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Greek Dance1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. W. Fitton
Affiliation:
University of Exeter

Extract

Many books have been written on Greek dance. The fault which bedevils a large number of them is that their authors have tried to recreate the movements of the dances from the artistic evidence without taking into account the conventions of Greek vase-painting and sculpture. Other books, and they are the most useful, set out the literary and the artistic evidence without attempting to reconstruct the dances. Rarely, however, are the wider implications considered, and it is these which I wish to discuss here. More analysis and discussion of the evidence for many of my statements is no doubt required, but the place for that is a book rather than an article which ranges over a comparatively large field.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1973

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References

page 254 note 2 These books are, however, often valuable for their reproductions of the attitudes of Greek dancers. Thus Prudhommeau, G. (La danse grecque antique, 2 vols., 1965) provides a valuable record of the postures on vases, but his approach is vitiated by its interpretation of them in terms of modern dancing.Google Scholar

page 254 note 3 Of special importance now is Lawler, L. B., The Dance in Ancient Greece (1964)Google Scholar; see also her monograph The Dance of the Ancient Greek Theatre (1964)Google Scholar. Fitton would have welcomed Webster's, T. B. L.approach in The Greek Chorus (1970).Google Scholar

page 254 note 4 For animal dances see L. B. Lawler, The Dance in Ancient Greece, ch. 4, and Pickard-Cambridge, A. W., Dithyramb, Tragedy, and Comeciy 2 (1962), 151–7.Google Scholar

page 255 note 1 On Io see Cook, A. B., Zeus i (1914), 438–41.Google Scholar

page 255 note 2 For the fertility aspect of the hymn see West, M. L., J.H.S. lxxxv (1965), 149–59, who offers a new text, with commentary.Google Scholar

page 255 note 3 The wedding-dance is found as early as Homer, Od. 4. 17–17 and 23. 131–131.

page 255 note 4 Catull. 61. Hymenaeus is bidden to perform: pelle humum pedibus, manu pineam / quate taedam (14–14).

page 255 note 5 For funeral dances see Lawler, op. cit. (above, p. 254 n. 4), 54–54, 82–82. For the importance of hand-movements in Greek dancing see below, p. 261.

page 255 note 6 Sachs, Curt, World History of the Dance, Eng. trs. (1937), 68.Google Scholar

page 255 note 7 For the wandering see Famell, L. R., The Cults of the Greek States iii (1907), 181Google Scholar. For the maze-like character of the dancing at Eleusis, Knight, W. F. Jackson, Vergil: Epic and Anthropology (1967), 226–7.Google Scholar

page 256 note 1 Themistius, ap. Stob. 4. 52. 49 = Plut. fr. 178 Sandbach, discussed by Mylonas, G. E., Eleusis and the Eleusiniar Mysteries (1961),264–9.Google Scholar

page 256 note 2 The initiatory aspect of the Hymn of the Kouretes and related myths forms the basil of Harrison's, J. E.Themis (1912, 1927).Google Scholar

page 256 note 3 The point at issue is whether the action of a myth reflects the action of the ritual. This line of interpretation has been developed by British scholars: see Myth and Ritual, ed. S. H. Hooke (1933). Unfortunately this book is as much concerned with proving the existence of a certain type of ritual as with exploring the general relationship between myth and ritual. The theory has aroused violent criticism, often aimed at the particular ritual proposed rather than the general question (see the criticisms listed by Hooke in ‘Myth and Ritual: Past and Present’ in Myth, Ritual and Kingship, ed. Hooke, S. H. [1958], 1–1).Google Scholar In fact the relationship between myth and ritual is very variable, and generalizations are unsafe. See now, however, Burkert, W. in C.Q. N.S. xx (1970), 1–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and most recently Homo Necans (1972), as well as the discussion of the whole question by Kirk, G. S. in Myth: its meaning and functions (1970), esp. 12–12.Google Scholar

page 256 note 4 See the texts in Gaster, T. H., Thespis (1950,1961).Google Scholar

