Pindar Fragment 70b: A Literary Archetype of Dionysiac Choreia

Smaro Nikolaidou-Arabatzi

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Chapter 15 Pindar Fragment 70b: A Literary Archetype of Dionysiac Choreia

In: Greek Lyric and the Sacred

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Smaro Nikolaidou-Arabatzi

Smaro Nikolaidou-Arabatzi
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Pages:: 307–319

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004750388_017

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Abstract

Pindar’s Second Dithyramb (fr. 70b), entitled The Descent of Heracles or Cerberus for the Thebans, describes an orgiastic choreia of the Ouranidae on Olympus, at which Dionysus himself looks enchanted. I argue that Pindar’s depiction of the Dionysiac choreia of the heavenly gods serves as an archetypical performance for other choruses dancing in honor of Dionysus. My confirming arguments are found in Euripides’ Bacchae and the dithyrambic adesp. fr. 939 PMG. In the Bacchae, the last surviving tragedy (405 BCE) and the only one about Dionysus, the most striking element of the dramaturgy is the interaction between the onstage chorus of the Lydian Bacchae, Dionysus’ companions, and the offstage sacred choruses of the Theban maenads honoring the god on Mt. Cithaeron. In fr. 939 PMG, dated ca. 400 BCE (in the period of the New Dithyramb), a chorus of dolphins dance for Poseidon with Bacchic impulse expressed with wording and motifs used in Pindar’s fr. 70c and Euripides’ Bacchae.

Pindar’s Second Dithyramb (fr. 70b), entitled Κατάβασις Ἡρακλέους ἢ Κέρβερος Θηβαίοις (The Descent of Heracles or Cerberus for the Thebans), was probably composed for a Theban festival,¹ although it opens with a metapoetic statement.² The poet starts by criticizing past dithyrambic poets for abuse of the letter sigma³ and continues by describing a scene in which the Olympian gods are involved in the ecstatic worship of Dionysus (1–26):

Πρὶν μὲν ἕρπε σχοινοτένειά τ᾽ ἀοιδὰ

διθυράμβων

καὶ τὸ σὰν κίβδηλον ἀνθρώποισιν ἀπὸ στομάτων,

διαπέπ[τ]ανται … … . ] … . [

5κλοισι νέαι [ … . ε]ἰδότες

οἵαν Βρομίου [τελε]τάν

καὶ παρὰ σκᾶ[πτ]ον Διὸς Οὐρανίδαι

ἐν μεγάροις ἵσταντι. σεμνᾷ μὲν κατάρχει

Ματέρι πὰρ μεγάλᾳ ῥόμβοι τυπάνων,

10ἐν δὲ κέχλαδ[εν] κρόταλ᾽ αἰθομένα τε

δαῒς ὑπὸ ξανθαῖσι πεύκαις·

ἐν δὲ Ναΐδων ἐρίγδουποι στοναχαί

μανίαι τ᾽ ἀλαλαί τ᾽ ὀρίνεται ῥιψαύχενι

σὺν κλόνῳ.

15ἐν δ᾽ ὁ παγκρατὴς κεραυνὸς ἀμπνέων

πῦρ κεκίνη[ται τό τ᾽] Ἐνυαλίου

ἔγχος, ἀλκάεσσά [τ]ε Παλλάδο[ς] αἰγίς

μυρίων φθογγάζεται κλαγγαῖς δρακόντων.

ῥίμφα δ᾽ εἶσιν Ἄρτεμις οἰοπολὰς ζεύ-

20ξαισ᾽ ἐν ὀργαῖς

Βακχίαις φῦλον λεόντων α[υυ–υυ–

ὁ δὲ κηλεῖται χορευοίσαισι κα[ὶ θη-

ρῶν ἀγέλαις. ἐμὲ δ᾽ ἐξαίρετο[ν

κάρυκα σοφῶν ἐπέων

25Μοῖσ᾽ ἀνέστασ᾽ Ἑλλάδι κα[λ]λ[ιχόρῳ

εὐχόμενον βρισαρμάτοις ο[–υ Θήβαις.

In the past the song of dithyrambs came forth

stretched like a measuring line

and the san came falsely from the mouths of men,

but new … have been thrown open … knowing

what kind of festival of Bromios

the Ouranidae hold also beside the scepter of Zeus

in their halls. In the presence of the venerable

Great Mother the whirlings of tambourines lead off,

there too castanets ring, and the blazing torch

beneath the yellow pine trees;

there too the loud-sounding groans of the Naiads

and the ecstatic cries are aroused

in the agitation of tossing necks.

There too the all-powerful, fire-breathing thunderbolt

is shaken, as is Enyalios’

spear, and the intrepid aegis of Pallas

rings out with the hisses of countless snakes.

