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Representations.
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JOHN
J. WINKLER
REPRESENTATIONS
11 * Summer 1985 ?
OF CALIFORNIA
27
REPRESENTATIONS
29
tragicperformancewas by,for,and about them. So put, the claim willundoubtedly seem hyperbolic,but I believe there is enough hard evidence to support it
as a literaland accurate (though not exhaustive)account of the origin of Greek
tragedy.The evidence is found in all three components of the festivalexhibition-audience, scripts,and performers.The firsttwo (the "for"and the "about"),
though theyare in no wayless essentialcomponentsof the triangle,can be dealt
withrelativelybriefly.It is the thirdelement,the performers(the "by"),on which
and then
I will have most to say,leading up to a new etymologyof tragoidoiY2
concluding with a brief assessmentof remainingdifficultiesand an encore on
satyrplays.
Audience
The opening eventof the CityDionysia was the ephebes' reenactment
of the advent of Dionysos, which included a sacrificeat a hearth-altar(eschar&)
near the Academy,a torchlightprocessionwiththe cult statue,and (perhaps on
the next day,as part of the general barbecue) theirsacrificeof a bull on behalf
of the entire city.22The daylightparade was a lavish spectacle-metics in red
robes, phalluses and other precious religiousobjectscarried by priestsand honored citizens,twentydithyrambicchoruses (ten of fifty
boys each and ten of fifty
men each) in theirelaborate and expensive costumes.In the centerof all thisthe
ephebes stood as the god's immediateacolytes.23
They also had a special block of seats in the theater.Aristophanes refers
the sectionof the auditoriumwhere the membersof
explicitlyto the bouleutikon,
the Boule (Council) sat-fiftycouncillorsfromeach of the ten tribes.The scholiast thereon, seconded by Pollux and Hesychios, informsus that the ephebes
too were so honored.24The parallelismbetween the dithyrambicchoruses (ten
groups of fiftyin competition)and the Boule (fiftycouncillorsfromeach of the
ten tribes) is not accidental. The City Dionysia, like the Panathenaia, was an
occasion for marking the structureas well as the magnificenceof democratic
Athens,thatis,the specificstructuregivento the democracybythe constitutional
reformsof Kleisthenes(509-508 B.C.E.). The prominentelementsof thatstructure were carefullydisplayed-the ten tribes; the governing Council; and the
newestgenerationof citizens,the ephebes. The layoutof the auditoriumformed
(at least ideally) a kind of map of the civic corporationwithall its tensionsand
balances. The fundamentalcontrastwas that between the internalcompetition
of tribeagainst tribe(mirroredon other levels of Athenian societyby the always
vigorous competitionof individuals and households) and the equally strong
so thatthe polis as a whole
determinationto honor and obey legitimateauthority,
would displaya united frontagainstitsenemies. These two vectorsof civicmanlinesscross at a balance point thatis a locus of no littleanxiety,particularlysince
the unit of intra-Atheniancompetition,the tribe, is also the unit of military
30
REPRESENTATIONS
organization.In describingthe concernsthatwerewrittenintothe physicalorganizationof the audience we will at the same time be characterizingthe expectationsof thataudience, itsreadiness to perceivecertainmessages elicitingitssympathyand anxiety(eleosand phobos).This in turnwillexplainwhythe city'sephebes
were placed preciselyat the cross hairs of those powerfulforces.
Consider firstthe seating of the ten tribes.Three statue bases found at the
"wedges") correspond to the trafoot of the thirteenseating sections (kerkides,
ditionalorder of the ten tribes,assuming thatthe centralwedge was thatof the
Boule and ephebes and the two outermostwedges were assigned to noncitizens.
The statuesare Hadrianic, but much earlier evidence existsin the formof lead
theatertickets,whose spellingconventionsand letterformsput them at least in
the earlypart of the fourthcenturyB.C.E. ifnot earlier.These ticketsare marked
withtribalnames.25If the citizensare seated (at least grossomodo)by tribalaffiliation,these ten tribalblocks will to some extenthave been in competitionwith
each other since the dithyrambicperformances(unlikecomedyand tragedy)are
organized by tribe;on the choregic monumentsit is the tribethatis announced
as the winner.(This would be true even though-as it seems-the dithyrambs
were performed in the agora; see note 79 below.) The panel of tenjudges for
all eventswas selected one fromeach tribe,and as a matterof course theywere
carefullysworn not to show favoritism.The recorded instancesof briberyand
cheatingshow thatthe oath and other safeguardswere necessary.26
The lateral spread of the auditorium thus formed an axis of competition
among the ten citizengroups,withthe Boule as theirrepresentativesand mediators at the center.The verticalaxes up and down the blocks displayed relative
prestige.Prohedria,frontrow seating,was one of the highesthonors that could
be paid to benefactorsand special friendsof thecity,attestedin numerousdecrees
and in one funnystoryabout Demosthenes.27Since this festivaltook place just
when the winterstorms had ceased and travelbecame tolerable, its splendor
attracteda large audience of sightseers,guests,and other noncitizens,who are
generallythoughtto have been seated in the twooutermostwedges. Athensused
the opportunityto score propaganda points. Before the musical events, ceremonies were held in the orchestra: golden crowns were bestowed on favored
friendsof the city,the tributepaid by the allies was carried in and displayed(fifth
century),and boys whose fathershad died in war and who had been supported
bythecityuntiltheyreached hebewereparaded in a suitof hoplitearmor supplied
to themby the city,now thattheywere ready to enterthe ranksof the ephebes.28
If the tributeand the presence of the city'sfriendsrepresenther active militaryalliances,the war orphans who are ready to become soldiersin theirfathers'
places inevitablybring to mind the city'sbattles,both past and future.29This
descriptionmay sound more like a West Point graduation ceremony,but it is
importantto underscore the fact that the totocaelo differencewe experience
between the militaryrealm and the theatrical,between marching to war and
The Ephebes'Song
31
REPRESENTATIONS
But the boys are Argive,not Athenian,sons of the soldiers led by the magpast. Balancing the
nificentSeven who attacked Thebes in the myth-historical
visibleimmediacywithwhichthattragicscene representsthe parade of Athenian
orphan-ephebesis the removalof the signifierfromthe presentlocation(Athens)
of tragedy
and the presenttime(c. 425 -415 B.C.E.). It is genericallycharacteristic
(as opposed to comedy) to be removed in space and time from the Athenian
here-and-now.The ephebic realitiesprojected into the dramaticscripttherefore
are as a rule considerablymore remote and less recognizablyexact than the
orphan scene of the SuppliantWomen.For instance, the presumed subject of
Sophokles' Sk9rioiwas the summoningof Neoptolemos fromthe island of Skyros,
where his fatherAchilles had been hidden in maiden's clothes,to take his dead
father'splace in the Greek forces at Troy.32This is more typicallythe level of
relevance and remoteness at which tragedyoperates, the distance in fictional
speaks to the audience and (as I
space and time fromwhich it characteristically
argue) to the city'scentral concern for ephebes. I offera tentativetypologyof
these ephebic concerns under three headings.
