The Tragic Chorus

Tristan témoigne d’un réel attachement à la dimension collective que portait au XVIe siècle le chœur tragique. Elle se traduit chez lui par la présence, variable mais néanmoins récurrente, d’un personnage pourvu de la fonction chorale qui incombait à son ancêtre. De La Mariane à Osman, en passant par La Mort de Sénèque, le dramaturge parvient ainsi à mettre en scène l’opposition entre la norme et son contraire, et à produire des effets pathétiques propres a toucher le public.

Translation of Sophocles' Oedipus the Tyrant, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus, with notes and commentary by Jamey Hecht. From the Introduction: "Greek tragedy is a kind ofscripture that teaches us by showing, not telling, what we need to know. I call it a scripture because it is a religious discourse about human beings and their relationships to the divine realm ofabundance and to the material world ofscarcity. But it is also drama, a scripted matrix of interpersonal words and actions, as human and social as any conversation in the audience. Like all drama, tragedy is about individuals, but it also speaks to public life — Thebes and Athens and Corinth are not just crowded places but living societies with their own crises, wounds, and needs. Oedipus himself is a gifted man, endowed with an intellectual power that exposes him to special dangers. But he is also the Everyman that Freud made him. Though most people are spared the crimes of patricide and incest, and though psychoanalysis may have been wrong to posit a repressed yearning for them in every heart, it remains permanently true that nobody is in complete control of his own destiny. Just as we, the audience, can read the very script which the characters must live out, so the gods can read the fates which we must live out. Tragedy puts us (for once!) in the
divine position of the invulnerable spectator, free to experience a safe terror as we identify with the endangered hero; free to feel a guarded pity for him insofar as we enjoy our blessed distance from his ruin. Austere as it is, the art of Sophocles comes closer to life than any treatise on ethics could. It is free ofprecepts and instruction; within it, only experience teaches."

This paper examines two scenes of Aeschylus’ Supplices (825-910 and 1019-73) where the presence of a secondary chorus is usually assumed. The paper makes three points: (1) ll. 836-42, 847-53 and 859-65 are sung by the Herald, i.e. the same character who speaks trimeters in the next section of the dialogue; (2) the third strophic pair (1052-61) should be assigned as follows: A 1052-4, B 1055, A 1056, B 1057-9, A 1060, B 1061 (already Bamberger); (3) the whole exodic song is performed by the Danaids: the third strophic pair is delivered by two semi-choruses, while the first two are probably sung by the Chorus in unison.

The question of Senecan influence on Elizabethan tragedy has been fiercely debated since J.W. Cunliffe published his seminal study in 1893. In the last half-century massive
critical attention to this problem has been renewed. Recent interpretations of Senecan influence vary enormously, but there continues to be a tacit convergence on the view established by Cunliffe, namely that influence must be
understood as a matter of local motif borrowing. This view is
underpinned by the assumption that Senecan drama is made up of loosely related rhetorical exercises and that it thus lacks any coherent tragic vision. Building on recent wo
rk that challenges this bias against the plays as plays, this article re-examines the function of the Chorus in Seneca in order to transcend its interpretation as a static appendage of Stoic commonplaces. Rather than interrupting the flow of the action, the Senecan Chorus is carefully designed to evolve with  the former so that it generates an overwhelming tragic climax. This climax is that of the avenger’s furor, understood as tragic solipsism. It is this evolving Chorus and its vengeful madness that Kyd assimilated into his pioneering play of the 1580s.

RESUMEN El coro femenino en diversas tragedias colabora activamente en los planes secretos de la heroína. Esta solidaridad puede presentarse a modo de silencio. El presente artículo tiene como objetivo analizar este fenómeno a partir de pasajes especialmente relevantes en cinco tragedias de Eurípides: Medea, Hipólito, Ión, Ifigenia en Táuride y Helena. ABSTRACT In some Greek tragedies, female choruses collaborate actively on the heroine´s secret plot. This sympathy could be presented as silence. The present article aims to analyze this feature from the most relevant passages of five Euripidean plays: Medea, Hippolytus, Ion, Iphigenia in Tauris and Helen.

The article opens out the ways in which voices of both characters and chorus struggle to express hope for order and renewal at Argos even as so many forces threaten to tear the society apart. Attempts to sing the ritually correct produce perverted forms, and songs of suffering and lament enact rather than manage the violence they address. Repeated references to the chorus and song of the Furies culminate in the powerful scene of the prisoner prophetess Cassandra, at first silent in the face of Clytemnestra’s taunts but eventually bursting forth in almost inarticulate cries that weave themselves into a lament, discordant to the ears of the chorus but prophetic of both her own fate and that of the house she enters. The author finds in these self-referential performances in the Agamemnon vocal threads that lead on to the laments of Choephoroi and the terrifying chorus of Erinyes that nonetheless can bring the Eumenides to a successful conclusion.