And lightly comes solitary Artemis,

having yoked the race of lions

in bacchic frenzy …

and he is charmed by the dancing herds

even of wild beasts. And the Muse has appointed me

as her chosen herald of wise verses

for Hellas of wide dancing spaces,

boasting for Thebes, powerful in chariots.⁴

The Olympian feast honors Dionysus as Bromios (‘Roarer’). The Olympians are portrayed as dancing beside the scepter of Zeus, probably in circular formation.⁵ Their leader is the Great Mother (the Phrygian Mother Goddess), whose music and cult had a special relationship with Dionysus (9).⁶ Beside her the whirling motion of the drums begins first;⁷ in addition, castanets ring and flames rise from the pine torches held by the dancers (10–11). In the ritual world of Dionysus nothing remains motionless, neither the thunderbolt of Zeus, which struck Semele before the birth of the god, nor the spear of Ares (15–16). On the boss of the aegis of Pallas ten thousand snakes begin hissing (17–18); nearby, Artemis yokes the wild race of lions in Bacchic frenzy (19–21). Dionysus himself watches enchanted.

The dance of the Naiads is expressed in a specific mode (12–14). Their loud cries (ἐρίγδουποι στοναχαί, σὺν κλόνῳ) are manic and celebratory (μανίαι τ᾽ ἀλαλαί τε) while their bodies stir with their tossing necks (ῥιψαύχενι).⁸ The Naiads are Nymphs (Homer Odyssey 13.104 ἱρὸν νυμφάων αἱ νηϊάδες καλέονται) who have a different role in other contexts in Pindar.⁹ In the Hyporchema by Pratinas the Naiads participate in Dionysus’ revels,¹⁰ racing over mountains in honor of the god (TrGF 1, 4. 3.3–5: ἐμὸς ἐμὸς ὁ Βρόμιος, / ἐμὲ δεῖ κελαδεῖν, ἐμὲ δεῖ παταγεῖν / ἀν᾽ ὄρεα σύμενον μετὰ Ναϊάδων [‘mine, mine is Bromios; I deserve to sing and stomp for him over mountains, racing with the Naiads’]).¹¹ In Pindar’s hands they become a ceremonial chorus with ritualized ecstatic movements. They are depicted in the middle of the choreia scene as if inspired by the sounds of tambourines and then transmitting their orgiastic impulses to animate beings (Artemis’ lions) and inanimate objects (Athena’s aegis) on Olympus.

In fact, Pindar’s depiction is a choral projection of the actual dithyrambic chorus of Thebes onto an imaginary Bacchic thiasos of all the Olympians suffused with the ecstasy of Dionysus.¹² This shifts the audience’s attention from the performance in the hic et nunc to Olympus.¹³ In all probability, the scene enacts Dionysus’ advent on Olympus and his reception by the Olympian gods.¹⁴ Pindar’s description is significant. The gods are called ‘Ouranidae’, a designation that transfers the scene to the heavenly, boundless palace of Zeus, where everything is eternal. The presence of Bromios (‘Roarer’) strikes everything with Bacchic frenzy. As S. Lavecchia observes, Dionysus (Bromios) is referred to at the beginning and the end of the scene ‘as if “encircling” the heavenly choros’; he thus ‘manifests himself as the beginning and the self-fulfilment’ of the true Bacchic choreia.¹⁵ The heavenly feast is called a festival (τελετά) and the participants are described as ‘knowing’ (εἰδότες). Elsewhere Pindar uses τελετά in the more general sense of ‘ceremony’ (Pindar Olympian 3.41: μακάρων τελετάς; Pythian 9.97–98: τελεταῖς / ὡρίαις). τελετά here, however, refers to a rite in which specific knowledge is acquired (εἰδότες, 5). This by no means implies that in our fragment τελετά has the sense of initiation, but the atmosphere evoked by Pindar’s description points to the specific meaning of a rite connected with an ecstatic and mystery cult. Most significantly, the poet uses the relative pronoun οἵαν (6), with which he exalts the exemplar of his dithyramb as a mimesis of a divine choreia. Apart from its metapoetic implications,¹⁶ Pindar’s self-comment enables us to explore the question whether his depiction of the Bacchic choreia of the Ouranidae serves as an archetypical performance for other choruses in honor of Dionysus.¹⁷

1 Euripides’ Bacchae

Euripides’ Bacchae is the last surviving tragedy and the only one about the god Dionysus. It was composed by Euripides in Macedonia just before his death in 406 BCE and produced in Athens at the Great Dionysia in 405 BCE by one of the poet’s sons or nephews of the same name. The chorus of the play is orgiastic and features members of Lydian Bacchae; they accompany Dionysus from Asia to Greece and support him in his struggle to establish the Bacchic cult first in his birthplace, Thebes, where his relatives have denied that Dionysus is a god. Upon his arrival in Thebes, Dionysus inspires the women of Thebes with his sacred mania and sends them to Mt. Cithaeron in three groups led by Agave, Autonoe, and Ino, the three sisters of his mother Semele (32–36):