page 256 note 5 That is, the Crane dance, like other maze-dances, was part of an initiation ceremony, but was said to commemorate Theseus' escape from the Cretan labyrinth (Dicaearchus fr. 85 Wehrli ap. Plut. Thes. 21; cf. the François vase, Arias-HirmerShefton, , A History of Greek Vase Painting (1962), pl. 43 with p. 288). In the mythical explanation of the dance of the Kouretes, Zeus was a new-born babe, not a youth approaching puberty and the age of initiation.Google Scholar

page 257 note 1 Apollo and the Muses: Horn. II. 1. 603–603; Hymn. Hom. 3. 182–182; Paus. 5. 18. 4 (the chest of Cypselus). On a sixth-century Attic amphora in Copenhagen (N.M. Inv. 3241 = CVA Copenhagen 3, pl. 102. 2), four Muses (if they are Muses and not Graces) walk playing castanets behind Apollo who is playing the kithara as he leads them to Zeus.

page 257 note 2 The classic exposition of Pentheus' death is of course in Euripides' Bacchae. For Orpheus' death see Guthrie, W. K. C., Orpheus and Greek Religions2 (1952), 32–3; the longest account is Ovid, Met. 1–1.Google Scholar

page 257 note 3 Thepar excellence in Homer are Phemius and Demodocus. For the among dancing youths see Od. 8. 261–261, and leading the Delian maidens, Hymn. Hom. 3. 166–166.

page 257 note 4 According to a Bithynian story Ares was a dancer before he became a warrior (Lucian, Salt. 21).

page 257 note 5 A warrior could be called Nonnus, Dion. 28. 304; 275, where the Corybantes are called The Thessalians called their front-rank men and champions (Lucian, Salt. 54). Athenaeus (14. 628F)

page 258 note 1 For Heracles' connection with the Muses and lyre-playing see Boehm, F. in R.E. viii. 574–8Google Scholar, esp. 576–576, and R. Peter in Roscher 2, 2970–2970, esp. 2975–2975. Like Apollo he was called (LG. xiv. tot*). He was taught to play the lyre by Linos (Apollod. Bibl. 2. 4. 9).

page 258 note 2 Emmanuel, M., The Antique Greek Dance, Eng. trs. (1927), 248–51.Google Scholar

page 258 note 3 Laws 7. 815 b-c; cf. Morrow, G. R., Plato's Cretan City (1960), 362–5.Google Scholar

page 258 note 4 Farnell, L. R., The Works of Pindar ii (1932), 423Google Scholar, discussing Dith. 2 fr. 70b. 13 Sne113; for a more open-eyed view, see Dodds, E. R., The Greeks and the Irrational (1951), 273 f., and his note on Eur. Bacchae, 862–862.Google Scholar

page 258 note 5 He glosses

page 258 note 6 Thus Athenaeus (5. 1800) uses of the tumblers in Od. 4. 18–18 and Il. 18. 604–604; cf. Hdt. 6. 129, of Hippocleides.

page 259 note 1 Galen, De Usu Part. 11. 8 Helmreich; cf. of the front teeth, Aristoph. Ran. 548.

page 259 note 2 Of fear: Aesch. Choeph. 167; Ion fr. 50N2 and Snell; of an earthquake: Callim. Hymn 4. 139.

page 259 note 3 Curt Sachs, op. cit. (above, p. 255 n. 6), 269–269; Dearmer, P. in The Oxford Book Carols (ed. Dearmer and others, 1928), v–ix; Oxford English Dictionary s.v. Carol.Google Scholar

page 259 note 4 Horn. Il. 7. 241:

page 259 note 5 Eur. Ion 881–881:

page 259 note 6

page 259 note 7 Laws 2. 664 e; cf. 672 e: the branch of combines rhythm, defined as the ordering of motion, and the ordering of voice. Conversely, affects the soul (Rep. 3. 410 b-d).P

page 259 note 8 This is because, according to Plato (Laws 10. 896 a), the soul is the source of movement. For emotional processes considered as movements of the soul see Athen. 14. 628c (= Damon fr. 37 B6 DK), where

page 260 note 1 In this context Aristoph. Vesp. 1498 is

page 260 note 2 See the references to specifically Italian dancing s.v. Tanzkunst in R.E. ser. 2. iv 2233–2233, esp. 2239 and 2247, and in genera Wille, G., Musica Romana (1967).Google Scholar

page 260 note 3 M. Emmanuel, op. cit. (above, p. 258 n. 2), 140–140, 171–171, 170–170 respectively.

