorus

who,

Dionysos

eponym of this land" (210) and "companion of the maenads" (212) to make his epiphany and who raised the question xi ?e?

72

"WHYSHOULD IDANCE?
now a dubious stance and

(xe xooeveiv;

adopts

prophetic

promises

to dance
mountain

in celebration
that came to

of Kithairon,
the rescue of

the personified
Oidipous and,

Dionysiac
we might

the deaths of Pentheus and Aktaion. The ritual add, witnessed on the next full dancing will take place during a pannukhis, a favored occasion for major religious festivals.69 In looking moon, to the immediate future, the Theban elders thus situate their dancing in a cultic context that is, through its locale, connected but is otherwise detached from the with the fate of Oidipous
dramatic nate their action. dramatic At the same time, to they their self-consciously generic role as subordi a group of character

and reassert their identity as choral performers into another time and another place. themselves by projecting Instead of asking "Why dance?" they are now saying, in effect, choral dancers,
"tomorrow Xooeuaojxev?not but "tomorrow."70 we will here, dance in your but honor," elsewhere; a?oi?v not ae today, in the orchestra,

Their promise is fraught their choral performance completely discredited by they are ignorant. As they
was born, they envisage

with ambiguity. While supported by in the here and now, their pledge is the past and future events of which look back to the time when Oidipous
erroneously as an idyllic moun

Kithairon

tain where
the choral

gods

like Pan and Apollo?two

with "long-lived"

divine champions
females, one of whom

of

dance?mate

and where perhaps Hermes or might be the mother of Oidipous, received from the nymphs who found Dionysos baby Oidipous him (1098-1109) .71But a dozen lines later the Theban shepherd arrives to reveal the truth about Oidipous' birth and his exposure
on Kithairon. Instantly, the Dionysiac mountain appears in a

different light, as a place of grief rather than choral celebration, and reminds us of the polarities inherent in the tragic perception of Dionysos.72 Ironically, the chorus's choice of ill-fated Kithairon as the place for their future dancing is both flawed and eminently suitable. To
is even be too more late.73

complete
ambiguous: In reflecting

the irony, the time chosen by the chorus

as on of this always the in tragedy, conditions thus of "tomorrow" their own will perfor own their

mance,

the members

chorus

transcend

ignorance and repeatedly allude to the truth of the dramatic situation even though its full impact still eludes them.74 Aware of their place in the larger order of things, which includes the gods and their cult, the chorus of Oidipous Tyrannos, more

Albert Henrichs
than tion other chorus choral in tragedy, the close interconnec and as dramatic

73

any

represents choral

among

crisis.75 of the

As witnesses tragic

performance, to the unfolding they move

projection, as well drama,

dance-song,

effortlessly,

though

performers not unerr

ingly, between past and present, hope and fear, the mythical identities. the real world, and between their own multiple

and

III. Sophocles: Euphoric Choruses, Dionysos, and Choral Projection choruses

and more

It has long been recognized

who refer to their own dancing

that the other Sophoclean

are more optimistic,

blind
annos.

to the events onstage,

Near the dramatic

than the chorus of Oidipous

the choruses of Aias,

Tyr

climax,

Antigone,

get their hopes up prematurely and are carried with away joyful exultation. Their upbeat mood finds physical a particularly agitated form of dancing. It is here, in expression at the climactic turning point of the action, that these choruses and Trakhiniai
comment self-referentially on their performance as dancers, and

compare their own exuberant dancing to the dancing associated in particular, the ritual. In Aias and Trakhiniai with Dionysiac
dramatic climax is underscored by an increased ritual self-aware

ness of the chorus, whose

the dramatic between the action. exuberant These

choral aspirations
odes have in common of the

are then deflated by

the tragic tension chorus?epitomized

self-expression

and sense of the disillusionment in the agitated dance?and The the audience. dance as an felt by impending catastrophe
expression at ally of odds joy, expectation, with the and hope and characters is emotionally and factu events These onstage.

choruses
are often

have been variously

odes," to as or referred

described
"euphoric they

as "cheerful
odes," have and not been

choruses,"
they examined

"joy-before-disaster

although

a group,

en bloc for their shared structural features.76 The basic pattern can be found in the Aias.
stanza of the second stasimon, the chorus reacts

In the opening
enthusiastically

to Aias'

"deception

speech"

(693-705): ?' ?vejrx?uxxv. KvX

?(f)Qi^' ?ocoxi, jteoixaofj? id) id) n?v n?v, ?an?v

Xavia?

n?v

?MjiXayxxe,

xtovoxximov

74

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

Jtexoaia? ?jr? ?eio??o?

Oe M?aia v xoQOJio?' Kvoboi' ?va?, oq

^?vrjO',
oj?goc uoi

cb

?uvcbv l?aprjc* Xf||xax' avxo?afj vf3v y?p ?uoi [x?Xei xooe?aai. v ?' vt?eq ^neXayewf Txaoi ?va? Aji?Mxdv jxoX,(bv ? A??xo? evyv oxo? ?\ioi ^vve??] ?i? Jiavx?? ei5(|)Qa)v. I thrill with
Oh

excitement, I? i? Pan, Pan!

Pan, Pan, sea-roamer,

I take wings

for joy.

appear from the rocky ridge

of snow-struck Kyllene,

oh Lord, dance-master {khoropoios) of the gods, so that me and set in motion you may be with your self-taught Mysian, Knosian dances {orkh?mata): Now I am bent upon dancing {khoreusai).
And as a coming god easy over to the Ikarian sea recognize

may Apollo,
be with me

the Lord of Delos,

always in kindness.77

The

Salaminian

sailors,

overjoyed

by

what

they

perceive

as

Aias'
it were,

change of mind
and perform

and salvation
an enthusiastic

from himself,
dance in the

take wings,
orchestra.

as
As

if to magnify
ion of Dionysos,

their performance,
to make his

they call upon Pan, the compan

epiphany as the "dance-master of

the gods" and to teach them his exotic dances. The transformative power of the dance, here represented by Pan, thus becomes the
vehicle for choral performance. For once the separate worlds of

gods and mortals appear to be in perfect harmony, as Apollo too is invoked to add his benevolent presence to that of Pan.78 But the rejoicing of the chorus is premature. The second stasimon is
followed by the entrance crisis and of sets the messenger, the their stage own most who for Aias' performance consummate,"79 reveals suicide the emerg ing dramatic As Pan, the "the speech. as dancers the

khoreutai dancer

project {khoreut?s)

on

focus

shifts, significantly, from the performative from the chorus to their divine role model,

to the epiphanic mode, and from the orchestra

Albert

Henrichs

75

to

ritual

setting

at

once

more

distant

and

imaginary.

Similar

in ritual emphasis can be found in other choral odes of Sophocles, as well as in Euripides; I refer to them as choral shifts
projection.80 ing, the Each tragedians time go a tragic out of chorus their way its own emphasizes to the incorporate danc choral

self-reference into the imaginary setting of the drama. They do so by separating the choral dancing from the orchestra and pro jecting it into a different time and place, as inOidipous Tyrannos and Antigone, or by projecting it on another performer, whether human or divine, as inAias, Antigone,
Elektra.81 Invariably, choral projection

Trakhiniai,
serves as

and Euripides'
the matrix for

choral self-referentiality
here and now of the

and allows

it to be given full rein in the

I am bent upon

actual

performance?"now

dancing," vvv y?o ?uoi (x?Xeixooe?aai.82 At the height of their enthusiasm, the sailors simultaneously
realize their dramatic character as Salaminians as well as their

choral identity as performers of the choral dance. Their dual role is reflected in the dual identity of their divine role model. The Athenian cult of Pan commemorated his role in the victory at was Pan but the Arcadian also connected with Salamis: Marathon; in his description of the battle of Salamis, Aeschylus calls him "lover of dances" ((j)iX,oxoQO?)and makes him a resident of the island of Psyttaleia
local Dionysos cult, the Pan and Dionysiac

off Salamis.83 Apart

of this stanza also enthusiasm in the

from being a figure of

represents same way the realm of that Mount

Kithairon stands for the Dionysiac world and its tensions in the third stasimon of the Oidipous Tyrannos.84 Here as elsewhere,
Sophocles siac ambience, locates thus the khoreuein recalling one of of the chorus the most in a concrete conspicuous Diony features

of Dionysiac ritual?"to dance in the thiasos" (E. Ba. 379 the Oiaoeueiv xe xoqo??)?and distant origins of tragedy perhaps itself. This connection will be confirmed by a consideration of choruses in Antigone and equally self-referential and Dionysiac Trakhiniai.
In both complex plays, than the structure while of choral self-reference associations is more are more in Aias, the Dionysiac

is set in Thebes, the hometown of Dio explicit. The Antigone in who the nysos, figures prominently play as the pivot of tragic
reversals and as a focus for the choral dance.85 At the very end

of the parodos, in a mood of victory and relief from recent civil strife, the chorus pledges to approach the temples of all the gods

76

"WHYSHOULD IDANCE?! dancing, while pride of place to Dionysos

in nocturnal (152-54):

giving

Oe v ?? vao?? %oqo??, jravvijxoi? Jt?vxa? ?jt?X O u.ev, ? 0f|?ac ?' ?XeXi XOodv B?xxio? ?pxoi.

Let us approach all the temples of the gods with dances (khoroi) that last all night, and let him who the Bacchic The god, shakes up Thebes, take the lead.

choral performance, located in the orchestra and projected into the realm of dramatic illusion, is placed under simultaneously the authority of Dionysos, who "shakes up" his native city with the enthusiasm he inspires and the dancing he requires. Dionysos thus functions as the initiator of the choral dance, as the divine khor?gos, a role comparable to that of Pan in the Aias. But the
of choral projection is carried even further. Here, as in

device

the third stasimon of the Oidipous

is envisaged once again as a future

Tyrannos,
performance,

the choral dancing

at a pannukhis,

it is simultaneously while enacted by the same chorus in the orchestra. Thus the boundaries of chorus and citizen, divine and mortal dancer, and of myth and cult begin to shift again in an intricate pattern of changing ritual identities associated with the
name of Dionysos.

lines later, Dionysos appears again in the time, however, he does not preside over festivities but punishes Lykourgos, who in his madness taunted the god (955-61) and intruded on the ritual dancing of the mae nads (963-65): jia?eoxe
yuva?xa?

Some eight hundred fourth stasimon. This

uiv y?o
em?v xe

?vO?ou?
jujq,

(jn^auXovc x' f|Q?0i?e Mo?oac. For he tried to stop the divinely inspired women and the Bacchic fire, and incited the pipe-loving Muses.

Albert Henrichs The

77

enthusiastic women associated with the "Bacchic fire" are of course the torch-carrying maenads of myth and cult, who in nocturnal rites synonymous with the x?Q?i dance for Dionysos of the jr?vvDxoi parodos. Their dances are accompanied by the pipe, an instrument often associated with Dionysos and with the of

in the phrase that is epitomized choral dancing . . Mouoa?. . Muses the have no ordinarily Although fyikavXov? in has the Lykourgos myth, Sophocles incorporated them place as of divine and especially musical champions metonymically kind choral performance.86 By interfering with the dance-songs of the incurred the wrath of both Dionysos and maenads, Lykourgos theMuses. Mention of theMuses thus adds force to the portrayal of Lykourgos as an enemy of the gods.87 From the perspective of this chorus, Lykourgos did not merely persecute Dionysos and his nurses, as he does in the Iliad. His attempt to put an end to
maenadic dances also threatened the very existence of Dionysiac

khoreia as such, including the "all-night dances" (152) envisaged earlier by the same chorus and the dancing of the khoreutai in
the orchestra.88 As an opponent of the Dionysiac dance, the figure

of Lykourgos
memory and

thus serves as a subtle link between

the performative function of the chorus.

the mythical

is again in full swing Choral dancing in the name of Dionysos in the fifth stasimon, which takes the form of a hymn to Dionysos,
one of the longest in surviving Greek or Latin poetry.89 Kreon

has just decided

hopes raised, the

to bury Polyneikes
choral dancers

and release Antigone.

Dionysos "to come

Their
with

invoke

cathartic foot"
But, Antigone moments ironically, and after

(1142 fxo^e?vxaOaoo??)
Dionysos Haimon the ode never are comes appears. announced to

jto??) and save Thebes.90

Instead, by the As the suicides of just messenger in the Oidipous

a close.91

Tyrannos and in the Aias, where the call for a Dionysiac epiphany is equally premature (697f.), the chorus's ineffectual recourse to
Dionysos serves to intensify the dramatic tension, and to drama

tize the god's ambivalence. In the final stanza, however, the hopes of the chorus are still high and crystallize into a mythical vision of divine epiphany and of Dionysiac dancing on a cosmic scale (1146-52):
l(b JT?Q jtveovxcav

Xoo?y' ?oxQcov, vvxi (|)0ey[x?x(Dv ?moxojie,

78

"WHYSHOULD IDANCE?" jta? A?o? y?veOXov, jipo^avriO', (bva?, aa?? ?fxa jteQur?Xoic

0maaiv, Xooe?ovoi

a?

ae xov

umv?u.evai xauxav

jt?vvvxoi "Iaxxov.

I?, chorus-leader
fire-breathing stars,

{khor?gos) of the

overseer of the voices of the night, child born of Zeus, make your epiphany, Lord, together with your attendant Thyiads, who in their madness dance {khoreuousi) all night for you, Iakkhos the Dispenser.92 The juxtaposition of tcvq Jtve?vxcov x?p?y' ?oxQi?v and vvx???v (|)9ey|x?xG)v emoxorce recalls the xoQoi ji?vvvxoi of the parode is again and the eihov jtuq of the fourth stasimon, while Dionysos recognized as the divine role model and archetypal khor?gos who in the dance.93 In the closing lines of the leads his khoreutai stanza, the god is asked to make his epiphany along with his

the Thyiads, who "dance for you all night" maenad-nymphs, (jmvvuxoi xoQeiJODOi). Not only does the last chorus of the play join hands here in dance with the first, but the stars of the sky and the choral join the sacred women on the Delphic mountain,
performance that takes becomes place only part in the of a much imagination. larger cultic endeavor, of one choral In a cascade

projection, Dionysos himself leads the astral chorus of stars, while the mythical maenads perform their dances under the night sky and the tragic chorus of the here and now follows suit in the orchestra.94 All of the projected dancing takes place at night, and so. The nocturnal setting recalls the night with appropriately which the play begins; the interplay of light and darkness in particular reminded the Athenian audience of the sacred night of the light revealed and the hope of the Eleusinian Mysteries,

in the Telesterion, and of the Eleusinian Iakkhos proclaimed as in "the is the invoked who Frogs fire-bearing star Dionysos, of the nocturnal initiation rite" (342ff. "Iaxx' "Iaxxe, vuxx?oou the and Dionysiac night also finally, aaxf|o); xeXexfj? ())tt>a<j)OQO? evokes the darkness of the chthonian realm, to which Dionysos
is no stranger, and which Antigone embraces progressively in the

course of the action, until she too ends her life in a dark tomb, to join her parents and brothers in the netherworld.95

Albert Henrichs

79

Although the members of this chorus verbally engage inDiony siac dancing in three of their six songs, they do not refer directly
to their actual performance in the orchestra. Rather, they project

their own dancing into a cultic future (152ff.), into the remote mythical past (963ff.), and finally into a distinct Delphic and Eleusinian ambience which subsumes myth and cult in a vision the divine chorus leader of a world transformed by Dionysos, (1146ff.).
As we turn to the Trakhiniai, we see that the connections

and maenadic dancing are more between choral self-definition more is more, direct and emphatic than in the Antigone. What choral self-referentiality acquires a distinct polytheistic dimension
as non-Dionysiac rituals, and divinities other than Dionysos, enter

to play subsidiary
returns home

roles in defining
after a

choral performance.
long absence, and an

Herakles
overjoyed

unexpectedly

Deianeira
and

invites all the womenfolk (yuva?xe?, here used generi or social of within the house age status)?"those cally regardless
those outside the courtyard"?to raise their voice in song

and to celebrate
and

the news of her husband's victorious return (202-04). Jubilant at the prospect of a happy reunion of Herakles
Deianeira, the chorus of young Trachinian women, "those

outside," oblige her at once. In the first movement of an astrophic choral interlude, their jubilation finds a ritual outlet as they in
turn young invite women the young men of Herakles' themselves household, included, as well to sing and as the {parthenoi), dance

for Apollo

and Artemis ?ojxo?

