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

CHIORUS. CHORUS. 279
prclheme that flute music was first introduced into choreutae attached to them. There were also prothe worship of Apollo. (Bode, vol. ii. part ii. pp. 13, fessed chorus-trainers, whose services were in re.
16, 17, 33, 34, 244.) For the,tcioFos, however, quisition when the poet was unable to drill the
which was a mirthful and irregular procession, in chorus himself, and these often had a body of
which those who took part in it both sang and choreutae attached to them. The recitation of
danced (as in the KcCouos part of the marriage pro- Pindar's second Isthmian ode was undertaken in
cession described by Hesiod, Shlicld of Hlerc. 281, this way by Nicesippus, with an Agrigentine
&c.), the flute was the regular instrument. chorus. The sixth Olympian ode was undertaken
A great impetus was given to choral poetry by by Aeneas, a Boeotian, with a trained chorus
its application to the dithyramb. This ancient which lie brought with him (Schol. ad Pind.
Bacchanalian performance, the origin of which is Isthms. ii. 6, Olyms2. vi. 148). Most of Pildar's
at any rate earlier than Archilochus, who in one of epinicia were comus-songs, though not all (Bode,
the fragments of his poetry, says that " he knows ii. 2. p. 255 —257), and the comuses which sang
how to lead off the dithyramb, the beautiful song them must frequently have been of a somewhat
of Dionysus, when his mind is inflamed with wine" artificial construction.
(Athen. xiv. p. 628), seems to have been a hymn Respecting the mode in which tragedy was desting by one or more of a CcfAxos, or irregular band veloped from the dithyramb, and the functions of
of revellers, to the music of the flute. Arion was the chorus in tragedy, the reader is referred to
the first who gave a regular choral, or antistrophic the article TRAC nOEDIA.
form to the dithyramb. This improvement was From the time of Sophocles onwards the regular
introduced at Corinth. (Herod. i. 24; Pindar, 01. number of the chorus in a tragedy was 15. (Schol.
xiii. 18 or 25, with the notes of the commenta- ad Aristoph. Equit. 586, Av. 298; Pollux, iv.
tars.) The choruses, which ordinarily consisted 108.) The account given by Suidas (s. v. 00poof fifty men or youths (Simonides, Epigr. 58, Br.; icXQs), that Sophocles raised the number from
Tzetzes, proleg. ad Lycoplhr. vol. i. p. 251, ed. 12 to 15 is deserving of attention, though there are
MUiiller), danced in a ring round the altar of great difficulties connected with it. Pollux (iv.
Dionysus. Hence they were termed cyclic choruses 110) has an absurd story that the number of the
(ticicXeoL Xopoi), and dithyramlbic poets were ui- chorus was 50 before the representation of the Euderstood by the term Kv XloewL de.Kaemo. This also menides of Aeschylus, and that the number was
explains the name Cycleus, given to the father of then reduced by a law on account of the terror proArion (Milller, lfist. Gr. Lit. p. 204). With the duced by the appearance of the 50 Eumenides. It
introduction of a regular choral character, Arion seems scarcely possible to arrive at any definite conalso substituted the cithara for the flute. The clhsion with regard to the number of the chorus in
statement that he was the inventor of the trayic the early dramas of Aeschylus. The fact that the
style (m-paylrcbs 7rp7ros), means probably that he number of the dithyrambic chorus was 50, and
introduced dithyrambs of a gloomy character, that the mythological number of the Oceanides
having for their subject the sorrows of Dionysus, and Danaides was the same, tempts one to suppose
as well as the more gay and joyous song (Miller, that the chorus in the Prometheus and the SupI.c. pp. 204, 290). Arionis also said to have been plices consisted of 50. MIost writers, however,
the first to introduce into these choruses satyrs agree in thinking that such a number was too
speaking in verse. Lasus, of Hermione, gave a large to have been employed (Welcker, Aesccyl.
freer form to the dithyramb, by divesting it of its T.ilogie, p. 27, &c.; Hermann, Dissert. de Choro
antistrophic character, and set the example of in- Eunzsess. i. and ii. Opusc. vol. ii.) M/iiller (Distroducing the dithyrambic style into compositions sertations on thle Eszztenices of AescIylus, 1. A.;
not immediately connected with the worship of Hlist. of Gr. Lit. p. 300) propounds the theory
Dionysus. IIe also united with the representation that the dithyrambic chorus of 50, when transof thle dithyramb taunting jests. It was through ferred to tragedy, was reduced to 48, and that a
him that dithbyrambic contests were introduced chorus of that number was assigned to the poet
at Athens, at which the prize for the successful for four plays, the trilogy and the satyric drama,
poet was a tripes, and for the chorus a bull. (See and was subdivided into sections of 12, each of
the epitaph on Simonides, Ainthol. Pal. vi. 213, which was the chorus for one play. In support
Fr. p. 190, ed. Jacobs; Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. of this he endeavours to point out instances of
360, Vesp. 1403.) The dance of the cyclic chorus choruses of this number being found in Aeschylus,
was the Dionysiac variety of the Pyrrhic (Aris- as that in the Agamemnon, which re-appears as
toph. Av. 153; Athen. xiv. p. 631,a.). In the the Areopagites in the Eumenides, and that ill
time of Simonides, through the innovations of La- the Persae. But the insufficiency of the evidence
sus, Crexus, Phrynis, and others, the citharoedic brought forward to establish this has been satischaracter which Arion had given to the dithy- factorily pointed out by Hermann in his review of
ramb had passed into the auloedic. As the di- Miiller's edition of the Eumenides (Opusc. vol.
thyramb lost its antistrophic character, it became vi.). The idea that the chorus of the Eumenides conmore and more thoroughly mimetic or dramatic, sisted of three (Blomfield, Psaef: ad Aescl/. Poes.),
and as its performance required more than ordinary has met with very little favour among German
skill, dithyrambs came to be performed by ama- scholars, though the arguments brought against it
temurs (Aristot. Prohl. xv. 9, Rcet. iii. 9; Plut. de are not all of the most convincing kind, and it is
i{las. 29. p. 1141,b.; Proclus, ap. Phot. cod. 239. to be borne in misid that the introduction of the
p. 320, ed. Bekker; Bode, ii. part ii. p. 312, &c.) Areopagites, &c. into the play, would render the
For ordinary choruses the universal culture of music fewness of such a chorus less striking than would
and dancing would make it no difficult matter to otherwise have been the case. The later chorus
find a chorus. Wealthy men or tyrants no doubt of 15 was the only one that the grammarians
maintained choreutae, as they maintained poets knew any thing about. It was arranged in a
and musicians. Poets of distinction would have quadrangular form (Trerpvpayos -Etym. Magn. s. v.