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The Dolphins of Dionysus
Eric Csapo
I remember reading William Slater's "Symposium at Sea" in my first year a a graduate student, and feeling that I had discovered an unfamiliar type of scholar hip (which, happily, has since become more common). That article, like many other Wi lli am has written, showed that even the most haphazard metaphor could give acce s to the distinctive and sometimes surprisingly alien manner the Greek had of organ izing experience. But what impressed me most of all was the way he went about hi s business, evidently thinking nothing of kicking aside fixed academic di cipl inary boundaries, pursuing his metaphor, not just in texts of very different genres, but in art, in myth, and in every manner of cultural expression, right to its source in the activitie and experience of real life. Years later, after I got to know Wi lliam per ona ll y and listened to his learned rants, I realized that, for all his traditional philologica l cxpcrti c, Slater was always after the connections between ocial thought, reprc entation, and practice. Through his influence I have also come to believe that thi i by far the be t means of understanding and learning from Classical antiquity. In tribute to the man who taught me the importance of reading texts in the broad context of ocial life and thought, I would like to investigate, in the territory which "Sympo ium at ea" fir t mapped out, one more point of intersection between the realm of Diony u and the ea. 1 Dolphins and Nereids, alone or together, surface frequently, but fleetingly, in Greek literature and art. Most scholars are content to study them as a purely literary or iconographic motif or symbol. I will argue that one cannot understa nd their role in either art or literature without exploring their role in real life experience, and particularly in the practice of cultic dance and in dramatic and paradramatic performance.
1 The theme is picked up and nicely developed by Davies 1978. I would like to thank P.E. Easterling and R. Seaford who provided helpful commentary on earlier written versions of this paper, M.C. Miller and M. Steinhart who commented on this one, and al o M. Depew, D. Depew, R. Fowler, R. Ketterer and audiences at Bristol and Iowa City, who reacted to various spoken versions. Also, I thank M.C. Shaw for the usc of her drawing (my Figure 4.9). 70 Eric Csapo 1. Dancing Dolphins and Nereids in New Music I will begin with orne examples of what many have identified as a "literary topos." The e bits of text are, however, only records of a type of performance performed in uch disparate venues as the orchestra of the Theatre of Dionysus at Athens and the anctuary of Poseidon at Tainaron. What they have in common is a style which is a ociated with the "New Music." New Music revolutionized Greek music between 430 and 380 BC. 2 It flourished in the theatre, where New Music's chief proponents numbered among the most popular poets and perfonners of their day, including such light a Euripides, Agathon and Timotheus. For this reason it most affected the theatre genre of dithyramb and tragedy. We do not often enough think of dithyramb a a theatre genre like tragedy. In origin a cultic song and dance, sung in procession or at acrifice in honour of Dionysus, dithyramb came in the fifth century to be a ociated primarily with the Theatre of Dionysus at Athens, where at each Dionysia twenty were performed by choruses of fifty men or fifty boys, all dancing to the music of pipe in circle around the altar of Dionysus. Mo t ancient music critics were violently, even "hysterically," opposed to New Mu ic, though the critical backlash included some of antiquity's most sober minds, am ng them Plato and Aristotle. They treated the New Music as nothing less than the annihilation of traditional culture. Plato characterized New Music as a complete dcpatture from music's cultic roots. But in a recent article ( 1999-2000), I argued that, de pite Plato, ew Mu ician ought to recreate or reinvent the cultic and Dionysiac character of dithyrambic and tragic mu ic. Though they introduced much that was new, they at lea t thought their innovation consistent with, and even sympathetic to, the cultic and Diony iac atmo phere they were trying to create. More to the point, the style and imagery of their ver e puts heavy emphasis on traditional cultic and Di ny ·iac form . The mannered and arcbaizing tendencies of the verse must be seen in the conte t of the rapid evolution of Dionysiac religion in the later fifth century, and in particular it yncreti m with orgiastic cults imported from Asia Minor or Crete, and with rphic and mystery cult spreading mainly from Western Greece. Many element of ew Mu ic' supposed cultic revival were deeply influenced by the music and dance of the e orgia tic and mystery cults. I therefore use the term cultic "revival" with orne re erve. The ew Musicians were actively inventing a tradition for them el e , ju t a much a were their critics. But they did not invent their traditions out of whole cloth. In making thi claim, I drew on the work of Albert Henrichs (1994-1995, 1996a, 1996b). Henrich call attention to a phenomenon which is especially characteristic of the choral ode in Euripide . Thi is called "choral projection." "Choral projection" is -. hen a choru de cribes another choru in their song. This occurs with increasing frequency in Euripide ' later works. In my article I noted that, when Euripidean choru e (or indeed monodi t ) describe music and dancing, the music and dancing
' As I di cuss the context, tyle, practice and reception ofNew Music in detail in Csapo (forthcoming), my presentation here i - ummal) and concise. The Dolphins ofDionysus 71 frequently have a cultic or Dionysiac character. The effect of this is to give cultic or Dionysiac colour not only to the choruses in the song, but to the choruses that sing. In a recent article Scott Scullion (2002) assails me and anyone else who claim that drama has anything to do with Dionysus. He denies a special connection with Dionysus not just to tragedy but even to satyrplay (he is oddly silent about comedy). His argument boils down to this. Earlier predramatic ritual outside of Athens could be attached to other gods. In a later period and outside of Athens drama could be attached to the festivals of other gods. There is, therefore, nothing "essentially" Diony iac about drama. Now this is all absolutely true, and irrelevant. The language of "essences" belongs to alchemy and metaphysics and has no place in cultural studies. Culture is arbitrary. Not that the connection which Athens made between drama and Dionysus was less real or meaningful. For our present purposes it is enough to note that in Classical Athens there clearly was a strong connection made between drama and Dionysus. Drama was only ever performed at festivals of Dionysu , "for Dionysus" as the inscriptions state, principally in theatres attached to the sanctuarie of Dionysus, and, in the case of the City Dionysia and Lenaea, at least, with Dionysu ' icon as the guest of honour, watching, front and centre of the first row of eat . Scullion's case seems to me a hopeless one, but I mention it because he attack my claims about the use of cultic imagery in late Euripidean tragic choruse . The immediate target of Scullion's Dionysus-denial is (his own thesis-advi er) Albert Henrichs whose above-mentioned ideas about choral projection are ubjectcd to sparagmos. But he also mishandles some statistical table I presented to how that most "projected" choruses in Euripides have a cultic or Dionysiac character. While doing so, he points out that, though they may dance to pipe and tympana, many choruses perform not for Dionysus, but for the Magna Mater, or Eleu inian Demeter or Sicilian Persephone, showing that I was not explicit enough about what I meant by "Dionysiac music." He also faults me because in enumerating dancer with a cultic or Dionysiac character in Euripidean odes, I named dancing dolphins and Nereid , merely footnoting (Csapo 1999-2000.422, n. 22) that I hoped to demonstrate this elsewhere. This is what I want to do now. Dancing dolphins appear in three Euripidean choral odes. The earlie t of these is the first strophe of the first stasimon of Euripides' Electra (432-41, the underlining is for future reference).3
