Chapter 1. The Comic Chorus in the Thesmophoriazusae of Aristophanes

[ back ] 1. The best and most thorough interpretations of this song come from Thomsen 1973 and Zimmermann II 1985:191–200. Cf. also Parker 1997:428–437 (mainly on metre with some observations on the text). On the religious background of the Thesmophoriazusae, cf. Habash 1997, who also discusses the choral parts, although in a substantially briefer fashion. On this exclusive choral dance passage, cf. ibid., 33–36. Cf. now Furley/Bremer I 2001:357–360, Furley/Bremer II 2001:350–359, and the new commentaries by Prato, 306–311 and Austin/Olson, 298–308 ad 947–1000.

[ back ] 2.  On this distinction cf. already Zimmermann II 1985:192: “Auffällig ist in den beiden Hymnen-einlagen (947ff. 1136ff.) die schillernde Rolle des Chors als religiöse und politische Gemeinde der Frauen sowie als komischer Chor” [“The shimmering role of the chorus and religious and political community of women as well as comic chorus in the two hymnic interludes (947ff., 1136ff.) is remarkable”]. Following Dover, Sommerstein (Thesmophoriazusae, 218 ad 947–1000) also refers to the ambivalence between function and role: “The chorus speak sometimes in their ‘role’ as women celebrating the Thesmophoria, sometimes in their ‘function’ as a chorus performing in a comedy (for these terms see K. J. Dover, Aristophanes: Frogs [Oxford, 1993], 57–60); the latter comes to the fore especially in 962–965, in 972, and in the choice of Dionysus (patron god of the dramatic festival) as sole addressee of the final section of the hymn.” Cf. also already Horn 1970:117. On the distinction between figure and role on the level of actor, see Flashar 1996:86–87, who sets out the important differences from comedy in terms of the so-called suspension of plot using literary theory that proceeds on the premiss of the closed plot. According to the latter, it is not the “licence of the suspension of plot” in order to draw in the audience that is important, but the open manner of perception in ritual play, which is directed at an identification: “Das Herstellen der Identifikationsebene ist jedenfalls das primäre; am Anfang stand nicht die geschlossene Form des Spiels, das für die Komödie charakteristische Fiktionsbrüche zulässt, sondern die offene, das Publikum einbeziehende Spielebene, wie sie von Anfang an in den präliterarischen Formen der Spott– und Rügelieder, den rituellen Begehungen der Phallophorien usw. vorgegeben waren und dann mit der Kunstform der Komödie die Bürgeridentifikation in der attischen Demokratie des fünften Jahrhunderts ganz zwanglos ermöglichte, um erst allmählich sich zu einer fiktionalen Geschlossenheit zu entwickeln” (ibid., 87) [“The construction of the level of identification is any case the primary; at the beginning lies not the closed form of play that makes for comedy’s characteristic rupturing of plot, but rather a level of play that is open and draws the audience in, as appears to have been the case right from the beginning in the preliterary forms of songs of ridicule and blame and in the ritual occasions of the Phallophoroi etc., and then with the development of the art form of comedy made the citizen identification in the Attic democracy of the fifth century possible, in a completely incidental fashion, only gradually developing into a closed plot”]. For this reason I would like to consider preliterary forms of this kind and ritual phallophoria in connection with comedy in the next chapter (2).

[ back ] 3. Silk 1980:112n43.

[ back ] 4. On the distinction between marked and unmarked utterances, which goes back to Roman Jakobson, see Nagy 1990:5–6, 30–34, and further references in his index.

[ back ] 5. Zimmermann II 1985:191 divides prayers and hymns into two groups: they are either “part of the plot construction, thus plot-conveying” (handlungstragend), or “they interrupt the development of the plot, but are nevertheless—in contrast to the odes of the parabasis and many comic songs—integrated into the dramatic action.” He places our song in the second category. The ambivalent formulation already shows how vague this criterion is. Against such a distinction I would argue that any comic song that forms a part of the performance in any fashion is integrated into the action, even songs in a parabasis or certain satirical songs, but that on the other hand no choral song is completely absorbed in the plot. Zimmermann contradicts himself when he classifies parabasis odes purely as digressions, but then immediately thereafter describes songs (Thesmophoriazusae 947ff., 1136ff.), to which he rightly ascribes a certain connection to the plot, as delayed parabasis odes (192). Difficulties are removed if one considers, in contrast to earlier scholarship, the parabasis not as a singular interruption of the action on stage, but the parabatic as an overwhelmingly ritual principle of Old Comedy. On the thesis of the delayed odes that are missing in the parabasis see Wilamowitz II 1893:349, Gelzer 1970:1473, Sifakis 1971:52, Thomsen 1973:42–45, and Parker 1997:397. Prato, 307 argues against this connection to a parabasis and sees the song simply as a tribute to the changed taste of the public, which now privileges dance and music over word and demands entertainment.

[ back ] 6. Sommerstein Thesmophriazusae, 218 connects lines 962–965, 972, and 985–1000 (Dionysus hymn) with the function of the comic chorus; Zimmermann II 1985:192 by contrast connects lines 962–964 with the role of festive community (Festgemeinde) (also 947–952, 974, 983–984), while viewing lines 972–973 and 975 in terms of function. Two different interpreters then assign the same lines (962–964) first to the former, then to the latter category. For a list of Greek dance vocabulary see Naerebout 1997:275–289. The concepts adduced there all fall under the category of emphatic self-reference. One can therefore clearly see how closely the song is associated with the chorus’ own performance.

[ back ] 7. See Lohr 1986:77–78 on this.

[ back ] 8. See Davidson 1986 (mainly on the tragic chorus); also Wiles 1997:63–86.

[ back ] 9. I have here largely followed Thomsen’s classification (1973:27–29). Because of the two anapaestic tetrameters (947–948) lines 947–952 are mostly interpreted as a prokêrygma delivered by the chorus leader (whether viewed as male or female) (Fritzsche, Enger, and Muff 1872:164, Arnoldt 1873:160–161, Mazon 1904:134, Horn 1970:116, Zimmermann II 1985:192, and Parker 1997:428; Westphal 1869:53 treats them as a melodramatic speech). The lines could also have been sung by the chorus as a whole. The chorus leader is sometimes also assigned the melic lines 953–958 and the trochaic parts of lines 959–968 (Westphal 1869:53, 61), which is by no means convincing. Arnoldt 1873:161 distributes them as follows: chorus leader: 947–952, 953–958, 966–968, 985–989; semi-chorus a: 959–961, 969–976, 990–994; semi-chorus b: 962–965, 977–984, 995–1000. Mazon 1904:135 also splits the chorus into semi-choruses with the hymns to the gods (969–976 and 977–984); the semi-choruses would then have been united in the hymn to Dionysus (985–1000). But a complete chorus is usually assumed (Muff 1872:18, among others, argues for this because of the invocation of gods in common). The search for possible dance figures in this part remains rather speculative. Relying on a questionable term for a special dance called the διπλῆ (cf. 982) Lawler 1945:63–66 suggests in lines 981–984 a temporary division of the round dance into rows of semi-choruses facing each other, but overlooks the fact that Enger, 126 already associated line 982 with the diplê dance (something already in fact considered by Biset, 820 ad loc. and Küster, Notae ad Thesmophoriazusae, 223 ad 991). Thomsen 1973:31–34 and Zimmermann II 1985:195 argue against Lawler’s interpretation; Coulon on the other hand accepts Enger’s suggestion; cf. also my opinions on line 982, below, n90. Further discussion on divisions in earlier scholarship in Fritzsche, 383–386. Since Wilamowitz 1921:476, lines 987–1000, in which he saw a “dithyrambic invocation of Dionysus,” have generally been separated as an astrophic entity; cf. criticism in Thomsen 1973:34–35. Parker 1997:428 returns to Enger’s division in the programmatic passages (proodos [953–958] and mesodoi [966–968, 985–989]) and the strophic pairs (959–962 = 963–965, 969–976 = 977–984, and 990–994 = 995–1000). For metrical analysis see Zimmermann II 1985:191–200, Parker 1997:428–437, and my brief description below (pp. 257–259), based on Zimmermann.

[ back ] 10. Cf. the reference in Muff 1872:164 (on the strophe Thesmophoriazusae 985ff.).

[ back ] 11. Muff 1872:24 (in connection with choral art as a reference to the participation of the whole chorus). The underlined portions given in my text of the song make it clear that the performative utterances about the chorus’ own dancing appear here in considerably high numbers.

[ back ] 12. Cf. Zimmermann II 1985:191 and the remark of Burkert (1985:242): “When Aristophanes presents the comedy The Women at the Festival of the Thesmophoria, he is unable to give many particulars about the festival.”

[ back ] 13. Cf. especially Thesmophriazusae 328–329 and 372–382, especially 376–377. Two ἄρχουσαι head the women’s organizations; cf. Isaeus 8.19 and IG II/III2 1184.

[ back ] 14. Plutarch Demosthenes 30.5.

[ back ] 15. Diodorus Siculus. 5.4.7.

[ back ] 16. Cf. Blech 1982:208 and below, n110.

[ back ] 17. Schol. Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 681, p. 37, 5–6 De Marco.

[ back ] 18. Cf. παύσων in its meaning as the future participle active of παύω, “one about to end something.” Borgeaud 1988:182 points to an ancient and now outdated etymology of the god Pan, who is invoked later on (Thesmophoriazusae 978). There have been attempts to support the functional relationship between the Arcadian god Paon and the Vedic god Pushan, who in both cultures assume the role of nourisher in the polytheistic system, by means of a shared development of their names. W. Schulze suggested that Paon is derived from the root *Παύσων, with Pauson being retained in Illyrian and Messapian as a personal name. Cf. also Borgeaud 1988:181–182 and 186 (appendix) and 262nn42–48. In a play on words, Pauson the Athenian, according to this theory, is thus conflated with Pan, who really does join in the celebrations. In Arcadian myth it is Pan who helps deliver Demeter from fasting and anger, so that he is the one “who will end” the critical situation. The joke would then consist in the fact that the starving pauper is being compared to the nourishing god, the provider of meat. On the role of Pan in this song, see below, pp. 111–117.

[ back ] 19. On the dialectic relationship of fast and carnival, cf. Ginsburg 1989 (who sees fasting as an“alter ego” or “Zwillingsritual des Karnevals, sein bevorzugter dialogischer Widerpart” [“the twin ritual of carnival, its preferred dialogic counterpart”] ibid., 26–27). The Thesmophoria as festival of inversion represents the ritual model of the comic plot, which is in turn embedded in the Dionysiac, inverted world of comedy. As a relational difference from the carnivalistic norm, fasting is also part of the complex construction of the festival, which cloaks itself with the plot of an Old Comedy in its succession of need and utopian, excessive abundance. On the Thesmophoria as a carnivalistic festival of license in the Bakhtinian sense, cf. Rösler 1986:36. The Kronia, Skira, Anthesteria, Lenaia, Dionysia, and Haloa are included in the same interpretative framework; cf. also Halliwell 1991a:294 and Möllendorff 1995:74n1 and 249n77. The privation of the fast is paradoxically juxtaposed with the sensual opulence of the Dionysiac dance. In this comedy, the comic excess of food is celebrated only at the end of the play, in a festival rooted in the here and now, with the renewal of fertility and plenty also representing the aim of the ritual complex in the plot and being celebrated on the third day of the Thesmophoria with a great feast of meat-eating.

[ back ] 20. On dance and play as expressions in terms of body language of the carnivalesque, both in the Dionysiac festival at which the play is performed and in the plot-internal Thesmophoria, see Ivanov 1974:341 and 365n97; on “crossdressing,” 338.

[ back ] 21. Prayers involving a series of divinities are found in many songs in the Thesmophoriazusae: in the Agathon hymn (101–129) Apollo, Artemis, Leto, and once more Apollo are invoked, and in the parodos (312–330) Zeus, Apollo, Athena, Artemis, Poseidon, the Nereids, and the Nymphs are called upon. In the choral dance song just discussed (947–1000), the ensemble of choral members addresses the Olympian gods (960), in particular Apollo, Artemis, Hera, Hermes, Pan, the Nymphs (969–984), and finally Dionysus (985–1000), and in the following hymn (1136–1159), Athena and lastly Demeter and Persephone.

[ back ] 22. On the feeling of the unity of all social connections, which Victor Turner terms communitas, see Turner 1974:274 (definition) and passim (especially 302, index with numerous citations) and Turner/Turner 1982:205–206.

[ back ] 23. The combination of ἄγε δή (or νυν) with subsequent hortative (cf. Aeschylus Eumenides 307) is a common introduction to a prokêrygma. Here the command to dance, customary in cult, is imitated; cf. Kaimio 1970:126 and Zimmermann II 1985:192–193. On παίζειν as a term for dance, cf. Aristophanes Birds 660, Lysistrata 1313, Thesmophoriazusae 983, 1227–1228, Frogs 318–320, 333, 388, 392, 407b, 415, 452; συμπαίζειν: Peace 816–817, Birds 1098, Thesmophoriazusae 975; cf. also the early inscription on the wine-cup (Athens, National Museum 192) of the Dipylon Master, IG I2 919 = CEG 432 (pp. 239–240 Hansen) . . . ἀταλώτατα παίζει; cf. Lonsdale 1993:33–43, Henrichs 1996:35–38 (on the oinokhoê, ibid., 32–34), and above, Introduction, n180.

[ back ] 24. On the concept of νόμος (and derivatives) cf. Thesmophoriazusae 348, 361, 675, 685, 947, 983. The marked appearance of the word “women” supports the chorus’ role in the plot and serves as a key concept for the problematics of the comedy; cf. Thesmophoriazusae 371, 684, 947, 964, 983. The female role identity is also emphasized by feminine forms: πᾶσα, 955b, 961; μέλπουσα, 970; γυναῖκά μ’ οὖσαν, 964.

[ back ] 25. This is characteristic of Far Eastern types of play; cf. Pronko 1982. In principle it holds for all ritual choruses; see Schechner 1977:120–127, Schechner 1985:4–10, and Lohr 1986:77–78 (on folk theater). According to the theory of theater anthropology, the performer and dancer does not merge into his role completely, but rather into his nonverbal energy and his presence as a whole; he functions on the basis of a stylized, and marked, technique, distinct from the everyday world; instead of using a fictional psychological identity, the performer describes himself through a fictional body. Cf. Barba/Savarese 1991, passim, especially 8–22.

[ back ] 26. This is how it is expressed at the very beginning of the following song (1136–1137), the delayed antode of the parabasis: Παλλάδα τὴν φιλόχορον ἐμοὶ | δεῦρο καλεῖν νόμος εἰς χορόν.

[ back ] 27. On νόμος see below, nn. 240, 274, 278.

[ back ] 28. Cf. Zeitlin 1981, especially 169–181 and 196–197.

[ back ] 29. Zimmermann II 1985:193n16 also refers to this issue. Cf. Aristophanes Lysistrata 302–303, 320–321, Thesmophoriazusae 663–667, Assemblywomen 293–295, 478–483; see also Wilamowitz 1921:475n2 and Parker 1997:429 with reference to Enger. Kaimio 1970:127 succinctly analyzes the ritual situation of this performative dance songs: “These imperatives accompanying the dance are not so subtly incorporated into the dramatic situation as the ritual imperatives occurring in tragedy, which are used by the chorus as an outburst of violent emotions, called forth by the events of the drama. The dance-imperatives in comedy are naturally sung by the chorus in a cheerful mood, but they are not used as a reaction to the events of the drama and embedded into an emotional or reflective context. They occur in songs where the dance is really represented as a ritual, into which the chorus are at present involved.”

[ back ] 30. “We”: ἡμεῖς, 947, ἡμετέραισι, 980a; “I”: μ’, 964, ἐγώ, 988b. Norden sees this phenomenon as an indication of the traditional seried (gereihter) prayer style, when the chorus talks of itself in the singular and the plural, and the second and first person are collapsed. Cf. Norden 1939:197 and Kaimio 1970:127–128, who cites as examples for self-commands to dance in the second-person singular Lysistrata 1279–1280, Thesmophoriazusae 953–956, 961, 969, 981, 985–986 (in song Thesmophoriazusae 947ff.), and Frogs 340, 372, 378 (in the parodos). It is therefore incorrect to take singular forms as indications of a single speaker (chorus leader); Kaimio 1970:128: “There is not the slightest reason to think of delivery by single speakers or groups on the strength of the imperatives.” The singular imperatives should in no way be understood here as commands from the koryphaios to an individualized addressee or from each individual singer to himself, but as a general address that is directed at all members of the collective involved with same choral dance; ibid., 128–129: “The second person singular is predominantly used, meaning in an undetermined way anybody who is engaged in the same dance.” On indifference to the use of person, see also Muff 1872:29–32 (“Person und Numerus”); he describes how many commentators depend on a rather narrow understanding of person and number to determine whether it is the chorus leader or the chorus as a whole that is acting. He correctly says (ibid., 29): “Allein diese Voraussetzung ist irrig” [“It is incorrect to rely on this supposition alone”]. There is an extremely useful list in Norden 1939:193–199 (“Die Selbstanrede”) and Kaimio 1970:121–137 of parallel passages which prove that the chorus can address itself in singular or plural as it sees fit: on the address in the second-person singular see inter alia Aeschylus Persians 571–575; Sophocles Women of Trachis 821, OC 118–122 (cf. especially 121–122 προσδέρκου, λεῦσσέ νιν, | προσπεύθου πανταχῇ); and Aristophanes Lysistrata 302–303, 320–321, Birds 1720, Thesmophoriazusae 663–667, Assemblywomen 293–295, 478–483, 486–487, 496–502; on commands in the second-person plural, see inter alia Sophocles Women of Trachis 210–213, OT 1524; Euripides Suppliants 73–77, Bacchae 83; and Aristophanes Lysistrata 1292, Birds 1721. Kaimio 1970:129 refers to the combination with πᾶς (cf. KG II.1, 85 and Schwyzer II, 245), which implies an unspecified number of individual performers. Cf. in song πᾶσα, Thesmophoriazusae 955b, 961.

[ back ] 31. Cf. Zimmermann II 1985:193n14: κοῦφον . . . πόδα, 659 ≈ κοῦφα ποσίν, 954 (cf. also Pindar Olympian Odes 14.16–17, κῶμον . . . κοῦφα βιβῶντα; Aristophanes Lysistrata 1303–1304, κοῦφα πᾶλον and Lysistrata 1309, 1316–1317; cf. Euripides Electra 860–861, ὡς νεβρὸς οὐράνιον | πήδημα κουφίζουσα σὺν ἀγλαΐᾳ and Euripides Trojan Women 325, πάλλε πόδ’ αἰθέριον; cf. also Autocrates fragments 1.1–6 K.-A.: οἷα παίζουσιν φίλαι | παρθένοι Λυδῶν κόραι, | κοῦφα πηδῶσαι ‹ποδοῖν | κἀνασείουσαι› κόμαν | κἀνακρούουσαι χεροῖν | Ἐφεσίαν παρ’ Ἄρτεμιν); διασκοπεῖν . . . πανταχῇ, 660 ≈ ἐπισκοπεῖν δὲ πανταχῇ . . . ὄμμα, 957–958 (cf. Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 122); τρέχειν . . . κύκλῳ, 662 ≈ ἄγ’ εἰς κύκλον, 954.

[ back ] 32. The connection between Aeschylus Eumenides 307ff. and Thesmophoriazusae 954ff. was already noted by Sommerstein 1989:136 ad Aeschylus Eumenides 307 and Henrichs 1994/95:95n38. Petersmann 1991:80, following Frisk II, 1112–1113, ventures an etymological connection between χορός and χόρτος, Latin hortus, in the sense of “enclosure,” so that chorus, following Frisk II, 1113, may be explained as “a row of dancers holding each other by the hand.”

[ back ] 33. On departure from the stage cf. for example the stage directions in Sommerstein’s translation of Thesmophoriazusae 109 and Henderson 1996:129. The only indication of this is the command δῆσον αὐτὸν εἰσάγων (930). On this point cf. Sommerstein’s fine commentary, Thesmophoriazusae 216 ad loc. “Leading/bringing inside” in most cases certainly involves the stage building. But it is perhaps conceivable that the Scythian, by way of exception, actually leads his prisoner around the circle formed by the chorus, who then encircle him. Of course in this case the barbarian henchman would then have to have carried his plank, hammer, and nails with him. The relative reminds one of the magic voodoo-dolls that the ancients would “bind down” (καταδεῖν) in order to hand them over to the underworld powers and daimones, in particular the goddesses associated with the Thesmophoria, Demeter and Kore, but also Plouton and the Nymphs. As part of the procedure they would also be pierced with nails; on defixiones see Graf 1996:108–157, especially 114–115, 122–124, 191. Bonanno 1990:257 interprets the scene as I do: “Rimasto invece sulla scena, legato alla σανίς in tunica color zafferano, assiste all’agile ‘ballo tondo’ nonché al ‘paso doble’ del Coro (vv. 936 [sic!]–1000)” [“Instead, remaining on stage and tied to the σανίς in a saffron tunic, he helps the nimble ‘round dance’ as well as the paso doble of the chorus”].

[ back ] 34. On the altar in the theater see Poe 1989. On the altar of Agyieus in the Thesmophoriazusae as a comic means of breaking the illusion ibid., 131, on the thymelê ibid., 138–139. See also Wiles 1997:63–86. On goat sacrifice on the thymelê and on bull sacrifice by the circular dithyrambic chorus, see also Burkert 1966a:101–102 with n32 (on the thymelê). On the performance of a κύκλιος χορός during animal sacrifice, see Furley 1993:36.

[ back ] 35. The chorus members are simultaneously male in their function in the here and now as dancers in a chorus at a festival for Dionysus and female in their dramatic role as female dancers in a chorus at a festival for Demeter and Kore.

[ back ] 36. On μέλπω/μολπή as the sign of choral performance see Cingano 1993:349–353; consider the strong concentration of instances μέλπω in this hymn: Thesmophoriazusae 961, 970, 974, 989. On μολπή cf. Frogs 370, 384, and 1527.

[ back ] 37. For χορομανεῖ τρόπῳ (961) cf. θυρσομανεῖ νεβρίδων μέτα δίνᾳ (coni. Hermann), Euripides Phoenician Women 791 (also with Dionysiac connotation), and Heracles Furens 878–879. Cf. Bierl 1991:145, 154–158 (on both Euripidean passages). In comedy, joyful dance, particularly in a religious context, is often treated as harmless and beneficial mania: Aristophanes Frogs 316–459, especially 332–333, 356–357; cf. also Wasps 1474–1537, especially 1486, 1496, and Peace 320–336.

[ back ] 38. ἀλλὰ χρῆν | ὥσπερ ἔργον αὖ τι καινὸν | πρῶτον εὐκύκλου χορείας εὐφυᾶ στῆσαι βάσιν (text after Thomsen 1973:27–28). Contra Coulon’s text ὥσπερ ἔργον, αὐτίκα (Dindorf) cf. Thomsen 1973:30. Blaydes I, 235 ad 967 translates ὥσπερ ἔργον as “ut opus est, ut res fert.” Zimmermann II 1985:194n22 interprets the passage correctly: “στῆσαι βάσιν χορείας ist eine poetische Periphrase für das gewöhnliche χορὸν στῆσαι ‘einen Tanz beginnen’ ” [“στῆσαι βάσιν χορείας is a poetic periphrasis for the usual χορὸν στῆσαι ‘to begin a dance’ ”]. The ingressive aspect of the aorist refers to the beginning of the performance of the round dance. Cf. the explanation of Blaydes I, 235 ad 968 (first found in Küster, Notae ad Thesmophoriazusae, 223 ad 977), which does not go into the question of aspect: Id est rhythmice et in numerum terram pedibus pulsare, quod οἱ χορεύοντες facere solent. On χορὸν ἱστάναι (‘to form, set up the chorus,’ ‘perform choral dance’) cf. Aeschylus fragments 204b.7 = 16 Radt; Sophocles Electra 280; Euripides Alcestis 1155, Electra 178, IA 676; Aristophanes Birds 219, Clouds 271; cf. further the derivatives χοροστάτις (Alcman fragment 1.84 Davies; χορῶν κατάστασιν, Aeschylus Agamemnon 23) and στάσις (Aristophanes Frogs 1281 [cf. Cingano 1986], Wealth 954). Cf. the name Stesikhorus and στησίχορος, fragment adesp. 938c PMG. Cf. also Calame I 1977:88n91, 94–96 (English translation Calame 1997:41n91, 45–46), Nagy 1990:361–369, and Henrichs 1994/95:95n36. The performative terminology of the speech act is of course particularly emphasized by the circumlocution. The substantive βάσιν is taken up in the immediately following command πρόβαινε ποσί (Thesmophoriazusae 969). In dance, step and foot position are naturally of importance. On βάσις cf. Euripides Bacchae 647 (βάσιν coni. Blomfield: πόδα LP; cf. Seaford 1996:203 ad loc.), where there may be an allusion to the language of dance.

[ back ] 39. See Thomsen 1973:30–34.

[ back ] 40. Cf. among others van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 123 ad 966–968, Rogers Thesmophoriazusae, 102 ad 967 (sistere gradum), and now Furley/Bremer I 2001:357 with Furley/Bremer II 2001, 354–355 ad 968 and Austin/Olson, 301–302 ad 966–968. Fritzsche, 390 interprets the passage as follows: “sed cito te oportet—primum saltationis in orbem concinnum constituere gressum, id est, sed cito te oportet primum in orbem saltare itaque novam praeparare choream.” The meaning of στῆσαι (constituere) is thus made to hover between the correct interpretation “to begin the dance” (saltare) and the incorrect interpretation “bring to a halt” (or “end” [finire]), since he proceeds on the basis of a new step in line 969. Dover Clouds, 136 ad 271, on the other hand, correctly translates ἱστάναι with the object χορός as “bring into being.” Thomsen 1973:31 and Prato, 104, 310 interpret στῆσαι βάσιν (968) in this sense.

[ back ] 41. Fritzsche, 390, van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 123 ad 966–968, Rogers Thesmophoriazusae, 102 ad 969, and Mazon 1904:135n1, who, like Fritzsche, postulates a march because of πρόβαινε. Cf. also Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 111 (stage direction): “With a change of formation and rhythm” and Parker 1997:429. Blaydes I, 235 ad 969 thinks that it is only here that the dance begins. Fritzsche, 390 and Rogers Thesmophoriazusae, 102 ad 969 assume a diplê dance between 969 and 984.

[ back ] 42. Coulon and Lawler 1945:59–66. The diplê interpretation (cf. already Küster, Notae ad Thesmophoriazusae, 223 ad 991 and Enger, 162 ad 982 [and see now also Prato, 310 ad 982]) is rejected by Thomsen 1973:31–34, using persuasive arguments; Zimmermann II 1985:195 follows him; διπλῆν (982) should be understood as a predicative adjective with proleptic meaning that belongs to χάριν χορείας and expresses “das reziproke Verhältnis zwischen menschlichem Tun und göttlicher Gnade und die gegenseitige Freude an diesem Tun” [“the reciprocal relationship between human action and divine favor and the mutual pleasure of this activity”]. Similarly now see Furley/Bremer II 2001:356–357 ad 982–983 and Austin/Olson, 304 ad 981–984.

[ back ] 43. Lawler 1945:66 assumes an open circle in which the dancers do not hold each other’s hands, but move freely as a kômos.

[ back ] 44. Austin 1987:84 ad 967 conjectures ὡς πρὸς (accepted by Sommerstein); manuscript R has ὥσπερ.

[ back ] 45. Thus the two most recent English translations of the passage. Cf. Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 111: “rather what we should now be doing, to proceed to another new task, is first of all to halt the graceful step of our circular dance” and Henderson 1996:130: “But now we should rather halt the graceful steps of our circle-dance and go on to our next number!” Cf. now also Furley/Bremer I 2001:357 with Furley/Bremer II 2001:354 ad 967. Thomsen 1973:30 (following Pickard-Cambridge 1968:239) sees it quite differently. He thinks that the chain is broken after lines 959ff. and that the chorus is now calling on itself to assume its previous arrangement. He also rejects ἐπ’ or πρός, because no new dance is begun (Thomsen 1973:31n3). Johansen 1975:87 understands ἔργον αὖ τι καινόν as reference to the reintroduction of civilization, the dissolution and refoundation of which was reenacted in the festival of Demeter; see below, pp. 150–151. The dance would then correspond to an act of civilization. Ludwig Koehnen has correctly pointed out to me that in line 967 there is an uncertainty regarding responsion, since this line has one syllable more than the corresponding lines 960 and 964 (cf. Parker 1997:430–433). In his opinion it is striking that Aristophanes could easily have written αὖ νέον at the end, but that the poet clearly did not want this. Perhaps he intended to express something by his choice of the word καινόν.

[ back ] 46. Aristophanes Frogs 440–442, 446–447. Beside the Erinyes in Aeschylus Eumenides (especially 307ff.) there are other female choruses that form a round dance: Aeschylus fragments 379 Radt (prayer); Euripides Iphigenia in Aulis 1036ff., especially 1054–1057, 1480–1481, cf. 1467–1472 (dance), Heracles Furens 673ff., especially 687–690 (cultic: Delian maidens), Helen 1301ff., especially 1312–1314 (Demeter and Kore!). On circular dances in tragedy see Davidson 1986. Round dances were connected with sacrificial ritual and were performed around the thymelê in the orchestra; see Rehm 1988:264–274 on the altar in the orchestra and Poe 1989. The altar as prop in the Thesmophoria festival becomes the tomb of Proteus in the immediately preceding parody of the Helen (Thesmophoriazusae 885–888; cf. Rehm 1988:304–305 and Sier 1992:7n13); in the choral song (947ff.) the chorus dances around the altar, so that the dramatic action on the level of the actors and the ritual performance both in the women’s festival and in the here and now become fused with one another on the level of the chorus.

[ back ] 47. On hymnic performances by a chorus that groups itself about a sacrificial altar, see Bremer 1981:197–199; on the connection with animal sacrifice, see Furley 1993:36. For the connection between paean and sacrifice see Käppel 1992:44–47, 49–51, 55–56 (and test. 95), 58–63, 81, 285.

[ back ] 48. Cf. Searle 1970, especially 33–42. Searle does not follow Austin’s distinction between locutionary and illocutionary acts and prefers to subsume propositional characteristics under the illocutionary. On the other hand, he takes over Austin’s idea of the perlocutionary effect as a separate category to be distinguished from the conventional effects of the purely illocutionary or performative act; see on this my Introduction, above, n98. On self-referential connections to the round dance see Thesmophoriazusae 953–958, 966–968, and 985–986.

[ back ] 49. On the poet cf.: Aristophanes Clouds 547, καινὰς ἰδέας and 561, εὑρήμασιν (with Hubbard 1991:103–105), Wasps 1044, καινοτάτας . . . διανοίας, 1053, καινόν τι λέγειν κἀξευρίσκειν, Pherekrates fragment 84 K.-A., ἄνδρες, προσέχετε τὸν νοῦν | ἐξευρήματι καινῷ, | συμπτύκτοις ἀναπαίστοις and Metagenes fragment 15 K.-A., κατ’ ἐπεισόδιον μεταβάλλω τὸν λόγον, ὡς ἂν | καιναῖσι παροψίσι καὶ πολλαῖς εὐωχήσω τὸ θέατρον. Cf. Xenarchus fragment 7, 1–2 K.-A., οὐδὲ ἓν | καινὸν γὰρ εὑρίσκουσιν, Antiphanes fragment 189, 17–18 K.-A., ἀλλὰ πάντα δεῖ | εὑρεῖν, ὀνόματα καινά; cf. Henrichs 1993a:175 (with parallel adduced from Pindar Nemean Odes 8.20–21). Cf. also Sifakis 1971:39 (C1: the content of parabasis and pnigos “explains the virtues and stresses the originality of his [i.e. the poet’s] art as compared with the art of other poets or with the quality of comedy before him”). Outside the parabasis in the prologue: Aristophanes Peace 54–55, ὁ δεσπότης μου μαίνεται καινὸν τρόπον, | οὐχ ὅνπερ ὑμεῖς, ἀλλ’ ἕτερον καινὸν πάνυ and other passages not related to καινός in Sifakis 1971:39. On the conventional idea of originality and innovation in hymns see Burkert 1985:103. Lohr 1986:175 emphasizes the element of the impromptu and novel for the provocation of laughter, a constituitive element of comedy: “Zur Aufführungssituation der theatralischen Form ‘Komödie’ gehört immer ein Moment unvorhergesehener Neuheit, mit dem sich die Schauspieler—für den Zuschauer meist nicht bemerkbar—den Raum der komischen Comunitas (sic!) schaffen; gerade auch in einem durchinszenierten Stück des modernen Repertoire-Theaters” [“Attached to the performance situation of the theatrical form ‘comedy’ there is always a moment of unforeseen novelty with which the actors—something that the spectator generally does not notice—create space for the comic comunitas (sic!); even in a scripted and staged piece of modern repertory theater”]. On the motif of novelty in the ritual song fragment 851b PMG, see below, chapter 2 nn90 and 93.

[ back ] 50. On the identification of the poet with the choral leader (for example in Clouds 518–562, Peace 734–764) see Körte 1921:1244, Pickard-Cambridge 1962:198–199, Kranz 1933:26–27, Herter 1947:38, Dover 1972:50–53, and Sifakis 1971:52; on the identification of the poet with the voice of the actor cf. Acharnians 496ff.; cf. Möllendorff 1995:222–266 (“Protagonist und Polyphonie”), specifically on the Acharnians, ibid., 222–235. Contrary to Lefkowitz 1991:24 and the communis opinio I do not believe that this form of the parabasis is older. Aristophanes fragments 30 K.-A., οἶδα μὲν ἀρχαῖόν τι δρῶν, . . . can hardly be taken in this sense. The fact that later parabaseis tend to remain in the dramatic role of the chorus could be an accident of transmission (cf. especially Birds 685–722, Lysistrata 614–705, Thesmophoriazusae 785–813). Even there one should rather speak of a state of fluctuation between different levels of utterance. Anapaests may be equally often used for the self-presentation of the chorus as for that of the poet; cf. Hubbard 1991:20: Cratinus fragment 105 K.-A. (the chorus of the Malthakoi speaks in its dramatic role about its garland); Eupolis fragment 13 K.-A. (the chorus of the Goats speaks in its dramatic role about its food); Aristophanes fragments 427–431 K.-A. (the chorus of ships in the Holkades takes an inventory of its cargo). Just as in Pindar’s Epinicians the choral “I” may take on an autobiographical, epinician, social, and performative aspect, so the comic chorus unites various voices in itself; precisely in the parabasis the choral “I”/“we” may present itself to the audience as historical-autobiographical (as poet), generally political (as chorus in its real-world function), performative (as chorus in its role or function), and dramatic (as chorus in its role within the plot). The comic chorus can speak in several of these voices at once and can fluctuate freely between these manners of speaking. On different voices in Pindar see Segal 1995:180–181; in the tragic chorus ibid. and Calame 1999:149–153.

[ back ] 51. In Aristophanic comedies the chorus seeks to make its identity clear right at its first appearance by speaking self-referentially: cf. Frogs 209–214 (croaking of frogs), Birds 260–262 (twittering of birds), Clouds 275–290 and 298ff., and Eupolis Goats fragment 13 K.-A.; on other animal choruses see Sifakis 1971:76; self-description of human choruses is found in Acharnians 209–222; Lysistrata 254–265, 319–335; Thesmophoriazusae 328–330; Assemblywomen 285–288; and Wealth 257–258. The wasps describe their stings only at a later stage, for dramatic reasons (Wasps 403–407: up until this point the members of the chorus present themselves as old warriors at Marathon, 230ff.).

[ back ] 52. The words of the song: σοί, Βάκχε, τάνδε μοῦσαν ἀγλαΐζομεν, | ἁπλοῦν ῥυθμὸν χέοντες αἰόλῳ μέλει, | καινὰν ἀπαρθένευτον, οὔ τι ταῖς πάρος | κεχρημέναν ᾠδαῖσιν, ἀλλ’ ἀκήρατον | κατάρχομεν τὸν ὕμνον (fragment 851b PMG [= carmina popularia 5b], carmina popularia 8 B., 48 D.). The claim to originality is practically hammered into the audience by means of an asyndetic and metaphorical series of attributes. This song is of particular importance since it has often been adduced as the possible ritual source of the parabasis, to which the song from the Thesmophoria (947–1000) also belongs. For interpretation see below, chapter 2.

[ back ] 53. Hubbard 1991:195n109 thinks the songs would have been out of place in the context of the women’s self-justification in the parabasis of this play. Mazon 1904:134 and Gelzer 1970:1470 call Thesmophoriazusae 947–1000 a “second parabasis,” or “Nebenparabase.” Cf. Wilamowitz II 1893:349, Gelzer 1970:1473, Sifakis 1971:52, Dover 1972:171n11, Thomsen 1973:42–45, Hansen 1976:184, Zimmermann II 1985:192, and Sier 1992:65n6. Schmid 1946:314n4 and Prato, 306–307, on the other hand, are sceptical.

[ back ] 54. Cf. the prosodion in Aristophanes Birds 851–858 (cf. προσόδια, 853). Cf. e.g. the parodos hymns in Sophocles Oedipus the King 151–215 and Antigone 100–154, which culminate, as does this song, in an invocation of Dionysus (Oedipus the King 209–215; Antigone 147–154).