O coro na tragédia grega consistia de um número de cantores e dançarinos que fazia sua entrada no palco logo após o prólogo da peça, lá permanecendo até o final do espetáculo, com o propósito de cantar as odes que separavam as partes do enredo. Um estudo mais aprofundado dessa estratégia dramática, no entanto, nos revela um organismo vivo, dinâmico e complexo, cujas funções em muito ultrapassam esse aspecto meramente técnico. Quando Shakespeare ajusta a tragédia para as convenções dramáticas e o gosto elisabetano, ele também utiliza esse expediente dramático, mantendo as suas funções básicas, porém transformando radicalmente a sua configuração física e modo de atuação. Este trabalho explora essas modificações, tomando como objeto de estudo principal a peça Rei Lear.

An important passage of pseudo-Aristotelian Problemata deals with the ethos of some metrical rhythms: in accordance with their “pathetic” traits, some metres would be more suited to the ethos of the Chorus, because in Tragedy the Chorus would perform a “passive role” and it would be a kind of "kedeutès ápraktos" (ps. Aristotle, Problemata, 922 b 10ff.). The thesis of this lecture is that in Choephorai the Chorus performs an important active role. I’ll try to support this argumentation, considering some passages of the tragedy, in which character and action of the Chorus are especially significant for the dramaturgic construction.

Resumen
En Andrómaca el coro se encuentra entre dos mujeres víctimas, aunque de
diferente modo, de la guerra: Andrómaca y Hermíone. La relación que establece
el grupo de mujeres de Ftía con las dos heroínas contribuye a su caracterización
y posibilita una plena comprensión de la obra. La centralidad del coro es muy
relevante y refuerza la consideración de esta obra como una tragedia coral.
Palavras chave: Tragedia, Eurípides, Andrómaca, Guerra, Coro
Abstract
The female chorus in the Andromache places itself between two women,
both victims, but in different ways, of the war: Andromache and Hermione. The
relationship that binds this group of Phthian women to the heroines contributes to
their characterization and enable a complete comprehension of the play. The chorus’s
centrality is relevant and emphasize the appreciation of the play as a choral tragedy.
Key‑words:
Tragedy, Euripides, Andromache, war, Chorus

El artículo analiza el coro de Suplicantes de Esquilo en el marco de los debates en torno al denominado "modelo Vernant" y postula la posibilidad de continuar aplicando dicho modelo sin perder de vista los planteos críticos. El examen parte del protagonismo del coro y su relación con los personajes y considera las posibles repercusiones que la performance pudo generar en la audiencia a partir de la figura de Pelasgo como la que opera sobre la implicación entre el coro y el público, ponderando los aspectos políticos que la tragedia pone de relieve, inherentes a las pautas institucionales de toda pólis griega, así como a ciertas características específicas de la democracia ateniense.

The relationship between Classical Athenian tragedy and democracy remains a much-discussed problem which deserves to be examined from as many points of view as possible. Although Sophocles has sometimes been seen as less tied to his contemporary world than other authors, his works are nonetheless closely related to their democratic context, both as a product of their time and as a means of encouraging their audiences to reflect on major political questions. This book explores the staging of non-elite characters in the seven extant tragedies of Sophocles and how they related to contemporary middling citizens. The structure
of fifth-century Athenian society underwent deep changes between the early and late plays of Sophocles. The appearance and growing political importance of a middling socio-political group of citizens played a crucial role in the development of Athenian democracy and this phenomenon is closely linked to the way in which non-elite characters are presented in Sophocles’ plays. To lead to a better understanding of the links between Sophoclean tragedies and democracy, the book analyses the text of Sophocles’ extant plays as carefully as it examines the structure of Athenian society on the basis of both historical and archaeological sources. The performances of Sophocles’ tragedies not only reflected changes that took place in the structure of contemporary society but also fostered such changes by attributing increasingly active roles to characters with whom middling citizens could easily identify.

