In his Poetics Aristotle argued that the chorus being one of the actors, as in Sophocles, was its finest function, while he criticized Euripides' choruses for not being part of the whole and not sharing in the action. Aristotle also mentioned that in the work of other tragic poets (probably from the late fifth century onwards) the chorus's odes stood outside the context of the dramatic myth, and named these odes embolima, ascribing their origin to Agathon (who was active in the last quarter of the fifth century bc).Footnote ¹ So we should not assume that in Aristotle's view Euripides was responsible for paving the way for the practice of the embolima. However, it is at least certain that, in his opinion, Euripides' choral odes were less dependent upon the dramatic plot than those of Sophocles.

Later critics found Aristotle's observation to be satisfying to their own research and condemned Euripides' embolima as one of the poet's abnormalities.Footnote ² Some characterized most of these odes as ‘dithyrambic’ interludes, composed under the strong influence of the dithyrambic narrative odes.Footnote ³ Another approach viewed Euripides' embolima in relation to the novelties of the so-called ‘New Music’ or ‘New Dithyramb’ of the late fifth century bc, based on Aristophanes' parody of the musical style and diction of Euripides and the contemporary dithyrambic poets. But recently, by paying special attention to choreia, scholars have seriously questioned the general idea of aesthetic decline of lyric at the end of the fifth century, and have argued for a wider tendency of the poets to increase choral activity by re-instilling traditional elements. We can now safely say that it was chiefly the dithyrambic poets who tried to revive dionysiac religiosity by creating an orgiastic atmosphere on all levels of the performance, despite the distaste that their methods caused among their contemporaries.Footnote ⁴

In my opinion, the motivations of this poetic trend were not simply aesthetic. Both tragedy and dithyramb were ritualistic, meant to offer praise to their patron god Dionysus in the City Dionysia, which could be achieved by validating the elements of choreia, especially that of Dionysus. Particularly in tragedy, the tragic chorus's interference in dramatic eventsFootnote ⁵ could gradually limit its original ritual roleFootnote ⁶ of singing and dancing in honour of Dionysus.Footnote ⁷ Thus, one may suppose that Euripides tried to re-establish the initial function of the tragic chorus by changing the composition of choral odes from a dramatic dependent state to a ritual one. This, according to Aristotle, disturbed the continuity of the dramatic events and damaged the ideal function of the tragic chorus.

In order to restore the chorus's ritual identity, Euripides had to make the main elements of rituality (religiosity, universality, stability, and efficacy) clearer for the audience. This could be achieved by choral odes connected to the ritual circumstances of a given play, as well as by odes referring to divinities and ritual events outside the dramatic context. Particularly in the latter, the drama freezes, and, for the sake of the spectators, religious euphoria exaggerates the ritual identity of the chorus. This technique un-confines the dramatic space of the chorus and/or removes it from any specific time frame. When this occurs, the chorus may move its dance outside the dramatic space of the play being performed to locate it in a different space and time.Footnote ⁸ In this respect, it is notable that in almost all Euripidean tragedies the chorus recalls a similar choreia from the past or imagines a future choreia of its own or of another group. In his observations, Albert Henrichs was the first to use the term ‘choral projection’ and described it ‘as an important corollary to choral self-referentiality’, claiming that ‘choral projection is at its most complex in the plays of Euripides’.Footnote ⁹ Whenever a Euripidean chorus introduces its own dancing into ritual choral events from the past or future, it broadens its choreia with fictional mirrors of its own performance, thus validating its initial role of offering praise to the honoured god Dionysus.Footnote ¹⁰ Since choral projection is mostly found in Euripides' later plays (from 415 bc onwards),Footnote ¹¹ at a time when the Euripidean chorus was criticized by Aristotle as standing apart from the dramatic plot, one may further push Henrichs' observations and investigate whether choral projection becomes a tool in Euripides' hands to construct odes full of ritual chorality, regardless of their relevance to the action itself. In particular, some patterns of choral projection in Euripides' odes may shed new light on the connection between the embolima and the contemporary novelties of the ‘New Music’/‘New Dithyramb’.