[ back ] 55. Proclus Chrestomathia ap. Photius Bibliotheca 320a12–17 (Severyns 39) and Didymus ap. Orion, s.v. ὕμνος (pp. 155–156 Sturz). See the discussion in Furley 1995:31–32, which I follow here to a large extent. Furley thinks that the distinction between actual hymn and other genres of choral lyric has been wrongly introduced into studies of the history of literature, since the Alexandrians ultimately simply lumped everything that they could not unequivocally ascribe to a particular god and genre into the category of hymns. Against this view, Harvey 1955, for example, is of the opinion that the hymn represents a unique and separate genre from paean, dithyramb, and other hymnic forms. Käppel 1992, especially 64 also believes that the paean was distinct from the hymn in terms of style and intention. On the differentiation of the target-group into gods and humans cf. Proclus Chrestomathia ap. Photius Bibliotheca 319b33–320a6.

[ back ] 56. Proclus Chrestomathia ap. Photius Bibliotheca 320a19–20. This sentence has invariably been cited as a definition of the proper hymn (cf. Harvey 1955:166 and Bremer 1981:197). For a precise explanation see Furley 1993:23n7 and Furley 1995:31–32. Immediately preceding this Proclus contrasts it with the prosodion, which was sung to the accompaniment of the aulos and during the procession to the altar or temple: ἐλέγετο δὲ τὸ προσόδιον ἐπειδὰν προσίωσι τοῖς βωμοῖς ἢ ναοῖς, καὶ ἐν τῷ προσιέναι ᾔδετο πρὸς αὐλόν (Photius Bibliotheca 320a18–19 [Severyns 40 with comm., pp. 117–125]).

[ back ] 57. Cited following West 1965:149 (= Powell 1925:160). In the case of this song too (Thesmophoriazusae 947ff.) we may thus also speak of a παραβώμιον (cf. Bremer 1981:197), particularly since the altar used in the Thesmophoria, or the thymelê in the orchestra, has already been introduced into the play in the preceding parody of the Helen (885–888). Cf. above, nn34 and 46.

[ back ] 58. Thus Harvey 1955:166 and Bremer 1981:197. See now also Furley/Bremer I 2001:10, who speaks of a “stationary chorus.” On the performative mode of the chorus in the Palaikastro hymn (στάντες ἀείδομεν, 9) cf. West 1965:157: “Our hymn, sung by a choir standing round an altar (verse 9), may have been preceded or accompanied by a dance executed by others.” Ibid., n35 he also suggests the possibility that the chorus could later itself have begun to dance (referring to Jeanmaire 1939:432–433); see now Furley/Bremer II 2001:11 ad 6. On the dance of these chorus members in the sense of a “weaving process” (see now Furley/Bremer II 2001:11 ad 7) that symbolically introduces them as ephebes going through an initiation rite into the “web” of society, see Ceccarelli 1998:111–112.

[ back ] 59. On the Proclus passage see Furley’s sound remark (1993:23n7): “Emphasis should not be placed on ἑστώτων as indicating that there was no dancing at or round the altar during hymn-singing (thus Harvey); it is simply Proclus’ antithesis to ἐν τῷ προσιέναι, ‘during the procession.’ ”

[ back ] 60. Cf. on χορὸν ἱστάναι above, nn38 and 40. Cf. however Austin 1987:84 ad 968, who, like van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 123 ad 966–968 and Rogers Thesmophoriazusae, 102 ad 967, argues that στῆσαι βάσιν here means to stop. Cf. now also Furley/Bremer I 2001:357 with Furley/Bremer II 2001:354–355 ad 968 and Austin/Olson, 301–302 ad 966–968. More recently Habash 1997:34 similarly interprets χοροῦ κατάστασιν (958) as the “standstill” of the chorus members.

[ back ] 61. On the ancient and modern misperception that the stasimon was a stationary song, see Henrichs 1994/95:93n21. On the correction that the stasimon included motion and dance throughout, cf. ibid., 95n37 (with references). Cf. Nietzsche 1878/79:378: “Die στάσιμα drücken dem Namen nach nicht das Stehen aus; der Name heißt ‘Standlieder,’ nicht Stillstandlieder, weil der Chor seinen Standort erreicht hat, auf dem er wohl tanzen kann. Viele στάσιμα wurden getanzt” [“Despite their name στάσιμα do not refer to standing; they are called ‘standing songs’ because the chorus has reached the position in which it can now dance. Many στάσιμα were danced”]. In addition to the references cited in Henrichs see also Gentili 1984/85:31–32, Cingano 1986:141–142, and Grandolini 1995:249–250.

[ back ] 62. It is not necessary because of the command πρόβαινε ποσί (969) to assume a march in 969–982 (saltationem prorsus ruentium, quam vernacule dicimus “Marsch,” Fritzsche, 390). The members of the chorus could also while in a circle set one foot in front of the other emphatically at the moment they order themselves to perform a hymn. The imperative represents rather a further self-referential confirmation of the performance that regulates the round dance.

[ back ] 63. Cf. above, nn9 and 43. Cf. for example Zimmermann II 1985:196 and Sommerstein’s (Thesmophoriazusae, 113) somewhat unclear stage direction: “As the rhythm and style of the dance change again.”

[ back ] 64. Cf. Zimmermann 1992:25–26, Ceccarelli 1995:292–293, especially n17, and Ceccarelli 1998:123–124, especially 124n10. On presentations of hymns around the altar see Bremer 1981:197–199. On the practice of circular dance in dithyramb, paean, and hyporcheme during sacrificial rites see also Furley 1993:35–36, and on the round dance in tragedy and comedy Henrichs 1994/95:95–96n38. See also above, n46.

[ back ] 65. Cf. Thomsen 1973:42–43. Fraenkel 1962:213 unfortunately did not include the song in his treatment of the parabasis odes (ibid., 191–215); however, in his article (Fraenkel 1931:5) following Wilamowitz II 1893:349, he did briefly include it in the context of the parabasis. Imitation of folk models can be detected, according to Fraenkel, in the musical and metrical composition, in structure, and in diction. On the rhythmic antecedent of the simple glyconics with which Aristophanes imitates the “religious poetry of the old days” (especially Knights 551ff. and Clouds 563ff., but also Thesmophoriazusae 1136ff.), see also Wilamowitz 1921:242–243 (with reference to Philodamus’ paean), Fraenkel 1931:3–5, Fraenkel 1962:191–194, and already Crusius 1894:21. Kleinknecht 1937:116 and Horn 1970:115 also take the hymn as nonparodic. On individual gods in the hymnic portion (969ff.) see also Habash 1997:34–36.

[ back ] 66. The sources are collected in Calame I 1977 (English translation Calame 1997): on Artemis, 174–190 (English translation 91–101), 252–304 (English translation 142–174); on Apollo, 190–209 (English translation 101–113), 305–323 (English translation 174–185); on Hera 209–224 (English translation 113–123).

[ back ] 67. Requests for victory in the dramatic agôn are found in Acharnians 1224, Knights 586–590, Clouds 1115–1130, Birds 445–447, 1102–1117, Lysistrata 1293, Frogs 390–393, Assemblywomen 1154–1162, 1182. Cf. on this Totaro 1999:168–170. Ἑκάεργε is a typical epithet of Apollo and Artemis; Horn 1970:117n223 sees it as referring to Apollo standing at a distance, since Artemis supposedly “mit musischem Geschehen wenig zu tun hat” [“has little to do with musical activity”]. Cf. however Calame I 1977:174–190 (English translation Calame 1997:91–101), 252–304 (English translation Calame 1997:142–174).

[ back ] 68. On Meineke’s conjecture συμπαίζει (975) cf. Sophocles Oedipus the King 1109. Manuscript R transmits the reading χοροῖσιν ἐμπαίζει.

[ back ] 69. On the connection of Pan, the Nymphs, Hermes, and Dionysus cf. Sophocles Oedipus the King 1098–1109 (in general the latter choral song, also characterized as a hyporcheme, is quite close to this hymn; see Bierl 1991:133–134). Pan is often the attendant of Dionysus or Hermes. As son of the pastoral god Hermes, Pan is often described as the friend of Dionysus; Borgeaud 1988:174–175. Pans, Nymphs, silenoi, and satyrs are combined in Bacchic dance (Plato Laws 815c). On the connection of Pan and the Nymphs see Borgeaud 1988:107–108, 140, 155, 173, and 227n102; on Hermes and the Nymphs see ibid., 159 and 206n17. On Pan and Hermes cf. Borgeaud 1988:54, 66, 77 and 261n17 and on Pan’s connection to Dionysus cf. ibid., 54, 100, and 178 (with all references). On nymphs as female followers of Dionysus see Hedreen 1994:50–54, who argues for a distinction between nymphs and maenads. Dance also plays a role in the god’s cult; in general, clapping (κρότος), laughter (γέλως), and cheerfulness (εὐφροσύνη) are essential parts of his ritual; Borgeaud 1988:150. On the origin of dance and its connection to mania and panic see the excellent observations of Borgeaud 1988:251n118. Pan is particularly connected with choral dance: in drama he is called in Aeschylus Persians 448 the god “who delights in choruses” (φιλόχορος). In the strophe of the hyporcheme in Sophocles Ajax 693–705 he is summoned, as in the parabasis odes, to participate as “chorus master” (χοροποί’ ἄναξ, Ajax 698) together with Apollo in the choral dancing now taking place (the song exhibits many Dionysiac associations and performative self-references; cf. Bierl 1986:53–54, Henrichs 1994/95:73–75, and Henrichs 1996:44–45). Cf. Pindar fragment 99 S.-M., Πᾶνα χορευτὰν τελεώτατον. Cf. the hymn to Pan fragment 936 PMG, where Pan’s music and dance are praised. On Pan in drama cf. also Euripides Ion 492ff. and Aristophanes Birds 745–746 (the chorus of the Birds performs “holy tunes” for Pan and “festive choral dances” for the Great Mother), Frogs 230–231 (with Apollo); cf. Lonsdale 1993:261–275 (on Pan as χορηγός) and Henrichs 1994/95:101n79.

[ back ] 70. In Aristides Orations 53.4 Hermes is directly named as their choral leader (χορηγός).

[ back ] 71. Apollo: Apollonius of Rhodes 4.1218, Theocritus Idylls 25.21; Pan: Homeric Hymns 19.5.

[ back ] 72. IG IV2.1, 130, 15–16 (1–2) (= fragments 936, 1–3 PMG) (Pan), IG XII.8, 358a (Apollo). Dionysus is also presented as a god involved in dance and play with the Nymphs (Sophocles Oedipus the King 1108–1109).

[ back ] 73. Cf. also Larson 1997. A cult of Pan, the Nymphs, and Apollo Nomios is attested (IG I3 974–981) in the cave of Vari on Hymettos (cf. Aelianus Various History 10.21). An inscription addresses Apollo Hersos (IG I3 981). On the initiatory threshold position of νύμφαι between παρθένοι and γυναῖκες cf. Calame 1992:110–112 and also Calame 1999a:125–129 and 163. He refers in particular to the fact that νύμφη is also the term for the newly married young wife who has not yet had a child (127 with n. 34). The ambivalent status does not then abruptly cease with the rite of passage of marriage, but continues until motherhood, which counts as the actual boundary of womanhood. Cf. also Dillon 1999 (on sacrificial requirements on Kos for νύμφαι after marriage [Segre 1993: ED 178]).

[ back ] 74. Cf. Calame I 1977:209–210 (English translation Calame 1997:113), who emphasizes that the cult of Hera Parthenos, the virgin, was never separated from that of Hera Teleia, the adult woman.

[ back ] 75. On the myth of the “bees” and King Melisseus cf. Apollodorus of Athens, FGrHist 244 F 89 and Callimachus Hymns 2.110–111. On the women at the Thesmophoria as bees see Versnel 1993:251–254 (with ample sources and secondary literature); on the ideological implications and the explanation of the Thesmophoria as a festival of inversion see the excellent account in Versnel 1993:228–288, with whose conclusions I am in substantial agreement. Through the suspension of reproduction the wildness of female sexuality is tamed by marriage. It is generally assumed that virgins were excluded from the Thesmophoria. Callimachus fragments 63.9–12 Pfeiffer is an important text here. Cf. among others Deubner 1932:53 and Versnel 1993:246 and 253. Still, the last word on the problem has not yet been said. Gerhard Baudy has kindly drawn my attention (per litt.) to this fact once more. The testimonium in Lucian Dialogues of the Courtesans 2.1 speaks explicitly in favor of participation by unwed girls. Yet given the comic context of this cynic of the imperial period, the seriousness of the statement may be placed in doubt. Baudy 1992:24n132 nevertheless maintains that the Callimachus testimony speaks only seemingly in favor of the exclusion of virgins, because in the same third book of the Aitia, from which the fragment comes, Callimachus tells the story of Akontios and Kydippe, which forms the aition of a prenuptial wedding ritual (of a κοῦρος and a παρθένος, fragment 75 Pfeiffer). Baudy (per litt.) adds that it is important to examine the context of fragment 63 more precisely, to determine whether it is spoken in the poet’s voice or in a figurative way and how the banishment is grounded. Clearly the girls have “betrayed” Kore and broken a taboo. Narrated as the aition of the Thesmophoria, the exclusion would create expectations of its “repetition” in the structure of the festival. Baudy concludes on the basis of the two Callimachean fragments that there was also a symbolic pre-consummation of the marriage whereby the girls are switched into the category of married women (he also includes in this context the aition of the Thesmophoria on Paros, according to which Demeter brought the daughters of King Melisseus a weaving stool [see below, n350] and the mysteries, so that the women celebrating the festival are also called Melissai [Apollodorus, FGrHist 244 F 89]). This is the equivalent, then, according to Baudy, of a female rite of initiation (see now Kledt 2004:115–120); even though this view would support the interpretation that follows even further, I am careful to distance myself from it, because there is unfortunately no unambiguous evidence in support of it. Yet clear typological analogies to initiatory processes do seem to be there (see below, n398). For this reason talk of “mysteries” and initiatory rites (τελεταί) is not without grounds; cf. Burkert 1985:242 with nn9–10. There is in fact one indication that the sequence of kathodos to anodos and the myth of Demeter and Kore that frames the ritual structure was at times mimetically performed. This kind of performance would thus be reflected in Aristophanes’ play. Cf. also Lada-Richards 1999:85; Kledt 2004 (a dissertation directed by Baudy in Konstanz) attempts to reconstruct the performance of the abduction of Kore using among other things the Thesmophoria (especially 114–147). Of course this can only lead one to the well-known conclusion that the relative reenacts Kore’s descent into Hades as a definite mythical pattern. Euripides accordingly corresponds to Demeter on her search for her daughter. Cf. among others Bowie 1993:214–216, Lada-Richards 1999:163, and below, nn120 and 404–407. Yet the indications in the play in relation to the plot are relatively few; rather, the play is loosely organized about the initiation, which the women at the festival and the men in the theater ritually reexperience.

[ back ] 76. Here one sees the typical Aristophanic complex of the inverted becoming the normal. It is ultimately a reflection of the ritual inversion of order protected by the state.

[ back ] 77. Shear 1973; cf. Shear 1973a:168–170. On other evidence for the connection of Pan and Demeter see Borgeaud 1988:140–147.

[ back ] 78. On nympholepsy cf. νυμφόληπτος (IG I3 980), Borgeaud 1988:104–107, and Connor 1988.

[ back ] 79. Cf. Borgeaud 1988:66 on the connection of Hermes as well: “In many respects, Pan is Hermes, only more so, and more exactly so.”

[ back ] 80. See Borgeaud 1988:84.

[ back ] 81. Aristotle Poetics 1449a9–13. On this see below, chapter 2, passim, especially nn7–9.

[ back ] 82. See Burkert 1966a, on τραγῳδοί, especially 92n11.

[ back ] 83. See the inscription from a cave in Pharsalia (4th c. BCE): Πὰν δὲ γέλωτα καὶ εὐφροσύνην ὕβριν τε δικαίαν (SEG 1, 1923, 248, line 17, pp. 60–61).

[ back ] 84. In an Athenian version that goes back to Philokhoros (FGrHist 328 F 103) and according to which Pan and Echo are Iambe’s parents, Iambe combines indecent speech and self-gesture in comic play (παίζουσα) in front of Demeter. Παίζειν relates to the speech act and to the movement, which in a sense amounts to a dance. Cf. Olender 1990:89 and Borgeaud 1988:147. On the connection of the Iambe episode (Homeric Hymns 2.192–205) with the pannykhis in Eleusis, where of course there was also dancing, see Borgeaud 1988:170.

[ back ] 85. See the no-longer extant kalyx-krater Dresden 350 (ARV 1056, 95) (Persephone was securely identified by an inscription); on a skyphos from Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 01.8032 (ARV 888, 155), two Pan figures jump and dance about a goddess emerging from the earth; see in general on anodoi Bérard 1974; there is a good collection and interpretation of the most important anodoi vases in the context of Pan in Borgeaud 1988:145–146, 247nn75–82.

[ back ] 86. On Pan, see similarly Borgeaud 1988:151.

[ back ] 87. On the laughter of the members of the chorus in their role as women at the Thesmophoria see Winkler 1990b:188–209, who views the laughter at men in the context of aiskhrologia as the “laughter of the oppressed.” In the sense of a social safety valve the festival of Demeter is suited to blowing off steam in order to then better resume social relations. Zeitlin 1982 also sees the Thesmophoria as a temporary relief for women from the frustrations of everyday life.

[ back ] 88. In Sophocles Ajax 698 Pan is in fact invoked as χοροποί’ ἄναξ.

[ back ] 89. The participle χαρέντα refers possibly to Pan and not to Hermes, as has traditionally been assumed, or to both gods, since they are taken as a fixed unit of father and son. Cf. also carm. conviv. fragment 887.3–4 PMG (to the dancer Pan): γελάσειας ὦ Πὰν ἐπ’ ἐμαῖς | †εὐφροσύναις ταῖσδ’ ἀοιδαῖς αοιδε? κεχαρημένος. On γελάσαι cf. also Euripides Bacchae 380 (Dionysus).

[ back ] 90. Line 981, ἔξαιρε R: ἔξαρχε Meineke. Meineke’s suggestion is a reflex of ἡγοῦ (987), where Dionysus is asked to become exarkhos of the dithyramb and thus the divine khorêgos of the chorus in the orchestra; ἔξαρχε is then a direct command to Pan to assume control of the chorus. Meineke was probably unaware of the dance imperative in the singular as an address by the chorus to itself. Still less should the addressee be thought of as one person; cf. Kaimio 1970:128 and Thomsen 1973:34n9. According to Lawler’s view (Lawler 1945:63–66) ἔξαιρε represents a self-command to dance the diplê. One could of course assume a corruption of line 982: grammarians would mark a passage with the marginal notation διπλῆ in order to characterize the rejected verse as a suspected doublet. Perhaps they did so in this instance because they did not understand the reciprocal relation of lines 980b and 982 (for this see now Furley/Bremer II 2001:356–357 ad 982–983 and Austin/Olson, 304 ad 981–984 and above, n42); in this way the indication could eventually have been incorporated into the text in expanded form. One possible version: ἔξαιρε δὴ προθύμως | πόδας, χάριν (χάριν Ellebodius, Biset: χαίρειν R) χορείας. Cf. the choral dance diction in Sophocles Antigone 224, κοῦφον ἐξάρας πόδα. Cf. also the full presentation in Bierl 1999.

[ back ] 91. See above, Introduction n179. One could therefore consider χαράν instead of χάριν in line 982. On the interchange of the two words cf. also Sophocles Women of Trachis 179. On the gods’ enjoyment of the choral dance of men (or frogs!) see also Frogs 229–232.

[ back ] 92. On the effect of exchange see Thomsen 1973:33. On the concept of reciprocity in ritual Seaford 1994, passim. On kharis in the relationship of gods to mortals in Aristophanes Bowie 1993:273–278. Consider Race 1982, especially 8–10, who summarizes his findings on the reciprocal nature of kharis as follows (ibid., 8): “No other word epitomizes so well the relationship which the hymnist tries to establish with the god—one of reciprocal pleasure and goodwill.” Cf. also Meier 1985 (who shows among other things that Athena’s political function of reconciliation in Aeschylus’ Oresteia coincides with her gracefulness). The Kharites as personification of kharis embody the grace of the reconciliation of unequal individuals competing with one another. On song as kharis in the interplay of god and mortal in Pindar see among others Most 1985, especially 60–95. Cf. also Χάρις in Pindar Olympian Odes 1.30 and the definition in Nagy 1990:65n72: “ ‘beautiful and pleasurable compensation, through song or poetry, for a deed deserving of glory.’ This word conveys both the beauty (‘grace’) and the pleasure (‘gratification’) of reciprocity.” Cf. also MacLachlan 1993, especially 3–12, index s.v. “reciprocity,” and Burkert 1996:129–155, who considers the facts of the matter more from the perspective of gift exchange.

[ back ] 93. Otto 19706:103.

[ back ] 94. See Taaffe 1993:99: “It would be most appropriate to invoke Dionysus here: Dionysus presides over the festival that the women, as comic figures, have been created for, and so he makes possible their appearance and their speech in the first place. He is also the god of transformation and sexual ambiguity, an appropriately metatheatrical god.” Cf. also Bierl 1991:172–176.

[ back ] 95. Cf. other series in dramatic hymns in which Dionysus also receives the important final position. Cf. Sophocles Oedipus the King 151ff. (Apollo, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Dionysus [209–215]), Women of Trachis 205ff. (Apollo, Artemis, Nymphs, Dionysus? [216–220]); Aristophanes Clouds 595ff. (Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus [603–606]), Lysistrata 1279ff. (Dionysus is named in the center, 1282–1284, and Aphrodite at the end). The following invocations or mentions of the god do not represent independent hymns and are better integrated into the course of the plot: Sophocles Antigone 150–154 (Dionysus at conclusion to parodos), Oedipus the King 1105–1109 (Dionysus at the end of song of joy); Euripides Ion 216–219 (Dionysus at end of strophe of parodos). Cf. also Habash 1997:36 in connection with Aristophanes Thesmophoriazusae 969–1000: “This hymn demonstrates a movement from Demetrian to pan-Olympian, and finally to specifically Dionysiac elements. The Chorus begins its song as celebrants of Demeter, but ends it as Bacchants celebrating Dionysus. This final shift leaves the Chorus and audience in a Dionysiac mood that befits a Dionysiac, not Demetrian, festival.”

[ back ] 96. Cf. Wilamowitz 1921:475–476n2. On πάλλ’ see Aristophanes Lysistrata 1303–1304 and 1309.

[ back ] 97. On πᾶσαν cf. Thomsen 1973:37, on the whole discussion on τόρευε cf. Thomsen 1973:35–37. Cf. also schol. Thesmophoriazusae 986.

[ back ] 98. Τορεύειν = “drill”; τορνεύειν = “turn on a lathe.”

[ back ] 99. On the dithyramb as circular chorus par excellence see also Aristophanes Clouds 333, Frogs 366, μέλη . . . κύκλια, Birds 917–918; on the dithyramb and κυκλιοδιδάσκαλος cf. Birds 1403 and Birds 1379 (comic treatment of the dithyrambic poet Kinesias, Birds 1372–1409; cf. also Aristophanes fragment 156 K.-A.). Cf. Ceccarelli 1995:292–293 and Ceccarelli 1998:42–44, 123–124.

[ back ] 100. Cf. also Euripides Cyclops 661 and Heracles Furens 978, where the conjecture τόρ‹ν›ευμα . . . ποδός has turned out to be the transmitted reading. Wilamowitz 1921:476n2, using the same reasoning, is also in favor of this: “τορεύειν kann drehen wohl kaum werden” [“τορεύειν can hardly become turning”] (Thomsen [1973:35] does not understand Wilamowitz here [“his point escapes me”]). Bentley’s conjecture τόρνευε was considered by Brunck (Notae in Thesmophoriazusae, 136) and adopted by Coulon in his text; in any case, the decision does not have to depend on the verb τορνεύει (Thesmophoriazusae 54) in the play, where it is reported that Agathon is “turning” a new tragedy (cf. Fritzsche, 397–398 ad 986). Because of the difficulties Blaydes (I, 96 ad 986) conjectured χόρευε, adopted by van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae in his text.

[ back ] 101. On Dionysus as choral leader cf. Aristophanes Frogs 351–352, 396ff.; Sophocles Antigone 1147; Euripides Bacchae 115, 135ff., especially 141. Lines 985–1000 have been briefly analyzed by me (Bierl 1991:174–175) from the point of view of metatheatricality. But the principally ritual element of these performative utterances had not yet been recognized at that stage, cf. especially ibid., 174n188. On the khorêgos, which the imperative ἡγοῦ plays upon, cf. Calame I 1977:92–143 (English translation Calame 1997:43–73) and Nagy 1990:345ff., 375–381.

[ back ] 102. Cf. Bierl 1991:99n179.

[ back ] 103. Gardner (1983) thinks that the performative approach in the study of ritual has been too strictly confined to the illocutionary act and that it ignores the causal effect in the mind of the believer. Still, the boundaries do not have to be drawn so strictly. The request for perlocutionary consequences also of course implies that those praying already imagine this in terms of the religious inner perspective as having been realized. The command “Dionysus, lead the chorus!” can also be interpreted as a speech act: in its speech the chorus acts in such a way that in the imagination of the speakers Dionysus really does accompany them as choral leader. Furley 1995 refers to aspects of self-presentation and reciprocal communication by means of kharis, which are characteristic of every hymn (especially 36 and 45).

[ back ] 104. In defense of the transmitted χοροῖς τερπόμενος (992a) against Wilamowitz’s conjecture χωρεῖς, which Coulon accepts, see Thomsen 1973:39–40; Thomsen (1973:40) correctly remarks that the relationship of ἡγοῦ in connection with χοροῖς τερπόμενος forms an analogy to κώμοις φιλοχόροισι σὲ μέλψω (sic!) in the reciprocal relationship that exists between lines 979–981 and 982; cf. also the names of the muses Terpsichore (Hesiod Theogeny 78 and Corinna fragment 655–fragment 1.1 PMG) and Euterpe, or the name Terpandros; χαίρειν and τέρπειν “said of the gods” belong to ritual style; cf. Kleinknecht 1937:156 and Thomsen 1973:40 with n19; see also Norden 1939:195: “Denn bezeichnenderweise hat sie [i.e. Old Comedy] Reste alter Technik auch auf diesem Gebiet treuer bewahrt als die in gemessenerem Stilgewande schreitende Schwester” [“For it [Old Comedy] has significantly preserved the remains of old technique more faithfully in this area too than its sister with its more measured style”]. On χαίρειν/χάρις cf. in this song (Thesmophoriazusae 947–1000) Thesmophoriazusae 972a, 980b, 982, and Euripides Bacchae 417–418, ὁ δαίμων ὁ Διὸς παῖς | χαίρει μὲν θαλίαισιν; Sophocles Antigone 147–148, Νίκα | τᾷ πολυαρμάτῳ ἀντιχαρεῖσα Θήβᾳ. Cf. also Aristophanes Clouds 274, τοῖς ἱεροῖσι χαρεῖσαι; Clouds 311, Βρομία χάρις; Birds 1743, ἐχάρην ὕμνοις, ἐχάρην ᾠδαῖς (where Peisetairos is pretending to be a god); Alcman fragment 27 Davies, Μῶσ’ ἄγε Καλλιόπα θύγατερ Διὸς | ἄρχ’ ἐρατῶν ϝεπέων, ἐπὶ δ’ ἵμερον | ὕμνῳ καὶ χαρίεντα τίθη χορόν; Aristonous, Paean in Apollinem (Powell 1925:162–164, 164 = Käppel 1992:384–386, 386–Pai. 42), line 45, χαρεὶς ὕμνοις ἡμετέροις, carm. conviv. fragment 887.4 PMG, ?εὐφροσύναις ταῖσδ’ ἀοιδαῖς αοιδε? [ἀοιδᾷ Page] κεχαρημένος; Aristophanes Frogs 231–232, προσεπιτέρπεται δ’ ὁ φορμικτὰς Ἀπόλλων; Frogs 674–675, Μοῦσα, χορῶν ἱερῶν ἐπίβηθι καὶ | ἔλθ’ ἐπὶ τέρψιν ἀοιδᾶς ἐμᾶς. On enjoyment by members of the chorus and mortals cf. Pindar fragments 75.2 S.-M. (the Olympian gods are to react to the χάρις by their arrival), Aristophanes Frogs 244, χαίροντες ᾠδῆς, and Frogs 358. Cf. also τερπόμενος . . . ἐρατοῖσιν ὕμνοις (Thesmophoriazusae 992–993) and Philodamus, Paean in Dionysum (Powell 1925:165–171, 166 = Käppel 1992:375–380, 375–Pai. 39), line 9.

[ back ] 105. Cf. Thomsen 1973:42 with references.

[ back ] 106. Cf. Aristophanes Acharnians 665–666, Knights 559–564, 586–594; Clouds 563–565; Peace 775–781; Thesmophoriazusae 1136–1138, 1148–1159; and Frogs 326–327, 385a–388, 398–403, 674–675.

[ back ] 107. On the reciprocal ambivalence of the word φιλόχορος cf. Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 220 ad 988–989.

[ back ] 108. On the Du-Stil of predication in lines 987ff. see Norden 1913:158, who compares them with the hymn to Dionysus (Sophocles Antigone 1115ff.). Thereupon follows the participial style typical of hymns (Norden 1913:166–168).

[ back ] 109. On the kômos cf. below, chapter 2 nn29–30. The mention of the kômos functions as a performative switch to the performance currently going on in the here and now.

[ back ] 110. Cf. Euripides Cyclops 620, φιλοκισσοφόρον Βρόμιον. On the Dionysiac epithet κισσοχαίτης cf. Cratinus fragment 361 K.-A., Ekphantides fragment 4 K.-A., Pratinas TrGF I 4 F 3, 16. On the ivy wreaths of the performers cf. Philodamus, Paean in Dionysum (Powell 1925:165–171, 167, 169 = Käppel 1992, 375–380, 376, 379–Pai. 39), lines 58–60 (Muses), 146–147 (performers); on the ivy wreaths of the worshipers of Dionysus in their fictional role cf. Euripides Bacchae 106, 323, 342, 1055. Dithyrambic choruses were decorated with the ivy wreath in particular; on the dithyrambic chorus cf. Pickard-Cambridge 1968:75–77 (the part involving Dionysus [985ff.] approaches a dithyramb in tone). On the Pronomos Vase (Naples 3240 [ARV2 1336, 1]) all participants in the satyr chorus wear an ivy wreath, except for two members of the chorus and the aulos player,. It is of course questionable whether the chorus of the Thesmophoriazusae (Thesmophoriazusae 985ff.) or that of the Women of Trachis (Sophocles Women of Trachis 216–220) actually danced wearing garlands of ivy. On the connection of garlands with cheerful music and choral dance cf. also Euripides Alcestis 343–344 and Heracles Furens 677.

[ back ] 111. The communis opinio, which treats the song, in contrast to the comic action, as if it is entirely serious, should therefore be revised. Cf. MacDowell 1995:273: “It does include three hymns to various gods, which may have been impressive musically as well as poetically (312–330, 953–1000, 1136–1159); but the rest of the play is for laughs.”

[ back ] 112. This the transmitted reading for 993b in manuscript R. In my text for reasons of responsion I adopt Hermann’s conjecture ὦ Εὔι’, Εὔι’, εὐοῖ, which Zimmermann II 1985:198–199 and Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 112 also accept. Cf. now also Prato, 311 ad 993b and Austin/Olson 307 ad 994a–b.

[ back ] 113. Cf. Philodamus, Paean in Dionysum (Powell 1925:165–171, 166 = Käppel 1992:375–380, 375–Pai. 39), lines 19–20, πᾶσα δ’ ὑμνοβρυὴς χορεύ— | ε[ν Δελφῶ]ν ἱερὰ μάκαιρα χώρα.

[ back ] 114. Cf. Henrichs 1994/95:73–90, Henrichs 1996a, and already Davidson 1986:39–41. Here, however, we see not so much the usual projection onto other dances, but rather a transference to nature. Henrichs 1996a:61n49 terms both passages just cited (Euripides Bacchae 114 and Philodamus, lines 19–20) “pathetic fallacy.” Cf. also choral projection onto the cosmos (Sophocles Antigone 1146–1154, where Dionysus becomes χοράγ’ ἄστρων); on this cf. Euripides Ion 1078–1080, Electra 467, and Alcman fragments 1.60–63 Davies.

[ back ] 115. On κτυπεῖν see Euripides Bacchae 129 and Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 1500, Aristophanes Assemblywomen 483, ἀλλ’ ὡς μάλιστα τοῖν ποδοῖν ἐπικτυπῶν βάδιζε, Assemblywomen 545, κτυποῦσα τοῖν ποδοῖν, and Wealth 758–759; on βρέμειν see Euripides Bacchae 156, 164. On the loud Dionysiac music during oreibasia, see Euripides Bacchae 126–129, 155–165; cf. Aristophanes Clouds 311–313. His epithet Βρόμιος (Thesmophoriazusae 991) derives from this; see Euripides Bacchae 66, 84, 87, 115, 329, 375, 412, 446, 536, 1031, 1250; see Dodds 19602:74 ad Euripides Bacchae 65–67.

[ back ] 116. Cf. now similarly also Austin/Olson, 307 ad 999–1000. Cf. Euripides Helen 1331; Aristophanes Frogs 1321. On εἱλίσσω as an expression of choral dance, especially in Euripides, see among others Trojan Women 2–3, Electra 180, 437, Iphigenia in Aulis 1055–1057, Heracles Furens 690, Phoenician Women 234–236, 313–316; on this see Bond 1981:245 and Mastronarde 1994:221–222. Cf. Frogs 1314, εἱειειειλίσσετε (imitation of a Euripidean choral ode that Aeschylus performs monodically; note here the stretching out of this favorite verb of Euripides; parody among others of Euripides Electra 436–437; cf. Dover Frogs, 352–353) and Frogs 1349, εἱειειειλίσσουσα. Cf. the idea in Euripides Phoenician Women 649–656 applied in Thesmophoriazusae 999–1000, where the chorus tells of the birth of Dionysus. Ivy surrounds the newborn immediately: Βρόμιον ἔνθα τέκετο μά | τηρ Διὸς γάμοισιν, | κισσὸς ὃν περιστεφὴς | ἕλικος (coni. Hermann; Diggle and Mastronarde adopt the transmitted ἑλικτὸς) εὐθὺς ἔτι βρέφος | χλοηφόροισιν ἔρνεσιν | κατασκίοισιν ὀλβίσας ἐνώτισεν, | Βάκχιον χόρευμα παρθέ | νοισι Θηβαΐαισι | καὶ γυναιξὶν εὐίοις. Not only does Dionysus serve as inspiration for the Bacchic dance of the Theban maidens and rejoicing women—so that the abstract concept stands for the divine dancers themselves (so Mastronarde 1994:339 ad Euripides Phoenician Women 655: “By a variation typical of Euripides, the abstract is used for a person, here the object rather than subject of the verbal action . . . : ‘who is worshipped in dancing,’ ‘inspiration of dancing worship’ ”)—but the scene of the ivy surrounding the baby can also be understood as a projection of choral formation onto Dionysiac nature. Thus Βάκχιον χόρευμα stands in apposition both to κισσός and the baby Dionysus, both described in terms of dance. Cf. especially Sophocles Women of Trachis 219–220, εὐοῖ, ὁ κισσὸς ἄρτι Βακχίαν | ὑποστρέφων ἅμιλλαν. On this point see both the excellent discussion of Henrichs 1994/95:81–84 (who does not, however, investigate the special self-referential function of “ivy” and “turn” in connection with the round dance) and Bierl 1991:135–137.

[ back ] 117. On the iynx cf. Callimachus fragment 685 Pfeiffer (= schol. Theocritus Idylls 2.17) and schol. Pindar Nemean Odes 4.56a; cf. Borgeaud 1988:85 (with useful references). Iynx is also the name of a bird, the so-called wryneck, which can turn its head 180 degrees and emits shrill cries, which the Greeks compared with the pan flute or generally with the aulos; see Richter 1975. Among other reasons, the chorus members were frequently compared and equated to birds for the musical quality of their song (see above, pp. 78–79), especially in the Birds of Aristophanes.

[ back ] 118. The myth of Echo, embedded in the plot of Daphnis and Chloe (Long. 3.23), is of great interest for understanding our song in terms of the relationship of kharis between gods and mortals. Echo is a maiden on the threshold of becoming a woman (παρθενίας εἰς ἄνθος ἀκμάσασα); her primary occupation consists of participating in the choruses of the Nymphs and Muses (ταῖς Νύμφαις συνεχόρευε, ταῖς Μούσαις συνῇδεν). After the virgin’s limbs are gathered together and buried, the earth imitates (μιμεῖται) everything, even Pan as he plays his syrinx. “And he, when he heard the voice, sprang up and pursued it up into the mountains, not to catch it, but to find out who his hidden pupil was.” The failed sexual relationship between man and woman, which also depends on kharis, thus here becomes sublimated to a musical relationship. Echo, now transformed into a natural phenomenon, imitates the musical activities of Pan and reactualizes them qua mimesis, at which the god experiences pleasure and even participates as dancer (ἀναπηδᾷ . . . κατὰ τῶν ὀρῶν) in order to discover the origin of the sound. Cf. Dionysus’ oreibasia with the Nymphs (Thesmophoriazusae 992); on πηδάω as choral term see Lysistrata 1316–1317, Frogs 1211–1213 (from Euripides Hypsipyle [fragment 752 N/Kannicht] on Dionysus as choral dancer): “Διόνυσος, ὃς θύρσοισι καὶ νεβρῶν δοραῖς | . . . | πηδᾷ χορεύων –”; Wasps 1520 (on the dancing sons of Karkinos); Knights 545, 599, 604 (in connection with the horses and riders of the chorus); Autokrates fragments 1.1–6 K.-A., οἷα παίζουσιν φίλαι | παρθένοι Λυδῶν κόραι, | κοῦφα πηδῶσαι ‹ποδοῖν | κἀνασείουσαι› κόμαν | κἀνακρούουσαι χεροῖν | Ἐφεσίαν παρ’ Ἄρτεμιν; and fragment adesp. 936.8 PMG (hymn to Pan), πηδᾷ. On the echo of the dithyrambic chorus, see also Pindar fragment 75.18 S.-M. On the echo as characteristic element of the bird chorus see Aristophanes Birds 215.