KA£tval. vuEc;, Ul7IO't' €~aTE Tpo{av TOte; U!1E'tp~10tc; EpE1!10tc; n:€111tOUCJat xopouc; !lET!l l]plJOrov, Yv' 6 cp{A.auA.oc:; €n:aA.A.E OEA- 3 The text is closer to Murray's edition than to Diggle's much more recent edition. I find Diggle's conjecture xopEUflUTa for the manuscripts' xopouc; flWI unnece sary and undesirable (see Basta Donzelli 1992.117- 19). For detA.tcrcrof.!EVOc;, which, so far as I know, is printed by no editor, ee further below. 72 Eric Csapo KOU(j)OV aA.ua no8&v AxtA.f\ cruv Aya!!E!!VOVl Tpro{ac; ent Ll!!01Nrt8ac; oxrck Famous ships, you who once went to Troy with countless oars escorting dances together with Nereids, where the pipe-loving dolphin was leaping, wa-winding in circle at the dark-blue-rammed prow, conveying the son of Thetis, buoyant in the leap of his feet, Achilles with Agamemnon to the Trojan headlands of Simois. This i the fir t tanza of an ode long considered a paradigm of Euripides' dithyrambic tyle, or what I prefer to call the "New Musical" style (since it takes as much inspira tion from drama and nome, as from dithyramb). To mention only a few of the more alient features of ew Musical style in this passage, there is, first, the sensual quality of the narrative. It is a succession of word-pictures which drift by, almost aimlessly. The en uality of the ver e is sustained, typically, by a series of compound adjectives, full of colour and ound. A paratactic syntax generally adds to the material quality to the ver e, fir t becau e it generally follows the metrical shifts (and doubtless also the mu ical hift ), and secondly because the syntax avoids logical subordination in the form of cau al, concessive, or conditional clauses. Though relative pronouns and participle do create grammatical hypotaxis, they contribute nothing to the sentence logic, but act only a connectives, prolonging the phrase, and could easily be trans lated with "and." The effect is a poetry which is more musical, and appeals primarily to the en e and not the intellect. Two pecial effects are worth noting here. The "hymnic" form of address at the opening i a non- tarter. The grammatical subject, "Famous ships," is left without a predicate. The virtual ubject is the dolphin. It is the dolphin, not the ships, that con ey Achille to Troy. This kind of hanging invocation, though it can be found in traditional hymn, i common in poetry inspired by New Music.4 In part it is a ·ymptom of ew Mu ic' imitation of cultic forms, and in part of New Music's indifference to verbal logic, the flipside of its commitment to a more sensual and ultimately mu ical logic. The feature was notorious enough to be imitated in ri tophane ' parody of New Music in Aristophanes' Frogs (1309- 19) with the "halcyons" that are invoked and then lost in a series of relative clauses. Another typically ew Mu ical oddity in the Electra ode is the repetition of the first syllable of dAtcrcrOJ..l€VO~, rendering d€tA.tcrcr6J..l€VO~. The parody of Euripidean song in Frogs also directly parodies the first stasimon of Electra (Frogs 1314- 18, EL€t€t€tA.(crcr€'t€ .. .lv' 6 4 For the parallel , ee Dover 1993.352 (with further bibliography). ' Pohlmann 1960.29-48, Borthwick 1994.3 1-2. The Dolphins ofDionysus 73 melism also illustrates New Music's fondness for mimetic play. 6 The repetition of the syllable helps reinforce the image of the dolphin repeatedly (wa-)winding through the waves. Most important for our purposes, however, is the presence of music and dance in Electra's word pictures. We must remember that this ode was performed by a chorus which was singing and dancing to pipe music. New Music likes to create mimetic play between the performance in the theatre and the performance in the song. So we see Nereids dancing. And then dolphins moving in circular motion as the song evokes the pipes which dolphins love. My unprovable guess is that the perfonning chorus dance in a circular movement as they sing "wa-winding." Whether or not they leap just when they mention Achilles "buoyant in the leap of his feet," the words must surely call attention to the dancers' movements. Circular dance is important because many cultic dances had a circular form, including the paian, and especially cultic dances for Dionysus. Most important among them was the dithyramb, which was known simply as "the circular chorus," in contrast to the normally rectilinear formations of drama.7 In art and literature, Nereids frequently accompany dolphins. Indeed Aeschylu ' play Nereids had a chorus of Nereids who appeared, riding dolphins, in the parodo , carrying arms to Achilles. The drama's impact is reflected in a series of Attic and South Italian vases painted from about 470 onwards, which show dolphin-riding Nereids carrying anns to Achilles. 8 The Electra ode makes a clear allu ion to Aeschylus' Nereids. But there is more here than a dramatic allusion. Nereid are often mentioned elsewhere in Euripides and when they are, they are persistently said to be a chorus or to be dancing, and their dances are circular. lphigenia in Tauris' chorus mentions the place where "the circular choruses of the fifty Nereid maiden ing," accompanied by the "piping of the rudder" (427 -32). Jphigenia at Auli s' choru ing of "the fifty daughters of Nereus dancing at the wedding [of Peleu and Thcti ] revolving in circles" (1 055- 57). In Jon the chorus sings of "the fifty daughter of Nereus dancing on the sea and the eddies of everflowing streams" (I 081 - 84). lf they dance on eddies, they must dance in circles. Now not all dances to the pipes nor all circular dances are dithyrambs. Nevertheless, I will argue that these detail are persistent because of the central place of dithyramb in the development of New Mu ic. Dithyramb especially influenced tragic New Music, not only because dithyramb was more musical than tragedy, but because it was thought to be more authentically cultic. This is why Euripides consistently tells us that there are fifty Nereids: fifty is the number of the dithyrambic chorus. True, fifty is the standard number for Nereids in Hesiod (Theog. 264), tragedy (Aesch. TrGF F 174; Soph. OC 716), and the Orphic 6 The musical mimesis of words describing circular motion, especially from the roots eA.tK- or OLV-, eems to have been a performance cliche by the late fifth/early fourth century BC (sec Csapo 1999 2000.419-24). The Hibeh sophist (Aicidamas?) ridicules the harmonikoi who are not ashamed to ask "if the melody does not appear to move in a spiral" (reading enl tfj[c;] li[A.tKoc; Kt]vE'iaOat with West 1992.17). 7 On the "circular chorus," see most recently D' Angour 1997, Kappel2000. 8 Webster 1970.29; Kossatz-Deissmann 1978.16-8; Kossatz-Deissmann 1981.72, 172- 73; Miller 1986.161 - 63; Icard-Gianolio & Szabados 1992.786, 809, 822; Barringer 1994.20-1, 30- 9; Knittlmayer 1997.22-45; Michelakis 2002, ch. 2. 74 Eric Csapo tradition (Hymn. Orph. 23.2, 24.3, Argonautica 336), but other enumerations are certainly pos ible. 9 The point however is not so much the number, as Euripides' persistent enumeration. Outside Electra Nereids are mentioned seven times in Euripide , and every time they are said to be fifty. 10 Let u now turn to a real hymn, probably a dithyramb, certainly New Musical. We know omething of the site and circumstances of the performance of this hymn. Aelian (NA 12.45) tells us that the hymn was copied from an inscription accompanying the bronze statue dedicated by Arion at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Tainaron in thanks for hi salvation by dolphins from drowning. Herodotus (1.23-4) gives us the canonical version of the story. Arion was famous because he "composed, named and produced in Corinth" the first ever dithyramb. At Corinth he became a close friend of the tyrant Periander. But he was most famous for an event that occurred after a tour of fe tivals in Italy and Sicily where he made lots of prize money by singing and playing the kithara. When he had enough and wanted to return to Corinth, he bought passage from Taranto in a Corinthian ship. But the Corinthian sailors, knowing that he had lots of money, turned to piracy. They offered him a difficult choice: either he had to kill him elf aboard hip with the prospect of at least being buried on land, or he had to leap into the sea. He promised to kill himself but offered the sailors a last-chance opportunity to hear him sing. Since he was the most famous singer of his day they readily assented. He put on his full regalia, mounted the stern like a stage, sang to his kithara, and then, with a flourish, leaped into the sea. He was promptly rescued by a dolphin which took him to Tainaron. Herodotus corroborates the story by saying there i a mall tatue at Tainaron of a man on a dolphin, which was dedicated by Arion. Thi i probably the dedication from which Aelian 's source copied the hymn. 11 {hvum: O~:&v rr6vu~: x.pucroTptatvE IT6cr~:t&ov yauiox' € 9 PI. Critt. 