τοιγάρ νιν αὐτὰς [ἀδελφὰς ἐμᾶς μητρός] ἐκ δόμων ᾤστρησ᾽ ἐγὼ

μανίαις, ὄρος δ᾽ οἰκοῦσι παράκοποι φρενῶν·

σκευήν τ᾽ ἔχειν ἠνάγκασ᾽ ὀργίων ἐμῶν,

35καὶ πᾶν τὸ θῆλυ σπέρμα Καδμείων, ὅσαι

γυναῖκες ἦσαν, ἐξέμηνα δωμάτων

And so myself I stung them [the sisters of my mother] with frenzies from their homes, and they are dwelling in the mountain, their minds deranged. And I forced them to wear the trappings of my mysteries. And all the female seed of the Cadmeians, as many women as they were, I drove mad from their homes.¹⁸

As regards his Lydian Bacchae, Dionysus calls them ‘my thiasos’ and he himself installs their group onstage as the chorus of the play. At the end of the prologue Dionysus invites the Lydian Bacchae to enter the stage beating their drums while circling the palace of the god-resisting Pentheus, Agave’s son (55–61):

55ἀλλ᾽, ὦ λιποῦσαι Τμῶλον ἔρυμα Λυδίας,

θίασος ἐμός, γυναῖκες, ἃς ἐκ βαρβάρων

ἐκόμισα παρέδρους καὶ ξυνεμπόρους ἐμοί,

αἴρεσθε τἀπιχώρι᾽ ἐν πόλει Φρυγῶν

τύμπανα, Ῥέας τε μητρὸς ἐμά θ᾽ εὑρήματα,

60βασίλειά τ᾽ ἀμφὶ δώματ᾽ ἐλθοῦσαι τάδε

κτυπεῖτε Πενθέως, ὡς ὁρᾷ Κάδμου πόλις.

But you who have left Mt. Tmolos, the rampart of Lydia, my thiasos, women whom from among the barbarians I brought to my companions in rest and in travel, raise up the drums that are at home in the city of the Phrygians, inventions of mother Rhea and of myself, and coming round this royal house of Pentheus, beat them, so that the city of Cadmus sees.

Immediately afterwards, the god announces that he is departing for Cithaeron to join in the dances of his Theban maenads (62–63):

ἐγὼ δὲ βάκχαις, ἐς Κιθαιρῶνος πτυχὰς

ἐλθὼν ἵν᾽ εἰσί, συμμετασχήσω χορῶν.

But I will go to the folds of Mt. Cithaeron, where the bacchants are, and join in their dances.

Dionysus’ departure for Mt. Cithaeron introduces the Theban maenads in the play as a second—imaginary—chorus; its members are the Theban women maddened by the god and perform orgiastic rites on Mt. Cithaeron where Dionysus is omnipotent.

The Lydian Bacchae enter the orchestra swiftly, performing their sweet labor for Dionysus and uttering their ecstatic cries of euoi (Βρομίῳ πόνον ἡδὺν/κάματόν τ᾽ εὐκάματον, Βάκ-/χιον εὐαζομένα, 66–68). They enjoin reverence from whoever wishes to participate in their rites (ἅπας ἐξοσιούσθω, 70) and ask for sacred silence (στόμα τ᾽ εὔφημον, 70) in order to sing eternal hymns for Dionysus (τὰ νομισθέντα γὰρ αἰεὶ / Διόνυσον ὑμνήσω, 71–72). Wearing ivy wreaths and shaking their thyrsoi (80–81), they sing that blessed is he who acquires knowledge of the divine rites (τελετὰς θεῶν εἰδώς, 73) and sanctifies his life (βιοτὰν ἁγιστεύει, 74) with holy purifications (ὁσίοις καθαρμοῖσιν, 77) and by dancing on mountains as a member of the ecstatic thiasoi of Dionysus (ἐν ὄρεσσι βακχεύων, 76). The Bacchae recall the mythic account of Semele being blasted by a lightning-bolt and of the stitching of the newborn Dionysus into the thigh of Zeus, from which the god was born in due course (88–100); how Zeus then crowned his son with wreaths of snakes, like those caught by the maenads and wrapped in the curls of their hair (100–103). Holding drums in their hands, the Bacchae recount how the Corybantes invented the drum (120–129): while dancing in the holy cave of Ida, in order to muffle the cry of the newborn Zeus, the excited Corybantes mingled the sound of the drum with the sweet-voiced breath of Phrygian pipes and then handed the instrument, reverberating with the rhythms of the Bacchic dances, to mother Rhea.

