Choral Prayer in Greek Tragedy: Euphemia or Aischrologia?

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the relationship of the chorus in tragedy to ritual choreia. It argues that ritual modes of approaching the gods can be divided into two types: euphemic and aischrologic. The former, addressed to the gods in prayer or praise, is highly constrained, avoiding reference to anything which might offend the deity and infect the purity of the address; the latter is characterised by license and release from normal restraint, as in the case of comedy. The tragic chorus evokes euphemic ritual, but modifies, and sometimes even violates its conventions (for example, by staging a failed or perverted prayer), thus creating a distance between the two. But tragedy's portrayal of failed or perverted ritual as symptomatic of human disorder can also be seen as part of its license to speak the normally unspeakable, which connects it with aischrologia.

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