Trustees of Boston University
Apollo in Ivy: The Tragic Paean
Author(s): Ian Rutherford
Source: Arion, Third Series, Vol. 3, No. 1, The Chorus in Greek Tragedy and Culture, One
(Fall, 1994 - Winter, 1995), pp. 112-135
Published by: Trustees of Boston University
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in Ivy:The Tragic Paean
Apollo
IAN RUTHERFORD
A
-?1.THENIAN
tragedy was influenced heavily by the
traditions of choral lyric poetry as well as by its own contemporary
environment
of
song-dance
extent
The
performance.1
to which
we
is limited by our comparatively poor state
about choral lyric outside of drama. One thing we
can chart this influence
of knowledge
do
know,
is that
however,
extra-dramatic
choral
lyric
rized by genres, chief among them the paean,
the
threnos,
the
hyporchema,
Choral odes
in tragedy sometimes
relationship
is rarely
and subverts
the conventions
the paean,
genre,
Apollo's
often
than
of choral
is a favorite
the
the
prosodion.
these genres, but the
resemble
exact?more
catego
the dithyramb,
and
partheneion,
was
not,
tragedy
distorts
lyric for literary effect.
of
the
and
tragedians,
it is
in tragedy in considerable
its exploitation
possible to document
detail. Iwill begin by giving a short sketch of the genre itself (I),
of two further introductory
and follow that with discussions
between Apolline song
issues: the implications of confrontation
issues relat
and Dionysiac environment
(II); and methodological
ing to the generic characterization of choral odes (III).Then Imove
on
to
a
number
more
of
specific
the
questions:
relationship
between the paean and themes relating to death (IV); the use of the
(V); its
paean to highlight patterns of disappointed
expectations
use
as an
instrument
of deception
(VI);
and
issues
relating
to com
(VII).What I hope to show is that it is pre
between
the ethos of the paean and that of
the
difference
cisely
and
which
lends
richness
depth to the former's appropria
tragedy
and isolation
munity
tion by the latter.
I.
of the Genre
The Morphology
The
poetry
The
paean was
in the
great
age
one of the most widely
song-dance
for
composing
culture
of
paeans
archaic
was
used genres of lyric
and
the
classical
late
archaic
Greece.2
period.
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Ian Rutherford
113
and Pindar, who were celebrated composers of paeans
in the classical period, came at the tail end of a tradition which had
begun many centuries earlier. Key players in the development of
Simonides
the
were
genre
Crete,
perhaps
a
Thaletas,
of
the
seventh
semihistorical
century
from
poet
in
Gortyn
to have
is supposed
B.c., who
the paean into Sparta, and Tynnichus of Chalcis, the
a
author of paean to Apollo famous even in the time of Aeschylus.3
But even in the fifth century, the paean was very much a flour
ishing genre. We know of numerous examples by the great poets
introduced
we know that
and Simonides. Moreover,
Pindar, Bacchylides,
Sophocles was involved with paeans: there is a tradition that at six
teen he led the victory paean in celebration of the Greek victory at
Salamis in 480, and he himself composed a paean to Asclepius,
in part.4
survives
which
in honor of
paean
thought of as a song-dance
"The
is
who
identified
with
"Paian,"
Healer,"
usually
Apollo. Pae
ans in honor of Apollo were performed all over the Greek world:
the major centers of Apolline cult, Delos and Delphi, were the
scenes of elaborate performances of paeans by khoroi from differ
The
is best
ent poleis; Thebes and Sparta were also important centers. That
they were performed significantly less in Athens may have been
because the Athenian avant-garde were ahead of their time in
rejecting the traditional lyric genres like the paean, in favor of the
more
fashionable
say more
I will
often
Asclepius,
or
"Paieon"
an
narrative
about
denoted
god,
independent
later.
by
seems
"Paiawon,"
and
dithyramb
this
attested
the
name
citharodic
common
Another
nomos?but
was
addressee
"Paian."
earlier
"Paian,"
to have been
the name
originally
as early
as Linear
and
mentioned
B,
of
as a healing god (Iliad 5. 401, 899-10). It seems likely
that the genre derived its name from him?perhaps
that deity was
the same as Apollo, or perhaps the two deities were syncretized at
some point between theMycenean
age and the classical period.5
inHomer
In
the
classical
period,
paeanic
song-dance
was
performance
primarily associated with healing (e.g. to cure plagues, see Homer,
Iliad, I), and with celebration (weddings and victories), but it did
have
avert
sacred
other
functions.
or disaster,
danger
or semisacred
Paeans
and
contexts:
were
they
as
sung
were
also
symposiasts
songs
apotropaic
sung
sang
in a number
the
paean
to
of
to
accompany libations, and religious cult members sang it as a form
of ritual utterance (or e?K^Tju?a)to accompany sacrifice. In both of
these cases, the paean had no specific link to Apollo. The crucial
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114 APOLLO IN IVY:THE TRAGIC PAEAN
case
in each
element
is the
an
i? paian,
paean-cry,
exclamation
which was usually chanted by groups of men, in contrast to the
female ritual cry, the ?XvXvyi].6 With the exception of this special
of
type
refrain?"the
do
paean-refrain"?paeans
formal properties.7 There
special association with a type of metrical
but most
extant
More
to have
been
generally
foot called the paion,
in this meter.
In almost all cases
is the issue of performance.
important
seem
paeans
are not
paeans
not
seems to have been a
have distinctive
performed
by
a group
of males?either
or adolescents
(called epheboi or neoi) or boys
extant
Several
include
self-invocations by the per
paeans
(paides).
formers as young men, and we should perhaps think of these as
designed for organizations of epheboi or neoi* There is a resem
blance between the singers and the deity invoked, who is generally
a young male, a model for both epheboi and paides.
adults
young
The
the song-dance
performing
to an army
As a reference
group
a khoros.
tute
ing battle,
was
phenomenon
dance was
On
the
and
choral
ticularly
a
performance
Sometimes
marked
rest
them
form
of
the
seem
song
was
usually
sung
by
A well-attested
a soloist
foot
a
the
of
too.
performance
khoros
sang
or
only
leader.9
by dance,
accompanied
vigorous
to
belonged
dur
but
the component
the
involving
performers
out as singers.
a paean
strange,
although
cases of solo
fashion,
to consti
said
performing
might
some
was
be
same,
in antiphonal
the
special
the
There
occasions,
refrain
Such
essentially
were
absent.
other
khoros
the word
could
par
stamping.10
special
group
which
group
from
the classi
cal period was that of theMilesian Molpoi, whom we learn about
from an important fifth-century
inscription.11 The Molpoi were
once
have
officials
who
may
enjoyed a measure of politi
religious
cal power, but whose duties were probably purely ceremonial by
the period
from
which
our
records
date.12
Paeans
were
also
per
formed by other sacred guilds associated with cults of Apollo. At
Athens there were the Puthaistai and Deliastai, associated with the
two major Apolline centers, and the Orkhestai, who are known to
have taken part in ritual dances around the temple of Delian
and to have held sumposia
Apollo at the Athenian Thargelia
as
a wine pourer for them in
to
is
have
acted
(Euripides
reported
his youth).13 From much later we know of paean singers called pai
aniai in Sparta,14 and of others called paianistai from Attica (asso
and Roman
ciated with Asclepius)
and Hellenistic
Egypt
(associated with Sarapis).15
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Ian Rutherford
115
In the classical period such groups, and their performances, had
a political significance, because the cult of Apollo played a special
part in the life of the polis. This
where
the
Karneia
Apollo?the
was
calendar
festive
the great
by
and the Gumnopaidia
In Ionian
Huakinthia.16
as Fritz
cities,
in Sparta,
is best documented
dominated
of
festivals
and the Amyclean
has
Graf
an
shown,
impor
tant role was played by the cult of Apollo Delphinios. His temple,
the Delphinion, was the center for activities that defined male
identity,
and
transition
the
particularly
the
concomitant
from
incorporation
to manhood
adolescence
into
the
At
citizen-body.