The chorus cry that Dionysus is their god and call upon Thebes to welcome him (105–119): to grow green with bryony teeming with berries (107–108), to become bacchants (109 καταβακχιοῦσθε) with boughs of oak or fir, decorating their dappled fawn skins with fringes of twisted wool (111–113), and handling the violent wand of the god with holy care (113–114). They feel that the whole earth will dance at once (114 αὐτίκα πᾶσα γῆ χορεύσει) whenever Bromiοs leads his thiasoi to the mountain (Βρόμιος εὖτ᾽ ἂν ἄγῃ θιάσους / εἰς ὄρος εἰς ὄρος, 115–116) where the throng of the Theban women awaits, driven from their homes in the madness caused by Dionysus (116–119).¹⁹ This recalls Dionysus’ departure for Cithaeron at the end of the prologue. The chorus imagines the god leading the dance of the mountain maenads (†ὁ δ᾽ ἔξαρχος† Βρόμιος, 141).²⁰ A new choral projection introduces the sacred choreia on Mt. Cithaeron in all Dionysiac choruses—in Phrygia, in Lydia (ἱέμενος εἰς ὄρεα Φρύγια Λύδι᾽[α], 140). Dionysus wears the holy garment of the fawn-skin (137–138), runs with his thiasoi hunting the fresh blood of the slain goat (138–139), and falls in sweet rapture to the ground (135–137), which is flowing with milk, wine, and nectar of bees (143–144). He rises again, raises the flaming torch on his thyrsos—like the smoke of Syrian incense—(144–146), and rouses his Bacchae (147–148) with joyful cries (ἰαχαῖς τ᾽ ἀναπάλλων, 149; εὔια τὸν εὔιον ἀγαλλόμεναι θεόν, 157), the heavy beating of drums (βαρυβρόμων ὑπὸ τυμπάνων, 156), and the sweet sounds of flutes (160), and tosses his hair in the air (τρυφερόν ⟨τε⟩ πλόκαμον εἰς αἰθέρα ῥίπτων, 150). The entrance song of Euripides’ Bacchae thus broadens the performance of the chorus with fictional mirrors of Bacchic choruses celebrating Dionysus in heaven and on earth. Through the interaction between the onstage chorus of the play and the offstage thiasoi on Mt. Cithaeron, the entrance song of the play becomes representative of the authentic Dionysiac choreia.²¹ Moreover, the song proves to be a complete dithyramb and could be performed, like its lyric counterpart, Pindar fr. 70b, outside the context of tragedy.

In particular, the choreia of the Theban maenads on Mt. Cithaeron may be considered a parallel to the Dionysiac choreia of the Ouranidae in the dithyramb of Pindar. In Euripides’ Bacchae, Mt. Cithaeron is presented as the heaven of Dionysus, the holy place where the god is all-powerful. The space is open and ethereal. In the prologue Dionysus says that his Theban maenads sit on roofless rocks (ὁμοῦ δὲ Κάδμου παισὶν ἀναμεμειγμέναι / χλωραῖς ὑπ᾽ ἐλάταις ἀνορόφους ἧνται πέτραις, 37–38). Later, from the messenger’s speech (677–774) we learn that their maenadic rites are performed with miraculous orderliness (θαῦμ᾽ ἰδεῖν εὐκοσμίας, 693). Waking up from a deep sleep (691), first they let down their hair over their shoulders (695); then they tie up their fawn-skins and gird the dappled hides with snakes that lick their cheeks (696–698). Some of them hold in their arms a gazelle or a wild wolf-cub and suckle them (699–702). They put on crowns of ivy, oak, and flowering bryony (702–703). One maenad takes her thyrsos and strikes it against a rock; suddenly a stream of water gushes forth (704–705); another strikes the earth with her thyrsos, whereupon a fountain of wine, sent by Dionysus, leaps out (706–707). The maenads who desire white drink scrape the ground with their fingertips and immediately have streams of milk (708–710); sweet streams of honey drip from their thyrsoi (710–711). As the messenger comments, all of Cithaeron joined the Bacchic frenzy of the maenads (πᾶν δὲ συνεβάκχευ᾽ ὄρος, 726), who were a miracle to behold (θαῦμ᾽ ἰδεῖν, 693).