and to be
1) A son, now grownto manhood,comeshometo claimhis patrimony
ofhisfatherThe paradigm is Orestes,and a key
successor
as thelegitimate
recognized
issue in his restorationis the guileful (that is, primafacie unmanly) means by
which he confrontshis enemies and gains control of his paternal territory:
A(ischylos) Choiphoroi,S(ophokles) Elektra,E(uripides) Elektra.Some protagonists,likeOrestes,face a usurper in locopatris(Jason,33Kresphontes34)who must
be overcome by guilefulviolence; othersfindthemselvesthe unexpected victim
of violence froma stepmother(Theseus almost poisoned by Medeia, E. Aigeus)
who doesn't recognize her/hisson (E. Ion, in which Ion is
or a mother/father
in which Alexandros is set upon by
almost poisoned by Kreousa; E. Alexandros,
in which Kresphontes is
his brothersat Hekuba's instigation;35E. Kresphontes,
saved at the last minute from his axe-wieldingmother Merope; S. Euryalos,in
Akanwhich Euryalos is killed by Odysseus at Penelope's instigation;S. Odysseus
It
him).
and
slays
his
father
Odysseus
attacked
is
by
in
which
Telegonos
thoplex,
intrafamilial
generic
is possible to read the violence of these plots in terms of
anxiety,but insofaras the principalactor is an ephebe in search of his adult role
and identity,those anxieties can be given a more specificlocation in social psychologythan has usually been done.36
Often the ephebe sets out to assume his adult identitynotjust by findingor
avenginghis unknownfatherbut by performinga bold and heroic deed thatwill
establishhis manhood for all to see: Theseus' journey to Athens,37Phaethon's
ride in the chariotof his true fatherHelios,38Bellerophon'scapturingand riding
Jason'squest for the fleece (S. Kolchides),
of Pegasos (S. Iobates[?],E. Stheneboia),
Pelops' chariotrace (S. Oinomaos,E. Oinomaos),Oidipous' outwittingof the Sphinx
(E. Oidipous),Meleagros' huntingof the boar,39Telephos' prowessin an athletic
contestand in battle (S. Mysoi),40Perseus' exploit withthe Gorgon and the sea
The Ephebes'Song
33
REPRESENTATIONS
current commanders and newest initiatesmight well be fascinated and profoundlymoved by such tales of manhood's firstassertion,the necessityof proper
violence against other men and the sometime demonic ease with which that
violence may be misdirected.Both the structureof the familyand that of the
democratic polis in their differentways demand that individual men be both
allies and enemies, both cooperators and competitors,and that these polarized
and shiftingroles be maintainedwithpassion. The tensionbetweencasual accident and late-discoveredephebic design is at its most extreme in Sophokles'
OidipousTyrannoswhere the ephebe sets out to find his true fatherand, in a
confrontationthat is much closer to the realityof daily life on the Greek roads
than the meeting with monstersand warriorsof other plays,once and for all
proves himselfa man in combat.42
In addition to looking forhis father,the young man sometimessearches for
and E. IphigeneiaAmongtheTaurians)
his sister(Orestes-lphigeneia in S. Chryses
or his mother(Telephos-Auge in S. Mysoi), thusdisplayinghis role as familyprotector.Several plays featurea beleaguered motherwho is rescued by her nowE. HypsipylM,43
E. Melanippe inBondage,E. Antiop). The return
grownsons (S. Tyro,
to defend the mother is the polar opposite of the return to kill the mother
(Orestes, Alkmeon), which Zeitlinreads as ritualsymbolfor expelling all thatis
femininefromtheboyin order to make himdecisivelyand unmistakablya man.44
The Ephebes'Song
35
REPRESENTATIONS
37
FIGURE2. Polychrome
fragment,
detail,
earlyfourthcentury
B.C.E. Martinvon
Wagner-Museum
der UniversitAt
Wurzber. Photo:
museum.
tobe resisted.Havingsketched
thecharacter
ofmyargument,
thisisa temptation
of tragedyoftenspoketo
of the audienceand establishedthatthe narratives
ephebicissues,I wantto drawno immediateconclusionsbut simplyto regard
In the
forthe following
explorationof tragicperformance.
thisas a nihilobstat
ratherthanexpositiontheevidencecitedin thenextsection
orderof discovery
in thepreceding
pointthatconvertstheinformation
is in factthefirmstarting
to significant.
sectionsfrominteresting
Performance
The habitsofmodernplayreadingand playgoingmakeitall tooeasy
itis not
As a convention
forus to scantthechoruswhenreadingGreektragedy.
onlyforeignto our dramaticsense,but thereis evenevidencethatin thefifth
Whenwe do try
centuryitwas alreadycomingto seeman archaicinstitution.49
to givefullweightto theroleof thechorusour attention
is usuallydrawnto the
beautyand powerof someof thechoralodes. But fewwilldeclarethemselves
compartisansof the chorus's(actuallythe chorusleader's)standardtrimeter
emphasizesthattheevents
mentsof praiseand warning.Myaccount,however,
in tragedyare meantto be contemplated
and characters
as lessonsby
portrayed
youngcitizens(or ratherbytheentirepolisfromthevantagepointoftheyoung
of the chorusstructurally
makesthe watchfulscrutiny
citizen),and therefore
importantas a stillcenterfromwhichthe tragicturbulenceis surveyedand
evaluated.
38
REPRESENTATIONS
39
40
REPRESENTATIONS
41
age groups above and below ephebes-men and boys. (Paralleling the series
"boys, ephebes, men" in the Dionysia, the age classes at the Panathenaia and
several other panhellenic games were boys, ageneioi,and men. Ageneioi,designatingephebes, literallymeans "beardless ones.")