(205-15):

?voX,o^??xo)

?4>eaxioi? ?XaXaya?? ? \ieIXovv\i<\)O? ?v ?? xoiv?? ?xo) xXayy? x?v exi^ap?x?av Aji?Mxd

?oa?v

JiQoox?xav, ?jio?j ?? Jtai?va Jtai ?v' ?v?yex', d> JtaoO?voi, ?o?xe x?v ?fxoajiooov Aoxeuxv 'Opxuy?av, etax^a?oXov, yeixov?? xe NuuxJ)a?.

?uxjnnruQov,

Let the house raise a cry of exultation {anololuxat?) with shouts of alalai by the hearth, the house soon to be united in wedlock.

8o

"WHY SHOULD IDANCE?

And

therein let the collective shout of the men go up to the one of the fair quiver, Apollo the protector,
you, maidens, raise the paian,

while

the paian-cry
Artemis

and call upon his twin sister

deer-shooter,

the Ortygian,

carrier of the double and upon

torch, Nymphs.96

the neighboring

is very marked in these lines The language of ritual performance and those that follow. The imperative mood (205, 208, 211, 212) and the self-referential first person present combined with the aioouxxi ova' ?jrc?oouxxi x?v avX?v) future" (216f. "performative constitute "action descriptions" typically found in ritual contexts
and in choral self-reference.97 between gods and At the same time, the and conventional females, and boundaries mortals, males

the individual and the group are drawn with paradigmatic precision. Men and women are addressed separately, but their between
are to in uni their ritual tasks choirs separate expected perform son. seems over to take the which the dance, Song precedence

chorus will soon claim as their own province (216ff.). The shrill sound of the ololug? and alalag?, here used as ritualized expres
sions of collective cheer, gives way quickly to the paian-cry

(echoed at 221) and to the more measured

song The in praise alternation of Artemis.98 of Apollo and Artemis

rhythms of the paian

mirrors the separate

identities of the two sexes. Still, the female chorus appropriates the male paian, at least for the time being, and Artemis is included in their song.99 Thus ritual finally mediates gender divisions, as and the choral voice tran befits the reenactment of a wedding, scends the imaginary cultic occasion by invoking an Artemis who hunts, carries torches, and is joined by the Nymphs?the mythical
counterparts of the parthenoi. Once again, however, the note of

triumph and celebration suggested by the paian and the prospect of sexual harmony represented by the integrating function of
Apollo and Artemis turn out to be premature; these elements

merely
nysos,

set the stage for the tragic reversal associated with Dio
who is often represented in tragedy as the subverter of

marriage.100

This
of

song has been recognized

ritual forms,

as a highly
modes,

imaginative
and

synthesis
fea

different

performative

generic

Albert Henrichs tures. Critics have noted the mixture

81

ololug? and paian, song and wedding emphasis.101 This the status of the within
the

of alalag? and ololug?, of of paeanic and dithyrambic elements, of victory and a Dionysiac choir, and of an Apollonian overall fluidity of ritual categories also affects chorus and their relationship to the "women

the house" (202). Most scholars recognize ob Jtao?evoi (211) as a self-address of the chorus, although others hold that
young women of the chorus outside are addressing their age

mates within the house.102 But, coming as it does shortly after a reference to the ?ooeve? inside, the address cb JtaoO?voi is general enough to include the young women of the household as well as the chorus.103 By addressing this socially marked age group, the female chorus in the orchestra projects its own dramatic gender and status on an imagined choir of parthenoi offstage. Once they have paid their respects to Artemis, the divine model of the age group they represent, the khoreutai turn to Dionysos at the mid (216ff.) and assert their true ritual point of their dance-song as a chorus carried away in the dance. It is Dionysiac identity this carefully orchestrated transition from Apollo and Artemis to as well as the parallel progression the realm of Dionysos, from to direct choral self-referentiality, choral projection that makes
this chorus so special.

The
tions.104 dance own

shift to Dionysos
a word soon song, as they As over

seems abrupt,
that accommodates of the

but

it is facilitated
Dionysiac begin and aegis to associa emphasize

by

avoXoXv^axio,

the women adopt

chorus stance under

a Dionysiac

perceive

their

dancing

as a choral

competition

the

of Dionysos

{Tra. 216-21):
allouai ov?' ajroaaouxxi

xov avX?v,
l?ou

(b x?oavve

x?? ?ua?

(|)Qevo?.

[x' ?vaxaoaaaei,

euo?, ? xiao??

?oxi Baxxiav i)7tooxQ?(t)cov ?uxMtav. i(b i(b Jiai?v.

I am lifted up {airomai), nor shall I reject the pipe {aulos), O master of my mind. See, the ivy {kissos) shakes me up,
euoi!,

82

"WHY SHOULD IDANCE?

whirling me round now in the Bacchic contest {hamilla).

I?, i?, paian.

Nowhere

else in Sophoclean tragedy does choral self-referentiality find such vivid and agitated expression. The khoreutai are literally feel "lifted up," in both their bodies rising to the occasion?they and their souls. Emphatically placed at the beginning of their utterance, a?QOjxai describes the initial impetus of their rapid
dance drawing movement attention in to self-referential their ecstatic terms state while simultaneously Aiqouxxi thus of mind.105

corresponds avejrx?uxxv Aias (693).

emotionally as well as structurally to the JteQixaofj? of the equally euphoric and Dionysiac chorus in

spirit of this chorus is Apart from a?oofxai, the Dionysiac reflected more tangibly in the double-reed pipe {aulos), the ivy {kissos) and the notion of a "Bacchic contest" {hamilla). All three
terms combine a Dionysiac reference with an emphasis on choral

performance.
nadic excited thiasoi women

The reed pipe and wreaths

in vase in tragedy painting are as well often as

of ivy characterize mae

literature.106 as maenads; Intensely as the

portrayed

chorus of Trachinian
they selves Dionysiac ivy function too with adopt two a of

parthenoi
the most At the tokens

reach the height of their frenzy,

identity by associating them of and the the

quasi-maenadic

thiasos.107 as visual

conspicuous paraphernalia same the pipe time, however, of choral performance that

connect

this chorus with the agonistic here and now of the City Dionysia. Commentators from Jebb to Davies have tended to emphasize the broader Dionysiac and maenadic connotations of the pipe over and the ivy their choreutic function, but Sophocles clearly meant his audience to appreciate both.108 Dithyrambic wore ivy wreaths during their choral competitions,
dance-songs were accompanied by the pipe-player

choruses and their

{aul?t?s) .109

Tragic

also danced to the tune of the aulos, but it is were ivy-wreathed as a general rule.110 Yet the that they unlikely khoreutai of this particular chorus claim to be wearing ivy while dancing to the pipe, features assimilating them to the dithyrambic chorus as well as the maenadic thiasos. Along with the pipe and the ivy, the exclamation euoi has both maenadic and choreutic associations, thus reinforcing Sophocles' dual emphasis on Diony choruses

Albert Henrichs
siac and choral

83
an

role-playing

performance.111

By

exhibiting

ambivalent Dionysiac
male choreutic ing interpretation, role as male dramatic

identity that allows

the members of this dancers in the orchestra as women

a female as well
chorus without The assert

as a
their

abandon potential

their

character

of Trachis.

their dramatic and their ritual identity is avoided in a shared Dionysiac ambience. both by integrating "master of my mind" The anonymous (217 (b x?oavve x?? or stirs the who mastermind up (218 avaxaoaooei) ?jx?? (|)Qevo?), this chorus to the point of ecstasy, has been variously identified conflict between with
orgiastic

the pipe, with

connotations

Dionysos,
and

and with
association

Apollo.112 Despite
with Dionysos,

its
the

its close

aulos does not fit the apostrophe very well; its wording strongly suggests an addressee who is both personal and divine.113 In for mental agitation implies addition, the tragic use of xao?ooeiv
"supernatural interference" or, in other words, divine agency.114

is prominent in the earlier part of the same ode, but in Apollo the present context of Dionysiac possession he is a less likely candidate than Dionysos himself, the god of ecstatic dancing and
"Lord of the maenads."115 In Greek and Roman poetry, no other

mens) of mortals tomore powerful god invades the minds (cj)Q?ve?, even the of effect; ravings prophetic figures such as Kassandra and the Sibyl, who owe their inspiration to Apollo, are described
in Dionysiac terms.116 Although Dionysos is not mentioned by

name in this ode, he is represented indirectly by the pipe and the ivy, while his role as the god of the City Dionysia and its choral
contests is acknowledged in the phrase Baxxiav auxXAav.

The

concept
earliest

of choral competition
with this chorus of poetic evocation

has not been

and a chorus its literary being

sufficiently
anteced "uplifted"

explored ents. The

in connection

can be found in Alcman's Partheneion?"the com Doves/Pleiads = as us rise with pete (uxxxovxai) they aeiQO^ievai) (?fnoofx?vai
like ers the dog-star now agree two The through that choruses meaning the ambrosian implies between night."117 choral rival Most competition, of the interpret not same but I jx?xovxai but

between chorus.

members

of afnoouivai

is more

controversial,

suggest that Alem?n compared the maidens as they were dancing during torches in their hands to the rising reading, the notion of an "uplifted"

exaltation of the competing a night-festival while holding of a brilliant star.118On this and exalted chorus appears

84

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

as

early

as Alem?n,

and

it does

so,

significantly,

in the

context

to of choral competition and of choral toil (jt?voi). References hamilla occur not only in Pindar and in the context of athletic competition but also in poetic as well as prose descriptions of tragic and dithyrambic choruses.119 Yet most scholars commenting on Baxxiav ?uxMuxv in recent years have been inclined to recog
nize a reference to speed rather than competition.120 Speed there

is, but there is also the collective

each other in the "Bacchic

toil of choruses
Jt?voi

competing with
of Pindar's

contest"?the

xoqcdv

come to mind.121 The spirit of such a physical third Dithyramb exertion on behalf of the god of the dance is well captured in the self-referential opening statement of the first chorus in the Bakkhai: "Imove swiftly inmy sweet labors for Bromios, in a toil toiled" (65ff. Oo??o) Bqouxco jtovov f|?i3v, x?uxxx?v x' eiJx?fxaxov). The notion of a Bacchic hamilla can thus be seen as an integral element of the strategy of choral self-reference employed by this chorus. Like the ivy and the pipe, it articulates as the choreutic dimension as well of this the maenadic that iswell chorus's
The

identity.
chorus of young women conclude the Dionysiac part of

id) id) Jtai?v (221), their dance-song with the ritual exclamation which recalls their initial role as performers of the paian and reminds us of the principle of choral projection that has allowed them to oscillate between Apollo and Dionysos, between their own khoreia in the orchestra and the more imaginary khoroi
offstage, and between their dramatic character and their choral

Sophocles chose to employ the device of premature jubilation at a much earlier stage of the action than in any of the other plays discussed so far, but the effect is choral
even more by the dramatic. marks Once the again tragic the upbeat reversal, and Dionysiac so does note their struck intona chorus

identity. In the Trakhiniai

tion of the paian with

Their exuberance sign serves of worse unmistakable

which
as

they close
that sets

their performance.122
such the optimism antiphrasti is an stage,

a reminder to come?it

cally, for the veiled revelations of Likhas and, more ominously, for the silent presence of Iole, who will soon be revealed as the
source of the tragedy that is about to unfold.

The Dionysiac music itself suffers a complete reversal several hundred lines later, in the second stasimon, where the pipe reap pears in what is by now a familiar pattern of choral projection

Albert Henrichs designed to mark a change in the dramatic mood ritual emphasis {Tra. 640-43): x?x' vuxv a?X?? o?x avaoa?av ?jx?veioiv, ??l? Oeia? ?%(bv xavax?v ? xaMx?oac
?vxiXuoov uxruaa?.

85

by a shift in

Soon will
for you,

the lovely voice of the pipe

{aulos) rise again the sound

not resonating with a dissonant shriek, but with of divine music responding to the lyre.123 The

chorus awaits the imminent return of Herakles after his over to of the and looks forward the city Eurytos joyous victory music of the pipe and the lyre, reminiscent of Dionysos and at will hero But in arrival. that the his the greet Apollo, implicit litotes and the language of denial is the fear of a tragic reversal and the sinister foreboding that the music might turn into its opposite, that the Dionysiac aulos might become an instrument of mourning.124 Indeed, in the meantime the fate of Herakles has been reversed offstage, where the victorious hero is dying a slow and painful death. The description of the poison consuming his body is couched in Dionysiac metaphor, and his demise is ritual ized as a corrupted sacrifice.125 The circumstances of his death thus subvert the efficacy of ritual performance and dampen the exuberant spirit of the Dionysiac dance performed earlier by the
chorus; at the same time, however, the elaborate Dionysiac image,

which describes the destructive violence of the poison that marks the moment of reversal, verbally dramatizes the dark side and the
ambivalence of the tragic Dionysos.126

The last choral song (947-70) is a lament for Herakles and a wish for escape from a painful sight?the silent procession that carries the poisoned Herakles onto the stage. Throughout the final scene of the play, the pipe too is silent, muted by the shrieks of pain which accompany the agony of the suffering hero. In its silence, the pipe functions as a self-referential symbol of the
dramatic and emotional constraints that control choral perfor

mance. When the pipe falls silent at 970, the chorus stops dancing for good?a dozen lines before Herakles fills the stage with his cries, and three hundred lines before the play ends.127

86

"WHYSHOULD IDANCE?!
IV.

A Euripidean Sophoclean
entially mance, khoros, never verbally khoreuein,

Chorus

choruses who define their choral identity self-refer

act in a ritual supported or aulos, vacuum. by Rather, self-referential closely their choral terms to other perfor such as types

corresponds

of ritual performance that are integral to the action but are also in the located outside the orchestra, projected on participants realm of the dramatic imagination. Comparable patterns of choral self-definition through choral projection can be found in several of plays Euripides, of whose work I choose the Elektra as a particularly
women refer

apt example.128
to their own choral

In this play
performance

the chorus
in the first

of Argive
person?

"my dance"
?fx?xeoov

(865 euxp X00(p) and "our dancing"

%?Qev\ia). The same chorus twice

(874f. xo ?'
invites Elektra

. . .

to join in the dance;

time the members of

twice she declines

this chorus refer

(167-80;
to choral

859-79).