116e; Prop. 3.7, 67- 70; Ov. Fast. 6.499- 501. 10 Eur. Andr. 1267; Tro. 135; IT 273, 427- 28; Ion I 081; fA 239-40 (they are figureheads of Achilles' fifty sh1ps), 1056. Cf. Hartung 1837 ad /A 1046 "sobald der Nereiden Erwahnung geschieht oder des ercu , ·o stcht auch das Fiinfzig dabei." 11 The text i · that of We t 1982.8 9 (an older edition can be found in PMG 939 and a more recent attempt in Furlcy & Bremer 2001.2.3 77- 78). The Dolphins ofDionysus 75 'tEf.lVOV'tcc;, aau~fj nopov, 12 The principal discussions are Bowra 1963 , Brussich 1976, We t 1982.5- 9, Mantziou 1989, Zimmermann 1992.144-45, Furley & Bremer 2001.1.372- 76. Mantziou denies the influence of the New Dithyramb on this hymn, but her arguments are mainly lexical, and many of her parallels in fact come from hymns which are influenced by dithyramb or New Dithyramb. Since New Dithyramb preserved and imitated traditional hymnic and cultic language, it is not enough to find a few parallels in older verse. The same faults may be seen in Hamilton 1990 (see the comments of Seaford 1994.268, n. 149). 13 Cf. Mantziou 1989.232. 14 Bowra 1963.128. Despite Bowra's rhetoric, we can of course doubt his argument, as do Furley & Bremer 2001.1.380, 2.374. The argument that this poem alludes to cultic dance or cultic ideas about 76 Eric Csapo Bowra ascribes a dithyramb-like choral dance suited to the hymn's dithyrambic language, style, and, presumably, music. 15 He draws attention to the anthropo morphism of the description (4-1 0): "floating beasts dance in a circle with buoyant tossings of feet lightly leaping, ruffle-necked, swift-running, snubnosed whelps." References to feet are in themselves especially typical of the dithyrambic style, or so say the ancient commentators. 16 In the dolphins' feet Bowra takes a particular interest: ... to ascribe feet to fish is unexampled and would be absurd if there were not a good excuse of it. What the poet means is that the dancers who enact the dolphins leap into the air and throw their feet about, no doubt imitating the way in which dolphins leap out of the sea. The singer has his eyes more on the actors than on any actual fish [sic], and this determines his language. The movements of the chorus imitate those of fish both in their leaps and their speed. All thi sounds very dithyrambic, as suits a hymn ostensibly composed by Arion, who c sole claim to fame, apart from being rescued at sea by a dolphin, is the invention of dithyramb. 17 This ode is also literally cultic, or at least its performance at the anctuary at Tainaron seems assured by the circumstances of the poem's in cription. But it may still be objected that the ode contains no explicitly Dionysiac contents. Dithyrambs after all, though stereotypically associated with Dionysus, were later performed at several non-Dionysiac festivals, even at Athens, and in this case the ode i addres ed to Poseidon. cholar have noted the parallels between Pseudo-Arion's hymn and Euripides' ta imon. They infer a causal connection running from the greater poet to the lesser. Bowra (I 963 .128), Brus ich ( 1976), Zimmermann ( 1992.144-45), Furley and Bremer (200 1.1.375) all find the language, metre and style of the Pseudo-Arion's hymn typically dithyrambic, and yet they argue that these features were lifted from the Electra. "One can understand," says Brussich, "the pseudo-Arion's interest in the uripidean ode. ln it, a scene of dancing dolphins are described for the first time (at lea t a far a we know)." This is not strictly true, since the speaker of a fragment of Pindar (fr. 140b.13- 7) mentions dolphins "which the lovely song of the pipes set in motion." Otherwise, from the viewpoint of hardcore traditional philological method, explaining literature through literature, Brussich's conclusion is impeccable. I will try to demon trate, however, that both poets are drawing upon a body of thought that belong not ju t to literature, but to the broader culture. More particularly I will try to how that dancing dolphins have a place in cult and a connection with dithyramb from dance cannot hang from philological analysis of the poem, but from the examination of its cultural context. 15 Furley & Bremer object (2001.1.374) that Plato (Resp. 394b8- c4) distinguishes dithyramb from drama and epic by aying dithyramb "is characterized by third-person narrative by the poet" (their empha i ). The objection ha little weight. Plato's throw-away comment attempts a rough distinction (note j.uiA.tota rrou) which may apply to traditional dithyramb, but notoriously does not apply to the "New Dithyramb" discus ed here ( ee Csapo, forthcoming). Furthennore, Plato does not say anything about "third-per on" narrative, only "narrative by the poet himself' which is precisely what is presented in Anon's hymn. 16 ee schol. Ar. Birds 1379a,b and Dunbar 1995 ad foe. 17 ee Herodotu cited above. Other sources can be found in Sutton 1989.13- 5. The Dolphins ofDionysus 77 the earliest archaic period. If this is right, then the resemblances in the language and imagery of both odes (underlined in the text) may be purely generic. Though pseudo Arion may well have known Euripides' ode, or vice versa, the resemblances need not be the result of specific imitation. As both odes are self-conscious adaptations of a dithyrambic style, the mention of music-loving, leaping dolphins, Nereids, round dances, light-footedness and escorting persons to distant shores, which they share, may well go back to the genre upon which they model themselves, and ultimately to cultic ideas associated with the imagery. But before presenting the evidence for dancing dolphins, we should look at a third fragment of poetry contemporary with the Electra and pseudo-Arion odes. The comic poet Strattis parodies the dithyrambic style in an unknown comedy (PCG 7 F 71 ): npacroKoupiocc;, a't Ka·racpu/cA,ouc; UVU JGl1l:OUt; 1l:EYnlKOVTa 1l:OOWV LXVE 18 Further discussion in Borthwick 1968.71 - 2; Kugelmeier 1996.269-70. 78 Eric Csapo these dances are described. 19 When dolphins play a role in Greek myth and literature, they either perform marine rescue operations, escorting drowning mariners to safety, a in the ca e of Arion, or they dance. I know of thirteen mentions of dancing dolphins in ancient literature after Euripides, not including pseudo-Arion: in nine cases the dolphin are described as dancing in circles.20 There are a further three instances where the dolphin are simply said to be circling.21 I do not think this entire tradition tern from the Electra ode. Not entirely irrelevant is the fact that these representations arc con i tent with the real behaviour of dolphins, which do leap in packs about ships, and in antiquity were thought to be attracted by the music of pipers who were frequently u ed to set the rhythm for the oars. 22 But, from very early on, Greek culture converted thi natural raw material into a symbol for choral dance, and specifically culti c and Diony iac dance, as we will now see. 2. Dancing Dolphins and Nereids in Art Let us tum now to look at a body of material ignored by the philological commentarie on these odes. In archaic and Greek vase painting Nereids and dolphins commonly perform a parallel function. Dolphins regularly appear leaping on the ex terior of a wine cup, in a frieze around the tondo of a wine cup, or inside the rim of mi xing bowl .23 On an unattributed mid-sixth century Attic cup-krater (Fig. 4.1) , for e ampl e, we ee on the outer rim a group of 34 men with wine cups and drinking hom performing a processional dance to the pipes (on the other side the piper stands 19 Phld. A nth. Pal. 6.349; Ap. Rhod. 4.937 (Eml'Pll.lO t EiA.(crcrovw , together with dolphins); Verg. A en. I 0.224; en . Oedipus 446 (Nereidumque choris .. cingitur I no); Philostr. lmag. 2. 8 (3 52 Kayser), 2. 16 (3 62 Kayser, mii tG>V TJPTJtOwv !CUKA.ou); Lucian Dialogi Marini 15 .3.12 (neptx6pwe); Athen. 130a; Hymn. 01ph. 23.3, 24.2, 24 .3, 24 .7 (elA.mcr6!1EVOt nepl Kii ~t a); Achilles Tatius 5.16.6; Calli stratus Statuarum Descriptiones 14 (438 K., TJ PTJ tOE<; ... tA.Icrcroucrat TI) v xopdav); Himer. Or. 9.65--6, 9.245- 56, 12. 72, 62 .17 9 (KUKMfl m:pl nucrav xopeuoucrt); Nonnus Dion. 43.258- 60 (Nr]pdliwv .. . epaKXEU8T] xop6<;), 43 .270 4 (they ride fi h and do lphin W<; 8E n <; hmeuwv eA.aTI)p uno KUKAUO t 1:EXV1J), 48. 