The second contrastis thatmen'sand boys'dithyrambicdances were circular
dances, while tragoidoimoved in a rectangularformation.Reasonably detailed
The chorusmembersprocessed
survivesabout this"square"-dancing.67
information
in threefilesand fouror fiveranks (depending on whethertherewere twelveor
fifteenpersons marching). Since theyentered the orchestrathree abreast and
the left-handfilewas nearest the spectators,the best performerswere stationed
in the left-mostfile.When thatfilecontained fivemembersthe koryphaiosoccupied the centralposition.The orchestraof course was a circularspace, but there
is no evidence that tragicchoruses ever took up a circular formation;68on the
choros,which is used as a general term for all dithycontrary,the name kyklios
performed in rank
rambs, seems to guarantee that tragoidoicharacteristically
and file.69
We oftenand quite casuallyuse the term"marching"of the chorus'sentrance
withoutreally thinkingabout its implications.Rectangular formationabove all
requires thatthe dancers move withprecision,since theyare ordered along two
can be
sightlines. Circular dancing, by comparison,especiallyin masses of fifty,
impressivewhile admittinga certain degree of, not sloppiness, but looseness.
The usual reconstructionof tragicchoral movementimagines that the dancers
sometimesoccupied the centerof the orchestra,sometimessplitintotwo groups,
at timesfacingthe actors and at other timesthe audience. The performanceof
such maneuverswould have exercisedthesame precisionskillsthatwererequired
forhoplitemarching,70and thoughI do not imaginethatthe koryphaiosactually
barked sottovoce"Right face"' "Company halt,"and so forthto his squadron of
ephebes, such commands were implicitin theirwell-regulatedmotion.71
Not onlyour phrase "rankand file"but a numberof traditionalGreek choral
terms point to a homologybetween the movementof tragoidoiand of hoplites:
parastatesand other compounds of -states,psileis(unprotected) of the persons
of the chorus leader. Sometimes
withan exposed side in the formation,hegemon
the comparison is explicit,as in thisverysignificantfragmentof Chamaileon:
or PlatoinhisGear,
and manly;]therefore
Aristophanes
[The olderdancesweredignified
as Chamaileonwrites,spokeas follows:"So thatwhenanyonedancedwellit was a real
butnowtheydo nothing;theyjust standinone placeas ifparalyzedbya stroke
spectacle,
and theyhowl."For theformof dancingin chorusesthenwas wellordered[euschemon]
in fullarmor[kineseis
entoishoplois];
ofmovements
and impressive
and as itwereimitative
choraldancersare bestin war;I quote,
whenceSokratessaysin hispoemsthatthefinest
honorthe gods in chorusesare bestin war."For choral
"Those who mostbeautifully
and a display
likea troopreview[ormaneuverin arms,exhoplisia]
dancingwaspractically
of physical
in generalbut more particularly
not onlyof precisionmarching[eutaxia]
preparedness.72
42
REPRESENTATIONS
FIGURE
3. Apulian bell-krater
by the Tarporley
Painter,400-380
B.C.E. The Nicholson
Museum, University
of Sydney.Photo:
museum.
So too a scholiaston Aristeides:"The best in the chorus are stationedon the left
... since in choruses the left side is more honorable, in battles the right."73
Teachers of each disciplineare even found givingthe same advice to put the best
soldiersor dancers in the frontand rear ranks,theless good ones in the middle.74
The homology extends to the accompanyingmusic (Dorian in large part) and
the instrument(aulos).75 We may have a depiction of such precisiondancing by
a semichorusof six on a red-figurecolumn-kraterin the Manneriststyle,c. 480
B.C.E. (fig.4).76 In presentingthe Pronomos vase I leftitopen whetheritschorus
membersare to be thoughtof as ephebes in the loose sense of young men who
have just reached their physicalprime or in the strictersense of eighteen-to
twenty-year-old
citizensin militarytraining.The evidence of choral dancing in
tragedyseems to me an irresistibleargument for the relevance of the stricter
sense.
The suggestion that the tragic chorus's formationand movements were
homologous to (or aestheticrefinementsof) hoplite drill becomes all the more
The Ephebes'Song
43
plausible when we consider how widespread were the practicesof militarydancing. By wayof a verysummaryaccount,we can say thatdancing witharmor and
weapons was a regular part of everyGreek man's local culture(though presumably not everyonewas equally good at it). Styleswere traditionaland differedby
region and polis. Xenophon describes a banquet where his foreign
guests were amazed at the Greek soldiers' dancing skills:each local contingent
had itsown formof dancing featuringleaps or somersaultsor mock battles-all
in armor and all strictlyin time to an aulos (Anabasis6.1). At Athens our information converges fromtwo directionsand just misses meetingat a description
of ephebic militarydancing in the theater of Dionysos. On the one hand, we
whichimitateswrestlingand pankration,
know of dancing called gymnopaidike,77
paides,boysin armor.78
a fast,warlikedance performedbyenhoploi
and thepyrrhikO,
Aristoxenosconnectsthese as phases of a regular sequence: "In olden timesthey
before theyentered into
then progressed to pyrrhike
firstpracticedgymnopaidike,
the theater."From thiswe know thatDionysos' theateris in some sense the final
stage where boyswelltrainedin militarydancing would perform.To what might
this refer?One obvious candidate, the boys' dithyramb,can probablybe ruled
out on the grounds that dithyrambsat the City Dionysia seem to have been
performedin the agora, not in the theater.79I propose thatthe athletic-cultural
cursus described by Aristoxenosculminates"in the theater"with the ephebes'
tragic marching,a small corps display of virtuoso dancing that was, in coordione grade higherthan thevigorous,paramilitarydancnationand in refinement,
ing of boy soloists.
From the otherside we have one secure witnessto ephebes actuallyperforming in a body in the presence of Dionysos and the people, though what they
performis a regular drillof the whole class ratherthan a virtuosodisplayby the
[the
top fifteen:"In theirsecond year,beforean assemblyconvened in thetheater,
ephebes] made a display to the populace of all that pertained to taxeis[orderly
vase showingsix young men doing a preThe earlyfifth-century
formations]."80
cision dance in threepairs fitsneatlyhere as an image of thattowardwhichboth
wings of our evidence converge.8' Altogether,the evidence is richlysuggestive
of the cultural frameworkwithinwhich my hypothesisoperates, though it falls
shortof convertingthathypothesisinto an iron-cladsurety.