A number of similarities between Pindar fr. 70b and Euripides’ Bacchae are noteworthy. Of musical instruments, drums are the most prominent Dionysiac emblems; in both texts they are connected with the Great Mother and are mentioned first. In Pindar the Great Mother starts the Bacchic dance by beating drums (9);²² in Euripides she has a hand in the invention of the Bacchic music together with the Corybantes (120–131). The wording in Pindar’s text (ῥόμβοι τυπάνων, 9) points to a sort of drum that moved through the air (cf. Olympian 13. 93–94: εὐθὺν ἀκόντων / ἱέντα ῥόμβον [‘in casting whirling javelins on their straight path’]), while in Euripides’ Bacchae the drum has a sheet of hide stretched over its circular hoop (βυρσότονον κύκλωμα, 124). In addition, Pindar’s ecstatic Naiads deliver their ritual cry alalage (Ναΐδων … ἀλαλαί, 12–13), though alala/alalage is properly a male war-cry;²³ the female ritual cry is ololyge. This is somewhat subversive and perhaps suggests the enigmatic nature of the ecstatic worship of Dionysus. In the Bacchae, Euripides employs the linguistic form ololoyge for the revels of his maenads on Cithaeron (ἀνωλόλυξα, 24; ἡ σὴ δὲ μήτηρ ὠλόλυξεν ἐν μέσαις / σταθεῖσα βάκχαις, 689–690) but prefers the cry alalage (ὁ μὲν στενάζων ὅσον ἐτύγχαν᾽ ἐμπνέων, / αἱ δ᾽ ἠλάλαζον, 1132–1133) when the maenads defeat Pentheus.²⁴ However, the term ἀλαλά prevails in the third stasimon of his earlier Helen (412 BCE), in a Bacchic choreia of the goddesses under the leadership of the Graces and the Muses (1338–1368);²⁵ they are summoned forth by Zeus to cure with their ritual cries (ἀλαλᾷ, 1344) Demeter’s grief over the abduction of her daughter Persephone, and Demeter expresses her satisfaction with ἀλαλαγμῷ (1352). Of the elements of Dionysiac revels referred to in this stasimon,²⁶ the dinning rhombus is the most impressive (ῥόμβου θ᾽ ἑλισσομένα / κύκλιος ἔνοσις αἰθερία [‘the whirling beat of the tambourine circling in the air’], 1362–1363),²⁷ because it is distinguished from Aphrodite’s τύπανα βυρσοτενῆ (1347), a phrase obviously similar to Pindar’s wording in 70b (ῥόμβοι τυπάνων).

We might suppose that in Euripides’ Bacchae the dancing Naiads of the Pindaric dithyramb have developed into Dionysus’ official maenads who personify the sacred relationship with the god through their ritual cries and tossing heads throughout the play (Bacchae 150, 185, 240–241, 695, 864–865, 930).²⁸ Similarly, Euripides’ depiction of the roe deer or wild wolf-cubs suckled by the Theban maenads (Bacchae 697–702) might be regarded as an advanced state of the Bacchic frenzy of Artemis’ lions in Pindar’s choreia of the Ouranidae (fr. 70b 19–21). The same holds for the snakes that lick the cheeks of the Theban maenads with their tongues (Bacchae 767–768); they expand Pindar’s depiction of the hissing snakes on the shield of Athena (fr. 70b 17–18) and create the extraordinary condition of wild creatures of nature coexisting peacefully with man.²⁹ And as in Pindar’s Olympus, nothing in Euripides’ Cithaeron remains motionless (οὐδὲν δ᾽ ἦν ἀκίνητον δρόμῳ, Bacchae 727); the entire mountain revels along with the Theban maenads and the wild animals (πᾶν δὲ συνεβάκχευ᾽ ὄρος / καὶ θῆρες, Bacchae 726–727). Most significantly, in the entrance song of the Bacchae the ecstatic atmosphere of the Dionysiac choreia is rendered with the terms τελετάς and εἰδώς (73–74), which are exactly the same in Pindar’s song (lines 5–6).³⁰

Of course, Pindar and Euripides could draw on old Dionysian rites. A scene recalling Pindar’s verses is described, for instance, in the Homeric Hymn to the Mother Goddess (14. 1–5):³¹

Μητέρα μοι πάντων τε θεῶν πάντων τ᾽ ἀνθρώπων

ὕμνει Μοῦσα λίγεια Διὸς θυγάτηρ μεγάλοιο,

ᾗ κροτάλων τυπάνων τ᾽ ἰαχὴ σύν τε βρόμος αὐλῶν

εὔαδεν, ἠδὲ λύκων κλαγγὴ χαροπῶν τε λεόντων,

οὔρεά τ᾽ ἠχήεντα καὶ ὑλήεντες ἔναυλοι.

Clear-voiced Muse, daughter of great Zeus, celebrate the Mother of all gods and all men, to whom the sound of castanets (krotala) and drums (typana) together with the roar (bromos) of auloi is a delight, and the howl of wolves and flashing-eyed lions, and resounding mountains and wooded glens.