the Delphinion
served as a headquarters for the paean
singing Molpoi, and it is easy to think of their paean performances
Miletus
as an
tion
of
expression
for.17
stood
the male
sented
function
of
the
social
a
performances
a
performance
scenario
initiation
the
mances
had
to
ation
the
for
which
mance
It was
general
turns
out
the
paean
and
analogy
to
elucidated
men
young
institu
groups
repre
they had the integrative
the mem
among
the
training
and women
as new
of
discipline
movements
regular
to be
and presided
such
citizens,
its values
the
sense
as the members
insofar
And
the
Such
warfare?itself
of citizenship,
males
perfor
one
from
gener
performance?the
that are part of
it?
of order.
a connection
the mechanism
initiatory
by Ca?ame;
for hoplite
transmitting
the
and
there
of
precise
of
a
expressed
Thus,
the
that
such
community
the guardians
function
another.
of
the paean.
of adolescent
the dance,
music,
sense
a useful
also
of such groups were
over
of
this sense before the polis as a whole.
bers, and of expressing
are
values
the members
of the polis,
citizenry
articulating
and
practices
as
Insofar
function
song-dance
conveyed
between
of
of
the
moral
perfor
There
is a
as
partheneion,
by khoroi
performance
coded
the
initiation.
of
the
about
messages
of behavior expected of the members.18 Sometimes
paean singing was part of a broader initiatory framework inwhich
standards
a group
of young
men
took
ary such as the one at Asine
to a more
(theoria)
part
national
distant
in an expedition
to a local
sanctu
for Argos. Or it could be a pilgrimage
sanctuary,
a sanctuary
usually
Such expeditions or pilgrimages by young men can be
interpreted as spatial encoding of the idea of transition from one
of Apollo.
age
to another
group
Therefore
exhibition
those
paeanic
via
separation
song-dance
of the collective
of military
age,
presenting
from
represents
the
in such
and
organization
strength of adult males,
them
19
the community.
a way
particularly
as
to
empha
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116 APOLLO IN IVY:THE TRAGIC PAEAN
size their relationship
icon
and
guardian
for
with
this
Paeanic
group.
a
who was
the deity Paian/Apollo,
was
song-dance
per
ceived as promoting the safety and stability of the polis, which had
a special dependence on this group. The security of the polis is
the
always
ultimate
whether
consideration,
the
func
immediate
tion is galvanizing an army for battle, invoking divine help for
healing or averting catastrophe, worshiping Apollo on a pilgrim
to one
age
of his
sanctuaries,
men
of
the
tant with
an external
the wedding
invocation
The
community.
of paeanic
performance
projection
great
commemorating
ries of the past, or celebrating
of Paian/Apollo
can be
song-dance
of the strong,
victo
military
of one of the young
youthful
concomi
construed
male?the
as
ideal
citizen.
II.
Paeans in a Dionysiac
Environment
Since a central feature of the paean is that it is Apollo's song,
there is an inevitable incongruity between the paean and tragedy,
which
takes
extent
place
preserves
within
vestiges
the
frame
of Dionysiac
of Dionysiac
cult,
and
to some
religion.
The best commentary on this generic discord is a dithyramb by
the so-called Ode 16, which incorporates paean-like
Bacchylides,
elements
it. The
within
speaking
subject
presents
the
song
as
being performed during the period before Apollo returns to Del
phi to be greeted by paeans. In the opening (the first few lines are
badly damaged, and clear sense cannot be made of them), Apollo
is pictured enjoying himself in one of his favorite locations, proba
until he returns to partake in "flow
bly among the Hyperboreans,
ers of
paeans":
...
]?' ?xn
Jtain?vcov
?vOea Jie?oixve?v,
II?Oi' ?jioXXov,
x?aa xoQoi Aekty?bv
a?v
xeX?onoav
jiao'
?yaxX?a
jTQivye xX?ojiev Xute?v
Oix?k?av jivq? ?ajrcouivav
AuxJHTQVcovi?oav Ooaauu/n??a
au<|)ix?[xov'
va?v.
c()co6',?xexo ?'
axt?v...
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Ian Rutherford
[...
to seek
come
you
flowers
of paeans,
Pythian
117
such
Apollo,
as the khoroi of Delphians sang beside your glorious temple.
the bold
But before that, we sing how the son of Amphitryon,
a
came
to
washed
beach
and
mortal, left blazing Oechalia,
.
by waves
A
..]
narrative
short
the
relates
story
in a
and Deianeira
of Heracles
somewhat elliptical manner: after the sack of Oechalia, Heracles
went toMount Kenaion, where he offered sacrifice (antistrophe),
and Deianeira, in jealousy over Iole, sent him a robe dipped in the
(epode). The death itself is not described in this
poison of Nessus
narrative; the climax thus withheld reflects the khoroi %sense of
their
waiting,
The
point
return.
of Apollo's
anticipation
of
the present
contrasting
song
a paean
with
sung
at
Delphi in honor of Apollo's return is that the song, as a dithyramb,
is associated with Dionysos, who was thought to occupy Delphi in
the winter months during Apollo's absence.20 This text is a vital
piece of evidence for a general contrast between paeans and dithy
rambs in the fifth century. Signs of overlap between them, where
they occur in the fourth century, should thus be considered inno
or
vation
of
adaptation
the
Philodamus
century
poet
for dedication
Dionysos
to
the paean
include
norm.
For
example,
when
of Scarpheia composed
at Delphi, he was stretching
the
fourth
a paean to
the scope of
Dionysos.21
this distinction between genres would have been interpre
sources contrast the
ted in antiquity is not certain. Musicological
calm singing of the paean with the disorderly dithyramb. This con
trast can be traced back as far as Philochorus
(fr. 172), who said
that libations were originally accompanied by drunken songs in
honor of Dionysos and calm singing in honor of Apollo. Plutarch
also noted the calmness of the paean in comparison to the dithy
How
ramb (de E ap. Delphos, Mor.389a-b)22
although he may have
a
association
of the paean with the
traditional
inspired by
with
institutions such as
and
social
idea of political orderliness,
we
saw
in
section
the Ionian Delphinion
I).
(as
The associations of the dithyramb are harder to track, because
there are two types: the Dionysiac dithyramb, with an overt con
been
nection to the cult of Dionysos, and the narrative dithyramb.23 The
form derives its character from Dionysos, whom mod
Dionysiac
ern
Thus,
scholars
see
dithyrambic
as a
god
of
song-dance
paradox,
reversal,
performances
and
tended
transgression.
to
represent
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118 APOLLO IN IVY:THE TRAGIC PAEAN
the
subversion
of
and
social
or at
norms,
political
least
their
relax
ation.24 They are linked with emotional disorder because of the
association of Dionysos with wine and ecstasy, and with political
subversion
as the Dionysiac
insofar
was
group
as a threat
taken
to
political authority (as dramatized in Euripides' Bacchae). Hence
the dithyramb's distinction from the paean which corroborated
social and political norms. Gender may also be a consideration,
since Dionysos
tends to be associated with women, whereas the
paean
is almost
so overt.
not
is usually
tragedy,
form.
of the narrative dithyramb,
affiliation
The Dionysiac
Athenian
a male
exclusively
argue that the implied Dionysiac context of
dates the use of the themes of transgression
story of Deianeira summarized in Bacchylides,
of Perseus in Pindar, fr.70c, or almost all
Scholars
themes
have
only
come
recently
of
Athenian
tragedies).
that
social
still
might
the genre accommo
and disaster (like the
Ode 16, or the story
to apppreciate
subversion
crisis,
involving
like that of
one
However,
tragic
typical
and
norms,
the
chal
lenging of hierarchies and distinctions reflect the character of Dio
nysos.25 Even death and the chthonic in general can be seen as
Olympian
on
tend
paeans
to be
about
and
healing
the
sphere.26
Hence
paean,
while
themes,
Dionysiac
the
either
it, the
that
expectation
merely
when
to
referring
between
relationship
tragedy
it or modeling
the two genres
makes
use
whole
choral
not
will
of
be
the
odes
simple.