page 260 note 4 Op. cit. (above, p. 255 n. 6), 24–24.

page 260 note 5 The lawgiver must see that suitable songs are allotted to men and to women (Laws 7. 802 d-e); feminine gestures should not be assigned to verses composed for men (2. 669 c).

page 260 note 6 For basket-carrying in processional dances see L. B. Lawler, op. cit. (above, p. 254 n. 4), 108–108.

page 260 note 7 For representations of Maenads on vases, and the interpretation of their movements, see Lawler, L. B., Mem. Amer. Acad. Rome vi (1927), 69–69Google Scholar; Edwards, M. W., J.H.S. lxxx (1960), 78–78.Google Scholar

page 261 note 1 Eur. Bacch. 943–943. A satyr on the Pronomos vase is executing such a step, and it has been suggested that he is performing the, the dance typical of the satyr-play (Pickard-Cambridge, A. W., The Dramatic Festivals of Athensz [1968], 254 with fig. 49).Google Scholar

page 261 note 2 Athen. 1. 22B. On see Pickard-Cambridge, op. cit. (above, n. 1), 248–248.

page 261 note 3 For ball-games and ball-dancing see Athen. 1. 14D-15c.

page 261 note 4 See Kurath, G. P. in Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend ii (1950), 786.Google Scholar

page 261 note 5 The dance itself, says Aristotle (Poet. 1447a28), can imitate character, emotion, and action.

page 261 note 6 Koller, H., Die Mimesis in der Antike (1954)Google Scholar; the book has been severely criticized: see, for example, Else, G. F. in C.Ph. liii (1958), 73–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 261 note 7 On Plato's use of mimesis and kindred terms see, briefly, Lucas, D. W., Aristotle: Poetics (1968), 260–1Google Scholar; at greater length, McKeon, R., Modern Philology xxxiv (1936–1936), 3–3Google Scholar; Verdenius, W. J. in Vlastos, G. (ed.), Plato: a collection of critical essays ii (1971), 259–73.Google Scholar

page 262 note 1 L. B. Lawler, op. cit. (above, p. 254 n. 4). 99–99.

page 262 note 2 Op. cit. (above, p. 255 n. 6), 62–62.

page 262 note 3 See W. F. Jackson Knight, op. cit (above, p. 255 n. 7), 118–118 with the notes

page 262 note 4 Epaminondas: Paus. 27. 7; Lysander: Xen. Hell. 2. 2. 23; Plut. Lys. 15. 4.

page 262 note 5 Anth. Pal. 6. 217, imitated in 218 and 219.

page 263 note 1 For the healing effect of Corybantic dancing see Pl. Laws 7. 790 d; for the cult in general, Dodds, E. R., The Greeks and the Irrational (1951) 77–9.Google Scholar

page 263 note 2 of a devotee of a god: Pl. Phaedr. 252 d; of a devotee of a philosopher: Julian, Or. 6. 197D; of a pupil: Libanius, Or. 54. 38.

page 263 note 3 Deren, Maya, Divine Horsemen: the Voodoo Gods of Haiti (1953).Google Scholar

page 263 note 4 Gernet, L. and Boulanger, A., Le génie grec dans la religion (1932), 124–5Google Scholar; Dodds, E. R., Euripides: Bacchae (1944, 1960), note on lines 421–3.Google Scholar

page 263 note 5 Pl. Rep. ID. 605 c-608 b. The poets in his other ideal state had to compose, and therefore the citizens could hear, only those poetic genres that produced the right kind of enchantments (Laws 2. 659 d-e; 7. 8,2 b-c). The acceptable types of musical enchantments are listed in Laws 3. 700 b.