192- 94; Eustathius Macrembolites Hysmine and Hysminias 7.265; schol. Hom. II. 18.39-49.2; schol. Pind. lsthm. hypoth . A 12; cf. TrGF trag adesp. F 657. 18. A ereid is give n th e name "Choro" in a vase inscription: Philippaki 1986.274, no. I. 20 Achaeus I TrGF 20 F 27 (almost certainl y, but not explicitly, dolphins, KUKAOcrop&v); Hymn. Orph. 24.7 (EA.tcrcr6!!EVOt nepl Kii!la, cf. Hymn. 01ph. 5 1. 7); Philippus Anth. Pal. 9.83 (VTJO <; ... op611ov U!1q>£X6pwov OEA.cp'lve.;); Archia Anth.Pal. 7.2 14; Lucian Dialogi Marini 15 .3.13--6 (neptx6 pwe); Ae l. A 14.2 .3 -40 (m:ptxopeUelV); Oppianus Halieulica 673-76 (OeA!jllVWV ayeA.ac; ... xopo'lo KUKAOV cl!leiP6!1EVOt noA.uEtOEa noiKtAOOtVTJV); Sen. Agamemnon 451 - 54 (Tyrrenus .. .pi scis ... agilalque gyros.../ascivit chorus); Longus 2.26; onnus Dion. 3.25-6, 38. 371 (EA. t~ w px~craw L'. eA.q>t<;, i.e., the constellation), 39.336 37 (OEA 24 Louvre CA 2988; CVA Louvre 12 (France 19) pis. 193 .1-4, 194.1 - 2; Vidali 1997.126, no. A2.22. 25 The evolution of the shape of the dithyramb is treated most recently by D'Angour 1997. 26 Barringer 1994.184, no. 54-7 (cf. pp. 73-8, 83- 7); Vollkommer 1994.255 56, nos. 47, 51, 52,62 (cf. ~· 269). 2 The strongest case is put by Kossatz & Kossatz-Deis mann 1992. Doubt are voiced most notably by Rasmussen & Spivey who regard the dolphin men as nothing more than " empliccmcnte creature di fantasia" ( 1986.6). 80 Eric Csapo To us the Homeric Hymn is of overwhelming importance since it is the earliest and fulle t rendition of this myth. In antiquity, however, this version of the myth seems never to have been canonical. Both literary and artistic renditions differ in interesting way . For the moment, let us only consider the artefacts. The most famous case is the frieze on the Ly icrates Monument in Athens.28 It differs from the Homeric Hymn in triking way .29 The frieze locates the transformation of the pirates on shore. Moreover, the pirates are attacked by satyrs, who have no place in the Homeric Hymn. orne think the monument depicts the narrative of the victorious dithyramb of the Diony ia of 334 BC which it commemorates.30 No later artefact is any more easily reconcilable with the Homeric Hymn. Later artefacts, which include figures springing from hip either with human upper and dolphin lower bodies or dolphin upper and human lower, typically also contain satyrs, maenads, Silenus, or panthers in addition to Diony u .31 The e late monuments do doubtless depict some version of the same myth that we find in the Homeric Hymn. There is, however, no justification for saying this of any artefact earlier than the Lysicrates Monument. Earlier depictions of dolphin-men give no hint of a mythic narrative of any sort. The earliest legged dolphins appear on a ? amian cup of ca. 540 BC (Figs 4.2- 3). 32 It shows two bands of dolphins circling around the interior rim. Every third dolphin on the outer band has human legs. There i no ign of pirate or ships; the dolphins circle around an ordinary Greek hoplite in the tondo, which rather suggests the absence of any attempt to establish a mythic narrative. 33 Yet mo t discu ion till speak of this as our earliest illustration of the myth of the Tyrrhenian pirates.34 lS cc csp. Ehrhardt 1993. AI o Travlo 1971.348, pl. 451; Ridgway 1970.88; Herter 1980.101-34; ,asparri 1986.4 9, no. 792; Kossatz & Kossatz-Deissmann 1992. For the reconstruction of the monument, sec most recently Amandry 1997; Alcmdar 2000; Wilson 2000.219- 26. ·~ cc csp. Ehrhardt 1993 .59. 111 Rcasch 1890.102; Ridgway 1970.88 (who confusedly speaks of the "winning play"); Froning 1971.2 ; Ehrhardt 1993.8, 61 - 2. Any connection with the dithyramb is denied by de Cou 1893.4. The presence of the ·atyr has al o led some to conclude that the frieze was inspired by satyrplay: Crusius 1889.2 1 19, Lcsky 1947.105, Jame 1975, Herter 1980.118- 19, Kossatz & Kossatz-Deissmann 1992.471 - 72. 11 ee Kossatz & Ko atz-Dcissmann 1992.472- 73; Rasmussen & Spivey 1986.7. The best case for an "illu tration" of the Homeric Hymn is two fragmentary grave reliefs from late fourth-century Tarentum (Kos atz & Ko atz-Dei mann 1992.472, pis. I 08.2-3). But I suspect these are only the best cases because too fragmentary to reveal divergent detail. 12 MUnster inv. 855 (formerly Sammlung Werner Peek): Rohde 1955; Walter-Karydi 1973, no. 476, pl. 53. fig. 2 ; Jackson 1976.68- 70, fig. 33; Isler 1977.24; Stupperich 1984, no. 87, pl. 87a; Shefton 19 9.70 I, fig. 21 a-b; Stupperich 1990.40-3, pis. 8, 9.1 - 3; Vidali 1997.165, no. 0 II. 13 tuppcrich ( 1990.42) unconvincingly suggests that the hop lite represents one of the pirates, even the helm man, although he does not think the ver ion of the myth necessarily the same as the Homeric Hymn to Dionrsus. 14 Rohde 1955; Jackson 1971.69; Walter-Karydi 1973.35; Stupperich 1984.218: "Wie dort [i.e., Ly aerate Monument] mu auch hier chon auf den Mythos von der Verwandlung der hinterhaltigen tyrrhcna chen oder krctischen Piraten in Delphine durch Dionysos angespielt sein, wenn hier auch aile andercn Details der Geschichte fchlen" (cf. Stupperich 1990.41- 2); Shefton 1989.71: "indisputable representation of the myth." The Dolphins ofDionysus 81 Fig. 4.3: Detail (1) at handle. Fig. 4.2 : East Greek (?Samian) cup, Munster 855 (formerly Sammlung Werner Peek), ca. 540 BC. Courtesy, Archiiologisches Seminar und Museum, Westfii/ische Wilh elms-Universitiit Munster. The Kossatzes (1992.470) claim that the artefacts generally depict the pirate a dolphins with human legs in order to distinguish them from Triton who normally have human uppers. We may doubt how compelling thi regularity i , ince the later depictions show human uppers with dolphin lowers often enough. But we hould especially doubt the argument that because the pirates in later art are hown a dolphins with human feet, dolphins with human feet in earlier art are therefore pirate . The relevant Archaic and Classical artefacts do not narrate myth . They draw rather on the same source as the mythic narrative. They present ymbol - in thi ca e idea rooted in cultic ritual. I suggest that the dolphins on the Samian plate have human feet because to Greek eyes dolphins are dancers. Dolphin-men, whether dolphin with human legs and feet or men with dolphin tails, symbolize the power of dance. They combine the leaping beast par excellence with the part of the human anatomy mo t responsible for leaping and dancing. The Samian cup shows no other narrative than dolphins dancing with uniform movements, like a human chorus, performing a round dance around the rim of the cup. We will see that this logic holds even for the human feet on the depictions of the pirates. There is quite a surprising number of Archaic and earlier Cla ical artefacts with legged dolphins. Six pieces give only sparse context, and are not particularly helpful, beyond attesting the popularity of this symbol. Among them are two gems which hint at a Dionysian context: a dolphin-man on the base of a panther-shaped carnelian and another gem with a dolphin with a bearded human head in front of a thyr u .35 A legged dolphin appears as Athena's shield device on an unattributed Attic Late 35 Panther shaped carnelian, ca. 400 BC: de Witte 1875.11- 3; Fossing 1929, no. 851 ; Boardman 1968.166, no. 629. Gem with dolphin-man and thyrsus: Muller & Wieseler 1854, no. 435, pl. 37; Eisler 1925.113, fig. 51b. 82 Eric Csapo Archaic/Early Classical panathenaic amphora fragment from the Athenian acropolis. 36 It might be claimed that the device emblematizes the power of the warrior's leap - an important symbol of military prowess, as any reader of Homer knows. The power of the dolphin's leap may also account for the wings on a dolphin with human legs and arms decorating a throne on an Attic black-figured amphora. 