[ back ] 119. Echo had a sanctuary on the Sacred Way to Eleusis (IG II/III2 1011.8) and was thus closely connected with the cult of Demeter. Cf. also Philokhoros, FGrHist 328 F 103.

[ back ] 120. Heath 1987:51n106, Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 226–227 ad 1056–97 (with sound arguments) and Gilula 1996 argue for Echo’s appearance as a separate person; see now also Slater 2002:175. Sier 1992:75–76 (with n41) on the other hand gives good reasons for thinking Echo was invisible, was reduced to her voice alone, and yet, as the scholia also maintain (schol. Thesmophoriazusae 1056), was played by Euripides (see now also Prato, 321 ad 1056–64); similarly Bubel 1991:10n10. Van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 133 apparatus ad 1056–1096 and Mureddu 1987:21–22 interpret Echo as an actual person, who remains invisible, however, performs behind the scenes with voice alone, and supposedly mimetically parodies the natural phenomenon thematized in the Andromeda. Klimek-Winter 1993:140–143, with Hansen 1976:182–183, believes Echo was visible to the audience and played by Euripides/Perseus, though she remained invisible for the parties affected, the relative and the Scythian (this seems to be the position of Austin/Olson). The report in the scholia probably means nothing other than that the momentarily released actor, who otherwise played the role of Euripides, here provided the voice of Echo. On the Echo part in general, see Mureddu 1987 for more detail. On the Andromeda parody cf. Rau 1967:65–89. As Iambe’s mother, Echo could have been introduced by Aristophanes almost as a sort of sexually themed comic stand-in for the daughter, in keeping with the Thesmophoria as the context for the plot. Euripides finally transforms himself in the exodos scene into a procuress and resorts to the level of prostitutes, who adopt a vulgar speech similar to that of women during the ritual aiskhrologia of the Thesmophoria (Cleomedes 2.1, p. 166, 7 Ziegler). On prostitutes in the parabasis see below, nn312 and 324. In addition, in the comic Echo scene (1056ff.) one could also perhaps associate the so-called êkheion in Eleusis (τὸ καλούμενον ἠχεῖον, Apollodorus, FGrHist 244 F 110b), the sounding of a gong by which the lost maiden Kore was supposed to be summoned up from the depths. Cf. the explanation of Demeter’s by-name Akhaia in schol. Acharnians 708 and Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. Ἀχαία (180.34–41). Cf. on this Bérard 1974:75–87, especially 83–87.

[ back ] 121. On the text of Thesmophoriazusae 1018–1019: προσᾴδουσ’ ἀυταῖς, Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, προσᾴδουσ’ (Elmsley, Dobree) ἀυτάς (Burges) Mitsdörffer 1954: 69–70, προσᾴδουσα (Elmsley, Dobree) τἄμ’ (Willems) Coulon, προσαυδῶ σε τάν Bothe: προσαιδοῦσσαι τάς R and schol. Thesmophoriazusae 1018. Cf. on this Austin 1990:28, who like Parker 1997:436 and 443 favors Mitsdörffer’s solution; see now also Austin/Olson, 314 ad 1018–1019.

[ back ] 122. Sier 1992:74 speaks of the relative summoning Euripides as Echo in line 1019. Yet how can it be that Euripides, who in line 1011 is still named in the role of Perseus, now has supposedly slipped into the role of Echo without any occasion for doing so or any indication of transformation of identity? At most one may only draw this conclusion retrospectively, from his subsequent appearance (following schol. Thesmophoriazusae 1056); for the audience, such a solution at this point could hardly have been comprehensible and for the actors, impossible to perform.

[ back ] 123. Cf. among others Euripides Electra 178–180 (Elektra), Iphigenia in Tauris 1143–1152 (chorus of Greek maidens serving as temple slaves in the land of the Taurians), and Phoenician Women 1265–1266 (Antigone); on Echo cf. Long. 3.23 and above, n118.

[ back ] 124. Van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 130 ad 1031 conjectures κῶμον ἕστηκ’ ἄγουσ’ and adopts it in his text; cf. Sommerstein Thesmphoriazusae, 225 ad 1031.

[ back ] 125. Cf. Thesmophoriazusae 1034–1036: γαμηλίῳ μὲν οὐ ξὺν | παιῶνι, δεσμίῳ δὲ | γοᾶσθέ μ.’ Here too the relative plays ironically on the situation of the ὕμνος δέσμιος in the previous choral ode (Thesmophoriazusae 947–1000).

[ back ] 126. On the invocation of Athena in Thesmophoriazusae 1136ff. see also Anderson 1995:63–67. On the song cf. also Habash 1997:36–37.

[ back ] 127. Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 231–232 ad 1143–1144.

[ back ] 128. The chorus has already invited Dionysus and his κῶμοι φιλόχοροι in the previous ode to participate in the festive dance song (Thesmophoriazusae 987–989). This epithet is not elsewhere attested in connection with Athena.

[ back ] 129. Cf. however the reference to the Skira Thesmophoriazusae 834 and below, pp. 196–206.

[ back ] 130. On the pannykhis cf. Euripides Children of Heracles 777–783 and IG II/III2 334.30 and 32–33; on the nocturnal performances cf. Euripides Children of Heracles780–783: there are choral performances by ephebes, νέων τ’ ἀοιδαὶ χορῶν τε μολπαί (Children of Heracles 780). The place echoes with their cries (ὀλολύγματα, Children of Heracles 782) and resounds with the stamping of the maidens’ feet in their nocturnal dance, παννυχίοις ὑπὸ παρ | θένων ἰαχεῖ ποδῶν κρότοισιν (Children of Heracles 782–783). See in general Wilkins 1993:151–152, and on the agônes at the Panathenaia see Kotsidu 1991:35–62, especially 59–60. On Athena as goddess worshiped by choruses of unmarried girls see Calame I 1977:232–241 (English translation Calame 1997:128–134). Pallas stands synonymously for παρθένος; see Fauth 1964:681. Furthermore, Athena is the goddess of the Arrhephoroi, who also perform choruses in her honor; cf. Euripides Ion 492ff.

[ back ] 131. On further ritual and choral self-references see Peace 775–781: Μοῦσα, . . . | μετ’ ἐμοῦ | τοῦ φίλου χόρευσον, | κλείουσα θεῶν τε γάμους | ἀνδρῶν τε δαῖτας | καὶ θαλίας μακάρων· | σοὶ γὰρ τάδ’ ἐξ ἀρχῆς μέλει; Clouds 308–313: εὐστέφανοί τε θεῶν θυσίαι θαλίαι τε | παντοδαπαῖσιν ὥραις, | ἦρί τ’ ἐπερχομένῳ Βρομία χάρις | εὐκελάδων τε χορῶν ἐρεθίσματα | καὶ μοῦσα βαρύβρομος αὐλῶν; Birds 731–734: πλουθυγίειαν, βίον, εἰρήνην, | νεότητα, γέλωτα, χορούς, θαλίας, | γάλα τ’ ὀρνίθων; and Euripides Bacchae 417–418: ὁ δαίμων ὁ Διὸς παῖς | χαίρει μὲν θαλίαισιν. On the ἑορτή cf. Frogs 371: καὶ παννυχίδας τὰς ἡμετέρας αἳ τῇδε πρέπουσιν ἑορτῇ, Frogs 391, 398, 443–444, and Peace 816–817: Μοῦσα θεά, μετ’ ἐμοῦ ξύμπαιζε τὴν ἑορτήν. The comparison with Peace 974–977 (prayer to Eirene for propitious reception of sacrifice): ὦ σεμνοτάτη βασίλεια θεά, | πότνι’ Εἰρήνη, | δέσποινα χορῶν δέσποινα γάμων, | δέξαι θυσίαν τὴν ἡμετέραν is also of particular importance for this passage. In the Peace, the divine personification is also mistress of the chorus together with Dionysus as god of performance. Once again there is a typical fluctuation between performance and the fictional function of Eirene as founder of marriage (the wedding simply represents a metonymic extension of the peace accord).

[ back ] 132. This scene makes Athena’s role as protector of the dêmos clear; cf. Ostwald 1986:357–358. The frequent references to tyrants (e.g., Thesmophoriazusae 338–339) in this work are of political importance given the historical situation in 411 BCE; on the other hand, they should not be overly interpreted as completely transparent statements of the politics of the day. Dover 1972:171–172 warns against excessive reliance on contemporary politics and views the references as a conventional means of expressing the dêmos’ habitual fear of oligarchy. On the political background cf. Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 2–4, especially on preparations for an oligarchic coup, cf. Ostwald 1986:337–358; Sommerstein (ibid., 2) thinks the remarks directed against Persians and despots, which he interprets as exclusively political, were only integrated into the completed manuscript at a later stage, immediately before the performance at the Dionysia in 411 BCE; see now also Prato, 329 ad 1143–1144 and Austin/Olson, xliii. See below, n276 on the resulting ritual implications of the relative as intruder being compared to a tyrant. In a different performative perspective see now Slater 2002:150–180.

[ back ] 133. Cf. especially lines 317–319, corresponding to lines 1140–1142, and Anderson 1995:64: “When the women claim the practice of inviting Athena as their own, they are no longer just female celebrants at the festival, but stand-ins for those who would normally call on Athena at an assembly, namely the Athenian ecclesia.” Anderson also does not see the performative dimension and the reference to the pragmatic context.

[ back ] 134. On this basis the chorus’ anti-Persian attitude (337, 365) should also be read not simply as an extra-dramatic, political statement. On the friend-enemy complex that Athena establishes in the Oresteia by means of an association and dissociation of powers (“Assoziation und Dissoziation der Kräfte”), see Meier 1980:207–214, 218–222 (adopting the ideas of Carl Schmitt [30–33]) and Bierl 1996:29, 51–52, 64. Euripides and his agent (relative) as Athenians have the same interests as the chorus.

[ back ] 135. Euripides now humorously calls himself after Artemisia, queen of Halikarnassos in Caria (1200ff.), whose bravery in the naval battle at Salamis (480 BCE) caused Xerxes to exclaim (Herodotus 8.88.3): “My men have become women, my women men!” In the agôn in the parabasis of the Lysistrata, the male semi-chorus accuses the women of behaving like Artemisia (Lysistrata 675), since they endanger the traditional power of men through their behavior. On Caria as a locus of inversion, see Bierl 1994:31.

[ back ] 136. Marcellinus ad Hermogenes, Rhetores Graeci 4.462.2–3 Walz. Cf. the orator Sopater, ibid. 8.67.4 Walz. The release of prisoners was also transferred to the Panathenaia and Dionysia (schol. Demosthenes 22.68 [170b, p. 293 Dilts]); this could also form a basis for the invocation of Athena (Thesmophoriazusae 1136ff.).

[ back ] 137. Agathon’s performance on stage is already described as an introverted solo kômos (see especially Thesmophoriazusae 104). Agathon here resembles the solitary kômastai in vase paintings, who, following the Anacreon-like model of the poet, are shown with the barbitos (cf. Thesmophoriazusae 137). Cf. Snyder 1974 and Frontisi-Ducroux/Lissarrague 1990; Agathon, however, does not have a beard, while the Anacreon figures retain this sign of masculinity. The onomatopoeic βόμβο (1176) is already anticipated by the bômolokhos-like comments of the relative at the entry of Agathon: he interrupts the parousia description of the servant with the insertions βομβάξ (45) and βομβαλοβομβάξ (48). The chorus, whose song (947ff.) becomes in a way a catalyst for the reconciliation in the final scene, has previously evoked the kômos (988b); the relative in his tragic mood parodically alters the term (1031); see above, n124. Here the comastic is now expanded, in contrast to the introductory Agathon scene. Euripides, dressed as a woman with harp (pêktis; on this instrument see West 1997; according to West 1997:50 a harp is meant in line 1217), and having a beard, now clearly resembles the figures on Anacreontic vases; at the same time the flute-player Teredon (‘Woodworm’) and the female dancer complete the musical side. The whole ensemble also resembles comastic vase paintings with an aulos-player (on the aulos as instrument of transgression see Wilson 1999) and a slave-girl as dancer (cf. for example the representation on a kylix from the Bareiss collection, Malibu 86.AE.293; Frontisi-Ducroux/Lissarrague 1990: ill. 7.32). In the comic finale the hetaira as sexual element in the kômos is also present in the person of the dancing-girl, and the phallic in the person of the Scythian. On the common presence of the aulos, which provides musical accompaniment for others, and of the stringed instrument (barbitos), with which the poet accompanies himself, see a fragment from the Agora, Athens, Agora P 7242 (ARV 566.4). The Anacreontic kômos scenes also usually display the type of the poet with parasol, an item of feminine apparel. The tableau in the parabasis (821–829) and the appearance of the relative form a bridge between the comastic scene of Agathon and Euripides. On the connection between weaving (cf. the female confusion in the tableau 821–829) and dance with rhythmic beating on a string instrument, see Ceccarelli 1998:111–112; the πηκτίς, which Euripides carries (πηκτίδας, 1217), can be understood as a string instrument (cf. Anacreon fragments 373 and 386 PMG) as well as a loom. In the Palaikastro hymn (lines 7–8), which is connected, according to Lonsdale 1993:165 and Perlman 1995, with an ephebic oath, flute and pêktis are also combined as accompaniment. The dancing-girl Elaphion receives her name from the Dionysiac fawn, which is often connected with dancing maenads (cf. Euripides Bacchae 866). On the deer (ἔλαφος, νεβρός) as choral metaphor cf. Homeric Hymns 2.174–175, Aristophanes Lysistrata 1318–1319 (ἔλαφος); cf. Sappho fragments 58.16 L.-P., Bacchylides Epinician Odes. 13.86ff., Euripides Electra 860–861: ὡς νεβρὸς οὐράνιον | πήδημα κουφίζουσα, Bacchae 862ff., especially 866 (νεβρός). The dancer jumps as lightly as a deer or flea (1180). The dance terminology, also used in lines 1178–1179 (ὀρχησομένη and ὀρκῆσι καὶ μελετῆσι), strengthens the dancing girl’s activity on stage. The lascivious dance culminates in Elaphion winding herself about her victim with her lovely charms, to which the barbarian comments καλὴ τὸ σκῆμα περὶ τὸ πόστιον (1188). Σχῆμα refers to a dance position (Lawler 1964:25–27, 72, 83, 87, 114, 128, 133) and to the arrangement of her bottom, which is probably exposed. The play-within-play situation is emphasized by the fact that the flute-player is not the same as the aulos-player in the theater, who usually accompanied all musical choral parts and is elsewhere often addressed metatheatrically (Taplin 1993:105–110), but performs next to the latter; cf. Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 233 ad 1160–1175.

[ back ] 138. Cf. Bierl 1991:175–176 and Bowie 1993:219–225.

[ back ] 139. The comic chase-scene possibly alludes to the Chalcidian δίωγμα at the Thesmophoria. Cf. now Prato, xxx and 340 ad 1221. See the emphatic commands of the chorus, δίωκε and διώξεις (Thesmophoriazusae 1223–1224), directed at the Scythian. The Χαλκιδικὸν δίωγμα or ἀποδίωγμα was a custom that is supposed to have consisted of a secret sacrifice. An aition reports that once, during a war, the women prayed for victory and the enemy thereupon fled and was pursued as far as Khalkis; Hesychius and Suda, s.v. and Versnel 1993:239. We are clearly dealing here in fact with a symbolic and mimetic pursuit of men by women, carried out in a kind of dance. In the inverted world the women play with the idea of besieging their male opponent by military methods as well. The idea of a female military dance fits well with the evocation of the pyrrhikhê in the tableau within the parabasis (821–829). The connection with the Thesmophoria is thus no coincidence, as Deubner 1932:60 thinks. Rohde 1870:554n2 (= Kl. Schr. II 1901:362n2) considers connecting the ritual with the dance of the women in Halimous (cf. below, n180). Deubner 1932:60 rejects Rohde’s interpretation of a mimetic dance, although a few lines later he says that it must originally have been a mimetic chase. Mimetic action is achieved of course using expressive body language in dance; on this see in general especially the thesis of Koller 1954. Dahl 1976:99 describes the practice, considerably more accurately, as “a symbolic act, to make sure that no men and nothing harmful was present” (here one may think of the search-song [Thesmophoriazusae 655–688]). After the women have already actively and mimetically pursued their male enemies in the search-song, they entrust in grotesque fashion the task of pursuit to the police henchman at the end of the action, once the inverted world has been overcome. His departure will also have been in the form of dance.

[ back ] 140. On the ambiguity between dramatic role and the function of the chorus in this passage cf. also Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 237 ad 1231: “[I]s this a prayer by women celebrating the Thesmophoria for the goddesses to accept and reward their worship, or is it a prayer by a comic chorus for blessing on, and for the success of, their performance?” See also Flashar 1994:67 and Totaro 1999:169.

[ back ] 141. Cf. Versnel 1993:228–288, especially 245–250 and 274–283.

[ back ] 142. Small changes in lines 102–103, 107, and 122 have been made in comparison with Coulon. Cf. in general the fine exposition in Zimmermann II 1985:22–29. The humor of the song lies according to Zimmermann II 1985:28 in the type of presentation; he terms it a “Pseudo-Amoibaion” (ibid., 24). There is no space here to go into musical parody and the connection with the new Attic dithyramb and new music. See also Zimmermann 1993:45 and Kugelmeier 1996:271–297 (on the Agathon parody), especially 277–280 (on the Agathon hymn). On the whole scene see also Rau 1967:99–114 (who [ibid., 104–108] correctly rejects Kleinknecht’s [1937:101–103, especially 102] interpretation that the hymn is full of “nichtssagenden einzelnen Prädikationen” [“meaningless individual sentences”] and “übertriebenen Pathos” [“overblown pathos”], because the style, according to Rau, though caricaturing, nowhere oversteps the customary limit in hymns of this type), Horn 1970:94–106, Muecke 1982, Stohn 1993, and now Furley/Bremer I 2001:350–354, Furley/Bremer II 2001:341–346, and the new commentaries by Prato, 168–177 and Austin/Olson, 86–97 ad 101–129. Consider also the thesis advanced by Zeitlin (1981:177–178) that Agathon is not suited for the defense of Euripides because he is too well accustomed to the female role. Zeitlin 1981 goes into the problem of mimesis in the Thesmophoriazusae in detail and also addresses the function of Dionysus and Demeter in this comedy (194–200). For a detailed analysis of the play in terms of ritual see now also Tzanetou 2002; for the aspect of performance and body see now Stehle 2002 (both contributions to the special issue of AJP 123.3 edited by Gamel 2002).

[ back ] 143. This inclusion of the frame, the before and after, has been emphasized in more recent approaches in performance studies and theater anthropology. Richard Schechner, applying the theories of Victor Turner, compares the theater together with the preparatory phase before the play with initiation and other such changes in status. The three-stage model of the rite de passage developed in van Gennep 1909 is thus transferred from rites of puberty in tribal societies to the theater: in both cases, actor and spectator undergo a process of transformation by means of theatricality; cf. Schechner 1985:117–150. On the integration of the rehearsal process into a performance cf. Schechner 1977:132–137. These connections will become gradually more meaningful in my analysis, since Aristophanes in the Thesmophoriazusae, as will become clear in the course of this chapter, thematizes the theater’s mode of operation, using initiatory rituals as a basis.

[ back ] 144. On the Agathon hymn (Thesmophoriazusae 101–129), see Rau 1967:104–108, Horn 1970:100–106, Muecke 1982:46–48, Zimmermann II 1985:22–29, Parker 1997:398–405, and now Furley/Bremer I 2001:350–354, Furley/Bremer II 2001:341–346, and the new commentaries by Prato, 168–177 and Austin/Olson, 86–97 ad 101–129. Zimmermann refers to the ritual embedding of the song. In the preparation the slave acts in the role of a hierokêryx who announces the epiphany of a god; on the sacrifice and prayerlike character of the preparatory scene (Thesmophoriazusae 39ff.) cf. Kleinknecht 1937:151n1, Kleinknecht 1937a:300–301, and Zimmermann II 1985:22. The humor of the passage lies, according to Kleinknecht 1937:151n1 and Zimmermann II 1985:22, in the fact that this high-flown introduction does not, as in Birds 1719 and Peace 1318, announce a (supposed) divinity, but only a poet. Yet the ambivalence of the presentation extends at the same time to placing Agathon in the presence of gods. The fashionable poet is on many occasions connected with Dionysus. In terms of his external hermaphroditic appearance Agathon is in fact quite similar to him. He wears, as the in-law does later, a saffron robe (138) and carries a mirror (140) (see on this Seaford 1996:223 ad Euripides Bacchae 918–919). On Dionysus in feminine garb see also Kenner 1970:116–129. Moreover, Agathon is addressed with quotations from the Aeschylean Lykourgia. Line 136 is a direct quotation from the Edoni (Aeschylus fragment 61 Radt), and lines 137–145 could have been adapted directly from the scene of interrogation in which Dionysus is tried by Lycurgus. Cf. Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 167 ad 136; cf. also the reminiscence in Aristophanes Frogs 47. The metrical form with its ionic basis (but cf. the skeptical remarks of Parker 1997:402) makes one think of Dionysiac cultic poetry; cf. the parodos of Euripides Bacchae 64–169, especially 64–104 with the commentary of Dodds 19602:71–72. The ionicus a minore was perceived as lascivious and soft (cf. Aristophanes Assemblywomen 882–883 and Thesmophoriazusae 163). Further, the Phrygian harmony in which the song was probably composed also seems to point to Dionysus, since both harmony and god must have been particularly orgiastic and emotional, and is accordingly attacked by Aristotle (Politics 1342b1ff.); West 1992:181. It also has its place precisely in the New Dithyramb, which also refers to Dionysus. On the New Dithyramb see Zimmermann 1992:117–132, and particularly in connection with the Agathon song (Thesmophoriazusae 101–129) Zimmermann II 1985:28–29, Zimmermann 1988, and Kugelmeier 1996:279–280. On nearness to Apollo cf. below, pp. 146–148 (with nn166–169).

[ back ] 145. Cf. Caskey/Beazley 1954:55–61 and Frontisi-Ducroux/Lissarrague 1990. Cf. also Muecke 1982:50. The audience may also have associated the kômos named in line 104, the imagined chorus, with the kômos of effeminate parasol-dancers. Cf. quite similarly Price 1990:169–170: “The nature of the chorus remains ambiguous, as played by Agathon in his long Ionian chiton. An Athenian audience, however, would have had no difficulty recognizing his ‘chorus of maidens’ as effeminate males costumed like Agathon, for the scenes on vases indicate that Anacreontic performances lasted at least until the mid-fifth century.”

[ back ] 146. Snyder 1974. The scattered anacreontics (lines 104, 124 and variation in lines 117, 118 and 123; cf. Parker 1997:402), which represent the anaclastic form of the ionic dimeter, but which originally form a catalectic iambic dimeter (cf. Gentili 1952:21, 132, Gentili/Lomiento 2003:176, and Parker 1997:61–64), could also refer to the closeness to Anacreon. On the connection with Bakkhos cf. Frontisi-Ducroux/Lissarrague 1990:228–232, especially the illustration 7.38 of Dionysus playing the barbitos (Paris, Cabinet des Médailles 576, ARV 371, 14), who in terms of type resembles the representation of the poet completely. Anacreon says of a bearded man clad in Ionian and eastern fashion, κωμάζει δ’ ὡς Διόνυσος, fragment 123 Gentili (442 PMG). In fragment 82 Gentili (388 PMG) he makes fun in the symposium of just such an effeminate comast named Artemon, who carries a little parasol (σκιαδίσκην, line 11) with him; Price 1990:170–171. On the parasol in the tableau of the pnigos (Thesmophoriazusae 821–829) see below, pp. 198–206. A speech-bubble–like inscription on a kylix in Erlangen (Erlangen 454, ARV 339, 49) confirms the theory of the comastic barbitos-player: ΕΙΜΙ ΚΟ[ΜΑ]ΖΟΝ ΗΥΠΑΥ[ΛΟΥ].

[ back ] 147. Cf. Carpenter 1993. He interprets two exceptions, which already show in 470 BCE a beardless Dionysus (1993:186–187, ills. 7 and 8 [Private collection (ARV 605, 65bis), and Thessalonike, Archaeological Museum 8.54 (ARV 591, 28)]), as a reflex of stage practice; in his opinion, the vase paintings reflect the situation of the Aeschylean Lykourgia, in particular the Edoni, where Dionysus, as later in the Bacchae, appears as a masked man.

[ back ] 148. Schol. Thesmophoriazusae 101; van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 21 ad 101–129, Rogers Thesmophoriazusae, 14 ad 101–129, Coulon, Cantarella IV, 421, Rau 1967:106n19, Horn 1970:100–101, Muecke 1982:47, Zimmermann II 1985:22, Gannon Thesmophoriazusae, 8 ad 101–129 (he thinks Agathon sings as Dionysus and the chorus of the Muses), and Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 164 ad 101–129 all correctly adopt the scholiast’s explanation.

[ back ] 149. On the text-critical result of lines 102–103 cf. ἐλευθερίᾳ, Hermann: ἐλευθέραι R and πατρίδι R: πραπίδι, Wecklein. Wecklein’s conjecture would convey an unrestrained spirit in the choral ode, which is completely in keeping with the high-flown dithyrambic mood of the ode. Prato 1998:270–271 (cf. now also Prato, 170 ad 103a–b and Austin/Olson, 90 ad 101–103) follows the transmitted text of R because of the contemporary political events at the time of the first production (December 412/January 411 BCE). The hypothesis of a Trojan chorus put forward most recently after Cantarella (IV, 423 ad 101–129) by Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 164 ad 101–129 goes back to Bothe (III, 111 ad 101). Henderson 1996:223n38 follows Sommerstein. See now also Furley/Bremer I 2001:351–352 and Austin/Olson, 87.

[ back ] 150. Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 164 ad 101–129. On the ancient ritual form of responsive song cf. Radermacher Frösche, 200 and Parker 1997:403 (with reference to Sappho fragment 140 L.-P.).

[ back ] 151. Kleinknecht 1937:151n1.

[ back ] 152. Cf. Rau 1967:104 and now Furley/Bremer I 2001:353 against Kleinknecht 1937:101–103 and now Prato, 169–170.

[ back ] 153. On the closeness of Agathon to the theater-god Dionysus see Hansen 1976:174, Muecke 1982:48, Saïd 1987:230, Zeitlin 1981:196, Gannon Thesmophoriazusae, 8 ad 94, 101–129, and Taaffe 1993:82, 85.

[ back ] 154. Cf. Thesmophoriazusae 988b and above, n109 and below, chap 2. nn29–30.

[ back ] 155. Cf. Thesmophoriazusae 111–113, χαῖρε καλλίσταις ἀοιδαῖς, | Φοῖβ’, ἐν εὐμούσοισι τιμαῖς | γέρας ἱερὸν προφέρων. The sense of the lines is equally ambivalent and illustrates the relationship of reciprocity. The meaning depends in particular on line 113; γέρας is interpreted by Austin 1987:74 and Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 31 as honorary privilege, namely of being mentioned first in the series before the others, which Apollo is entitled to and which he here receives through song, because he “produces it himself” (cf. Austin’s explanation “displays” and now Austin/Olson, 92 ad 111–113). Cf. Sommerstein’s (ibid.) translation: “Rejoice in our beautiful song, | O Phoebus, and be first to receive | this holy privilege in our fair tribute of music” (similarly Henderson 1996:102) and Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 165 ad 113 (with his proposal to understand προφέρων as “win before others”); elsewhere, however, προφέρειν means less “receive,” “obtain,” than (among other things) “give of oneself,” “bring openly.”

[ back ] 156. There also seems to have been a comic element in this: Zimmermann II 1985:28; Wilamowitz 1886:156 suggests that Agathon used a falsetto delivery to emphasize this comic paradox. Tsakmakis 1997 thinks it probable that this role, which demands remarkable vocal and performative abilites, was played by the actor Nikandros, mentioned twice in Philodemos On Music (Περὶ μουσικῆς). Price 1990:170 interprets the “excellent masculine song” (Thesmophoriazusae 125) as a reference to male comasts who present a distinctly feminine appearance in the kômos. She maintains (170n110) that Leto, associated with Lycia and Phrygia, is particularly fitting for the effeminate chorus and that for this reason she is not mentioned in the hymn to the Athenian polis gods (Thesmophoriazusae 969–1000).

[ back ] 157. On the stylistic and rhythmic interpretation of the song see Rau 1967:104–108 and Zimmermann 1988.

[ back ] 158. Cf. especially εὐρύθμῳ ποδί, 985 and above, Introduction n169, chapter 1 nn31, 38, 62, 90, and below, chapter 1 n269; διανεύματα is glossed in schol. Thesmophoriazusae 122 by ὀρχήματα. Bentley conjectures, probably correctly, δινεύματα from δινεύω (‘whirl’); Coulon himself later withdraws his defense of the transmitted διανεύματα, based on Hesychius, s.v. διανεύει· στρέφει, κυκλεῖ (pro δινεύει); cf. Coulon, REG 50 (1937), 458. Parker 1997:400 and 404 also defends the transmitted reading. On δινεύω in a choral context with the meaning “move in a circle” cf. Homer Iliad 18.494, Euripides Phoenician Women 792, θυρσομανεῖ νεβρίδων μέτα δίνᾳ (on the choral implications of δίνη and the text [Diggle prints the transmitted †δινεύεις; δίνᾳ is a conjecture by Hermann] cf. Mastronarde 1994:380–382). Cf. however Fritzsche’s conjecture διὰ νεύματα (‘with nodding of the head’) with the commentary ibid., 37–38 ad 120–123; he suggests that for parodic purposes Aristophanes changed διὰ πνεύματα (cf. Euripides Phoenician Women 787) to διὰ νεύματα. Sommerstein accepts this conjecture, but for reasons having to do with the choral context, namely that the Kharites coordinated the chorus through nodding of the head, just as actual choruses were conducted by aulos-players (Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 166 ad 121–122). He follows here Wilamowitz 1921:341n1 and Austin 1990:16–17; see now also Austin/Olson, 95 ad 120–122.

[ back ] 159. See especially the command χορεύσασθε βοάν (103) and κῶμος (104); note also the important choral projection onto the Kharites, which remains without an actual counterpart and thus without effect: Φρυγίων | δινεύματα Χαρίτων (121–122).

[ back ] 160. See Zimmermann 1993:45 and Mureddu 1982/83:83–84; see also Kamerbeek 1967:77–78 and Austin 1990:16.

[ back ] 161. Austin 1987:74 ad 127 accepts by contrast Nietzsche’s conjecture ὑμετέρας, which would thus lose the choral “we.”

[ back ] 162. This proposed solution is found mostly in the older editions, among others in Brunck, Bekker, Fritzsche, Enger, Blaydes (cf. also Blaydes I, 142 ad 101–129), and Hall/Geldart; see e.g. Beer 1844:79: “Dazu kommt noch als Paraskenion der Musenchor (Vs. 104–129), der nicht auf der Bühne, sondern hinter derselben von den erst Vs. 295 auftretenden Choreuten gesungen wird” [“To this the chorus of Muses is attached as a paraskênion (lines 104–129), which is sung by the chorus members, who only appear at line 295, not onstage but behind the stage”]. (It is mostly compared to the subchorus of the Frogs; but the chorus of frogs was probably visible: Dover Frogs, 57.) Fritzsche, 32–33, Enger, 24–25 ad 101–129, Enger 1846:62–70, Muff 1872:73, 113–114, 162, Arnoldt 1873:71, Wilamowitz 1886:157, Fraenkel 1962:112n1, and Austin 1987:73 argue for an off-stage female chorus of the Muses, whose members also assumed the role of the chorus at the Thesmophoria. Kleinknecht 1937:101 seems to assume that a chorus actually performed (“Wechselgesang zwischen Agathon und einem [Musen?—]Chor”) [“Interchange of song between Agathon and a chorus (of Muses?)”]. Zielinski 1885:88–91 also sees a chorus of Muses; relying on a completely idiosyncratic train of thought, he theorizes that Aristophanes removed it as a semi-chorus (separate from the second semi-chorus of mortal women) from another version of the second Thesmophoriazusae (B) (“Kalligeneia”)—which Zielinski regarded as preceding the present Thesmophoriazusae (A) (“Nesteia”)—and adapted it for this version. In the “Kalligeneia,” according to Zielinski, this semi-chorus of Muses supported Euripides and his relative.

[ back ] 163. Cf. H.-J. Newiger’s review of Fraenkel 1962 in Gymnasium 72 (1965), 252–254, especially 253. Cf. also Rau 1967:106n19, Horn 1970:100–101, and Kugelmeier 1996:278.

[ back ] 164. On the imitativeness of the New Dithyramb cf. especially Aristophanes Wealth 290–321 (with Bierl 1994:38–41) and Zimmermann 1992:127–128. On the parody of Philoxenos in this passage (Wealth 290ff.) see Kugelmeier 1996:255–264. He establishes (262, 277) similarities between this passage and Thesmophoriazusae 101ff., since there too a dialogue between chorus leader and chorus takes place—although the interchange in the Wealth is an actual one.

[ back ] 165. Cf. however the interpretation of Muff 1872:113–114, who does not take into consideration the dimension of the chorus’ identity as women celebrating the Thesmophoria: “und nachdem er [Agathon] präludirt hat, fordert er in einem Liede die Musen auf, zu Ehren der unterirdischen Gottheiten die Fackeln zu ergreifen, zu tanzen und zu singen. Und diesem Wunsche willfahren die Musen; sie feiern in Liedern die Götter sowie das Spiel und den Tanz der Charitinnen. Dieser Gesang ist offenbar kein Theil des neuen Dramas, wie viele gemeint haben, sondern nur die Vorbereitung zu ihm, der Anruf der Götter” [“and after he [Agathon] has sung a prelude, he instructs the Muses in a song to take up torches in honor of the underworld deities, to dance and to sing. And the Muses comply with this wish; they celebrate in song the gods as well as the play and the dance of the Kharites. This song clearly forms no part of the new drama, as many have thought, but is only the preparation for it, the invocation of the gods”]. Beside line 41 (θίασος Μουσῶν) the only evidence for a subchorus of Muses in the Agathon song is the vocative Μοῦσαι (107), which is, however, based solely on a conjecture by Wilamowitz (ἄγετ’ ὦ κλήζετε, Μοῦσαι); R gives the reading ἄγε νῦν ὅπλιζε μοῦσα. Fraenkel 1962:111–114, especially 113, following a splendid suggestion of Fritzsche, who had already combined Bentley’s ὄλβιζε and Bergk’s μούσᾳ, changed the text to ἄγε νυν ὄλβιζε μούσᾳ, with μοῦσα being used by way of metonymy for “song” (for this practice cf. fragment 851b, 1 PMG and below, chapter 2 n82). Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 30 follows this reading and, like Kugelmeier 1996:278 (the latter takes θίασος Μουσῶν [line 41] merely as “poetic metaphor”), also rejects the idea of a chorus of Muses. See also Van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 22, who prints ἄγε νυν ὄλβιζε, Μοῦσα. But why should Agathon first address the Muses as κοῦραι (102)? How is a spectator supposed to identify these maidens as Muses? But see Austin 1987:73 ad 103: “The κοῦραι in 102 are clearly the Muses.” He follows (73 ad 107) Gannon’s conjecture ἄγε νυν ὀλβίζετε, Μοῦσαι (Gannon 1982:92 and in Gannon’s text). Parker 1997:403–404 is skeptical about Fraenkel’s μούσᾳ; but on metrical grounds this cannot fit Gannon’s solution and so he places the passage in cruces. The difficulties in arriving at a clear answer perhaps point to the poet’s consciously leaving the matter up in the air.

[ back ] 166. Cf. Homer Iliad 1.603–604, Hesiod Scutum 201–206, Pindar Nemean Odes 5.22–25, and Pythian Odes 1.1–4. In the Birds Aristophanes integrates this situation into the hoopoe’s call to the nightingale (Birds 209–222, especially 216–219): as in Thesmophoriazusae 101ff. at the center lies the ὀλολυγή, the loud ritual cry, particularly of women (Birds 222; after Thesmophoriazusae 129 a scholiast has written ὀλολύζει in the margin).

[ back ] 167. Enger, 25 ad 101–129 already recognizes the prooimion-like quality of the song. Cf. Aeschylus Agamemnon 31, φροίμιον χορεύσομαι (the passage is not mentioned in the excellent study of self-reference in the Oresteia by Wilson and Taplin [1993], but Agamemnon 1216 is [ibid., 172 and 179n23 (with reference to Hubbard 1992)]), Aeschylus Suppliants 830, φροίμια . . . πόνων, Euripides Heracles Furens 753, φόνου φροίμιον, and Aristophanes Knights 1343. On the prooimion see Nagy 1990:353–361 (at 356–366 Nagy shows that Pindar’s stylized prooimia are idealizations); consider 353: “The prooimion or prooemium took the form of a prayer sung to a given god who presided over the occasion of a given seasonally recurring festival where the song was performed in competition with other songs.” Since the song (Thesmophoriazusae 101ff.) is addressed to Apollo in particular, it ultimately fails to achieve its goal, since Dionysus is the actual divinity who presides over the comic agôn.

