{"id":234,"date":"2021-07-28T16:29:38","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T15:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/ancient-dance\/?page_id=234"},"modified":"2022-03-03T18:25:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T18:25:45","slug":"ancient-authors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/ancient-dance\/ancient-greek-dance\/researching-ancient-greek-dance-how-do-we-know\/ancient-authors\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Authors"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are multiple written sources that include de word \u201cdance\u201d – or that somehow relates to it \u2013 in the ancient Greek world. The fragmentary state of the writings and some obscure translations and interpretations – continuously revised by modern scholarship – have hindered the publication of any kind of manual or compilation of them. There is also a void when it comes to a catalogue of inscriptions, let alone papyri. Although no technical treatise has survived \u2013 we ignore any specific succession of dancing steps – some scholars believe that metrical sources and writings by ancient grammarians should also be analysed to understand notions of rhythm and length of sequences. [1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Andrew Barker\u2019s publication of Greek Musical Writings[2]<\/a> is, arguably, the most complete inventory of ancient texts related to the topic. The author translated and annotated ancient fragments to English, which included poets, historians and philosophers \u2013 Homer, Hesiod, Homeric hymns, Aristotle, Plato, Athenaeus – commenting on musical performance, composition, creation of instruments, musical education, musical theory, and the influence of mousik<\/em>\u0113<\/em> on the moral. More than 100 entries can be found alluding to dance in the first volume.<\/p>\n

According to Homer, Xenophon, Pollux, Lucian, Athenaeus and Libanius, all living beings partook in some sort of dance or rhythmic performance, from gods to mortals, from hybrids to animals. Dancing, however, was associated with education, with social skills and political involvement, it had constructive effects on the body and mind of good citizens. Plato wonders if the uneducated man is one who has never danced in a chorus, while a papyrus from the 5th<\/sup> century BC – when referring to a barbarian tribe – states that they have no significance in life, as they have no dancing, no Muse.[3]<\/a> There were, however, \u201cundesirable dances\u201d according to Plato, especially those performed by Pan, the satyrs and bacchants, those whose unbridled movements did not adjust to the rhythmic and harmonious melodies of the educated citizen.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

As mousik<\/em>\u0113<\/em> was of divine nature \u2013 it belonged to the realm of the Muses – \u00a0it also translated to the cosmic and celestial sphere, with stars and planets dancing around the universe in a rhythmic and harmonious motion.[5]<\/a> Urania, Muse of astronomy, had some presidency over dance, especially on the theoretical side of it, although her main patroness was Terpsichore, the dance delight[6]<\/a>. Pindar\u2019s description of the Muses singing to the music of Apollo\u2019s lyre underlines the divine status of dancing \u2013 especially of choreia<\/em> \u2013 while engaging mortals with the social and political power of it.[7]<\/a> Hence, the multiple competitions of different types of dances: it encouraged communal participation and granted prestige. The earliest inscription written in the Greek alphabet \u2013 the so-called Dipylon Inscription from 750-700 BC\u2013 marks a terracotta oenochoe as a prize for \u201cwhoever of these dancers now dances most delicately\u201d.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Early authors highlight the importance of collective dance \u2013 choreia<\/em> \u2013 as a central practice in religious life. When explaining that Muses are the sources of mousik<\/em>\u0113<\/em> themselves, Hesiod suggests the primacy of choreia<\/em> over other forms of musical performance, focusing on the coordinated choral song and dance.[9]<\/a> Homer also emphasises the rhythmic and harmonious movement of choral dance, compared in the Iliad to the movement of a potter\u2019s wheel.[10]<\/a> For Homer, collective dancing was a social mechanism that favoured the stability of the society.[11]<\/a> Herodotus points out the ritualistic nature of collective dancing by explaining the origin of a dance at the shrine of Artemis: Samian dancing groups of boys and girls carried food to prisoners taken by Corinthians at the temple of the goddess.[12]<\/a><\/p>\n

Either individual of collective, for sheer entertainment or with a religious purpose, to laugh or to go to battle, dancing was everywhere in the ancient Greek world. For Lucian dancing was like a mute conversation, where the audience could \u201cread\u201d the story by watching the dancers\u2019 movements and gestures, usually taken from the mythological repertory. This could refer to pantomime, with the standardised gestures, with the admiration for the individual dancer.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n

