of essays in Peponi 2013 gives the Laws center-stage and demonstrates its importance for the study of the Greek performance culture. Those interested in dithyrambic choruses should consult the essays in Kowalzig and Wilson 2013. Billings, Budelmann, and Macintosh 2013 examine the position of choral studies in classical scholarship and explore their reception by ancient and modern authors and the fascination they still exercise on thinkers and artists of different societies. Steiner’s extensive investigation of the representation of choruses in Greek culture (Steiner 2021b) came out when this chapter was already in production.
Notes
1 1 Greek has a variety of terms denoting festivals and festivities: agōn (ἀγών), heortē (ἑορτή), panēgyris (πανήγυρις), thalia (θαλία), aglaia (ἀγλαΐα), kōmos (κῶμος), etc.
2 2 See Athanassaki 2018b with references.
3 3 For the booming song culture in the archaic and classical period see Herington 1985. For traditional cult songs see Kowalzig 2007: 6–7. For the various types of song-dances see Weiss 2020: 162–164.
4 4 For theōria see Rutherford 2013.
5 5 Homeric Hymn to Apollo 156–164; for the Deliades see Calame 1997: 104–110; Clay 1989; Kowalzig 2007: 56–80; Peponi 2009; Nagy 2013. For the Hellenistic testimonies concerning the Deliades see Bruneau 1970: 35–38. Rutherford 2000 suggests that the Homeric hymn reflects choral practices which are attested by Hellenistic inscriptions.
6 6 The term “choreut” (χορευτής <χορός, χορεία in Greek) is preferable to the term dancer or singer, because it denotes simultaneous singing and dancing. Greek has special words for dancer (orchestēs) and singer (aoidos, hymnētēs, etc.). As a rule the chorus sang and danced in unison; Naerebout 2017 reiterates his conviction that choruses always sang and danced in unison. Other scholars opt for more open models. Lardinois 1996, for instance, envisages a choral performance that Sappho sings and plays the lyre while female choruses dance. Nagy 2013 also advocates a more open model.
7 7 See Calame 1997: 25–30 and 74–88.
8 8 Calame 1997: 19–25.
9 9 Plutarch, Theseus 21; see Calame 1997: 53–58.
10 10 For epic representations see Richardson 2011; for dramatic representations see Henrichs 1994/1995 and Swift 2010.
11 11 See Power (Chapter 17) in this volume.
12 12 See Lardinois (Chapter 18) in this volume.
13 13 See Nagy 2007 with references.
14 14 For convincing argumentation in favor of Stesichorus as a choral composer see in particular Burnett 1988, Cingano 1993, and Finglass 2017a. For an overview of arguments for and against choral execution of Stesichorean poetry and more broadly the state of Stesichorean studies see Finglass and Kelly 2015b: 1–17.
15 15 See Bowie 2015: 120–124.
16 16 See Campbell 1982: xvii–xviii; Hutchinson 2001: 234–235.
17 17 See Ladianou 2005, who argues persuasively for Anacreon’s reception as a choral poet by the Anacreontean tradition.
18 18 See Wilson 2000: 218.
19 19 See Budge 1920: 345–355. Kenyon’s editio princeps was published in 1897.
20 20 The arguments advanced in favor of choral vs. solo performance of Pindar’s epinicians are mutatis mutandis similar to those advanced about Sappho’s poetry, but to my knowledge there has not been so far a comparative assessment of the lines of argumentation used for the classification of melic poetry as choral or monodic.
21 21 See Race 1987.
22 22 See Cingano 2003.
23 23 Pindar’s Sixth Pythian, for instance, presents its performance as a procession to Apollo’s temple, but it also conjures up the symposium as a performance venue. I have labeled this rhetorical trope “mirrored performance settings”; see Athanassaki 2009a, 2012a for more examples.
24 24 The translation (with a slight modification in the last line) is taken from Obbink 2011.
25 25 See for instance Gronewald and Daniel 2004: 7 and Lardinois 2011b.
26 26 Even if the speaker here is not Sappho, fr. 58 offers us a precious glimpse into the frustration of the aging chorodidaskalos. See Power 2019: 93 who considers fr. 58 an example of parachorality: “but in the monodic fragment 58 choreia is treated as a figure of thought, a situational metaphor for the social and affective dynamics of Sappho’s group (or any analogous group), not to mention for the human condition itself ”; for the choral imagery see also Steiner 2021a: 83–87.
27 27 For Philostratus’ reception of Sappho see also Ladianou 2016 with references.
28 28 Aulus Gellius Noctae Atticae 19.9.4. See Yatromanolakis 2007: 84–85.
29 29 For the association of Sappho fr. 58 with Alcman 26 see Calame 1983: 474 and Lardinois 2011b.
30 30 Translation taken from Campbell.
31 31 For Simonides’ great success in Athens see Ieranò 2013: 376–377 and Athanassaki 2020.
32 32 My translation.
33 33 The ancient scholiast glosses it as ἐπιμελείαις (Σ Ol. 14 26a). The verb μελετῶ and the noun μελέτη are used for the practice of dancers (Plato Laws 813e), actors (Aristotle Problemata 901b), and orators (Plato Phaedrus 228b).
34 34 Σ Ol. 14 21d: θεασάμεναι τοῦτον τὸν χορὸν […] εὐκόλως χορεύοντα, ἀπὸ κοινοῦ, ἐπήκοοι γένεσθε. For the performance of this chorus at the sanctuary of the Orchomenian Charites see Athanassaki 2003, 2009b: 100–125 with references.
35 35 My translation. The same claim is repeated in scholium 149a.
36 36 The other person that could have been a chorodidaskalos is a certain Nicasippus in Isthmian 2. 47 about whom we know nothing other than Pindar’s request to deliver the poet’s message and song to Thrasybulus.
37 37 At the end of the fifth century Aristophanes entrusted the chorodidaskalia of several of his plays to Callistratus (see OCD s.v. Callistratus 1). Aristophanes’ reasons are unknown, but the increasing pressure of specialization may have played a role.
38 38 See Calame 1997: 43–49.
39 39 See Calame 1997: 221–244 for a discussion of the evidence.
40 40 Lehnus 1984.
41 41 The text and translation are taken from Race 1997.
42 42 For Aenesimbrota as chorodidaskalos see, e.g., Page 1951: 65–67.
43 43 For the gender dynamics in this song-dance see Stehle 1997: 93–99; for the social dynamics see Kurke 2007.
44 44 As Peponi 2012: 84 points out, Pindar adds here the musical accompaniment,