[ back ] 168. There is an important intertextual allusion in the reference to the spark in Apollo’s eye. In lines 126–127 there is a high-flown description of how “light sparkles in the eye of the god” because of the lyre and “the suddenly lifted voices” of the singers. Chorus and choral leader are once more connected to each other through the typical kharis relationship. Music, voice, and dance please the god, making him shine and causing him to move and participate in the choral dance. Cf. Homeric Hymns 3.201–206: αὐτὰρ ὁ Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων ἐγκιθαρίζει | καλὰ καὶ ὕψι βιβάς, αἴγλη δέ μιν ἀμφιφαείνει | μαρμαρυγαί τε ποδῶν καὶ ἐϋκλώστοιο χιτῶνος. | οἱ δ’ ἐπιτέρπονται θυμὸν μέγαν εἰσορόωντες | Λητώ τε χρυσοπλόκαμος καὶ μητίετα Ζεὺς | υἷα φίλον [ back ] παίζοντα μετ’ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσι. Apollo steps high and beautifully (202); βιβάς here already refers to his dance movements. A glow shines about him, sparks of light emanate from his feet and clothing (202–203). This shining is identical with the radiant expression of the chorus in the hymn fragment 851b, 1 PMG (cf. below, chapter 2 nn94 and 96); Apollo’s feet refer to his dance, and his garment to his beautiful exterior. Agathon in our scene represents a parody of this; he too wears a long garment, which is here identical with saffron-colored clothing (Thesmophoriazusae 138). The latter was normally worn by women, particularly at ritual celebrations (Aristophanes Lysistrata 44, 51, 644–645); the krokôtos is typical of Dionysus in particular; cf. among others Aristophanes Frogs 46, Cratinus fragments 40 K.-A., Pollux 4.117, and Dover Frogs, 40. In Ptolemy Philadelphos’ famous procession, a ten-cubit high anthropomorphic figure of Dionysus wore a “purple khitôn, reaching to his feet, and on top of this a diaphanous krokôtos (κροκωτὸν διαφανῆ)” (Callixinus of Rhodes, FGrHist 627 F 2 in Athenaeus 198c). The relative will retain this saffron robe of Agathon as clothing (Thesmophoriazusae 250, 253) in order to sneak into the festival of the Thesmophoria. In the hymn to Apollo, Leto and Zeus are happy that their son Apollo dances (παίζοντα, 206) among the gods. In our song, however, it is questionable whether Agathon actually dances, since his chorus is not really there. On the divine choral leader see Nagy 1990:361–365, especially, on Apollo, p. 361: “As the generalist of SONG, Apollo is the ultimate chorus leader of the Muses, their authority in the choral integration of singing, dancing, and instrumentation.”

[ back ] 169. On the closeness of Apollo and Dionysus, see Bierl 1991:91–99 and Bierl 1994a:82–83, Calame 1990:364–369, and Grandolini 1995:256–258. Because of its Apollonian description Rau 1967:104 terms the Agathon song a paean. On Apollo as a lyre-playing khorêgos see Calame I 1977:102–108 (English translation Calame 1997:49–53). On the presence of the aulos-player in representations of comic choruses see Taplin 1993:69–78, on metatheatrical aulos-players in comedy ibid., 105–110. Reed and string instruments are largely complementary in their musical leadership function; Calame I 1977:126–133 (English translation Calame 1997:64–68) and Käppel 1992:80 (on the paean).

[ back ] 170. In manuscript R αγαθ appears before lines 101 and 107 and before lines 104 and 111 χο; before lines 114, 117, and 120 there are παράγραφοι. Lines 101–103, 107–110, 114–116, 120–122 are thus assigned to Agathon, and lines 104–106, 111–113, 117–119 to the chorus. The attribution is less certain at Thesmophoriazusae 122ff. In the old editions lines 123–129 are assigned to the chorus (or rather, Agathon speaking as chorus) (Brunck, Thiersch, Fritzsche, Bothe, Enger, Blaydes, Hall/Geldart, Rogers); so Horn 1970:104. Coulon, Cantarella, Gannon, Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae (now also Prato and Austin/Olson) give lines 123–125 and 129 to the “chorus,” and 126–128 to “Agathon” (that is, Agathon as Dionysus or priestess). Van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae assigns lines 123–127 (up until ὀπός) to the chorus, the command ὧν χάριν ἄνακτ’ ἄγαλλε Φοῖβον to Agathon as koryphaios (his reason seems to lie in the singular form [!]; for this reason the transmitted imperative singular in lines 107 and 128 is changed into the plural; cf. Austin 1987:73 ad 107, where he suggests ἄνακτ’ ἄγαλλε‹τε› Φοῖβον for line 128; cf. Parker 1997:405), and line 129 to the chorus.

[ back ] 171. Cf. above, n170 on Thesmophoriazusae 123–129. One could also argue that lines 101–103 should be given to the chorus as a self-command. Mazon 1904:127–128 argues precisely thus for the solution of the scholia, namely that Agathon is imitating a chorus in a monody; he does, however, divide the chorus into two semi-choruses; he interprets lines 101–103 as a command to dance given by one of these to the other (128).

[ back ] 172. Cf. Zimmermann I 1985:112. The verb ἀνέρχεσθαι (281) may indicate the anodos onto the Pnyx as well as the first day of the festival, which bears the same name and on which the women ascended to the Thesmophorion, which lay on higher ground; see schol. Thesmophoriazusae 585 and Deubner 1932:54.

[ back ] 173. On the political character of the Thesmophoria see Detienne 1979:199–201, Loraux 1981:126, and Versnel 1993:251n80 (with further literature).

[ back ] 174. Cf. Henderson 1996:92–93, who considers that the women at the Thesmophoria referred to their place of assembly as the Pnyx in a kind of comic distortion because of the confusion of the levels. He nevertheless is inclined toward the earlier conventional interpretation that the Thesmophorion really was on the Pnyx (cf. Thesmophoriazusae 658). Cf. Thompson 1936, who despite inadequate archaeological evidence tentatively located it next to the place where the men held their assemblies. Versnel 1993:240n40 has also more recently subscribed to this opinion. Following Broneer’s influential article (Broneer 1942) the Eleusinion, the main sanctuary for Demeter and Kore in Athens lying southwest of the Agora on the northwest slope of the Acropolis, has generally been adopted as the locale for the women celebrating this festival. Austin 1990:20 and Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 196–197 ad 658 follow this theory.

[ back ] 175. He reports that the Syracusans celebrated the Thesmophoria as μιμούμενοι τὸν ἀρχαῖον βίον.

[ back ] 176. On the parodos cf. Wilamowitz II 1893:347–355, especially 352–355, Kleinknecht 1937:33–40, Haldane 1965, Horn 1970:106–115, especially 109–115, Zimmermann I 1985:112–121, Habash 1997:25–30, and Parker 1997:406–413.

[ back ] 177. Cf. Horn 1970:111.

[ back ] 178. Cf. Horn 1970:111–115. On ritual blaming cf. Meuli 1975:33–68, especially 33–41 (“Bettelumzüge im Totenkultus, Opferritual und Volksbrauch”), 177–250 (“Schweizer Masken und Masken-bräuche”), and 283–299 (“Der Ursprung der Fastnacht”), especially among others 223 and 293.

[ back ] 179. Up until line 530 the action consists of the presentation of the popular assembly of women. Lines 329 and 372ff. consitute an immediate reference to the deliberate “other action” (cf. Hartmann 1887:334); particularly after the relatively self-contained interlude of song and prayer we return to the actual plan (372ff.), that action be taken in this pseudo-political organization against Euripides for his hostility to women.

[ back ] 180. See Plutarch Solon 8.4–5 (referring to the festival at Halimous on the 10th of Pyanopsion; on the day before the actual beginning of the Thesmophoria there was a visit to the local sanctuary of Demeter on Cape Kolias, during which the most prominent women of Athens would carry out a sacrifice and dance on the beach; the women of the chorus call themselves here εὐγενεῖς γυναῖκες, Thesmophoriazusae 330) and Polyaenus Stratagems 1.20.2.

[ back ] 181. Cf. Horn 1970:109n203; contra Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 176–177 ad 295, who identifies the woman as Kritylla and thinks that the prayer to the divinities there named is only appropriate for a priestess of the Thesmophoroi.

[ back ] 182. Kleinknecht 1937:33–34 shows how the call for εὐφημία with subsequent prayer to certain polis gods introduces and sets up a popular assembly. The female speaker’s prose is thus supposed to imitate the political ceremony in a way that is as unartificial and true to life as possible. The often-interrupted prayer of the priest in Birds 864–888 is comparable; cf. also Birds 1035–1057 and 1660–1666, where legal formulae are at the center.

[ back ] 183. Cf. Deubner 1932:55. The less clearly associated divinities Kourotrophos, Hermes, the Kharites, and Ploutos may also be placed in the context of a festival of Demeter. An archaic inscription from Eleusis, IG I3 5, mentions among the gods who are supposed to receive initial sacrifices at the Eleusinia the names of Ge, Hermes, the Kharites, and Plouton. Cf. Deubner 1932:55, 91n12 and Haldane 1965:40 with n3.

[ back ] 184. Cf. Peace 796–797, Birds 782, 1320, Lysistrata 1279, and Aristophanes fragments 348 K.-A.

[ back ] 185. In the second Thesmophoriazusae (PCG III.2, 182–200) she delivered the prologue, according to schol. Thesmophoriazusae 298. Presumably this version was not set at the Νηστεία, but on the third day.

[ back ] 186. Cf. a black-figure vase from Rhodes (London, British Museum 1906.12–15.1); Ashmole 1946 with ills. 2a, 3a, c, d, e. There the dance is performed by five women, who hold each other by the hand. The last woman holds a twig of eiresiônê (on eiresiônê as symbol of Ploutos and sign of wealth and fertility cf. Camps-Gaset 1994:77–87) and a naked dancing boy by the hand; the late arrival could certainly be Ploutos himself. Next to a priestess is a seated figure, probably the goddess Demeter, who watches the choral spectacle as onlooker. Simultaneously a phallus in the liknon is being revealed. On the image cf. Calame I 1977:133–134 (English translation Calame 1997:68–69). The naked παῖς ἀμφιθαλής perhaps embodies Ploutos, particularly typical of the day of the Kalligeneia. Lines 289–291 could be a comic reference to this kind of ritual content (phallus, Ploutos); the element of the dance is only hinted at in the following choral song and is only transformed into ritual action in the later choral dance songs (947ff. and 1136ff.).

[ back ] 187. Cf. Thesmophoriazusae 280 and 285–286 with 295ff. On Ploutos cf. πλουτοῦντος, 290. As a male intruder, the relative renders the cultic contexts ridiculous. He prays (289–291) to Demeter and Persephone that his little daughter “Piggy-pussy” (line 289: χοῖρον R, εὔχοιρον Coulon, Χοιρίον Fritzsche) find a rich man (ἀνδρός . . . πλουτοῦντος) and be able to look after the “Willy-boy” (σαθίσκον; cf. schol. Thesmophoriazusae 291, τὸν παιδαρίσκον) (cf. Austin 1990:20–21). In the ideology of the festival one really does encounter pigs, which symbolize fertility. In particular the married women are all symbolically transformed back into virgin genitalia that encounter the male sex for the first time in order to ensure good offspring. In the plot of the ritual, female and male genitalia made of dough where brought together. The relative takes up these suggestions in a humorous fashion and sees in Ploutos only a materially wealthy man who might get his little daughter pregnant. The textual situation of Thesmophoriazusae 291—in opposition to the transmitted reading in manuscript R πρὸς θάληκον—involves the following conjectures: πρὸς φάλητα (Scaliger), Ποσθαλίσκον (Dindorf), πρὸς τὸ ληκεῖν (van Leeuwen), Ποσθάληκον (Rogers), and πρὸς σαθίσκον (Willems and Coulon). One has thus to make a decision whether “the Willy-boy (Ποσθαλίσκον/Ποσθάληκον) has intelligence” (cf. schol. Thesmophoriazusae 291, τὸν παιδαρίσκον) or the girl ought to “pay attention to (πρός!) the phallus (or sexual act)” (νοῦν ἔχειν μοι καὶ φρένας, 291; cf. schol. Thesmophoriazusae 291, ἀντὶ τοῦ κατωφερῆ τὸν νοῦν μου ποίησον). Austin 1990:20–21 and Prato 1993:696–698 argue for the corresponding diminutive forms Χοιρίον and Ποσθαλίσκον for a girl and boy (cf. schol. Thesmophoriazusae 289 and 291). Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 48 and Habash 1997:25 also follow them. Cf. now also Prato, 38 and 215–216 ad 289, 291 and Austin/Olson, 15 and 147–148 ad 289, 291.

[ back ] 188. See especially Haldane 1965:40. He shows that σύνοδος is used to describe ritual meetings: cf. among others Thucydides 3.104.3, Plato Laws 771d3, and Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 1160a24 and 26.

[ back ] 189. So too van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 49 and ad 295–310, who correctly describes the woman as κορυφαῖος (ἱερεία), and Austin 1974:316–319.

[ back ] 190. On line 305: Fritzsche’s conjecture ὑμῖν is opposed to the transmitted ἡμῖν in manuscript R, which could also be interpreted in the sense of a wish that the current action might fall to “us ourselves” (i.e. the members of the chorus) (τυχηρῶς δ’ ἡμῖν αὐταῖς, 305). In contrast to the reading ὑμῖν the chorus leader would then be included in the group. The comment in Horn 1970:110n208 is unclear, since the female speaker more than likely includes herself in the collective with the formula χαίρωμεν (311).

[ back ] 191. On gender differentiation in the pointed expression see Horn 1970:110 and Wilamowitz II 1893:349 and 352. For δῆμον . . . τῶν γυναικῶν cf. also Thesmophoriazusae 1145–1146 and above, nn132–133.

[ back ] 192. Cf. the antode of the parabasis Knights 581–594, a hymnos klêtikos to Pallas Athena: ὦ πολιοῦχε Παλλάς, . . . | . . . | (586) δεῦρ’ ἀφικοῦ λαβοῦσα τὴν | ἐν στρατιαῖς τε καὶ μάχαις | ἡμετέραν ξυνεργὸν | Νίκην, ἣ χορικῶν ἐστιν ἑταίρα | τοῖς τ’ ἐχθροῖσι μεθ’ ἡμῶν στασιάζει (Knights 581–590). The “victory” refers both to the great agôn against Kleon and to the contest of choruses in the real world. Cf. also above, n67 on Thesmophoriazusae 972b. Prayers for victory in the agôn of plays are not confined to the parabasis: cf. Acharnians 1224, Clouds 1115–1130, Birds 445–447, 1102–1117, Lysistrata 1293, Frogs 390–393, and Assemblywomen 1154–1162, 1182.

[ back ] 193. Cf. the female chorus leader’s wish for favor at the end of her second invocation (Thesmophoriazusae 351) and that of the chorus at the end of the comedy (1230–1231).

[ back ] 194. Cf. Aristophanes Lysistrata 1291–1294 and Birds 1763–1765 together with the τήνελλα καλλίνικος (cf. Dunbar Birds, 769 ad 1764–1765; cf. also Acharnians 1227–1234). In the context of another literary contest, the dithyramb, cf. Timotheus Persians fragments 791.202–205 PMG.

[ back ] 195. Cf. Peace 453–458 (Hermes and the chorus encourage each other to drag Peace out against the will of the other gods). Haldane 1965:40 compares Peace 431–458 to Thesmophoriazusae 305–311. On the paean as protection against disease and illness in connection with Apollo Agyieus in the pseudo-trial on the Pnyx, see Wasps 863–874, especially 868–874. Wilamowitz II 1893:354, because of Thesmophoriazusae 748, imagines a statue of this divinity on the Pnyx and connects this with the typical appeal to Apollo. On Wasps 863–874 see also Kleinknecht 1937:52–53; the call for εὐφημία is found here (Wasps 868) and in Thesmophoriazusae 295; on the wish for favor cf. Wasps 869, Peace 453 with Thesmophoriazusae 283, 305, and 310. On the performative situations of the paean see Käppel 1992:45–46 (war), 46–49 (general danger).

[ back ] 196. See Calame I 1977:148 (English translation Calame 1997:77), Käppel 1992:81, and Rutherford 1994/95:114 (choruses of young men were the rule); on paeans sung by maidens, Calame I 1977:147–152 and 190–209, especially 203 (English translation Calame 1997:76–79 and 101–113, especially 109).

[ back ] 197. These types of choruses of maidens, however, are the exception in the case of the male paean: see the comparison of the old members of the chorus with the Delian maidens, who perform the paean for Apollo (Euripides Heracles Furens 687–700, especially 687–694; cf. with this the description of the Deliades in Homeric Hymns 3.146–164 and the comment in Calame I 1977:147 [English translation Calame 1997:76 with n204]), and the paeans directed at Artemis (Euripides Iphigenia in Aulis 1467–1531, especially 1467–1469, 1480–1484 and Iphigenia in Tauris 1398–1405) and to Apollo and Artemis together (Sophocles Women of Trachis 205–224).

[ back ] 198. Käppel 1992:61 mentions late attestations of paeans at sacrifices to Demeter and Kore in the Eleusinian mystery cult, which is naturally connected to the Thesmophoria. Yet here too (male) ephebes and tekhnitai perform the song (cf. IG II/III2 1078 and IG II/III2 1338.1–19). For dramatic reasons Helen sings a paean to Persephone as underworld goddess (Euripides Helen 177; cf. Kannicht II 1969:70–71 ad Euripides Helen 176–178 and Käppel 1992:48–49).

[ back ] 199. Cf. Henrichs 1996a:60: “But, it is more likely that we are dealing with a poetic construct in which the poet assigns performance of the paean to the imaginary chorus of Delian Maidens in order to facilitate comparison with the male chorus of Theban elders in the orchestra.”

[ back ] 200. In the sanctuary of the Thesmophoroi on Thasos there were altars of Zeus, Artemis, Athena, and the Nymphs, to whom the families of the elite would offer sacrifices; cf. Rolley 1965.

[ back ] 201. Cf. Thesmophoriazusae 960, γένος Ὀλυμπίων θεῶν.

[ back ] 202. On metrical grounds Wilamowitz II 1893:353 views the dactylo-epitrites that appear here as being “wie sie die wirklichen cultlieder boten” [“like ones found in real cult songs”]. Haldane 1965:41 comes close to this when he says: “the chorus . . . emerges as a party of worshippers at a religious festival.” But he does not commit himself; the festival he speaks of must be the Great Dionysia of 411 BCE, and the worshipers are identical to the comic chorus of citizens. Silk 1980:112 in the throes of his literary criticism finds fault with the conventionality of the piece. But cultic poetry is never concerned with producing world literature; it is entirely grounded in the pragmatic. Zimmermann I 1985:116 makes a similar assessment, but his categories are concentrated on the course of the action. He approaches the song purely in connection with the conventional opening ceremony of a popular ritual and within the frame of the Thesmophoria, although these dimensions recede completely into the background in these lines. Horn 1970:111 has a similar approach: he sees a political element behind the invocation of Athena. He correctly observes: “Die komischen abrupten Übergänge vom Volksversammlungs– zum Frauengebet . . . fehlen diesem Lied fast völlig” [“Comic, abrupt transitions from the prayer of the popular assembly to that of the women . . . are completely absent in this song”]. Yet the political ought not be separated from the ritual task of the citizen chorus, since politics also determines polis ritual.

[ back ] 203. Cf. Kleinknecht 1937:34: “Der herrliche Hymnus . . . ist durchaus auf ernsten Ton gestimmt und fern von jeglicher parodischen Tendenz” [“The magnificent hymn . . . is presented in a completely serious tone and is far removed from any kind of parodic tendency”].

[ back ] 204. Thesmophoriazusae 101ff.: Apollo, Artemis, Leto, and once more Apollo; 969ff.: Apollo, Artemis, Hera, Hermes, Pan, Nymphs, Dionysus; 1136ff.: Athena, Demeter, and Kore. See Haldane 1965:41, who analyzes the system behind the series and speaks of a “possible reminiscence of the state prayer” because of the gods mentioned.

[ back ] 205. On the request for a divinity to appear cf. Thesmophoriazusae 1136–1147, especially 1143 (Athena), 1148–1159, especially 1154–1155, 1158–1159 (Demeter and Kore); in other comedies cf. Acharnians 665–675, especially 665, 674 (the Acharnian Muse), Knights 551–564, especially 559 (Poseidon), 581–594, especially 586, 591 (Athena), Clouds 263–274, especially 266, 269 (Clouds), Frogs 323–336, especially 326 (Iakkhos). On the δεῦρο-formula in cletic hymns cf. Thesmophoriazusae 1136–1138 (Athena), Acharnians 665 (the Acharnian Muse), Knights 559 (Poseidon), 586, 591 (Athena), Frogs 394–399, especially 395, 399 (Iakkhos). The request for the epiphany of a god is explicitly related to the chorus in the performance: Thesmophoriazusae 1136–1138 (Athena), Knights 559 (Poseidon), Knights 586–594, especially 589–590 (Athena with Nike and request for victory in the dramatic competition!), Clouds 563–565 (Zeus), Peace 775–777 (Muse), Frogs 323–336 (Iakkhos), 385a–393 (Demeter), 394–413 (Iakchos), and 674–675 (Muse).

[ back ] 206. Zeus is also invited in Clouds 563–565 to come to the chorus.

[ back ] 207. Cf. Clouds 596 and Frogs 659.

[ back ] 208. On the invocation of Athena (317–319), see Anderson 1995:58–62.

[ back ] 209. Cf. Sophocles Women of Trachis 205–224 (Apollo and Artemis), Euripides Iphigenia in Tauris 1398–1405, Iphigenia in Aulis 1467–1469 (Artemis); cf. also schol. Sophocles Oedipus the King 173 (p. 147 De Marco) and Käppel 1992:35, 56–57 (paeans in honor of Apollo, Artemis, and Leto in Delos!).

[ back ] 210. This configuration is in general suggestive of the Skira, which as another festival of inversion lends its character to the scenery in the Assemblywomen. Cf. Bowie 1993:256–258. During the Skira women also had their own organizations and assemblies. The contest between Athena and Poseidon concludes the prehistory of Athens. The Knights is influenced by this mythical conflict; cf. Bowie 1993:66–74. Skiron is a place of license. At the Skira the priestesses of Athena Polias, Poseidon-Erechtheus, and Helios traveled in procession to the temples of Athena, Demeter, and Kore (!) in Skiron, near Eleusis. The women held a separate assembly (κατὰ τὰ πάτρια [IG II/III2 1177.11–12]) and ate garlic in order to keep their men away from them (Philokhoros, FGrHist 328 F 89).

[ back ] 211. In this hymnos klêtikos the words ἐλθὲ δεῦρο (Thesmophoriazusae 319) are directly connected to the chorus of performers in the orchestra; cf. δεῦρ’ ἔλθ’ εἰς χορόν (Knights 559) and above, n205. Poseidon is also invoked of course because of the plot, since as horse-god he is the patron god of the Knights.

[ back ] 212. Cf. Haldane 1965:43.

[ back ] 213. Cf. Hesiod Scutum 209–212 and Arion 1 D. = fragment adesp. 939 PMG; cf. ibid., 4–5, περί σε πλωτοὶ | θῆρες χορεύουσι κύκλῳ; dolphins are called, ibid., 8–9, φιλόμουσοι | δελφῖνες, i.e. they are associated with the musical activity of choral dance. Like dolphins in the sea, so too the stars often serve as projection surfaces for choral dance. On dolphins, cf. Euripides Electra 435–437, Helen 1454–1455 (the Phoenician ship that is to take Helen to Sparta is addressed by way of apostrophe as χοραγὲ τῶν καλλιχόρων | δελφίνων). See now Csapo 2003.

[ back ] 214. On the Nereids as a chorus (sometimes together with dolphins), see Bacchylides Dithyrambs 17.101–108; Aeschylus fragment 150 Radt (from Nereides TrGF III, 262–264); Euripides Andromeda 1267, Electra 432–437, Trojan Women 2–3, Ion 1081–1086, Iphigenia in Tauris 427–429, Iphigenia in Aulis 1054–1057; in Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 716–719 the fifty Nereids are called ἑκατόμποδες (718) (with special reference to their feet, which are naturally of importance for dancing). Euripides Iphigenia in Tauris 428–429 (χοροὶ | . . . ἐγκύκλιοι) and Iphigenia in Aulis 1055–57 (εἱλισσόμεναι κύκλια | . . . ἐχόρευσαν) refer to the round dance. On their number, which corresponds to the fifty dancers in dithyrambic choruses, see Calame I 1977:78 (English translation Calame 1997:35) and Zimmermann 1992:26. On the Nereids and dolphins as divine escorts, see Wachsmuth 1967:100–112, especially 103–106, 108–112, and Barringer 1995:69–94 (chapter 4: “Thetis, Nereids, and Dionysos”) and 141–151 (chapter 8: “Marine Thiasos” [on Dionysiac associations]).

[ back ] 215. Homer Odyssey 6.99–109 (Nausikaa plays ball with the maidens and is surrounded by them, like Artemis by the Nymphs; cf. on this Calame I 1977:165–166 [English translation Calame 1997:87–88]), Ant. Pal. 6.57.7–8 (the Nymphs form a chorus together with the forest-dwellers), and Sophocles Women of Trachis 205–215. Cf. Larson 1997. The Nymphs are also invoked in Frogs 1344 and Thesmophoriazusae 978.

[ back ] 216. On nymphs and maenads see Hedreen 1994.

[ back ] 217. Zimmermann I 1985:116 refers to the metaphorical use of the adjective, otherwise used only to characterize Io. Zimmermann connects the transferred use of οἶστρος with the New Dithyramb. The Nereids in particular, who are mentioned immediately afterward, have a connection with the dithyramb because of their number. Cf. above, n214. On the influence of the New Dithyramb on the song’s metre and diction cf. Zimmermann I 1985:115.

[ back ] 218. Cf. Aristophanes Birds 217–222, 776–784 (the gods make music in reply to a musical invocation in which they take pleasure).

[ back ] 219. Cf. Homeric Hymns 2.20; Euripides Children of Heracles 752, Electra 1150, Heracles Furens 349, Trojan Women 515, Oresteia 826, 965; Aristophanes Frogs 217. On ἰακχάζω as synonym of ἰαχέω cf. LSJ s.v. ἰακχάζω, II and Orphica Lithica 46 ἰ. ἀοιδήν (as in Aristophanes Frogs 213–217).

[ back ] 220. Wilamowitz, who elsewhere generally includes the performative dimension of the chorus, here does not see this connection. He argues as follows (Wilamowitz II 1893:353–354) for a δέ instead of the transmitted τε (327): “Wie kann an die anrufungen angereiht werden ‘und die goldene laute klinge zu meinen gebeten’? welche laute? es wird uns wirklich zugemutet, nichts hierin zu finden als ‘und zu meinem liede soll der musicant die violine spielen.’ Das wird der hoffentlich schon längst tun, sonst ist’s zu spät. Aber eine goldene laute wird ihm der chorege schwerlich spendirt haben, die gehört nur dem χρυσολύρας, der eben angerufen war” [“How can ‘and let the golden lute resound to my prayers’ be attached to the invocations? What lute? We are asked to find here nothing more than the thought ‘let the musician accompany my song on the violin.’ That he should hopefully already have been doing for quite a while, otherwise [the instruction] comes too late. And the khorêgos would hardly have spent the money on a golden lute for him: that belongs only to the χρυσολύρας, who has just been invoked”].

[ back ] 221. For Apollo as khorêgos and mousagêtês cf. Koller 1963:58–78. Cf. also Pindar Pythian Odes 1.1–4 and the passages collected above, n166.

[ back ] 222. This is emphasized by the adjective εὐγενεῖς (330), which is, however, comically distorted in terms of the dramatic role by the attached substantive “women.” At the same time the women at the Thesmophoria are considered as “well-born.”

[ back ] 223. On the prayers in parabasis odes see the fundamental studies of Fraenkel (1931 and 1962:191–215).

[ back ] 224. See Henrichs 1994/95:65–73.

[ back ] 225. The first position in the following line of the nonexistent female divine union (Pythian and Delian goddesses) makes the absurdity particularly apparent. Cf. Kleinknecht 1937:35 and Haldane 1965:3.

[ back ] 226. See Kleinknecht 1937:34–37 (with evidence).

[ back ] 227. Horn 1970:112.

[ back ] 228. See Wilamowitz II 1893:345–351.

[ back ] 229. Horn 1970:113.

[ back ] 230. Cf. the magical speech of the Erinyes in the ὕμνος δέσμιος, Aeschylus Eumenides 328–333; on this see above, pp. 62–63.

[ back ] 231. Cf. the excellent interpretation in Versnel 1993:228–288 (particularly on the unrestricted drinking of wine, which is repeatedly mentioned in the Thesmophoriazusae, 264–268).

[ back ] 232. Cf. Aristophanes Wasps 885 and Thucydides 6.32.2.

[ back ] 233. This occurs again in connection with motifs found in the parabasis. One ought not therefore take as negative a view of these lines as Horn 1970:114 does: “Sieht man dieses überraschende Motiv im Zusammenhang mit dem sicher verdorbenen Schluß des Liedes (s. u.), so wird man sich fragen müssen, ob diese Strophe überhaupt noch viel ursprünglich Aristophanisches enthält.” [“If one views this suprising motif in connection with the end of the song, which is certainly corrupt, one has to ask oneself whether this strophe actually contains much that is genuinely Aristophanic”].

[ back ] 234. Cf. Haldane 1965:44–45, especially his statement (44): “The double image of the chorus falls temporarily into the background; whereas it was seen before as a party of women at a festival it now emerges almost wholly as a debating society.” Cf. also Zimmermann I 1985:117: “[Das Lied], in dem der Chor ganz als δῆμος τῶν γυναικῶν singt” [“[The song] in which the chorus sings entirely as δῆμος τῶν γυναικῶν”]; and ibid., 120–121, especially 121: “Die Parabase mit ihrer Illusionsdurchbrechung ist für solche Worte nicht mehr geeignet; sie würde zu deutlich die Meinung des Dichters zu erkennen geben. Durch das Einfügen von Parabasenthemen in den kultischen Rahmen der Parodos bezieht Aristophanes die politischen Anspielungen und Warnungen in die Handlung ein, läßt sie Teil einer dramatischen Szene, der Eröffnung der Frauenvolksversammlung, werden” [“The parabasis with its shattering of the [dramatic] illusion is no longer suited for such words; it would reveal the poet’s opinion too clearly. By means of the insertion of parabasis themes into the cultic framework of the parodos, Aristophanes incorporates political allusions and warnings into the plot, and has them become part of a dramatic scene, the opening of the women’s assembly”]. Cf. also the purely political interpretation in Banova 1994:153–158, especially 156–157 and Prato 1995.

[ back ] 235. Cf. Diodorus Siculus 5.5.2, Callimachus Hymns 6.18, Serv. in Vergil Aeneid 4.58; cf. Burkert 1985:246: “The Greeks finally interpreted Demeter thesmophoros as the bringer of order, the order of marriage, civilization, and of life itself, and in this they were not entirely mistaken.” Similarly Wilamowitz II 1931/32:45 (repr. II, 44), Detienne 1979, 184 (“la Législatrice—celle qui donne à la cité ses «lois»” [“the legislator—she who gives the city its ‘laws’ ”]); in reality thesmoi are primarily material objects, i.e. “what is put down” (cf. Burkert 1985:243); on the tension between these two meanings see Farnell 1907:77–81, Parke 1977:83, Brumfield 1981:70–73, and Camps-Gaset 1994:48.

[ back ] 236. See Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 180 ad 359.

[ back ] 237. On the oath in magical contexts see Faraone 1993 and Graf 1996:186–188. On the closeness between defixiones and ritual curses see Graf 1996:116–117. Graf sees magical defixiones in the context of crisis management. Without the nearness of the gods, which prayer seeks to achieve, the power to harm also becomes impossible.

[ back ] 238. Cf. Lysistrata 183, 187, 191 (ὅρκος). Cf. Henderson Lysistrata, 90 ad 181–239. The oath accompanied by sacrifice (186–190a) here parodies the political and military oath of the Seven against Thebes (Aeschylus Seven against Thebes 42–48). The speech act is described in great detail in the Lysistrata; Lysistrata pronounces the formula like a priestess, and the collective follows, repeating the words in unison. The oath is there accompanied by a sacrifice similar to that carried out by the γεραραί (or γεραιραί, Etymologicum Magnum 227.35) during the Anthesteria ([Demosthenes] 59.73–78). Cf. also Faraone 1993 on the oath. On the mythic and ritual models in the Lysistrata, cf. Bowie 1993:178–204, whose analysis could be expanded considerably; cf. also Faraone 1997.

[ back ] 239. The articles of association of a third-century BCE cult from Mylasa in Caria direct that the festival of Demeter Thesmophoros be conducted “as the women have decided” (ὡς ἔδοξε ταῖς γυναι[ξί . . ., Sokolowski 1955 [LSAM], nr. 61, 5). This corresponds to the formula normally used in popular assemblies conducted by men.

[ back ] 240. Cf. ἄγραφοι νόμοι (Thucydides 2.37.3) and ἄγραφα νόμιμα (Demosthenes 18.275, Plato Laws 793a10); cf. Sophocles Antigone 454–455, ἄγραπτα κἀσφαλῆ θεῶν | νόμιμα. On the meaning of νόμος as ritual and social practice, see Leinieks 1996:244–254.

[ back ] 241. Following Wilamowitz II 1893:354–355, Horn 1970:114–115 thinks that a curse would be expected instead of a statement (367); arguing against the use of conjectures introducing a curse formula, Zimmermann I 1985:118–119, correctly maintains, although he makes use of the argument criticized above, that “die feststellende, indikativische Form um so pointierter erklingt, ja, dem ganzen Lied noch mehr Parabasencharakter verleiht” [“the declarative indicative form sounds even more pointed, in fact gives the whole song an even more parabasis-like character”]. By this he understands only the political aspect. Austin 1987:78 ad 365–366 views the sentence as a delayed anticlimax, since the women would not have the heart to curse a fellow woman (followed by Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 181 ad 367).

[ back ] 242. Beside the Thesmophoria, one may mention the following as festivals connected with Demeter: the Stenia, closely connected in time with the Thesmophoria, the Haloa, and the so-called jokings at the bridge (gephyrismoi) during the procession to Eleusis; as festivals connected with Dionysus: the Anthesteria, Lenaia, and the Great Dionysia. On tôthasmos see Fluck 1931:11–33, Rusten 1977, and below, chapter 2 n66.

[ back ] 243. Cf. Schmid 1946:13–42, especially 13–26, Henderson 19912:1–29, especially 13ff., Degani 1987, Reckford 1987:461–467, Rosen 1988, Degani 1988, Halliwell 1991, Halliwell 1991a:294–296, and Degani 1993. Cf. now also Treu 1999 (for blame and praise, especially 129–140) and Saetta Cottone 2005 (for Thesmophoriazusae, especially 285–344).

[ back ] 244. Rösler 1993, passage 77.

[ back ] 245. Cf. Haldane 1965:44 (who adopts an explanation common at the time, that aiskhrologia served to foster fertility; cf. Deubner 1932:53 and 57–56) and Zimmermann I 1985:117.

[ back ] 246. Hence the explanation of Austin 1987:78 ad 365–366—that the chorus (like the priestess as chorus leader in line 349) also will not curse other women in line 366, so that the curse in line 367 ends up becoming a “lame statement of fact”—seems only in a very limited sense correct. Old women do not seem to have been excluded from the festival, but virgins certainly were. The situation regarding slave-women and hetairai is not clear; in lines 280ff. a slave-woman is present; before the relative enters the Thesmophorion, however, she is sent away (293–294).

[ back ] 247. Burkert 1985:244: “[T]hey may split into groups and abuse one another, but there must also have been occasions on which men and women derided one another.”

[ back ] 248. On aiskhrologia at the Stenia cf. Hesychius, s.v. Στήνια· ἑορτὴ Ἀθήνησιν καὶ . . . διασκώπτουσι καὶ λοιδοροῦσιν; ibid., s.v. στηνιῶσαι· βλασφημῆσαι, λοιδορῆσαι; Photus, s.v. Στήνια· ἑορτὴ Ἀθήνησιν ἐν ᾗ ἐδόκει ἡ ἄνοδος γενέσθαι τῆς Δήμητρος· ἐλοιδοροῦντο δ’ ἐν αὐτῇ νυκτὸς αἱ γυναῖκες ἀλλήλαις. οὕτως Εὔβουλος. Cf. Eubulus fragments 146 K.-A. with Brumfield 1981:79–82. On aiskhrologia at the Thesmophoria, cf. Apollodorus 1.5.1, Cleomedes 2.1, Diodorus Siculus 5.4.7; in Apollodorus 1.5.1 ritual ridicule at this festival is derived from Iambe’s derisive cheering-up of Demeter. Baubo, the Orphic equivalent of Iambe, is said to have exposed her genitalia for this purpose. Cf. Fluck 1931:28; on aiskhrologia in general cf. Fluck 1931, passim, West 1974:22–39, and Chirassi Colombo 1979:39n34. Cf. also in the context of the grain-goddess the cult of Damia and Auxesia on Aegina (and in Epidauros), where ten khorêgoi incited female choruses to mutual ritual ridicule (Herodotus 5.83); cf. on this Fluck 1931:20–22 and Nagy 1990:344 and 364–365. On mutual aiskhrologia by women in connection with beatings with a whip plaited from μόροττον (bark), cf. Hesychius, s.v. μόροττον and Deubner 1932:58, who, like Versnel 1993:238 more recently, connects this action with the practice of being beaten with the Lebensrute. There is an account of men and women trading insults in Pellene (Pausanias 7.27.9–10); there were similar practices on the island of Anaphe, where male and female choruses who ridicule each other are attested (Apollonius of Rhodes 4.1719–1730, Apollodorus 1.9.26); cf. Fluck 1931:59–62.