And that iswhat happens. The calm, joyful, healing paean tends
to run into conflict with the general thrust of the tragedy toward
disruption,
proper
tragedy
disorder, and death. Paeans in tragedy rarely have their
force,
and
are often
they
are
deceptive;
never
almost
a calm
what
disaster. To analyze this complex
the following sections.
seem.
they
sets
appearance
in
Paeans
the
for
stage
a
relationship will be the task of
III.
Identifying Genres
When
we
turn
to consider
in Tragic Choral Lyric
the
reception
of
in tragedy,
the paean
the first thing to emphasize is that the relationship between a cho
ral ode in tragedy and the traditional model of the paean is usually
fairly
existing
between
loose?it
model
dramatic
is a matter
or even
and
of
just allusion
nondramatic
adaptation
to it. To
choral
or
extension
articulate
odes,
we
of
the
the
relation
badly
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need
Ian Rutherford
tools. In the following
methodological
tools:
tion
and
allusions
generic
or extension;
mixing
signatures;
of genres
I outline
pages
five such
deforma
generic
framing;
and
and
mutation;
generic
119
cho
ral projection.
1. Generic
and
allusions
Some
signatures.
contain
odes
formal
clues that suggest paeanicity. The parodos of the Oedipus Tyran
nus (151ff.) purports to be an apotropaic prayer to avert a plague,
so that it can be considered a paean in virtue of its function.
Although it lacks the refrain that would be expected in a paean, it
has two telling allusions to the genre.27 The first is a quasi refrain
in the first strophe (154): trjieA?kie Ilai?v [i?ieDelian Paian]; the
second is a generic signature in the second antistrophe
(185):
xe yfJQU? ouxxuXo? [the paean
axovoeaaa
in
the
and
mournful
cry
flashes,
concert], which seems to refer to
utterances
of
the
apotropaic
Apolline cry i? paian, mixed with out
jraicbv ?? taiujtei
bursts
Even
of mourning.28
form
of
2. Framing.
these
are unusual
the paean
to set up
It is possible
to
ties
close
the
conventional
in tragedy.
a choral
song
as a paean
with
a frame. For example, early in Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes,
Eteocles asks the khoros of girls to utter a sacrificial cry in reply to
his prayer (268ff.):
axou?a?'
x?^i?rv
eEX,X/nvix?vv?uiauxx Gvoxa?o?
my
[Hearing
the Greek
The
a
mild
holy,
cry of ololug?,
token of a sacrificial cry]
unique phraseology
we
which
paean-cry
?ofjc
a paean,
utter
prayer,
ov
jtaiobvi?ov,
L8Q?V ?l)U?Vf)
O^oXdYM^?V
ejteixa
euyi^axoov,
combines
the female ololug? with
associate
usually
men.
with
The
the
choral
ode
that follows after a few lines (287ff.) can be seen as an expansion
of
the
phonal
and
mode
of
extant
this
are
This
attested
performance
one
(every
tragedy
of
in paean
outside
the
anti
drama.
frames of this sort in
introductory
them
suggests
pattern
more
somewhat
problematic
one).29
3. Generic
edy
so a paean-song.
are at least three other
There
than
reply,
like
deformation
paeans
or
in some
extension.
respects,
Some
but
choral
unlike
odes
them
in trag
in others.
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120 APOLLO IN IVY:THE TRAGIC PAEAN
Thus,
they
can
be
of
thought
as
a deformation
representing
or
extension of the basic generic model. The paean-like song sung by
women
in tragedy is one such example. For instance, in the
Choephoroi Electra instructs the khoros of slave women to sing a
In the Iphigeneia at Aulis,
paean over the tomb of Agamemnon.
Iphigeneia calls on the khoros of Chalcian women to sing a paean
as she is sacrificed (a peculiar inversion of the sacrificial paean)
the khoros of Trachinian women
(1474ff.). In the Trakhiniai,
return
the
of
Heracles
with an excited ode which is at
anticipates
a
in
A
least
part paean (see IV).
gender shift is also evident in the
to
Agamemnon where the khoros call on the manly Clytemnestra
the "healer" (jkxixdv) of their anxiety (98).
form of generic extension to which the paean is subject
in tragedy involves its connection with the chthonic (studied more
fully in section IV).
become
Another
4. Mixing of genres and generic mutation. This is a special case
of number 3 above. In the Laws Plato castigated modern poets for
inherited generic models?mixing
transgressing
dirges with
hymns
and
with
paeans
for
dithyrambs,
example.30
Plato
may
well
have been thinking of choral odes in tragedy. A good example here
is the celebratory ode in Sophocles' Trakhiniai
(205ff.). The
khoros celebrates the news that Heracles is on his way home with
an ecstatic
ode.
Two
generic
allusions
point
to the paean:
the quasi
refrain in line 220 (id) IcoIlai?v) and the generic signature or quasi
refrain in lines 210-11
5)
(o\iov ?? jrat?va jtat?v' ?vaioex'
JtaoO?voi) .31But only the first half of the song is about Apollo; the
second half is about Dionysos: the khoros shouts the Dionysiac cry
EV?? (219), and talk about the ivy twisting a Bacchic contest
...
/
? xiaa?? ?oxi Bax/iav
(219-20 toot) fi' ?vaxarjaooei
which
the
suggests
(the ivy
dithyramb
tJjioaxo?cjxDV ?uiXXav),
indicates the divine inspiration of Dionysos, and it symbolizes the
circular dance itself). The ode is a generic mixture, and in fact it is
a mutation
since
it opens
with
a
paeanic
section
and
ends
with
a
dithyrambic section,32 a similar breaking down of the distinction
between Dionysiac and Apolline genres as we saw in Ode 16 of
Bacchy lides.33
5. Choral projection.
Sometimes a khoros describes another
choral performance, which seems to be an indirect description of
themselves; Albert Henrichs analyzes such patterns as projections
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Ian Rutherford
by the khoros of their own performance
the
suggesting
term
"choral
121
onto the imaginary one,
For
projection."34
example,
in the
sec
ond stasimon
of Euripides' Alcestis
(445ff.) the khoros imagines
in
of
honor
the
dead
Alcestis at the Spartan
singing songs
poets
Karneia:
jioXM oe uxyuoojtoXoi
lieXtyovoi xa0' ?jtx?xov?v x' ?oeiav
%?\VV 6V X'aMjQOl? xX?OVX?Cv\ivoi??
rceoiv?oexai a>oa
Zrc?oxa xuxX?? ?v?xa Kaove?ou
u/nv?c, ?eioouivac
nawvxov
oeX?vac
...
[The attendants of the Muses will often sing of you on the
seven-string mountain
lyre and in lyreless hymns when the
circling time of the Karneian month comes round at Sparta,
the moon
while
hovers above all night]
These
lines could
heroes
at the Karneia,
reflect actual
as we
know
singing of paeans
that
they
were
sung
in honor of
in honor
of
the point would presumably be that
heroes at the Gumnopaidia;
Alcestis isworthy ?f being honored as a man in death, unlike her
cowardly husband.35 The khoros does not say that they are singing
such
but
paeans,
they make
the
allusion.36
IV.
Chthonic
In Greek
mentality,
a clear
Confrontations
watershed
exists
between
the upper
world of the living and divine, the Olympian sphere, and the lower
world of the dead, the chthonic sphere.37 I have already noted that
the paean was associated with the Olympian sphere while the dirge
and the dithyramb were associated with the chthonic. Athenian
tragedians frequently exploited the antitheses between Olympian
and chthonic by means of their associated genres, the paean and
the dirge. Sometimes the categories are rigorously distinguished,
as in a fragment of Aeschylus' Niobe
(fr.161), which says that
cannot
be
Death
supplicated by any means, even by addressing
paeans
to
it:
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122 APOLLO IN IVY:THE TRAGIC PAEAN
uovo? Oec?v y?o Oavaxo? ov ?coqcov ?oa
oi>?' ?v xi O?oov ov?' ?mojt?v?oov ?voi?,
oi>?' 8?xi ?(?[x?c ov?? jtaioviCexai/
u?vou ?? Ile?OcD?auxovoav ?jroaxaxe?.