Every

dancing,

whether

Elektra's
that the are

or their own,
integral to the of Orestes'

they relate it to imaginary

dramatic victory. action?an While Argive choral

ritual events
festival and and

celebration

performance

choral projection
between the chorus

thus provide
and Elektra,

the context
they also

for the interaction

instrumental in

prove

identities of the chorus. blending the dramatic and performative Closer scrutiny of El. 859ff. reveals the intricacies of this pattern, as well as some of the differences between Euripides and Sophocles
in their dramatization of ritual performance.129

At the first dramatic climax of the play, amessenger reports how is slaughtered by Orestes while the two are sacrificing a Aigisthos to the country Nymphs. In this graphic display of bull young ritual violence, the human victim is literally superimposed on the sacrificial animal, and the Aeschylean metaphor of the perverted
sacrifice becomes a ritual reality?its performance takes place

offstage and is verbally reenacted onstage. his blood, Orestes reveals his own identity. are jubilant, raise the ritual cry of triumph . with a wreath (854f. ox?fyovoi.. xcxioovxe? wreath
connotations contaminated victory, in which

and the akakayr]

and mark to chorus the sacrifice the

have
the

sacrificial
from

As Aigisthos lies in servants The palace and crown Orestes ?taxXxx?ovxe?). The as well as epinician
the violence of the of Orestes' part.130 As

transition communal is about to

celebration take an active

Albert Henrichs
soon as the messenger has left the stage, the chorus

87
a

performs

victory singing

dance

and invites Elektra (859-65, the strophe):

to join in their dancing

and

O?? ?? x?Qov> d) (j?a, ?xvo?, ob? ve?poc jrf|?r||xa novtyiCovGa ovv ?yXa?a.
vixa oxec()ava(()?Qa xoe?aaoo x?rv jrao'

ouo?viov

AXx|)eio?>

Qe?Ogoi? xeX?oa? xaoiyvrjxo? a??ev ?Kk' im?ei?e xaMxvixov (b??v ?^icp xoqcd. Set your foot dancing {khoros), dear friend, fawn-like nimbly leaping sky-high in festive joy!
Your brother has those won, has completed stream. a crown-contest Come, accompany surpassing by Alpheios'

my dance

{khoros) with

a song of glorious of this chorus

on a victory

victory.131 is epinician
song, wreaths,

The prevailing
than Dionysiac,

poetic mode
with emphasis

rather
and

dancing

in honor of Orestes.
what an

The

invitation
costly

to celebrate Orestes'
victory that was?is

"victory"?and

ambivalent,

to the chorus, who in passed on like a torch from the messenger turn pass it to Elektra. But Elektra is less than fully cooperative: she will fetch a wreath for her brother but leaves the khoreia to the chorus (866-72). The two ritual tasks, the dancing and the wreathing, will be divided between Elektra and the chorus, so
that context the women Orestes "the for chorus' the of (873f.) performance crowning."132 the and chorus to In acquiesce nobody's of the the dance provides a ritual corresponding in Elektra's claim antistrophe, to crown choice the dance-song

surprise

for themselves (874f.): "Our dancing will proceed, dear to the xo ?' ?fx?xeoov xcDof|aexai Mo?oaiai Muses," x?Qev\ia <|)?k)v. By using the performative future to signify their ritual intent, they
reassert invitation their to own choral identity.133 Orestes' In retrospect, victory and the messenger's refusal to celebrate Elektra's

dance prove to be patent vehicles for choral self-referentiality. At the end of the antistrophe, after an approving nod to Orestes and his victory, the khoreutai add the choreutic pipe and the ecstatic shout to their choral credentials: "Let shouts of joy be raised in unison with the pipe," oXV ?xco ?waiAo? ?oa %a.QQ (879). As soon as they have completed the process of choral self

88

"WHY SHOULD IDANCE?! Euripides

and moves

definition,
abrupt end

brings the performance

on with the action.

of the chorus

to an

But what
discussed

about Dionysos?
Dionysos

In two of the Sophoclean

and Pan are invoked as

choruses

earlier,

"dance-mas

ters" {Aias 698 xoQOJioi?, Ant. 1147 xopay?) who lead and inspire the choral dance. In the Trakhiniai and the Oidipous Tyrannos as well, choral dancing is represented as Dionysiac dancing. Like routinely Sophocles, Euripides connects choral self-referentiality but his connections with Dionysos, tend to be more allusive.134 The pattern of allusion in the Elektra involves both the use of Dionysiac metaphor and the suppression of any direct reference to Dionysos. Instead of invoking Dionysos directly, the chorus
refers to its own dancing as "dear to the Muses." Outside tragedy,

in the poetry of the archaic period, the choral dances of theMuses are more often associated with Apollo than with Dionysos.135 In the fourth stasimon of the Antigone and the second stasimon of the Herakles, however, the Muses appear side by side with Dio nysos as divinities in charge of maenadic as well as choral dancing. In both plays, the striking association
forms part of a more comprehensive referentiality.136

of theMuses
pattern

with Dionysos
of choral self

in the Elektra is equally The choral dancing "dear to theMuses" self-referential, and through a typically Euripidean combination of metaphor and choral projection, it is ultimately also connected with Dionysos. When, at the beginning of the strophe, the chorus invites Elektra to join the dance, the khoreutai project their own dancing on Elektra and compare her?and implicitly themselves? to "a fawn lifted sky-high as it leaps in festive joy" (859-61). The fawn and the fawnskin belong in the realm of Dionysos, and the metaphor of the leaping fawn recurs in one of the choral odes of the Bakkhai as an image of maenadic freedom and escape from oppression.137 The use of this maenadic metaphor as well as the (879) establish a distinct Dionysiac ambience for the performance of this chorus and reinforce similar allusions to the realm of Dionysos and to Dionysiac ritual in other parts reference to the aulos
of this play.138

In Sophocles we found the tendency to imbed choral self in the structure of one ode and to echo it in referentiality another.139 Such echoes are usually accompanied by shifts in nature of the ritual or the identity of those ritual emphasis?the
performing it undergoes a significant transformation in the wake

Albert Henrichs

89

of choral projection. Euripides adopted this technique in the Elektra. The two parallel references to choral dancing discussed
so far complete a more complex pattern of choral projection set

up at the beginning of the play.140 In the lyric exchange that the Argive women of the chorus invite replaces the parodos, in the Heraia, a local women's Elektra to participate festival
whose rituals are "tragically negated" by the characters as well

as by the action of this play.141 Elektra not only declines expressly refuses to take part in choral dancing (175-80): otjx ?jr' ?yXa?ai?, (|)?Xai, 0vu.?v oi)?' ?m XQ^o?oi? OQfxoi? ?xjrejtoxafxai x?Xaiv', o??' iax?oa xoqo?? ?u<x vuux|)ai? Aoyeiai? eiXixx?v xqo?ooo Dear jto?' ?uov.

but

friends, not for shimmering robes, not for twisted bracelets of gold does my heart take wing in delight. I am too sad, I cannot set up choral dances foot.142
is not

{khoroi)

with the Argive maidens or beat the tune with my whirling

Elektra herself with informs jewelry, the chorus or to that preside she as

in the mood over the

to adorn dance,

khor?gos

This incompatible with the rigor of her mourning. for renunciation of one kind of ritual performance the (dance) sake of another (mourning) anticipates Elektra's later refusal to perform the victory dance for Orestes, although she does crown her brother; her attitude also recalls the Sophoclean Elektra who from carrying libations to the tomb of Aga stops Chrysothemis memnon. more
dance

activities

aversion to dancing locates the dance all the the ritual realm of the chorus. We recall within squarely that later in the play the same khoreutai will lay claim to the Elektra's
as their own province in a performative assertion of their

choral identity: proceed," X?)of|aexai Mo?oaiax x?oeuuxx fyikov (874f.). The device of choral thus serves to articulate the fragility of ritual self-referentiality remedies, but also their centrality to the life of the drama and the life of the audience. Ritual dancing in tragedy becomes a

"Our dance will

x? ?' auixeoov

90

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

crucial
ble

link between the religion of the polis expressed in cult and the realm of the imagination embodied in myth made visi
onstage.143

A final point: closer study of other Euripidean

reveal an even greater complexity of choral

choruses would
and

self-referentiality

of a technique characterized by highly imaginative recourse to choral projection and the disruption of choral convention. In fact,
because oriented Attic drama of privileged choral the choral voice the over tragic more chorus action was aspects performance,

always in danger of losing its ritual identity. As dancers in the orchestra, the khoreutai relied on their feet and their dancing to
assert their ritual role. But as actors in the drama and as "agents

of narrative," to adopt a phrase introduced by Claude Ca?ame, tragic choruses were more prominently defined by their choral voice and dramatic character than by their ritual role.144 This dichotomy makes the rather rare instances inwhich they verbalize their own dancing all the more precious. Each time it occurs, choral self-referentiality integrates the performance beneficially of the khoreutai with the performative power of the choral voice
and helps reduce space choral of the the distance drama. between By as fact the a same the orchestra token, the and very the exis imaginary tence of mode way also since

self-reference the beginnings, controlled

self-conscious that drama that has as

acknowledges its ritual is now

performative a come action into

long and

and and

ritual

reenactment

systematically

called

ques

tion by the dynamics

ance and verbal

of the spoken word,

Still, each

by performative
time tragic

utter

performance.

choruses

relate their own dancing to Dionysos, they not only locate their in the cultic of the festival but also setting Dionysiac performance recall and reenact the distant origins of tragedy.145

NOTES
1. The song. For shorthand 23). Recent function, Greek lack of studies semantics a more of khoros suitable include both elements, dance as well as use "dance" as I shall occasionally see n. the "dance-song" ("Tanzlied," its broad performative culture emphasize

for the choral

word, of performance in Greek

of khoreia

the interplay of dance and song, and the relationship of poetics to "song culture"; see C. Ca?ame, Les ch urs de jeunes filles en Gr?ce archa?que, 2 vols., Rome 1977; W. Mullen, Choreia: Pindar and Dance, Princeton 1982; J. Herington, Poetry into Drama: Early Tragedy and the Greek Poetic Tradition, Berkeley/Los

Albert

Henrichs

91

1985; A. P. Burnett, The Art of Bacchylides Angeles/London (Cambridge, Mass./ The Lyric Possession London 1985) 5-14; G. Nagy, Pindar's Homer: of an Epic Past (Baltimore/London S. H. Lonsdale, Dance and Ritual Play 1990) 339-81; in Greek Religion, 1993. Earlier works Baltimore/London tend to define the terms: A. W. in dramatic, chorus more one-dimensionally artistic, or cultural The Dramatic Festivals of Athens (reissue of 2d ed., Oxford Pickard-Cambridge, und Dichtung im alten Griechenland, Bern/ 1988) 246-57; H. Koller, Musik Munich graphic Greece, Papers La danse grecque antique, Paris 1965 (a choreo 1963; G. Prudhommeau, in Ancient study of ancient images and texts); L. B. Lawler, The Dance in Collected London and Dance," 1964; A. M. Dale, "Words, Music The Greek Chorus, London 1969) 156-69; T. B. L. Webster, (Cambridge

1970; J. W. Fitton, "Greek Dance," C. Q. n. s. 23 (1973) 254-74. 2. See A. F. H. Bierl, Dionysos und die griechische und Politische Trag?die. im Text (Classica Monacensia 'metatheatralische' 1,Munich 1991) 5-7. Aspekte well the question of the ritual origins of Greek drama, its current status as as its history, see A. W. Pickard-Cambridge and T. B. L. Webster, Dithyramb, 2d ed., Oxford 1962; B. Vickers, Towards Greek Tragedy: Tragedy and Comedy, 3. On the (London 1973) 33-42; H. C. Payne, "Modernizing Society Reconstruction of Ritual Drama Proc. Am. Philos. 1870-1920," on Tragedy Soc. 122 (1978) 182-92; M. S. Silk and J. P. Stern, Nietzsche (Cam R. "Drama in and Friedrich, 1981) 142-50; Ritual," (ed.), J. Redmond bridge Myth, The and Religion in Drama 5, Cambridge (Themes in P. E. Easterling and B. Knox vol. 1: Greek Literature Literature, (eds.), 159-223; R. P. The Cambridge York (Cambridge/New 1983)

Drama,

Ancients:

Drama

Winnington-Ingram History of Classical

and Paradox 1985) 258-63; A. D. Napier, Masks, (Berkeley/ Transformation, Los Angeles ritual model has been applied para 1986) 30-44. The evolutionist to Attic drama byW. Burkert, "Greek Tragedy and Sacrificial Ritual," digmatically GRBS 7 (1966) 87-121, and R. Seaford, Euripides: Cyclops, Oxford 1984. 4. S. Goldhill, "The Great City Dionysia and Civic Ideology," JHS 107 (1987) to Do and F. I. Zeitlin 58-76, expanded version in J. J. Winkler (eds.), Nothing in Its Social Context Athenian Drama (Princeton 1990) 97-129. of the intersection of the festival setting, political specialized explorations and social meaning of tragedy include J. J.Winkler, "The Ephebes' environment, 11 (1985) 26-62, and Polis," Representations revised version in Song: Trag?idia

with Dionysos? More

to Do with Dionysos? 20-62; W. R. Connor, "City Dionysia and Athenian et Mediaevalia 40 (1989) 7-32, who takes issue with both Classica Democracy," in D. C. Pozzi and J. Winkler and Goldhill; D. C. Pozzi, "The Polis in Crisis," M. Wickersham and the Polis (eds.), Myth (Ithaca/London 1991) 126-63; J. Nothing Aronen, Dionysos," collective 5. C. "Notes on Athenian Acta Drama Arctos. Philologica as Ritual Myth-Telling within the Cult of 26 (1992) 19-37 (Attic tragedy as a by the male citizens of the polis). Fennica

Zeitlin, 35 (1989) Ramus

rite of passage organized Poetics and Euripides' Bacchae, Princeton 1982; F. I. Segal, Dionysiac of the Self in Euripides' Ion" PCPhS "Mysteries of Identity and Designs 144-97,

and the Somatics of Dionysiac Drama," "Euripides' Hekabe and "Staging Dionysos between Thebes and Athens," (1991) 53-94, in C. A. Faraone and T. H. Carpenter (eds.), Masks (Ithaca/London of Dionysus as Destroyer of the Household: 1993) 147-82; R. Seaford, Homer, "Dionysos in Masks and the Polis," and Reciprocity and 115-46, of Dionysus Tragedy, 20 Ritual: Homer and Tragedy in the Developing City-State (Oxford 1994) 328-67.