In sum, then, our evidence about tragic performance contains reasonably
strong indicationsthat the chorus members were ephebes. If true, this would
allow us to sense a complex and finelycontrolledtensionbetween role and role
player,for the ephebes are cast in the most "disciplined"part of the tragedydisciplined in the exacting demands of unison movement,subordinated to the
more prominentactors,and characterizedas social dependents (women, slaves,
old men)-while the actors,who are no longer ephebes, performa tale showing
the risks,the misfortunes,and sometimesthe gloryof ephebic experience. What
most makes the tensioncome alive is the scrutinyof the watchfulaudience, the
44
REPRESENTATIONS
45
I would tentatively
conjecturethatthe flowerof Athenianyouth-in-training
were
set by Peisistratosand Thespis to performtheirbest manlydances in a waythat
declared thattheybelonged to all Athensand not to any smaller,traditionalclan
grouping.90
Such a social-aestheticritualwould obviouslybe useful to a polis under any
formof government,not only under tyranny,
so it would be sensible for Kleisthenes to have maintained it in his new order, merelyreorganizingthe dithyrambic dances of men and boys as a tribalcompetitionalongside the already
existingnontribalephebic dances of Peisistratos.
That public eventscould havejust such a functionin the sixth-century
Greek
polis is explicitlyattestedin connectionwithour one mostimportantitemin the
early historyof tragedy.Kleisthenes of Sikyon,maternal grandfatherof our
AthenianKleisthenesand a likemind,reorganizedthe festivalof theArgivehero
Adrastos as it was celebrated in Sikyon. He demoted the ancient hero of nowhated Argos by reassigningAdrastos' splendid sacrificesand festivalsto Melanippos, the Theban hero who was Adrastos'worstenemy,and the "tragicchoruses
withwhichtheyhonored his sufferings"to Dionysos.91This is pure Kulturpolitik
and not uncharacteristicof the shrewd power-brokeragein that era. The same
Kleisthenesrenamed the tribesof Sikyonin a waythatsignificantly
affectedtheir
honor. It was this latteract, according to Herodotos, that served as model for
the AthenianKleisthenes'structuralreforms.The eventsin sixth-century
Sikyon
are not well enough known for us to draw any verydefiniteconclusions.They
do, however,indicate that tribalallegiance and reform,a leader's manipulation
of cult and festival,and choral performancesin honor of a dead warriorbelong
togetherin a once-coherentstory.It may never be possible to know the complications of thatstoryin any detail for sixth-century
Athens,but I would suggest
thatit consistedof twocriticalinterventions.The firstwas Peisistratos'invention
event that displayed the ephebes' physical prowess as a
of a military-cultural
resourcecontrolledby the polis as a whole ratherthanbyany smaller,potentially
factionalgrouping. The second criticalevent was Kleisthenes'addition of a set
of publichonorsto thedithyrambic
performancesbythosenewlydefinedsubgroups
(the tribes),subgroups thatrearticulatedthe internalstructureof the polis as a
complex competitive-cooperative
entityno longer operatingunder the Peisistratean fictionof a relativelyhomogeneous polis guided (albeit deftlyand behind
the scenes) by a single leader.
My second speculationconcernsthe word trag6idos.
Already,or so Herodotos
says,those choruses in Sikyonwere "tragic."It seems sure thatby thishe means
that theywere similarto the choruses thatwere so called in his own day rather
than thattheywere "goatlike."On myreading theremaywell have been ephebic
choruses in Sikyonperformingin memoryof Adrastos,who led the disastrous
expeditionof the Seven againstThebes, and Kleistheneswould have been operating in an acceptable range of associationsin reassigningthose honors to Dio46
REPRESENTATIONS
47
ephebic singers,not because theirvoices were breaking (that was long past and
anywayno one can sing well whose voice is breaking) but because they were
identifiedas those undergoing social puberty.10?(More accurately,they were
of those undergoing social puberty:only a select group of the best
representative
ephebic singer-dancerscould actuallyperform.)101
Other derived senses of the tragosword familycan be related to the actual
being of billygoats-rank smell,indiscriminatelust; like ephebes, billygoats are
noticeablywaywardand mustbe controlled.On one level, tragizeinused of the
boy'svoice may simplymean "bleat,"but the implicationsare probablywider.It
may in the Greek folksystemalso be a wayof sayingthata boy'schange of voice
is a warningsignof theonsetof otherbilly-goadlike
qualities.Tragizein(and tragan)
mightbest be translated"to go throughpuberty,""to show the signs of adolescence;' of whichvoice change is onlyone. The noun tragosindicatesanothersuch
change in itsoccurrence in a crypticHippokraticsayingat Epidemics6 about the
which Galen commented on.103Arisswellingof a boy's testiclesat puberty,102
totle'sexplanation of the connection between testicularand vocal change is in
termsof mechanics: the increased tensioncaused by heavier testeson the channels thatlead fromthe scrotumthroughthe heart to the vocal cords cause the
FIGURE4. Red-figurecolumn-krater,
detail,c. 480 B.C.E.
Antikenmuseumund SkuipturhalleBasel. Photo:
museum.
48
REPRESENTATIONS
voice to drop lower; he compares the effectto that of loom weights.104 Two
activitiesaffectthisnaturalprocess-sexual activityacceleratesit; the voice exercises of boys who take frequentpart in choruses retardsit.105We seem to have
in the tragosword group a coherentand ratherinterestingview of pubertyas a
complex of new smells,attitudes,and bodilychanges summed up in the emblem
of the billygoat.106
The last twolines of argumentabout Peisistratos'motivesand boys'breaking
voices are very speculative indeed. Even withoutthem the hypothesisI have
offered remains, I think,a stable construction,one whose interestlies in its
suggestiverecenteringof the fieldof Greek tragedyas a very specificform of
social and religiousritual,and one whose poweris drawnfromitsnew integration
of discrete realms of information.The complete picture is bound to be more
complex and detailed than I have sketched,but as a ground plan for the City
Dionysia I propose thatperformance,audience, and scriptshow us thattragedy
was fundamentallyexperienced as by,for,and about ephebes.