[Alone of the gods Death does not desire gifts, nor would you
libations.
accomplish
anything by sacrificing or pouring
is no
There
altar
and
are
paeans
from this god does Persuasion
not
to
addressed
it. Only
stand away.]
seems pretty clear-cut: death is implacable, healing is no
longer a possibility. The same degree of antithesis is attested in a
This
fragment from the Polyxena of Sophocles (fr.523), where the ghost
of Achilles announces his arrival by saying that he has left the
"paeanless shores" (?xx?? ?jraicova?) of Hades;38 and in Euripi
des' Iphigeneia among the Taurians (line 172), inwhich a dirge is
described as "without paeans" (b?%ajrai?vcov) ,39
However,
between
literary
tragedians
categories,
effects.
Take,
do
not
always
a clear
observe
and they tend to juxtapose
for example,
the
topos
of
distinction
them for complex
"death
the healer,"
first attested in a fragment of Aeschylus'
Philoctetes
(fr.255),
where the hero appealed to death to relieve him of his suffering:
(b O?vaxe jiaicov, |?t| fx'?xiuxxanc [xoXe?v
(i?voc <y?g> et ov xcov ?vnx?oxcov xax v
taxQO?, ?Xyo? ?' o???v ?jrxexai vexooi)
[O healer death, do not deprive me of the honor of your com
ing; when ills are beyond healing, you alone are a doctor, and
no
pain
touches
a corpse.]
In this rich paradox, living means to live with unhealable ills and
death is a healer of life.
A drama inwhich the antithesis between paean and dirge plays
itself out in a particularly
interesting way is the Choephori of
toward vengeance is articulated by the
Aeschylus. The movement
symbol
of modulation
from
dirge
pestic section of the kommos,
to paean,
as we
see
delivered by the khoros
from
an ana
(340-44):
?A?' ex' ?v ex x v?e Oe?? xqth?cw
08?T]xeXa?ou? e?(|)0OYYOx?Qou?
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Ian Rutherford
123
?vxi ?? 6qt|v?)v ejtnruu?ioioav
jraubv u^X?Oooic ?v ?aaileioic
veoxoaxa
xouxoetev
fyikov
[But a god if he desires in this situation could make the cries
more melodious.
Instead of dirges at the tomb may the paean
in the royal halls usher-in the welcome newly-mixed bowl of
wine]
The present kommos between Electra, Orestes, and the khoros is
conceived as a dirge, but the khoros anticipates a happier time
It has been suggested that
characterized by the sumposion-paean.
the paean they look forward to is the ecstatic choral ode at 936ff.40
there
Interestingly,
tion
a
been
to
"paean
the
dead
of
premonition
near
ode
start
the
it, Electra had instructed
introducing
phonal
had
in a short
earlier
of
same
play.
the khoros
in response
man"
the
the
modula
In a frame
to sing an anti
to her
own
prayer
(149-51): v\xa?, ?? x xuxo?? ?jtavOi^eiv vouo? / Jtai?va xov
Gavovxo? ?^au?oofi?va? [and it is the custom for you to decorate
them with the flowers of laments, uttering a paean to the dead
man]. The frame is ambiguous: does it imply that the following
ode is a dirge (explaining away the word Jtatava as a trope) ?or a
paean (taking it literally)? or something in between? The ode itself
into a
like a dirge, but it modulates
(152ff.) begins mournfully,
the murder
prayer
that
are no
generic
a paean
or
prayer,
it is a paean,
that we
be avenged.
there
Although
as a paean
either
be
(it could
it functions
even
it is a strange
being addressed
suggest
of Agamemnon
allusions,
an
of
anticipation
one,
since
away
paean).
But
if
in the chthonic,
to the dead man, and sung on his behalf. Iwould
have
here
another
of
distinct genres described by Plato.41
References to the paean in chthonic
explained
a victory
it is grounded
as
oxymoronic
the mixtures
of
theoretically
contexts have tended to be
periphrases
for
"dirge."
But
I
to take an
In the Helena,
believe this is an oversimplification.
example from Euripides, the antiphonal parodos is introduced by
Helen, who, having been informed by Teucer that members of her
ismissing, prays to
family in Sparta have died, and thatMenelaos
Persephone to send singers from Hades, and she will reciprocate
by sending a paean back down to Hades (174ff.).
uouoeia
0onvr|uxx
01 ?uvcp?? Jt?u/ijjeie
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124 APOLLO IN IVY:THE TRAGIC PAEAN
Oeoae^aooa
(j)?via, xctQtxa? ?v' ?jtl ?axovai
Jtap' 8(i80<8v> ijjt? uiXaOoa vv^icl Jtai?va
v?xvoiv ?tau?voi? Xa?n.
[May Persephone send deadly singers to accompany dirges, so
that she receives a paean from me into her chamber of night
for the perished dead as tearful recompense.]
Kannicht
"jtauxva"
takes
as
an
oxymoronic
for
periphrasis
in
song is welcomed
"dirge," which suits the fact that Helen's
Hades, and is inspired by Persephone.42 Although on one level that
may be true, itwould be amistake to erase the whole of the specific
just heard the news of the deaths,
meaning of Jtai?va. Having
Helen has perhaps not entirely adjusted to the situation and sub
consciously still believes that a paean-prayer will be of avail.43 Hel
en's
song
a paean
resembles
at
least
as
insofar
it starts
from
the
the singers that Persephone
upper, Olympian world, whereas
sends start from Hades. Lower world invades upper, and then
the upper invades the lower. The resulting song imagined by Helen
is a generic hybrid, implausible in real life, but this is tragedy,
fantastic
unusually
at
tragedy
that,
and
the
rules
of
genre
are
suspended.
V.
False Dawn: Disappointed
Expectations
A happy paean is often followed by a disaster. This is typical of
tragedy, in which nothing is what it seems and no celebration is
immune from irony. We find it, for example, in the parodos of the
Oedipus Tyrannus (despite the wishes of the khoros, the situation
in Thebes gets worse in the short term, although in the long term
the plague
vanishes).
presumably
Another
turns
out
to be
far from
a cause
comes
in the fragmentary
khoros
launches
into
a
celebratory
A
simpler
of Euripides,
victory
celebra
the return of Heracles
for celebration.
Erechtheus
is the
example
tory ode near the start of the Trakhiniai:
paean
after
example
in which
the news
the
of
the victory, and then finds out that Erechtheus himself has died.
to the
One of the best examples of this pattern is a modulation
a
paean in the second stasimon of theHeracles, which is joyful ode
occasioned by the return of the hero (687ff.).44 In the first strophe
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Ian Rutherford
125
the khoros of old men expresses the wish that they might enjoy a
second youth; in the first antistrophe they suggest that the gods
should arrange that the virtuous should live twice; in the second
talk
they
strophe
about
their
role
finally in the second antistrophe,
projection,"
maidens
and
compare
they
announce
that
as
is. This
Apollo
concentrate
which
they
praises;
I earlier called "choral
to
are
Delian
paean-singing
themselves
paeans,
singing
to
of having paeans addressed
contrasts
section
of Heracles'
singers
themselves
is as worthy
implying that Heracles
him
as
by what
on mortality,
with
both
the
of
earlier
stanzas,
and of
the singers
Heracles.