page 263 note 6 There are many accounts of the Greek scales. R. P. Winnington-Ingram provides a sound survey of recent work (Lustrum iii [1958], 31–31), and the literature there mentioned provides copious references to earlier discussions. Unless the ‘gapped’ scales described by Aristides Quintilianus (I. 9, p. 22 Meibom) are accepted as the fifth-centur and scholars disagree about their authenticity, the structure of the is unknown. The later application of the term cipitovia to octave-species is in this respect misleading. In fact, the relationship between is much disputed, the height of scepticism being reached by M. I. Henderson, who believed that there was a complete break in the musical tradition at the end of the fifth century (see her chapter Ancient Greek Music’ in The New Oxford History of Music i (1957), 336–336). The clearest statement of Professor Winnington-Ingram's own views is now to be found in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1954)5, s.v. Greek Music (Ancient).Google Scholar

page 264 note 1 Other styles of less importance were the Cretan, Carian, and Mixolydian.

page 264 note 2 Terpander wrote music in the Boeotian style ([Plut.] de Mus. 4. 1 I32D; Suda S.V.). It was known to Sophocles (fr. 966 P), but does not occur in later writings on music. Composers wrote in the Locrian style in the time of Simonides and Pindar, but it later fell out of favour (Athen. 14. 625E). The Aeolian seems for practical purposes to have been absorbed in the Hypo dorian (Heracl. Pont. fr. 163 Wehrli, ap. Athen. 14. 624 E-F).

page 264 note 3 For example, also means ‘in Aeolic dialect’. The related verbs ending often have an even more general sense, ‘to behave like a Spartan’ or ‘to be (politically) pro-Spartan’.

page 264 note 4 The are arranged in the most developed scheme in the system of Alypius (Jan, C. von, Musici Scriptores Graeci [1895], 367–367P).Google Scholar

page 264 note 5 For Aristoxenus' see his Harm. 37 and [Cleonides] Isagoge 12.

page 264 note 6

page 264 note 7 Sachs, Curt, The History of Musical Instruments (1940), 128, says ‘no instrument originated in Greece’.Google Scholar

page 264 note 8 Herzog, G. in Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend ii. 1041, 1037, 1041 respectively.Google Scholar

page 265 note 1 The list of his nomes in [Plut.] De Mus. 4. 1132D includes the Boeotian and Aeolian and the Trochaic.

page 265 note 2 Cretics were Strabo 10. 4. 16. The tenseness of Dorian rhythm depends on the assumption that the dactylic hexameter, which according to Eustathius (Od. p. 1899. 58–58) could go with tense movements, had a Dorian ethos: Aristotle (Poet. 1459b34) uses the adjective of the hexameter and (Pol. 1342b13) of Dorian music. [I have not tried to quote further evidence for the statements about The point made is basically sound: the primary meaning of the former is ‘tense’ and of the latter ‘relaxed’, and when this is realized there is no contradiction between (which I assume is the ‘contradiction’ referred to by the author), since both involve tense notes. But the evidence pitched. The author seems to assume a similarity in character between the melody and rhythm associated with a the melody is tense, then the rhythm is also’). But of what is this true ? Dorian rhythms might be tense, but there is no evidence that the melody was any more than solemn. Nor is it always true of Ionian music, since Ionian melody could be tense but the rhythm relaxed.—J. H. C.]

page 265 note 3 The basis for all discussion is still Abert, H., Die Lehre corn Ethos in der griechischen Musik (1899)Google Scholar, where the evidence is collected. The most recent treatment is Anderson, W. D., Ethos and Education in Greek Music (1966).Google Scholar

page 265 note 4 The only comprehensive collection of the evidence is Amsel, G., De vi atque indole rhythmorum (Breslauer philologische Abhandlungen, Band 1 Heft 3, 1887).Google Scholar

page 265 note 5 Greek Lyric Metre’, J.H.S. xxii (1902), 209–27Google Scholar. His views on this, as on so much else, have been expanded by Thomson, George, Greek Lyric Metre (1929, 1961).Google Scholar