37 Hands and an unusually feet-like tail appear on a pipe-playing dolphin in the tondo of a Siana cup of ca. 560, with two other ?dolphins with Fig. 4.4: Attic Siana cup, Rome, Villa Giulia similarly feet-like tails on either side 38 64608, 570-560 BC. Courtesy, Soprintendenza of him (Fig. 4.4). (Note the curva ai Beni Archeologici per I 'Etruria Meridionale. ture of the "instep" of the feet; the semi-circle is not often broken in dolphin iconography.i9 Brijder notes that despite their different size the dolphins' feet are all on the same level, as if they were conceived a dancing in a line (2000.1.60 1). Quite unusually, dolphins on Siana cup have olid red bodies, a feature which, Brijder thinks, likens them to the red outfit of the archaic choruses of male dancers known as komasts. Several features of kama t dance, e pecially wine-drinking, rowdy obscenity and uninhibited sexuality bring the c choru e within the realm of Dionysus, indeed they sometimes appear with Diony u , or with atyr and nymphs (or nymph-like females). We will soon see some further rea on for connecting dolphin and komasts, but for the moment we need only note that the humanized dolphins on this Siana cup, like most of the dolphin-men already mentioned, can be connected with leaping, or dancing and music and/or Diony u . More helpful are the groups of dancing dolphin-men in Etruscan art which are certainly in pired by Greek models. Dolphins with human feet dance upside down on a late ixth-century kalpis (Figs 4.5- 6). 40 You can see the line of dance better if you 36 Athens NM Acr. 1033; Graef & Langlotz 1925.119, no. 1033, pl. 58; Vidali 1997.58- 9, 144, no. A2.242; Bentz 2000.148, no. 5.115. 37 Philadelphia University Museum MS3440; Luce 1921.74-5, no. 107; Richter 1926.8- 9, fig. 12 (with incorrect inventory no.). 31 Rome, Villa Giulia 6460 , Attic Siana cup, 570-560 BC; Simon 1976, pl. 60; Vidali 1997.120, no. A1.6,pl ; Brijder2000.1.601-02, 2000.2, pl.l86h. wBut ee Brijder 2000.1.602. 40 Toledo 82.134. Attributed to the Painter of Vatican 238 (Rasmussen & Spivey 1986.2-8. See Boulter& Luckner 19 4.14-6, pl. 90; Sbefton 1989.71, n. 85. The Dolphins ofDionysus 83 Fig. 4.5 (left): Etruscan kalpi . Fig. 4. 6 (above): Detail ofdolphin men. Attributed to the Painter of Va tican 238, Toledo 82.134, late sixth century 8 . Courtesy, Toledo Museum ofArt. tum the image upside down and the dancers right-side-up. Six dolphin follow each other as if dancing upside down upon the line marking the boulder of the va c. The first figure is distinguished, probably as the leader (exarchon) of the dance, with dolphin feet and a human head; all the others have dolphin head and human feet. Note, for future reference, that the flippers appear as arms on the five dolphin-headed men, but around the hips of the human-headed dolphin. A sprig of ivy on the right border of the inverted scene suggests a Dionysian ambiance. Though the tory of the Tyrrhenian pirates may have been known in Etruria and was possibly copied on other Etruscan vases,41 there is nothing on this kalpis to suggest an illustration ofthi tale. 42 Equally interesting is a mid-sixth century BC "Pontic" (i.e., Etru can) amphora by the Paris Painter,43 who is a close imitator of Greek tradition (Fig. 4.7).44 Here a line of what might be described as dolphin centaurs, men with the hind quarter of dolphins emerging from their buttocks, dance and clap their hands in unison. These are very 41 Bonfante 1993. See the red-figured Genucilia plate published by del Chiaro I 974.66 7 and fig. 5, dated to the fourth century BC by del Chiaro and to ca. 300 BC by Cristofani 1986, no. 15. I am not convinced that even the scene on this plate depict the tale of Dionysu and the pirate . A different inte~retation is offered by Rasmussen & Spivey I 986.7 (pl. 14). 4 Pace Boulter & Luckner 1984.16: "the most developed illustration of the Homeric Hymn to Dionysos known"; Stupperich I 990.41; Ehrhardt I 993.58: "(der Mytho der Piraten] mit Sicherheit... wiedergegeben." Cf. Bonfante 1993 .225-26. 43 Rome, Musei Capitolini, inv. no. 9; DUmmler 1887, pl. 8.2; CVA Musei Capitolini di Roma 2 (italy 39), !VB, pl. 33; Ridgway 1970.91; Boosen 1986, pl. 1 I; Camporeale 1997.88, no. 87. 44 Hannestad 1974.28-31. 84 Eric Csapo Fig 4. 7 (left) and Fig. 4.8 (right): Etruscan ("Pontic") amphora, Paris Painter, Rome, Musei Capitolini, im•. no. 9, mid-sixth centwy BC. Side A: Dolphin men (left). Side B: Nereids (right). ourteSI', DA I Rome. in t. eg. r. 65.187. Photo: Koppermann. di ffcrcnt from the variou forms of "Meermanner" which are popular in Etruscan art, and they do n t confonn to the normal iconography of Greek Tritons. 45 In particular, thi i · n t the way the Pari Painter paints Tritons; a Triton of a very different appearance can be een on an amphora by the Paris Painter in Tarquinia.46 That these arc specifically dolphin men, with hind ends formed by dolphins, and no generic fish type, i ·hown both by the size and by the carefully depicted dorsal fin. 47 Moreover, in filling the hould r zone of his vases, the Paris Painter favours processions of walk ing men or centaur , or row of dancing koma ts. 48 The dolphin-men dancing counter clockwi e around the boulder of the amphora are themselves matched by a group of 45 mcc it publication (Diimmlcr I 7.172) the vase has commonly been referred to as the "T rito~ amphora," and the dolphin men commonly identified as Tritons, though not without reserve (Ducati 19 2.16: " onderbar ist da u chen der Tritonen"). They are referred to as "running Tritons" in Icard ianoilo & zabado 1992.7 8, no. 6; "Triton" in Camporeale 1997.88, no. 87. On Etru can mermen, see Boo en 19 6. 4h Musco aLionale Tarquinie e, inv. no. 529; Ducati 1932, pl. 16a; Hannestad 1974, no. 13. 47 ee Ducat1 1932.16. Ridgway 1970.91 . Bowra ( 1970.176), who knew only thi artefact, surprisingly calls them "fish-like quarter ,"but. then, he eems to have classified dolphins as fi h (see above). 4 . IIanne tad 1974.15 7. The Dolphins ofDion ysus 85 Fig. 4.9: Transitional Early to Middle Corinthian kotyle from Anaploga Well, Corinth Museum C-62-449, ca. 590 BC. Drawing by Maria C. Shaw. four Nereids dancing clockwise on the reverse (Fig. 4.8).49 The inspiration for both groups, I suggest, is Greek cultic dance. The most impotiant pieces for my argument are generally overlooked by tho e interested only in legged dolphins and their putative association with Tyrrhenian pirates. It is often and rightly argued that the reported invention of the dithyramb by Arion in Periander's Corinth "cannot be separated from the emergence of Diony iac motifs, or the thiasoi of padded dancers on Corinthian pottery starting preci ely at the time of Periander."50 An Early/Middle Corinthian vase and a Middle Corinthian vase both show dancing komasts accompanied by a dolphin. The Early Corinthian kotyle (Fig. 4.9) shows a man facing a dolphin. 51 The human figure is u ually aid to be a komast. 52 He has the typical gestures of a komastic dancer, except that koma t make these gestures from a vertical position, and he wears the characteristic hort which are phallic. 53 This komast is laid out horizontally to show that he i wimming and/or to make him seem isomorphic with the dolphin he faces: Amyx and Lawrence ( 1996.3 9) refer to him as a "fish-man." The drawing is often associated with the myth of Melicertes, a cousin of Dionysus, the son of Ino, Dionysus' nurse.54 Theirs is a typical Dionysiac myth, involving madness and the tearing apart of children. When Athamas, Melicerte ' father, went mad and wanted to tear his son apart, Ino, with a great leap, jumped into the ea with 49 Among others Icard-Gianolio & Szabados ( 1992, no. 6) refer to them as running ere ids, but their movements are very similar to the Nereids on the C-Painter's cup in Munich: for the melding of the iconography of running and dancing Nereids, see the discussion by Barringer 1994.83-5. 50 Burkert 1983.199. Cf. Ghiron-Bistagne 1976.259. 51 Early Corinthian kotyle from Anaploga Well, Corinth C-62-449, ca. 590. Amyx & Lawrence 1975.115, no. An 86, pl. 66; Davies 1978.77- 8, fig. 8; Vidali 1997.24, I 17, no. K21. The drawing was a cartoon for a fresco decorating a wall of the former Excavation House in Corinth made by Prof. M. . Shaw while resident in Corinth in the 1960s. It is perfectly accurate (apart from two small detail mentioned below) and is the only projection I have seen of the complete painting on the vase. I publi h it for the first time with the kind penn iss ion of Prof. Shaw. 52 Steinhart forthcoming. 