The Athenian Institution of the Khoregia: The Chorus, the City and the Stage

Peter Wilson

Cambridge University Press, Sep 18, 2003 - History - 452 pages

This book is the first major study of the means by which the classical Athenians organised and funded their many festival choruses. It explores the mechanics of the institution by which a minority of rich citizens were required to arrange and pay for a festival chorus, including choruses for tragic and comic drama, and situates this duty within the range of occasions for elite leadership in Athens' elaborate festival calendar. Peter Wilson goes on to show the importance of the khoregia to our understanding of the workings of Athenian democracy itself, and to demonstrate the degree to which the institution was itself a highly performative occasion, an opportunity for elite display in the democratic environment. The post-classical history of the khoregia and its appearance in a wide range of other Greek communities are also examined.

Contents

• Private wealth for public performance: 11
• A cultural revolution?: 12
• Festival leitourgiai: 21
• place and service in the city: 25
• The Lenaia: 27
• Anthesteria: 32
• Dancing for Hephaistos and Prometheus?: 35
• Panathenaia: 36
• Other services: 43
• An international khoregia: 44
• Whoever honours the gods best with khoroi are the best in war: 46
• Organisation and operation: 50
• Appointment: 51
• After nomination: 57
• Poets patrons and the polls: 61
• The tasks of the khoregos: 71
• Recruitment: 75
• Civic purity: 80
• Training: 81
• Materials of performance: 86
• The politics of khoregic extravagance: 89
• comparative expenditure: 93
• proagon and procession: 95
• Judgement: 98
• Epinikian practice: 102
• Aristocratic style: 109
• Leading a khoros: 111
• Death in the didaskaleion: 116
• Khoregic prestige: 120
• Khoregic patronage: 123
• Khoregos koryphaios?: 130
• Khoregic performance: 136
• Khoregia and democracy: 144
• Alkibiades khoregos to the envy of my fellowcitizens: 148
• Khoregic curses: 155
• The theatre of conflict: 156
• Khoregic power: 168
• Phyletic honours: 171
• The leitourgist and the demos: 172
• The demos as oppressor?: 184
• a history of conflict: 187
• Tragic ambitions: 194
• Monumentalising victory: 198
• The politics of tripods: 199
• The rhetoric of tripods: 201
• Choral memorials: 206
• The street of tripods: 209
• Inscribing victory: 214
• The early period: 216
• They name the place after certain temples rather large for the purpose to which they are put: 219
• Oligarchic extravagance: 226
• Dramatic memorials: 236
• Remembering Dionysos in the demes: 244
• The khoregos in ceramic: 252
• Challenge change diffusion: 265
• The end of democracy and the khoregia of the demos: 270
• The Athenian revival: 276
• The khoregia beyond Attike: 279
• Appendices: 303
• 2 Thargelian and other dedications: 304
• 3 Dithyramb in the demes: 305
• 4 The date of the reform of the khoregia: 307
• 5 Khoroi and the Tekhnitai: 308
• 6 Further evidence for choral contests: 309
• Notes: 311
• Bibliography: 395
• General index: 421
• Index of passages: 428
• Epigraphic index: 433

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Athenian Institution of the Khoregia: The Chorus, the City and the Stage
• Author: Peter Wilson
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, revised
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2003
• ISBN: 0521542138, 9780521542135
• Length: 452 pages
• Subjects: History / Ancient / General; History / Ancient / Greece; History / Social History; History / World; Literary Criticism / Ancient & Classical; Music / History & Criticism; Performing Arts / Theater / History & Criticism