Loose Ends
To brieflyindicate a number of points thatrequire furtherexamination: 1) I have been assuming, withmany,that some form of ephebic military
group was in existencefromthe sixthcentury,and for presentpurposes it is no
doubt sufficient
to pointto threeundeniable but underexploitedfacts:the strong
sense of age classes,'07 the need for some form of militarytrainingof young
men, and a long-standingGreek fascinationwiththe downyadvent of manhood
of the cheek.'08 Yet plentifuland solid testimonyto the existenceof an Athenian
compulsorymilitarytrainingdoes not exist before the 330s. It has even been
possible to deny thatany sort of ephebate existed in Athensbefore thattime.109
What an interestingparadox we will have if we accept thatephebic trainingwas
the fountainhead fromwhich sprang Attictragedyand also that that training
received no permanentrecord or memorialbeforethe late fourthcentury.Fully
to understandthe paradox we would need to enterinto a detailed inquiryabout
the sociologyof record keeping. Did the ephebate firstbecome a matterof concern for officialrecords preciselyat the moment when the traditionalreliance
was beginningto appear obsolete?
on a citizen-soldiery
2) How could a social arrangementlike thatof ephebic singersboth survive
as an institution(at least untilthe early fourthcentury:Pronomos vase) and yet
manage to be forgottenbefore the centurywas out (Aristotle'sPoetics)?One of
the factorsmusthave been the gradual change in the fifthcenturyof the relative
importanceof the chorus vis-a'-visthe actors. In Aristotle'saccount, tragicperformancesbegan withthe chorus and a single actor,'10but by the middle of the
fifthcenturythe numberof actorshad risen to threeand toward the end of the
centurythe choral contributionhad become increasinglyirrelevant.1" ' His interThe Ephebes'Song
49
REPRESENTATIONS
51
125
REPRESENTATIONS
Notes
For help in preparing thisarticleI owe thanksto WalterBurkert,MichaelJameson,
Thomas Rosenmeyer,Froma Zeitlin,Evelyn Harrison, Marsh McCall, Susan Cole,
and JeffreyHenderson.
1. Abbreviationsare used for the followingworks:
DFA = Arthur Pickard-Cambridge,DramaticFestivalsofAthens,2nd ed., revised by
John Gould and David M. Lewis (Oxford, 1968);
JHS = JournalofHellenicStudies;
of GreekDrama
IGD = Thomas B. L. Websterand Arthur D. Trendall, Illustrations
(London, 1971);
Bieber = Margarete Bieber, The Historyof theGreekand Roman Theater,2nd ed.
(Princeton,1961).
The Ephebes' Song
53
2. Melainai and Oinoe are demes, Panaktona fort,Eleutheraia village; Lilian Chandler,
"The North-WestFrontierof Attica,"JHS 46 (1926): 1-21. The historyof actual
fightingover these settlementson both sides of Mount Kithairon is surveyed by
Angelo Brelich, Guerre,Agoni e Culti nella GreciaArcaica,Antiquitas,ser. 1, vol. 7
(Bonn, 1961), 53-59.
Feste(Berlin, 1932), 232-34; Herbert W. Parke,Festivalsof
3. Ludwig Deubner,Attische
theAthenians(Ithaca, 1977), 88-92.
4. Scholiast on AristophanesAcharnians146; Hesychios s.v. "Koure6tis." The young
men having theirlocks cut also honored Herakles (whose divine consortwas Hebe)
by a special libationand shared cup; Hesychios s.v. "Oinisteria";Pamphilos quoted
in AthenaiosDeipnosophists
11.494E
5. ChrysisPelekidis,Histoirede l'ephebieattique(Paris, 1962); Jacques Labarbe, "L'Age
et les donnees historiquesdu sixiemediscours
correspondantau sacrificedu koureion
de l'Academie
Royalede Belgique,5th ser.,no. 39
d'Isee," Bulletinde la ClassedesLettres
(1953): 358-94.
6. On the relationof the phratry'senrollmentat age sixteen(hebeproper) to the deme's
enrollmentat age eighteen(technicallydescribedas epidieteshebesai,"havingreached
52-70; Mark Golden, "Demosthenes
one's hebefortwoyears"),see Pelekidis,Histoire,
and the Age of Majorityat Athens,"Phoenix33 (1979): 25-38.
Athens,"JHS97 (1977): 102-11,
7. PeterSiewert,"The Ephebic Oath in Fifth-Century
findsechoes of thisoath in Aischylos,Sophokles,and Thucydides. Pelekidis,Histoire,
76, n. 2, detectsit twicein Aristophanes.
8. Pierre Vidal-Naquet, "The Black Hunter and the Origin of the AthenianEphebeia,"
in Myth,Religionand Society,
ed. Raymond L. Gordon (Cambridge, 1981), 147-62.
9. Thus Artemidoros(Oneirokritika
1.54) sees a dream of being an ephebe as symbolic
of transitions-for the unmarried,marriage; for an old man, death.
revolutionin militarytacticsin whichthe older heroic soloists
10. The seventh-century
and horsemen were replaced by shield-to-shieldmasses of heavilyarmed infantry
is connectedby mostanalystsas cause and/oreffectof the social revolutionin which
citizenrightsin the polis were extended to a larger land-owningbut not aristocratic
class. See Marcel Detienne, "La Phalange: Problemes et controverses,'in Problemes
ed. Jean-PierreVernant(Paris,1968), 119-42; Anthony
de la guerreen Greceancienne,
Snodgrass, "The Hoplite Reformand History,"JHS85 (1965): 110-22; Paul Cartledge, "Hoplites and Heresies: Sparta's Contributionto the Technique of Ancient
Warfare,"JHS97 (1977): 11-27, esp. 21-24; John Salmon, "PoliticalHoplites?"JHS
undKampfwirkKampfdarstellung
97 (1977): 84-101. JoachimLatacz, Kampfpardnese,
lichkeit
in derIlias, beiKallinosund Tyrtaios,
Zetemata,no. 66 (Munich, 1977), givesan
excellentanalysisof the phalanx formationin Homer, which sometimesassumed a
close and quasi-hopliticorder fordefensivepurposes (esp. 55-65).
11. Henri Jeanmaire,"La Cryptielacedemonienne,' Revuedesetudesgrecques26 (1913):
121-50. However, one must be more reserved than Jeanmaire and Vidal-Naquet
as an ephebeia.
about the simple identificationof the Spartan krypteia
of theAthenians42.3-4; peripolousitenchoran,"theypatrol the
12. AristotleConstitution
countryside."
13. Artemidoros(Oneirokritika
1.54) knows threecolors of ephebic cloak-white, black,
and crimson (later second centuryC.E.). The substitutionof white for black cloaks
at the Eleusinian procession was a beneficenceof Herodes Attikosabout 176 C.E.,
knownboth fromPhilostratosLivesoftheSophists2.550 and a contemporaryinscripGraecae22.3606). PierreRoussel,"Les Chlamydesnoiresdes ephebes
tion(Inscriptiones
54
REPRESENTATIONS
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
"Remarks
43 (1941): 163-65; P.G. Maxwell-Stuart,
anciennes
atheniens'Revue desNtudes
PhilologicalSociety
of theCambridge
on the Black Coats of the Ephebes," Proceedings
196, n.s. 16 (1970): 113-16. The inscriptionrelates the change fromwhiteto black
withTheseus' failureto change his black sails to whitewhen he returnedfromCrete.