53 Amyx & Lawrence 1975.115. The phallu appear as a diminutive ro ettc on this drawing by Maria Shaw. Prof. Shaw explains that she was young and naive when she copied the va e. 54 Davies 1978.87, n. 37; Steinhart forthcoming. The connection was made almost immediately after the discovery of the vase and apparently became something of an orthodoxy at Corinth. lienee the playful inclusion of the inscription on the drawing by Maria Shaw, though there i no trace of any inscription or dipinto on the vase. 86 Eric Csapo her infant on. Note that the leap is an important part of the telling, just like the leap of Arion from the Corinthian ships, and the leap of the pirates from theirs. The pirates then become the sea-leaper par excellence while Arion is saved by a sea-leaper. And both type of salvation, by transformation, and by transportation, are reserved for Ino and her son. Lno turns into Lcucothea, a sea-goddess closely associated with the ereid . Melicertes was transformed into the hero Palaemon and then carried by a dolphin to Corinth, where he founded the Isthmian games, and had an important shrine in the temple of Poseidon at lsthmia, which became the center of a local Dionysiac 5 my tery cult in which Palaemon played a significant role. 5 There are, therefore, good rca on why a Corinthian potter might want to allude to this myth. But the Early/Middle orinthian kotyle give no hint at a mythic narrative. On the contrary, the dress and ge tures of the human figure are those of a typical Corinthian komast dancer, not of a drowning mythological hero. The kotyle seems not to relate a myth, but to draw upon an analogy between a Dionysiac dancer and a dolphin. This is not to say that the myth is irrel vant to the kotyle' ymbolism. Both draw upon and contribute to a Dionysiac imaginary which find expre sion in ritual, myth, metaphor and artefact. I am particularly intere ted in the Middle Corinthian cup (Figs 4.10-11 ). 56 It shows more typical co turned koma t dancers around a winejar. Under one handle there is a dolphin (Fig. 4.1 0). The lone dolphin is connected with this scene, as is clear from the k rna t who tare at it. Under the other handle we see a man clearly wearing the same padded co tume a the other dancers, but with his legs transformed into the lower part of a dolphin (Fig. 4.11 ). Thi i not recognized by most iconographers who follow the , am in tinct a the Ko atze in labelling him a "Nereus" or a "Triton."57 But com pari, n with the dolphin under the other handle of the same vase makes it clear that he i. a dolphin-man: note the large dorsal fin, the lunate tail, and the two flippers placed ncar the hip of the dolphin man Uust as on the Etruscan kalpis), and which appear almo ·t a lateral fin on the actual dolphin, as if to stress the comparison.5 The unu ual upward tilt of the dolphin' tail bring home the correspondence between the t\ figure . The e detail do not appear together on Triton and Nereus iconography. The link between dolphin and human dance is also attested by no less than six ttic a e of 510-4 0 BC which how choruses of dolphin riders, dressed as knights, with uniform co tume and ge ture dancing to the music of a piper (Figs 4.12, 4.13); another Attic kypho and two Boeotian terracottas of the same period each show a ~ 5 cclinger 199 ; Reiche~- iidbeck 2000.171 -7~, cf.. I~ 1-33. In later time~ the mystic inte'J?retation of the Palaemon myth wa w1de pread. The famou mscnphon of the Iobackh01 at Athens (!G rr 1368 = !G1 I I 09) atte t to a ritual performance in which members played the part of Palaemon along with D1onysus, Korc, Aphrodite and Proteurythmos. ~I> Pari , Louvre MNC 674 (L 62), Middle Corinthian cup, ca. 590-570; CVA Louvre 6 (France 9) pl. 12.1 6: P1ckard- ambridge 1962.172, no. 43; Sccbcrg 1971.37, no. 197; Ghiron-Bistagnc 1976.246, fig. 95; 1dali 1997.23. 117, no. K23. " [.Pottier m CV4 Louvre 6, p. II call him "dieu cn\e a queue de poisson;" Seeberg 1971.37, no. 197. "Tnton." 5 · myx & Lawrence ( 1996.38) and Vidali ( 1997.26-9) discuss some of the anatomical peculiarities of orinthian dolphm . The Dolphins ofDionysus 87 Fig. 4.10: Middle Corinthian cup, Paris, Louvre MNC 674, ca. 590- 570 BC. Handle zone detail ofdolphin and komast. Courtesy, Musee du Louvre. Photo: M & P. Chuzeville. Fig. 4.11: Middle Corinthian cup, Paris, Louvre MNC 674. Handle zone detail of dolphin man. Courtesy, Musee du Louvre. © EPL/Distr. RMN. single dolphin rider dressed as a knight. 59 Because of the presence of pipers, the e choruses were, somewhat mechanically, labelled "pre-comic," and the notion that they illustrate some form of "stage perfonnance" has stuck due to the influence of Webster and his school. There are some arguments in favour of connecting them more closely with dithyramb than comedy. The seven vase-paintings of dolphin rider are by far the most common type of a group of over twenty vases from 560-480 BC which depict men, most often in animal costumes, dancing with uniform movements, and u ually to the music of a piper. 60 Though the choruses appear to dance in a line when the image are produced in a flat projection on the page, in orne case at lea t the arti t clearly 59 Green 1985, nos. 6 (without piper), 13- 7; Hamma 1989.42- 3, no. 22; Vidali 1997.60-3, 147 -49 (nos. A2.270, A2. 272, A2.275, A2.276, A2.277, A2.278, A2.279), 161 (nos. 87, 88). 60 Green 1985, with addenda in Green 1991.22, n. 19. 88 Eric Csapo - '\ij,' Fig. 4.12: Attic black-figured cup, Near the Theseus Painter, Paris, Louvre CA 1924, ca. 490-490 B.C. Courtesy, Musee du Louvre. Photo: M &. P. Chuzeville. intended to u e the curved surface of the pot to indicate a circle. An important clue is th e po ition of the piper in relation to the dancers. This is inconsistent: on only one or two of the va e doe the piper appear in front of the procession and move in the same direction, thus giving the impres ion that the dance is processional. 61 On all the other a e , where a piper appear , he is stationary. On four (including one dolphin-rider choru ) the piper face the dancers who move toward him. 62 In one case the dancers mo e away from the tanding piper.63 Three or four pots, among them two of dolphin rider , how the chorus circling around the piper, who appears, at least notionally, to be tanding in the centre of the group like the piper in Classical dithyramb.64 One dolphin-riding choru (Fig. 4.12) very clearly circles around the piper who stands in ide their line - one can see the dolphin-riders moving clockwise behind him. The detail of the spears on the other chorus (Fig. 4.13), represented by only two riders on the narrow body of a lekythos, makes it clear that the rider on the right passes in front of the piper (since the line of the rider's spears can be seen in front ofthe piper) while the rider on the left passe behind him in the opposite direction (his spears disappear behind the piper s back). It is in fact likely that the Classical formal dithyrambic choru wa both processional and round, since it was first led into the orchestra by the 61 Green 19 5. nos. II. 12A. 62 Grcen 19 5.nos.2,3, 14, 17. 61 · Green 1985. no. 8. M Green 1985, no. I, 128, 13, 16. Cf schol. Aeschin. in Tim. 10: "The dithyrambs are called 'circular choru c · ... in circular choruse the piper stood in the middle." The Dolphins ofDionysus 89 Fig. 4.13: Attic black-figured lekythos, Theseus Painter, Athens, Kerameikos 5671, ca. 490- 480 BC. Courtesy, DAI Athens. piper and then began its circular dance when positioned at the central altar. This would also conform to what we think we know about the cultic dithyramb which our written sources suggest was originally performed when leading the sacrifice up to and around the altar.65 It seems in any case likely that the performers dance for Dionysu (who, so Pindar's second dithyramb asserts, "is thrilled by the dancing choruses of beasts," fr. 70b.22- 3). No one has explained the strange fact that the dolphin-riders wear armour on all nine artefacts. There can be no allusion here to Arion or Melicertes. The close t iconographic comparanda are the mythical dolphin-riding Nereids who can-y the arm 65 See Lonsdale 1993.92; Seaford 1994.242. Many of the komast vases seem to depict a post sacrificial entertainment. 