92

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

6. R.

Schlesier,

Die

tragischen

phosen bei Euripides, unpublished on Hipp., Hek., SuppL, Herakles, Masks:

inMasks (n. 5) 89-114. of Dionysus 7. Bierl, Dionysos und die griechische (n. 2), preceded by Vorkommen Trag?die und Funktion des Gottes Dionysos bei den griechischen Tragikern au?erhalb der unter Ber?cksichtigung Eine Stelleninterpretation 'Bakchen' des Euripides. der thesis, Munich 1986). Bierl is keenly aware that of the tragic Dionysos always entail a distinctly approach owes much to the work of H. Foley, S. and F. I. Zeitlin. 119-24, 124-37, 223f., 228-33.

von Euripides' ische Aspekte as Tragic Models," Maenads

des Dionysos. Bakchische Metamor Berlin 1987, with chapters Habilitationsschrift, Tro., and ?/.; "Die Bakchen des Hades. Dionys 3 (1988) 111-35; Metis "Mixtures of Hekabe,"

Masken

Fragmente (unpublished master's the most ambitious interpretations his own theoretical dimension; C. Segal, J.-P. Vernant, Goldhill, 8. Bierl (n. 2) llf., 24, 75-79, 9. Bierl (n. 2) 54-67; 100-03;

esp. 126f. and 129; 233-35, esp. 224. 10. Bierl (n. 2) 67-99, 224-26. 137-218, 103-10, 11. For the purpose of my argument, "choral" means "relating to specifically to its broader meaning to a in addition the dance-song {khoreia)" "belonging

(as in "choral voice"). P. E. Easterling suggests "choric self-referentiality" as an alternative term that would resolve any ambiguity. As used by M. R. First-Person Fictions: Pindar's Poetic T' (Oxford 1991) 11?25, "choral Lefkowitz, chorus" covers all first person statements a chorus addresses in which n. and performance 35). (below, 12. S. Goldhill, 1986) 244-64, (Cambridge Reading Greek Tragedy implicitly of O. Taplin, The Stagecraft the conclusion (Oxford modifying of Aeschylus in Greek tragedy are there, in my view, specific references 1977) 132f.: "Nowhere to the theatre." More the presence recently, however, Taplin has acknowledged self-description" its own identity of "theatrical in Greek tragedy (P. Wilson and O. Taplin, "The self-referentiality" in the Oresteia," PCPhS 39, 1993, 169-80). 'Aetiology' of Tragedy 13. On metatheatrical "Selbstreferentialit?t" (123) in general and on Dionysos see Bierl of choral (n. 2) 20-25 and 111-226. (below, Bierl draws attention self-referentiality n. 62), but he does not

as its "Referenzpunkt," to particular instances discuss the overall 14. A. Prom.

pattern. Pyrk. fr. 204b Radt and E. Kykl. 63ff. in comedy, the matrix 15. On "metatheatrical" for choral self self-reflexivity see most recently Bierl (n. 2) 27-44, 172-76 and "Dionysus, Wine, referentiality, S. and Tragic Poetry," GRBS 31 (1990) 353-91, 384-86; esp. 358f., 370-76, The Poet's

Voice: Essays on Poetics and Greek Literature (Cambridge und Horaz. Zu einem esp. 196-222; C. W. M?ller, "Aristophanes von Selbstbehauptung zweier Klassiker," und Selbstgewi?heit 120 (1992) 129-41, Hermes esp. 135-40; K. Dover, Aristophanes Frogs (Oxford the conditions 1993) 58-60. Some of the less obvious ways that comedy dramatizes Goldhill, 1991) 167-222, Verlaufsschema of Comic its own performance self-referentially and Other Approaches Angels have now to Greek been explored through by O. Taplin, Vase-Painting Drama

Clouds

in conjunction with all three modes at Ar. (below, n. 105), Lys. 1279-1321 (below, nn. 82, 105), Thesm. 947-1000 (see Ca?ame [n. 1], vol. 1, 245; Bierl [n. 2] 174f.; below, n. 38), and On dance-songs (n. 1) Frogs 324?415. by comic choruses see Koller performed 264-313 17?20 and M. Kaimio, The Chorus of Greek Drama within the Light of the Person

(Oxford 1993) 69-78 and 105-10. occurs 16. Choral self-referentiality

Albert Henrichs
and Number Litterarum of Used (Societas Scientiarum 46, Helsinki 1970) 127f. 17. C. Segal, in Part II of this double this distance freedom from an actual Fennica, Commentationes Humanarum

93

stasimon of the Tyrannus the chorus can raise the question of its ritual of the ode: T? ?E? \ie XOQE?81V;" performance to the ease with 18. On several occasions, P. E. Easterling has drawn attention which Greek tragedy moves between the "world of the theatre" and the "'here and now' dramatic construct of the performance," and to the shifting boundaries that separate the from the real world of the audience. See her "Women in Tragic

greater second

issue (forthcoming), "Because concludes: can use ritual forms with ritual, the dramatist at the end of the and even reflect on the nature of ritual. Hence

inGreek Tragedy," Character (1987) 15-26, at 17f.; "Constructing Space," B/C534 inC. B. R. Pelling, Characterization inGreek Literature and Individuality (Oxford Pallas 37 (1991) 49-59, 1990) 83-99, esp. 84-87, and "Euripides in the Theatre," at 49f. 19. Contrast H. W. Smyth, Greek Melic Poets (London 1906) lxxiv n. 1: is the only tragic poet who makes use of this form of choral." This "Sophokles to be a widespread In the surviving plays, Sophocles continues misconception. uses self-referential much more frequently than Aeschylus, choral dance-songs than does Euripides. greater structural consistency instance by R. C. Jebb, Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments. Part V: The Trachiniae (Cambridge 1892) 34 on Tra. 205ff. (discussed below); P. Vicaire, "Place et figure de Dionysos dans la trag?die de Sophocle," REG 81 (1968) 351-73, at 354f., 358f., 361, 363-67; R. W. B. Burton, The Chorus in Sophocles' Tragedies 20. For (Oxford (Oxford 1980) 50, 59f.; T. C. W. Stinton, Collected Papers 1990) 404 ("a short lyric outburst or hyporcheme," (n. 5) 155, 160. "Staging Dionysus" on Greek Tragedy on S. Tra. 205ff.); and with

Zeitlin, 21. Dale

(n. 1) 34-40 ("Stasimon and Hyporcheme"); (n. Pickard-Cambridge "Osservazioni 13-14 Helikon 1) 251f. and 255-57; M. di Marco, sull'iporchema," Chorus: A Study (1973/74) 326-48, esp. 344ff.; C. P. Gardiner, The Sophoclean and Function that (Iowa City 1987) 6f. The ancient misconception of Character are stationary is well illustrated by the scholiast on S. Tra. 216 (one of the Sophoclean discussed below): x? y?g huporkh?mata [leXibaQiov ovn ?cm crc?au?ov, oXk' vno Tfj? fj?ovfj? ?oxo?vTai ("The songlet is not a stasimon, but rather they dance out of joy"). In his lecture on the Greek lyric poets (1878/ stasima

79 version), Friedrich Nietzsche summarized the prevailing nineteenth-century definition of the term crt?oifAOV: "The designation OTO?ifia does not refer to the standing [of the chorus]; the word means "standing songs," not standstill Many it may indeed dance. the chorus has reached its station, where were performed as a dance." (Nietzsche, Werke. Kritische Gesamt York 1993, 378: "Die OTOtotfia dr?cken part 2, vol. 2, Berlin/New ausgabe, dem Namen nach nicht das Stehen aus; der Name nicht hei?t "Standlieder," songs, because ar?oi|ia weil der Chor seinen Standort erreicht Stillstandlieder, tanzen kann. Viele GTa?uxa wurden getanzt.") According

hat, auf dem er wohl toM. L. West, Studies in Aeschylus (Stuttgart 1990) 21, the earliest tragic choruses "were going round at one site after another. Led by their aulete, they sang . . . the demes performing as they approached the waiting and the they sang as they departed, public, uiXo? was the song they performed where they stopped." ox?oi\iov 22. Cf. A. M. Dale, 1968) 210; Pickard-Cambridge The Lyric Metres (2d ed., Cambridge of Greek Drama (n. 1) 256 n. 4. The term VJi?QXr\\ia is first attested

94

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

Ion (534c) as part of a list of distinct modes of poetic composition that as well as epic and iambic poetry. Plato the dithyramb and the enkomion the huporkh?ma with tragic choruses. clearly did not associate 23. U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, (Berlin 1889 and Euripides, Herakles in Plato's includes the interaction of dance and 1895, repr. Darmstadt 1959), vol. 1, 77, recognized when song as the defining feature of several related forms of choral performance as he described and dramatic choruses generically huporkh?mata dithyrambs, see Nagy "Tanzlieder." On the semantics of huporkh?ma, (n. 1) 351-53. = fr. 1 24. Pratinas fr. 3 Snell/Kannicht (TrGF vol. 1, 82) Page (PMG 708). R. Maia 29 (1977/78) 81-94, esp. Cf. of Pratinas," Seaford, "The 'Hyporchema' to a satyr-play, defends the fragment the early date (ca. 500 B.C.) and notes the emphasis on choral identity; he is followed implied by Athenaios, et alii, Musa von Thespis bis by R. Kannicht Tr?gica: Die griechische Trag?die 87f. assigns zur Altertumswissenschaft Ezechiel 16, G?ttingen 1991) 50-52 and (Studienhefte 272 n. 9. Unlike Seaford, H. Lloyd-Jones, Greek Epic, Lyric and Tragedy: Aca Mus. Helv. 43 demic Papers I (Oxford 1990) 228f. as well as B. Zimmermann, G?ttingen einer Gattung and Dithyrambos. Geschichte 98, (Hypomnemata 1992) 124?26 recognize the text as a specimen of the New Dithyramb in the second half of the fifth century. Cf. M. J. H. van der Weiden, composed Text and Commentary The Dithyrambs (Amsterdam of Pindar: Introduction, (1986) 145?54

leaves both options open. 1991), 5-7, who tenor of the Sophoclean in this paper 25. The Dionysiac choruses discussed was first emphasized in Sofocle," by V. de Falco, "Osservazioni sull'iporchema Rivista 8 (1924) 23?46, Indo-Greco-Italica repr. in his Studi sul teatro greco (2d in choral self 1958) 56?88. De Falco was not interested, however, ed., Naples is inseparable reference as such, even though the phenomenon from the Diony siac ambience. Ritual 26. A. Henrichs, in Euripides" "Dancing for Dionysos: Choral Performance and Dionysiac at the APA panel on "Performance and Ritual is in prepara 29,1992), Poetry," New Orleans, December

(presented

Context

in Early Greek tion for publication. 27. In general, see G. F. Else, "Ritual and Drama in Aischyleian ICS Tragedy," 2 (1977) 70-87, The Art of Aeschylus esp. 75ff. ;T. G. Rosenmeyer, (Berkeley/ Los Angeles/London 1982) 145-87, esp. 152ff. 28. L. Deubner, Abh. Preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. 1941.1, "Ololyge und Verwandtes," Altertumskunde (Beitr?ge zur klas reprinted in Kleine Schriften zur klassischen at 22f. = 628f.; F. I. Zeitlin, sischen Philologie 140, K?nigstein/Ts. 1982) 607-34, Seven Against Under the Sign of the Shield: Semiotics and Aeschylus' Thebes einer Gattung 1982) 164-68; L. K?ppel, Paian. Studien zur Geschichte zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte York 1992) 37, Berlin/New (Untersuchungen 45, 81f. (on the ritual affinity of ololug? and paian), 301 test. 15. (Rome

as a suppliant: C. Macleod, Collected (Oxford 1983) 36 Essays status "distinguishes him from the other murderers of the suppliant Sacrifice trilogy"); as a sacrificial victim: F. I.Zeitlin, "The Motif of the Corrupted at 485-88; A. Lebeck, The in Aeschylus' Oresteia" TAPA 96 (1965) 463-508, A Study in Language Oresteia: and Structure 1971) 60-63, (Cambridge, Mass. 29. Orestes (Orestes' 146f. 30. On the grammar of performative utterances, see nn. 82, 97, and 133.

Albert . . .

Henrichs

95

31. Cf. Od. sinister

chthonian

2.135 oxvyeo?? connotations

including the Styx herself, is associated the Oresteia, oxvyo? 386-92, 1308L; Ch. 80-83, 532f., 32. Pindar of markers

'Eqiv??, 20.78 OTvy?QY\oiv 'Eqlvvoiv. On the of words like oxvy?i?, oxvyeg??, and aruyvo?, see my comments in ZPE 78 (1989) llf. Elsewhere in with 1028). reciprocal violence and bloodshed (Ag.

to conventional fr. 70c3 ]iTO \i?v crc?oic, followed by references the Dionysiac such as "foot" (4 jjto?a), (6 "singing" dance-song see nn. 109-10) and Jt?voi (7 o[TE()>?]va)V xi?oivoov; (lieX?Coi), "ivy wreaths" at n. 121). Zimmermann, (n. XOQCov (line 16; see the discussion Dithyrambos 24) 50 and van der Weiden here on the grounds that of oxao?? (n. 24) 113 dispute the choral connotation it would be unparalleled in Pindar, and opt for the to reconcile with the context. is difficult "civil strife," which use of oxao?? in Aeschylus. On choral oxao??

common meaning the choral They do not mention see n. 36. in Aristophanes

33. A. F. Garvie, Aeschylus: (Oxford 1986) 168 on Ch. 458. Choephori 34. Most recently Garvie (n. 33) 73,168 on Ch. 114,458, and A. H. Sommerstein, sans "Le m?taphore Eumenides 1989) 137. N. Loraux, Aeschylus: (Cambridge at A propos de VOrestie," Revue philosophique 180 (1990) 247-68 m?taphore: ments: oraai? ?\ir) more suitably as "ma position de ch ur" and com d'un ch ur dans Yorkhestra." technique de l'installation 35. Cf. Lefkowitz statements deal only (n. 11) 13: "The chorus's first-person with choral activities, with dancing and singing (xoqeUe?Ocu), with communal 266f. translates "nom but never with the composition of song, since that ritual, with the performance, is the concern of the poet." On the use of the first person and the pronoun o?e as deictic markers in the "'chorocentric' reference system" of choral poetry see n. s. 34 (1990) 7-17. "Deixis in Greek Choral Lyric," QUCC J. Danielewicz, on 36. See Ca?ame and Nagy (n. 1) vol. 1, 88f. n. 91, 94-99, (n. 1) 361-69 XOQ?V ?oT?vca (A. fr. 204b 7=16 Radt; S. El. 280; E. Alk. 1155, El. 178 [discussed in the final section of this paper], ?. A. 676; Ar. Birds 220) and its derivatives decree from Nesos, 4th c. Aiolis, (IG XII 2, 645(a)36, XOQO?Tcmic honorary fr. 1.84), xoq?dv xaTCtOTCt?iv (A. B.c.), xoQOordiTi? (attested as early as Alem?n Ag. 23; Ar. Callimachus: 959, quoted below, n. 38), %OQOOXaoia (A. W. Bulloch, Classical Texts and Commentaries Fifth Hymn, Cambridge 26, Cambridge 1985, 174f. on Callim. Lav. Pall. 66), and ornoixoooc (PMG fr. (Ar. Frogs 1281, adesp. 20c [938c] Page), as well as on the choral use of oxao?? Thesm. The to a of OT?oijiov, which assumes a mobile as opposed chorus (n. 21), see Pickard-Cambridge (n. 1) 251f., and Nagy (n. 1) stationary 366 n. 145. Sommerstein (n. 34) 136f. does not connect ox?oic ?uT| with choral but he comments on Eum. 307-20: in anapests, the chorus formation, "Chanting in the formation in which regroup themselves they will dance and sing the ensuing ode." 38. Pickard-Cambridge (n. 1) 239 n. 2 considers Eum. 307ff. "the likeliest place for a round dance in extant tragedy," and O. Taplin, Greek Tragedy in Action 1978) 188 n. 6 agrees. Sommerstein (n. 34) 136f. compares (Berkeley/Los Angeles Ar. Thesm. 954f. xox)(|)a Jioaiv ?y' ?? x?xXov, xs?oa. The %eiQ? a?vajtTE lines are equally relevant (956-59): qu9u.?v xoQE?a? vjcayE jt?aaV / hvkXovoclv jto?o?v./?maxojte?v ?? navxaxi] KaQKa\?\iow ?\i\ia xqt) 954). 37. For this definition

Plutos

subsequent ?aivE

96

"WHY SHOULD IDANCE?"

(see n. 36). Much

XOQOiJ XdT?crcaaiv of tragic choruses

has been made of the rectangular formation but in at least two tragedies female (Winkler [n. 4] 42-58), formed a circle around an altar while praying choruses (A. fr. 379 Radt) or in much the same way that the Erinyes (E. /. A. 1480f., cf. 1467-72), dancing instances suggest that circular dances in surround their sacrificial victim. These around the orchestral altar tragedy were linked to sacrificial ritual and performed see R. Rehm, GRBS 29, 1988, 263-307, (on which esp. 271f., 297f.). Circular dances mentioned self-referentially by comic choruses tend to be connected with the cult of Demeter 954, 968). (Ar. Frogs 445, Thesm.