Ancient Greek literature provide us with hundreds of dances\u2019 names and characteristics. As an example, Athanaeus defines and classifies of dancing in stage composition: tragic, comic and satyric, with also three categories in lyric composition: the pyrrhich<\/em>\u0113<\/em>, the gymmopaidik<\/em>\u0113<\/em> and the hyporch<\/em>\u0113matik<\/em>\u0113<\/em>. The pyrrhich<\/em>\u0113<\/em> is similar to the satyric dance, since the main feature in both is speed. Gymnopaidik<\/em>\u0113<\/em> is compared to the tragic dance called emmeleia<\/em>, both characterised by solemnity and graveness. Hyporchematik<\/em>\u0113<\/em> is analogous to a comic dance called kordax<\/em>, since both are frivolous.[14]<\/a><\/p>\n

We lack, however, a specific sequence of movements that would accompany each dance, but we have certain references to some dancing steps, gestures, body movements, expression of hands and face. \u00a0Herodotus, for instance, comments on a man who danced with his legs while standing on his head, which seems to allude to a certain type of acrobat.[15]<\/sup><\/a> Others, such as Euripides, refer to a more static attitude as a \u201cGreek was standing in a dance\u201d.[16]<\/sup><\/a> The poet Ausonius[17]<\/sup><\/a> speaks of dancing with the foot, the voice, and with the countenance, simultaneously, using a repertoire of gestures called cheironomia<\/em>.[18]<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0Leaping was a particular dance move connected with seasonal festivities, especially in Crete. [19]<\/a> \u00a0Significant information on Dionysiac dance comes from Euripides\u2019 Bacchae, performed after the author\u2019s death in 406 BC: \u201cTo blend us, by dance, with the worshipful band, to laugh to the sound of piping\u201d.[20]<\/a><\/p>\n

Many of these writings insist on the type of music \u2013 or musical instruments \u2013 to which each dance used to be performed. Wind instruments, the aulos, was used to set the dance in motion,[21]<\/sup><\/a> while the panpipes were used to keep the feet of the dancers in time. [22]<\/sup><\/a> Strings used to accompany lyric dances, but Pindar says that the lyre was used for controlling dance-step.[23]<\/sup><\/a> This control of beat was provided by a wide range of percussion instruments: it was surely linked to the need for organised movement, either in a religious or civic context. Rhythm set a regular throb and pulsation of bodily movements. Drums, cymbals, castanets, and clappers were extensively used in the dances related to Dionysus, Cybele and other divinities associated with regeneration and rebirth.[24]<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Lawler 1947:346.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Barker 1989;2010.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Plato, Laws<\/em> 2.654a; Greek Literary Papyri, vol. 1, n. 14, p. 598, lines 18-19.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Plato, Laws<\/em> 7.815 b-c.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Lucian, Of pantomime, of dancing<\/em> 7.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Choubineh 2020 https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/Greek_Dance\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Pindar, Nemean<\/em> 5, 22-5.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Binek 2017.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Hesiod, Theogony<\/em> 1-74.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Homer, Iliad<\/em> 18.599-604.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Weiss 2020:164.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Herodotus, 3.48.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Lucian, Of pantomime, of dancing<\/em> 63; 70; 83.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae<\/em> 630b-631c.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Herodotus 6.20.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris<\/em> 1143.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> Ausonius, Idyllia<\/em> 20.6.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Lawler 1947:346.<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> Hymn of the Kouretes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> Euripides, Bacchae<\/em> 378-81.<\/p>\n

[21]<\/a> P.M.G. n. 708.<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a> Calimachus, Hymn<\/em> 3.242-3.<\/p>\n

[23]<\/a> Pindar, Pythian<\/em> 1.1-4.<\/p>\n

[24]<\/a> Euripides, Bacchae<\/em> 59; Aeschylus, Fr. 57 N2 6; Diogenes, trag<\/em>. Fr. 1 N2; Euripides, Cyclops<\/em> 204-5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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