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4 The Parodos (Verses 135–218) The Nature and Function of the Chorus “Parodos” in Greek is a passageway or entrance. In the Theater of Dionysus it was the side entrance into the orch¯estra. The word came to refer to the entrance of the chorus into the theater and also to the first choral ode sung by the chorus after it made its entrance, which preceded the formal agon of the play. In the parodos of this play, Neoptolemus is already on stage, though Odysseus has moved out of sight for reasons given in the prologos. The chorus now sings its first ode, and when it completes the ode, Philoctetes, the protagonist, arrives on the scene. This choral ode is composed of two sets of strophes, each set composed of one strophe followed by another strophe of exactly the same metrical form, called the antistrophe. Each set, of strophe and antistrophe , follows its own metrical system. The names point to the origin of choral poetry in Greece, as dance: stroph¯e is “turn” and antistroph¯e is “counter-turn.” All choral poetry in ancient Greece was a dance performed in a public space for a public occasion, with the members of the chorus moving through turn and counter-turn as they sang the poet’s song. In our culture the dance company and the choir have become separate entities, but this was not so in ancient Greece. Those whom the Greeks called “poets” did not compose poems in lines to be read off the page by a silent reader. Their compositions are songs, marked by melody, rhythm, words, and dance. They were also the choreographers of the dance company, teaching the dancers to perform their songs. The 71 Greek word for the playwright was didaskalos, the “teacher.” We think of the playwright as the composer of a text, but in Athens the emphasis was on his role as teacher since he was both the composer and the choreographer of the spectacle set forth in the theater. Ancient tragedy was a musical composition from beginning to end. Even the so-called spoken parts were musical roles, though the metrical schemes used for these parts were closer to the rhythms of ordinary speech than the more complex rhythms of the choral odes. The chorus in Greek tragedy usually represents the protagonist’s community, whether it be the elders of the city if the protagonist should be the king, or the female friends if the protagonist is the queen. The chorus watches the unfolding spectacle with a variety of emotions, sometimes expressing horror at the protagonist’s hubris or its faith in the immutable laws of the gods, and often it retreats into the safe mediocrity of the passive spectator, keeping itself at a respectable distance from the violence and arrogance of the protagonist. The role of the chorus in Greek tragedy has provoked much discussion . The choral component of Greek tragedy is so unlike anything in a modern drama that we have difficulty orienting ourselves as the Athenians might have oriented themselves to the choral odes, or to determine how the odes fit into the overall drama. No consensus is possible if we look for one single defining function of the chorus. Each poet had his choruses serve his particular ends, which might vary from play to play and even within the compass of a single play. Paradox and inconsistency are inevitable since the ancient chorus was used to express an emotional outpouring from the deepest levels of the communal psyche. One scholar has argued that we cannot expect consistency in a character’s words or behavior in ancient tragedy since the idea of the fully formed individual had not yet been developed in ancient Greek thought.1 If this argument holds true for the characters in the drama, it is equally true, perhaps even more so, for the chorus. Some of the inconsistencies apparent in the chorus may be attributed to the individual playwright’s creative genius, but others are the product of the long history in the evolution of the chorus. In its origins the chorus was not the spectator that it became in the later stages of ancient tragedy. Far from it. The chorus was once the actor, being the collective voice and conscience of the whole community.2 According to Aristotle, both tragedy and comedy evolved from simple and even crude rustic festivals in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine.3 Tragedy, he claims, grew out...

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