The dithyramb or cult song in honor of Dionysus, out of which (according to Aristotle, Poetics 1449a10-11) tragedy developed, is fundamentally different from the three other Dionysiac genres because it is not (or only minimally) dramatic and mimetic, but rather lyric and narrative. Dithyrambic performances inaugurated the City Dionysia; as with tragedy and comedy, the dithyrambic program was organized as a competition. In contrast to tragedy and comedy, however, it was not individuals who competed for victory but the ten Athenian phulai (tribes), each of which contributed both a men’s and a boys’ chorus to the competition.
We possess only the most meager information regarding the performance and form of the dithyramb; it is known, however, that each chorus consisted of fifty men who sang and danced in a circle (or circles), while the aulos-player who provided the musical accompaniment stood in the middle. The members of the chorus wore neither masks nor costumes, as they did in performances of tragedy and comedy, but festive robes and wreaths. Their circular dance (kuklios choros; the technical term
Turbasia is also attested) was apparently full of animation (Pickard-Cambridge 1962, 32-35).
Given that thousands of dithyrambs were composed in the fifth and fourth centuries for the City Dionysia alone (Sutton 1989) and that dithyramb’s popularity increased from the middle of the fifth century until it became to all intents and purposes the leading lyric genre, the state of transmission is especially regrettable. The few substantial fragments of Pindaric dithyrambs do not enable us to form a reliable judgment concerning the forms, style, and contents of the genre, any more than do the few and probably atypical dithyrambs of Bacchylides. While there is no lack of accounts of the so-called new dithyramb, they are either critical (e. g., Plato, Republic 397a-b2) or parodic (e. g., Pherecrates fr. 155 PCG; Aristophanes, Birds 904-57, 1372-1409); moreover, they concern themselves almost exclusively with style and music (Zimmermann 1992, 118-21). The surviving texts and the many attested titles of lost dithyrambs at least permit us to conclude that the narrative of a more or less substantial portion of a myth stood at the center of the classical dithyramb; this narrative was preceded by a personal introduction, in which poetic reflections and gnomic wisdom found room alongside the patron and the occasion (polis, festival, and god of the festival). A hymnic address to the god of the festival could serve as conclusion.
If we leave aside Bacchylides’ dithyrambs, it appears that the dithyrambs composed for the festivals of Dionysus, at any rate, were clearly characterized as Dionysiac (Privitera 1970, 120-30). Later, according to ancient and modern critics alike (Pickard-Cambridge 1962, 39-58; Zimmermann 1992, 117-32), the new dithyramb brought an emphasis on metrical and stylistic experimentation and ever-bolder musical innovations (see Wilson, chapter 12 in this volume).
World History