For the purposes of my article, it is necessary to discriminate between two categories in the patterns of choral projection in Euripides' plays: projections in which both time and space change, but the dramatic identity of the chorus remains unchanged; and projections in which the tragic chorus is transformed by taking on another identity. In the first stasimon of Hecuba,Footnote ¹² for example, the captured Trojan women wish to take refuge in Delos, where Leto was resting after giving birth to her twins, Apollo and Artemis. The Trojan women participate in the cultic hymn performed by the Delian maidens for Artemis (455–65), where their desire transports the dramatic space to Delos, to an undefined future time. However, they maintain their dramatic role and continue to sing dependently upon it, since the projected chorus of the Deliades is called to contribute dramatically by offering relief to the Trojan sufferings of captivity in the peaceful atmosphere of the holy island of Delos (σύν…εὐλογήσω, ‘I will accompany their blessing song’; 462–5). In the second stasimon of Heracles, on the other hand, the chorus makes an unexpected comparison of their own dancing to the Deliades' dance in honour of Apollo. Despite their age, the Theban elders desire to perform the paeans for Heracles' victory, whirling like the Delian maidens who perform a beautiful dance for the son of Leto (687–95).Footnote ¹³ The chorus's desire not only transports their choreia to Delos but also changes their dramatic identity by abnormally juxtaposing themselves to the Delian maidens.

Out of these two categories, the latter is especially interesting in that projection onto other choreia, different from the tragic chorus's own performance, may be placed in a mythical context which was well known to the spectators but irrelevant to the plot of the play. This inevitably creates moments in which the chorus appears to be disengaged from the plot of the play.

In Ion (before 412 bc?), a choral projection in the third stasimon transforms Creusa's maidens into a group of dancing stars. In its dramatic role, the chorus ignores who Ion is and expresses shame at the thought that a foreigner would intrude into Demeter's Mysteries at Eleusis. But it is then immediately transported from the Iacchus nocturnal procession to a dance of the stars in the sky:Footnote ¹⁴

In this choral projection, both the dramatic space and time change. The choreia is transported from the orchestra to heaven, losing touch with earth, and is performed in a timeless frame. As the stars in the heaven, the chorus can dance forever, independently of the dramatic events.Footnote ¹⁶

Particular attention must be paid to the close analogy between the dance of the stars and the mythical dance of the Nereids (1080–4). The Nereids are primordial dancers who dwell with Thetis (Iliad, 18.37–49) and dance in the depths of the sea (Bacchylides, Ode 17.101–8).Footnote ¹⁷ They are also thought to be Dionysus' primordial dancers of myth (Nonnus 36.95: Νηρεΐδες δ' ἀλάλαζον, ‘the Nereids raised triumphant cries’), perhaps because they saved and nursed Dionysus when he jumped into the sea to escape from the persecution of Lycurgus (Nonnus 21.170–5).Footnote ¹⁸ Being thus represented as dancing in parallel with the stars, the Nereids reinforce the ritual character of the chorus's performance.

The fact that they are portrayed as dancing in circles (δίνας χορευόμεναι, 1084) is of special interest.Footnote ¹⁹ Circular dance is supposed to be archetypically cultic and archetypically dionysiac. Dithyrambic choruses were danced in circles,Footnote ²⁰ and the same may be true for tragic choruses, despite ancient sources (Pollux 4.108–9; Phot. Lex. s.v. tritos aristerou) that suggest rectangular formations.Footnote ²¹ By stressing the circular movements of the Nereids in this choral projection, the poet reflects the pure ritual formation of choral dancing for Dionysus, which is independent of the formation of the real chorus of the play. The star choruses may also be conceived as dancing in circles; because they are located close to one another, constellations might be imagined as creating semi-choruses performing together. Moreover, Dionysus may be thought of as the chorus leader of the stars. In the fifth stasimon of Sophocles' Antigone, the god is invoked as the leader of the chorus of the fire-breathing stars and lord of nocturnal utterances (ἰὼ πῦρ πνεόντων / χοράγ' ἄστρων, νυχίων / ϕθεγμάτων ἐπίσκοπε, 1146–8).Footnote ²² In Aristophanes' Frogs, the chorus (of initiates) addresses Iacchus as the light-bringing star of the rite in the night (νυκτέρου τελετῆς ϕωσϕόρος ἀστήρ, 342–3). Given that Dionysus was associated with Iacchus,Footnote ²³ the Eleusinian god who is mentioned at the beginning of this ode in Ion, what is created is a separate choreia of stars and Nereids which is as ritual and circular as it is primordial dionysiac. The spectators thus forget the atmosphere of the dramatic events and participate in the eternal stability of the physical world, which is ritually transformed by projecting onto the choruses of the stars and the Nereids.