90 Eric Csapo of Achille , but this parallelism takes us nowhere.66 There is certainly no obvious connection with the arms of Achilles, or the removal of Achilles' dead soul to the Isle ofthe Ble ed. 3. Dancing Dolphins and Nereids in Myth and Cult We have een that literature and art both stress the relationship of the dolphin with cultic choral dance. Jt is no different with myth. Lonsdale and others have argued that the myth of Arion and Dionysus are structural variants of the same tale: Lonsdale treat both a foundation myths for the dithyramb.67 They are comparable to the story in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo which is a foundation myth for the paian (in cult a proce ional and round dance which often is compared and indeed confused with the dithyramb). The hymn tells how Apollo, once he founded his shrine at Delphi, began to look for people to serve as hi priests. He saw a Cretan ship sailing to Pylos and decided that the rctan ailor would uit his purpose. So Apollo turned himself into a dolphin and jumped aboard the hip. The sailors tried to throw the dolphin overboard. But he began to hake and to make the boat teeter in all directions, so they left it alone. Then Apollo brought a wind that moved the ship to Tainaron, and from there to Delphi, de pite the helm man' efforts to steer the ship in any other direction. Then polio leaped from the hip, ran to his shrine, lighted a fire, ran back to the ship, revealed him elf, and told the Cretans to make an offering on the beach to Apollo 0 lphinio , becau e he fir t appeared to them as a dolphin. After they feasted and p urcd a libation the ailor followed him to the temple singing a paian. This is how it i de cribed: " ... they tarted out with the lord Apollo, the son of Zeus, leading them. lie h ld a lyre in hi hand , and played sweetly as he stepped high and gracefully. So the rctan followed him to Pytho, marching in time as they chanted the paian after the manner of the retan paian- inger "(Hymn. Hom. Ap. 514- 18). This tory of Apollo Delphinio and the story of Dionysus and the pirates have a number f similaritie . Both peak of a transformation of sea-faring men into a dancing choru . In the Hym11 to Dionysus they become a chorus of dolphins. In the l~V/1111 to Apollo they are literally turned into a chorus of worshippers. But there is a curiou inver ion between the tales. In the tale of Dionysus and the pirates it is the dolphin which become the chorus, first gathering around the helmsman and then circling around the hip. In the tale of Apollo Delphinios it is the god himself who become the dolphin, u urping the role of the helmsman, leading the ship to Crisa and then him elfleading the dancer (as exarchon) to the sanctuary. The Hymn to Apollo i manifestly an aetiological myth for the performance of paian at Delphi. Appropriately it is the god's music that transforms the sailors into paian- inging prie t . If the tory of Dionysus and the pirates has some aetiological function relative to the dithyramb we might expect the same. The Hymn to Dionysus 1>6 One should al o mention the Archaic black-figure lekythos in Baltimore on which two dolphin rider . one of whom carrie a phiale, circle around a rock on which a satyr crouches pouring wine (see Vidali 1997.71 2, 148 no. A2, 274). h' Lonsdale 1993.93-99; cf. later 1976.166, Burkert 1983.199- 200, Zimmermann 1992.27- 8. The Dolphins ofDionysus 91 says nothing about music, but our survey of the art suggests the Homeric Hymn was a relatively unimportant version of the myth. 68 Other versions vary considerably in detail from the Homeric Hymn and often better express the myth 's aetiological function. 69 For example, several make musical possession the instrument of the pirates' defeat and transformation: in Philostratus, at the sound of Dionysian music, the pirates "began to rave, they forgot to row, and many of them had already lost their arms"; in Aglaosthenes, Dionysus' followers sing, causing the pirates such delight that they jump into the sea in their eagerness to dance; Lucian recounts that Diony us tamed the pirates by dance; Ovid describes the transformed pirates as "playing after the manner of a choral dance," and Nonnus describes the pirates dancing on the water as a "komos."70 Particularly interesting in this regard are the versions of Seneca and Nonnus where the seas are turned into meadows of idyllic beauty before the pirate leap out of the ship to dance, albeit as dolphins, a strange contradiction which perhaps allows a glimpse of the idealized cultic setting behind the mythic seascape. 71 In these narratives, the transformation into dolphins is only the concrete expression of the transformation of the pirates into Dionysiac dancers, when under the influence of Dionysiac music, they are possessed by the god and their limbs are eized by hi s alien power and made to move with a single rhythm, which removes even the distinction between anns and legs, as if to unite them severally and collectively into a ingle abstract leaping body. The versions of the myth of Arion are also many and various. Thi , I su pect, results from the continued influence of ritual upon the myth ' retelling . Mo t interesting is Plutarch's account of Arion's arrival at Tainaron (Mar. 160e) in which Periander's brother describes how on the last night of a festival for Po eidon, when he and his fellow Corinthians were dancing on the beach, they saw not ju t one dolphin, as in Herodotus, but "a large group moving in a circle" (n:€pt~ KUKA.ouv·m;) with others leading and others following behind - a round dance moving in proces ion in the midst of which appeared Arion in his musician's co tume. It sounds very much like the aition for a cultic and "dithyramboid" dance performed at Tainaron in honour of Arion's escape from the sea, doubtless the very one which the pseudo-Arion's hymn attempts to recreate in a sophisticated, yet archaizing, literary form.72 For all we know 68 The myth recounted by the artefacts shows no regularity until after the time of Ovid: so Rasmussen & Sgivey 1986.7; Kossatz & Kossatz-Deissmann 1992.474. The mythic tradition is studied by Crusius 1889; James 1975 ; Herter 1980. 70 Philostr. !mag 1.19.1; Aglaosthenes FGrH 499 F 3 (Jacoby ad lac. think of dithyramb); Lucian Salt. 22 (cf. Anti pater ofThessalonica Anth . Pal. 9.82); Ov. Met. 3.685; onnus Dian. 44.166, cf. 47.632, 44.248. 71 Sen. Oedipus 450-54; Nonnus Dian. 45.153ff. On the contradiction, see James I 975.26, 32 3. 72 In their discussion of "Arion's hymn" Furley & Bremer (2001.1.375- 76) claim that "the piece is literary rather than devotional." This is a difficult and suspect distinction. They argue: (I) that "dolphins were not the recipients of cult in Greece: they may have been considered acred to various divinities (Artemis, Poseidon, Dionysus and Apollo), but they are attributes of divinity rather than cult figures themselves"; and (2) that the "poem, despite its formal affinities to hymnic poetry, is keener to de cribe, evoke and narrate than to worship or pray." The first claim is simply odd and irrelevant to the question, ince it is formally Poseidon who is addressed, not the dolphins. The second point entirely ignores the context of the poem. Because it is written in the New Musical style, and hence has affinities with what 92 Eric Csapo thi very in cnpt10n may have given rise to the story that Arion first composed a dithyramb. In Plutarch's telling, at least, there is a causal connection between dolphin dance and dithyramb: Arion learned the form and character of dithyrambic dance from the movements of the dolphins which rescued him; on this interpretation, the in cription accompanying the bronze statue (presumably the bronze statue) of a dolphin-rider at Tainaron notionally records the first dithyramb. The almost invariable connection between dolphins and round dance thus appears more than an artistic and literary conceit, but rather an association promoted by cultic practice, at Tainaron, and, judging from the evidence, perhaps at Corinth, Athens and el ewhcre. 73 The arne is probably true of Nereids. Barringer's study of the iconography of ereids (1994.78- 80, 86, 141-51) shows that from the mid-sixth century there is a close assimilation ofNereids to the nymphs or maenads who follow in Diony u ' train: Peleus' rape of Thetis follows the same general schema as satyrs raping nymph ; vines and ivy appear amongst the Nereids; Nereids wear nymph-like wreathe ; ccnes of Peleus and Thetis with Nereids are juxtaposed to Dionysiac cenc ; creid scenes are sometimes contaminated with satyrs; and of course the crcid arc frequently depicted in a marine thiasos of a distinctly Dionysiac character. In the Orphic hymn to the Nereids and in Nonnus the Nereids' dances are specifically aid to be Bacchic. Thi Orphic hymn take u another step closer to the cultic dithyramb which the cw Mu ic both imitated and helped construct. The Orphic hymns, probably of Imperial date, belong to a collection of subliterary songs actually intended for cultic performance. Though from a very different world, this poem (like the other eighty-six hymn of the collection) resemble the Pseudo-Arion's hymn and the first stasimon of uripidc ' Electra in preferring decoration and pure description to the more usual hymnic narration, and particularly de cription in the form of long paratactic sequences ofunu ual, highly artificial, and frequently enigmatic compound adjectives, especially those evoking ight and ound and appealing to the senses rather than the intellect (f~\'11111. 