It is just possible,therefore,thatSimonides' referenceto the fatalsails not as black
but as crimsonhas some bearing on the color of ephebic cloaks; Denys Page, Poetae
MeliciGraeci(Oxford, 1962), 550.
For instance at Hermione, where there were annual contestsin music,swimming,
ofGreece2.35.1.
and boat racing in his honor; Pausanias Description
None, that is, except this story,whence the rare report that the Apatouria was
Magnum118.55.
celebrated in honor of Dionysos; Etymologicum
Dionysos does not figurein the listof gods in the ephebic oath; neitherdoes Apollo
Lykeios,a principalpatronof theiraccomplishedinitiation;MichaelJameson,"Apollo
Lykeiosin Athens,"Archaiognosia1 (1980): 213-35. In addition to the gods mentionedabove, Hephaistos was honored at the Apatouria bymen dressed in finerobes
who littorchesfromthehearthand sang a hymnto him; Harpokrations.v."Lampas."
Scholiaston AristophanesAcharnians243. Atheniancolonies wereevidentlyrequired
to send a phallos to the mothercityfor the Dionysia; we have a record of one such
Graecae22.673;
Graecae 12.46, line 12. See also Inscriptiones
fromBrea; Inscriptiones
and on the phallic-animalstatuesin various theaters,see Ernst Buschor,"Ein chorAbteiAthenische
Instituts:
Archaologischen
desDeutschen
egischesDenkmal,"Mitteilungen
Drama
lung53 (1928): 96-108; GregoryM. Sifakis,Studiesin theHistoryofHellenistic
(London, 1967), 7-10.
At least one ancient scholar understood thatApatouriawas not derived fromapatO,
but referredratherto the old communityof clans; Scholiaston Aristophanes
"trick,"
"watchers,worAcharnians146. 0. Szemerenyiderivesthe word fromha-patro-woroi,
shippersof the same father";Gnomon43 (1971): 656.
"The proximityto Eleutherai, the name Oinoe and the name Melanthos may all
have played a part in bringingDionysos Melanaigis into the story";WilliamR. Halliday,"Xanthosand Melanthosand theOriginof Tragedy,"ClassicalReview40 (1926):
179- 81 (quotationfromp. 179). Halliday argues againstthe theorythatthe combat
served
understoodas Black Man/FairMan and Winter/Spring,
of Melanthos/Xanthos,
as a ritual background for the development of classical tragedy.Arthur Pickardand Comedy,
2nd ed., revised,byThomas B. L. Webster
Tragedy
Cambridge,Dithyramb
(London, 1962), 120-21.
The institutionalhistoryof the ephebeiaas a formal period of training,firstclearly
is verycontroversial(see "Loose
of theAthenians,
described in AristotleConstitution
Ends" below).
Trag6idia,"tragedy,"is a secondary formation,derived from trag6idoi,plural and
themselves.Trag idoiratherthan trag6idiais the
naming the group of tragos-singers
term used in inscriptionsand in ordinaryspeech in the fifthand fourthcenturies;
DFA 127-32; W. Burkert,"Greek Tragedy and SacrificialRitual,"GreekRomanand
ByzantineStudies7 (1966): 92.
Many cattle were killed on this occasion. William S. Ferguson uses inscriptional
evidence foran estimateof 240 slaughteredanimalsin 333 B.C.E.; "DemetriusPoliorcetes and the Hellenic League," Hesperia17 (1948): 134.
DFA 59-67.
AristophanesBirds 794 and scholion (= Souda s.v. "Bouleutikos"); Pollux Lexicon
4.122; Hesychios s.v. "Bouleutikon"; Trugaios at AristophanesPeace 887 addresses
The Ephebes' Song
55
the Boule and prytaneisdirectlyas audience members; the scholiaston Peace 882
confirmsthe seatingarrangement.
25. On seatingand tickets,see DFA 269-72.
26. DFA 95-98.
27. The inscriptionalevidence is surveyedin chapter 4 of Michael Maass, Die Prohedrie
inAthen(Munich, 1972). The Demosthenesanecdote can be found
desDionysostheaters
in Aeschines AgainstKtesiphon76. When the Athenians took over controlof Delos
in the mid second centuryB.C.E., theytransferredthe announcementof civichonors
fromthe Apollonia to the Dionysia; Sifakis,Studies,14.
28. Ronald S. Stroud, "Greek Inscriptions:Theozotides and the Athenian Orphans,"
Hesperia40 (1971): 280-301, esp. 288-89.
29. The city'smilitarypreparedness was also advertised by the ten generals (one per
tribe), who offered a ceremonial libation at the beginning of the performances.
Plutarch atteststhis for an early date (468 B.C.E.) in a storyabout competitionso
fiercethatthe archon refusedto selectjudges by the usual lot but instead persuaded
the generals,who were presentfortheircustomarylibation,to act as the panel; Life
ofKimon8.7-9. On the generals'prohedriain the theater,see AristophanesKnights
832-35; Theophrastos Characters
573-77, 702-4; AristophanesThesmophoriazousai
Graecae22.500.32-35.
5.7; Inscriptiones
30. Froma I. Zeitlin,"The Dynamics of Misogyny:Mythand Mythmakingin the Oresteia,"Arethusa11 (1978): 149-84; "The Power of Aphrodite: Eros and the Boundaries of the Self in Euripides' Hippolytus"
(forthcoming).
31. "Sophocles' Philoctetes
and the Ephebeia," in Tragedyand Mythin AncientGreece,ed.
Jean-PierreVernant and Pierre Vidal-Naquet, trans.Janet Lloyd (Sussex, 1981),
175- 99. Contra,see Vincenzo Di Benedetto, "II 'Filottete'e 1'efebiasecondo Pierre
Vidal-Naquet,"Belfagor33 (1978): 191-207.
32. So also Eurypylosreplaces his fatherTelephos at Troy in Sophokles' (?) Eurypylos.
For discussionsof Sophoklean playsnot extant,see AlfredC. Pearson, TheFragments
of Sophocles,3 vols. (Cambridge, 1917). The more recent edition by Stefan Radt,
Graecorum
Fragmenta,vol. 4, Sophocles(Gottingen,1977), contains some
Tragicorum
papyrus fragmentsunknown to Pearson, but virtuallyno discussion.