[ back ] 249. Here one must draw a distinction: ritual ridicule carried out directly in front of men can hardly have taken place at the Thesmophoria, since no men were allowed at the festival. The aiskhrologia of the other sex can thus only have taken place without the presence of the opposite party. Aggression against the Other that is not present, but remains outside, serves in this case purely as female self-definition. In the Thesmophoriazusae the masculine recipient of comic abuse and criticism is however included in the fictional festival in the form of the audience.

[ back ] 250. Zimmermann II 1985:141–145, who still includes only Frogs 814–829, 1251–1260, and 1370–1377 in the same subgroup. For criticism of the tendency to foreground the criterion of closed action too rigidly, see above, pp. 51–52 and n5. Under the category of choral songs that interrupt the action of the plot Zimmerman also treats parainetic choral odes (ibid., 108–140), encomia (151–168), songs of ridicule (Spottlieder) (169–190), and prayers and hymns (191–220). The latter three subgroups clearly fall into the category of the ritual speech act of εὖ and κακῶς λέγειν, an essential element of the comic genre. The parainesis before the agôn exhorting one to do one’s best is a traditional form. In a few lines the agôn is thus introduced, the contest presented, and the heroes spurred on and either praised or belittled, depending on the content. On the three elements of the chorus in the Thesmophoriazusae see also Parker 1997:412–417.

[ back ] 251. See Zimmermann II 1985:141–143. He suspects that Aristophanes is here specifically using the agôn in Euripides’ Telephus as a model (cf. Zimmermann I 1985:122 with n49). While in tragedy speech and counterspeech are generally separated by two lines sung by the leader of the chorus, we have here a song. Specific textual reminiscences (cf. Gelzer 1960:155n3) and the two catalectic iambic tetrameters (531–532; cf. also the introduction by the chorus leader in 381–382), which formally correspond to the katakeleusmos, point to the comic agôn (Gelzer 1960:154–155).

[ back ] 252. Zimmermann (II 1985:142) comments: “Aristophanes dadurch, daß er jede Rede durch ein Chorlied abschließen läßt, den Eindruck eines ‘Volksgemurmels’ erwecken wollte und damit wieder die Ebene der Volksversammlung ins Spiel brachte” [“By having every speech end with a choral song, Aristophanes wanted to give the impression of the murmuring of a crowd and thus brought the environment of the popular assembly back into play”].

[ back ] 253. Cf. Sommerstein 1996. Xenokles was, like Euripides, a tragic playwright and apparently also had political ambitions. On Xenokles see Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 170 ad 169, Sommerstein 1996:349, and beside this passage Wasps 1508–1511, especially 1510–1511, Peace 782–795, 864, Thesmophoriazusae 169, Frogs 86, Pherekrates fragment 15, and Plato com. fragments 143 K.-A.

[ back ] 254. On Euripides as atheist see the titles listed in Winiarczyk 1989:144–145, especially Lefkowitz 1987 and Lefkowitz 1989.

[ back ] 255. Cf. the sound remarks of Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 186 ad 451.

[ back ] 256. Cf. δοῦναι δίκην (Thesmophoriazusae 465) with δώσει τε δίκην (668) and the double appearance of ὕβρεως (465 and 670). The statement also possesses here the illocutionary role of a command.

[ back ] 257. There is an approximate responsion between lines 433–442 and 520–530 (on this see Parker 1997:414–417), while the reaction of the chorus to the second woman forms an astrophon.

[ back ] 258. The chorus reads Euripides’ Melanippe Desmotis into its song intertextually: τῆς μὲν κακῆς κάκιον οὐδὲν γίγνεται | γυναικός (fragment 494, 27–28 N/Kannicht). The ridicule is thus directed against women as well as Euripides. Lines 531–532 are regarded by Taaffe (1993:91) as a key passage in the Thesmophoriazusae.

[ back ] 259. On the internal level of the Thesmophoria, ridicule of one’s own sex lies behind the pseudo-woman’s counter-oration. For analysis of how this passage functions comically in the role-playing of the sexes, see Taaffe 1993:91 and Ferris 1989:23.

[ back ] 260. In contrast to the relative and Euripides, who only resemble women in terms of their dress, Kleisthenes is a kinaidos, a man who has lost all his masculinity and thus effectively become a woman (cf. Winkler 1990a:194). He no longer counts as a man and can therefore penetrate the female realm with impunity; see Winkler 1990b:193 and Versnel 1993:245n58.

[ back ] 261. Cf. Aristophanes Acharnians 204–236, Birds 1188–1198, Assemblywomen 478–503; Aeschylus Eumenides 254–275; Sophocles Ajax 866–890, Oedipus at Colonus 117–137, Trackers fragment 314 Radt, 64–78, 100–123, 176–202; see Kaimio 1970:134–137.

[ back ] 262. Zimmermann II 1985:104. On the whole song see ibid., 104–107 and Habash 1997:32–33. Westphal 1869:36 and 61 sees the song as a parodos because of the strong plot elements it contains.

[ back ] 263. See above, Introduction n156.

[ back ] 264. Cf. Gelzer 1970:1473.

[ back ] 265. Cf. also Acharnians 627 and Lysistrata 663, 687–688. Undressing (ἀποδύεσθαι), in the sense of the removal of the mask and costume associated with the dramatic role, is not, however, as was often maintained in the past, a necessary condition of the parabasis; cf. Sifakis 1971:106–108. The setting aside of clothes normally occurs before the dance (Acharnians 627, Wasps 408, Lysistrata 615, 637).

[ back ] 266. On Handley’s decision to emend the metrically problematic εἰσελήλυθεν (R) to ἐπελήλυθε, “has come against us,” see Austin 1987:80–81; the emendation ἐσελήλυθε was proposed by Faber.

[ back ] 267. Cf. also Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 196–197 ad 658. On temporary accommodations in σκηναί in Bitalemi, see Kron 1992:620–622.

[ back ] 268. The fact that choral self-commands typically occur in the singular does not allow for the establishment of a criterion for the separation of chorus and chorus-leader; see Kaimio 1970:134. Metrical considerations argue perhaps for the koryphaios. Van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 87 assigns lines 659–662 already to the group; contra Kaimio 1970:134, Zimmermann II 1985:105, and Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 82–83, who assign them to the (female) chorus leader. Fritzsche, 244 assigns the song from line 659 onward to a semi-chorus; he makes the following divisions (on the proposed rearrangement see below): 655–658: leader of the whole chorus; 659–662: leader of the semi-chorus; 663ff.: semi-chorus. Rossbach/Westphal 18893:172 assign 655–658, 659–666 and 687 to the chorus leader; Muff 1872:49–50, 61, 163 assigns 655–662 to the female chorus leader and 663–666 to the chorus; Arnoldt 1873:109–114 idiosyncratically assigns 655ff. to six separate members of semi-chorus (2 στοῖχοι): 655–658, 659–662, 663–666, 667–676/7, 678–686, 687–688; van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 88 again assigns 667–674 to the koryphaios. Formerly the general tendency was to construct an antistrophic system with the subsequent hostage-scene (667–686, or –688  707–725, or –727); cf. Fritzsche, 243–244 (who does not actually subscribe to this and suggests placing lines 659–662 after 663–666, so that the resulting strophe corresponds with 699–706 [with the exception of the tetrameter missing after 706]; see ibid., 244–245 and 256), Rossbach/Westphal 18893:172, Muff 1872:163, Arnoldt 1873:109–114 (divided among a further six speakers!), and van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 88 and 91. Cf. now Parker 1997:422. Conversely, Hermann unconvincingly proposed a responsion between the astrophon in Thesmophoriazusae 459ff. and lines 663ff.; cf. Parker 1997:417.

[ back ] 269. Cf. Thesmophoriazusae 954, κοῦφα ποσίν; Sophocles Antigone 224, κοῦφον ἐξάρας πόδα; Euripides Trojan Women 342, μὴ κοῦφον ἄρῃ βῆμ’ ἐς Ἀργείων στρατόν; cf. also above, n31. Feet naturally constitute the principal body part to which the chorus makes particular reference in its self-referential utterances. Cf. in the great choral dance song (947–1000) κοῦφα ποσίν, 954; βαῖνε καρπαλίμοιν ποδοῖν, 956; πρόβαινε ποσί, 969; and ἀνάστρεφ’ εὐρύθμῳ ποδί, 985.

[ back ] 270. Cf. Sommerstein Thesmophorizusae, 197 ad 660.

[ back ] 271. Cf. Thesmophoriazusae 954, 957–958, 968.

[ back ] 272. Cf. Kaimio 1970:134–137 and 127–129. In terms of choral self-referentiality the parallels to lines 947ff. are striking; cf. above, n31. “Inhaltlich wiederholt er (i.e. der Chor) zunächst die Anweisungen des Prokerygmas” [“In terms of content the chorus at first repeats the directions of the prokêrygma”], rightly remarks Zimmermann (II 1985:105), yet he overlooks the fact that the chorus needs these performative directions to support its own activity.

[ back ] 273. On the text of line 667: με λάθῃ Bergk: μὴ λάθῃ R (unmetrical!), ληφθῇ Reisig. Wilamowitz 1921:590 opts for ληφθῇ: “με λάθηι ist lächerlich: wenn er sich verstecken kann, wird er kein warnendes Exempel” [“με λάθηι is ridiculous: if he can hide himself, then he cannot be any kind of warning example”]. See also Zimmermann II 1985:106, Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 82, Austin 1990:23, and Parker 1997:423; now also Austin/Olson, 240 ad 667. In the company of Fritzsche, 246 ad 667, Rogers Thesmophoriazusae, 71 ad 667–686, and Coulon and Gannon, I nevertheless prefer με λάθῃ. There is nothing “ridiculous” about this: the relative does after all infiltrate the assembly secretly; the curse is aimed at him and other disguised intruders. This does of course involve a leap of thought, but one that is quite understandable given the highly emotional situation. The women after all set out with the goal of capturing still more men on their search, and for this reason the action of seizing is here left out. Prato 1998a:73–74 defends με λάθῃ using similar arguments; see now also Prato, 268–269 ad 668. He correctly sees a Leitmotiv in this secret infiltration (cf. Thesmophoriazusae 184, 589, 599–600, 664). Cf. however 679, where ληφθῇ is transmitted; an infelicitous repetition of this verb would occur in 667. The predicate λάθῃ δράσας (667) refers back to λέληθεν ὤν (664). On μὴ λάθῃ cf. Aeschylus Eumenides 255–256.

[ back ] 274. For metrical reasons Parker 1997:423 does not adopt Hermann’s conjecture ἐφέπειν (Thesmophoriazusae 675) and places the transmitted ἐφέποντας in cruces (p. 420). I have construed the clause ὅ τι καλῶς ἔχει as an indefinite relative clause that forms the object of ποεῖν, and not, as in Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 83–85, as a statement (ὅτι) governing the infinitive and dependent on δείξει (although in his commentary Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 197–198 ad 674–677 does refer to the possibility I have adopted here). Another consideration is whether ὅσια καὶ νόμιμα, in contrast to most translations (cf. the alternative solution of Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 198), ought not both be taken as objects of ἐφέπειν; in this case μηδομένους would have to be taken as a circumstantial participle upon which the infinitive ποεῖν depends (cf. Wilamowitz 1921:590). Thus: “He will show all men that they should worship the gods, uphold divine and human law, and be sure to do that which is good.” Henderson 1996:120 construes this the same way. On the ambivalence of the word νόμος, which has religious as well as political connotations, see above, n240. The division of lines made by van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 88–89 and earlier editors between choral leader (667–674) and entire chorus (675–686) makes little sense. On this passage cf. Thesmophoriazusae 356–367, 465, 715–716, 718–725, especially νόμον (361)  νόμιμα (675) (cf. παράνομα [685]), ἀσεβοῦσ’ (367)  σεβίζειν (674), ἀδικοῦσι (367)  ἀδίκων τ’ ἔργων (670)  ἀδίκοις ἔργοις (716) (cf. δικαίως [675]), ταύτης τῆς ὕβρεως (465)  ὕβρεως (670)  ἐνυβριεῖς (719), δοῦναι δίκην (465)  δώσει τε δίκην (668), ἀνόσια (667, [679; cf. Prato 1998a:74], 685)  λόγους τε λέξεις ἀνοσίους (720) (cf. ὅσια [675, 679]), ἀθέων τε τρόπων (671)  ἀθέοις ἔργοις (721).

[ back ] 275. Cf. the relation of οὐκ εἶναι θεούς (451) to φήσει δ’ εἶναι τε θεοὺς φανερῶς (672). It seems as if the women also credit Euripides with the sacrilege of penetrating a secret sanctuary, since in his tragedies he reveals women’s secrets. On the charge of atheism leveled against Euripides see above, n254.

[ back ] 276. On the τύραννος cf. e.g. Sophocles Antigone 60, 1056, 1169, OT 873 and, among other places, 514, 799, 925, 939, 1043; Euripides Heracles Furens 809 (Heracles), Bacchae 776. On the role of the tyrant in Sophocles Oedipus the King and Antigone see Bierl 1991:58n41; on Pentheus Seidensticker 1972 and Bierl 1991:68–70. It becomes even clearer on the basis of this passage that the mention of tyrants in the curse (Thesmophoriazusae 338–339) not only has political implications, but is also extensively connected to the ritual and religious. [ back ] Apart from violent anger, hubris, greed, and sexual lust, it is impiety in particular that belongs to the image of the tyrant; cf. Plato Republic 571a–576b. On Pentheus as θεομάχος, cf. Euripides Bacchae 45, 325, 635–636 and also 544, 789–790. On Creon as a θεομάχος, cf. Bierl 1991:63.

[ back ] 277. On hubris cf. Sophocles Oedipus the King 873 (Oedipus) and Euripides Heracles Furens 261, 313, 459, 708, 741 (Lykos). On the mania of attackers cf. Aeschylus Seven against Thebes 343–344 (Ares), 497–498 (Hippomedon), Sophocles Antigone 134–137 (Polyneices); on mania and lyssa cf. among others Sophocles Oedipus the King 1258, 1300, 1318 (Oedipus), Antigone 765, 955–965 (θεομάχος) (Creon); on the madness of Heracles and on lyssa see Euripides Heracles Furens 822–1428, especially 875ff., and Bierl 1991:84–87; on the analogy of lyssa and Dionysus cf. Aeschylus Xantriae fragment 169 Radt and Euripides Bacchae 851, 977. On mania in tragedy see Padel 1995; in Euripides in particular Schlesier 1985.

[ back ] 278. Cf. in particular Euripides Bacchae 997–1010. On Pentheus in connection with hubris cf. Euripides Bacchae 375, 516, 555; at the same time Pentheus regards Dionysus’ behavior as hubris (Bacchae 247, 779); Cadmus and Agave are also connected with this kind of behavior in Bacchae 1297, 1311, 1347; on hubris cf. generally Fisher 1992, passim, on the Bacchae ibid., 443–452 and Leinieks 1996:214. According to the chorus, Pentheus is ἄνομος (Bacchae 387, 995, 1015), ἄδικος (Bacchae 995, 997, 1015, 1042), ἀνόσιος (Bacchae 613), ἄθεος (Bacchae 995, 1015), ἄσεπτος (Bacchae 890), and παράνομος (Bacchae 997); in the chorus’ opinion, Pentheus is insane: hence the occurrence of concepts such as μαίνομαι (Bacchae 399–400, 887, 999), λυσσώδης (Bacchae 981), παράκοπος (Bacchae 1000), and ὀργή (Bacchae 51, 537, 647, 997, 1348). For the positive alternative, cf. the Dionysiac καλόν (Bacchae 881, 901, 1007) with the remarks of Henrichs 1969:239–240 and Merkelbach 1988:124–125. In Euripides, ἡσυχία is part of the positive Dionysiac worldview (Bacchae 389–392); μανία and ὀργή represent its opposite (Bacchae 386–401, 647); concepts such as εὐσεβεῖν (Bacchae 1009) and δίκη (Bacchae 992ff., 1011ff. [as punishment!, cf. Heracles Furens 739]); δώσει δίκην, Bacchae 847 (cf. Heracles Furens 740 [Lykos!], 842 [Heracles])  Thesmophoriazusae 668, δώσει τε δίκην remind one of utterances of the chorus in the Thesmophoriazusae; on dikê see Schlesier 1985:33n127; on the concept of the ὅσιον: the personification Ὁσία, whom Pentheus violates, is invoked in Bacchae 370–374); on this cf. Hose II 1990/91:356–358; the attribute ὅσιος is attached to the Dionysiac sphere (Bacchae 70, 77, 114); on the concept of νόμος, see νόμοι (Bacchae 891) and νόμιμον (Bacchae 895); cf. τὰ δ’ ἔξω νόμιμα | δίκας ἐκβαλόντα τιμᾶν θεούς (Bacchae 1009–1010); on the meaning of νόμος as religious practice, cf. Bacchae 331, 484, 891, 895 (cf. 201) and Leinieks 1996:244. τιμᾶν θεούς (Bacchae 1010) also appears in a similar fashion. Self-revelation is also important: Dionysus wants to reveal himself to mortals as god: Bacchae 22, ἵν’ εἴην ἐμφανὴς δαίμων βροτοῖς  Thesmophoriazusae 681–683, πᾶσιν ἐμφανὴς ὁρᾶν | ἔσται γυναιξὶ καὶ βροτοῖς (where this is, however, said of the enemy: it will be revealed to him that god “punishes injustice and impiety” [Thesmophoriazusae 684–686]; Bacchae 47, αὐτῷ θεὸς γεγὼς ἐνδείξομαι [said of Dionysus]  Thesmophoriazusae 673ff., δείξει . . . [said of the enemy]).

[ back ] 279. Cf. Levine 1987. On the structural connection between the behavior of Pentheus and that of the relative, who both spy on women in their secret cults and thereby transgress gender boundaries, see Zeitlin 1982:146–147. She observes the closeness in the structural relation between Bacchic rites and the Thesmophoria, which function as “ideological opposites” (132); see in particular Zeitlin 1981:194–200. On the intertextual connections between the Lysistrata and the Thesmophoriazusae, see generally the sound remarks in Hubbard 1991:186–199 and Taaffe 1993:101.

[ back ] 280. On the predecessors of the Bacchae, see Bierl 1991:11–12. Aeschylus’ tetralogy the Lycurgeia seems to have had a great influence on Euripides. Cf. the reference in Thesmophoriazusae 134ff. to Aeschylus fragments 57–67 Radt, particularly the quotation from the Edoni (Aeschylus fragment 61 Radt) in Thesmophoriazusae 136. Cf. also Seaford 1996:223 ad Euripides Bacchae 918–919 (especially on the mirror of Thesmophoriazusae 140).

[ back ] 281. Bierl 1991, passim, on Euripides 137ff., especially 219–226.

[ back ] 282. The Dionysiac description of the enemy as μανίαις φλέγων (Thesmophoriazusae 680) is completely ambivalent, insofar as the women are themselves associated with fire because of the torch light (280, 655). In their function as citizen chorus the dancers are also Dionysiac. Their glow is a metaphor of the enthusiastic behavior that they express in song and dance in honor of the gods, particularly Dionysus. Madness is ultimately overcome by madness; cf. Heracles Furens 822ff. and Bacchae 977ff. Cf. also Schlesier 1985:11n44 on the ambivalence of Dionysiac madness. On the Dionysiac (and Demetrian) role of the chorus, cf. also Zeitlin 1981:196: “This ambiguity also means that the women must, in turn, play a double role, as followers of Demeter and as Bacchants of Dionysus.” The subsequent hostage-taking of the wineskin (689ff.) clearly takes the women into the sphere of the Dionysiac. Violence now seems to break out; the women want to set fire to the altar (726ff.) to which the relative flees. The woman who is summoned to help in lines 728 and 739 is, significantly, named Mania. On the positive, idyllic, and Dionysiac projection of the chorus, cf. Thesmophoriazusae 985–1000.

[ back ] 283. In the case of Euripides’ Bacchae the violence is projected onto the Theban maenads and seen as mania sent by Dionysus as a punishment. Yet the Lydian Bacchants also show substantially violent tendencies in their choral speech acts. Cf. in particular the disputed reading of the ephymnion in the third stasimon, 877–881 = 897–901; contra Seaford 1996:218–220 and Leinieks 1996:370–372, which invert the meaning with the help of Blake’s conjecture in order to remove the simultaneous contradiction from Dionysus and his chorus. I, along with Dodds 19602:186–188 ad Euripides Bacchae 877–81 and Hose II 1990/91:373–374, support the interpretation that the Bakkhai, in accordance with Greek ethics, here call for brutal revenge against the enemy; cf. Bierl 1991:206; see also Bacchae 977–1023.

[ back ] 284. On the myth of the Amazons and the Lysistrata, see Bowie 1993:184–185. Detienne 1979:210 already connects the women at the Thesmophoria with Amazons; he is followed by Zeitlin 1982:146 and Versnel 1993:250.

[ back ] 285. For a more complex view of the sacrificing women, see Osborne 1993a. He attacks Detienne’s (1979) overly schematic and structuralist approach, which sees women as fundamentally excluded from the action of sacrifice, in keeping with their political role, and which views the Thesmophoria as an exception to the rule. Conversely, according to Osborne, the opinion widely held before Detienne’s work, that women generally took part in sacrifice, is also incorrect. He argues for distinctions drawn on the basis of specific cults. Instead of the apparent homology of politics and sacrifice, he emphasizes the differences between the two areas; in certain cases, sacrificial occasions could also bring women into public life, from which they were otherwise excluded in political contexts. Detienne’s model of exception for the Thesmophoria does thus have a certain validity.

[ back ] 286. In Euripides Bacchae 993 Dike carries the epithet ξιφηφόρος, which is traditional (cf. however Shapiro 1986:390–391, who withholds the designation of Dike from several representations of winged women [ills. 10–12]). The women at the Thesmophoria are accordingly enforcers of dikê in addition to their function as female sacrificers.

[ back ] 287. Cf. Detienne 1979, Burkert 1985:244, Bowie 1993:213, and Versnel 1993:250. Cf. also the Spartan setting of the episode of Aristomenes, the hero of the Messenian resistance (Paus. 4.17.1); he tries to capture the women in the temple of Demeter in Aigila, but the celebrants of the Thesmophoria defend themselves with sacrificial knives and spits. He is tied up and beaten with torches, and only manages to escape because the priestess of Demeter falls in love with him. The relative is also tied up and anybody who wants to set the prisoner free is threatened with a torch by the Old Woman (Thesmophoriazusae 916–917). For similar stories see the list in Bowie 1993:212–213. In the following hostage-taking and sacrificial scene (Thesmophoriazusae 689–761) ritual is again parodied. The relative assumes the role of the σφαγεύς, the only man allowed to attend the festival, while the women participate actively in the sacrifice and catch the blood (Thesmophoriazusae 750–755). Cf. Detienne 1979:193–194 and 208.

[ back ] 288. Cf. also Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 198 ad 689–758. He thinks that when Mika calls on the chorus for help after the child is stolen (696ff.) this means that the relative flees not to the altar of Apollo Agyieus on the stage, but to the thymelê in the middle of the orchestra. Possibly he had already been encircled previously; after the song he takes the supposed baby and hurries to the center.

[ back ] 289. The κηδεστής as relative by marriage acts as Euripides’ representative; Bonanno 1990:253 views the relative as the tragic poet’s double. According to Hubbard 1991:185 the choice of the figure of the κηδεστής shows how much Euripides follows traditional attitudes to women. In particular, he argues, it should be noted that Euripides thereby honors the institution of marriage, of central importance for the Thesmophoria. The Thesmophoriazusae thus thematizes not Euripides’ misogyny, but rather popular misconceptions about him and his handling of female roles, just as the Clouds is not directed at Socrates, but builds on popular prejudices against Socrates and other intellectuals.

[ back ] 290. Cf. also Aristophanes Acharnians 325–351, where the “baby” is a charcoal-basket. On wine, not otherwise permitted to women, as characteristic indication of a women’s festival of inversion, see Versnel 1993:262–268; sexual desire thereby unleashed is kept in check by antaphrodisiac plants (λύγος, κόνυζα, κνέωρον). Despite all these liberties, wine must be concealed, hidden, and renamed in order to reduce any scandal; cf. Thesmophoriazusae 733–761 and Versnel 1993:268. He considers the fact that sacrifice and access to wine is exceptionally granted to the women during the festival as a ritual processing of the anxiety that troubled Greek males. They must have still been concerned that their oppressed wives, despite all security measures, would break their chains and give full expression to their desires (284).

[ back ] 291. Like lines 659–662 immediately following the prokêrygma, these concluding words are also catalectic trochaic tetrameters.

[ back ] 292. Cf. Zimmermann II 1985:107: “Die Frauen würden kein Ende ihrer Verwünschungen finden, wenn nicht die Chorführerin in den Versen 687f. die Suche für beendet erklären würde” [“The women would not cease their cursing if the chorus leader in lines 687–688 did not declare the search ended”]. He sees the performative aspect without, however, making use of the concept. It remains questionable whether it is really the koryphaios who puts a stop to the chorus’ endless talk, or whether it is not actually the chorus, or the chorus leader, who speaks the lines, since the search has come to an end at precisely the same time. Both the search and the dance are completed by this utterance.

[ back ] 293. Cf. Dionysus’ question to Pentheus—if he wishes to see the women sitting together in the mountains (συγκαθημένας ἰδεῖν, Euripides Bacchae 811)—which (along with Bacchae 816) is interpreted by Segal 1982:226 and Bierl 1991:212 with n97 as a reference to the situation of the audience in the theater. Taaffe 1993:94 comes to a similar conclusion from the perspective of gender-role identity: “In another joke on gender identity, they find no men, when it is clear that many men have in fact infiltrated this secret meeting and the men are just where you might expect to find them, too: in the audience.”

[ back ] 294. Cf. the repetition and parallelism in expression ἢν γὰρ – κἂν – ὅταν. For purposes of clarity I reproduce here once more the repetitive and winding thread of the argument: when someone commits an impiety (negative), he is then punished (passively, by humans) and serves as an example to show the necessity of piety (positive) (667–677); if he does not do so (negation of the positive), then the following will happen (declaration of the negative) (678): if someone is caught committing a crime (negative), he will become an example of how the god punishes wrongdoing (positive, actively, by god) (679–686).

[ back ] 295. Cf. Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 197 ad 663–686: “Much of the diction and most of the sentiments of this song are tragic, but its stylistic quality as poetry is mediocre, its most notable feature being a high degree of repetitiveness.”

[ back ] 296. Cf. the sociobiological theory of Burkert 1996. One could perhaps think here of the hunt for a natural enemy that invades one’s own territory. On fear of death and concern for survival as a background of religion see Burkert 1996:30–33, on territorial and boundary concerns ibid., 45 and 165–166.

[ back ] 297. There is no kommation, or rather it is integrated into the anapaests. Ode and antode, as well as antepirrhêma, are missing. The structure is as follows: 785–813 are anapaests (catalectic anapaestic tetrameters); 814–829, pnigos (anapaestic dimeters); 830–845, epirrhêma (catalectic trochaic tetrameters). On the parabasis of the Thesmophoriazusae, see Moulton 1981:127–135, Zeitlin 1981:185–186, Bonnette 1989:240–248, Hubbard 1991:195–199, and Taaffe 1993:76–78.

[ back ] 298. On the contents of the actual parabaseis of the first five extant works and numerous fragments cf. Sifakis 1971:38–41 (with tables 45–51).

[ back ] 299. Sifakis 1971:43 mentions that the contents of the epirrhêmata have spread into the actual parabasis of the Thesmophoriazusae and have therefore changed the usual situation.

[ back ] 300. Taaffe 1993 discusses these connections using insights from feminist performance criticism.

[ back ] 301. See Moulton 1981:128 and 135.

[ back ] 302. See Rösler 1993.

[ back ] 303. See Hubbard 1991:19–20, rightly remarking that anapaests were used for choral self-presentation almost as frequently as they were to defend the claims of the poet. The anapaests of the Birds and the Thesmophoriazusae should therefore not be treated as a later development followed by the poet in order to free himself from the “undramatic” form of the actual parabasis; examples of self-description ibid., 20n17: Cratinus fragments 105 K.-A. (chorus of malthakoi speaks in its role about wreaths of flowers), Eupolis fragments 13 K.-A. (chorus of goats talks about its fodder), and Aristophanes fragments 427–431 K.-A. (chorus of freighters talks about its cargo). On the themes actually typical of epirrhêmata in the anapaests of the Thesmophoriazusae, see Sifakis 1971:43.

[ back ] 304. Rossi 1978:1149–1155 (cf. Nagy 1990:46 on this) argues for the performance style of the παρακαταλογή, a musical “recitative” by the chorus leader, which falls between song and speech and is accompanied only by the mimetic dance figures (σχήματα) of other actors; for discussion as to whether the kommation was sung or recited by the chorus or chorus leader, see Muff 1872:86–88. Pollux 4.112 talks of the song of the kommation: τὸ μὲν κομμάτιον καταβολή τίς ἐστι βραχέος μέλους. The kommation, according to Hubbard 1991:18, was thus sung and apparently also accompanied by dance. Scholars long debated whether the parabasis in the stricter sense might not also have been sung (and danced?) by the entire chorus; it was largely assumed that the chorus stood motionless during this part; cf. the discussion in Muff 1872:89–90. Today the unanimous opinion is that the koryphaios recited it; Hubbard 1991:19.

[ back ] 305. The manner in which epirrhêmata were performed is also disputed. For earlier theories see Muff 1872:91–95 (he himself believes, 94–95, that the whole chorus sung and danced) and the summary in Hubbard 1991:21n27. Westphal 1869:48 even proposed a connection to the wild and “obscene” kordax. Hubbard (21) represents the communis opinio that the epirrhêmata were also recited by the chorus leader (cf. similarly, for example, Dover 1972:50), so that the chorus could have accompanied his words with gestures and dance figures.

[ back ] 306. The verb παραβαίνειν appears explicitly in five passages: Aristophanes Acharnians 628–629 (629), Knights 507–509 (508), Peace 734–735 (735), Plato com. fragment 99 (V. 2) K.-A., and Thesmophoriazusae 785. For a precise discussion with evaluation of the other sources, see Sifakis 1971:62–68. Sifakis excellently demonstrates how the parabasis is connected with self-praise (65). For its definition as a digression, cf. ibid., 66, 69 and below, chapter 2 n118. Although Sifakis has clearly refuted the so-called illusion of the closed plot in Old Comedy (7–14), he here remains under the influence of the older scholarship. For the parabasis see also the discussion below, pp. 310–314.

[ back ] 307. Cf. among others Bowie 1982, Harriott 1986:20–36, Reckford 1987, and Hubbard 1991; see now also Imperio 2004:13–14. Koester 1835:15–16 had early on attempted to find points of contact between the parabasis and the rest of the action in the play, but this view was only taken up again much later.

[ back ] 308. Direct confrontation with the audience finds a correspondence in the attitude of certain figures on the Pronomos Vase who do not communicate with the other figures involved in the plot of a dramatic performance (as depicted by means of profile view), but rather enter into contact with the viewer frontally, that is, with the authority of the pragmatic context; Calame 1995:116–136.

[ back ] 309. See Flashar 1996:86–87 and Purves 1997 (who also relies on Schechner’s theater, ibid., 6–7).

[ back ] 310. See Hubbard 1991:197, who characterizes the Thesmophoriazusae as play “about men’s attitudes toward women,” and Taaffe 1993:74–102. See now also Stehle 2002.

[ back ] 311. Cf. Homer Odyssey 11.427, Hesiod Theogeny 562–612, especially 590–602, Works and Days 54–99, Semonides (on the different types of women) fragment 7 W., especially 94–118, and reflexes in Euripides Hippolytus 616–633, Med. 573–575, and in Old Comedy, especially in Sousarion fragment 1.3–5 K.-A.: κακὸν γυναῖκες· ἀλλ’ ὅμως, ὦ δημόται, | οὐκ ἔστιν οἰκεῖν οἰκίαν ἄνευ κακοῦ | καὶ γὰρ τὸ γῆμαι καὶ τὸ μὴ γῆμαι κακόν. For concentration in the parabasis of the Thesmophoriazusae on the κακόν that is woman, cf. Thesmophoriazusae 786, 787, 789, 791, 796, 797, 799.

[ back ] 312. The whoremonger Kleophon is inferior to the famous hetaira Salabakkho (805), whose name is reminiscent of the word for trumpet signal. Nausimakhe, according to schol. Thesmophoriazusae 804, is also supposed to have been a prostitute (πόρνη). The claim to sophrôsynê, upon which ritual places such great importance with respect to women as guarantors of legitimate offspring (cf. Brulé 1987:342–343), is contradicted by their actual behavior.

[ back ] 313. See the excellent remarks in Calame 1995:174–185. Euboule is reminiscent of the cult name of Artemis Aristoboule. On this scene see also Möllendorff 1995:250–251, who speaks of a mixing of the level of signified belonging to male discourse and the level of signifier belonging to female discourse.

[ back ] 314. On the derivation of comedy from impromptu scenes played by clowns of this type, see below, pp. 280–282.

[ back ] 315. On the freedom to criticize and deride, see Gelzer 1970:1528, Edwards 1991:168–179, and Gelzer 1992:31–35; on the connection of iambos and comedy, see Degani 1987, Degani 1988, Rosen 1988, and Degani 1993; see now also Treu 1999:129–140 and Saetta Cottone 2005:143–151. Blaming (μέμφεσθαι, λοιδορῆσαι) and praising (ἐπαινέσαι) are central themes of the parabasis; cf. Acharnians 676–691 (especially 676), 702–718, Knights 565–580 (especially 565), 595–610 (especially 595–596), 1274–1289 (especially 1274–1275), Clouds 575–594 (especially 576), 607–626, Wasps 1015–1050 (especially 1016), 1275–1291, Birds 753–768, 1072–1087, Lysistrata 626–635, 648–657, Thesmophoriazusae 785–813, 830–845 (especially 830), and Frogs 686–705, 718–737.

[ back ] 316. The constant concern about spurious infants in the Thesmophoriazusae (339–340, 407–408, 502–516, 564–565) is also based on this.

[ back ] 317. On marriage as a central institution that exercises control over the legitimacy of masculine offspring, see des Bouvrie 1990:44–50.

[ back ] 318. On mechanisms for control over the Athenian woman, see des Bouvrie 1990:50–57. On the role of the Athenian woman in general, see ibid., 35–59; see also Gould 1980, Foley 1981 (on the role of the woman in Attic drama), La Matina 1987 (on women in Aristophanes from a semiotic point of view), and Versnel 1993:276–288.

[ back ] 319. Cf. Wilamowitz I 18952:58n17: “Auch das Weibergedicht des Semonides, eine Predigt über ein hesiodisches Thema, welche an sich ohne rechten Zweck erscheint, erhält als Replik auf die Spöttereien der Weiber am Demeterfeste Sinn und Salz” [“Semonides’ poem on the types of women, a sermon on a Hesiodic theme that appears without a real purpose of its own, also gains sense and humor as a reply to the ridicule by women at the festival of Demeter”]. Cf. Rösler 1993:83 on this, who also associates the Semonides poem and the fragment of Sousarion with the Thesmophoriazusae (ibid., 80–86).

[ back ] 320. Women at the Thesmophoria were called μέλισσαι. Cf. Apollodorus, FGrHist 244 F 89 and Detienne 1979:211–212; on bees, see especially Detienne 1971 and literature cited in Versnel 1993:251n82; now also Kledt 2004:119–120.

[ back ] 321. See the testimonia in PCG VII, 661–663 (and pp. 147–148 W. [with text]), especially Marm. Par., FGrHist 239 A 39.

[ back ] 322. The words ἀκούετε λεῴ seem to have been a traditional Athenian formula of proclamation and public address that is reflected in Old Comedy; cf. Aristophanes Acharnians 1000, Peace 551 and Birds 448. For the vocative ὦ δημόται cf. Acharnians 319 and Clouds 1322; cf. also ὦνδρες δημόται (Aristophanes Wealth 322; cf. Acharnians 328).

[ back ] 323. For γαμεῖν see Thesmophoriazusae 789.

[ back ] 324. Cf. Versnel 1993:282, who views sexuality, which is displayed but never consummated, as a fundamental paradox of the women celebrating the Thesmophoria (ibid., 254). To the same category belongs the fact that the women espouse a lofty ethical claim to chastity, but on the other hand are compared with prostitutes. See above, nn120 and 312.

[ back ] 325. See myths about martial conflicts in connection with the Thesmophoria in Bowie 1993:212–213 and above, n287.

[ back ] 326. Thesmophoriazusae 810  Euripides Melanippe Desmotis Pap. Berol. 9772 = Suppl. Euripideum fragment 6 (p. 32 v. Arnim), especially line 3 (cf. fragment 499.3 N/fragment 494.3 Kannicht): αἱ δ’ εἴσ’ ἀμείνους ἀρσένων. δείξω δ’ ἐγώ; cf. also Homer Iliad 4.405.

[ back ] 327. On τεκεῖν cf. Thesmophoriazusae 832, 836, 839, 845. The Thesmophoria have a double function, the increase of natural fertility as well as that of women, in order to ensure the continued existence of humanity; consider the famous scholion to Lucian Dialogue of the Courtesans 2.1 (276.14–15 Rabe): περὶ τῆς τῶν καρπῶν γενέσεως καὶ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων σπορᾶς; cf. ibid., 20–22: the throwing of piglets into an underground chasm happens διὰ τὸ πολύτοκον εἰς σύνθημα τῆς γενέσεως τῶν καρπῶν καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. See now Kledt 2004:132, 135–136.