01ph. 24 Quandt):74 these authors call "literature," this hardly constitutes an argument against it perfonning a devotional function . The function is clear from the fact that it is inscribed on a votive which is dedicated in the anctuary. The claim that "whilst narrative of a good deed (as here) can comfortably fonn a part of praise poetry, the narrative in this case seems to exist for its own sake, to describe how Arion came to the Pcloponnc c, rather than to lead up to a concluding prayer." This again speaks to its New Musical style, but ab urdly suggc t that it i out of place in a thanks offering to name the deed for which thanks are offered. It is no objection to ay that Arion did not really dedicate the statue and inscription. Whether or not a song is "devotional" depend al o, in part, on reception, and our ancient witnesses accepted it as such. "' Cf. Lonsdale 1993.9 : ''the mimetic nature of Greek dance and the projection of dance-like movements onto the dolphin make it extremely likely that the playful creature was the subject of imitative dances... horcographic portrayal of animals that, like the dolphin, move in group , may well have been one of the variation undertaken by choru es performing dithyrambs in honour of Dionysus." '4 On the style ofthe hymns, sec Rudhardt 1991.264-69. The Dolphins ofDionysus 93 NtlPlltocov, euJ.!taJ.!a &pwJ.!a-ra Nllp£oc; dva/...(ou VUJ.!(jlat KUAUKc07UOcc;, ayva(, tocppaytat ~u8tat, XOP07tUlYJ.!OVcc;, uypoK£A€u8ot, 7t€VTI]KOV'WI KOpatI 1t€Qt\ KUUUO"tI RpUKX€UOUO"Ut, I Tprrwvcov ETC' OXOlO"tV ayaA.A6J.!€Vat 11€pt va:rra 811POTUTCotc; J.!Opcpat:c;, cbv ~OO"K€ OWJ.!UTU n6vwc;, 5 aA.A.otc; 8' Ol va(ouot ~u86v , TptTcOVlOV OtOJ.!U, uopoooJ.!Ot, oKlPTllTal, £A.toooucvot nwl K1>ua, 110VT07tAUVOt 0€A(j)tV€£, a/...tppo8wt, KUavauyctc;. UJ.!iic; KtKA~O"KCO 1tEJ.!1t€lV J.!UO"Tatc; 1t0AUV oA.~ov· U!!€l£ yap 7tp6hat T€A€TUV avcodl;aT€ ocuvnv I 0 c1n£pou BaKXOtO Kat ayvi)c; 75 The ivy is said to twist the Bacchic chorus about (BUKXlUV unocrrpt 4. Conclusion Dolphins and Nereids are symbolic dancers from their earliest appearance in Greek art, myth and literature. They are not, however, associated with dance generically, but with pecific kinds of dance. Both dolphins and Nereids are associated exclusively with choral dancing. Moreover dolphins have a particular association with komastic dance, round-dance, and cult dance, especially the dithyramb, and for all these reasons they develop a close as ociation with Dionysus. Dolphins are not exclusively a ociated with Diony us, as the cultic hymn to Poseidon or the myth of Apollo Delphinios how, but the dolphin is associated with the Dionysiac realm first and foremo t. ereid too are in art and poetry associated primarily with round and cultic dance. In myth ereid are a ociated, like dolphins, with the salvation of drowning men. nd even the ere cues have something to do with Dionysus and something to do with cu lti c practice. Indeed the Nereid Thetis saved the drowning Dionysus when he was dri en into the ea by Lycurgus.77 Through their role in the myth of Achilles, Nereids are a! o a choru of mourner . They process with Achilles and Peleus to the Isle of the 7 Ble ed. R From as earl y a the second quarter of the fifth century BC Nereids, e pecially ereid riding dolphins, become an important motif in Greek funerary art. 79 In myth, literature and folklore both Nereids and dolphins play a role in saving ordinary men from certain death, and escorting them to distant shores, just as they e ort the heroic dead to the Isles of the Blessed. All of these functions made them ymbol of eternal alvation, giving them a doctrinal role in the mysteries, and a 711 onnus Dion. 48.193, cf. 9.163, 14.28. Compare also Hymn. Hom. Ven. 120 (with Calame 1997.34- 5) and the self-consciou metaphor with whi ch the chorus in the hymn to Dionysus in Ar. Thesm. 999- 1000 ends it e plicitly round dance "K"UICAcy 8f. nep[ cr£ Ktcrcroc; I e1meta/coc; 1::/ctKt 8a/cA£t. " 77 Hom. fl. 6.134-36; tesichorus PMG 234. The story of Dionysus and Thetis seems a structural inversion of the tale of I no, Dionysu 'aunt and nurse, who leaped into the sea to escape violent death and wa · made immortal as the ereid Leucothea (Hom. Od. 5.333- 36; Pind. 01. 2.28- 30, Pyth. 11.1- 5; Eur. Med. 12 2- 89, Bacch. 228- 32, 680-82, 1129-3 1, 1227- 29). Note that Plutarch (Mor. 162c) seems to imply mediation by dolphins in the alvation of lno!Leucothea. 7 · Aethiopi in Proclu Chrestomathia (EGF 47); Eur. Andr. 1260- 68. See Barringer 1994.49- 54. 9 ' The earlie t appearance of ereids on funerary art are the Melian reliefs which perhaps served as ornamental attachments for ca k intended to erve as funerary offerings: see lcard-Gianolo & Szabados 1992.812, nos. 3 6 and 387. Barringer 1994.39-40, pis. 36-7. A presentation ofarrns appears on an Attic \\hite-ground ·quat lekytho ew York 31. 11 .13) of ca. 420 BC (= Icard-Gianolo & Szabados 1992.809, no. 331; ee Barringer 1994.4 7). The next appearance in funerary art is the ?Nereids on the ereid Monument from antho (London BM 909- 923), of disputed date, but currently placed 390-380 BC by hilds 1973. Demargne 1987.190, and Childs & Demargne 1989.403- 04. On the Nereid Monument, see Barringer 1994.59 66. Funerary ereids are especially common from the fourth century BC onwards: Ko · atz-Dei smann 197 .I and n. I 08. Barringer 1994, passim. The Dolphins ofDionysus 95 further, more metaphysical, connection with Dionysus.80 This explains the symbolic importance of Nereids and dolphins for the mysteries. But the Orphic hymn's claim that the Nereids first revealed the mysteries to men is probably a reference to their archetypal function in cultic dance around the altar. Our survey of the evidence shows that, by the later fifth century BC, the Nereids' and dolphins' "circular choru e " acquired clear and compelling associations with Dionysus. 81 The connection was forged in large part by the archaizing, but nonetheless creative, cultic revival of New Music. So long as the legitimate context for studying the appearance of dolphins and Nereids in art and literature is limited to other art and literature, we will suppose them to be, at best, mere allusions, and, at worst, mindless copying. As William Slater has frequently demonstrated, we cannot really understand what these figures meant to Greek poets, artists, and their public unless we examine their use not only in literature, myth, and art, but in actual practice, in cultic dance, theatrical performance, and in the activities of those cultic, sympotic, and funereal contexts for which the art and poetry was designed. Bibliography Alemdar, S. 2000. " Le monument de Lysicrate et son trepied," Klema 25. 199- 206. Amandry, P. 1997. "Monuments choregiques d'Athenes," BCH 121.445- 87. Amyx, D.A. & P. Lawrence 1975. Corinth VII.2: Archaic Corinthian Poflery and the Anaploga Well. Princeton. Amyx, D.A. & P. Lawrence 1996. Studies in Archaic Corinthian Vase Painting. Hesperia Suppl. 28. Princeton. Barringer, J.M. 1994. Nereids in Archaic and Classical Greek Art. Ann Arbor. Basta Donzelli, G. 1992. "Osservazioni sui primo stasimo dell ' Elettra di Euripide," Eikasmos 3. 111 - 22. Bentz, M. 2000. Panatheniiische Preisamphoren. Eine athenische Vasengattung und ihre Funktion vom 6.-4. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Antike Kunst Beih. 18. Basel. Boardman, J. 1968. Archaic Greek Gems. London. Bonfante, L. 1993. "Fufluns Pacha: The Etruscan Dionysus," in T.H. Carpenter & C.A. Faraone, eds. Masks ofDionysus. Ithaca & London. 221 - 35. Boosen, M. 1986. Etruskische Meeresmischwesen: Untersuchungen zu Typologie und Bedeutung. Rome. 80 The dolphin-rescue stories are collected by Bowra 1970.177- 79. Brunschwig ( 1963) argues that interpretatio Orphica turned the myth of Dionysus and the pirates into an allegory of metensomalosis. f. Triomphe 1992.183-84. 81 This is not to say "exclusive." Even the eschatological function of the dolphin is not exclusively Dionysiac, as we have seen. But mystery cult brought many other gods into close association with Dionysus from an early date. 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(Illinois Classical Studies 24- 5.) hampaign . 399-436. sapo, E. forthcoming. "The Politics of the ew Music," in P. Murray & P. Wilson, ed . Music and ulture in Ancient Greece. Oxford. ou, I I. F. de 1893. "The Frieze of the Choregic Monument of Lysikrates at Athens," AJA 8. 42 5 . D' ngour, . 1997. "I low the Dithyramb Got its Shape," CQ 47. 331-51. D