page 266 note 1 Lloyd-Jones, Hugh has plausibly suggested (Estudios sobre la tragedia griega [1966], 18) that there was more than one Pratinas and that the author of our fragment was a lyric poet of the late fifth century.Google Scholar

page 267 note 1 Discussed by A. Erman, The Ancient Egyptians: a sourcebook (Eng. trs. 1966 = The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians2), lxlxi; Peet, T. E., A Comparative Study of the Literatures of Egypt, Palestine and Mesopotamia (1931), 54–5Google Scholar, 63. Examples in Pritchard, J. B. (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts2 (1955), 365–81.Google Scholar

page 267 note 2 That is, lines divided by sense into two parts, and separated by sense from the preceding and following lines. For example: (Ibid. 453–453). Such lines are criticized by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, De Comp. Verb. ch. 26.

page 268 note 1 Carm. Pop. 2 = Page, P.M.G. no. 848 1–1. The first line falls outside the pattern Note the rhyme between the last two phrases.

page 268 note 2 Note the term. Used by Dann (De vulgari eloquentia 2. 10. 4) in the sense o ‘coda’, i.e. cadence, it also meant ‘trailim. movements’ (Mesomedes, Hymn. in Solen 23) and ‘lengthened musical sounds’ (Ptolemy, Harm. 2. 12). In the Swallow Song, quoted above (n. 1), we have ciircuBeirat (line 12), and then some improvised patter equivalent to an epode stuck on to the dance-song.

page 268 note 3 I cannot suppress a suspicion that was about as significant as ‘Whacko!’

page 268 note 4 Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend ii. 623.

page 268 note 5 Marius Victorinus (Grammatici Latini, ed. Keil, vi. p. 44, 28) derives the term ‘iambic‘

page 269 note 1 Definitions of these terms can be found in any handbook on Greek metre, e.g. Raven, D. S., Greek Metre (1962), 18–18Google Scholar,24–24. For a full discussion of the problem of terminology, see Parker, L. P. E., Lustrum xv (1970), 48–48Google Scholar

page 269 note 2 Herzog, G. in Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend ii. 1041.Google Scholar

page 269 note 3 Hephaestion (ed. Consbruch, 1906) is probably the most important metrical theorist. Lists of metrical feet occur in most of the Greek and Roman grammarians in discussions that make no reference to rhythm. For the metrico-rhythmical approach see especially P. Oxy. no. 9 (vol. i. pp. 14–14), republished as no. 2687 (vol. xxxiv. pp. 15–15) with considerable additions which clarify certain points but make others more obscure than ever. Some believe that it is part of a treatise by Aristoxenus.

page 269 note 4 Work on the ‘rhythmical’ structure of Greek lyric poetry at the present time is concentrated on the analysis of patterns of long and short syllables and the occurrence of word-breaks, caesuras, etc. See the writings of Dale, A. M. (e.g. The Lyric Metres of Greek Drama2, 1968)Google Scholar and Paul Maas (Greek Metre, Eng. trs. 1962) and, on a more popular level, D. S. Raven (Greek Metre). An exception to the trend is H. D. F. Kitto, who argues for the doctrine of Aristoxenus and the rhythmici (Rhythm, metre and black magic’, C.R. lvi [1942], 99–99). [The difficulty is that while we know some of the rhythmical ‘rules’, we do not know how extensively they were employed, and modern rhythmical interpretations are often heavily dependent on the bar-structure of western European classical music. Thus Miss Dale, for example, realized that rhythm was more than a cold analysis of longs and shorts, but felt that the lack of evidence did not allow her to construct rhythmical patterns-J. H. C.]Google Scholar

page 270 note 1 Seashore, C. E., The Psychology of Music (1938)Google Scholar, ch. 12. 2 Ibid., 142.