Soon
after
stasimon
second
the
comes
the Heracles
of
a reversal
the appearance of Iris and Lyssa, and the onset of Heracles'
madness. Perhaps Euripides meant for a sense of foreboding to be
triggered by the reflection that in comparing themselves to the
Delian maidens, the khoros clearly implies that they are treating
like a god, which may have appeared impious and hy
Heracles
with
a
bristic,
of
trangression
the
convention
that
paeans
should
be
addressed only to gods.45 And it is perhaps interesting that at the
moment of peripeteia (815ff.) the khoros cries out in terror, and
in the last
invokes Paean, as if to recall the paeans mentioned
stanza
of
the
In some
bolize
lost
Aeschylus'
second
passages
happiness.
stasimon.
a paean
can sym
in tragedy,
in the past
sung
comes
One
from
the
of
example
parodos
an ode
(246-47),
Agamemnon
narrates
that
the
story
of the events at Aulis before the Trojan War, culminating in the
sacrifice of Iphigeneia. Just when she is about to be sacrificed,
there
took
is a flashback
place
long
to the
scene
before?where
of her
she
father's
answered
sumposion?which
his
paean:
?jtei JioXtaxxi?
jraxQ?? xax' ?v?pcova?
e?xocut??ou?
xo? om?a jraxo??
?u^X/ipev,?yv? ?' ?xauo
jtaicova cj>iX.(o?
eimoxuov
?xijia.
?i\ov XQixoojrov?ov
[For she sang many times in the well-furnished
quarters of her
father, and with a meek face and a holy voice she honored in
a kindly manner her dear father's propitious paean sung at
the third libation.]
This
is another case where an auspicious past is symbolized by the
performance
of
a paean
at a
banquet.
Is there
also
a later,
less aus
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126 APOLLO IN IVY:THE TRAGIC PAEAN
picious
a
of
performance
paean?
Yes,
a paean
because
would
have
been performed at the sacrifice of Iphigeneia, of course?in
fact
such a paean is mentioned
in Euripides'
in Aulis
Iphigeneia
as we
(1474ff.),
A model
pho,
whose
poem
on
the marriage
of Hector
itself
suggests
between
this
by Sap
and Andromache
a celebratory paean sung by the guests
ishes with
contrast
seen.
have
for this pattern here may have been provided
and
paean
fin
(fr.44. 33ff.). A
one
two
of
paeans
mentioned
Iliad?the one at Iliad 22. 39Iff.?which
is
a victory paean sung by Achilles and his companions when they
carry the dead body of Hector back to camp.46 There may be
another echo of this pattern at Euripides, Troades (577ff.), where
is being led off by Greeks, like a bride being led from
Andromache
her family's home to her husband, and says to the grieving Hecuba:
inHomer's
xi Jtaicxv' e\ibv oxevct?ei?;
is a particular
This
paean?].
[Why do you sing in lamentation my
to the paean
allusion
at the wed
sung
recorded, for example, in Sappho 44.
ding of Andromache,
A more complex instance of the same pattern is found in the par
odos of Sophocles' Antigone
(lOOff.). This ode celebrates a vic
tory, and in view of its function I believe that Greeks would have
of
thought
it as a victory
ray of the sun, which
It starts
paean.
is pictured
an
with
following
invocation
to a
army as it
the Argive
flees.
?xxl? ?zkiov, x? x?XAioxov ?jtxajnjXtp c|)av?v
0r|?a xcov jtQox?o v fy?o?
?(|>av0T]? jiox' coXQUtf?a?
?fx?pa? ?Xicjxxoov, ?iqxc?cov ?>jt8QQ880qcov \io\ovoa,
X?V fX,8lJXa?JtLV
?QYO08V
c|)c?xa?avxa
jrav?ayiat
(jyuyaoa JtQ?OQOfxovo^ux?oto
xivr|oaaa
xaXivto.
[Ray of the sun, light that appears to Thebes the fairest ever
light, o eyelid of the golden day, you have revealed yourself,
the man from
moving over the streams of Dirke, making
a
armored
with
white
Argos, fully
shield(?), run headlong
away with a sharp bridle.]
The
opening
the one we
words
know
seem
as Paian
to be
an
IX, which
allusion
to a paean
commemorates
by Pindar,
an
eclipse
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of
Ian Rutherford
the
sun
was
and
Thebes,
for
composed
at
performance
127
at
Ismenion
the
in 467.
perhaps
?xxi? ?eXiov, xi tioXvokojie ?ur|aao,
cou?xeo ou^?xcov, ?axgov ?jt?oxaxov
8V?fx?QOtxX,8Jtx?u?vov; <x? ?'> ?Onxa? ?jiaxavov
?v?oaoi
xai oofyia?, o?ov, ?moxoxov ?xoajtov ?oovfx?va;
io%vv x'
[Ray of the sun!What have you contrived, observant mother
of eyes, highest star, stolen in broad daylight? Why have you
made helpless men's strength and the path of wisdom, rush
ing down a dark path?]
is particularly striking coming at the start of an
overtly celebratory ode. Perhaps Sophocles intends to suggest that
This
the
allusion
sunrise
first
after
sion for celebration
of
spective
the defeat
of
someone
who
an occa
to be
but in reality
the
knows
seems
Seven
the
by the Thebans,
(from the per
it is as ominous
future)
a
as
solar eclipse, in view of the personal and political crisis that this
day will bring to Thebes. The Theban setting of Paian IX makes
it an appropriate
One
model.
could
see
perhaps
thematic
relevance
also: while Pindar calls the ray of the sun a swift driver of horses
(line 7), so Sophocles has the sun drive the enemy away like a
horse-rider in flight. Again, in the second triad of the Paian Pindar
moves
away
the
seer Tenerus,
ures
from
the
and
in Sophocles'
it may
13ff.
is another
of
on
focuses
be observed
Antigone
in lines
Furthermore
and
eclipse
the Paian,
that
Apollo
one of
Theban
Pindar
and
his
the major
son,
fig
seer?Teiresias.
mentions
a series
of
calamities portended by the eclipse, some of which are comparable
to events in the Antigone, particularly ?xcxoiv o?Xouivav
[deadly
faction] in line 15.What would otherwise be a fairly straightfor
ward dark allusion is complicated by the fact that the parodos of
the Antigone can itself be thought of as a paean, although this
would
and
be a celebratory victory paean, contrasting with
song
apotropaic
the fearful
of Pindar.47
VI.
Paeanic Deception:
We
have
seen
numerous
Sophocles,
complex
P hilo et ?tes 827ff.
effects
involving
paeans
tragedy: sometimes a paean is adapted to an unusual purpose
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in
(IV);
128 APOLLO IN IVY:THE TRAGIC PAEAN
sometimes a paean fails in its purpose (V). A related use of the
paean is to deceive. Thus, in a fragment of Aeschylus (fr.350) from
an unknown play, Thetis,
the death of
apparently mourning
on
to
and
how
her
meditates
Peleus,
Achilles,
Apollo had
wedding
a
future
her
for
sung there, predicting
prosperous
offspring and
as
to
a
at
if
the
the
end
guarantee
paean-cry
prediction
adding
(line 4).
Only in one case is a paean deliberately misused by a character
a drama which
in the drama. This is in Sophocles' Philoctetes,
invites
with
an
use
the
the
of
in view
paean,
its
of
illness (we saw earlier that Aeschylus'
to "Death,
prayer
oxymoronic
connection
thematic
Philoctetes
the healer").
as
Just
contained
the
tortured
Philoctetes falls asleep, the khoros appeals to Sleep to come and
protect him. The short ode consists of a single triad, with a brief
between strophe and anti
dactylic interruption by Neoptolemus
strophe (839-40). It begins like this (827ff.):
e'Yjiv' obvva? ??af|?, "Yjtve ?' ?Xy?cov,
e?ari? r|u?v ?XOoi?, evaicov,
evaicov, tova?* ?ujiaai ?' ?vxioxoi?
xtxv?'
a x?xaxai
aiy^av,
xavDv.
?0i i'0i uoi, Ilaic?v.
in pain,
unversed
[Sleep,
unversed
in anguish,
may
come
you
to us blowing fair, you of the good life, good life, lord. May
you continue to hold up to his eyes this light of healing, which
now
extends
Haldane
and
Come,
commentators
other
of
impression
him.
before
a cult
paean:
come
to me,
have
taken
paeanic
features
healer.]
this
as
pointed
a
realistic
to
are
the
quasi refrain, as well as the epithet euaion (which occurs in a num
ber of paeanic contexts)48 and the noun aigla (the latter has a spe
cial association with the cult of Asclepius).49
Of course, this paeanic effect is sustained only to a point half
way through the strophe. In the second half of the strophe, with
now
Philoctetes
satisfactorily
asleep,
the khoros
advises
Neoptol
emus
to steal the bow (833-38). So the purpose of singing the
paean to Sleep, even ifwas partly to ease the pain of Philoctetes,
turns
out
to have
been
to steal
his most
precious
possession.