Choral projections onto the Nereids and star choruses are also prominent in the first stasimon of Electra (432–86), known as the ‘Achilles’ Ode' of the play.Footnote ²⁴ Since the stasimon starts by recalling the departure of the Achaeans' expedition to Troy (κλειναὶ νᾶες, αἵ ποτ' ἔβατε Τροίαν, 432) and Achilles was the exemplary hero of the Trojan War, the ode is, at least typically, related to the plot of the play (dramatizing the vengeance by Orestes and Electra against Klytaimestra and Aigisthus). The song narrative, however, becomes independent of the dramatic events and full of choral activity in the first strophe, where dancing Nereids are portrayed accompanying the ships of the Achaeans, together with a dolphin or dolphins, as if ‘all dancing in concert’:Footnote ²⁵

In the second antistrophe, on the other hand, the description of Achilles' shield again brings choral elements to the fore by referring to ethereal choruses of the stars, especially the Pleiades and Hyades, surrounding the bright circle of Helios in the centre of the shield:

It is important to discuss the two patterns of these choral projections: the dancing of the Pleiades and Hyades in the antistrophe and that of the dolphin(s) in the strophe. In the astral imagination of the second antistrophe, the choruses of the Pleiades and Hyades are distinguished from the whole choreia of the stars. The description is very close to that of Homer in the Iliad (18.483–9), where the Pleiades and the Hyades are between the constellations named in the narrative of Achilles' shield (18.486). This Homeric reference to the Pleiades as a star constellation is the earliest known in ancient Greek literature, but in Homer's description there is no term which implies choreia. Instead, the constellation Ἄρκτος (Arktos), which is also referred to along with Orion, is anti-chorally called Ἄμαξα (‘the Wain’ or ‘Wagon’, 487).Footnote ²⁷ In the Hellenistic period, Callimachus (fr. 693 Pf, from Scholia on Theocr. 13.25a) believed that daughters of the queen of the Amazons, known as the Pleiades, were the first to institute choreia and nocturnal maiden choruses (πρῶτον δὲ αὗται χορείαν καὶ παννυχίδα συνεστήσαντο παρθενεύουσαι, ‘they first established choreia and all-night virgin ceremonies’). However, throughout the archaic period, in a number of poetic references, the Pleiades are referred to without choral connotations.Footnote ²⁸ Only in the early Alcman's Partheneion (fr. 1.60–3 PMG) is there a combination of the πεληάδες (‘Peleiades’) with the night and the σήριον ἄστρον (‘Sirius star’) which caused the theory of two rival choruses, one being the real maiden chorus of the Partheneion and the other projected onto the imaginary chorus of the Pleiades. In a version of this theory, Gloria Ferrari thinks that the chorus of Alcman's Partheneion impersonates the Hyades (‘the chorus dances [sic] the Hyades’) and ‘take on the role of archetypal dances’ by projecting onto the Pleiades (fr. 1.60–3).Footnote ²⁹ Recently, however, Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou has argued strongly against this theory and claimed that ‘ταὶ πεληάδες, “young pigeons, squabs”, is a playful and jocular appellation for the pair of Agido and Hagesichora’, the main maidens of the chorus named in the ode.Footnote ³⁰ This being so, the inventor of the special pattern of choral projection onto the Pleiades (and/or Hyades) appears to be Euripides, since Electra is the first text in which the Pleiades are referred to as dancing, after Alcman's Partheneion. The next Euripidean reference to the Pleiades' choreia is found in Helen (412 bc), in a choral projection onto cranes flying among the Pleiades and Orion (1487–91).Footnote ³¹ I think that Euripides' source for the Pleiades pattern, which specialized the general one of astral choral imagery in Soph. Ant. 1146–8 (referred to above), is the Homeric narrative of Achilles' shield, where the astral imagery in the centre of the shield is particularized in the Pleiades, the Hyades, Orion, and Arktos, and is encircled by an image of a happy feast, where wedding choruses of young men are whirling in the dance to the tune of flutes and lyres: ‘Therein fashioned he also two cities of mortal men exceeding fair. In the one there were marriages and feastings, and by the light of the blazing torches they were leading the brides from their bowers through the city’ (Il. 18.490–3). And:

Euripides thus enriches tragic choreia by consciously renewing elements of heavy poetic tradition, as in Homer, into patterns of choral projection.