33. Probably Sophokles' Rhizotomoi,
certainlyEuripides' Peliades.For bibliographyand
ofEuripides
discussionof Euripides' lostplays,see Thomas B. L. Webster,TheTragedies
(London, 1967).
34. E. Kresphontes;
Colin Austin,ed., Nova Fragmenta
Euripideain PapyrisReperta(Berlin,
aetatem
1968), 4 1-48; itsplot is givenin HyginusFabulae 137 (quipostquamad puberem
uenit.. .); ApollodorosBibliotheca
PapyrusOxyrhynchus2458 seems
2.8.5 (andr6theis);
to be an actor'scopy.
UniofEuripides'"Alexandros"
Papyrus:TheHypothesis
35. R. A. Coles, A New Oxyrhynchus
versityof London, Instituteof Classical Studies Bulletin,supplement no. 32 (London, 1974).
and theGreekFamily(Boston, 1968);
36. Philip E. Slater,TheGloryofHera: GreekMythology
Helene P. Foley,"Sex and State in AncientGreece,"Diacritics(Winter1975): 31-36.
37. S. Aigeusseems to have placed Theseus' conquering of the Marathonianbull before
his recognitionby Aigeus. At least one exploit of Theseus on the wayto Athenswas
the subjectof a satyrplay: E. Skiro'n.
17.208
38. James Diggle, ed., EuripidesPhaethon(Cambridge, 1970); scholiaston Odyssey
quoted by Diggle, Euripides,31.
(andr6theis),
39. Meleagrosis a title attested for Sophokles, Euripides, Antiphon, and Sosiphanes.
56
REPRESENTATIONS
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
Some of these may have dealt not withthe Calydonian hunt itselfbut withthe later
siege by the Kouretes of Pleuron when Meleagros sulked like Achilles and refused
to help defend his city.Phrynichos'Pleuroniaiprobablydealt withthis.
StudAkiko Kiso, "Sophokles,Aleadae: A Reconstruction,'GreekRomanand Byzantine
ies 17 (1976): 5-21.
See Diggle, Euripides,39ff.,158-60.
Described in Euripides Phoinissai32: "Alreadyhis cheeks were darkeningas he was
coming to manhood...."
GodfreyW. Bond, EuripidesHypsipyle
(London, 1963).
esp. 160-61.
Zeitlin,"Dynamicsof Misogyny,"
In the mostpowerfulinstance,thatof Orestes,itis a sisterwho is saved and a mother
who acts the role of wickedoppressor.
2:254ff.A source contemporarywithSophokles, Ion
Pearson,Fragments
ofSophocles,
of Chios, has him quote a line of Phrynichosabout the beauty of Troilos. By this
tenuous thread some would link to Sophokles' Troilosthe version of the storyin
Lykophron'sAlexandra307-13 thatmakes Achillesand Troilos lovers.
Papyrus Berolinensis9908; before the discoveryof Papyrus Oxyrhynchus2460, it
of Sophocles,
was judged to be from Sophokles' AchaionSylloge;Pearson, Fragments
1:94-102.
Graecorum
Fragmenta,
2nd ed. (Hildesheim, 1964), 467ff.,
August Nauck, Tragicorum
26ff.
frag.360 (= LykourgosAgainstLeokrates100); Austin,Nova Fragmenta,
See "Loose Ends" below.
4.
Anonymous,LifeofSophokles
and SatyrPlay,London
Tragedy
Illustrating
Listed in Thomas B. L. Webster,Monuments
Instituteof Classical Studies Bulletin,supplementno. 14 (London, 1962).
University,
There is a fine collection of photos in IGD, mainly on play subjects rather than
theatricalequipment; see also DFA chap. 4.
Museo Nazionale Archeologico3240; Paolo E. Arias,A HistoryofGreekVasePainting,
trans.and revised by Brian B. Shefton(London, 1962), 377-80, withbibliography,
plates 218 -19. The names, invisibleon mostphotographs,are included in the drawing of the vase in Bieber,fig.32 (reproduced here, fig. 1), and much more visiblyin
Vasenthe huge reproductionsin Adolf Furtwanglerand Karl Reichhold,Griechische
malerei(Munich, 1904 - 32).
173A: the symposiontook place on the day after
IGD 29 aptlycites Plato Symposion
Agathon and his chorus memberscelebratedtheirvictorysacrifice-no mentionof
actors.An inscriptionpublished in 1965 listsSokratesas producer (choregos),
Euripides as poet-trainer(didaskalos),and fourteentrag6idoi-no actors; PauletteGhironsurlesacteursdansla Greice
antique(Paris, 1976), 119-21; see next
Bistagne,Recherches
note on the numberof performers.
On these uncertainmattersI have some tentativesuggestionsto add to the pool of
possibilities.The feminine-lookingcouch-sittermay representa fourthrolein the
play,but since one of the three actors already pictured in other roles would have
acted thispart, he is not drawn a second time. (In thiscase alone I would allow for
whatPickard-Cambridge[DFA 187] sees as a "melting"of actorintorole.) Whyeleven
choreuts?The poet-trainerhimselfcould have performedas the twelfthperson in
the chorus, presumablythe chorus leader,a practiceattestedforthe earliestdays of
tragedy;but other evidence points to fifteenas the expected number for this time
(note 53 above). Since even inscriptionallistsof Boule memberssometimesrecord
only forty-ninenames, we should not be too surprisedat a vase painter'sinexacti-
The Ephebes'Song
57
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
58
tude. Finally,could the chorus member in fancydress already have changed his
clothesfor the victorycelebration?
Even on Ernst Buschor's hypothesisthatthe roles are takennot by actorsbut by the
heroes themselvesthecontrastis stillevident;see Buschor in Furtwanglerand Reichhold, Griechische
Vasenmalerei,
3:132 -50. Pickard-Cambridge(DFA 187) sees a certain
"melting"between the faces of the actors and theirmasks; I should say ratherthat
the actors look verylike each other and not particularlylike theirmasks.
Wurzburg 832, fromTaranto (reproduced here, fig.2); color reproductionin Ghiron-Bistagne,Recherches,
frontispiece,and also in Paolino Mingazzini,GreekPottery
Painting(London, 1969), fig.57; see also Bieber,fig.306a-b, and DFA, fig.54a.
On a red-figuredAtticpelikebythe Phiale Painter(Boston 98.883); seeJohn Beazley,
AtticRed-figure
Vases,2nd ed. (London, 1963), 1017; Thomas B. L. Webster,TheGreek
Chorus(London, 1970), plate 8; DFA, fig.34; Bieber,fig.90.