In a
four dactylic hexameters, Neoptolemus
interjection
the
oracle
that
objects
required the presence of Philoctetes also,
brief
of
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Ian Rutherford
129
but in the antistrophe the khoros insists that he should take the
bow. In the antistrophe (844-46) the khoros appeals anxiously to
to answer their request rapidly, since Philoctetes
Neoptolemus
not
may
stay
for
asleep
The
long.
contrast
with
the pious
strophe
is unsettling.50
a refer
This mood continues in the epode, which begins with
ence to the wind that wafts them back to Troy:
XOl, X8XVOV,
OVQO?
vtjq ?' ?vou^axo?,
?xx?xaxat vuxio?
?
ovqo?
ov?' ?xcov ??coyav,
[There is a wind, child, a wind. The man iswithout eyes and
lies stretched out in darkness without anyone to help him.]
is reminiscent of "Sleep blowing fair" in the paeanic
to the strophe. And there is a stark contrast between
the helpless state of Philoctetes, a man "without eyes," which the
This wind
introduction
khoros
invites
to
Neoptolemus
and
exploit,
their
earlier
request
to
Sleep to "hold up to his eyes this light of healing." The hypocrisy
of the "Paean to Sleep" is exposed.
Community
VII.
and Isolation: Solo Paeans in the Ion
As I said in the first section, paeans were usually sung by khoroi;
and the relationship with choral performance is neither superficial
nor
accidental.
The
essence
of
the paean
is the
exhibi
exuberant
tion of collective male solidarity, and a khoros is needed for the full
effect.
Some
solo
are known?for
performances
kithar
example,
odic paeans that are supposed to have been performed in competi
tions at Delphi?but
they are rare and should probably be
considered exceptional.51 Choral performance of paeans is also the
norm in Greek tragedy. Even when tragedy defies convention by
having women sing paeans, they still sing together.
However,
of Euripides,
celebrating
of
one of the best examples of the tragic paean, in the Ion
is a monody.
his position
it is in anapestic
meter,
Ion makes
his
entrance
singing
as temple servant at Delphi
but
there
is a central
section
an aria
(82ff.). Most
consisting
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130 APOLLO IN IVY:THE TRAGIC PAEAN
of a strophe and antistrophe in aeolic meter, each ending with
= lines
141-43):
spondaic refrain (lines 125-27
co Ilaicxv
a
co riaicxv,
8?CX?C0V
SVCX?COV
co
Jtat
ei/n?, Aaxo??
o Paean,
[O Paean,
be
you
may
fortunate,
o
fortunate,
son
of Leto]
is the
This
closest
that
extant
comes
tragedy
to a
paean-refrain.
strophe is a cheerful description of the branch of laurel with
which Ion sweeps the temple (one is reminded, perhaps, of the lau
rel-bearing ritual in the Delphic Septerion, which would have been
Most of the antistrophe
accompanied by the singing of paeans) .52
is a celebration of Ion's sacred labors in the temple (128ff.), a
The
theme
can
that
in nondramatic
be paralleled
paeans.53
khoros,
is particularly
solo performance
striking because the
composed of Athenian women accompanying Creusa to
Delphi,
does
The
matic
not
a paean
sing
choice?as
they
it seems
when
admire
the
sculptures
the most
on
the
likely
temple
dra
while
singing the parodos (184ff.). In this play the paean seems to be a
symbol for isolation and alienation from the community of Ath
ens. This idea might have found a resonance with an Athenian
for whom
audience,
paeans
were
linked
vals of the polis than with pilgrimages,
distant
Apolline
less with
the major
festi
often by young people,
to
sanctuaries.54
is an echo of Ion's solo paean later on in the play in Creu
sa's monody, where she laments the son she believes has been lost
while Apollo indulges himself in paean singing (897ff.):
There
xixxco ?' ? ?uoxavo? ooi
XO?JQOV,X?V (j)QLXa[XaXQ??
8i? evv?v ?aMxo x?v o?v,
iva \ie X?xeo? \x?Xea uiXeo?
??eu^co x?v o?axavov
OlJXOl\lOVXal V?V 8QQ8L
jrxavo?? [xoixal a?? xX?uxov,
ov ?? xiO?oa xtax?ei?
jtauxva?
[x?fotcov
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Ian Rutherford
131
[Poor wretch that I am, I bore you a child, and, in fear of my
mother, I exposed him on your bed, where you had put the
yoke on me. And now, alas, he is gone, carried off by birds as
dinner, my child and yours, wretched child. But meanwhile
you screech on the kith ara, singing paeans.]
solo paean singing has a different meaning
Apollo's
Ion.
Ion's
solo
paean
his
symbolizes
from
isolation
from that of
community,
Apollo's symbolizes the choice he has made to evade his responsi
bilities to Creusa and to honor himself with his own song. While
Ion's isolation is a temporary stage which he has transcended by
the end of the play, Apollo's evasion is a deliberate strategy, which
is reinforced in the final scene, where he declines even to show up
to sort
out
the
situation,
as a substitute.
Athena
sending
Neverthe
less, there is a parallel between the solo paeans of Ion and Apollo:
when Ion sings his solo paean, he represents Apollo, and when
Creusa describes Apollo as singing paeans alone, she may be pro
and deity resemble
jecting onto him an image of Ion. Worshiper
each other, as is so often the case inGreek religion. Ion, in his iso
lation from humanity, appears to imitate one of the less admirable
characteristics of Apollo in this play.
VIII.
Conclusion
If the impious deceptive paean in the Philoctetes represents a
crisis in the religious significance of the paean in tragedy, the solo
paean in the Ion could suggest a diminution of the choral pres
ence?an
example of Euripides' well-established
tendency to be
in his
transgressive
religious
of musical
representations
in general.
conventions
While
and
categories,
Sophocles,
in most
of
cases,
the convention
of choral performance,
reproduced
shifted
the
musical
and
emotional center of the drama
Euripides
to
the individual singer. Beyond an artistic level,
from the chorus
this development may indicate a deeper meaning. Perhaps this
of the chorus reflects a corresponding breakdown
marginalization
of the traditional community. We saw earlier that the paean's flo
ruit was the archaic period; by the late fifth century itwas out of
faithfully
date, except
mate
larly
in conservative
exchange
conspicuous
of
song
and
at Athens,
centers, and with
social
where
fabric.
the
The
it had gone the inti
change
avant-garde
was
particu
rejected
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the
132 APOLLO IN IVY:THE TRAGIC PAEAN
form of the traditional song-dance culture in favor of
artistic virtuosity. The paean was not forgotten, but it
survived only as a formal allusion, an isolated literary motif, ostra
Iwould
cized from its earlier functional role in the community.
over
which
intensified
the
suggest that this marginalization,
canonical
modern
course of the fifth century, is, in an uncanny way,
the isolated paean sung by Euripides' Ion.
symbolized
by
NOTES
for my forthcoming
paper arose from research that I undertook
book,
Pindar's Paianes: A Reading of the Fragments with a Survey of Their Generic Con
texts. I have discussed
some of the same issues from a different point of view in
This
A Study of the Representation
inGreek Litera
"Paeanic Ambiguity:
of the Ilai?v
Urbinati di Cultura Classica n.s. 44, 77ff. I thank Charles Segal
ture," Quaderni
various participants who con
the conference;
and Stephen Scully, who organized
to the question and answer session; and Herb Golder and Julie Seeger, who
the follow-up publication.
1. C. J. Herington,
(California 1985).
