Theorizing the Chorus in Greece

Abstract

In ‘Theorizing the Chorus in Greece’, Anastasia-Erasmia Peponi discusses important instances in which the chorus and the broader phenomenon of chorality were theorized in ancient philosophical and interpretative discourses. Plato’s works contain a variety of attitudes towards the chorus, ranging from intriguing silence, to striking choral fantasies, and, finally, to the most extensive surviving discussion of the cultural role of the chorus. Although the role of civic choreia is underexplored in Aristotelian philosophy, the structural significance of the chorus in tragedy is addressed. Nevertheless, the chorus’s dramatic, and especially cathartic, role is missing, despite the philosopher’s awareness of the cathartic function of music. Questions are raised regarding the extent to which post-classical approaches to the chorus, especially in the scholia and in literary criticism, indicate a deeper theoretical engagement with chorality. Finally, the suggestion is made that later discourses about pantomime-dancing incorporated and elaborated on earlier discourses about Greek choreia.

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