page 271 note 1 See esp. Arist. Met. A 4. 985b16; Harrison, E. in P.C.P.S. 1937,Google Scholar and Jaeger, W., Paideia i2 (1947), 126.Google Scholar It contradicts, however, ancient definitions of rhythm, for example that of Plato, who defines it asFor the older interpretation which was in keeping with the ancient definitions, see Sonnenschein, E. A., What is Rhythm? (1925), 15–15Google Scholar; and for the many meanings of, Wolf, E.; Wiener St. lxviii (1955), 99–99.Google Scholar

page 271 note 2 Because, according to Greek doctrine, the rhythmical movements of the music were paralleled by the movements of the soul (see the fragment of Damon cited above, p. 259 n. 8), and the movements of the soul changed as the character of the music changed.

page 271 note 3 Austin, R. G., Cicero: Pro Caelio 3 (1960), p. 58. For the physical side of oratory see Quintilian 11. 3. 65–65.Google Scholar

page 271 note 4 Else, G. F., Hermes lxxxv (1957), 34–5.Google Scholar

page 272 note 1 Thus spondaic songs accompanied solemn libations and proceleusmatics formed the rhythm of lively pyrrhic dances (Aristides Quintilianus 1. 15, p. 37 Meibom).

page 272 note 2 See, for example, A. M. Dale, op. cit. (above, p. 269 n. 4), 5: ‘There is no vestige of evidence that dynamic stress had any structural significance in Greek verse rhythm before the imperial period’; and again in Lustrum ii (1956), 20: ‘There should be no theory of “ictus” in the sense of purely metrical stresses, since there is no evidence whatever for its existence in Greek.’ The opposite view is taken by Laurand, L., ‘Sur quelques questions fondamentales de la metrique‘, Rev. de Phil. ser. 3, xi (1937), 287–9, who gives as one reason for believing in ‘ictus’ the louder tone which is physiologically inseparable from the thesis of the dance.Google Scholar

page 273 note 1 M. Emmanuel, op. cit. (above, p. 258 n. 2), 255 (clapping, stamping); L. B. Lawler, op. cit. (above, p. 254 n. 4), 54–54 (dirges).

page 273 note 2 For wine-press songs see Callixenus of Rhodes ap. Athen. 5. 199A; cf. Longus 2. 36. The feet of marchers obviously provided a beat to regularize their songs. For the beat ( = ? clapping of hands) accompanying a game-song see Pollux 9. 123.

page 273 note 3 De Subl. 39. 2; cf. Horace, Ars Poet. 202–202: the aulos was useful adspirare et adesse choris.

page 273 note 4 The drum as the invention of Dionysus and Cybele: Eur. Bacch. 59 with Dodds ad loc. In fr. 586 N2 Euripides speaks of

page 274 note 1 For cymbals in the rites of Dionysus se( Aesch. fr. 57 N2 6; in the rites of Cybele Diogenes trag. fr. 1 N2 (= fr. 1 Snell) 4; in the rites of Zagreus, Firmicus Maternus De Err. Prof. Rel. 6. 5 (Liber = Zagreus); it the rites of Demeter Achaea, scholiast to Aristoph. Acharn. 708.

page 274 note 2 For castanets in the worship of Dionystv see Eur. Cycl. 204–204; in the worship o Demeter, Pind. Isthm. 7. 3–3 with the scholiast. Cf. also above, p. 257 n. 1.

page 274 note 3 Ran. 1304–1304. In Euripides' Hypsipyle the heroine accompanied the song to her chilc with (fr. 1. ii. 8–8 Bond).

page 274 note 4 Shields were clashed in the Persian dance (Xen. Anab. 6. 1. 10; cf. the whole passage 6. 1. 5–5); for clashing of quivers, Callim. Hymn. 3. 246–246.

page 274 note 5 The evidence on the is conveniently assembled in Pickard-Cambridge, op. cit. (above, p. 261 n. 1), 262 n. 4. For the aulos-player beating time with his foot in non-dramatic choruses see Lucian, Salt. 10; cf. 63 and 83.

page 274 note 6 Op. cit. (above, p. 261 n. 1), 262.

page 274 note 7 P. Hibeh 13. 27–27 (vol. i. pp. 45–45), discussed by W. D. Anderson, op. cit. (above, P. 265 n. 3), 147–147.