39. The curse tablets from Attica range in date from the second half of the fifth century B.c. to late antiquity; as many as two hundred tablets are estimated to date to the fifth and fourth centuries (C. A. Faraone, TAPA 119 [1989] 155f.). see D. R. Jordan, "A For the most recent inventory of curse tablets from Attica, Not in the Special Corpora," of Greek Defixiones Included GRBS 26 Evidence for the (1985) 151-97, esp. 155-66, and Jordan, "New Archaeological tou XII diethnous in Praktika in Classical Athens," Practice of Magic synedriou and klassik?s (Athens 1988) 273-77. On their format, mentality, archaiologias Survey see C. A. Faraone, "Aeschylus' ftjivoc ??ajAio? {Eum. relevance to the Eumenides, and "The Agonistic 306) and Attic Judicial Curses," JHS 105 (1985) 150-54 in Early Greek Binding Spells," in C. A. Faraone and D. Obbink Context (eds.), Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion 1991) (New York/Oxford Magika 3-32, esp. 4-10. Cf. J. A. Gager (ed.), Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from and discussion World 1992) 116-50, a collection (New York/Oxford judicial curse tablets in translation. 40.1 have borrowed of H. Lloyd-Jones, freely from the translations Aeschylus: The Oresteia 1993) 230, and Y. Prins, "The Power of the (Berkeley/Los Angeles the Ancient of Speech Act: Aeschylus' at 185. has been Fraenkel, Furies and their Binding Song," Arethusa 24 (1991) 177-95,

41. Cf. Wilson/Taplin with discussed, Aeschylus: Macleod

of the Erinyes (n. 12) 171?74. The choral performance song rather than dance, by E. emphasis on perverted

56, 77,146f.; performance ing the x

(n. 29) (Oxford 1950), vol. 3, 543f.; Lebeck Agamemnon (n. 29) 33. On the inversion of normal choral and komastic characterization and Performance "Receiv of the Erinyes seeM. Heath, of Epinician," AJP 109 (1988) of khoros and k?mos is conventional; as well as dancing (Heath 182f., the k?mos from the

inKassandra's

association 180-95, elements include singing the shared performative is overly concerned, 185f., who however, with khoreia). 42. The utterance,

jxo?: The Context esp. 186 and 194. The

separating

and performative interplay of dance and song, of physical coercion in this chorus has been fully and imaginatively treated by Prins (n. 40) on Eum. 372-76: "Here again the 183-88. Sommerstein (n. 34) 146 comments First the dancers leap high (uxxXa . . . words may indicate the dance-movements. as if and come down hard (?aptmeTTJ xaTa(j)?Q(0 aXouiva) jio??? axji?v) . . .After this they may perhaps extend a stamping the life out of their victim. leg as if to trip up a runner (o((>a?,?Q? xai TavD??ojAO?? xcotax)." in the maenadic of the (n. 34) 265 recognizes self-description On Erinyes reference to "la pr?sence absente de Dionysos." as maenads see W. Whallon, HSCP 68 (1964) 320-22; J.-P. Gu?pin, represented The Tragic Paradox: Myth and Ritual in Greek Tragedy (Amsterdam 1968) 21-23 43. N. Loraux Erinyes an allusive

Albert

Henrichs

97

and 27-28; Bierl (n. 2) 90 n. 146, 120, and 122 n. 30; R. Seaford, "Destroyer of the Household" (n. 5) 140f. and CQ n. s. 39 (1989) 303; Schlesier, "Mixtures of n. 98 38. On tragic articulations of the destructive madness embod Masks" (n. 6) ied by the Erinyes see R. Padel, In and Out of the Mind: Greek Images of the see A. Henrichs, in Homer, 1992) 162-92. On uttiva? Tragic Self (Princeton in "Der rasende Gott. Zur Psychologie des Dionysos und des Dionysischen Mythos und Literatur" 40, 1994, 31-58). {Antike und Abendland version or sub to tragic redefinition, restructuring, susceptible particularly and Ant., E. El. and Ba.), include animal sacrifice (e.g., in Ag., Aias, rites involving ritual liquids (either libations as in Ch., Ion, and O. K., or rites 44. Rituals

as in the Aias and O. K.), wedding rites (e.g., Ant. of purification by ablution and /. A.) and maenadism includ (Hek., Tro., and Ba.). Their tragic ambivalence, in particular by failure as ritual remedies, has been explored ing their ultimate 3 (1988) 87-109; H. P. Foley, Ritual "Tragedy and Ritual," Metis in Euripides, Ithaca/London 1985; C. Segal, Tragedy Irony: Poetry and Sacrifice An Interpretation and Civilization: 1981), and of Sophocles (Cambridge, Mass. "The Tragic Wedding," Poetics (n. 5); R. Seaford, Dionysiac JHS 107 (1987) R. Schlesier and Ritual 106-30, and Reciprocity (n. 5) xiv-xvi, 328-405; (n. 6); P. E. Easterling, "The Argive Festival of Hera and Euripides' Electra," TAPA 101 "The Motif of the Corrupted and especially Sacrifice" (1970) 645-69, (n. 29), in TAPA 97 (1966) 645-53. with the postscript 45. Cf. R. P. Winnington-Ingram, An Interpretation Sophocles: (Cambridge F. I. Zeitlin, is dead." In 1980) 197-200. Taplin (n. 38) 89 paraphrases poignantly "religion one of the most penetrating and provocative discussions of this stasimon, U. "Wie soll ich noch tanzen? ?ber ein Wort des sophokleischen H?lscher, Chores," in E. K?hler a. M. 1975) 376-93, fern ist die Gottheit," (ed.), Sprachen der Lyrik. Festschrift (Frankfurt f?r Hugo Friedrich is distant" translates eqqel ?? Ta GE?a as "divinity ("und that the very presence of the gods is 380) and concludes

weil

into question by the chorus (389): "Der Tanz scheint fragw?rdig geworden, die G?tter sich entziehn." Sophoclean gods may be inscrutable, but they are not beyond reach. The same chorus who enunciates EQQEi ?? Ta OE?a reaffirms called its basic belief to the actions in ritual remedies of mortals by invoking Zeus as an omnipotent god attentive (903-05).

46. R. Dawe, Sophocles: Oedipus Rex (Cambridge is echoed 1982) 186, who (n. 11) 206. by Lefkowitz 47. J. Rusten, Tyrannos: Commentary (Bryn Mawr Oidipous Sophocles, 1990) 46. is summarized in J. Bollack, UOedipe modern discussion roi de ses texte et Le 582-84. vol. Bollack does 3, 1990), (Lille interpr?tations Sophocle. not believe that T? ?E? \l? x?QE?Elv; connects the action of the play with the actual of the chorus (see n. 49). Among those critics who do areWilamowitz (nn. Knox 50-51), (n. 58), Dodds (n. 52), Lesky (n. 52), H?lscher (n. 45), Segal (n. 57), Burkert (n. 66), and most recently Rusten (n. 47). 49. Dawe (n. 46) 186; similarly Bollack (n. 48), vol. 3, 584 ("Le "moi" du et il ne quitte Ch ur est celui du sujet lyrique, form? par les citoyens de Th?bes, dancing pas son r?le."). Although (n. 52). 50. Wilamowitz Mo/?oa? a? he does not say so, Dawe's criticism 685f. is aimed at Dodds 48. The

\i' ?xOQEuaav,

(n. 23), vol. 3,148, on E. Herakles a choral self-reference

preceded

(ovjio) xaTajia?oojAEV in line 682 by an

98

"WHYSHOULD IDANCE?"
"Da ist es der attische der B?rgerchor, tritt. Gerade wo so ernste

On Dodds fallengelassen." see below, at n. 52. 51. Wilamowitz sind darauf (n. 23), vol. 3, 148 on O. T. 896: "Wir Modernen im Theater zu werden, immer in ?ngstlich Illusion gehalten erpicht, geh?teter nicht weil wir uns lieber und vollkommener in das Reich der Phantasie entr?cken wir tun das nie, sondern treiben ein Spiel des Verstandes Hessen, im Gegenteil, und stellen den Poeten auf die Probe, ob er die selbstgew?hlten Voraussetzungen ist in Athen keine Spur. Da sind sie bei der Sache, nehmen festhalten kann. Davon die Handlung als Wahrheit und vergessen die Wirklichkeit nicht, da? der Chor ihr Chor ist und das Fest ihrem Gotte geh?rt." In Griechische Verskunst (Berlin makes the same point in connection with S. Tra. 216ff. 1921) 527, Wilamowitz (1964), published in The reprinted Ancient Concept and Belief of Progress and Other Essays on Greek Literature continues: "And in effect the question (at 75). Dodds (Oxford 1973) 64-77 they are asking seems to be this: 'If Athens loses faith in religion, if the views of the is there in tragic drama, which exists Enlightenment prevail, what significance as part of the service of the gods?'" He is echoed by A. Lesky in K. Gaiser (ed.), Das Altertum und jedes neue Gute. F?r Wolf gang Schadewaldt zum 15. M?rz 1970 (Stuttgart 1970) 93 and Die tragische Dichtung der Hellenen (3d ed., G?t tingen 1972) 228. 53. Stinton in T? ?E? (n. 20) 253f. n. 45. The tendency to reduce the xoqe?eiv U.EXOQETJEIV;to a general act of worship in the distant past of the Theban myth, and to separate it from the choral performance in the Athenian has orchestra, criticism for more than a century: F. Ellendt, Lexicon 1872) 785 s. v. xoqe??) ("tanquam pars cultus deorum to R. C. Jebb, Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments. Part XOQEiJEiv memoratur"); 1: The Oedipus the (3d ed., Cambridge 1893) 122 ("Why maintain Tyrannus solemn rites of public worship?"); G. M?ller, "Das zweite Stasimon des K?nig Sophocleum (Berlin ?dipus," at 275 ("dann kann ich nicht mehr fromm Hermes 95 (1967) 269-91, The Plays of Sophocles, Part 4: The Oedipus sein"); J. C. Kamerbeek, Tyrannus that "the ambiguity of the words however, (Leiden 1967), 179f. (who concedes, is possibly Fitton The Justice of Zeus (n. 1) 263; H. Lloyd-Jones, deliberate"); (2d ed., Berkeley/Los 1983) 110; Taplin (n. 12) 133 n. 3 ("but Angeles/London the general association of observing religious ritual"); Burton 167; Winnington-Ingram (n. 45) 196, 198 n. 58; Gardiner (n. 21) 104; (n. 48), vol. 3, 583 ("La danse figure ici l'acte religieux par excellence, incluant tous les autres rites dont l'observation incombe aux citoyens de Th?bes, been a staple of Sophoclean (one of the choral odes discussed below). 52. E. R. Dodds, "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex" in Greece & Rome at 46) and 13 (1966) 37-49 (quotation

as the wine-god): evocation of Dionysos am Dionysosfeste zum Klange der Musik fallen, wird die Maske allgemeine Worte

den Reigen am ehesten

XOQEiJEiv carries (n. 20) Bollack selon

at O. T. 896 XOQE?EIV has les lois qui r?glent la vie des cit?s"). However, as everywhere the same concrete meaning else in tragedy, namely to "dance." 54. Cf. H?lscher nicht darum herum, dass die (n. 45) 390: "Wir kommen in ihren lyrischen Formen die M?glichkeit hat, die aller Chorlyrik Trag?die eigen nicht indem sie die Mimesis ist, n?mlich auf sich selber hinzuweisen, aufhebt, wohl beiden aber transzendiert." uns "Wir befinden For the opposite im mythischen Theben, sind nicht vertauschbar." view, see M?ller (n. 53) 275 n. 1: nicht im historischen Athen. Die

Schaupl?tze

Albert Henrichs

99

55. Below, sections III and IV. Cf. J. F. Davidson, "The Circle and the Tragic Chorus," Greece & Rome 33 (1986) 38-46, esp. 39f. and 42. 56. Especially W. Schadewaldt, "Zum zweiten Stasimon des 'K?nig ?dipus'," = Hellas Studi italiani di filolog?a classica 27-28 und Hesperien. (1956) 489-97 zur Antike Gesammelte und zur neueren Literatur (2d ed., Z?rich/ Schriften 1970), vol. 1, 476-83, Dodds (n. 52), and H?lscher (n. 45). M?ller Stuttgart (n. reference whatsoever, 54) denies that the words of this chorus had any Athenian to the action of the but he fails to explain the relevance of T? ?E? pie xoqe?eiv; play and to its Theban setting. 57. Emphasized (n. 44) 235f. on T? ?E? U.E by Segal, Tragedy and Civilization includes and XOQE1JEIV; ("The ritual act of the choral dance in the orchestra in the play"), and Pozzi (n. 4) 131-33 all the rituals performed symbolizes ("The vehicle of the sacrality of drama was the chorus," 131). to V. Ehrenberg, who ingeniously Ta xov 58. Cf. B. M. W. Knox, Oedipus at Thebes The People of Aristophanes (New Haven 1957) 47. Knox refers (3d ed., New York 1962) 23 n. 7, fr. 9 Kassel/Austin ovt)q X0Q?Uei KaL of the same ritual concerns (O. T. 896) and eqqel ?? Ta

recognized Phryn. Com. 0EO?3 xatax as a positive comic expression conveyed by the correlation of T? ?e? U.E xoqe?eiv; BE?a (910). 59. On the tragic

and axooEUTOC Commemoration

connotations of axoQO? (A. Suppl. 681, S. O. K. 1222) and (S. El. 1069, E. Tro. 121) see C. Segal, "Song, Ritual, in Early Greek Poetry and Tragedy," Oral Tradition 4 (1989)

at 343-46. 330-59, 60. H?lscher voices a similar concern for ritual purity (n. 45) 390f. Oidipous scene (813-33). in the immediately preceding 61. Cf. Easterling, (n. 44) 90 and 100, and from a different "Tragedy and Ritual" perspective, 62. Segal in Greek Tragedy," JHS 105 (1985) 1-10. Bierl (n. 2) 1-25, 35f., 83f., 99 n. 179, (n. 5) 215-71, esp. 242-47; 106f., 129, 142, 155 n. 131, 174, 190f., 224, and 242f. V. Turner, From Ritual to Theatre that "ritual, unlike theatre, does not (New York 1982) 112, observes "Anachronism

between audience and performers." Greek ritual in particular invites distinguish and tends to neutralize the individual identities of the performers. participation This explains why in Attic tragedy the boundaries between dramatic and civic identities as well as between representation and reality are particularly fluid when tragic choruses are dramatized comment onstage. on their own performance as dancers or when rituals

63. Cf. E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley/Los Angeles came to of Illusions that Dionysos 1951) 94 n. 82: "It was, I take it, as Master be the patron of a new art, the art of the theatre. To put on a mask is the easiest way of ceasing to be oneself." On the dramatic and cultic aspects of the mask, see most in Ancient The Tragic Mask recently C. Ca?ame, "Facing Otherness: Greece," History Gr?ce ancienne, ?nonciatifs 357-76; dans 26 (1986) 125-42 of Religions (English version of Le r?cit en Paris 1986, 85-100), and "D?masquer Effets par le masque. la com?die ancienne" Revue de l'histoire des religions 206 (1989)

F. Frontisi-Ducroux, Le dieu-masque. Une figure du Dionysos d'Ath?nes "'He Has a God in Him': 1991); A. Henrichs, (Images ? l'appui 4, Paris/Rome Human and Divine in the Modern inMasks Perception of Dionysus," of Dionysus (n. 5) 13-43, at 36-39. 64. Wilamowitz (n. 23), vol. 3, 148f., was the first scholar who ?E? jlE XOQE?EIV; against the background of the positive instances interpreted T? of choral self

100

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

referentiality discussed nen in den Chorliedern (diss. M?nster 65. Michael

in this paper. He is followed by K.-D. Dorsch, G?tterhym der griechischen Tragiker: Form, Inhalt und Funktion 1982) 225 n. 144, and Davidson (n. 55) 39. Haslam has remarked to me on the singularity of T??E? [AE XOQE?EIV;

in comparison with the affirmative "In all the instances of choral self-reference: other cases the reference to dancing ismuch more 'in character,' is quite intelligible/ the terms of the play's fictive 'here and now' (i.e. the dramatic plausible within to the illusion), and so does not force the chorus's identity as theater-khoreutai in quite the same way." to Umberto From Sophocles 66. SoW. Burkert, Oedipus, Oracles, and Meaning: Eco (The Samuel James Stubbs Lecture Series, University College, Toronto 1991) all of a sudden, the chorus breaks out of the 22, who adds: "At this moment, surface world of illusion and makes the audience reflect on the chorus dancing in the in honor of Dionysus." theatre, a chorus dancing 67. The close correlation between O. T. 896 T? ?e?