Poetry into Drama
2. The paean genre is discussed
by A. Fairbanks, A Study of the Greek Paean
"Paian," NJKA 22 (1919), 385ff.; A. von Blumenthal,
(Cornell 1900); L. Deubner,
tributed
oversaw
G. A. Privitera, "II peana sacro ad Apollo," Cultura e Scu
"Paian" RE 36,2340ff.;
ola 41 (1972), 41ff.; C. Ca?ame, ed., Rito e Poes?a C?rale in Grecia: Guida Storica e
Critica (Roma 1977), 17ff.; L. K?ppel, Paian. Studien zur Geschichte
einer Gattung
zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte,
Bd. 37] (Berlin 1992).
[Untersuchungen
3. Thaletas: Pratinas, PMG 713(iii), cited in Ps. Plutarch, De mus. 42 (1142b-c);
1. 14. 4 {Qakq?); Tynnichus:
Plato, Ion 534d =PMG 707.
Pausanias,
sources in TrGF 4, T67, 68, 69; see A. Henrichs,
"'Der
und Kul
als Glaubenbekenntnis
Religionsgeschichte
Nach 50 Jahren, ed. W. Calder III, H. Flashar, T. Lindken
turkritik," Wilamowitz
(Darmstadt 1985), 298ff.; Salamis: Vita. Soph.3 (TGrF 4. 31).
to Asclepius:
der Hellenen':
4. Paean
Glaube
5. The
name
is found on two Knossos
haps KN Fp 354.
6. On the oXoXvyr],
1,1-28.
7. Of
while
see L. Deubner,
tablets: KN V 52; KN C 394.3;
"Ololug?
und Verwandtes,"
also per
APAW
1941.
the Pindar Paians, only Paian II, Paian IV, and Paian V have regular refrains,
I, Paian VI, Paian VHd, and Paian VIII do not.
Paian
8. The Erythraean Paian to Apollo
(CA 140) 10; the Erythraean Paian to Asclep
ius {CA 136) 2 (= 137.1)), and Macedonicus'
Paian 4; Pindar, (Paian VI), 122.
see Archilochus,
9. For antiphonal
IEG 121; Aeschines,
performance,
F*/s.Li?g.l62-63.
10. For dance,
11. The Molpoi
see Homeric
to Apollo 516; Pindar, Paian VI. 18.
Hymn
is in Lois sacr?es de l'Asie Mineur,
ed. F. Sokolowski
inscription
von Olbia," Mus.Helv.31
der Molpoi
(Paris 1955) n. 50. F. Graf, "Das Kollegium
Mus.Helv.35
(1979), 2ff. N. Robertson,
(1974), 209ff.; id., "Apollon Delphinios,"
525-442
and Society atMiletus,
"Government
B.C.," Phoenix 41 (1987), 356ff.; N.
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Ian Rutherford
133
der kultischen
und seine Kolonien:
vergleichende
Untersuchung
(Frankfurt 1983), 142ff.
Einrichtungen
12. See Robertson
(n. 11) 359; Graf, "Apollo Delphinios"
(n.
(n. 11); Ehrhardt
11) 202. The antiquity of the guild is indicated by the fact that similar ones are
on
known
from the Milesian
colonies of Olbia on the Black Sea and Aegiale
Ehrhardt, Milet
und politischen
{IG 12. 7. 418),
Amorgos
both
founded
Sinope (Ehrhardt, 136).
13. Theophrastus,
fr.119 = Athenaeus
in the seventh
century;
perhaps
also
in
10. 424.
14. IG 5. 1. 209.
15. Athens:
3. 253(Schmidt).
1; Jiai?va? inHesychius,
IG 2(2) 2481 (late second century CE.), and the list on the left-hand
Piraeus: SIG 1110; IG 2(2) 2963. Eleusis: SEG 32,
side of the Sarapion monument.
232. Egypt: SGUA 1. 5803; SGUA 3. 7090 (= 1. 1743) (Panopolis); POxy.3018;
IG
14. 1059.
and Karneia, see 121.
see Graf, "Apollo Delphinios"
17. For Apollo and the Delphinion,
(n. 11).
18. See C. Ca?ame, Les choeurs des jeunes filles en Gr?ce archa?que (Rome 1977).
19. F. de Polignac, La Naissance
de la cit? grecque (Paris 1984). I hope to discuss
16. For the Gumnopaidia
theoria
20. On
in a separate study.
this song, see B. Zimmermann,
98], 70ff.; A. P. Burnett,
[Hypomnemata
123ff.
einer Gattung
Geschichte
Dithyrambos.
The Art of Bacchylides
(Harvard 1985),
21. On the Paian to Dionysos
of Philodamus
of Scarpheia, see A. Stewart, "Dio
of the Sixth Temple
of Apollo
and Religious
nysus at Delphi: The Pediments
in the Age of Alexander,"
inMacedonia
and Greece in Late Classical and
Reform
Times, eds. Beryl Barr-Sharrar and Eugene N. Borza [Studies in
Early Hellenistic
the History of Art, 10] (Washington
1982), 205ff.
cx?cruai xt?) \itv oi?uQau?ixa
\i?h) jiaBcov ^leoi? xai nexa?oX/nc
xal ?ia^OQTjaiv
?xovorj??ux^o?oav?
y??> AaxjxvXo?
<J>tjoI
Aiov?aa)?
Jtai?va,
xcp ??
?JiQ?Jiei oi6i)Qau?ov
ouyxcou-ov
?jxaQxe?v
... [To the one
xai oc?)(|)QOva uxr?oav
songs
they sing dithyrambic
xexayuivriv
full of emotions and meandering
variation?with
mixed shouts, as Aeschylus
says
22. xai
jiX,?vr|v
xtv?
{TrGF 3.355), the dithyramb with the revel should accompany
the other they sing the paean, ordered and temperate].
are Archilochus
23. Sources for the Dionysian
dithyramb
to
Dionysos?while
IEG120, Aeschylus,
see
Pindar, 0/.13.18,
Plato, Laws 3.700f; for the narrative dithyramb,
Ps. Plutarch, de Mus. 1134e; Scholia inDionysium
Thracem, 451.
Plato, Rep.394c;
21 (ed. Hilgard
in general, see Zimmermann
(n. 20), A.
[1901]). On the dithyramb
TrGF 3.355,
W. Pickard-Cambridge,
Dithyramb,
T. B. L. Webster)
(Oxford 1962).
24. Modern
Great Dionysia
25. Goldhill
perceptions
and Civic
Tragedy
of Dionysos
and Comedy,
are well
second edition
summarized
by S. Goldhill,
(revised
"The
JHS 107 (1987), 76.
Ideology,"
(n. 24), 74-76, with bibliography.
26. Dionysos
and death: W. F. Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult, tr. R. B. Palmer
fr.B15 (... (bux?? ??Ai?Tj? xai Atovuao?...
),
(Dallas 1981), 137-42; Heraclitus,
An edition of the Fragments with
C. H. Kahn, The Art and Thought of Heraclitus:
Translation
G. Cole,
2.123.
and Commentary
1; S.
(Cambridge 1979), 264-65; Herodotus,
inMasks
from Beyond the Grave: Dionysus
and the Dead,"
of
eds. T. H. Carpenter
and C. A. Faraone (Cornell 1993); A. Henrichs,
"Voices
Dionysus,
"He Has God
in Him:
Human
and Divine
inModern
Perception
of Dionysus,"
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134 APOLLO IN IVY:THE TRAGIC PAEAN
ibid. 26ff. Pindar
fr.70b
27. See W.
Ax,
is connected
van de Weiden,
underworld)
by Maria
Text and Commentary
with
Pindar
fr.346
The Dithyrambs
1991), 94ff.
(Amsterdam
"Die Parodos der Oedipus
in
(initiation of Heracles
of Pindar: Introduction,
Tyrannos,"
67
Hermes
(1932), pp.
413ff.
28. By "quasi refrain" Imean something which
looks like a refrain, but
repeated, as one would expect a true refrain to be.
29. Aeschylus,
149-51; Euripides, Alcestis 422?24; Euripides,
Choephori
geneia at Aulis 1474ff.
is not
Iphi
30. Plato, Laws 3. 700d: \iex? ?? xa?xa
xo?j c?qxovxe? u.?v xfj?
jiqo?ovxo?
??
?\iovoov
Jiapavofxia?
jroiTjxai ?y?YVovxo fyvoei u.?v jtoiTjxixoi, ?yv?\iovz?
xai x? v?uxuov,
xai jiaAAov xov
J?8Q? x? ?ixaiov
xfj? Movotj?
?axxEUovxEc
?? OQrrvov? xe uuvoi?
xai
??ovxo?
xaxexo^Evoi
?(|)' r|?ovfj?, xEQavv?vxE?
. . . [After this with the passage of time the poets became
Jiaic?va? oiBvoau?oic
rulers of muse-less
illegality, poetic by nature, but ignorant of the justice of the
in Bacchic revelry and possessed
and her law, indulging
by pleasure more
threnoi with humnoi and paeans with dithyrambs
than is right, mixing
...].
.
in 205-6 also suggests the paean in virtue of
31. avoXoXv^axo)..
?Xo?/uya??
the close association
between paean-cry and oXoX-uyri (see p. 119).
Muse
32. This
the khoros
ode has been called a huporkhema
is dancing: A. M. Dale, "Stasimon
(because the language suggests that
and Hyporcheme,"
Collected
papers
R. W. B. Burton, The Chorus in Sophocles' Trage
(= ?ranos 48,1960,14ff.);
(Oxford 1980), 50, comparing schol. Sophocles, Trach. 216 (= Elmsley, 157.1);
it has been called an ololug? (because of the cry it contains): P. E. Easterling, Sopho
cles' Trachiniae
1982), 104; and it has been called a dithyramb
(Cambridge
17 e 18
(because of the Dionysiac
element): O. Vox, "Prima del trionfo: i ditirambi
34ff.
dies
AC 53 (1984), 209ff.
di Bacchilide,"
in this issue, 79-83.
Should IDance?"
The
OT
speculates
(1088ff.),
in which
the khoros
ode
Similar
is discussed
by Henrichs,
in tone is the third stasimon
excitedly
on
"Why
of the
the parentage
of
Oedipus.
33. That
was not unparalleled
in tragedy is shown by two
this rapprochement
fragments preserved by ancient scholars to make this very point: Aeschy
? ?axxEiouxxvxic
lus, fr.341Radt: ? xiooe?? Ajt?AAcov,
["Apollo in ivy, Bacchic
fr. 477 Nauck
and Euripides,
??ojioxa
(from the Licymnius):
prophet"]
euX?qe ["Master, fond of laurel, Bacchic
(|)d?oa(|>VE B?xxiE, Ilai?v ?jtoMov
isolated
of the fair lyre"]. The hypothesis
of D. C. Pozzi, "Un Pean
one, Paean Apollo,
Ignorado en la "Ant?gona" de S?focles," Argos 3 (1979), 21ff., that the final stasi
mon of the Antigone
should be thought of as a paean to Dionysos would provide
another
example.
34. Henrichs,
"Why Should IDance?"
35. For the Gumnopaidia,
Athenaeus,
(n. 32) 68,73-90.
15. 678c; Strabo, 10. 4. 18, 481.
see my remarks on Euripides,
of choral projection,
36. For another example
Her
to certain effects in extra-dramatic
acles, 687ff.; (see p. 124). This is analogous
lyric
poetry. In Pindar, Paian II (97ff.) an Abderite khoros describes khoroi of parthenoi
In Paian VI
singing at Delos and Delphi.
forming at Delphi.
37. On the distinction
between chthonic
ische und himmlische
38. One
could
G?tter,"
also analyze
(15ff.)
the singer describes
and Olympian,
10 (1907), 237ff.
the word ?ji-aiOMX?, which
khoroi
see S.Wide,
per
"Chthon
ARW
would
mean
life."
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"lacking
Ian Rutherford
135
39. See also Euripides,
is implied,
the same contrast
976, where
Suppliants,
use
Jtatav.
see
On
C.
word
without
of
the
this,
Collard,
Euripides:
Sup
although
plices (Groningen 1975), 2. 352.
40. See A. F. Garvie, Aeschylus:
(Oxford 1986), 135. See J. A. Hal
Choephori
dane, "Musical Themes and Imagery in Aeschylus,"
JHS 85 (1965), 37.
The Greek Chorus
41. On this ode, see T. B. L. Webster,
(London 1970), 127;
Garvie
(n. 2) 2353-4.
(n. 40), 81. Paeans in honor of heroes: see von Blumenthal
42. R. Kannicht, Euripides. Helena
1969), 2. 70. See in general W.
(Heidelberg
zum Form und Gehalt des griechischen
Kranz, Stasimon: Untersuchungen
Trag?
die (Berlin 1933), 135ff.
43.K?ppel(n.2),48-49.
44. This is the stasimon
that H. Parry, "The Second Stasimon of Euripides' Her
(in the sense
(637-700)," AJPh 86 (1965), pp. 363ff., analyzed as an enkomion
see A. E. Harvey,
to a mortal). On the eyxcbiuov,
of a song of praise addressed
"The Classification
of Greek Lyric Poetry," CQ 5 (1955), 163-64.
acles
cases paeans may have been sung to heroes in the fifth century,
45. In exceptional
as the ode itself shows. The Hellenistic
but the normal addressee was Apollo,
prac
in the classical period.
is unattested
tice of addressing paeans to reigning potentates
46. G. Nagy, Comparative
Studies in Greek and Indie Metre
(Cambridge, Mass.
1974), 137-38.
also be an echo of Paean
IX in the parodos of the Oedipus Tyran
xt u.oi f\ veov / f| JtEQiXE>.Xou,?vai? (o?ai?, n?kw
or what will you repeat
E^avuoEi? XQ?O? ["What new thing will you accomplish,
as the seasons circle?"].
47. There may
nus, particularly
in 155-56:
48. For example, Evaicovi ovv ?X?cp in the refrain to Philodamus'
Paian, 13; con
trast ?ura?cov (?ji-aicov rather than ?-Jtai
v?) in Sophocles, TrGF 4. 523 {Polyx
Ion 126,142.
ena); also repeated in the refrain in Euripides,
49. cdyXa at Erythraean Paian to Asclepius,
line 13, as the name of a daughter of
at Isyllus, Paian {CA134), 46, as the mother of Asclepius
and the etymon
Asclepius;
"A Paean in the Philoctetes,"
of his name. See J. A. Haldane,
CQ 13 (1967), 53ff.
to Hesychius
According
aiytaxriQ (1. 62 [Latte]) was an epithet of Asclepius.
50. An audience might have been reminded of the Dios Apate scene in the Iliad,
in order to lull Zeus to sleep so that she
where Hera summons Sleep from Lemnos
can advance the cause of the Trojans. See Haldane
(n. 49), 54; Burton (n. 32); D. M.
CR 63 (1949), 83ff.
Jones, "The Sleep of Philoctetes,"
on kitharodoi, H. Abert, RE s.v, 21. 530-34; Herington
51. Strabo 9. 3.10,421;
III, 177ff.
(n.l), Appendix
{de def. or.); Mor. 293c {qu.gr.);
Plutarch, Mor. 417c-418d
FGrH115G80
(= Strabo, 9. 3. 12, 422); Theopompus,
(=
tr. P. Bing (London 1983), 127-30.
Aelian, VH 3. 1);W. Burkert, Homo Necans,
53. Simonides, PMG519,
fr. 35(b), 6 (from a Paean); Pindar, Paean Vllb, 21-22.
52. On
Ephorus,
the Septerion:
FGrH70F311
54. Involvement or noninvolvement
in choral song also symbolizes
isolation in
Euripides' Electra, in which Electra refuses the invitation of the khoros of Argive
women
to take part in the Heraia at Argos, a gesture which, as F. Zeitlin
showed
in "The Argive festival of Hera and Euripides' Electra;' TAPA 101 (1970), 659ff.,
with the sphere of Hera.
indicates her own disillusionment
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