[ back ] 328. The formulation εἰ τέκοι τις ἄνδρα χρηστὸν τῇ πόλει (Thesmophoriazusae 832) is reminiscent of both the goal expressed by the chorus in the parabasis, χρηστὰ τῇ πόλει | ξυμπαραινεῖν καὶ διδάσκειν (Frogs 686–687), and in particular of the epirrhêma of the women in the parabasis of the Lysistrata (648–651), which is related intertextually to the Thesmophoriazusae. In the Lysistrata the connection is made—via a useful piece of advice (χρηστὸν τῇ πόλει παραινέσαι, Lysistrata 648)—to women’s central usefulness for the city; they bear sons, who as future men guarantee the continuity of the system: τοὐράνου γάρ μοι μέτεστι· καὶ γὰρ ἄνδρας εἰσφέρω (Lysistrata 651). Here too female reproductivity is compared to a monetary contribution.

[ back ] 329. On this play on words, cf. Clouds 1156–1159, Plato Republic 507a, 555e, and Aristotle Politics 1258b4–7.

[ back ] 330. The personification of Ploutos’ agricultural wealth also plays a great role in this festival; cf. Thesmophoriazusae 296 and above, nn186–187; in society Ploutos is also equated with monetary wealth; the plot of Aristophanes’ comedy of the same name is based on this polyvalency. In the Thesmophorion of Bitalemi dedications of metal used for bartering have also been found: see Kron 1992:633–635. On Ploutos in the Euripidean Helen, parodied in the Thesmophoriazusae, cf. line 69 (Theoklymenos’ palace is Πλούτου [L: Πλούτῳ Nauck] . . . ἄξιος); at the same time, Theoklymenos is also connected with Pluto-Hades, who is of central importance in the myth of the Thesmophoria as Persephone’s husband; see Foley 1992:136.

[ back ] 331. On proedria, the right to sit in the first row on festive occasions, see Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 209 ad 834: this privilege was normally reserved for selected officials or priests, but could by way of exception be extended to those who had rendered a service to the state.

[ back ] 332. On the question of the presence of women in the theater, see Henderson 1991a; women apparently sat in the rows at the back (ibid., 140–144); he shows that a distinction needs to be drawn between a purely male “notional audience,” which was clearly viewed politically, and an “actual audience,” which encompassed all participants in the festival, certain women included; on καθῆσθαι (838) as metatheatrical term, see above, n293. On proedria in the theater of Dionysus, cf. Pöhlmann 1981. On the mention of the proedria of the priest of Dionysus in the Frogs (297), cf. Bierl 1991:37. Cf. also the priest’s invitation to Dikaiopolis in Acharnians 1085–1094 to take part in the Khoes. It is clear from both passages that the priest is taking part in a festival in his official capacity, that is, that the ritual of performance directly flows into another ritual event. Cf. also Dover Frogs, 230 ad 297.

[ back ] 333. On the symbolic see among others Turner 1967:19–47, Turner 1969, Geertz 1973:87–125 (“Religion as cultural system”), Lewis 1977, Foster/Brandes 1980, Jensen 1986, and Braungart 1996:108–113; see particularly the comments of Jensen 1986:112–113 (“Ritual as Condensed Action”). On its application in the field of drama, des Bouvrie 1990:70–77 and des Bouvrie 1993:87–92 (with copious references). Cf. also Moulton 1981:131–135, who similarly treats the passage as the “imagistic center of the parabasis” (131). On the concept of initiation in the study of religion, see the general overview in Grohs 1993. As a rite de passage, it always requires symbolic dramatization; see van Gennep 1909 and Turner 1967:93–111. For initiation as puberty ritual in classical and religious studies, see the key works listed above, Introduction n61. On the use of the interpretative paradigms of ephêbeia, initiation, and structurally determining rites de passage for plot structure in tragedy and Old Comedy, see below, n481.

[ back ] 334. Here I am in agreement with more recent scholarship, which generally regards the parabasis as a focal point for the themes appearing in that particular comedy; Hubbard 1991:11 and 17n5.

[ back ] 335. Given the highly unclear nature of the scholion to Lucian Dialogues of the Courtesans. 2.1 (275.23ff. Rabe) there is still a debate about which festival of Demeter this rite of casting down was performed at. Relying on Clement of Alexandria Protropticus 2.17, the following scholars (among others) argue for the same Thesmophoria: Brumfield 1981:77, 159–161, Burkert 1966:7–8 (= Burkert 1990:43–44), Burkert 1983:257n5, and Burkert 1985:242–243; see now also Kledt 2004:134 and 186n4. At the previous year’s festival: Harrison 19223:123 and Clinton 1992:63n203. Clinton 1988:77–78 refers to a similar practice at the Eleusinia (but with the qualification [Clinton 1992:63n203] that megarizein at the Mysteries was not synchronized with the Thesmophoria). Simon 1983:19–20 argues for the Stenia, which took place only two days before the Thesmophoria (according to her the “bailing” thus occurred on the day of the Kalligeneia). Rohde 1870:554–556 (Kl. Schr. II 1901, 361–364) considers the day of the procession to Halimous, one day after the Stenia, while placing the activity carried out by the ἀντλήτριαι only several days after the festival. Skira: Robert 1885:363ff., Deubner 1932:40–44, 50, Parke 1977:83, 159–160, and Baudy 1992:22ff. According to Baudy 1992:23, the putrescent piglets and live snakes mentioned in the description are simply a ritual fiction: piglets and snakes were symbols for female and male genitalia, and in ritual reality only imitations made of dough were thrown down into the chasm. Cf. now also Kledt 2004:128–132. On the piglet as vulva, cf. Thesmophoriazusae 289 (with schol. and above, n187, and below, n471), Acharnians 792 (with schol.) and the remarks of Versnel 1993:256–257.

[ back ] 336. Cf. Harrison 19223:131–135, Baudy 1992:22–23, and Camps-Gaset 1994:142–144. Schol. Lucian Dialogues of the Courtesans 2.1 (275–276 Rabe) incorrectly collapses “Arrhetophoria/Arrhephoria/Skirophoria and Thesmophoria” into one, which clearly goes back to an abbreviated comparison based on an analogy of summer and autumn rituals. On the Skira see also Calame 1990:339–354 and in general (in connection with the structure of the festival and symbolic spatial partitioning of Attica) ibid., 289–396; see now also Kledt 2004:152–187.

[ back ] 337. Cf. IG II/III2 1177 = Sokolowski 1969 (LSCG), nr. 36.8–13 (Thesmophoria and Skira are named as festivals at which separate assemblies of women were held). In Aristophanes Assemblywomen 18 the women plot their takeover while assembled at the Skira. The place of assembly at the Skira in Piraeus is the Thesmophorion. Mommsen (1864:289–299) incorrectly thought, on the basis of schol. Thesmophoriazusae. 834 (τὰ δὲ Σκίρα λέγεσθαί φασί τινες τὰ γινόμενα ἱερὰ ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ ταύτῃ Δήμητρι καὶ Κόρῃ [i.e. Θεσμοφορίοις]), that the Skira mentioned in line 834 were different from the Skirophoria. He wanted to connect the assembly at the Skira directly with the Thesmophoria, and placed them on the day of the anodos (ibid., 298–299).

[ back ] 338. The parasol in comedy is invariably the mark of an effeminate character; cf. Eupolis fragment 481, Pherecrates fragment 70, and Strattis fragments 59 K.-A.

[ back ] 339. There is no further evidence for σκιάδειον with the meaning “shield.” Schol. Thesmophoriazusae 823 offers as an explanation σκέπασμά τι ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς βαλλόμενον or “part of the sail” (μέρος τοῦ ἱστίου) (clearly as a reaction to the other instruments, which are all connected with weaving). The scholiast probably relates the sail to Athena’s peplos, which was fixed to a wagon and brought up onto the Acropolis at the Greater Panathenaia; cf. Deubner 1932:32 with reference to (n4) Strattis fragments 31 K.-A.: τὸν πέπλον δὲ τοῦτον | ἕλκουσ’ ὀνεύοντες τοπείοις ἄνδρες ἀναρίθμητοι | εἰς ἄκρον ὥσπερ ἱστίον τὸν ἱστόν; on the peplos in connection with this image, see below, n348. A comic play on words might lie behind the fact that Strattis in his Psykhastai fragments 59 K.-A. connects σκιάδειον with ῥιπίς (‘fan,’ from ῥίπτω [cf. Thesmophoriazusae 829]; cf. Frisk II, 658); thus Pollux 10.127: ὁ δὲ Στράττις ἐν Ψυχασταῖς προειπὼν ῥιπίδα ἐπήγαγεν εἴτε σκιάδειον. Kock (I, 728 ad Strattis fragment 56) thinks the following: Fallitur enim Pollux, cum ῥιπίδα et σκιάδειον idem esse dicit. The objects were certainly not identical, but Strattis seems to have associated them comically because women used them both to protect themselves from the summer heat. For the parasol as particularly characteristic of women, and also in particular of effeminate men, cf. also Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Antiquities 7.9.4; there, as in this passage from the Thesmophoriazusae, it is reported that Aristodemos, tyrant of Cumae, made the young people soft: ἠκολούθουν τ’ αὐτοῖς . . . παιδαγωγοὶ γυναῖκες σκιάδεια καὶ ῥιπίδας κομίζουσαι. The connection with female handwork could equally reside in the association with ῥίψ “wickerwork made from young twigs or shoots or rushes,” a word that is also etymologically related to ῥίπτω (Frisk II, 659–660). The parasol was probably “woven” or “plaited.” Our passage Thesmophoriazusae 829 would then have the following comic connotations: on campaigns, the woven screen/shield was waved over the head “from the shoulders” like a fan, to be then suddenly cast off from the upper arm; ὦμος is often connected with weapons (Homer Iliad 5.41 and 15.544); the word can also mean the “shoulders” of a garment worn by women (LSJ s.v. I.3).

[ back ] 340. The relative (Thesmophoriazusae 140) asks in puzzlement how mirror and sword go together for Agathon. Here one encounters the same paradoxical association of effeminacy and manliness that ultimately characterizes Dionysus as god of the members of the chorus.

[ back ] 341. Cf. schol. Thesmophoriazusae 825: τὴν κάμακα τῆς λόγχης λέγει. οἱ μέν φασι κανόνα αὐτὸν λέγειν τὸ ξύλον τῆς λόγχης, οἱ δὲ τὸν κανόνα τῆς ἀσπίδος.

[ back ] 342. In the ephebic oath the young men swear to uphold the fatherland as it was and not to allow anything to be lost, that is, “to hand it down to the next generation not diminished, but bigger and better” (9–10: καὶ ο‹ὐ›κ ἐλάττω παραδώσω τὴν πατρίδ | α, πλείω δὲ καὶ ἀρείω); cf. Tod II, nr. 204, pp. 303–307, Merkelbach 1972 (= Philologica 88–94), and Siewert 1977 (here the inscription is reproduced as it appears on a stele from Akharnai from the fourth century BCE, following Tod II, 303–304 and Siewert 1977:102–103; the text is also attested, with slight deviations, in literary sources in Pollux 8.105–106 and Stob. 4.1.48; Siewert 1977:104–109 shows that fifth-century writers already referred to it). The ephebic oath is a typical speech act in the Austinian sense (note the speaking “I”). Aglauros was the goddess of young men as a group. On the heortological connection with our tableau see Baudy 1992:18–19 (twelfth Skirophorion).

[ back ] 343. On the ῥίψασπις cf. Aristophanes Clouds 353 and Dover Clouds, 148 ad loc.; cf. also Aristophanes Peace 1186 (with Olson Peace, 294–295 ad 1185–1186), Plato Laws 944b7–c1, and Archilochus fragment 5 W. (with Peace 1298–1301). On the spear as symbol of the aristocracy, cf. Trag. adesp. fragment 84 N/Kannicht = Carcinus, TrGF I 70 F 1, λόγχην ἣν φοροῦσι γηγενεῖς.

[ back ] 344. Lines 776ff. are anapaestic dimeters. In earlier scholarship the lines were seen as a substitution for the missing kommation. Cf. van Leeuwen Thesm., 101 ad 776–784: “ceterum commatii loco sunt hi anapaesti, parant enim transitum a diverbio ad chori parabasin.” Accordingly, the chorus would already have taken up position with the performance of lines 776ff. Bothe (III, 151 ad 741) in particular argues that the parabasis was accompanied by the throwing away of the tablets, which is, however, extremely unlikely (cf. Fritzsche, 291; he assigns lines 778–780, ἄγε δὴ – μόχθων, and 783–784, βάσκετ’ – ταχέως χρή, to Euripides [MS Monacensis 492 assigns the whole set, 776–784, to Euripides]; Rogers Thesmophoriazusae, 81 ad 776 correctly argues against this). In favor of the kommation hypothesis is the emphatic χώρει, χώρει (782), which apart from being an address to the writing tablets he casts away (Fritzsche thinks that the relative here writes “Euripides, come, come!”; Rogers Thesmophoriazusae, 82 ad 781, following Enger, 136 ad 782, interprets the imperative as a command to the stylus [σμίλη] to inscribe the wood carefully) could also be an address to the chorus, who are often ordered to form up in just this way: Thesmophoriazusae 953, Frogs 372, Assemblywomen 478 (cf. χωρεῖτε, Frogs 440). In all cases it is clear how Aristophanes’ chorus continually picks up and processes the references like weaving a fabric. On the Palamedes parody see Rau 1967:51–53. DuBois (1988:77–78) compares the inscribing of the tablets to taking possession of the female body sexually, often compared in Greek culture to plowing. Precisely these two levels, human sexuality and agriculture, were synchronized and ritually strengthened at the Thesmophoria; cf. especially also Baudy 1992. DuBois refers to the αὖλαξ (furrow) made by the plow (phallus) on the δέλτοι (tablets). There may in fact even be a play on the word δέλτα, which also refers to the female pubic triangle (cf. Henderson 19912:146; duBois 1982:98–99 considers this possibility in another context [Sophocles Women of Trachis 680–683]). [ back ] After the Battle of Salamis the Greeks brought the wrecked ships to Cape Kolias; Herodotus 8.96 cites in relation to this an oracle of Lysistratos: “The women of Kolias shall one day roast their barley with oars.” There was a sanctuary of Aphrodite on Cape Kolias, south of Phaleron; on the day of the procession to Halimous, the tenth of Pyanopsion, just before the Thesmophoria, there was ecstatic dancing on the beach; the connection between Cape Kolias and the Thesmo-phoria could explain the mysterious oracle: women celebrating the Thesmophoria in Eretria (Plutarch Greek Questions 31.298bc) rediscover the technique of roasting as part of a restaging of a primitive lifestyle (Diodorus Siculus 5.4.7). They do not roast meat over a fire, but in the sun. Perhaps in this place on the sea there took place the special rites with oars to which Aristophanes here refers. In Lysistrata 1–2. Aristophanes also alludes to the rites at Cape Kolias on the day of the festival at Halimous, on which women, from the male perspective, took every opportunity to take pleasure in sex, dancing, and wine. The relative realizes that the requirements on the day of the Nesteia have nothing more to do with oars and grasps for what lies at hand.

[ back ] 345. Spinning is described in Latin as filum deducere (Ovid Metamorphoses 4.36); ducere or deducere is often combined with carmen, which means something like to compose a song; see Nagy 1996:49. On “stitching” a song cf. the verb ῥάπτω (preserved in rhapsôdos) and Nagy 1996:61–64; on the weaving (ὑφαίνειν) of songs and texts (Latin texere; on the word textus see Scheid/Svenbro 1996:131–155, 209–216), see Nagy 1996:64–65. For all three aspects of woolworking in the context of combining and weaving together of elements to produce a new “fabric” or “weaving,” which is subject to continuous alteration in the process of reperformance, see Nagy 1996:66ff.

[ back ] 346. Moulton (1981:134) is the only commentator to indicate a connection between the parasol and the Skira. See now also Prato, 291 ad 823.

[ back ] 347. Burkert 1966 (= Burkert 1990:40–59), Burkert 1983:135–161, and Burkert 1985:227–234.

[ back ] 348. After the Arrhephoria the Arrhephoroi were discharged. There were two maidens, not four (as Deubner 1932:12 thinks). Cf. Burkert 1966:3–5 (= Burkert 1990:41–42). The two girls also belonged to the εὐγενεῖς. On the Arrhephoria see now also Brulé 1987:79–123 (especially on discussion of sources, 79ff.) and Donnay 1997 (with criticism of the initiation theory, 201). On the basis of Etymologicum Magnum 149.19 Brulé 1987:392 assumes that there were two groups of Arrhephoroi: two girls who enter into yearlong service, and another two who for three years and nine months are responsible for the peplos presented every four years to the goddess at the Greater Panathenaia. The young maidens are first-fruit offerings for Athena, representatives of feminine eugeneia (cf. Thesmophoriazusae 330), which must reproduce itself; on the function of introduction into the female role cf. Camps-Gaset 1994:136. On Athena’s peplos and weaving on the Acropolis, cf. Brulé 1987:99–116 (also on the Plynteria and Kallynteria). Agraulos is the first mythical laundress of the cloth; the washing festival also took place shortly before the Skira/Arrhephoria on the twenty-ninth of Thargelion; Burkert 1970 (= Burkert 1990:77–85, especially 78). The Kallynteria were celebrated much earlier, in Anthesterion or Maimakterion; on the peplos and weaving in general, see Barber 1992:106–112 (“The Greek Terminology of Cloth Making”). A papyrus in Cologne (inv. nr. 264) contains the hypothesis to Euripides’ Auge; Telephos, who also plays an important role in the Thesmophoriazusae, as has been seen above, is her son. The editor of the papyrus, Ludwig Koenen, shows the connection between the myth of Auge and the ritual of the Plynteria; just like the mythical maidens who dance in a chorus on the Acropolis during the Arrhephoria, the beautiful and virtuous Auge in the service of Athena Alea in Tegea is also the leader of a chorus of maidens; Koenen 1969. Girls on the threshold of initiation dance in choruses and are here prepared for marriage. The papyrus then mentions the washing of a garment. Washing is also connected with preparations for marriage, the goal of female initiation. Nausikaa, who at Athena’s behest washes clothing at the river (cf. πλυνοί, Odyssey 6.40 and 86), also represents a reflex of this ritual practice (Homer Odyssey 6.1ff.). She too dances in a chorus after this, and as chorus leader is even compared to Artemis, another goddess of virginity. Artemis and the Nymphs (nymphai!) dance in a circle; the choral dance of Nausikaa and her companions is at the same time a ballgame (Odyssey 6.100), just as the Arrhephoroi also danced on a space used for ball playing (cf. Euripides Ion 492ff. and see below, n351). Consider the emphasis on the verb παίζειν in the sense of playing and dancing (Odyssey 6.100 and 106) and above, Introduction n180.

[ back ] 349. Kron 1992:621.

[ back ] 350. Clement of Alexandria Protrepticus 2.17, Ov. Met. 5.393, and Claudian The Abduction of Proserpina 2.138–139 also mention the κάλαθος. Cf. also the naming of the κάλαθος in Callimachus Hymns 6.1ff., 120ff. and the festive introduction of a κάλαθος at the festival of Demeter by Ptolemy Philadelphos in Alexandria in imitation of the Athenian rites (schol. Callimachus Hymns 6.1, Pfeiffer II, 77). On the connection of weaving, birth, and sowing at the Arrhephoria and Thesmophoria, see Moret 1991:236–242. Carrying baskets was part of the secret rite of the Arrhephoria; in addition, there were also maiden basket-carriers (Kanephoroi) at the Panathenaia. Baskets are symbols of fertility: the basket of the Arrhephoroi contained symbolic objectsthat were used in the introduction to sexuality in the form of “ritual play-activity” (Baudy 1992:12); the covered baskets carried down into subterranean passages contained, according to Baudy 1992, twelve phallic snakes with the heads of children, simultaneously representing procreation and birth. What the girls brought back from their journey into the underworld was, Baudy thinks, exactly the same: after the initiatory learning experience the cult object simply underwent a change, now representing an infant.

[ back ] 351. On the kalathiskos as a dance form see Athenaeus 467f and Pollux 4.105. On basket dances in the cult of Demeter and Artemis, see Lawler 1964:109–110; for a comic phlyax basket dancer with artificial breasts and phallus, much as we imagine the participants in the chorus might have looked, see ibid., 89 with ill. 35. See also Brommer 1989:485–486 (with a list of illustrations on vases) on this dance. For dancing boys and girls with broad wreaths of this type at the Spartan Karneia, see Burkert 1985:234. According to Euripides Ion 492–506, the three daughters of Aglauros dance in front of the temple of Pallas and near a cave of Pan on the north slope of the Acropolis. The daughters of Kekrops possibly represent the mythic model for ritual choruses of girls (cf. also Lee 1997:212 ad Euripides Ion 496: “There may also be a reference to the reenactment of their story in the ritual of the summer festival known as the Hersephoria or Arrephoria”), upon which the tragic chorus projects its current performance. Dance in the here and now is reflected in myth and in ritual, which has a close connection to the plot, since Ion is viewed as the reincarnation of Erichthonius. Lucian The Dance 39 reports that the myth of Erichthonius, the incarnation of King Erechtheus resurrected as baby, was danced mimetically. Ritual dances of this kind could be practiced on the area used for ball playing by the Arrhephoroi (Plutarch Vita X or. 839c). In the deme of Phlya, Athene Tithrone (Pausanius 1.31.4) was associated with sexually charged dances; Petersmann 1990. Tithrone simply means “the jumper,” according to Petersmann 1990:47–48; jumping and dancing belong together, as both activities promote fertility and offspring. Athena is herself Pandrosos (schol. Lysistrata 439), the all-bedewing. Pandrosos is also one the daughters of Kekrops, who form the mythic model for the Arrhephoroi. On leaping gods, see also Petersmann 1991; on Tithrone, ibid., 85. Pausanias (5.3.2) reports that women in Elis were immediately impregnated by their husbands after a prayer to Athena and that the latter was worshiped there as Μήτηρ. Weaving and dancing are also at the foreground for the initiation rites at Brauron, located on the border of Attica in the peripheral zone of the Outside, where Attic girls were dedicated to (significantly) Artemis; Cole 1984:238–244 and Brulé 1987:177–283, especially 225–240, and particularly 227–229 (“Artémis fileuse”) and 250–260. On the Arkteia, see also Sourvinou-Inwood 1988, and on dance at Brauron, Calame I 1977:186–189 (English translation Calame 1997:98–100). On the rites in Brauron in general see now Gentili/Perusino 2002.

[ back ] 352. For interpretation of the wool metaphor, see Moulton 1981:48–58; on the motif of weaving in this comedy, see Dorati 1998:44–50; I am planning a detailed study of the ritual backgrounds of the Lysistrata. On the basket, cf. Henderson Lysistrata, 137 ad 532–538, and in the wool metaphor Lysistrata 579. On the metaphor of woolworking and spinning in connection with female initiation see now also Ferrari 2002:11–60.

[ back ] 353. Deubner 1932:50 sees in the large σκιάδειον of which Lysimakhides, FGrHist 366 F 3 (in Harpokration, s.v. σκίρον) speaks not a parasol but rather a canopy. See also Parke 1977:157 and Simon 1983:23 (although protection against the sun is recognized as its practical and immediate purpose, they stress the status and dignity that such an array lends priests).

[ back ] 354. On the Anacreontic vases see Caskey/Beazley 1954:55–61 and Frontisi-Ducroux/Lissarrague 1990; for arguments against connecting the red-figure vase paintings (Buschor 1923/24) with the Skirophoria, or Skira, see Deubner 1932:49–50, who assigns them speculatively (132–133) to the Lenaia. On the difficulty of drawing an unequivocal connection between a visual sign and a ritual referent, see Durand/Frontisi-Ducroux 1982. The Skira, at which the decision in Assemblywomen 18 has been taken, have nothing to do with women dressing in men’s clothing; this is why the women do not have the important idea of putting on men’s attire. Bowie 1993:257–258, following many other commentators (e.g. Kenner 1970:130–131), connects this reversed transvestism in the Assemblywomen with the Hybristika of Argos, which fell in midsummer and at which women also put on beards. Aristophanes always makes use of ritual models in pastiche-like free association. Female comasts carry parasols in the following illustrations in Frontisi-Ducroux/Lissarrague 1990: ills. 7.3 (Paris, Louvre G 285; ARV 380, 170), 7.5 (Paris, Louvre G 220; ARV 280, 11), 7.9 (Copenhagen, Nationalmuseum 13365; ARV 185, 32), 7.24 (Palazzolo Acreide), 7.25 (Bologna 234; ARV 524, 20), 7.27 (Cleveland 26.549; ARV 563, 9), 7.28 (Vienna 770; ARV 576, 33), 7.29 (formerly Rome, Cippico collection; ARV 291, 25), 7.30 and 7.31 (Chiusi C 1836; ARV 815, 2), 7.34 and 7.35 (Madrid 11009). On the history of the scholarship, see Kenner 1970:113–116 and Frontisi-Ducroux/Lissarrague 1990:213–217; the use of the term “Anacreontics” stems from Beazley, who took it from an inscription on a krater by the Kleophrades Painter (ca. 500 BCE, Copenhagen, Nationalmuseum 13365), on which similar comasts are depicted, and transferred it to the entire group. On a further oriental context, see Price 1990. On the Madrid stamnos (Madrid 11009) eight female comasts of this type are represented with small parasols. Next to them is also a wool basket (see above, n350), which refers to women’s woolworking. On the parasol and Anacreontic vases, see also Miller 1992 and Delavaud-Roux 1995, who place the groups of female comasts in a Dionysiac context. See now on the Anacreontic vases Miller 1997:193–198, Miller 1999, Neer 2002:19–23, and Bundrick 2005:84–87, 90, 166.

[ back ] 355. See the discussion in Deubner 1932:31n14, arguing that parasol and stool do not represent any special cultic equipment, but are simply carried for the comfort of the Kanephoroi. See also Miller 1992:103–105.

[ back ] 356. See Baudy 1992:29n161.

[ back ] 357. The priest of Poseidon proceeding from the Erechtheion represented Poseidon and his opponent Erechtheus in the same person.

[ back ] 358. See Philokhoros, FGrHist 328 F 105.

[ back ] 359. See the text in Siewert 1977:102–103 and above, n342. For this reason a woman, Mika, curses the women’s cowardice in the name of Aglauros (Thesmophoriazusae 533); she wants to remind her comrades of their “ephebic oath” sworn by the name of Aglauros (the “rustic”), to be brave and defend the nomoi of their institution, which forms a counter-polis. Mika presents the virtuous handworker Penelope as the model on whom the women should base their actions (Thesmophoriazusae 547). The ephebic oath sworn by the various crops of Attica also evokes the panspermia of the Thesmo-phoria.

[ back ] 360. Baudy 1992:18–20; see now also Kledt 2004:160–163. Baudy (14–17) convincingly does not date the Arrhephoria, as does Burkert 1966:5n2 (= Burkert 1990:54n8), on the basis of a sacrifice in Erkhia which fell on the third day of Skirophorion, but also dates it to the twelfth of Skirophorion. For as Baudy says, the birth of Erichthonius, which was celebrated at the Arrephoria, could hardly have been before the death of Erechtheus (12th Skirophorion), whose symbolic reincarnation Erichthonius after all represents. See now also Kledt 2004:169–173. On the rituality and symbolic nature of expression in Greek warfare of the archaic period, see in general Connor 1988a.

[ back ] 361. Cf. Baudy 1992:19 and Burkert 1983:158; significantly, the Spartans placed the sack of Troy at the time of the Karneia. In ritual, during the time of dissolution the Acropolis was seized by men from Eleusis, the Kerykes, who were also involved in overseeing the Bouphonia at the Dipolieia (see, however, the reservation expressed in Burkert 1983:139n17), while the protectors of the Acropolis, Poseidon-Erechtheus and Athena, departed with the sun god Helios.

[ back ] 362. Lucian The Dance 9. Another aition (schol. [B] ad Hephaestion, p. 299, 1 Consbruch) maintains that Pyrrhos was the first to jump from the Trojan Horse (further references in Borthwick 1967:18–19), described by Homer (Odyssey 4.277) as a λόχος. On the connection of λόχος with birth and ambush, see Lonsdale 1993:150–168 and below, n372. On the Trojan leap and its reflex in Euripides Andromeda 1129–1141, see Borthwick 1967. On the lusus Troiae and the pyrrhikhê as metaphorical weaving movement in the social web see Scheid/Svenbro 1996:35–49, especially 47–49, and 184–188 and Ceccarelli 1998:149. In Fronto Ad Marcus Aurelius Caesar 1.5.4, the metaphor of weaving in connection with the pyrrhikhê is applied to the written discourse of Latin and Greek poetic verse.

[ back ] 363. On the pyrrhikhê in general, see Ceccarelli 1998; on its appearance in Athens, ibid., 27–89. Cf. especially the inscription IG II/III2 2311, especially 72–74 = SIG3 1055 (cf. SEG 37, 1987, 129) from the fourth century BCE, which gives information about the prizes at the Greater Panathenaia; cf. the photograph and brief illustration of the inscription in Neils 1992:15–17, Kotsidu 1991:100–103 (with tables 6–7), Ceccarelli 1995:296–297, and Ceccarelli 1998:32–33. The presence of the pyrrhikhê at the Panathenaia is also attested in Lysistrata 21.1–4 (agôn of dancers of the pyrrhikhê at the Lesser and Greater Panathenaia). Osborne 1993:30–31 maintains that the agôn of the pyrrhikhê was also an event involving the phylai.

[ back ] 364. On this see Baudy 1992:20n111. On the pyrrhikhê as preparation for war, see Athenaeus 630d–631a. On initiation and Troy, see Bremmer 1978. It has even been suggested that the pyrrhikhê is connected with the conferring of weapons and the Attic ephebic oath sworn by the name of Aglauros; cf. Vidal-Naquet 1986:136 (pyrrhikhê as equivalent to the ephebic oath) and Lonsdale 1993:162–166, especially 164. On the connection of the pyrrhikhê with the ephêbeia and initiation, see Ceccarelli 1998: index s.v. “Efebi,” “Efebia,” “Iniziazione,” “Rito di passaggio,” and “Transizione.”

[ back ] 365. On the structural similarity of war and marriage as goal of initiation, see Vernant 1990:34: “Here again both the link and the polar opposition between the two types of institution are noticeable. Marriage is for the girl what war is for the boy: For each of them these mark the fulfillment of their respective natures as they emerge from a state in which each still shared in the nature of the other”; see in general ibid., 29–53. For the connection of dances in armor with female initiation, see also Bron 1996. The skiadeion is also distantly reminiscent of the σκιάδες at the Spartan Karneia. Demetrios of Skepsis reports (in Athenaeus 141e–f) that the festival was staged as an imitation of military training; nine such skiades were erected, and nine men at any one time ate together in one skias, three from each phratry. Demetrios thinks they were so called because they resembled tents (σκιάδες δὲ οὗτοι καλοῦνται σκηναῖς ἔχοντες παραπλήσιόν τι). On the basis of this characterization one could even make a connection in our passage to the well-known tents (σκηναί; cf. Thesmophoriazusae 658) of the women at the Thesmophoria. In this case, the women’s festival would be imitative of a male military structure. In Thesmophoriazusae 624 there is an allusion to the camaraderie of the tent. While the women treasure their ritual camping at the annual celebration of the Thesmophoria, the men part with it quite casually.

[ back ] 366. On Athena and the pyrrhikhê cf. Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Antiquities 7.72.7 (invention of the dance after Athena’s victory over the giants); Plat. Laws 796b–c (Athena does not dance this dance empty-handed, but in full armor); Crat. 406d–407a (the name Pallas is etymologized from πάλλειν in the context of a dance in armor, admittedly without specifying any particular dance).

[ back ] 367. On the mad tossing back of the head in connection with the death of the Gorgon as the σχῆμα τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς, see POxy 2738 (vol. 35, 1968, 46; the fragmentary commentary on a comedy, possibly by Eupolis) and Borthwick 1970; on kheironomia and the swinging of Neoptolemos’ shield in defensive fighting as pyrrhikhê, see Euripides Andromeda 1131: ἐκεῖσε κἀκεῖσ’ ἀσπίδ’ ἐκτείνων χερί, and 1135: δεινὰς δ’ ἂν εἶδες πυρρίχας. See below, n372.

[ back ] 368. Reckford 1977:288 observes that ἀποβαλὼν ὅπλα (Aristophanes Wasps 27) contains a double meaning: “losing one’s weapons” and “losing one’s genitalia.” Kleonymos the shield-thrower has just been mentioned (Aristophanes Wasps 15–23). On the word-play on ὅπλον in the further meaning of phallus cf. Acharnians 592, also Henderson 19912:110, 123, 248, MacDowell Wasps, 131 ad 27 and 242 ad 823, as well as Sommerstein Wasps, 154 ad 27 and 207 ad 823. Kinesias is also associated in Aristophanes with the dithyramb and κύκλιοι χοροί (Aristophanes Birds 1379, 1388, 1403); in Frogs 152–153 he is named as the composer of a pyrrhikhê. He apparently combined the pyrrhikhê and the dithyramb; κύκλιοι χοροί were also performed on Kos (Segre 1993: ED 52 and 234) at the Dionysia and described as pyrrhikhai (κυκλίων τᾶι πυρρίχαι); cf. Ceccarelli 1995 and Ceccarelli 1998:121–123; on the Pherekrates passage Ceccarelli 1995:295–296 and Ceccarelli 1998:44 with n83; on Kinesias Ceccarelli 1995:293–296 and Ceccarelli 1998:42–44, 124; on the switching of right and left cf. Borthwick 1968:62–65. One may also perhaps think of a mirror image, as Aristotle Acharnians 1128–1131. The verb ἔρριπται (Thesmophoriazusae 829) could be a reflection of the fact that Pyrrhos’ dance leveled Troy to the earth. Lucian The Dance 9 puts it as follows: ἡ ἐκείνου ὀρχηστικὴ καθεῖλεν καὶ εἰς ἔδαφος κατέρριψεν (where the second verb also implies the rapid movement of the shield).

[ back ] 369. The Ephesian prylis dance attested in Callimachus is the aition for the annually performed weapon dances of Lydian maidens at the Ephesia, the subject of the well-known fragment of Autokrates from the Tympanistai. See Calame I 1977:178–183 (English translation Calame 1997:93–96), Dowden 1997:122, and Ceccarelli 1998:135–136. In this fragment the characteristic self-referential terminology of choral dance appears frequently: παίζουσιν, κοῦφα πηδῶσαι, ἐξαίρουσα, ἅλλεται. On the Amazons as a mythic model for girls in initiation, see Dowden 1997. On the Amazons as mythic image of the lack of differentiation in signs, see duBois 1982. For Amazons dancing the pyrrhikhê, see Bron 1996:78–79 and Ceccarelli 1998:22–23, 98–99, 135, 211, especially ills. 72–79 (depictions on Athenian vases). For female initiatory choruses, see Calame I 1977 (English translation Calame 1997) and Lonsdale 1993:169–205.

[ back ] 370. See Turner 1967:93–111. On a distinction in the initiatory model concerning ritual transvestism in the case of the Cretan Ekdysia, see the sound observations of Leitao 1995:136–142. In particular he attacks what he sees as the overly abstract scheme of the structuralists (Vidal-Naquet and Turner). In his opinion, what is at issue is not only an inversion of signs (for example, masculine and feminine), but also a ritual dramatization aimed at the differentiation of social gender roles. When, for example, boys are given feminine clothing in an initiation, the social context needs to be taken into account, namely the fact that youths are closer to women in terms of their social gender role and status than are men. In the transition, these characteristics are emphasized purely in ritual terms, to be then discarded in a celebratory fashion.

[ back ] 371. It is possible that male youth undergoing initiation also provided the personnel for Athenian theatrical choruses; cf. Winkler 1990 for the case of tragedy, which is in fact the object of parody in this comedy. See also Graf 1998:25–27 (also with extension to comedy: 27). Winkler 1990:55ff. furthermore makes a connection between the pyrrhikhê, the theatrical chorus, and the hoplite formation. On the pyrrhikhê as initiatory practice of the male youth, see Lonsdale 1993:137–168, Leitao 1995:134, and Ceccarelli 1998: index s.v. “Efebi,” “Efebia,” “Iniziazione,” “Transizione”; on Sparta and Crete, Ceccarelli 1998:99–115; on initiatory elements in the mythical realm, Ceccarelli 1998:187–218; and on the pyrrhikhê in the theater, Ceccarelli 1998:37–45, 219–225.

[ back ] 372. See Loraux 1981a, Lonsdale 1993:150–152 with nn58–72, and Ceccarelli 1998:202–204 (λόχος as ambush), 204–206 (λόχος as birth). Artemis and Athena are called Λοχία. Evidence for Artemis Lokhia, who protects initiated girls up until the birth of their first child, can be found in Cole 1984:243n62. Athena as Lokhia is implicitly attested in Euripides Ion 452ff. (see Lee 1997:209 ad Euripides Ion 452). The lokhos of the Trojan Horse is like a “birth” from its interior (Lonsdale 1993:150). Orestes’ company, which ambushes and attacks Neoptolemos, is described in Euripides Andromeda 1114 as a ξιφήρης . . . λόχος; Orestes is called Κλυταιμήστρας τόκος in the following line, which forms an end-rhyme with the preceding one. On the emphasis on τόκος in Thesmophoriazusae 843–845, see above, pp. 194–195 and n329; λόχος, like χορός, depends on the locale and on the group that carries out the activity (Lonsdale 1993:139). For a description of Pyrrhos’ fight as pyrrhikhê, see Euripides Andromeda 1114–1146: cf. the excessive movement of the shield as kheironomia (1130–1131) and the movement of the feet (τὸ Τρωικὸν πήδημα πηδήσας ποδοῖν, 1139); he is in fact explicitly associated with this (δεινὰς δ’ ἂν εἶδες πυρρίχας φρουρουμένου | βέλεμνα παιδός, 1135–1136). The hostile band (λόχος) lies in ambush and is “shaded by laurels,” δάφνῃ σκιασθείς (Euripides Andromeda 1114–1115), which may represent a further connection to the σκιάδειον (Thesmophoriazusae 823, 829). Orestes is the leader of the lokhos and is described as “scheme-knitting” (μηχανορράφος, Euripides Andromeda 1116); this adjective also points to the connection between the pyrrhikhê and woolworking. On Orestes as a symbol of the male initiate who during the marginal phases operates using deception and ambush, see Bierl 1994a. Orestes and his men attack Neoptolemos in a circle (κύκλῳ, Euripides Andromeda 1137; on pyrrhikhê as a circular choral dance see above, n368); the latter reacts with the “Trojan leap” (Euripides Andromeda 1139) and further elements of the weapons dance. He thus replies to one pyrrhikhê with another pyrrhikhê. On the widespread idea of a connection between the dance and warfare, cf. carm. pop. fragment 857 PMG and Lucian The Dance 14 (the Thessalians used to call their fighters in the front ranks προορχηστῆρες).

