Sappho’s Parachoral Monody
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20047284 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Timothy Power (0000-0002-3334-0322, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Pages | 82-108 |
| Publication date | 2019-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Genre in Archaic and Classical Greek Poetry : Theories and Models (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/9789004412590_005 |
| OpenAlex | W2980711811 |
| ISBN | 9789004412590 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
In this chapter, I propose that certain songs of Sappho that have been regarded as choral may in fact have been monodic, involving choruses as "characters" represented or quoted within a solo song rather than as actual performers. I introduce the concept of "parachorality" to describe such representations, and Sappho's more general tendency to engage with choreia to create emotional, thematic, rhetorical, and narrative effects within her monodic poetry. I explore the possibility that fragment 17, a song generally regarded as an authentic choral cult hymn to Hera delivered at the goddess' sanctuary at Messon, was actually a monodic simulation of choral performance, the goal of which would have been to add religious and rhetorical bolster—"choral value," in the words of Leslie Kurke—to Sappho's solo prayer, probably for the return of her brother Charaxos. The paper concludes with a discussion of some parachoral elements in Alcaeus fragments 129 and 130b
Art · Brother · Choir · Hymn · Literature · Narrative · Poetry · Rhetorical question · Rhyme · Sociology · Visual arts · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Linguistic Studies
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |