Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CHORIRS. CHORUS. 277
trainer, but the choreutae themselves, and main- and eopwvds. Others suppose that the earliest
taiil them while they were in training, providing signification of the word is that of a level, open
theml with such food as was adapted to stresngthen space, such as would be suited for dancing, and
the voice *; and to provide a suitable training connect it with Xcbpa and Xipos, so that the later
place (Xeopsqyeov) if he had no place in his own and ordinary signification of the word woulfd be
house adapted for the purpose. (Antiph. 1. c.; derived from such places being employed for dancAthen. xiv. p. 617,b.; Schol. ad Arist. NTub. 338, ing. This seems a less likely account of the word
Aichtar. 1154; Plut. de Glor. At/l. p. 349, a; Xen. than thle other. If the name Xopoi was given to
de l/elTel. Atlh. i. 13; Poll. iv. 106, ix. 41..) IH-e such places with refercnee to their use fbr dancinez,
hlad also to provide the clLorus with the requisite we should still have to look to this latter idea for
dresses, crowns, and masks. (Dem. c. M2eicl. p. the origin of tie name of the place; if the na-me
519; Athen. iii. p. 103 f.) It is not to be sup- was a general one, like Xdpoo, it seems very unposed, however, that the choregus defrtayed the likely that a body of dancers should derive their
whole expense of the play to be represented. name from what is so very little distinctive of
The choregus who was judged to have performed them, namely their meeting in anl open space. On
his duties in the best manner received a tripod as the other hypothesis it is easy to understand how
a prize, the expense of which, however, he had to a word siglnifling a body of dancers should come
defray himself; and this expense frequently in- to signify the place where they danced, and then,
eluded the building of a cell or chapel in which more gencrally, any place suited for the purpose.
to dedicate it. A street at Athens was called the As regards the usage of the word, in Homer it
Street of the Tripods, from being lined with these. comlllonly nleans a troop of dancers; in the
T'he tribe to which the choregus belonged shared Odyssey (viii. 260, 264, xii. 4) passages are found
thle honours of the victory witl him, and the names where it meancs a place for dancing; eupvXopos is
of both were inscribed upon the tripod or monu- found both in Homer and in later writers as an
nelnt. (Paus. i. 20. ~ 1; Plat. Gorg. p. 472; epithet of cities having large open squares or places
Plat. Nic. 3.) The sumns expended by choregi suited forchoral performances. A comparison with
were doubtless in most cases larger than was abso- the coiresponding word icaXiXopos shows that the
Iltely necessary. Aristophanes (Lys. pro Arist. notion of danci/ng must not be lost sight of. At
hone. pp. 633, 642) spent 5000 drachmlae upon two Sparta the agora was called XopJs (Pans. iii. 11.
tragic choruses. From tlhe same orator wve learn ~ 9).
that another personl spent 3000 drachmae upon a In later times, a choric performance always iunsingle tragic chorus; 2000 for a chorus of men; plies tihe singing or musical recitation of a poetical
5000 for a chorus of men on another occasion, composition, accompanied by appropriate dancing
%when, having gained the prize, Ihe had to defray and gesticulation, or at least by a measured march.
the expense of the tripod; 800 drachmae for a The choruses that we read of in IHomer?are merely
chorus of pyrrhicists; 300 drachmae for a cyclic companies of dancers, who move to tile music of.a
chorus. (Lys. &7roe/. 8cpo3. pp. 698, ed. Reiske.) song sung by the mlinstrel, who accompanies him.
A chorus of flute-players cost more than a tragic self on the cithara or phorllinx. In the palace of
chorus. (Dem. c. Yieid. p. 565.) In times of Alcinous the dancers perform their evolutions,
public distress, the requisite number of choregi while Dellodocus, to the music of the phorminx,
could not always be procured. Thus the tribe sings the loves of Ares and Aphrodite (Od. viii.
Pandionis had furnished no choregus for three 256, &c.). Inthe chorus represented on the shield
years, till Demosthenes voluntarily undeltook the of Achilles (I1. xviii. 590, &c.) a band of youths
office. (Dem. c. Mlleid. pp. 578, 579; comp. B6ckh. and maidens dance, holding each other by the
Peubt. Econ. of'Athens, book iii. c. 22.) [C. P.M.] hansd, sometimes in a ring, sometimes in parallel
CHOROBATES, an ilstrument for determining lines opposite to each other. In the midst of the
the slope of an aqueduct and the levels of the dancers are two VMcOCT71rr1i}peS, or tumblers, who,
country through which it was to pass. From the apparently, by their gesticulations direct and leadc
description given of it by Vitruv-i-s, it appears to of' (t7dpXovres) the measured movements (poX7ri)
have differed but very slightly from a common of the dancers. So in the Homeric hymn to the
carpenter's level, which consists of a straight rule Pythian Apollo (10, &c.) a company of goddesses
supporting a perpendicular piece, against which dance, while the Muses sing, and Apollo plays the
hangs a plumb-line. The chorobates had two per- cithara. The part of the IcufveG'rrT7pes is perpendiculars and plumb lines, one at each end, in- formed by Ares and Hermes, who gesticulate
stead of a single one in the middle. The derivation ('raleov-i) in the midst of the dancers. In the
of the word is from Xdpa and Baivac, from its use description of the nuptial procession in Hesiod
in surveying land minutely. [P. S.] (Slield qf ITerc. 272, &c.) it is not quite clear
CHORUS (Xopds), a word, the original meaning whether the chorus of youths are singing and dasocand derivation of which are somewhat uncertain. ing to the sound of the pipe, or playing the pipe
According to Hesychius the word is equivalent to themselves. The band of revellers (ic&M/os) who
irimcAos or a-Trdavos. If so, the word probably follow both dance and sing..That the' chorus, in
signified originally a company of dancers dancing the earliest times, consisted of the whole population
in a ring. Those whio adopt that view of the of a city assembled;:for dances and hymns in honour
originl of the word connect it with XJpros, XopCowds, of their guardian god, might be true if the whole
population joined in the dance, but not otherwise,
* The speech of Antiphon, repl Tro XopeuVroO, for the term chorls never included the spectators.
was coraposed for a trial which arose out of an Whether the Dorians were the first who had
action brought by the father of a choreutes against choruses at festive or religious celebrations, or
the choregus Imder whose charge he was, because whether Apollo was the deity in connection with
the boy had died from drinking some mixture whose worship choruses first made their appeargiven him to improve his voice. - ance, are points which, in thie absence of all evi.
3