In Pindar fr. 70b, however, the ritual of the Mother Goddess is combined with that of Dionysus in the unique depiction of the orgiastic dance of the heavenly gods which may have served as a literary example for Euripides when he manipulated the device of choral projection of the chorus onstage into an ideal one on the mountain.³² The maenadic rites on Cithaeron could enhance the choreia of the Lydian Bacchae in the hic and nunc with elements of an unlimited Dionysiac choreia. Moreover, the rites were necessary to fulfil the dramatic purpose of the Bacchae itself. So when Dionysus leads the god-resisting Pentheus to Cithaeron to be punished, the onstage Lydian Bacchae project their rage onto the mania of the Theban maenads on the mountain. Dionysus calls on the maenads on Cithaeron to open their arms and punish the god-fighter as he deserves (973–981) and the Bacchae rush like dogs to Cithaeron to join the thiasoi of Cadmus’ daughters (973–981):

ΔΙ. ἔκτειν᾽, Ἀγαύη, χεῖρας αἵ θ᾽ ὁμόσποροι

Κάδμου θυγατέρες· τὸν νεανίαν ἄγω

975τόνδ᾽ εἰς ἀγῶνα μέγαν, ὁ νικήσων δ᾽ ἐγὼ

καὶ Βρόμιος ἔσται. τἄλλα δ᾽ αὐτὸ σημανεῖ.

ΧΟ. ἴτε θοαὶ Λύσσας κύνες ἴτ᾽ εἰς ὄρος,

θίασον ἔνθ᾽ ἔχουσι Κάδμου κόραι,

ἀνοιστρήσατέ νιν

980ἐπὶ τὸν ἐν γυναικομίμῳ στολᾷ

λυσσώδη κατάσκοπον μαινάδων.

DI. Stretch out, Agaue, your arms, and you her sisters, daughters of Cadmus; I bring this young man to a great contest, and the winner will be myself and Bromios. The rest the event itself will show.

CHO. Go, rushing hounds of Frenzy, go to the mountain, where the daughters of Cadmus have their thiasos; goad them to madness against the man dressed up as a woman, the frenzied spy on the maenads.

When Agave, after the dismemberment of Pentheus, returns from Cithaeron and joins the chorus without recognizing her son’s head in her hands, the offstage maenadic thiasoi and the onstage Lydian Bacchae unite in a single chorus to perform the most tragic choreia for Dionysus (1168–1171):³³

ΑΓ. Ἀσιάδες βάκχαι-

ΧΟ.τί μ᾽ ὀροθύνεις, ὤ;

ΑΓ. φέρομεν ἐξ ὀρέων

1170ἕλικα νεότομον ἐπὶ μέλαθρα,

μακάριον θήραν.

ΧΟ. ὁρῶ καί σε δέξομαι σύγκωμον.

AG. Asian bacchants … CHO. Why do you call out on me, ⟨woman⟩?

AG. We are carrying from the mountains a newly cut tendril to the halls, a blessed hunting.

CHO. I see and will receive you as a fellow-reveller.

2 [Arion] anon. fr. 939 PMG

The anonymous dithyrambic fr. 939 PMG is attributed to Arion by Aelian (De natura animalium 12.45),³⁴ but is dated around 400 BCE because it is written in the manner of the New Dithyramb,³⁵ which was widely criticized for its musical innovations.³⁶ In the preserved lines, an invocation of Poseidon is followed by images which describe the dolphins that rescued Arion as dancing around Poseidon in a circle (1–11):³⁷

ὕψιστε θεῶν

πότνιε χρυσοτρίαινε Πόσειδον

γαιάοχ᾽ ἐγκύμον᾽ ἀν᾽ ἅλμαν·

βραγχίοις δὲ περί σε πλωτοὶ

5θῆρες χορεύουσι κύκλῳ

κούφοισι ποδῶν ῥίμμασιν

ἐλάφρ᾽ ἀναπαλλόμενοι, σιμοὶ

φριξαύχενες ὠκύδρομοι σκύλακες, φιλόμουσοι

δελφῖνες, ἔναλα θρέμματα

10κουρᾶν Νηρεΐδων θεᾶν,

οὓς ἐγείνατ᾽ Ἀμφιτρίτα·

Highest of gods, gold-tridented Poseidon of the sea, earth-shaker amid the teeming brine, with their fins swimming beasts dance round you in a ring bounding lightly with nimble flingings of their feet, snub-nosed bristle-necked swift-racing pups, the music-loving dolphins, sea nurslings of the young goddesses the Nereids, whom Amphitrite bore.³⁸

The circular mode (κύκλῳ, 5) of the dolphins’ dance is obviously dithyrambic and Dionysiac, with romping movements that imitate Bacchic dancing.³⁹ What is important for my purposes is the epithet φριξαύχενες (bristle-necked) because of its obvious similarity with ῥιψαύχενι (tossing-neck) in Pindar’s fr. 70b (ῥιψαύχενι σὺν κλόνῳ, 14). In the later dithyramb, φριξαύχενες depicts the dolphins’ tossing of their necks (8) and has more obvious choral connotations than ῥιψαύχενι, because it is compounded with φρίξ (deriving from the verb φρίσσω), which means ‘ripple’, ‘shudder’. In Euripides’ Bacchae the streaming hair of the maenads is described differently, and instead of ῥιψαύχην the epithet ὑψαύχην is used metaphorically for the fir-tree, on top of which Dionysus raised Pentheus (ἐς ἐλάτην ὑψαύχενα, ‘a high-necked fir-tree’, 1061). Since all of Cithaeron was gripped with Bacchic frenzy (συνεβάκχευεν, 726), we might suppose that ὑψαύχην acquires a ritual sense similar to Pindar’s ῥιψαύχην.⁴⁰

