In Athens, tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays were especially produced for the festival of Dionysus, the largest of which was the annual City Dionysia or Great Dionysia.[1] Aeschylus’ Edonians and Euripides’ Bacchae always refer to the god’s cultic worship. The festival – birthplace of Greek drama – developed in 6th century BC when lyric poet Lasus of Hermione introduced this form of choral dancing and singing to Athens. [2] Chorus in theatre performed a series of choreographed movement in “parabasis”, the choral deliverance of the playwright’s message to the audience. The chorus was led by a choregos, the chorus leader. The pace and rhythm of dances could vary according to the poetic measures of the play, and there was a specific type of dance for each of the dramatic genres: comedy, tragedy, and satyr play.
The dithyramb, a choral song consecrated to the god, became one of the culminated and most spectacular moments of the Great Dionysia in the 5th and 4th century BC. The urban part of the festival included theatrical performances especially linked to the Athenian cult of Dionysus Eleuthereus.[3] Dithyramb was associated with the god from 7th century BC until Late Antiquity, and included linear and circular movements in the theatrical dances. On the occasion of the Great Dionysia, men and boys’ dithyrambic competitions involved 500 choreuts, who were divided according to their tribal affiliation into ten groups. The council was similarly constituted by 50 representatives from each of the 10 tribes: these contests seemed to encourage healthy competition within the city but also to strengthen tribal ties.[4]
In a fragment of one of Pindar’s dithyrambs,[5] the chorus describes a scene of divine mousikē in honour of Dionysus and the Great Mother, with drums, krotala, loud cries and head-shaking of Naiad nymphs. Depictions usually show maenads and satyrs moving and playing music in individualised and spontaneous ways, yet it was a collective performance.[6]
[1] Goldhill 1987.
[2] Weiss 2020:162.
[3] Ieranò 2020:37.
[4] Weiss 2020:165.
[5] Fr. 70b SM8-14.
[6] Weiss 2021:163.