Monodies

Aristophanes already used the term monOdiai to indicate lyric sections sung by the actors in opposition to mele, ‘‘songs’’ of the chorus (Frogs 849, 944, 1329-30). He did not consider lyric and epirrhematic dialogues, which made the problem of classifying forms much simpler. Monodies probably developed out of amoibaia, when the section sung by one actor was expanded. The borderline between amoi-baion and monody is at times difficult to draw.

In Aeschylus and Sophocles we do not find any self-contained section where a single actor sings alone. In Agamemnon Cassandra sings a long lyric passage, but as part of a dialogue with the chorus (Cassandra and the chorus are also given some spoken lines). In the prologue of Prometheus Bound the protagonist alternates spoken and sung sections (88-127). Later in the play, when the character Io arrives on stage, she recites some anapests and then sings a long lyric section (561-608). She is interrupted by four iambic trimeters recited by Prometheus (589-93).1

For lyric monodies by a single actor we have to wait for the Hippolytus of Euripides (428 bce), where Phaedra sings 669-79 (this passage is the long-postponed antistrophe to the choral song of lines 362-72), and Hippolytus has a long lyric astrophic passage (1347-88). (See also Andromache 103-16, sung by Andromache, Trojan Women 308-341, sung by Cassandra, and Ion 859-922, sung by Creusa.) Other monodies are either interrupted by short recited sections (Euripides, Suppliants 9901030), by passages in other meters accompanied by music, such as hexameters (see Sophocles, Women ofTrachis 1004-43), or by a lyric dialogue (Euripides, Phoenician Women 1485-1582). Monodies may be immediately preceded or followed by other lyric sections (Euripides, Electra 112-66).