In addition, the reference to the tossing of the dolphins’ necks is inserted between the calm and wild images of the dolphins, joining them in a two-fold image of Dionysiac dancing, which recalls the messenger’s report of the calm and wild deeds of the maenads in Euripides Bacchae (692–711 and 731–764, respectively). In some cases, the dolphins leap calmly, lightly tossing their feet (6–7); in others they rush quickly and aggressively, like dogs (8). Their light movements may be compared with the ethereal dance of the fawn (νεβρός) in the third stasimon of the Bacchae, particularly 864–867: δέραν / αἰθέρ᾽ ἐς δροσερὸν ῥίπτουσ᾽, / ὡς νεβρὸς χλοεραῖς ἐμπαί‑ / ζουσα λείμακος ἡδοναῖς (‘tossing my throat to the dewy air of heaven, like a fawn playing in the verdant pleasures of a meadow’). The same is true of their wild rush; it can also be compared with the rush of the maenads of Cithaeron in Bacchae 977, who are ordered to tear Pentheus apart as θοαὶ Λύσσας κύνες (‘rushing hounds of Frenzy’).

To sum up: through projection onto an ideal chorus, Pindar’s Second Dithyramb manifests Bacchic choreia as a divine rite capable of metamorphosing even the Olympian gods through Dionysus’ ecstasy. Thus, it appears to have served as a literary archetype especially for Euripides’ idea to divide the choreia of his Bacchae on two levels, on stage and in the mountains, in order to reveal the ambiguity of the orgiastic world of Dionysus. Pindar’s Bacchic depictions were significant until the period of the New Dithyramb, when poets could adapt the orgiastic spirit of their New Music to elements that featured the choreia of the heavenly gods so brilliantly manifested in the Theban dithyramb of the classical poet.

See the commentaries by Lavecchia (2000) 106–175 and Van der Weiden (1991) 53–85; further, Lavecchia (1994), (1996a), (1997) and Hedreen (2013) for possible connections of the ode with archaic vase-paintings. For Pindaric dithyrambs, see also Hamilton (1990).

Dion. Hal. Comp. 14 and Ath. 10.455bc comment that Pindar criticized past dithyrambic poets for avoiding the use of the letter sigma; Athenaeus, in particular, cites Lassos of Hermione as an example of such poets. According to Vita Thomana (4.13 Drachmann), Lassos was Pindar’s teacher.

Pindar’s criticism is rather general and relates to issues of both music composition and choral performance; the old technique is criticized as long-winded and slow in comparison to new, more flexible formations, which may be circular. See Lavecchia (1997); Porter (2007).

Trans. Race (1997).

See D’Angour (2011) 195–198; Hedreen (2013) 195–196.

The prominence of the Great Mother becomes more obvious from the σεμνᾷ … / Ματέρι πάρ (8–9) than from the verb κατάρχει (8), which may simply refer to the incipient choreia. Strabo (10.3.13) preserves the text of the same lines with a direct invocation to the Great Mother, which reinforces her prominence in the Dionysiac choreia of the gods: σοὶ μὲν κατάρχειν, μᾶτερ μεγάλα πάρα ῥόμβοι κυμβάλων (‘In your presence, O Great Mother, the whirlings of tambourines are at hand to lead off!’).

See Gurd (2016) 111; Ieranò (2020) 39.

The words κλόνος (‘stir’, ‘clang’) and ἀλαλαί (ἀλαλά) are usually associated with war scenes; cf. Homer Il. 5. 167 κλόνον ἐγχειάων (‘clang of spears’), Aesch. Ag. 404–405 ἀσπίστορας κλόνους (‘clang of shields’), Pind. Nem. 3. 60 δορίκτυπον ἀλαλάν (‘the spear-clashing battle cry’), Isth. 7. 10 καρτερᾶς ἀλαλᾶς (‘the fierce battle-cry’).

In Pindar’s epinician odes nymphs represent the city of the victorious athlete and are directly addressed by the poet at the beginning of the ode (Ol. 5. 1–3, for the nymph of the lake Camarina) or the end (Pyth. 8. 98–100, for the nymph Aigina); see Larson (2001) 37–39.

Larson (2001) 36. Pratinas, a skilful poet of satyr plays, was dead in 467 BCE (TrGF 1, 4 T2, DID C4 δεύτερος Ἀριστίας Περσεῖ, Ταντάλῳ, ⟨– -‑, ? ⟩ Παλαισταῖς σατύροις τοῖς Πρατίνου ⟨τοῦ⟩ πατρός); thus, his Hyporchema is, in all probability, earlier than Pindar’s ode.

