The extent of the chorus’s ‘‘otherness’’ or social integration affects the form of lyric sections, especially lyric dialogues. Contrast is one of the most important functions of epirrhematic or lyric dialogue in Aeschylus. The distance between chorus and protagonist is obvious in most cases: the Egyptian herald (or secondary chorus) wants to drag away the chorus of suppliants (Suppliants 825-910); a chorus of righteous old men opposes Agamemnon’s murderer (Agamemnon 1406-1576); the chorus of Furies argues fiercely against Athena and her city (Eumenides 778-880; see also the section on lament in this chapter). Persuasion (Suppliants 348-447) and reaction to dramatic news (Persians 256-89) are some of the other functions of epirrhematic scenes. In Libation Bearers the chorus, composed of slave women, supports Orestes and Electra in their decision to punish Clytemnestra and urges them to take action. The faithful slaves side with the royal children against their wicked and illegitimate masters.
The affinity between protagonist and chorus is important in the Prometheus trilogy. Prometheus is the child of lapetus, one of the Titans, and (according to Hesiod, Theogony 510) of one of the daughters of Ocean. The daughters of Ocean form the chorus of Prometheus Bound; that of the lost Prometheus Unbound consisted of Titans. The dialogic parodos is one of the elements that situates the dramatic technique of Prometheus Bound between the late works of Aeschylus and the early works of Euripides. Prometheus Unbound may have had a dialogic parodos (see frs. 190 and 192).
The dialogic parodos occurs in three of the complete plays by Sophocles and in eight by Euripides. The protagonist is on stage before the chorus arrives, and the parodos consists of a lyric or epirrhematic dialogue between them. In several plays the chorus members not only sympathize with the protagonist, but also share his or her fate. It may happen that both chorus and protagonist are enslaved: they are either freed ( Helen, Iphigenia among the Taurians) or deported together at the end of the play (Hecuba, Trojan Women). In other plays the initial empathy fades away as the action evolves, as in Medea.
In the plays that stage the myth of Orestes (Aeschylus, Libation Bearers; Sophocles, Electra; Euripides, Electra and Orestes), the relationship between chorus and protagonists is one of basic sympathy; Sophocles and Euripides heighten the intimacy by making the chorus consist of freeborn women from Argos or the vicinity.
In his early Ajax, Sophocles already has a lyric dialogue between the chorus and Tecmessa (201-56) following immediately after the parodos. The dialogic parodos proper makes its appearance only in his late plays: Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus at Colonus presents a variation on the normal pattern of dialogic parodoi. In the strophic section the chorus, after some initial perplexity, shows compassionate sympathy for the unknown wanderer, and gives careful instructions for him to reach a spot from which ‘‘no one will ever move you away against your will’’ (176-77). Their attitude changes in the epode (208-53), when Oedipus reveals his identity. The chorus members are horrified and, taking back their promise, urge him to leave the place immediately (233-36). The astrophic structure of the epode is well suited to the lively and irregular dialogue, whereas the promise of safety occupies the symmetrical strophic section. Antigone concludes the epode with a long, monodic section in which she supplicates the chorus (237-53).
Euripides develops a characteristic form of epirrhematic dialogue, mostly astrophic. In this form, an actor receives new information and expresses his or her dramatic reaction to it (see Popp 1971, 260-66). Many of these lyric sections make use of the dochmiac, a meter characteristic of tragedy and very often associated with situations of fear or extreme emotion (Dale 1968, 104-19; West 1982, 108-14). The Greek word dochmiakon means ‘‘which runs askew,’’ and the basic rhythm is ‘‘asymmetrical’’ (five syllables: U--U-). This pattern is subject to a number of variations and ‘‘resolutions’’ (substitution of two short syllables for one long, in certain positions). In the Euripidean epirrhematic dialogues, desperation is the usual reaction, as typified by the dochmiac meter (for example, Hecuba 684-720, Heracles 1178-1213, Trojan Women 239-91, Ion 763-99). However, dochmiacs can also be associated with feelings of joy, especially in late Euripides. In the recognition scene in Iphigenia among the Taurians (827-99), joy at the siblings’ reunion is mixed with fear for the future; joy and sorrow commingle in the mother-son recognition at Ion 1439-1509 and the husband-wife reunion at Helen 627-97. In such scenes it is female characters who sing the emotional lyric sections; an exception is Heracles 1178-1213, where the lyric section is given to Amphitryon. Male characters may occasionally sing part of a line, or a very short section; more often they initiate an iambic utterance, shorter than a trimeter, which is then continued into song by the other character.
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