[IE xoQE?Eiv; and 1092 (n. 48), XOOEiJEOOai JtQ?? fjficov has been noted before, most recently by Bollack of the dance the ritual connotations vol. 3, 711 and 713, who rightly emphasizes in both places while denying the choral self-reference (above, n. 53). see H. Lloyd-Jones and N. 68. On the controversial syntax of this passage, G. Wilson, opposed discussed Studies on the Text of Sophocles (Oxford 1990) 104, as Sophoclea: to Bollack is the intricate use of negatives (n. 48), vol. 3, 698-714; The Syntax of Sophocles (Leiden 1982) 329 by A. C. Moorhouse, follow Wilamowitz, who replaced o? YE xai and 336. Lloyd-Jones and Wilson jraTQiarcav with o? ye t?v JiaTQidrcav because he did not believe that Kithairon could be described as "nurse and mother" of Oidipous {Hermes 34, 1899, 74-76, But to introduce Oidipous' repr. in Kleine Schriften VI, Berlin 1972, 227-29). for him would mother at this point and to invent a putative wet-nurse thoroughly spoil the irony of the chorus's excessive praise of Kithairon. see Lloyd-Jones/Wilson 69. On full-moon festivals and all-night dancing (n. 68) 104. Both the time (night) and the setting (mountain) envisaged by the chorus unknown are distinctly Dionysiac (E. Ba. 116, 485f., commentators 70. Most and translators a future sense (cf. Rusten n. 73). 1105f.). interpret axj^Eiv and xoQETJE?Oai in [n. 47] 54, Bollack [n. 48], vol. 1, 265, and vol. 3,

is based on the highly plausible but heavily restored text in their Oxford edition of 1992. and N. Wilson by H. Lloyd-Jones to Bollack (n. 48), vol. 3,714-19, who defends the transmitted readings, According But it is more of Oidipous would be a daughter of Pan or Apollo. the mother parents than on his grandpar likely that the chorus would speculate on Oidipous' adopted and a god for a father. ents, giving him a nymph for a mother of the third 72. Segal, Tragedy and Civilization (n. 44) 236, and his discussion in in "The Chorus and the Gods in Oedipus stasimon Tyrannus" (forthcoming issue). part II of this double 3, 702-04). Interpreters disagree on the meaning in Sophocles Its use elsewhere of the tragic time frame, which application 73. single of auQlOV (see Bollack [n. 48], vol. suggests that it represents an ironic concentrates the crucial events in a

705-11; below, 71. My paraphrase

S. Aias 749-57, 778f., cf. day: tragedy will strike today (A. Th. 21-29; 340, 373-75, 1231, 131f., O. T. 438, Tr. 740; E. Alk. 20f., 27, 320-22, Med. 1579; cf. Arist. 22, 726, Andr. 803, Hek. 44, Or. 48f., 656, and Phoin. Hipp.

Albert

Henrichs

ioi

Poet. K.

O. remedies will be too late (cf. S. Tra. 710-13, 5, 1449b12f.); tomorrow's their prophetic stance, this chorus cannot 567f.; E. Alk. 782-84). Despite the tragic they don't even understand predict the future because unlike Teiresias events of today (cf. S. Tra. 943-46). As soon as they focus on the present (1204 Ta v?v), time" (1214). the pivotal role of "all-seeing they acknowledge 74. Cf. D. Sansone, CP 70 (1975) 112-17. 75. The status of the chorus in Ba. is unique in that their dancing, wherever emphasized a complete however, reflects (as in the parodos and again in the third and fifth stasimon), fusion of their performative function as dancers in the orchestra and in O. T., their dramatic thiasos. Unlike the chorus character as a maenadic the maenads of the chorus in Ba. never call their own dancing into

(n. 19) lxxiiif.; V. de Falco, La t?cnica c?rale di Sofocle (Naples zu 1928) 148f., and Studi (n. 25) 56-88; W. Kranz, Stasimon. Untersuchungen Form und Gehalt der griechischen ("Kontrast zur (Berlin 1933) 182-85 Trag?die Szene"), 213 ("k?nstliche Retardierung"); (n. 1) 256; G. M. Pickard-Cambridge Kirkwood, 1-22, in Sophocles," 8 (1954) "The Dramatic Role of the Chorus Phoenix Drama and A Study of Sophoclean esp. 8f. ("odes of suspense"), (Ithaca to Sopho T. B. L. Webster, An Introduction 1958) 199-201 ("contrastive-effect"); cles (2d ed., London 1969) 105 ("the cheerful choruses"); W. B. Stanford, Sopho

question. 76. Smyth

a cles, Ajax (corr. repr. Bristol 1981) 150 (Sophocles' "technique of introducing soon afterwards by sad disillusion sudden burst of hopeful rejoicing followed and A. P. M. H. Lardinois, ment"); Burton (n. 20) 28 n. 42; T. C. W. Oudemans and Sophocles' (Leiden Anthropology, Philosophy Antigone Ambiguity: to the ensuing disaster"); 1987) 159 ("songs of gladness which are counterpoints Gardiner (n. 21) 66f., 95f., 143 n. 11 ("joy-before-disaster odes"); M. Hose, Studien zum Chor bei Euripides, vol. 2 (Beitr?ge zur Altertumskunde 20, Stuttgart Tragic Bierl (n. 2) 126f., 224, 242f. In an unpublished 1991) 41 n. 27 ("Freudenlieder"); study, J. S. Scullion refers to them as "euphoric odes," a tribute to their Dionysiac intensity. spirit and emotional text follows the edition of Lloyd-Jones/Wilson 77. The Greek (n. 71); parts of the translation are adapted from John Moore's (Chicago 1957). On the metrical problem posed by JtEA,ay?cov, which otherwise makes excellent sense, see Lloyd 1615 and attested by POxy. (n. 68) 23f. At line 699, the M?oia Jones/Wilson to the manuscript echoed by the Suda seems slightly preferable reading N?aia (L. Lehnus, L'inno a Pan di Pindaro, Milano 1979, 96f.). The "Mysian" dances associate Pan with the Great Mother (n. 79), whereas (S. Ant. 1131, "Nysian" to Dionysos fr. 959 Radt) would link Pan more explicitly (n. 84). On the hymnic of this stasimon see Dorsch and choric conventions (n. 64) 79-84, 222-28. 78. Stanford (n. 76) 152: "Presumably [Apollo] is invoked here as another god of dancing and of festive joy." He compares Pindar fr. 148 Snell/Maehler boyfyox' 'AjioXXov for Apollo as dancer, and Ar. Frogs ?ytaxta? ?vaoocov, evqix^oqetq' 230f. for the association of Pan and Apollo (cf. E. /. T. 1125-31). At S. Tra. 205-21 ismore directly associated with choral performance, but (discussed below) Apollo there too the dominant 79. Pindar mood is Dionysiac. TEte?VcaTOV (cf. Lehnus xoqevttvv [n. 77] In Aristophanes' "sacred songs for Birds, the chorus of birds performs 189-204). Pan and solemn dances for the Mountain Mother" (745f. Ilavi vofAOU? Ieqov? ava(|>a?v?) khoreut?s, OEfXv? te [A^to? xoqe?juxxt' see Lonsdale (n. 1) 261-75. ?QE?a). On Pan as both khor?gos and fr. 99 Snell/Maehler

102

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

Dionysos"

use of choral projection in "Dancing for complex Euripides' (nn. 26 and 128). Similar patterns can be found in nondramatic lyric see E. L. Bundy, Studia Pindarica, repr. poetry (e.g. Pindar J. 1.6-10, on which and Lefkowitz 1986, 11.10-12, 41, [n. 11] 206; Bacch. Berkeley/Los Angeles 80. I discuss 110-12). 81. Recognized by Kranz (n. 76) 183. The interplay of choral voice and ritual in Pindar, Aeschylus, and Euripides has been studied by C. Ca?ame, performance of Women's "From Choral Poetry to Tragic Stasimon: The Enactment Song" (in see nn. 82 and 97). From a different perspective, he explores this issue, 136-154, some of the same concerns that I have tried to articulate here?the fluid boundaries is on ritual performance; of time and space in choral utterances whose emphasis as a choral mode; and the related concept of ritual projec ritual self-referentiality tion and its distancing effect in tragedy. 82. Cf. E. Hkld. 892f. (opening words of the fourth stasimon) ?fxoi X?Q??> M-8V 763-65 (chorus) xopoi, xoQol xai Q?k?ai \iekovoi @r|?ac ?eqov ?)bv?, Herakles x? oi v xopoi xot' dorn, and Ar. Lys. 1304f. (b? ZjtaQTav v\iviu)\i??, \iekovxi is self-referential, the other two are preceded by a choral self (the first passage 32,

reinforced present, reference). On the use of the self-referential by the deictic see Ca?ame in the context of choral performance v?v (Danielewicz [n. 35] llf.), (n. 81), section 2.2. Similar "markers of urgency" (Ca?ame) such as v?v, aiopa for instance and the ritual imperative (n. 97) occur also in other ritual contexts, on as verbal indicators of from Pelinna, where they function see C. GRBS 31 (1990) 414, and D. Obbink, Segal, "funerary performance"; in the Orphic Gold Leaves" "Poetry and Performance (forthcoming). the gold tablets 83. A. Pers. 448f. On Cult and of Pan in Classical Pan Greece in Attica and (1979, English see P. Borgeaud, in Sophocles, The trans. Chicago/London 1988) 94f.

133-62, esp. 150f.; Lehnus (n. 77) 96f., 183f. 84. Sophocles' Pan serves as a choral substitute for Dionysos (Bierl, Vorkommen und Funktion des Gottes Dionysos [n. 7] 53f.). On the affinity of Panic and see Borgeaud In fifth-century Attic vase (n. 83) 111-13. Dionysiac possession, associated with maenadic dancing (Borgeaud 212 n. painting, Pan is occasionally 102) and Dionysiac myth (as on the Boston bell-krater of ca. 470 B.c., the name on one side and an shows the death of Aktaion piece of the Pan Painter, which to Bor ithyphallic Pan on the other). On a red-figure volute krater (unknown a a are an context in Pan and shown Eleusinian stately Dionysos geaud), dancing of Art 70.12, ca. 430 B.C.; published (Stanford University Museum by A. E. in Studies in Athenian "The Mission of Triptolemus," and I. K. Raubitschek, Architecture, Sculpture and Topography Presented Hesperia Suppl. 20, Princeton The School of Hellas: Essays New York/Oxford 1982, 109-17, with on Greek History, to Homer A. Thompson, = A. E. Raubitschek, pi. 15b and Literature, Archaeology,

and Cult: The 1991, 229-38, with pi. 22; cf. K. Clinton, Myth Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Institutet i of the Eleusinian Mysteries, 1992, 26 and 166 fig. 11). Athen, 8o, XI, Stockholm 85. For a fuller discussion of the climactic sequence of Dionysiac references in Iconography I refer to Zeitlin, (n. 5) 154?64 "Staging Dionysos" zu tun? Rolle und Funktion "Was hat die Trag?die mit Dionysos am Beispiel der 'Antigone' des Sophocles," W?rzburger Dionysos Jahrb?cher 15 (1989) 43-58. die Altertumswissenschaft the choral odes of Ant. A. Bierl, 86. The Muses 181-82) as well are commonly as choral dancing associated (below, and des f?r

with Dionysos (Bierl [n. 2] 99 nn. nn. 93, 135-36). Yet many interpreters

Albert

Henrichs

103

in the Sophoclean version have been puzzled by their presence BICS 36 149 C. takes (1989) Sourvinou-Inwood, Mouoa? myth.

of the Lykourgos as a "metaphor"

between the two groups but Sophocles for the maenads, clearly differentiates n. on see K. which here and elsewhere 679f., 691f., 136). (O. 87. Some editors print Mouoa? with a small initial, but the verb eqeO?C?d as a in E. Ba. 147f. xopo?oi (cf. JttaxvciTa? eqe9???)V requires personal object, In the parodos of Ba., however, the subject is Pindar fr. 140bl3 Snell/Maehler). far from interfering with the ritual activities of his worshipers, who, Dionysos, incites them to dance. 88. The gone. self-referential thrust of Ant. zu einer Theorie 965 is recognized by H. Rohdich, Anti Helden des sophokleischen (Heidelberg 1980) 191; 103 n. 38 on O. K. 678ff. and Ant. 965 ("There may

Beitrag

Winnington-Ingram well be a reference 89. Discussed and Bierl 90. An accounts Brown, invested Scullion

choruses at Athens."); Bierl (n. 85) 48. (n. 64) 66-78, who ignores the choral self-reference, by Dorsch it. (n. 2) 127-32, who emphasizes on a god's ambulatory in poetic is conventional faculties emphasis 23,

(n. 45) to the dramatic

GRBS

1957, 204f. n. 4; C. (E. Fraenkel, Horace, Oxford epiphany 1982, 306 n. 7); it is harder to see, however, why Sophocles with the power to purify Thebes from pollution. the foot of Dionysos of divine

(n. 76) has shown that the cathartic power is not a function of the divine and foot per se, but an effect produced by the dancing associated with Dionysos with the Dionysiac chorus. in the violence of the 91. Many interpreters have argued that it is precisely final scene that Dionysos makes his epiphany, reveals his power, and cleanses the (n. 64) 78, Bierl (n. 2) 130f., and Bierl, "Antigone" city; see most recently Dorsch see A. Henrichs, "Between Country and City: (n. 85). For a different perspective Cultic Mastronarde inM. Griffith in Athens of Dionysos and Attica," and D. J. and Comparative (eds.), Cabinet of the Muses. Essays on Classical at in Honor Literature (Scholars Press 1990) 257-77, of Thomas G. Rosenmeyer and Ritual cf. Seaford, Reciprocity 264-69; (n. 5) 363-67. 92. At Ant. 1149 I reluctantly the text of the MSS (defended by reproduce Dimensions Jebb). Dawe's Teubner edition responsion with 1140 xai v?v change Jta? as a gloss and print Zrrvo? in the corresponding opts for Jia? Ztvvo? (b? ?iaiac. to restore complete y?v?8?,ov and Wilson (n. 71) delete Lloyd-Jones an undesirable their remedy necessitates

(idiomatic in formal prayer, 30f., S. O. T. 167, E. Alk. attractive v?v ?(?).

y?vE6X,ov; line of the strophe, where they replace xai v?v for instance Horn. //. 1.455, Sappho fr. 1.25, A. Eum. 224, I. T. 1084, cf. Pindar P. 5.20) with the

less

in tragedy (E. Hel. 93. Here as well as at its only other occurrence 1454, a see n. 128), XOP^YO? retains its pre-Attic case of choral projection, conspicuous literal meaning of "chorus leader," first attested in Alem?n, on which see Ca?ame is invoked as'laxxE (n. 1) vol. 1, 92-94, and Taplin (n. 15) 58. Dionysos Gpiau?E, oi) tc?v?e Page); xopay? similarly, the Muses, and Dionysos Apollo, (n. 1) vol. 1, 102-08. in an anonymous lyric fragment (PMG fr. adesp. in Plato's Laws (665a, cf. 653d-654a) the Athenian as cnjyxopEUTa? TE xai xopr]yoi)?. 109d [1027d] characterizes See Ca?ame

as well as astral, 94. The homology the imaginary choruses, maenadic between chorus of the dramatic performance led by Dionysos and the equally Dionysiac iswell emphasized and the Cave," by C. Segal, "Sophocles' Antigone: The House