That image could spring from Homer’s Iliad (132–136) where the infant Dionysus is accompanied by nurses (in the story about Lycurgus, the king of Edoni in Thace who fought against Dionysus).

‘Choral projection’ is a literary device defined by Albert Henrichs (1994/95) and (1996a) as the evocation of choral performances in the choral lyrics of tragedy.

Cf. Weiss (2018) 35–36.

For a comparison with Hephaestus’ return to Olympus, see Hedreen (2013).

Lavecchia (2013) 69.

The metapoetic implications of οἵαν concern Pindar’s self-comment on the use of the letter ‘sigma’; see above no. 2 and 3.

For the choruses’ ritual interaction with gods (the Muses, Apollo, and Dionysus), see Athanassaki 2018.

Text from Diggle 1994; trans. Seaford 1996.

Kowalzig (2007a).

For issues connected with the depiction of Dionysus as the leader of his maenads on Mt. Cithaeron in the Bacchae, see Henrichs (1984) 85–91.

See Bierl (2013) 215–221 and (2017b) 109–110.

See Van der Weiden (1991) 69 (ad loc).

See above, n. 8.

ἠλάλαζον in the manuscripts (P); Diggle writes ὠλόλυζον. Henrichs (1994–1995) 104 n. 99 and (1996b) 59–62 thinks that the alternation between the two terms is indicative of Dionysus’ ambiguity; Cf. Seaford (1988) 134.

The Muses and the Graces are often seen dancing in Pindaric Odes (e.g. Ol. 14.1–10; Pyth. 1.1–4; Nem. 5. 22–25).

See Nikolaidou-Arabatzi (2015) 43–45.

West (1992) 122.

Cf. Eur. Hel. 1364: βακχεύουσά τ᾽ ἔθειρα Βρομίῳ, Cycl. 74–75: ὦ φίλε Βακχεῖε … / ⟨ποῖ⟩ ξανθὰν χαίταν σείεις.

Cf. Eur. HF 880–884, where a hundred hissing serpent-heads accompany the Gorgon, as she joins with Lyssa in inspiring mania in Heracles.

According to its title, the lost section of Pindar’s fr. 70b would have featured the story of Heracles’ descent into Hades in search of Cerberus. Heracles was a primordial mystic of the Eleusinian mysteries and could serve as a link for a religious connection between Athens and Thebes. Pindar also composed a dithyramb for the Athenians (fr. 75 Maehler) in which the Olympians, too, are summoned to dance, but in the holy center of Athens.

Ieranò (2020) 39.

For choral-projections in Euripides’ tragedies, see my catalogue in Nikolaidou-Arabatzi (2015) 28 n. 11.

Bierl (2013) 223–224.

Ael. NA 12.45 ὕμνον δὲ χαριστήριον τῷ Ποσειδῶνι μάρτυρα τῆς τῶν δελφίνων φιλομουσίας οἱονεὶ καὶ τούτοις ζωάγρια ἐκείνων ὁ Ἀρίων ἔγραψε καὶ ἔστιν ὁ ὕμνος οὗτος …

Mantziou (1989); West (1982); Campbell (1993) 361; Furley and Bremer (2001) 377–378; Nikolaidou-Arabatzi (2015) 37–39.

Csapo (2004).

For the cultural (dithyrambic) connection of dancing dolphins with Arion, Kowalzig (2013) 32–37.

Trans. Campbell (1993).

For the idea that the circular chorus of Arion’s dolphins may be a mythical prototype of the dithyrambic circular choruses, see Lavecchia (2000) 64–65 esp. nn. 39 and 40. For further discussion on the circular choruses and their connection to the dithyrambic genre, see Pickard-Cambridge (1962) 32; Ceccarelli (2013) esp. 162–170.

For the Bacchic symbolism of the depiction of Pentheus’ fir-tree in the Bacchae, see Kalke (1985) 416–417.

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Greek Lyric and the Sacred

Studies in Archaic and Classical Greek Song, vol. 6

Series: Mnemosyne, Supplements, Volume: 503

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004750388

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 27 Mar 2025

Subjects
- Classical Studies
  - Greek & Latin Literature
- Religious Studies
  - Religion in Antiquity

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Part 1 Sacred Contexts

Part 2 The Fabric and Texture of the Sacred

Part 3 Representations of Human Communication with the Divine

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Chapter 15 Pindar Fragment 70b: A Literary Archetype of Dionysiac Choreia

Abstract

1 Euripides’ Bacchae

2 [Arion] anon. fr. 939 PMG

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Greek Lyric and the Sacred

Studies in Archaic and Classical Greek Song, vol. 6

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