[ back ] 373. See Baudy 1992:44. Choruses of maidens joined the male dancers of the pyrrhikhê and the ephebes singing the paean (Euripides Children of Heracles 777–783). On the communal marriage of all ephebes after completion of the agelê in Crete, see Ephorus, FGrHist 70 F 149 = Strabo 10.4.20, C 482.

[ back ] 374. There is scholarly debate on whether scenes of this type represent a reflection of actual cultic practice or simply a parody; Lonsdale 1993:148 with n43. Epithets from the realm of domestic labor and housekeeping are remarkably frequent on the graves of women; see Brulé 1987:343.

[ back ] 375. See Bowie 1993:184–185; for other mythical and ritual models, 178–204 therein. On women and war, see Graf 1984. Cf. especially the sphagia and oath scene in Aristophanes Lysistrata 181–239, where the aspis is also central (Lysistrata 185, 188, 190). Lysistrata later boasts that she has four lokhoi of armed women inside (τέτταρες λόχοι | μαχίμων γυναικῶν ἔνδον ἐξωπλισμένων, Lysistrata 453–454); see Henderson Lysistrata, 126 ad 453–456, who thinks that women in full armor, apart from depictions of Athena, were only to be seen on the stage or in the symposion, where there were allegedly hetairai who danced the pyrrhikhê in this outfit as a diverting interlude. He relies here on Poursat (1968:586–609, especially 607–609), whose theory of the symposium has now rightly been subjected to reconsideration. For other feminine lokhoi, cf. Aeschylus Eumenides 46 (Erinyes) and Euripides Bacchae 916 (Maenads).

[ back ] 376. Schauenburg 1976:50 ill. 21 (discussion p. 43) and Ceccarelli 1998: nr. 72, pl. X (discussion pp. 62–63). On waterbirds see Autokrates fragment 1 K.-A. (because of their violent movements, the Lydian female dancers of a weapons dance in honor of Artemis are compared to a waterbird [οἷα κίγκλος, line 10] that rapidly moves its tail to and fro like a wagtail [Aelian On the Nature of Animals 12.9]; cf. κιγκλίζω and LSJ s.v.).

[ back ] 377. Ceccarelli 1998:60–62 discusses similar representations; for depictions of female dancers of the pyrrhikhê in general, see 60–67 therein.

[ back ] 378. Bell krater Vienna 732, Pothos Painter, ca. 420 BCE (ARV 1190, 30; Poursat 1968: nr. 41, 592 ill. 45, Ceccarelli 1998: nr. 41, pl. XII with discussion pp. 65–66).

[ back ] 379. Stephanus, In Artem Rhetoricam commentaria 3.8 (Aristotle 1408b36) (in Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca 21.2, p. 317 Rabe): πυρρίχη ἡ ἐνόπλιος, ᾗ χρῶνται οἱ στρατιῶται κατὰ ξιφῶν καὶ μετὰ ξιφῶν κυβιστῶντες καὶ οἱ ἐν ταῖς γαμηλίοις παιδιαῖς παίζοντες μετὰ σπάθης. See Ceccarelli 1998:63 and 208. For παίζειν and παιδιά as concepts belonging to choral dance, see above, Introduction n180.

[ back ] 380. LSJ s.v. 1. Cf. also Aeschylus The Libation Bearers 232 and Moret 1991:243n110. For a feminine sword dance cf. the red-figure depiction of a girl, attributed to the painter Makron, on a fragmentary vase (Malibu, J. P. Getty Museum 86.AE.315); see on this Bron 1996, who also views the scene in an initiatory context. While female dancers of the pyrrhikhê are consistently shown with shield and spear, the sword in this connection is practically unique.

[ back ] 381. Ceccarelli 1998:207–208 also connects the passage in Stephanus of Byzantium with the κούρειον, the hair-offering made to Artemis by boys of ephebic age, and with the γαμηλία, which probably was a sacrifice performed on the day of the Koureotis during the Apatouria by the husband for his young wife upon her acceptance into his phratry. See on this Deubner 1932:232–234 and Parker 1996:105 with n12. Brulé 1987:402–404 interprets Pollux 8.107 differently and argues that the γαμηλία was a very early sacrifice made by the father in front of the phratry in honor of his daughter (aged 5 to 7) as future bride, and could have coincided with her being entered into the list for the Arkteia. One could also simply call a wedding feast for the bridegroom a gamêlia. Bruit Zaidman/Schmitt Pantel 1992:70 remark that it is no coincidence that the ceremony took place exactly nine months after the marriage month, Gamelion, at the Apatouria, which concluded the legal act of marriage. According to Proclus’ commentary on Plato Timaeus 21b, a rhapsodic contest among the young men took place on this day of the Koureotis; perhaps there were also choral dance competitions. Although the transitional phase would already have been concluded, the pyrrhikhê coming at the successful completion of the rite de passage would once more have evoked the dangers of marginality; see Lonsdale 1993:162ff. On the koureion see Cole 1984:233–238 and Schmitt 1977. The belt (see the depiction of a female dancer with belt on the Kanellopoulos pyxis; Schauenburg 1976:50 ill. 21, Ceccarelli 1998, nr. 72, pl. X) is also an ambivalent sign of masculine weaponry and feminine chastity; the dedication of the premarital belt is the symbolic act of preparation for marriage; Schmitt 1977:1062–1064. Women have to lose their first girdle in order to become a wife; after consummation of the marriage they wear the girdle of the married woman; men have to wear a belt as warrior. Ephebes receive the weapon belt as sign of their manhood.

[ back ] 382. Dowden 1997:127.

[ back ] 383. See among others Rosellini 1979, Loraux 1981:157–196, Zeitlin 1981:169–181, Foley 1982 (also on Assemblywomen), Graf 1984 (on other ritual models, with reference to the Lysistrata, 245 and 254n59), and Bowie 1993:178–181, 205–207. Cf. in general Vernant 1990:29–53. On weaving as metaphor for integration into the “social fabric,” i.e. the citizen body, see Calame 1997:57 with n145 and Ceccarelli 1998:111, 113, 149, and 157.

[ back ] 384. See above, n344.

[ back ] 385. On the participation of the whole chorus, see Koester 1835:6 and Hubbard 1991:20 with n21. Normally, however, no motion of the chorus is assumed when it sings. The association with weaving could also be understood as a self-referential reference to choral dance. On the chorus’ weaving, cf. Nonnos’ χοροπλεκής (‘chorus-weaving’) (Nonn. 6.49 and 14.33), Naerebout 1997:278–279, Calame I 1977:77–78 with n63 (English translation Calame 1997:34–35 with n63 [and 57 with n145]), Restani 1995 (on the relationship between music, dance, and weaving), Nagy 1996:65 (on weaving of song), and Ceccarelli 1998:111–112 with n104.

[ back ] 386. On the symbolic and visual dimension of choral dance, see Golder 1996. Golder even goes so far as to describe individual poses by the chorus on the basis of the art of the day. The dance skhêmata, like synaesthetically translated tableaux vivants, intensify the symbolic message (especially ibid., 11). On the Dionysiac pyrrhikhê, cf. Athenaeus 631a–b and Ceccarelli 1998:67–72. On the performance by choruses of pyrrhikhê dancers in circles at the Dionysia on Kos (Segre 1993: ED 234), see Ceccarelli 1995. There is also a similarity in terms of rhythm and metre between the pnigos and the pyrrhikhê, whose most common form used the catalectic anapaestic dimeter with numerous resolutions and in terms of rhythm remained open to the dactylic in order to make use of the κατ’ ἐνόπλιον (cf. Ceccarelli 1998:167–177). The catalectic anapaestic dimeter concludes the pnigos (Thesmophoriazusae 829) with the central term τὸ σκιάδειον, which in line 823 already forms a monometer and is thus brought to the fore.

[ back ] 387. Cf. Frontisi-Ducroux/Lissarrague 1990. They describe the kômos as a dance in which the collective acts in completely uncoordinated fashion and each carries out his own ecstatic movements (227).

[ back ] 388. Bowie 1993:162 also sees in the skiadeion an allusion to the procession under the canopy at the Skira. On the parasol see also Dunbar Birds, 698 ad 1508–1509.

[ back ] 389. Cf. the connection with the Panathenaia: Peisetairos ends the dialogue by adding that Prometheus should also take the δίφρος as diphrophoros (Birds 1552). Cf. Dunbar Birds, 709–710 ad 1550–1551 and 1552 with list of sources; Harpocr., s.v. σκαφηφόροι, quotes Demetrios of Phaleron (FGrHist 228 F 5), who thinks that according to a legal provision metics had to carry σκάφαι and their daughters water vessels (ὑδρεῖα) and parasols (σκιάδια); Aelian Various History 6.1: τὰς γοῦν παρθένους τῶν μετοίκων σκιαδηφορεῖν ἐν ταῖς πομπαῖς ἠνάγκαζον [i.e. οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι]; cf. Pollux 3.55 and 7.174. In the following song by the chorus of birds about the realm of the Shadowfeet, the word σκιάδειον is possibly taken up by association (so already Rogers Birds, ad. loc.); cf. Dunbar Birds, 711 ad 1553–1555.

[ back ] 390. The cutting off of the Olympians from their supply of sacrificial victims is additionally compared with fasting at the Thesmophoria (Birds 1519).

[ back ] 391. On the Panathenaia as festival of the new fire, see Robertson 1985; on the Promethia as an original procession by torchlight that departed from an altar in the Akademia and served as the model for the torchlight run at the Panathenaia, Robertson 1985:259–260 and 281–288.

[ back ] 392. For Kleonymos as “shield-abandoner” see the testimonia in Dunbar Birds, 238 ad 289–290.

[ back ] 393. See above, n372. Prometheus goes underneath a parasol (cf. Dunbar Birds, 695 ad 1494–1509) and is also “wrapped up” (συγκαλυμμός, Birds 1496; cf. ἐκκεκαλύψομαι, Birds 1503) (see Agosti 1987/88). For a good mythical and ritual interpretation of the Birds, see Auffarth 1994 (he connects the comedy, as Craik 1987 already does, with the Anthesteria and interprets Prometheus as a trickster figure [76ff.]); cf. also Bowie 1993:151–177.

[ back ] 394. I reproduce here Coulon’s text. Cf. the quite different interpretation of Dunbar Birds, 692–693 ad 1490–1493. With MSS. AMS she reads τἀπιδέξια, “paralysed all down his right side,” and connects this with attacks by certain heroes who could give their opponents a stroke (so also Hofmann 1976:205); in Aristophanes Heroes fragment 322, especially 4–7 K.-A., they release as ταμίαι | τῶν κακῶν καὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν (4–5) all manner of illnesses upon evildoers (such as κλέπτας καὶ λωποδύτας, 6; cf. Thesmophoriazusae 810–818, especially λωποδύτας, 817). On the question of whether the figure of Orestes (as in Acharnians 1162ff. and Birds 712) is meant to be the mythical hero of the festival of Khoes or a historical and notorious highwayman, see Hofmann 1976:200–206, who wants to separate the two figures and sees in this Orestes “einen ganz und gar unheroischen Wegelagerer, der dank seines mythologischen Gattungsnamens zum Heros emporstilisiert wird” [“a completely unheroic highwayman who owing to his mythological generic name is elevated to the status of hero”] (205). With Henrichs 1991:192n67, I assume a comic and associative overlapping of both figures. One could also understand lines 1492–1493 in the following way: “unprotected all down his right side, he was hit by him,” or: “completely naked/unprotected, he was hit by him with a blow to the right” (perhaps also “on the right side,” ἐπὶ δεξιᾷ). On nudity in the pyrrhikhê, cf. Aristophanes Clouds 989 and Ceccarelli 1998:49 and 51–52.

[ back ] 395. In the case of the pyrrhikhê, beside the aspects of initiation, which stands unequivocally in the foreground, and of the new year, which is completely peripheral, the increase of agricultural fertility can also be observed. In the description of the six weapon dances performed by Xenophon’s soldiers at a reception for Paphlagonian messengers (Anabasis 6.1.5–13), in second place comes the harvest dance (καρπαία) of the contingents from Ainis and Magnesia. The mimetic dance concerns a confrontation between a robber and a farmer, who defends himself while he is sowing and plowing with a team of oxen (Xenephon Anabasis 6.1.7–9). All six presentations are staged by people from Greek marginal areas and represent to a certain extent only a marginal Greek-ness; the performance of the Thracians, that of the Ainians and Magnesians (i.e. Thessalians), both dances by the Mysian, and the entry of the people from Mantineia and Arcadia culminate in the pyrrhikhê danced by a slave-girl owned by an Arcadian. Cf. Ceccarelli 1998:20–21.

[ back ] 396. See above, p. 204 and Deubner 1932:47.

[ back ] 397. Camps-Gaset 1994:140–142 particularly stresses the political character of the Thesmophoria, in the sense of the conveying of Athenian citizenship. Before marriage, she emphasizes, it is Athena who protects the citizen status of girls. Demeter takes over this function after marriage: “En revanche, les fêtes de Déméter représentent la confirmation—et l’affirmation—de ce statut civique qui comporte la sécurité et la garantie pour la cité qu’il y aura toujours des Athéniens et que la femme—ce mal ambigu, donné par les dieux—se maintient dans un ordre civilisé, celui d’Athéna et de Poseidon, celui de la famille et de la sexualité légitime” [“On the other hand, the festivals of Demeter represent the confirmation—and the affirmation—of the civic status that means security and the guarantee for the city that it will always have Athenians and that women—that ambiguous evil given by the gods—will abide by the civilized order, that of Athena and Poseidon, that of the family and lawful sexuality”] (142).

[ back ] 398. Certain commentators in fact insist on the idea that the Thesmophoria was also a festival of initiation; see Jeanmaire 1939:269–282, 296–307, Johansen 1975, Lincoln 1979, and Baudy 1992:24 with n132; now also Kledt 2004:114–147, especially 115–120. For a critical discussion of the initiation theory, see Versnel 1993:253–254 with n88. Sfameni Gasparro 1986:280–283, especially 282, sums up the state of affairs: she thinks it is in fact incorrect to speak of an actual initiation in the case of the Thesmophoria, but that there are clear typological analogies to initiation throughout. See above, n75.

[ back ] 399. Pan is connected with these rites of Athena through the cave of Pan on the precipitous north face of the Acropolis, down which the Arrhephoroi descended with their baskets. Cf. Euripides Ion 492–494.

[ back ] 400. Cf. Baudy 1986:9–48 and Baudy 1992:31–40.

[ back ] 401. Suda, s.v. Προτέλεια· ἡμέραν οὕτως ὀνομάζουσιν, ἐν ᾗ εἰς τὴν ἀκρόπολιν τὴν γαμουμένην παρθένον ἄγουσιν οἱ γονεῖς εἰς τὴν θεὸν καὶ θυσίας ἐπιτελοῦσι. According to Deubner 1932:16 it remains questionable whether by “goddess” Artemis is meant. After a wedding the priestess of Athena visited the newly married wife (Suda, s.v. αἰγίς). At the birth of a child the priestess received a khoinix of barley, a khoinix of wheat, and an obol—likewise when an inhabitant died. On other connections between Athena and the blessing of marriage and child, see Deubner 1932:16–17. The connection with agriculture is further attested by the Prokharisteria. At the end of winter, when the grain began to sprout, this sacrifice, associated with the return of Kore (see Suda, s.v. Προχαριστήρια), was made to Athena.

[ back ] 402. Cf. μηχανορράφος, Euripides Andromeda 1116; on cunning and deception in initiation, see Vidal-Naquet 1968:111–113, 120 (PCPS n.s. 14 [194] [1968], 53–54, 61–62), Moreau 1992:210–211, and Bierl 1994a:89–90 with 154–155 nn47–50.

[ back ] 403. Cf. Rau 1967:53–65 (Helen parody), 65–89 (Andromeda parody). On parody of the four Euripidean dramas Telephos, Palamedes, Helen, and Andromeda, see Zeitlin 1981:181–194. She remarks that the relative plays a masculine role in women’s clothing in the first two scenes, while after the parabasis he assumes feminine roles and thereby ultimately entices Euripides for the desired sotêria; Zeitlin (1981:182) interprets the “successive insertion” of parodies as “metatheatrical variants” of the comic intruders who are ridiculed and driven out by the comic hero. See now also Tzanetou 2002:339–351.

[ back ] 404. Zeitlin 1981:194–200. Gruber 1986 (especially 14 [study of situations of social conflict], 19–20 [threshold situation and “metatheater”], and 37 [playing out of conflicts between the sexes in the Thesmophoriazusae]) and Bowie 1993:205–227 are extensively based on Zeitlin’s findings. On the “metatheatricality” of the Thesmophoriazusae, see also Bonanno 1990:256–261 (on the Helen and Andromeda) and Bierl 1991:172–176. Bowie 1993:212–217 emphasizes the myth of Demeter and Kore as reference model; he does not go into other heortological connections. He treats (ibid., 215) the relative as a comic Persephone, and sees Persephone’s role as divided between the dancer Teredon (sic!) and the relative, who is freed by Euripides in the form of Demeter (216). See now also Tzanetou 2002:339–359.

[ back ] 405. Zeitlin 1981:199. On Euripides Helen 1301–1368 see Bierl 1991:163–172. On Helen as Kore/Persephone see Guépin 1968:120–122, 128–133, 137–142 and Foley 1992.

[ back ] 406. Disputes about ritual, in particular the relationship of the Kore myth to initiation (also in the reception of theories in Bowie 1993:205–227) are simply not discussed further in Zeitlin 1981. See, however, her contemporaneous piece (Zeitlin 1982), which concentrates on ritual and in which the structural and dialectic connection of the Thesmophoria to the Arrhephoria is discussed (150–153). Harrison 19223:131 already calls the Arrhephoria “the Thesmophoria of the unmarried girl.” On the contested initiatory interpretation of the Thesmophoria, see above, nn75 and 398; on the myth of Persephone in the sense of a female initiation and as aetiology for the Thesmophoria and Haloa, see Lincoln 1979. See now also Kledt 2004:34–36, 38–57.

[ back ] 407. The Telephus parody, together with the abduction of the baby, may also be connected with this; the relative while still in his role as woman parodies the role of the man Telephos; he wants to steal the baby Orestes (the model for male initiation), who is here in the women’s festival presented as a girl, but turns out to be a wineskin (Thesmophoriazusae 733–734: ἀσκὸς ἐγένεθ’ ἡ κόρη | οἴνου πλέως), which is finally sacrificed. Here all levels of meaning have been comically inverted. As Arrhêphoros he steals the “female” baby Erichthonius, whom the hero, as he undergoes initiation and oscillates in the liminal space between Orestes and Kore, finally himself becomes. The diachronic structure and relations have become distorted. On wine at the Thesmophoria, or at the analogous Roman festival of Bona Dea, see Versnel 1993:262–268. The abduction has so far generally been read as a reflex of the abduction of Kore; Zeitlin 1981:197.

[ back ] 408. See Sourvinou-Inwood 1988:128, in general 119–135.

[ back ] 409. See Hansen 1976:170 and Zeitlin 1981:196.

[ back ] 410. On Dionysus and the krokôtos see above, n168; on Dionysus in women’s clothing, see Kenner 1970:119n460 and Bremmer 1992:189–194 (in connection with initiation, 194–198). On Artemis and the girls at Brauron wearing the krokôtos, see Sourvinou-Inwood 1988:119–135. On Demeter and saffron, see Bowie 1993:215n51.

[ back ] 411. On Lysistrata 642 (or 641)–647, see especially Sourvinou-Inwood 1988:136–152, on the ἀλετρίς, 142–146. On the basis of the scholia this office is normally associated with Athena (Brelich 1969:238–240 and Henderson Lysistrata, 156 ad 643–644).

[ back ] 412. In Lycophron Alexandra 771–773 Penelope is described as a whore (ἡ δὲ βασσάρα, | σεμνῶς κασωρεύουσα, 771–772). According to Duris of Samos, FGrHist 76 F 21 (= schol. Lycophron Alexandra 772), she gives herself to all the suitors and so gives birth to the shady god Pan (already in Pindar fragment 100 S.-M. he is the result of the union between Apollo and Penelope; according to Herodotus 2.145–144 her sexual partner is Hermes). Tzetzes attempts to rationalize away the negative characterization by going on to say in the scholion that this was about another Penelope (Πηνελόπης ἄλλης). As in the case of Helen, the contradiction experienced as a paradox in the Greek image of women is here done away with by means of a doubling. On Penelope see Papadopoulou-Belmehdi 1994 and Ceccarelli 1995a:181.

[ back ] 413. Des Bouvrie 1990:289–313 interprets the tragedy as the “ ‘symbolic’ establishment of marriage, marital fidelity and female chastity” (313). In her opinion, Dionysiac tragedy dissolves the institution of marriage; anagnôrisis brings the separated partners together once more, and the successful flight to Sparta refounds the marriage.

[ back ] 414. Foley 1992, following Zeitlin, explores connections between Helen as she appears in Euripides’ play and Persephone and the cult of Demeter, while at the same time also viewing Helen as a figure of initiation (145–146). On Helen’s initiatory function see Calame I 1977:333–350, 354–357, 443, 447 (English translation Calame 1997:191–202, 204–206, 260, 262). For Helen as khorêgos who outshines her companions because her initiation has been concluded, see Calame I 1977:92, 127n170, 136, 345–346, 397–398 (English translation Calame 1997:42–43, 65n170, 70, 199, 229–230). Theocritus Idylls 18 gives an aition for a Spartan tree cult in which maidens celebrate Helen; Gow II 1950/52:358 ad 43–48. At Platanistas on the Eurotas Helen was celebrated with a running race and dances as the embodiment of a maiden who has completed the initiatory phase and is ready for marriage; in Therapne, however, the aspect of the married woman and goddess had central place; her husband Menelaos was also honored there; cf. Calame I 1977:333–350 (English translation Calame 1997:191–202) and Larson 1995:80–81.

[ back ] 415. See Kannicht II 1969:381–383 and Calame I 1977:323–333 (English translation Calame 1997:185–191); Larson 1995:64–69 has reservations about this theory (especially 67–68) and thinks that the cult of the Leukippidai had to do with the initiation not of maidens but of ephebes. Penelope (mentioned in Thesmophoriazusae 547–550) like Helen fluctuates between the faithful wife and the chaste virgin who prepares herself for marriage; the weaving of the peplos and her scheme in the Odyssey (Homer Odyssey 19.137ff.) can be linked with the activity of the ergastinai. On the trick at the loom and on Penelope’s name see Hölscher 19892:46 and 325n6; see also Brulé 1987:35, 116, 344; for a connection between the Leukippidai and ritual weaving, the manufacture of a khitôn for Apollo in Amyklai as preparation for the Hyakinthia, see Pausanius 3.16.2 and Pettersson 1992:40.

[ back ] 416. On the one hand Helen and Menelaos are a married couple; on the other, the plot as mythical preparation for marriage leads toward the successful completion of female initiation. The barbarian locale of Egypt refers to the condition of marginality. The streams of the Nile are significantly referred to as καλλιπάρθενοι, “virgin-beautiful” (Thesmophoriazusae 855). Perhaps the cultic Helen could also renew her virginity symbolically, as she does in Euripides; on Helen’s loutron cf. Pausanius 2.2.3 and Foley 1992:158n71. The καλλιπάρθενοι ῥοαί (Thesmophoriazusae 855) are possibly an allusion to this. In Euripides Helen 543 Helen regards herself as δρομαία πῶλος ἢ Βάκχη θεοῦ when she sees Menelaos for the first time; cf. Aristophanes Lysistrata 1307, and for the filly as metaphor for young woman undergoing initiation, see Calame I 1977:340, 411–420 (English translation Calame 1997:195, 238–244), Henderson Lysistrata, 221 ad 1307–1308, and Versnel 1993:278n168. The comparison with a bacchant could come from the Dionysiadai, who are connected with the Leukippidai; cf. Calame I 1977:323–333 (English translation Calame 1997:185–191); the priestesses of the Leukippidai, also termed πῶλοι, are associated with Dionysos Kolonatas. On the role of Dionysus in initiation, see Foley 1992:157n62 and Seaford 1988:124–128. On the metaphor of taming the woman through the act of marriage, as if she were a wild beast, see the collection of verbs in Seaford 1987:111. This idea reflects the fundamental ambivalence of women, whose wild side is domesticated by marriage; see Versnel 1993:276–288.

[ back ] 417. On the role of the maidenly Theonoe, who represents the righteous matter of marital fidelity, see des Bouvrie 1990:311–312. As Nereus’ granddaughter she is just as maidenly as the Nereids and Nymphs (cf. Thesmophoriazusae 325–326) who serve as a model for the chorus. Kritylla is however completely grounded in the reality of the festival; her role as thesmophoriazousa who is temporarily taken back to maidenhood is of course completely identical to the status of Theonoe.

[ back ] 418. See Calame I 1977:344–345 (English translation Calame 1997:198–199). In terms of his second level of identity as male ephebe, the relative is also associated through the Spartan perspective with the Spartan cycle of the Hyakinthia/Gymnopaidia and Karneia. The festive cycle is comparable to the Athenian new year cycle in July/August; in particular, the central khoreia may be compared with the current performance of the Athenian citizens. At the Hyakinthia, choral dance served as preparation for marriage and the selection of a bride (Polykrates, FGrHist 588 F 1, cited in Athenaeus 139c–f); at the Gymnopaidia, it is a symbolic expression using body language of the marginality of the transitional phase (Plato Laws 633c, Plutarch Ages 29.2–3, Paus. 3.11.9); at the Karneia, by contrast, the activity of the chorus members underscores renewal (Euripides Alcestis 445–451) and collective marriage (choruses of men and women dance together in Cyrene; Callimachus Hymns 2.71–87). On the festive cycle in Sparta, see Pettersson 1992, passim, especially on choral dance at the Gymnopaidia, 45–55; at the Karneia, 77. Athenaeus (631b) says the gymnopaidikê was performed naked and that variations thereof represented oschophoric and Bacchic dances. This form is thus ultimately traceable back to Dionysus, the god of comic performance. For choral dance as expression of initiation, see Calame I 1977:439–449 (English translation Calame 1997:258–263), Harrison 19272:23–25, Jeanmaire 1939:182ff., 531–540, Brelich 1969:32, 38–39, 75n71, 94n128, 108n152, 139–140, 171–173, 187–191, Moreau 1992:208–210, and Pettersson 1992:48–51. Among others neaniskoi danced at the Hyakinthia. The eirenes (twenty-year-olds) received a red cloak and a shield (!) as token of their new military status (Xenophon The Constitution of Sparta 11.3). The mimesis of Helen with the emphasis on feminine characteristics points to the fact that, on the fictional level at least, the transgressions of women into the preserve of the male warrior (pyrrhikhê) are thereby overcome and the women at the Thesmophoria now concentrate solely on imminent wedding as the aim of the comedy and of the festival. Pettersson 1992:38–40 also connects the Hyakinthia with female initiation rites: he associates the triad Demeter–Kore–Pluto on the altar at Amyklai, as described by Pausanias (3.19.3–5), with Polyboia’s transition from the status of maiden to adult (death of the maiden!). He interprets Hyakinthos as Polyboia’s father; he then plays a similar role to Kepheus in Andromeda’s initiation. The gymnopaidikê as well as the pyrrhikhê were of course also performed in Athens. According to Athenaeus 630e, the gymnopaidikê is comparable with the tragic emmeleia because of its ceremonial and solemn movements. This means that in tragic parodies the initiatory hero is brought close to the tragic mode of dance. The chorus is also drawn into the tragic sphere through its interaction with the hero.

[ back ] 419. Van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 121 ad 935. Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 217 ad 935 further interprets “a sail-stitching fellow” as a shabby man dressed in sailcloth stitched together in makeshift fashion. Presumably he has in mind Euripidean figures such as Telephos.

[ back ] 420. The reference to Egypt in the scholion to Thesmophoriazusae 935 could also be connected with the inverted world there as described by Herodotus. 2.35. The women go to the agora, while the men sit at the loom. This corresponds precisely to the upside-down world of comedy, of the ritual attached to the Thesmophoria, and to states of inversion during initiation.

[ back ] 421. Cf. Thesmophoriazusae 138, 253, 941, 945, 1044, and 1220.

[ back ] 422. Sourvinou-Inwood 1988:127–130.

[ back ] 423. Sourvinou-Inwood 1988:130–134; she refers to the parallels in Lys. 644–645 (in R’s reconstruction καταχέουσα) and Aeschylus Agamemnon 239 (κρόκου βαφὰς δ’ ἐς πέδον χέουσα). On the state of scholarship, see Sourvinou-Inwood 1988:68n1; in Lysistrata 644–645 the transmitted reading χέουσα (καὶ χέουσα, Stinton) stands in opposition to the conventional interpretation of Γ κατέχουσα, or the emendation of Ellebodius and Bentley κᾆτ’ ἔχουσα. Cf. also Henderson Lysistrata, 156 ad 645, who adopts Stinton’s καὶ χέουσα for his text. Iphigenia is in particular the archetypal bear of Artemis, cf. schol. Lysistrata 645 and Brelich 1969:242ff.; on the aetiology and on the Brauronia in general, see Brelich 1969:241–268 and Brulé 1987:179–283, and on Iphigenia in the context of initiation, Dowden 1989:9–47. Iphigenia, like Helen, is also the model of the maiden undergoing initiation immediately before marriage. On Helen, who is abducted as a young pretty girl by Theseus, see Brulé 1987:98, 289–290, 297 and Sourvinou-Inwood 1988:52–53. The girl is represented as a sexually mature woman on the threshold of marriage, despite her tender age of seven years. For the Greek conception of woman in general, see Carson 1990. A woman’s bloom coincides with the transition to marriage (Carson 1990:146–147). For the anakalyptêria on the wedding night as an opening up of female borders and of making oneself available, see Carson 1990:163–164.

[ back ] 424. For the staging of the Helen myth on the bodily level, see Worman 1997. On the body as a central area of play with the opposite sex, see also Zeitlin 1990:71–75. On the body in general as the place where ritual as the ideological praxis of society is enacted, see Bell 1992:94–101 and 197–223, especially 201–204. Here Bell draws particularly on Michel Foucault; cf. in particular Foucault 1979:1–69, especially 32–69 (“The Spectacle of the Scaffold”), where execution is presented as a communal festival, a spectacular performance, and a ritual that is carried out on the body of the condemned.

[ back ] 425. See Worman 1997:161–162 and Henderson Lysistrata, 86 ad 155–156. This may also be read as a further reference to the central image of the parabasis (Thesmophoriazusae 821–829). Women are better than men because their attractiveness enables them to cause men to throw away their weapons. On the krokôtos in the Lysistrata, cf. lines 42–48 and 219–220. The garment has the power of sexual attraction; as ambivalent sign it is worn both by prostitutes and by chaste virgins. From a male perspective one could also say that the Spartan relative/Helen perhaps alludes to the Gymnopaidia with his reference to nudity; cf. n418. Nudity here, as in the case of the girls, means a lack of identity. The dancers are still in a liminal status, which will be overcome only with the Karneia and their marriage.

[ back ] 426. On the word “weapon” in the sense of phallus, see Henderson 19912:110, 123, 248 and above, n368.

[ back ] 427. On dance as a characteristic element in initiation, see Jeanmaire 1939:182ff.; he sums up the connection succinctly in the following pregnant expression: “Etre initié, c’est «être dansé»” [“To be initiated is to be ‘danced’ ”] (183). This also holds for the relative. See also Moreau 1992:208–210 and the further literary citations above, n418.

[ back ] 428. The chorus thus also emphasizes that this is still during the Nesteia, the day of fasting (947–952). The transition to the Kalligeneia, on which day the institution of marriage is once more instituted, is not yet complete. The relative’s remark that as an old man in this disguise he will become an object of laughter for the crows, which he ceremoniously feeds (ἑστιῶν, 942), stands in humorous contrast to this. He thereby presents himself in paratragic fashion as a human sacrifice that will be served up to the hungry crows—who in this case are the wild women. On diasparagmos by birds in tragedy, cf. e.g. Aeschylus Suppliants 801, Sophocles Antigone 1017–1018, and Euripides Ion 504–506, 902–904, 917. Van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 121 ad 942 notes that Θεσμοφόρια ἑστιᾶν (cf. Isaeus 3.80) might have been a term for the sacrificial meal at the Kalligeneia. In the second Thesmophoriazusae of Aristophanes a catalogue of tasty dishes is recited (fragment 333 K.-A.). And every comedy ends with a celebration involving eating and drinking. In addition, the curse ἐς κόρακας is comically reworked (κόραξιν instead of οἰωνοῖς). Line 942 is taken up again in the lament (1026–1028): the Scythian has hung him/her (Andromeda) up as a baneful and joyless meal for the crows.

[ back ] 429. On the scene see Mitsdörffer 1954, Rau 1967:65–89, Zeitlin 1981:190–194, Zimmermann II 1985:7–13, Hall 1989, Sier 1992, and Parker 1997:436–445. On the Andromeda of Euripides, see Bubel 1991 (with the critical review by Bierl, BMCR 3.6 [1992], 429–434) and Klimek-Winter 1993:55–315. On the parody in the scene on the visual level, see Golder 1996:10–11.

[ back ] 430. On the Andromeda as typical initiatory situation, see Bierl, BMCR 3.6 (1992), 431–432 (with references). The threat of being devoured by a monster is a characteristic indication of initiation: cf. Moreau 1992, especially 221–225, on Andromeda and the κῆτος ibid., 224; cf. also the comparative morphology of initiation in Brelich 1969:37 and 90n 116. On the topos of marriage with Hades in tragic marriage, see Seaford 1987. On the possible resolution of the Danaid trilogy by the institution of the Thesmophoria, see ibid., 110–119, especially 115–116; Herodotus (2.171) says that the festival was founded by the Danaids from Egypt. On the Danaids and the Thesmophoria, see also Detienne 1988 and Zeitlin 1992:234–238. Mourning, death, and antisexual impulse configure the sequence from abstinence to fruitful sexual union. On Andromeda as bride of Hades, cf. Thesmophoriazusae 1019 (?) (on the basis of many conjectures, cf. Klimek-Winter 1993:154–155), 1040, 1055. On the association of funerary lament and lament before marriage, see Alexiou 1974:120–122 and Seaford 1987:113–114. Conversely, Perseus’ action is also interpreted as an initiatory trial; cf. Burkert 1992:82–87, especially 85 and Bremmer 1994:62. Perseus’ monosandalismos can equally be seen as an indication of marginality in initiation; on this see Henderson Lysistrata, 159 ad 667–669. Ginzburg 1989:239–242 presents another interpretation, associating Perseus with shaman-like figures of myth. The signifier of monosandalismos is characterized by a polysemy, and refers only indirectly to a signified. Signs of initiation and underworld thus do not contradict each other, acccording to Ginzburg: both refer to marginality and liminality. Cf. ibid., 235–295 (on the characteristic sequence of the asymmetric gait).

[ back ] 431. Cf. Rose 1993, who stresses the metafictional quality and comedy of the moment.

[ back ] 432. Cf. Möllendorff 1995:262–263: “Die moderne Parodieforschung ist sich weitgehend darin einig, daß die parodistische Bezugnahme eines Textes auf einen anderen keineswegs ausschließlich satirisch funktionalisierbar, also einseitig ausgerichtet ist; vielmehr problematisiert die Parodie die naive Auffassung, ein Sprecher könne mithilfe der Sprache die innere oder die äußere Wirklichkeit mimetisch abbilden, indem sie das sprechende Subjekt in die Äußerung hereinzieht und es gewissermaßen aus der Sicht des parodierten Textes betrachtet: denn sie integriert in ihre aktuelle Äußerung ein fremdes Wort mit einem fremden sprechenden Subjekt, so daß die hierarchischen Positionen von Autor und Held der parodistischen Äußerung aus der Sicht des Rezipienten potentiell vertauschbar sind, also auf eine Ebene gesetzt werden” [“Modern scholarship on parody largely agrees on the fact that the parodic reference of one text to another does not function exclusively as satire and is thus not configured as a one-way process; rather, parody problematizes the naïve approach that a speaker using language is able to picture the inner or outer reality in mimetic fashion by incorporating the speaking subject into the utterance and by considering it in a sense from the point of view of the parodied text; for it integrates into its current utterance a foreign word with a foreign-speaking subject, so that the hierarchical positions of author and hero of the parodic utterance are potentially interchangeable from the point of view of the recipient, and are thus placed on the same level”]. This is however viewed in terms of a polyphonic, postmodern discourse that is in large part foreign to Bakhtin himself. In this connection it is worth noting that there were attempts in the former Soviet Union to explain parody as a ritual and cultic phenomenon; see Freidenberg 1974. Freidenberg (275–276) also turns his attention to Aristophanes and in fact discusses the parody of the Thesmophoria (Thesmophoriazusae 295ff.). In his opinion (and following Aristotle), tragedy and comedy go back to a shared orginal form: the comic forms a double to the high-brow. The relative thus here also forms a comic discourse with the ritually elevated quality of Euripides’ tragedy. Nesselrath 1993 relies on the traditional concept of parody; in so doing he shows how strongly influenced the development of comedy was by the element of mythic parody or travesty (see also Nesselrath 1990:188–241); comedy thus always represented a dialogue with elevated myth: the comic double is clearly based on the same narrative and ritual plot elements. On parody and intertextuality, see also Verweyen/Witting 1982 and Glei 1992 (from the perspective of classical philology).