104 Rivista tion

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

20 (1978) 1185-87 = Tragedy and Civiliza classica e medioevale Poetics 204?06 and 44) (n. 5) 247, and more recently by Bierl (n. Dionysiac as khoroi dancing in the sky, (n. 2) 129. On clusters of stars described poetically as at E. El. 467, see J. Diggle, Phaethon 1970) 99; for Euripides: (Cambridge di cultura of this image (choral projection), see Zeitlin, of Identity" "Mysteries and Dover (n. 15) 238 on Frogs

other Dionysiac applications (n. 5) 168 on E. Ion 1074-86 342f. (quoted above). 95. On the Eleusinian

connotations of the fifth stasimon see Henrichs (n. 91) and Ritual 266f.; R. Seaford, JHS 110 (1990) 87f. and Reciprocity (n. 5) 381f. The at Frogs 343 is followed by 345 y?vu JtaXXETai invocation of Iakkhos-Dionysos are used self-referentially both expressions yEpovTOOV and 351/2 xopOJioi?v; by the shared tendency of the chorus of the Eleusinian initiates, thus confirming and to with Dionysos, comedy and tragedy to connect choral self-referentiality locate it in a cultic setting. restora 96. I reproduce the text of Lloyd-Jones/Wilson (n. 71). On alternative tions of lines 205-07 see Stinton and below (including E(()EOT?oioiv aK?kalc, which (n. 20) 417-21; Lloyd-Jones/Wilson is indebted to Stinton 404. *Ev ?? (n. 68) 156f. My some editors prefer), translation here

"within (207) means, exceptionally, not "and besides" (Davies). For commentary, (Stinton, Easterling), [the palace]" see P. E. Easterling, Trachiniae 1982) 104ff.; M. Davies, Sophocles: (Cambridge Trachiniae (Oxford 1991) lOlff. Sophocles: I employ. On ritual 97. Cf. Ca?ame (n. 81) section 2.2, whose terminology (n. 16) 121-29 imperatives used self-referentially by dramatic choruses, see Kaimio zur Form und dramatischen Technik der and B. Zimmermann, Untersuchungen Band 2: Die anderen lyrischen Partien (Beitr?ge zur Kom?die. Aristophanischen 947ff. 166, K?nigstein/Ts. 1985), 193-96, on Ar. Thesm. Philologie (N. Hopkinson, (cf. n. 38). Such imperatives are a standard feature of cult-hymns to Demeter, Classical Texts and Commentaries Callimachus: Hymn Cambridge use of the 27, Cambridge 1984, 78 on Callim. Dem. 1). On the self-referential klassischen first person of aipojiai, in choral poetry, see n. 35; for a discussion of the choral connotations see n. 105. Despite the future tense, ov?' ajic?oo^ai refers to the of the chorus futures of (Davies [n. 96] 104). First person occupation "describe an ongoing performance, be futures, which such as singing, dancing, and the casting of magical "The 'Performative Future' inThree Hellenistic Incantations

present this type are performative it verbal or non-verbal," spells (C. A. Faraone, and Theocritus' Second cf. K?ppel epinician 98. On

in CP 1995, with full bibliography; Idyll," forthcoming occurs in cult hymns, choral lyric, and [n. 28] 95f.). This convention as well as in ritual texts.

the ritual cries, see A. Fairbanks, A Study of the Greek Paean (Ithaca L. 22 Altertum "Paian," Neue Deubner, 1900); Jahrb?cher f?r das klassische at 406 n. 2, reprinted in Kleine Schriften at 225 (1919) 385-406, (n. 28) 204-25, n. 2, and "Ololyge" on S. Tra. 205ff. I benefited from (n. 28), esp. 10f.=616f. in the introduction the systematic treatment of these ritual forms by Ian Rutherford to his forthcoming and Their book Pindar's Paianes: A Study in the Fragments Generic Context (Oxford 1996). 99. K?ppel Ch. (n. 28) 81f., 147, 342f. test. 122. Cf. A. Th. 268, Ag. 245-47, are also associated 687ff., /. A. 1467f{., where tragic women 150f., E. Herakles with the Jiai?v. Outside tragedy, however, the Jtaiav is performed by men, while in the oXoXvyr) is raised by women (so at the wedding of Hektor and Andromache

Albert Henrichs

105

cf. Deubner, "Paian" [n. 98] 390 = 209; D. E. Gerber, ZPE Sappho fr. 44.31ff.; 49 [1982] 4f.; K?ppel 50, 8 If.); in contrast to the female oXoA.uyr|, the akakayr) = a male war-cry is properly (Deubner, 610; J. Diggle, [n. 28] 4 "Ololyge" Collected But 1994] 477-80). Euripidea: Essays [Oxford ?XoXuyfj and oXaXay^ can be used Ba. 23f. interchangeably [n. 104] versus Ba. in tragedy to signal the reversal of gender roles (E. 1133 as discussed by R. Seaford, "The Eleventh Ode of Dionysos," and the Absence Artemis, JHS 108 [1988]

of Bacchylides: Hera, 118-36, at 134; cf. Reciprocity the chorus

and Ritual [n. 5] 290f.); on the social status of in Tra. 205ff., see Ca?ame (n. 1) vol. 1, 149f., Stinton (n. 20) 418-20 and especially Gardiner (n. 21) 120-22. 100. On the wedding 114 (1986) 50-59 theme in Tra., see R. Seaford, Hermes and "The Tragic Wedding" (n. 44) 119 and 128f.; on its Dionysiac subversion, of the Household" (n. 5) 126-28, who compares Euripides' Iole as a destructive maenad {Hipp. 548f.). Apart from its with reflects the wedding (K?ppel tension the unresolved [n. 28] 50f.), the tragic paean here and between inevitable catastrophe and hope and Marriage in the Trachiniae," Oracles,

Seaford, "Destroyer characterization of association elsewhere

against hope. See C. Segal, "Time, on the tragic paian; I. Lexis 9-10 (1992) 63-92, on Tra. 205ff.; K?ppel 46-49 "Paeanic Ambiguity: A Study of the Representation of the Jiai?v in Rutherford, n. s. 44 (1993) 77-92, esp. 89f., and Pindar's Paianes Greek Literature," QUCC dramatic reversals and opposite (n. 98) Introd. A12 on tragic paianes marking emotional states; and "Apollo in Ivy: the Tragic Paean," in this issue, 112-135. 101. De Falco, Studi (n. 25) 69, 74-79; Easterling (n. 96) 104, 106; Davies (n. 96) 101-03; Rutherford (n. 98) Introd. A10; K?ppel (n. 28) 85f. on the contrast between Kaimio (n. 76) 183, 305; (n. 16) 122; Stinton (n. 20) 420; Davies (n. 96) 103 on S. Tra. 211, 196 and 266 on 821 (D Jta??E?. Chorus other parthenoi: Wilamowitz, addressing Verskunst (n. 51) 527; Gardiner (n. 21) 120 n. 3. The second person plural ritual It is significant that the specific address imperative supports either interpretation. (0 Jiap?EVOL, with its emphasis on a socially marked age group, occurs only here, in the context of ritual performance under the aegis of Artemis; in several other as yuva?XE? (202, 225, places the women of the chorus are addressed generically in the closing anapests 385, 663, 673). IlapG?vE (1275) must be addressed to the chorus, but the identity of the speaker remains an open question (P. E. Easterling, 1CS 6, 1981, 71; Lloyd-Jones/Wilson [n. 68] 177f.; Davies [n. 96] 265f.). 103. Burton (n. 20) 50f. and, apparently, Easterling (n. 96) 104. = 104. Deubner (n. 28) 23f. 629f., who refers to A. P. 13. 28, 1-3 JioMaxi ?v xopo?oiv ?m ?t] <$>v\r)?Axa^iavT??o? TQpai ?v(oXoX,x)?av xiaao<|)opoi? ai Aiovuaia?E? (an anonymous fifth-century epigram on a dithy oi0Dpa|i?oic rambic victory, ascribed to Antigenes by U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Sap ?ber griechische Berlin 1913, pho und Simonides: Untersuchungen Lyriker, 218-23; D. L. Page, Further Greek Epigrams, 1981, 11-15; D. F. Cambridge Graeci, Hildesheim Sutton, Dithyrambographi 1989, 19f.), E. Ba. 23f. (Dionysos Taa?E yf\? eEXX,T]vi?o? ?vcoXoXu?a Jip Ta? ?? ?r|?ac (on which speaking) see E. R. Dodds, 1960, 66), and Ba. 689 Euripides: Bacchae, 2d edition, Oxford of Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysos, (of Agaue) ?)X?Xu?;EV. On the juxtaposition De Falco, Studi (n. 25) 76, compares the prayer that concludes the parodos at O. T. 203?15. In this instance, however, the three divinities are not explicitly associ ated with the dance-song, but are invoked as potential helpers against the plague. 102. Choral the Apollonian paean and the Dionysiac dithyramb. self-address: Jebb (n. 20) 35 on Tra. 205f.; Kranz

I06

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

105. A?poum refers to a flightlike elevation fr. 31 Page {Od. 8.375, Anacr. [PMG 376], E. Hipp. 735f., Hel. 605f., Ba. 748) and uplifted spirits (A. Ag. 592 of emotions that are "flying in the mind" a?pEOOai x?ap; on the tragic metaphor see Padel [n. 43] 96-98) rather than fancy footwork (a?pEiv ?fj^ia or Jto?a, as at E. Tro. ?vayE x?p?v, used atpOfiai ?p6(?fi?V 342, Ba. 943f.). Cf. E. Tro. 325f. Ji?Xke jio?' a?G?piov, <?vay'> E??v ev??, 545f. JiapG?voi ?' ?Eipov a\ia xp?TOV Jto?wv. For see Ar. Clouds in choral 276/7 absolutely self-referentiality, 266 ap0T]TE, x?uoux' ?v cb? ejc? v?xt], 1180 al'pEo9'

and preceded by (j)avEpa? (sung by the chorus of Clouds, oiJJtOTE (followed Lys. 539 a?pEoB' dv?) by 541/2 and 1291-94 akaka?, If] Jtaic?v. aipEoG' ?vco, ?a?, ?pxou^i?vri) ?a?. ?i)O? Ei)O?, E?ai ?i)a? (cf. S. Tra. 205f., 210f., 219, 221), Ekkl. (|)?vr|TE),

?vco. On

tai eva?; cf. J. Henderson, (Oxford 1987) 137. Lysistrata Aristophanes' a red-figure astragalos E804, signed by the Sotades Painter (British Museum ca. 460 B.C.), three groups of young female dancers literally take wing, rise above (M. Robertson, Lonsdale [n. 1]

the ground and float like clouds across the surface of the vase A History 1975, vol. 2, plates 91a-d; of Greek Art, Cambridge xxi, fig. 1(b)). 106. On the Dionysiac

aulos as a passionate and "orgiastic" instrument (Arist. 1341a21f.) whose sound "stirs up" (Pindar fr. 140bl7 Snell/Maehler ?x?VTjOE) and is "inducive of madness" fr. 57.5 Radt (A. Edonians jiav?ac EJiaywy?v), see M. Linforth, Rites in Plato, Univ. Calif. Publ. in Class. The Corybantic Philol. 13 Nr. 5, 1946, 121-62 = Linforth, Studies in Herodotus and Plato (New York/London 1987), 157-200; Dodds (n. 104) on E. Ba. 126-29 and 379f.; E. Pol. im Zerrbild der altattischen Kom?die (Stockholm tragische Orchestik R. Schlesier, "Das Fl?tenspiel in R. Kapp der Gorgo," 216-18; (ed.), 5/6: Musik Notizbuch 1982) 11-57; J. Bremmer, ZPE 55 (1984) (Berlin/Wien on status of the ivy, see Dodds 278f.; Bierl (n. 2) 83 n. 121 On the Dionysiac Roos, Die 1951), Ba. 81; M. York 1982) 107. The bei den Griechen (RGW 38, Berlin/New (n. 82) 414f.; K?ppel (n. 28) 223 n. 68a, 246 and 270. identity of this chorus has been stressed by Jebb (n. quasi-maenadic "Mixtures of Masks" (n. regard to Tra. 218ff., as well as by Schlesier, Blech, 185-210; Segal Studien zum Kranz

20) with

is "that apart from Euripides' this passage Bacchae, 6), 105-08, who observes the only one in extant tragedy in which is actually performed the maenadism as Schlesier notes, the to" (105). However, and is not simply alluded onstage most conspicuous is not mentioned. maenadic the thyrsos, Unlike implement, the pipe and the ivy, the thyrsos had no place in the convention of choral Had Sophocles introduced the thyrsos here, he would have jeopard competition. ized the delicate balance between the overall dramatic identity of this chorus and aspirations. function of the ivy and the pipe at Tra. 216ff. (n. 23) vol. 3, 148f., considered by Wilamowitz by Jebb emphasized on Tra. 218ff., and ignored by more recent commentators. their fleeting Dionysiac 108. The choreutic has been (n. 20) 37

109. Pickard-Cambridge, Dramatic Festivals (n. 1) 75-77; above, n. 104. On a bell-krater by the Kleophon Painter in Copenhagen (ca. 425 B.C.) four khoreutai dance around a pole draped with ivy leaves while another man plays the pipe; all five men wear tainiai and ivy wreaths 8, (Beazley, ARV2 1145.35; CVA Copenhagen [n. 3] 35, 37f., 301 no. 4, with pi. lb; pis. 347-49; Pickard-Cambridge/Webster Blech dithyrambic as a classified [n. 106] 207f., fig. 29a). The dancers have been tentatively chorus at the City Dionysia Antike Schmidt, "Dionysien," by M.

