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Chapter 3 - Dance at Work

Performance and Identity in Euripides’ Ion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 November 2020

Sarah Olsen
Affiliation:
Williams College, Massachusetts
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Summary

Chapter Three focuses on Euripides’ Ion, wherein we find important depictions of both male and female solo dancing. I begin this chapter with a discussion of male dancing in late Archaic and Classical Greek thought, exploring how male choral leadership, especially as embodied by the god Apollo and the hero Theseus, offers a positive model for the male dancer as an authoritative but collaborative figure within his community. I then observe how Ion’s opening monody vacillates between images of male choral leadership and less lofty images of solo work song/dance, calling attention to the ambivalence of the titular character’s social status. I further demonstrate that a similar ambivalence surrounds Ion’s mother Creusa, who performs a monody of her own that draws upon the imagery of female chorality and choral leadership. Yet while Ion’s monody prefigures his transformation from Delphic servant to Athenian royalty, Creusa’s song reframes the assault that resulted in Ion’s birth as a more normative form of maidenly transition. In both cases, I suggest, Euripides uses dance to situate Ion and Creusa within their final roles while also highlighting the contradictions and conflicts that swirl around them.

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Chapter
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Solo Dance in Archaic and Classical Greek Literature
Representing the Unruly Body
, pp. 73 - 99
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Dance at Work
  • Sarah Olsen, Williams College, Massachusetts
  • Book: Solo Dance in Archaic and Classical Greek Literature
  • Online publication: 30 November 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108755221.004
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  • Dance at Work
  • Sarah Olsen, Williams College, Massachusetts
  • Book: Solo Dance in Archaic and Classical Greek Literature
  • Online publication: 30 November 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108755221.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Dance at Work
  • Sarah Olsen, Williams College, Massachusetts
  • Book: Solo Dance in Archaic and Classical Greek Literature
  • Online publication: 30 November 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108755221.004
Available formats
×