Chorality

This paper examines references to choral performances in early hexameter poetry in order to offer an analysis of the figure of chorus leader. It endeavors to highlight the prominence of this figure in what we can reconstruct of early choral performance. Ultimately, this analysis has serious implications for our understanding of the performance form of archaic lyric and classical drama.

This paper focuses on representations of singing or dancing groups in Homer’s Iliad and argues that, even when the term χορός is not present, these groups can still be interpreted as “choral.” Recent works by Gagné and Hopman (2013) and Budelmann and MacIntosh (2013) highlight the importance of “chorality” and its numerous applications to the study of ancient Greek poetry.

In this paper, I will argue that the status of the chorus in Euripides Iphigeneia among the Taurians reflected the dynamics of the 5^th century slave trade between Greece and the Black Sea region. While Iphigenia is Greek, is unclear exactly who the women attending the priestess are or how they got to the Taurian Chersonesos. Each parthenos who accompanies Iphigenia is characterized as a slave (δούλα), purchased in war and undergoing heavy hardship (IT 1075–77; cf. Hall 2014; Kowalzig 2013).

In ancient Greek literature, as in life, lamentation was not an exclusively female activity. Men and women were, however, expected to mourn differently and their respective modes of lament were gendered in substantive ways (Suter 2008; 2009). Scholars have long recognized the significance of elegy as a vehicle for men’s lament, especially in relation to the symposium; like professional thrênoi, threnodic elegy prioritized consolation for the living and praise of the dead, often by way of sympotic imagery (Nagy 1999; 2010; Derderian 2001; Alexiou 2002).