Μέσα από την ανέλιξη του τραγικού μύθου, με σκοπό το τέλος, την ηδονή της τραγωδίας, την κάθαρση, φανερώνεται πώς προκύπτει το αγαθό, το φως και η τάξη από το βέβηλο, το ακάθαρτο και το φοβερό.  Από αυτήν την μεταμόρφωση που συντελείται στο πλαίσιο της συγκλονιστικής ιστορίας που πραγματεύονται οι Ευμενίδες, η γνώση και η αλήθεια παράγονται από μια διαδικασία σκοτεινής αντιπαλότητας.
Παραπέρα όμως, αυτό που πρέπει να τονισθεί σε σχέση με τον θεραπευτικό κι εκπαιδευτικό λειτουργικό ρόλο του δράματος και ισχύει κατ’ εξοχήν στην περίπτωση των Ευμενίδων, είναι η προτεραιότητα του συστήματος, του όλου, σε σχέση με την ατομική πράξη ή του ατομικού ήρωα. Προέχει εδώ το πλέγμα - ή η ροή - των συμβάντων, εντός των οποίων αναπτύσσεται η σκηνική δράση των ηρώων/ δρώντων που επιχειρούν να φέρουν σε πέρας μια δραματική κατάσταση θέτοντας στην υπηρεσία της το ήθος και τη διάνοιά τους, ώστε να δοκιμασθεί η ορθότητα και αποτελεσματικότητα των πράξεών τους και να αναδειχθεί το ηθικό δίδαγμα από τις ολέθριες συνέπειες των σφαλμάτων τους. Στις Ευμενίδες – το πλέγμα αυτό δεν συγκροτείται κατά την άποψή μας από τη δράση και τις εντολές των θεών (Απόλλωνα – Αθηνάς) που ενεργούν ως αφορμές και τεχνάσματα της πλοκής, αλλά από τη δράση του χορού (Ερινύων – Ευμενίδων): Η πορεία του Ορέστη είναι σύμφωνα με τον Ε. R. Dodds  υπερκαθορισμένη χωρίς όμως να ταυτίζεται με τη μοιρολατρία. Στην ανέλιξη του τραγικού μύθου, ο ήρωας αναγκάζεται τελικά να αποδεχθεί τη λογική του αναπόφευκτου, εκφράζοντας το τραγικό ήθος, λογικοποιώντας το εξώλογο, κατανοώντας το υπερλογικό κι εν τέλει πληρώνοντας με το ίδιο του το σώμα ως τίμημα, την οδύνη και τιμωρία.

In this paper, we analyze different ways of approach to the ancient Greek theatre that we see in the work of Mexican playwright Hugo Argüelles, particularly in the dramas Medea y los visitantes del sueño, El ritual de la salamandra, El vals de los buitres, Los gallos salvajes, and La tarántula art noveau de la calle de El Oro.

Female choruses abound in Euripides’ plays. What often distinguishes these choruses is their relationship with the heroes. Female choruses have the inbuilt ability to develop an intimate engagement with both male and female characters. In many Euripidean tragedies, there are ties of sympathy between female characters and the members of female choruses. These sympathetic female choruses are expected to offer consolation to a suffering female character. It has been observed that in Euripides’ tragedies, the chorus’ consolation of the heroine often takes place at the opening of the play. Frequently the parodos turns into a threnodic song and the chorus sings along with the mourning actor. It has even been argued that Euripides sometimes uses the relationship between the heroine and the female chorus to stage the genesis of antiphonal lament. Nonetheless, little attention has been paid to the existence of sympathetic female choruses in Euripides’ fragmentary dramas and their interaction with female characters.


In this article, I focus on the reception of antiphonal lament in Euripides’ fragments. At the openings of Euripides’ Phaethon, Andromeda, and Hypsipyle a series of the conventions of ritual lament as they could have been perceived by the spectators appear, creating expectations of a performance of an antiphonal lament. Nonetheless, at the openings of the Phaethon, Andromeda, and Hypsipyle, the heroines and the sympathetic choruses do not antiphonically sing a lament. For different reasons, antiphonal lament seems to have been ‘‘suppressed’’. Euripides, in these instances, not only toys with the expectation that a joint lament, or at least a shared song of complaint carrying elements of lament, will take place at the opening of his plays, but by letting elements of this genre to resonate through his lyrics, he attempts to engage the spectators’ affective responses to the uncertainties emerging from these lyric performances and involve them in his metapoetic discourse.

Resumen: El coro femenino del Orestes euripideo colabora activamente en los planes secretos de la heroína. Esta solidaridad se muestra a través de la palabra, el silencio y la acción directa. El presente artículo tiene como objetivo analizar este fenómeno a partir de pasajes especialmente relevantes de dicha tragedia. Palabras clave: tragedia – Eurípides – coro – complicidad. Title: Female complicity of the chorus in the 'Orestes' Abstract: Female chorus in the Orestes collaborate actively on the heroine's secret plot. This sympathy is presented as speech, silence and direct action. The present article aims to analyze this feature from the most relevant passages of this tragedy.

In the context of Greek tragedy, the study of the dramatic chorus still raises a number of issues related to its interpretation and function in the dramatic action. Its introduction in adaptations and free interpretations in contemporary theatre may render it as an anachronistic element. The aim of this work is to analyse the renovation experienced by the Spanish theatre in the 20th century, when the Greek tragedy played a pivotal role as reflected in the works by Arcadio López Casanova (Orestes, 1960) and Maria Josep Ragué (Clitemnestra, 1985), which comprise the corpus of this study.