Red-figurebell-krater,about 460-450 B.C.E. (Ferrara T. 173C); DFA, fig.33, where
the mask is said to be certainlythat of a young man-it seems to me too poorly
drawn to be certain.
Apulian bell-kraterby the TarporleyPainter,400-380 B.C.E. (Sydney47.05; fig.3);
IGD 2.2; Frank Brommer,Satyrspiele,
2nd ed. (Berlin, 1959), fig.7.
Esp. a kraterfrom Taranto, now in Wurzburg, of about the same time and style
as the Pronomos vase, evidentlyshowing an entire cast; DFA 187-88, fig. 50a-c;
Beazley,Red-figure
Vases,1338.
Cf. the bell-krater,390-370 B.C.E. (Heidelberg B 134), showingtwo comic chorus
membersimpersonatingwomen,one withhis mask thrownback to reveala beardless
young face; Thomas B. L. Webster,GreekTheaterProduction(London, 1956), plate
15a; Bieber,fig.208.
A recentlydiscovered example in Colin N. Edmondson, "Onesippos' Herm," in
Presented
to Eugene Vanderpool,
HesStudiesin AtticEpigraphy
Historyand Topography
peria, supplementno. 19 (1982), 48-50.
At 21.58 -61 Demosthenes refersto twopersons who had been convictedof astrateia
and yet had later directed or performed in choruses. The point is that theywere
such exceptionallyskilledindividualsthatno citizenwho observed them wanted to
of enforcingthe legal ban on theirparticipation.Presumably
take the responsibility
the year in which theyhad been convictedof astrateiawas not a year in which they
had been dancing for Dionysos.
Note thatin the second case cited fromDemosthenes the speaker contrastsmilitary
servicenot onlywithchoral dancing at the CityDionysia but withthe celebrationof
the DionysianAnthesteriaa monthearlier.(At the back of mymind in thisargument
is the role of army musicianstoday-"privates on parade"; behind the ideology of
the citizen-soldiermust lie the practicalrecognitionthat not all men are suited to
thatrole.) It mustbe admittedthatit is unclear whetherthe exemptioncovered the
entireyear or only the period of trainingfor the festival.
desKleisthenes,
Atikasund die Heeresreform
Peter Siewert,Die Trittyen
Vestigia,no. 33
(Munich, 1982), 150-53.
Ibid., 62 -67.
DFA 239-54.
DFA 239, n. 2.
5.181C.
LysiasOration21.3; AthenaiosDeipnosophists
Before
Aristotlenotes thatthe essence of hoplite fightingis coordination(syntaxis).
REPRESENTATIONS
59
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
60
Institut
92 (1977): 99-138. I believe thevague and difficult
Deutschen
Archaeologischen
of theAthenians1.13 refersto a class conflict(the
text of [Xenophon] Constitution
demos' participationin musical performancesthat had been managed exclusively
by the elite) ratherthan to an earlystage of musicalprofessionalization.Cf. M. Treu,
Zeit,"Historia7 (1958): 385-91.
"Eine Art von Choregie in Peisistratischer
David M. Lewis, "Cleisthenesand Attica,"Historia12 (1963): 22 -40.
Herodotos Histories5.66.2; John S. Traill, "The Political Organization of Attica,"
MitPhylenheroen,
Hesperia,supplement no. 14 (1975); Uta Kron, Die zehnattischen
teilungendes Deutschen ArchaologischenInstituts,AthenischeAbteilung,supplement no. 5 (Berlin, 1976).
Pierre Vidal-Naquet, "La Tradition de l'hoplite athenien,"in Jean-PierreVernant,
de la guerreen Grke ancienne(Paris, 1968), 161-8 1, esp. 165ff.
ed., Problemes
oftheAthenians42.2 -3.
AristotleConstitution
33 (1984): 282-94,
FrankJ.Frost,"The AthenianMilitaryBeforeCleisthenesrHistoria
emphasizes how littleis knownof Athenianmilitaryorganizationin thesixthcentury.
Neitherwas comedy at first,thoughitbecame so in the fourthcentury;see Aristotle
Constitution
oftheAthenians56.3.
More severe policies for dealing with a polis's young warriors were conceivable:
Periandros dispatched three hundred sons of Korkyra'sleading familiesto Sardis
to be castratedand used as eunuch-slaves;Herodotos Histories3.48.
PeterJ. Rhodes, A Commentary
on theAristotelian
"Athenaion
Politeia"(Oxford, 1981),
210. Peisistratos'confiscationof arms mightbe interpretedas his assumingthe right
to issue arms to the citizenswhen war became necessary,ratherthan as his permanent disarmamentof them: "Upon hearing this,Peisistratosfinishedthe rest of his
speech and then told the crowd whathad happened to theirarms, adding thatthey
should not be surprised or distressed,but should go home and take care of their
privateaffairs,since in the futurehe would attend to all the business of the polis";
AristotleConstitution
oftheAthenians15.4.
He also abolished the rhapsodes' performancesof Homer because the Iliad was too
fullof Argos and Argive heroes; Herodotos Histories5.67.1.
In lightof theblack capes, Melanaigis,Melainai, and Melanthios(firstsectionabove),
the melan-root willleap to the eye of some whose mindsworkthatway.I don't think
there is enough there to make any claims.
Plato Kratylos408C-D is the earliest association of tragedywithgoats-because of
theirrough (trach-)hides.
A long marbleinscriptionfound on the island of Paros, hence knownas the Marmor
dergriechischen
vol. 2D (Berlin, 1930),
Historiker,
Parium; FelixJacoby,Die Fragmente
no. 239.
Cited in note 21 above. As this article was going to press I noticed that there is a
billygoat sacrificeon the firstday of the CityDionysia, not in Athens proper but in
Graecae22.1358 B 17-18. Further,on that
the MarathonianTetrapolis-Inscriptiones
sacred calendar the billygoat victimis specifiedas one that is all black (pammelas),
surelya confirmationof the ephebic symbolismseen by Vidal-Naquet.
My reservationsabout Burkert'smagisterialtreatmenthave to do not withthe existence of a goat prize but withthe elaborationof a culturalperformanceon sacrificial
themes(his interpretationof tragedy)at the one festivalforwhicha sacrificialprize
is least attested.If tragedyis viewedas mainlyand originallyabout issues of sacrifice,
it mightas well have developed at any of the numerousanimal slaughtersof ancient
Greece. Further,thatit should have grown fromthe (unattested)sacrificeof a goat
REPRESENTATIONS
61
62
REPRESENTATIONS