User:Diegetic/Notes from Budelmann and Power

Budelmann, F., and T. Power. “Another Look at Female Choruses in Classical Athens.” Classical Antiquity, vol. 34, no. 2, 2015, pp. 252–95. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26362656. Accessed 3 June 2024.


 * Starting from 8th century BC, depictions of female ensembles along with male members in mixed choruses, but disappear by the 5th century.
 * Not a lot of evidence in Greek literature for female choruses.
 * Euripides' character Electra complains about her inability to perform in a chorus.
 * Most of the evidence for women in choruses are like this kind of indirect reference.
 * Although choros is used, it's not used often to refer to female group performances.
 * Plato uses choral language to refer to women dancing Corybantic dances, but clearly doesn't regard it as a proper, traditional Greek chorus.
 * Sophocles and Pausanias both refer to the Thyiades as a choros
 * Budelmann and Power agree that female choruses were a minor part of the choral culture, but they existed outside of the civic performances. Instead, they performed at polis festivals, private performances, female-only festivals, and outside urban areas.
 * Were not able to perform at the City Dionysia––chorus performances with female characters were done by men
 * Public female choruses in Athens had limited opportunities, probably attached to festivals and generally more discreet in nature.
 * Female choreia at private performances included:
 * the dekatê, or the tenth day after birth where the child is given a name. Generally pretty small events, with close friends and family only.
 * weddings: dancing and singing by women, as well as men, both together and separately. Very different from formal choral performances.
 * Also female choreia outside of Athens, but performances were segregated by gender.
 * Women probably danced at Kolias in the Classical period in honour of Demeter, according to Plutarch's testimony
 * Aristophanes' Lysistrata mentions women dancing at Kolias for Aphrodite, which implies dancing for Demeter would also have been reasonable.

ADD TO CHORAL STRUCTURE... talk about female versions of choirs, occasions