In “La figura corale nelle tragedie alfieriane” Enrico Zucchi, contestando la tesi sostenuta anni fa da Alessandro Pellegrini nel suo saggio “Alfieri e la tragedia senza coro”, perviene a dimostrare come in realtà il coro sia ben presente nell’opera teatrale alfieriana, tanto da distinguere una figura corale vera e propria, ad esempio in “Mirra”, in “Abele” e nell’ “Alceste seconda”, e il popolo avente funzione di coro, nelle cosiddette “tragedie di libertà”, dove appunto la folla degli astanti supporta gli eventi drammatici su cui si fonda l’azione dei protagonisti delle tragedie stesse.

Abstract : While χῶρος finds its proper place in the speech that Œdipus pronounces at Colonus as a “stranger in a foreign land”, χώρα is used almost exclusively by the hosts, Theseus, king of Athens, and the chorus of the Elders of Colonus, “the guardians of this place” who owned it de facto and de jure. With the subtle handling of χώρα, which becomes an ideological instrument in their speech, the characters-enunciators proclaim their full political and religious authority on the territory in which they reside and which is theirs as a premier source of their identity, a sort of “territorialized” identity.

Résumé : Tandis que χῶρος trouve sa place essentiellement dans les discours d’Œdipe, présent à Colone à titre d’« étranger en terre étrangère », χώρα est employé presque exclusivement par les hôtes, Thésée, le roi d'Athènes, et le chœur des Vieillards de Colone, les « gardiens de ce lieu » qui leur appartient de jure et de facto. À l'aide du maniement subtil de χώρα devenu un instrument idéologique, les personnages-énonciateurs proclament leur pleine autorité politique et religieuse sur le territoire où ils résident et qui est le leur en tant que source par excellence de leur identité, une sorte d'identité « territorialisée ».

La tragédie humaniste du XVIᵉ siècle se distingue par la présence d'un chœur, héritage de la tragédie antique, et par la volonté de rompre avec les représentations allégoriques médiévales. Cette caractérisation semble pourtant paradoxale dans la mesure où le chœur semble lui-même être un personnage allégorique. Dans "Cléopâtre captive" d'Etienne Jodelle, première tragédie antique écrite en français, le chœur se démarque des allégories dramaturgiques médiévales. Il demeure un personnage à part qui, bien que reprenant certaines figures allégoriques dans son discours, intériorise ses sentiments. Le chœur peut néanmoins extérioriser ses pensées en employant une métrique particulière qui renforce un effet de distanciation avec l'histoire représentée. Alternant entre espace intérieur et espace extérieur, le personnage du chœur n'a cependant plus rien à voir avec les représentations allégoriques du théâtre médiéval traditionnel.

The psychological feeling of sexual jealousy is complex and is generally considered a blend of simpler affects. These usually include anger, envy, fear of (or grief at) loss, hostility, and phthonos for the rival. Sexual jealousy is manifested when three people are present: two currently or formerly in a sexual relationship and a newcomer. In ancient Greek tragedy, a sexual jealousy scenario often involves a hero in a relationship with a heroine and a new woman brought into the oikos. Sexual jealousy is a potent force in generating violence in Greek tragic contexts,1 as we can see in Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Sophocles' Women of Trachis, and Euripides' Medea and Andromache. All of these tragedies, except for Aeschylus' Agamemnon, have a female chorus tied to the female protagonist.

The final words of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris are vexed by several difficulties concerning the distribution of lines to speakers. In IT 1490–1, the problem affects the general interpretation of the ending, which seems to suggest clearly that the Chorus survives and returns to Greece. If 1490¬¬–1 are delivered by the Chorus, as Seidler suggests, it is to be assumed that the Greek women are not allowed to go back home with Iphigenia, Orestes and Pylades: this explicit does not square with the evidence of the drama as a whole. The restoration of L’s attribution of the lines to Athena (Kovacs) would fit well with the ultimate destiny of the Chorus, yet it raises the problem of admitting an unparalleled metrical transition from trimeters to anapaests by the same speaker; moreover, it creates an awkward repetition and reduplication of the content of 1487–9. The attribution to Thoas, who is in any case unable to leave until 1489, solves the problem and gives a better sense to 1490–1: Thoas is here urging the Chorus to leave the stage and sail towards Greece, trusting Athena’s recent deliberations. The mistake of attribution in L may reflect an original distribution in which changes of speaker were marked at 1486 (or 1487), 1490 and 1492.

Este libro es el resultado de las investigaciones realizadas en el marco de dos proyectos UBACyT. Sus capítulos, dedicados cada uno a diferentes textos, autores y períodos de la literatura griega clásica, desde la época arcaica hasta la imperial, tienen un eje en común: revalorizar el género de la himnodia a partir de una nueva línea investigativa que pone en relieve el carácter performativo y cultual de los himnos. Este volumen constituye un aporte casi inédito en nuestro país para la disciplina.