All stasima and very many lyric passages exhibit a strophic structure whereby a strophe (strophe, plural strophai) is followed by an antistrophe (he antistrophe or he antistrophos ode). The antistrophe repeats the series of metrical units (not the words) of the strophe. Strophe refers to the ''turning’’ (of the chorus), or ''twists’’ of the music; the antistrophe is the ''corresponding turn’’ or the ''turning back’’ of the chorus. When a strophe is divided between different speakers, the antistrophe is normally divided at the same points. The speakers may change from strophe to antistrophe.
In tragedy, the metrical sequence of each strophe is repeated only once, in the antistrophe that follows it. This metrical correspondence, regulated by complex and (sometimes) debated metrical laws, is called responsion. In tragedy the strophe and antistrophe may be followed by a single odd stanza called the epode (he epodos [ode]: ''the ode that comes after the ode’’). Non-tragic lyric poets, on the other hand, had the option of repeating the metrical sequence of a strophe more than once in the same poem. A few short strophic types (the Sapphic strophe, for example) were repeated not only throughout a poem, but in different poems as well.
Aeschylus is known for the length and complexity of his lyric passages. The longest lyric passage in tragedy is the lament in Libation Bearers (306-478). The chorus, Orestes, and Electra sing eleven strophic pairs; the lament also includes some sections in anapests delivered by the chorus. Its structure is unusual and particularly complex (strophe 1, strophe 2, antistrophe 1, anapests, strophe 3, antistrophe 2, antistrophe 3, etc.). The average length of lyric structures is shorter; the parodos of Agamemnon is composed of six strophic pairs plus anapestic introduction and epode. The lyric sections of Sophocles and Euripides are never longer than three strophic pairs plus epode.
Less common types of stanza in tragic lyric include the proode, mesode, and ephymnion. The proode (he prodos [ode]: ‘‘the ode that precedes the ode’’) is a single stanza preceding the strophic structure (for example, in Euripides’ Bacchae 64-72). The mesode (hO mesodos [OdO]: ‘‘the ode that occurs in the middle of an ode’’) is a lyric section that occurs between strophe and antistrophe, and is not repeated (for example, in Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers 807-11). The mesode seems to be an innovation by Aeschylus, taken up in late plays of Euripides (Munscher 1927). The ephymnion (‘‘what is sung afterwards; refrain’’) is a lyric refrain that recurs after a lyric section (for example, in Aeschylus’ Suppliants 118-21 = 129-32).
In some instances a strophe occurs in the middle of an episode, and the responding antistrophe is sung later, after a long scene in trimeters or even after an intervening choral song or stasimon; for example, in Sophocles’ Philoctetes, 391-402 responds with 507-18 (West 1982, 80). The chorus may occasionally sing a single astrophic lyric section in the middle of an episode (Euripides’ Electra 585-95: see Taplin 1977, 208-9). If a lyric piece does not have a responding section, it is called astrophic, from the Greek astrophon (‘‘which does not turn around’’). Astrophic pieces were apparently common in late fifth-century non-tragic lyric, and this practice had an influence on late fifth-century tragedy, especially Euripides (Aristotle, Problems 19.15; Barker 1984-89, 1: 192-93 and 249-55). In tragedy, however, astrophic passages are much less common than strophic songs (Rode 1971, 85-86).
Dialogue and Song: Kommos, Amoibaion, Epirrhema
The structure of actors’ songs is much less rigid than that of choral lyric passages; the terminology used to define them is quite varied. Aristotle singled out kommoi (‘‘lamentations’’) as an example of songs involving actors and chorus (Poetics 1452b24), but the term does not take account of the fact that many songs involving actors express joy. Some scholars refer to the amoibaion (plural amoibaia), i. e., dialogic section (Popp 1971). This is preferable as a general term. It refers to sung dialogues as well as to dialogues that mix sung and recited sections. Epirrheoma (‘‘words added afterwards’’; plural epirrhOmata) or ‘‘epirrhematic dialogue’’ is used when a spoken section follows upon song, or when sung and spoken sections are mixed together. In this chapter, I will use ‘‘epirrhOma’ or ‘‘epirrhematic dialogue’’ when a lyric section includes spoken verses, and ‘‘lyric dialogue’’ when all the lines are sung.
The epirrhematic dialogues in Aeschylus often follow a strict symmetrical plan: the number of spoken lines following each strophe or antistrophe is the same (for an example see Aeschylus’ Seven against Thebes 202-44). Sophocles and especially Euripides abandoned this rigid symmetry in favor of freer forms, and also wrote astrophic epirrhemata. In epirrhematic dialogues, a character may complete a nonlyric line (typically the beginning of an iambic trimeter) initiated by someone else, and turn the ending into a lyric line. For instance, in Euripides’ Heracles 1185-87, Theseus is cool and rational in the face of disaster, but the anguished Amphitryon completes Theseus’ lines with song. In some cases, the same speaker changes type of delivery within the same sentence, moving from spoken iambic trimeters into sung lines or vice versa (for examples, see Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1147-48; Euripides, Phoenician Women 145-46). In those cases, it is obvious that the recited passages were accompanied by music. It is often tricky to decide whether or not a line was sung. The decision rests on the meter and on the presence of key linguistic characteristics (such as Doric alpha) which tend to be confused in manuscripts; moreover, these characteristics are present only in certain words, which may or may not occur in the lines under consideration.
World History