Albert

Henrichs

107

Kunst

inAthen, Beitr?ge Simon, Festivals of Athens: An (n. 24) (Madison 1983) 98f.; and van der Weiden Commentary Archaeological as well as the aulos-plzyer 27. Similarly, all but two of the satyric khoreutai on the vase named after him wear ivy wreaths Pronomos (Blech 311). Dionysiac 10 (1967) 80; H. Froning, Dithyrambos zur Arch?ologie 1971, 27f.; 2, W?rzburg und Vasenmalerei E. to Philodamos or paeanic?) choruses wore ivy wreaths of according 144-47 Paian to Dionysos ?lX? ??xEoOE Baxx[ia]crc?v Delphic Ev ?' ?ym]a?? Ai[?]vuo[ov, xiaa[ox]a?Tai? [xop]o?ai x[ixXt|oxete] ?^ia ovv in K?ppel and B. 375-80, (ca. 340 B.C.; text and commentary [n. 28] 207-84, A Literary Expression L. Rainer, Philodamus' Paean to Dionysus: of Delphic (dithyrambic Skarpheia,

at Urbana-Champaign, 1975). celebration" (M. J. Cropp, Euripides: Electra, "typifies Warminster 1988, 158), and so does the wreath (Plut. Nik. 3A?.). Tragic choruses = were wreathed for the proagon {Vita Eurip. 2 p. 3.1 Iff. Schwartz Soph, testim. but the ivy wreaths referred 54 Radt = DID C 20 in TrGF I 48 Snell/Kannicht), Propaganda, 110. The diss. University of Illinois aulos choral to by the chorus at Tra. 216-20, and E. Herakles 677, were hardly standard in the orchestra for tragic khoreutai performing (J. C. Kamerbeek, It is Part II: The Trachiniae, Leiden 1959, on 218-20). of Sophocles,

equipment The Plays

to tell, and hardly important, whether of this particular the members impossible at the start of the song" (so Kamerbeek) themselves chorus actually "wreathed or whether in their imagination the ivy wreaths existed merely (as Jebb [n. 20] on Tra. 218ff. seems to think). Every dramatic chorus had its aulos-phyer (cf. nn. 108-09, 112-13), but here too the evidence, much of it from vase-painting, the dithyramb is more abundant for comedy (n. 109) and (Taplin [n. 15] 69-78), satyr-play (n. 109) than for tragedy (Taplin [n. 15] 7, 71); see Pickard-Cambridge

Still, the "official ??w/os-player" lurking behind the reference (n. 1) 165-67,182-88. to the aulos at Tr. 217 is the closest tragic analogue to the "metatheatrical pipers" 105-10. It may be relevant, given the importance of comedy discussed by Taplin and pipes were also of the sacrificial theme in Tra. (below, n. 125), that wreaths of animal sacrifice; sacrifices X^P1? atuXxov xai among the regular paraphernalia R. Pfeiffer ([Apollod.] Bibl. 3.(210)15.7.4; OTE(|)?v(DV were considered abnormal on Callim. Aitia fr. 3). use of euoi is illustrated by E. Ba. 141 (exclamatory E150?), and 68 (eikx?co, cf. S. Ant. 1135). For its self (Dionysos as Emo? 9eo?), referential use by tragic and nontragic choruses, see above, n. 105, and Philodamos, as in Paian (n. 109) 5, 18, 31, 57, etc., where EtJO? alternates with the paian-cry, 111. The maenadic 157 S. Tra. 218/221. Cf. Bierl (n. 2) 136 n. 71; K?ppel (n. 28) 223. 55 (1896) 504 n. 7 (with reference 112. As Dionysos by T. Zielinski, Philologus to the parodos of E. Ba.), Vicaire (n. 20) 354, Stinton (n. 20) 404 ("an ecstatic

and Schlesier, "Mixtures of Masks" (n. 6) 105; as inspired by Dionysos"), on or Tra. 217 and Bierl (n. the aulos 96) (n. Dionysos Dionysiac by Easterling as the aulos by the ancient f?r die Gottheit"); 2) 135f. (the pipe "als Metonymie dance (n. 53) 747, Jebb (n. 20) 37 on S. Tra. 217 scholiast, who is followed by Ellendt and F. W. Schneidewin, and Segal (n. 59) 342 n. 24; as Apollo by A. Nauck vol. 6 (6th ed., Berlin 1891) 52 on Tra. 216f., as well as by LSJ s. Sophokles, v. TUpawo?. where are described else that accompany choral performances reed-pipes as "faithful witnesses of the khoreutai" (Pindar P. 12.27 mOToi xopEUT?v (E. El. 717 Movo?v ^lapTUpE?) and "attendant of theMuses" 0Ep?jt?)v), descrip tions which assign a less dominant and more auxiliary role to the aulos. 113. The

I08

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

114. Dodds der Choephoren Stuttgart indicated

1988) in passages

(n. 63) 51 n. 3, cf. 95f. n. 89; K. Siers, Die lyrischen Partien Kommentar des Aischylos: Text, ?bersetzung, (Palingenesia 23, is clearly 114 on A. Ch. 331. The divine origin of the Tapayjio? such as S. fr. 684.3 Radt, E. Hipp. 969 and esp. A. Ag. jtovo? OTpo?Ei Tap?aocov (preceded ?p9op,avTE?a? ?ouAia JtEp ?v (()p?vi and 1140 4>pEVon,avr|? ti? e? see Lloyd-Jones (n. 24) 392.

\ie ?eiv?? by 1084 ji?vEi t? 9e?ov 9EO(|)opT]TO?), on which 115. Maiva?wv cf. Henrichs

1215f. vjt' av

from Thasos; ?va occurs in a Hellenistic epigram on Dionysos dance and trance on the tragic stage and in (n. 63) 40f. Regarding see the contributions Delavaud-Roux the cult of Dionysos by A. B?lis and M.-H. in P. Ghiron-Bistagne (ed.), Transe et th??tre (Cahiers du GITA 4, Montpellier 1989) 9-53. 116. E. Tro. is also 408 ei characterized

who

E^E?axxEV?EV \ki\ o' ?JioXXcov (|)p?va?, of Kassandra, as a "maenad" (172, 307 and 349); Vergil Aen. 6.78 vates (the Sibyl). Apart from ecstatic states of mind bacchatur induced by rapid instruments such as the pipe (n. 106) and the tympanon, dancing and Dionysiac was believed to affect or transform the human other means by which Dionysos

include wine (Archil, fr. 120.2 West o?vo) ouyxEpauv?)0E?c psyche 4>p?va?, in connection with the performance of dithyrambs for Dionysos), ritual "madness" 1269L, 1295), divine epiphany (E. Ba. 33 Jtap?xojioi (|>pEV<?>v,cf. 1122-24, and poetic inspiration 2.19.5-8, esp. recenti mens tr?pid?t metu), 3.25.1-3, esp. velox mente nova). See E. Rohde, Psyche: The Cult the Greeks among (trans, by W. B. Hillis, of Souls and Belief in Immortality London 1925) 259f., 273-76. . . .v?xTa ?i' fr. 1.60-63 Tai IlE?,T]a??? y?p ?ujv 117. Alem?n aji?pooiav ote Zripiov ?oTpov connotations of jAaxovrai. On the agonistic ?fTjpouivai (Horace, Odes (Horace, Odes see M. Puelma, Mus. ^axovrai, 36 (1983) 268 ("amock-contest... dancing"); Herington Alem?n Partheneion 249-72 n.s. 39 34 (1977) 36 n. 66; C. Segal, Mnemosyne the toil [line 88 Jt?vcov] of nocturnal (n. 1) 21 (a "lyric contest"); G. Dunkel, "Fighting Words: 63 ??axovrai," Journal of Indo-European Studies 7 (1979) Helv. including competition); 1983) 332, suggests beauty contest. D. Clay, QUCC an athletic

(n. 1) 202 OEXava?. Lonsdale of the chor?gos and her ?pr|pOjA?vai with the "superior movement assistant" and notes "the indirect language of the dance." 119. Pindar O. 5.6, N. 9.12, cf. 10.31L, /. 5.6. Choral ?uiMa: [A.] Prom. 129f. E. /. T. 1143/1147 xopo?? ?' ioTa?Tyv . /. ?? ?\i\Xka? jiTEpijywv 9oa?? ?\iiXkai?; Paian (n. 109) 132-34 [n. 1] 194); Philodamos, (Apollo) Xap?TCDV (cf. Lonsdale too connects Plat. Leg. 834e Oua?av xopcov te Ko[Xk(bv] xvxXiav ETa^E B?xxou ?\iik\av; v ?vayxa?ai schol. Ar. Clouds 311b ?oai ?v ?opTa?? ?fw??ai xop yiyvE?Gai; tujv xopwv; Xen. (p. 77.20 Koster) oi Aiovuaiaxoi ?ycovE?, ?v o?? ai ?\i\Xkai . . . tovt?? Mem. 3.3.12 xop?? (se. T?) xop?J) ?c))a^dXo?. 120. Easterling (n. (n. 96) 107; Lloyd-Jones (n. 24) 396; Lloyd-Jones/Wilson (n. 112) 52 as well as Jebb (n. 20) 37 rightly insisted on 68) 157. Nauck/Schneidewin having it both ways, but they too privileged speed: "die im Tanz geschwungenen, F??e," and "the Bacchic compe gleichsam mit einander inRaschheit wetteifernden tition of eager dancers, i.e. the swift dance itself." Kranz (n. 76) 183 fully acknowl when he rendered Baxxiav edged the choral and agonistic connotation ?fAiXXav

(who argues for poetic rather than choral (1991) 58-63. C. Ca?ame, Alem?n (Rome a footrace or a or erotic contest, in other words, 118. Cf. E. Alk. 450f. ?eiQO\i?va? Jtavv?xou

Albert Henrichs
as "den bakchischen Bierl Wettanz

109

der F??e." While the reference to choral recognizing as a mere the 136 for the dance, (n. 2) regards phrase dancing, "metaphor" as if choral competition had no place in tragedy. Schlesier, "Mixtures of Masks" au.iXX.av both with competitive choral dancing (n. 6) 106f., connects Baxxiav and with the "competition" between Deianeira and Iole for the love of Herakles; . . . she compares E. Hipp. 1140f. vvu^toia AixTpcov auiM,a xoupai?. 121. Pindar fr. 70cl6 ]av Jt?voi xopc?v. Cf. Zimmermann, (n. Dithyrambos 24) 50f. and 62f. 122. Schlesier, "Mixtures of Masks" (n. 6) 107f.; cf. Bierl (n. 2) 136f. On in tragedy see above, n. 100. "paeanic ambiguity" . . . 123. The phrase avapo?av refers "to the use of the aulos on xavax?v sad occasions" ("not interpreters connect ?vapoio? (Easterling [n. 96] 153). Most the Homeric (as fitting") either with war ("hostile," usage) or with mourning

otJX ?xGp?v ot>?? 9pr|V(DV ?ofjv). suggested by the scholiast, who comments 124. G. Markantonatos, in the Trachiniae of Sophocles," Platon "'Tragic Irony' 26 (1974) 73-79, at 78; Segal, Tragedy and Civilization (n. 44) 68, 71f., 93, and and Marriage" "Time, Oracles (n. 100); Stinton (n. 20) 404, 409. chorus, the celebration of Herakles' follows victory by the to must the foaming "love potion" turned poison compares spuming "from the Bacchic vine" (701-04, an allusion to the grape harvest rather than to libations of wine). As Hyllos is consumed reports fifty lines later, Herakles Deianeira 125. In the scene which

Kenaios;

a hecatomb robe while of oxen and sheep to Zeus by the poisoned sacrificing the slaughter of animals thus functions as the anomalous ritual beginning and "Opferritual 7, 1966, 116-21, Der altsprachliche Unterricht Sophocles. Pragmatik?Symbolik?Theater," 1985, 5-20, at 15-17; Segal, Tragedy and Civilization [n. 44] 65-73). 126. A point made by Schlesier, "Mixtures of Masks" [n. 6] 108. Burkert, 127. The intervene choral twice (xaTapxeo?at) turn sacrificed of the violent (see W. death of a human victim, and the sacrificer is in bei 18, GRBS

(Foley [n. 44] 187). pronounced 128. Cf. E. Herakles cf. 925-27, 673-95, 761-89, 871-98, 1025-28, 1303-04; Tro. 544-59, /. T. 427-29, cf. 325-42, Ion 463, 492-502, 1071-76; 1143-52; 1074-86; Hel. 381-83, 1312-14, 1451-70; Ph. 226-38, 1338-68, 649-56, 784-92, I have treated cf. 1265; and the choral odes of Ba. In all of these choruses, which as a group in a related study (n. 26), choral self-referentiality occur in an explicitly Dionysiac context. 129. For a more detailed discussion of the choral dance Elektra's (n. 26). 130. On ambivalent status throughout this play, see my and choral projection as a ritual that defines "Dancing for Dionysos"

Jones/Wilson choral self-referentiality final scene is even more

to proper ends at 970; the chorus continues performance in the dialogue (1044L, 1112f.; on the closing anapests see Lloyd [n. 68] 177f.). In the Aias (see above) and Herakles, plays in which marks the dramatic crisis, the "choral silence" in the

the "violent contrast" between the sacrifice of Aigisthos and the ritual see Easterling (n. 44) 101-08. crowning of Orestes, 131. I adopt Diggle's Oxford the emendations of text, which incorporates Henri Weil and F. H. M. Blaydes. As an alternative, Diggle considers vix?i "your brother OTE(|>ava<|)op?av xpE?oooo Jtap' AX.(()Eio?> pE?Gpoi? teXec?vc?ov, crown has won a crown-winning victory greater than those who have performed winnings by the Alpheios" {PCPhS n. s. 15, 1969, 52f.). The translation follows

IIO

"WHY

SHOULD

IDANCE?"

(n. 110) 63, except for vnaei?e Cropp (Blaydes: EJt- codd.), as "sing with my dance." But the connotation of VJtaE??Eiv is more specific (Ca?ame [n. 1], vol. poetry Text of Euripides, Oxford 1981, 39f.; Nagy Elektra to "sing in support" or "in accompaniment" differentiates mance the supporting of the chorus. role assigned

which

he renders

in epic and choral Studies on the 1, 154-56; J. Diggle, The chorus invites [n. 1] 351-53). to its dance-song; ?JiaEiOE from the dominant perfor

to Elektra

132. P. E. Easterling {per litt.). 133. On the performative future, 134. Above, n. 128. 135. For Musen

see n. 97.

h. Ap. 188-206. See W. F. Otto, Die instance, at h. Herrn. 450-52, und der g?ttliche des Singens und Sagens (Darmstadt 1954) Ursprung 55f.; Koller (n. 1) 25-35, 58-78; Ca?ame (n. 1), vol. 1, 102-08. 136. S. Ant. 955-65 673-86 (discussed above); E. Herakles (n. 50); cf. O. K. 668-93

and his "divine nurses," and by the "khoroi (Kolonos visited by Dionysos Ba. 409-15, 560-66. On the association the Muses"), of Dionysos and the seeW. F. Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult (1933, English transi. Blooming Muses, of 1965) 144; Dodds (n. 104) 126 on Ba. 409ff.; Winnington-Ingram (n. 45) 103 n. 38; K?ppel (n. 28) 243-49, esp. 246 n. 157. 137. E. Ba. 862-76; R. P. Winnington-Ingram, and Dionysos: An Euripides 1948) 106-08; Segal (n. 5) 34f. Interpretation of the Bacchae (Cambridge ton/London 138. E. El. tions of most and 573f. The Dionysiac associa 167-70, 323-31, 494-99, 509-15, of these passages are discussed by Schlesier, Die tragischen Masken (n. 6), final chapter. 152ff.~963ff.~1146ff., and Tra. 216ff.~640ff.,

des Dionysos 139. S. O. T. 896~1086ff., Ant. are treated above. all of which with

140. The projection of choral dancing continues in the first and second stasimon choral dancing of the Nereids choruses of the (434 xopE?uxrca Nr|pr|t?u)v), stars (467 ?oTpcov t' aiG?pioi S. Ant. 1146f., ), and X?P??> Qf- l?n 1078-80, dances at Mycenae (712 xopoi). 141. Seaford, "The Eleventh Ode of Bacchylides" (n. 99) 135f. and Reciprocity and Ritual (n. 5) 384f. Elektra suffers from a fatal lack of ritual remedies?she is, in her own words, "missing the sacred festivals and deprived of choral dances" v TTrccou.?vr|). At the end of the play, she asks: (310 ?v?opTO? LEp v xai xop "Where shall I go, to what choral dance (T?v' e? xop?v), what wedding? What husband will take me to his marriage bed?" (1198ff.). Her questions suggest that her isolation from the social roles incumbent upon her age and sex is now it will take divine intervention complete; a more suitable husband (1249, 1340ff.). 142. Translation 143. Cf. Connor and Herakles and reflect to remedy her situation and to find her Cf. Zeitlin (n. 44) 658f. in the Chicago T. Vermeule, series. mode of E. El. 859ff., tragedy may 873ff. adapt such as these Greek

(adapted) by Emily (n. 4) 21 on the self-referential

763t?., 781ff.: "In passages its festival setting."

(n. 81) 142. 145. I am grateful to Claude Golder, Gregory Nagy, Michael Renate

144. Ca?ame

Schlesier, Stephen sticker, Florence Verducci, I have made ample use; to Anton

Ca?ame, Eric Csapo, Patricia Easterling, Herbert Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Haslam, Hayden Pelliccia, Scully, Richard Seaford, Charles Segal, Bernd Seiden and Froma Zeitlin for numerous of which suggestions, Bierl, C. A. Faraone, and Scott Scullion for

Albert

Henrichs

111

work with me; and to Carolyn Dewald sharing their unpublished the writing of this paper. criticism and support throughout

for generous