[ back ] 433. See the good analysis by Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 224 ad 1015. With Euripides too, who immediately thereafter perhaps even takes over the wide-ranging and playful role of Echo (cf. however the reservation expressed above, n122) and leaves the conventional discourse completely (Rau 1967:84), as with the relative, it is striking that both, in contrast to the case in the previous Helen parody, partially lose sight of the direction of the plot in the sense of a logical and syntagmatic development, as is characteristic of tragedy. This is caused by the absence of role identity and by paradigmatic interludes typical of comedy. Although the Scythian disappears off-stage for rather a long time in order to get himself a mat, the escape, the releasing of the bonds, is not simply translated into action. Cf. Möllendorff 1995:251. Nevertheless, in contrast to earlier scholarship, I see throughout this entire passage a meaning that goes beyond mere parody.

[ back ] 434. The word συγγόνων (1039) in the text of the Andromeda refers to the father, Kepheus, and his family; in the comedy it refers to Euripides.

[ back ] 435. This wish refers back to the maiden’s lament that she will die without the wedding paean (γαμηλίῳ μὲν οὐ ξὺν | παιῶνι, 1034–1035); the marginality of the immediately prior situation could be overcome through marriage.

[ back ] 436. Bethe 1907. Cf. Calame I 1977:421–427 (English translation Calame 1997:245–249), Cartledge 1981, Bremmer 1980, and Bremmer 1990. Xenophon The Constitution of Sparta 2.12–14 admittedly emphasizes that according to Lycurgus the relationship between erastês and erômenos should not be sexual in nature, yet everything points to the fact that in reality it was in fact built on this. On the phenomenon of Greek homosexuality in general, see Dover 19892, passim, and on the Dorians 185–196.

[ back ] 437. See the brief preview of the plot, above, p. 129.

[ back ] 438. See Klimek-Winter 1993:153 and Mitsdörffer 1954:67.

[ back ] 439. Zeitlin 1981:190–191.

[ back ] 440. In line 1018 in the original Echo is of course addressed (cf. schol. Thesmophoriazusae 1018); line 1029 (ὁρᾷς) is according to Rau 1967:73 still directed at Echo; according to Klimek-Winter 1993:179–180 ὁρᾷς is however a “mere colloquialism.” He thinks that it is here superfluous to try to determine the addressee. But when it comes to the Euripidean Andromeda he maintains that ὁρᾷς is not colloquial, but should be taken as an apostrophe to the chorus (ibid., 180). In my opinion, one cannot separate out the function quite so neatly; in the parody the connection is flexible, especially since the address to the chorus here becomes particularly paradoxical.

[ back ] 441. Cf. among others Calame I 1977, especially 439–449 (English translation Calame 1997, especially 258–263). There-fore the lament in the Euripidean text is not simply about “[d]ie wehmütige Erinnerung der tragischen Heldin oder des weiblichen Chores an die Reigenspiele der Jugend” [“the tragic heroine or female chorus’ sorrowful reminiscences of childhood dancing and playing in a circle”] (Mitsdörffer 1954:77). Klimek-Winter 1993:181–182 (with many parallel passages) correctly reckons that what is at issue here is the loss of what for a Greek woman represents the world that both determines and is necessary for existence. Nevertheless, he too does not recognize the dramatization of the critical moment of marriage as a death-experience.

[ back ] 442. Rau 1967:74 with n133, where the meaning of κημός as feminine ornament (following Hesychius) is rejected as “incorrect.”

[ back ] 443. The feminine form ἔχουσ’ (1031) makes the contrast with the masculine voting basket particularly grotesque; at the same time the female significance of the object asserts itself over the male. On the probable change παρὰ προσδοκίαν from an original κῶμον to κημόν, see Mitsdörffer 1954:78 and Rau 1967:74.

[ back ] 444. See above, n430 and Contiades-Tsitsoni 1990:112, 124. Death is often presented as marriage in Hades. Many funerary laments resemble wedding songs that sing of the separation of the girl from her parental home. See also Danforth 1982:86 and further Rehm 1994, especially 11–42, with the critical review by Zeitlin, BMCR 5.7 (1994), 612–618, especially 614: “What R.[ehm] might have noted, however, is that these similarities are not just conflations but derive from the parallel nature of two rites de passage, whose function in each case was to assure separation from a previous status and incorporation into a new one.” Rehm’s (1994:121–127, especially 126) analysis of the Helen in this connection as criticism of the Sicilian expedition (cf. also Rehm 1996:57–58) is disappointing.

[ back ] 445. On the interaction of the chorus with the hero and the chorus’ presence and absence as dramaturgical tool, see Rehm 1996. See also Gruber 1986:37–38, who observes (37) that the hero has to get the chorus on his side and that this can happen only by using a clever piece of acting.

[ back ] 446. See Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 231 ad 1142. In Euripides Iphigenia in Tauris 1462–1463 Athena in her function as dea ex machina orders Iphigenia as priestess to exercise her key-holding function (κλῃδουχεῖν) for Artemis in Brauron. Iphigenia is the mythic model for the “bears,” who prepare themselves by weaving and dance in the periphery during their service to Artemis, just as the Arrhephoroi on the Acropolis do in the service of Athena. Iphigenia is also practically synonymous with Kalligeneia, “the beautifully born one”; see Dowden 1989:46. The personification Kalligeneia is of course celebrated as Demeter’s wet-nurse on the third day of the Thesmophoria, which bears the same name. Beauty is the most important prerequisite for marriage. Young girls and boys interact both at the Tauropolia at Halai and at the Arkteia at Mounikhia and Brauron. The choruses at the pannykhis at the Tauropolia bring together women and girls, who are accepted into the community of women in a ceremony by torchlight: see Dowden 1989:33–34. The festival of the Thesmophoria exhibits similar traits, with the distinction that here mature women relive their initiatory experience. In Brauron and at the Tauropolia the pyrrhikhê was also perhaps danced for Artemis by the women. See Brulé 1987:313–314 and Ceccarelli 1998:77–78; on the ephebic pyrrhikhê at Halai and other places in Attica, ibid., 83–87. On the prylis, see above, n369.

[ back ] 447. Hesychius, s.v. εἰρήνη glosses the word with κόρος τέλος. At age twenty the εἴρην did not yet have full citizenship; this he obtained only at thirty, at which age he could marry. From the perspective of the play the marriage (i.e. the return of the relative to his wife) will take place only after the completion of the actual plot. On the eirên, see Pettersson 1992:82–85 and 88–89.

[ back ] 448. See Calame II 1977:118–119 with n141, Clark 1996:166 and above, Introduction n90. Elektra laments that in this impoverished, peasant anti-world she is ἀνέορτος ἱερῶν καὶ χορῶν τητωμένη (Euripides Electra 310). Immediately prior to this she complains that she does not dance at joyous festivals (οὐκ ἐπ’ ἀγλαΐαις, Euripides Electra 175; on choral dance and ἀγλαΐα see below, chapter 2 nn94 and 96) in the circle of Argive girls (οὐδ’ ἱστᾶσα χοροὺς | Ἀργείαις ἅμα νύμφαις | εἱλικτὸν κρούσω πόδ’ ἐμόν, Euripides Electra 178–180). Choral dance is to be equated with a festive atmosphere; despite her marriage to a Mycenaean farmer she has remained a maiden; she is still waiting for her telos; marriage with Pylades, which, like the preparation in the chorus of maidens, will give her “peace,” is only announced at the end of the play. In heortological terms the worship of Eirene is also closely connected with Athena and the Panathenaia, which is important for the Thesmophoriazusae. At the Synoikia, celebrated on the sixteenth of Hekatombaion, there was perhaps already in Aristophanes’ time a sacrifice to Peace personified. The cult is however only attested with certainty from 374 BCE onward; on this see Deubner 1932:36–38 (who thinks it does not exist in the late fifth century).

[ back ] 449. Cf. above, pp. 132–136.

[ back ] 450. The expression “get out of here as quickly as possible like a man” (ὅπως ἀνδρικῶς | . . . τάχιστα φεύξει, 1204–1205), is of course still meant ironically; through such behavior the relative continues to remain effeminate and resembles men who cast off their shields in battle. See Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 236 ad 1204–1205; he refers to the connotation Euripides intended, namely that ἀνδρικῶς means “resolutely.” The expression ὡς τὴν γυναῖκα (1206) is already prepared for in the Andromeda parody (1020–1021): ἔασον ὡς | τὴν γυναῖκά μ’ ἐλθεῖν.

[ back ] 451. On the comparable initiation ritual of the Cretan Ekdysia, in which initiates also took off their female clothing in a festive fashion, see Leitao 1995.

[ back ] 452. On the text of line 1197: συβίνην Brunck (in -νη corr. Blaydes): συβήνην schol. R and Suda, συμβήνην R. Given the sexual word play in line 1215 on βινεῖν (συβίνη· καταβεβίνησο) I accept Brunck’s emendation. Van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 149 ad 1197 cites passages in support of the idea that Artemis Brauronia received this kind of συβήνη as votive offering. See also Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 235 ad 1197 and Wilson 1999:72 with n59, who also see this humor in the variant συβήνην. The word play also depends on the etymology of the substantive, which combines συ (from σῦς, “pig”) and βιν (from βινεῖν, “copulate”); in the case of the reading συβήνην an iotacizing pronounciation may already have been present. The myth has it that the swineherd Eubouleus pastured his animals in the area where Pluto abducted Kore into the underworld; the pigs also fell into the gaping earth. This was the reason, then, that the ritual of throwing piglets into the megara was introduced (schol. Lucian Dialogues of the Courtesans 2.1 [275.26–276.3 Rabe]). In Greek “piglets” may be used as a circumlocution for the genitalia of girls on the threshold of marriage. According to Henderson 19912:132, ὗς (= σῦς) is identical to δέλφαξ, which describes the genitalia of mature women. When the barbarian thinks that he has “banged” (1215) a συβίνη in the truest sense of the word (ὀρτῶς), this is then playing on the fact that the return from χοῖρος to σῦς has been completed and that the women are now seen once more in their adult and fertile condition; ὀρτῶς can further be connected with the erect phallus with which the Scythian completes his work (Henderson 19912:112). On the interpretation of Thesmophoriazusae 1215 see also Henderson 19912:152 and now Prato, 339–340 ad 1215. As the relative is being shaved, he compares himself to a piglet (οἴμοι κακοδαίμων, δελφάκιον γενήσομαι, Thesmophoriazusae 237); with these words he introduces his staged phase of female initiation. See in general also Versnel 1993:256–260, especially 256–257.

[ back ] 453. Möllendorff 1995:246–247.

[ back ] 454. Süss 1954:158–159.

[ back ] 455. See Möllendorff 1995:252n85.

[ back ] 456. See among others Gelzer 1970:1469, Tschiedel 1984:41–46, and Sier 1992:63; Gelzer 1993:84 also speaks of the ineffectual nature of the Euripidean scheme, but nevertheless treats it as “Aufhänger für die Tragödienparodien” [“a peg on which to hang the parodies of tragedy”].

[ back ] 457. See Zeitlin 1981:171–211, Paduano 1982:115–127, Gruber 1983:106–110, Gruber 1986:19–41, Sier 1992:63, and Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 7. On reading the Thesmophoriazusae as metatheatrical play, see Zeitlin 1981:181–194, especially 182, Paduano 1982:115–127, Bonanno 1990, Bierl 1991:172–176, Hubbard 1991:182–199 (metatheater and intertextuality), and Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 4–6, 8–10; on the metatheatrical statement that comedy is better than tragedy, see Bierl 1991:175–176, Hubbard 1991:186, Bowie 1993:219–225, and Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 10. See now also Tzanetou 2002:355–359.

[ back ] 458. See Zeitlin 1981, especially 171–174, Taaffe 1993:74–102, Høibye 1995, and Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 4, 7–8.

[ back ] 459. See Möllendorff 1995:247–254 following Gruber 1986:11–41 and Zeitlin 1981, especially 170–171 (she also addresses the connections between myth and ritual [194–200]).

[ back ] 460. Vickers 1989.

[ back ] 461. See Vickers 1989:42 with n5; this dating goes back to Dobree; cf. the telling criticism in Sier 1992:63n1.

[ back ] 462. On one-sided interpretation of tragedy in terms of the history of the time, see the critical remarks of Bierl 1991:22n61.

[ back ] 463. Cf. Vickers 1989:65.

[ back ] 464. Thiercy 1986 does not see the reminiscence of initiatory features in the Thesmophoriazusae, although he does consider the structure of initiation as fundamental in a number of comedies (305–327). He views the Thesmophoriazusae only in terms of its erotic structure (335–337).

[ back ] 465. Cf. Barton 1990:22–23 and Olson 1992:307 (who does not consider the connection between function and meaning); Möllendorff 1995:241–242 thinks that Euripides represents tragedy, and his relative comedy, in particular the voice of the author Aristophanes; Cratin. fragment 342 K.-A. (εὐριπιδαριστοφανίζων) is usually cited in support of the connection between the two writers.

[ back ] 466. Cf. Hiller 1874:449–453. In the play he is only described as κηδεστής (Thesmophoriazusae 74, 210, 584, 1165) or γέρων (Thesmophoriazusae 63, 585, 1111, 1123, 1199, 1212, 1219–1220). It is only one group of scholiasts who give him the name Mnesilokhos; cf. the beginning of the scholia: προλογίζει Μνησίλοχος κηδεστὴς Εὐριπίδου, schol. Thesmophoriazusae 603, 1065 and schol. Acharnians 332; in the scholia to Thesmophoriazusae 129, 469, 633, 756, 760, 1064 (κηδεστής) and 1031, 1090, 1199 (γέρων) the name is not mentioned. Brelich 1969:102n143 notes that fellow initiates are often seen as “relatives.” The characteristic solidarity between age-groups being initiated together might also explain the spontaneous readiness with which the relative undertakes Euripides’ case among the women.

[ back ] 467. On Mnesilokhos, father-in-law of Euripides, see Vita 5 (p. 5, 5 Schwartz), Suda, s.v. Εὐριπίδης (ε 3695 II 468, 22 Adler; here, however, the daughter is the first wife and is called Khoirine) and van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 1n2.

[ back ] 468. See Hiller 1874:452. The father-in-law would have been about ninety years old in 411; he was probably long dead. It is quite unlikely that he still had small children (Thesmophoriazusae 1206). See Hiller 1874:453, Wilamowitz I 18952:7n12, van Leeuwen Thesmophoriazusae, 1–2, and Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae, 157 ad 1.

[ back ] 469. On the Vita see Wilamowitz I 18952:1ff.; he thinks (12–13n18) that the basis for identifying this genos originates from one of the Alexandrian compilers from the period 230–130 BCE; see also Lefkowitz 1981:88–104 and 163–169. Beside the genos there are also papyrus fragments (POxy 1176 [vol. 9 (1912) 124–182]) of a biographical dialogue about Euripides dating from the third century BCE and composed by Satyros that also largely presents the gossip of comedy, particularly the Thesmophoriazusae, as historical fact; see Lesky 1972:275.

[ back ] 470. On the basis of the discussion in the Thesmophoriazusae, Hiller 1874:452 connects the testimony in Vita 2 (1.10–2.2 Schwartz), taken from Telekleides fragment 41 K.-A. (Μνησίλοχός ἐστ’ ἐκεῖνος <ὃς> φρύγει τι δρᾶμα καινὸν | Εὐριπίδῃ, καὶ Σωκράτης τὰ φρύγαν’ ὑποτίθησιν), that Sokrates and one Mnesilokhos collaborated in the composition of the Euripidean tragedies because of the discussion in the Thesmophoriazusae with the father-in-law. Kassel-Austin PCG VII, 683 do the same. Telekleides belonged to the generation of comic playwrights immediately preceding Aristophanes; his first victory at the Dionysia occurred shortly after 446 BCE. His criticism of Euripides has an immediate temporal connection to Aristophanes’ works between the Acharnians and the Thesmophoriazusae. It is at least also probable that the aging Euripides was criticized for receiving help from his son, especially since the latter was himself involved in the profession as an actor. Cf. also the talk of Kephisophon’s collaboration (cf. Lefkowitz 1981:89). All in all, however, the entire Vita consists only of wild speculation.

[ back ] 471. See above, nn187 and 335. Manuscript R reads χοῖρον in line 289. Wilamowitz 1875:149n3 correctly sees a sexual joke in the name Χοιρίλη. Cf. Wilamowitz I 18952:7n12 on the metaphorical meaning of the name, already explained by Philokhoros (schol. Euripides Hecuba 3 = FGrHist 328 F 90): “Daß der Name Χοιρίλη wirklich als Eigenname vorkommt, ist eine triviale Wahrheit, mit der nur ein Geck etwas kann ausrichten wollen” [“That the name is attested as an actual personal name is a trivial fact that only a fool would attempt to make something of”]. Zielinski 1885:83 here sees further evidence for his theory that the Thesmophoriazusae that we have is a reworking of the so-called Θεσμοφοριάζουσαι δεύτεραι. In the supposed allusion to Khoirile (Thesmophoriazusae 289) he sees proof of the fact that her father, Mnesilokhos, must have performed in the Θεσμοφοριάζουσαι δεύτεραι (“Kalligeneia”): “In the ‘Nesteia’ [i.e. in the Thesmophoriazusae we have] the poet substituted a beloved ‘cousin’ of Euripides for him—presumably because Mnesilokhos had died in the interim.”

[ back ] 472. Aristotle Athenian Constitution 33.1; cf. IG I3 373.2. Cf. Vickers 1989:44, who nevertheless argues for a performance in the year 410. He views the connection with the archon Mnasilokhos merely as an “extraordinary coincidence” (44); the target, he maintains, is Alcibiades, who at the beginning of 411 was flirting with the Oligarchs. On the distribution of the name, see Fraser/Matthews I, 316 and 318; II, 315 and III.A, 303 (s.v. Μνασίλοχος and Μνησίλοχος).

[ back ] 473. See above, p. 190; on this Greek idea in general, see Calame 1995:174–185, especially 183 (on comedy and Archilochus). On the power of names, see also Pulleyn 1994.

[ back ] 474. On the use of speaking names in comedy, see Steiger 1888 (who thinks that proper names must be speaking names [13]), Marzullo 1953, and the extensive bibliography in Di Marco 1981:163n19. On the names of Aristophanic heroes and the question of how they were introduced into the plays, see Barton 1990:13–27, especially 22–27, and Olson 1992.

[ back ] 475. For memory in grave-cult images of the important stage of being an ephebe, see Blech 1982:341 with n46. In his historical and political approach to the play, Vickers (1989:44) also considers the possibility that Mnesilokhos could be a speaking name. But for the term λόχος the only possibility he considers is the unit in the Spartan army, which he then connects with Alcibiades’ stay in Sparta. The deverbative compound name Mnesilokhos could additionally be an allusion to his comic function as bômolokhos (on Mnesilokhos as bômolokhos, see Whitman 1964:222, Wit-Tak 1968:363, Gruber 1986:24, and Henderson 19912:87): a βωμολόχος is “one who lies in wait for a person at an altar” and in so doing hurls aggressive and vulgar speech at the person sacrificing; on this form of malicious speech cf. Aristophanes Knights 902, Peace 748, and Frogs 358. On the semantics of the word, see Nagy 1979:245n3, who also sees Arkhi-lokhos as being possibly linked with this etymology. The case of this figure of the iambic poet (cf. Nagy 1979:243–252) is of particular interest, especially since he was worshiped as a hero in connection with Dionysus and Demeter: on the cult aetiology of the Mnesiepes inscription, cf. Archilochus fragment 251 W. (Dionysos Oipholios) and West 1974:25; the structural similarity with the aition of the Great Dionysia (schol. Acharnians 243) is striking; Archilochus is the archetypical χορηγός of the city (fragment 120 W.) who looks after the fertility and welfare of the community; on the poet’s cultic worship of Kore, Demeter, and Dionysus at the festival of the Iobakkhoi, cf. Archilochus fragment 322 W.; see now also Clay 2004 and Compton 2006:41–58. On the connection of iambic poetry with the cults of Dionysus and Demeter, see West 1974:23–25 and in general Nagy 1990:395–397; on the association of iambic poetry and comedy, see Nagy 1979:249–252, Degani 1988, and Rosen 1988; cf. Nagy 1979:301–308 (Archilochus in connection with Apollo and the Muses). Mnesilokhos is the comic-iambic “hero” of comedy and the social representative of the “chorus-leader” Euripides; finally, a comparsion with the chorus, which feels itself connected to the same cults, can also be made through the relative via Dionysiac and Demetrian components. Agathon is, like Archilochus, a “servant of the Muses”; cf. Archilochus fragment 1 W. θεράπων . . . Μουσέων and the epiphany of Agathon in the Thesmophoriazusae (39ff.; on the comically exaggerated divinity of the poet, see Kleinknecht 1937:151n1; the passage is reminiscent of the parody of human divinity, especially Birds 1706–1765 [see Kleinknecht 1937a]), in particular because of his close relationship to the Muses (Thesmophoriazusae 41 and 107).

[ back ] 476. See Olson 1992:306–307. He refers to another extreme case, in the Knights; the Sausage-seller comes onstage in line 146, but only receives the name Agorakritos in line 1257. The anonymity of the relative in our play is mentioned by Olson, but not further explained (1992:307). Aristophanes could certainly have had dealings with Mnesilokhos, as with other Athenians of his day (Olson 1992:316–318). But then, as already mentioned, he would have centered his interest on another Mnesilokhos; Mnesilokhos the helper of Euripides was too insignificant a figure to have a whole comedy explicitly constructed upon him, something which could only have been done with a portrait mask.

[ back ] 477. Steiner 1988:208 considers the chorus in a certain sense as a variably expanding connector between stage and audience. He gives the following striking characterization of the function of the tragic chorus: “So wirkt er als eine Art Zugbrücke, die der Dramatiker mit metrischen und choreographischen Mitteln nach Belieben hochziehen und senken, verkürzen oder verlängern kann. Über den Chor läßt sich der Zuschauer an die Bühne heranziehen oder von ihr distanzieren; er kann praktisch in die szenische Situation verstrickt, ihm kann aber auch (naiver) Zugang zu ihr versperrt werden” [“It functions thus as a kind of drawbridge that the dramatist using metrical and choreographic means can raise and lower or shorten or lengthen as he sees fit. Through the chorus the spectator can bring himself closer to the stage or distance himself from it; he can almost involve himself in the situation on stage, but he can also be barred from (naïve) access to it”]. Cf. also the definition of the tragic chorus’ role in Goldhill 1986:271 as “commentator, expander, mediator between the actors and the audience.”

[ back ] 478. On praise and blame in poetry see Nagy 1979:213–275; on the ritual connection of iambic poetry and comedy, 249–252. West 1974:34–37 and Nagy 1979:242–243 consider iambos as a particular dance step; that is, the comic chorus also in its dance fulfills this ritual dimension of praise and ridicule. See below, chapter 2 n44.

[ back ] 479. Winkler 1985 and the reprint Winkler 1990. Independently of Winkler, Seiterle 1984, especialy 138–139, has expressed the thesis that original rituals involving goats were part of initiation celebrations. Cf. also Seiterle 1988:7–11.

[ back ] 480. For criticism of Winkler’s thesis, see Csapo/Slater 1995:352. Winkler 1990:48–49 did, however, offer a convincing reply to the argument that there could hardly have been an exemption from military service for members of the chorus if the chorus had formed part of military training: he sees the reason as lying in a symbolic equivalence of the two civic duties. Goldhill 1987:74–75 and Graf 1998:25–27 are also positively disposed to Winkler’s position. It is much more questionable whether the representation of the chorus members as ephebes on the Pronomos Vase (nn110, 308 above), upon which Winkler relies, should be taken as fact. For a narratological analysis of the vase, see Calame 1995:116–136.

[ back ] 481. It is interesting, however, that he omits the important observations of the original piece (Winkler 1985:32–38) in the 1990 reprint (but see Winkler 1990:57). He does see Perseus in the Euripidean Andromeda as a typical ephebic hero who has to undergo an adventure in the Outside (Winkler 1985:33–34), but he does not recognize Andromeda’s initiatory status. On Orestes see Winkler 1985:35 and Bierl 1994a. On the direction in scholarship that connects Attic tragedy with ephêbia and rites of puberty, see the bibliography in Goldhill 1987:74n70 and Zeitlin 1990:68n12. Cf. in particular the application of interpretative scheme in the sense of an “initiatory” process in Zeitlin 1990:86–87; this she understands as a temporary questioning, with subsequent confirmation, of masculinity. On the mixing of images and metaphors of the mysteries and ephebic initiation in Sophocles’ Philoctetes, see more recently Lada-Richards 1997 and Lada-Richards 1998. On the use of the interpretative paradigm of the ephêbeia, initiation, and structure-determining rite de passage for plot structure in Aristophanes (for the Knights, Wasps, and Clouds) see Bowie 1993, especially 45–58, 78–101, 102–112. Here however he is constantly forced to postulate inversions of the standard model to take into account the usually older hero. Cf. the critical comments in reviews by A. H. Sommerstein (JHS 114 [1994]: 188–189, especially 188), D. M. MacDowell (CR 44.2 [1994]: 263–265, especially 264), J. F. McGlew (BMCR 94.10.10), and R. M. Rosen (BMCR 94.10.11). For this reason I shall here follow the path of theatrical reactualization of these experiences of the liminal, a reactualization that is also to be found in the ritual structure of festivals. The reflex of the puberty rites of young girls and the synchronization with male initiatory ceremonies in Aristophanes have so far not received attention. The closest to my approach is Loraux’s interpretation of the Lysistrata (1981:157–196, especially 173–179). In this study she employs female initiation as well as the return to this marginal condition as structural interpretative categories. It is no coincidence that the Lysistrata is closest to the Thesmophoriazusae. See above, nn. 279, 284, 328, and 375. For the Frogs see also the extensive monograph by Lada-Richards (1999), who again sets out the ritual character of the play as rite de passage and the interpenetration of ephebic and Dionysiac or Eleusinian mystery initiation (especially chapter 2, 45–122: “ ‘Separation’, ‘Limen’, ‘Aggregation’: The Frogs as a ‘Rite of Passage’ ”). The comic chorus is however almost completely ignored in all initiatory interpretations to date. For some indications, see now Lada-Richards 1999:220–229, who pursues a similar direction independently of this work.

[ back ] 482. Nagy 1994/95:48–52.

[ back ] 483. Winkler 1990:21 refers to the relations in comedy only once in passing. But there can be no talk in comedy of an ordered exercise in rank and file. Even in tragedy the round dance is far more common than Winkler suggests. See Davidson 1986 and Wiles 1997:63–86 on this.

[ back ] 484. On the social marginality of the tragic chorus in its fictional role and on its collective otherness, see also Gould 1996. Barlow 1971:25 talks of a “different focusing perspective.” On the focusing function of the tragic chorus, see also Goldhill 1986:273.

[ back ] 485. Goldhill 1996:254. Cf. also Goldhill 1986:267–271.

[ back ] 486. Goldhill 1986:271 terms this dialectic connection “play of difference,” significantly following Derrida’s différance.

[ back ] 487. See now also Baur 1997:40–44 and Baur 1999a:23–26. Baur (1997:44–47; 1999a:26–28) emphasizes the “separate status” (Sonderstatus) of the dramatic chorus; in contrast to the actors, it represents an entity without a signified that always remains simply the theatrical institution of “chorus”; its fictional characterization is accordingly merely an accidental property. The historical evolution from citizen collective to theatrical institution occurs according to Baur only in the realm of the signifier.

[ back ] 488. The felicitous observation by Lehmann (1991:47) that the tragic chorus aids expression, not communication (“dem Ausdruck, nicht der Mitteilung”), is even more applicable to the comic chorus, since it preserves the ritual element to a much greater degree.

[ back ] 489. Gruber (1986:37–39) is so far the only scholar to put forward ideas about the role of the chorus in relation to its performative interaction with the hero and the audience. The chorus of the Thesmophoriazusae has up until now been too strongly disqualified as “nondramatic.” But even Gruber subscribes to a false dichotomy of ritual and theater: “Far from being a ritual ‘element’ that identifies Aristophanes’ debt to archaic predramatic structures, the chorus of Old Comedy is a supremely theatrical instrument that in this play as well as in others is capable of great sophistication” (1986:37). It has been shown in this chapter that ritual belongs to the theatrical speech of the chorus, whose structure can therefore largely be described as predramatic, since the comic playwright in a ritual performance does not so much intend to place emphasis on the creation of a total illusion, but rather to draw the audience and the everyday world into the production.

[ back ] 490. Tambiah 1985:123–166, especially 128.

[ back ] 491. Braungart 1996:108 and 117–118; for explanation of the connections see 108–118.

[ back ] 492. Tambiah 1985:142. He reports that the tribe of the Chamulas in the high country of Mexico calls formalized, ritual diction “hot” speech (in contrast to everyday, “cold” speech).

[ back ] 493. Parry 1971 (the book includes Parry’s relevant works [1902–1935]) and Lord 1960. See Nagy 1990:51, however, for the differentiation caused by the development of spoken poetry from a song culture (SONG). Nagy thinks that the formulaic nature of oral poetry was only a result of the suppression of melody and dance.

[ back ] 494. On orality as a cultural mode of presentation that in the telling of a tragic myth functions on the level of the emotions, see des Bouvrie 1990:89–92.

[ back ] 495. These three categories correspond to the tripartite division of λόγος, ἁρμονία, and ῥυθμός, which constitute μέλος, according to Plato (Plato Republic 398d); cf. Aristotle Poetics 1447a21–23 (not however used by Aristotle). Logos, continues Plato, forms the basis; tone (ἁρμονία) and movement (ῥυθμός) have to follow this as subordinated levels. In what follows, only λόγος and ῥυθμός can be analyzed, since the musical framework has been completely lost. Even in the area of ῥυθμός, only the metrical form can be discussed, since the actual movements of the dance, which is what the term really designates (cf. Plato Laws 664e–665a: τῇ δὴ τῆς κινήσεως τάξει ῥυθμὸς ὄνομα εἴη; Republic 400c: τὰς ἀγωγὰς τοῦ ποδός), can also no longer be reconstructed. The three categories that make up μέλος are also important for the analysis of the phallophoric songs in chapter 2.

[ back ] 496. For the metrical analysis here I largely follow Zimmermann II 1985:192–200. See also Parker 1997:428–437. All in all, the short periods are largely variations on the original Indo-European verse of the dimeter with twelve morae (περίοδος δωδεκάσημος); see Gentili 1952:15–19 and now Gentili/Lomiento 2003:13–14 and 53–54.

[ back ] 497. Coulon, following Wilamowitz 1921:475n2, uses a different division. He puts the anapaestic colon together with line 954 to form a catalectic trochaic tetrameter, followed by a trochaic trimeter (χερὶ σύναπτε χέρ’, <ἱερᾶς> ῥυθμὸν χορείας), a trochaic tetrameter (ὕπαγε πᾶσα. βαῖνε καρπαλίμοιν ποδοῖν. ἐπισκοπεῖν δέ), and a catalectic tetrameter; see the criticism in Parker 1997:431. Sommerstein Thesmophoriazusae also reads 957–958 purely trochaically, while taking 957 as trochaic trimeter (βαῖνε καρπαλίμοιν ποδοῖν· ἐπισκοπεῖν δέ) and 958 as Coulon does. Parker 1997:428–431 interprets 953–958 as a sequence of iambic and choriambic cola; he takes 956, βαῖνε καρπαλίμοιν ποδοῖν, as a glyconic.

[ back ] 498. For the reizianus, see Gentili 1952:73–78 and now Gentili/Lomiento 2003:199 and 203–204. It appears with both forms of the beginning (long, two shorts) together with a pherecratean in the famous Rhodian swallow song, which as a folk song demonstrates rhythmic structures typical of orality (fragment 848 PMG [= carm. pop. 2], carm. pop. 41 B., 32 D.).

[ back ] 499. Zimmermann II 1985:197–198 interprets the conjunction of iamb and molossus or spondee as syncopated iambic dimeter.

[ back ] 500. The aristophaneus can be analyzed as a catalectic anaclastic choriambic dimeter and also represents a dôdekasêmos in shortened form. The character of the choriamb is significantly described as κύκλιος (Choeroboscus in Hephaestio p. 218.23 Consbruch); it is thus perfectly suited for this dance.

[ back ] 501. The dodrans is ultimately a choriambic dimeter with double akephalia, i.e. a further variation of the dimeter or the short period of twelve morae (σημεῖα).

[ back ] 502. For the principle of repetition and rhythm (“Wiederholung und Rhythmus”) as the aesthetic form of ritual and ritual texts, see Braungart 1996:166–186. Braungart’s further categories of festival and celebration, cult, play, and mimesis (“Fest und Feier” [187–199], “Kult” [200–215], “Spiel” [216–233], “Mimesis” [234–253]) are also relevant for our example. On the function of repetition in ritual, see Baudy 1998, especially 21–99.

[ back ] 503. Cf. Tambiah 1985:164–166; in this connection he cites Bateson 1974:161: “When words are set to music, spoken in unison or both danced and sung, only the high-level boundaries are likely to match perfectly, and therefore the structure is only fully intelligible at the highest levels with lower-level segmentation destroyed.” He also discusses (Tambiah 1985:389 nn51–52) Jakobson’s famous treatment of the poetic function (cf. Jakobson 1960, especially 358 [cf. Selected Writings III, 27]). The Marxist theory of choral dance developed by Bloch 1974 maintains that the repetitive, redundant, and fusionistic characteristics of formalized ritual cause a lack of propositional power in speech and a loss of creativity. Bloch sees dance as an instrument of political power, a kind of opium for the people designed to bring about complete control of the bodily functions of the subjects. For criticism of this view, see Tambiah 1985:154–155.

[ back ] 504. Cf. also Nagy 1990:30–48. He contrasts SONG with speech, where SONG is every speech act distinguished by dance and music from everyday speech. Myth and ritual represent the festive context that separates the dance song mode (SONG) from normal speech. The mode of expression in song culture occurs in marked, stylized, and stereotyped speech, characterized in morphology and syntax by isocola, rhyme, alliteration, and other stylistic devices. Nagy 1990:33 connects the structures of this original choral speech with Jakobson’s poetic function. In his opinion, poetry is only a later offshoot of this original song culture. Khoreia is a typical expression of this song culture; as indicated above, Nagy also emphasizes the tendency toward formalization and stylization that is only to be compared with metrics in poetry in a diachronic sense (ibid., 38–51). Nagy puts forward the hypothesis that the rhythmic cola of song are related to the stichic metres of lyric, but that dactylic hexameter, elegiac distichs, and iambic trimeter, which are actually spoken poetry, represent a further derivative of this (ibid., 48–51).

[ back ] 505. See the collection of d’Aquili/Laughlin/McManus 1979, especially d’Aquili/Laughlin 1979, and the overview of biogenetic structural theory in Laughlin 1990. Ritual is defined as a human cultural technique; with its help homo sapiens learns in symbolic fashion how to come to an understanding with others of its type about cognitive centers. Moreover, during the course of phylogenesis, ritual came to have the function of getting different somatic subsystems within an individual to interact and synchronize with one another. See also the corresponding definition of ritual (Laughlin 1990:25): “Ritual is a special case of formalized behavior that usually involves group members in a reciprocal performance that is highly structured, repetitive, and stereotyped, and results in the coordination of the behavior, perception, cognition, and experience of individual group members relative to some social goal or purpose.”

[ back ] 506. See Tambiah 1985:145 and 154. On the gods as the ultimate causal impetus behind phenomena experienced in the ritual process, see d’Aquili/Laughlin 1979:170–171.

[ back ] 507. D’Aquili/Laughlin 1979:172–180.

[ back ] 508. Laughlin 1990:29–31.

[ back ] 509. See d’Aquili/Laughlin 1979:177 and Burkert 1996.

[ back ] 510. See Burkert 1996:166.

[ back ] 511. On the concept of cultural or collective memory, see Assmann 1991 and Assmann 1992.

[ back ] 512. See Tambiah 1985:149–150: “Dance is a superb vehicle for realizing the sense of force and power through ‘ritual gesture,’ through physical motion that gives the illusion of the conquest of gravity, and through movements that create spatial tensions between the dancers.” Cf. ἀείρομαι, αἴρομαι, or αἴρω in choral language: Alcman fragment 1.63 Davies: ἀυηρομέναι μάχονται (see above, Introduction nn88 and 166), Sophocles Women of Trachis 216 (consider also the upward motion intensified by ἀνα– 205, 210–211, 218), Euripides Trojan Women 545–546 (cf. also 325), Aristophanes Clouds 266, 276–277, Lysistrata 539, 1292, and Assemblywomen 1180. On a red-figure astralagos vase by the Sotades Painter (British Museum E 804, 460–450 BCE), three groups of women from a female chorus are depicted sweeping over the ground as if equipped with wings; see Robertson 1992:189–190 (ills. 199–202) and Lonsdale 1993:xvi and xxi, ill. 1 (a and b).

[ back ] 513. On hierarchy in ritual see Burkert 1996:80–101; on the allocation of power and meaning in ritual using indexical means, see Tambiah 1985:156–161.

[ back ] 514. According to des Bouvrie 1990:94–99, the dramatic chorus serves mainly to incite the audience emotionally during the ritual process.