Book contents
- Choral Constructions in Greek Culture
- Choral Constructions in Greek Culture
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Choreia at the Forge: Tripod Cauldrons, Golden Maidens and the Choral Dancers on Achilles’ Shield in Iliad 18
- 2 From the Demonic to the Divine: Gorgons, Cauldrons and Choral Dance
- 3 Flying with the Birds: Avian Choreia and Bird Choruses in Art and Text
- 4 The Carnival of the Animals: Dancing in Herds
- 5 Water Music: Nymphs, Ships and Choral Aquatics
- 6 A Chorus of Columns: Pindar’s Agalmata and the Architectural Chorus
- 7 Choral Fabrications: Weaving, Cloth-Making and Choral Song and Dance
- 8 Choreo-graphy: Choreia and Alphabetic Writing
- 9 Girls in Lines: Catalogues and Choruses
- 10 Choral Envisioning: Archaic and Early Classical Choral Lyric and Post-Classical Accounts of Enargeia
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Subject Index
1 - Choreia at the Forge: Tripod Cauldrons, Golden Maidens and the Choral Dancers on Achilles’ Shield in Iliad 18
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2021
- Choral Constructions in Greek Culture
- Choral Constructions in Greek Culture
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Choreia at the Forge: Tripod Cauldrons, Golden Maidens and the Choral Dancers on Achilles’ Shield in Iliad 18
- 2 From the Demonic to the Divine: Gorgons, Cauldrons and Choral Dance
- 3 Flying with the Birds: Avian Choreia and Bird Choruses in Art and Text
- 4 The Carnival of the Animals: Dancing in Herds
- 5 Water Music: Nymphs, Ships and Choral Aquatics
- 6 A Chorus of Columns: Pindar’s Agalmata and the Architectural Chorus
- 7 Choral Fabrications: Weaving, Cloth-Making and Choral Song and Dance
- 8 Choreo-graphy: Choreia and Alphabetic Writing
- 9 Girls in Lines: Catalogues and Choruses
- 10 Choral Envisioning: Archaic and Early Classical Choral Lyric and Post-Classical Accounts of Enargeia
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Subject Index
Summary
On the penultimate ring of Achilles’ shield, Hephaestus fashions an image of a chorus of youths and maidens, metallic bodies miraculously moving, whose appearance and dance figures the poet minutely describes (Il. 18.590–605, cited below). The making of the shield stands as the capstone in a concatenation of smaller episodes that begins with Thetis’ arrival at Hephaestus’ home at 18.369, and then moves from the reception room of the house to the god’s forge nearby. My primary purpose in singling out this segment of book 18 is to suggest a thematic logic and broader trajectory to its sequence of scenes, and more particularly to the triad of objects, tripods, golden girls and the armour for Achilles, selected by the poet for detailed description in each portion of Thetis’ visit.
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- Information
- Choral Constructions in Greek CultureThe Idea of the Chorus in the Poetry, Art and Social Practices of the Archaic and Early Classical Period, pp. 25 - 75Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021