Now I have come to the dance of the dolphin(s) in the first strophe (435–7),Footnote ³³ which is implicitly introduced as dionysiac by the compound epithet ϕίλαυλος (loving the music of the pipe, the well-known instrument of the dithyramb) and the participle εἱλισσόμενος, usually expressing the movements of whirling dances (cf. El. 180, Phoen. 234–5, and IA 1055–7), especially the maenadic ones (Bacch. 569–70).Footnote ³⁴ In literature, Dionysus' association with dolphins is attested in the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus (48–53),Footnote ³⁵ where we are told, without obvious choral indications, that the pirates, frightened by the miracles of Dionysus, jumped into the sea and turned into dolphins: πάντες ὁμῶς πήδησαν ἐπεὶ ἴδον εἰς ἅλα δῖαν, / δελϕῖνες δ' ἐγένοντο (52–3).Footnote ³⁶ Choral connotations are there in the story of Arion, narrated by Herodotus (1.23–24.8): frightened by the sailors/pirates of a Corinthian vessel carrying him from Tarentum, Arion asked to sing a last song by playing his ‘shrill nome’ (orthios nomos) on the kithara. When the song was finished, the singer-poet jumped into the sea (ἐξεπήδησε, 1.24.7) and was saved by a dolphin, who took him on his back and bore him to Taenarus.Footnote ³⁷ Under the impression of this musical atmosphere, one may see the dolphin carrying Arion as if dancing, by considering this image as following Arion's kithara performance. Moreover, since Arion is introduced by Herodotus as ‘the first man whom we know to compose and name the dithyramb’ (1.23), the dolphin image in the Herodotus narrative may also be connected with Dionysus, despite the fact that Arion plays his nomos on the kithara.Footnote ³⁸

Although vase-paintings of dolphins, dancing in or out of dionysiac context, do exist from the sixth and early fifth centuries bc,Footnote ³⁹ the narratives of the Homeric Hymn and that by Herodotus are the main extant literary sources for the association of dolphin(s) with Dionysus and his dancesFootnote ⁴⁰ until the late fifth century bc.Footnote ⁴¹ I am therefore inclined to believe that the image of the Achaeans' ships, dancing in concert with the Nereids and dolphins in the first stasimon of Euripides' Electra, is a choral extension of motifs found in these two narratives. It transforms the voyage of the dolphin carrying Arion on his back into the voyage of the Achaeans' ships surrounded by dolphin(s) who dance in dionysiac rhythms.Footnote ⁴² If so, it should be noted that the motif of the dancing ship(s) is also dominant in an impressive choral description at the beginning of the third stasimon of Euripides' Helen (412 bc), where the ship of Helen and Menelaus returning home becomes the leader of the dancing dolphins that accompany it (1454–5), while the Nereids are only subtly mentioned by the name of their father Nereus: Φοίνισσα Σιδωνιὰς ὦ / ταχεῖα κώπα, ῥοθίοισι Νηρέως / εἰρεσία ϕίλα, χοραγὲ τῶν καλλιχόρων / δελϕίνων (‘O swift ship of Sidon in Phoenicia, oared vessel dear to Nereus’ waves, you lead in their lovely dances the graceful dolphins'; 1451–5Footnote ⁴³). In this way, Euripides develops a choral interpretation of both the dolphin-voyageur in Herodotus and the dolphins surrounding Dionysus' miraculous ship in the Hymn, by innovating, as in the case of the Pleiades pattern, elements of traditional tales in a fanciful poetic image of ship(s) dancing with dolphins.Footnote ⁴⁴ For my hypothesis, it should be noticed that in visual art, except for the cup by Exekias (540–530 bc) showing Dionysus sailing on a ship with a group of seven dolphins,Footnote ⁴⁵ other paintings represent series of ships with dolphins between them. However, this decorative motif hardly implies a link between either the Hymn's or Herodotus' narrative, and in some cases it is reminiscent of military imagery with a couple of hoplites.Footnote ⁴⁶

After these observations, it is of great importance that the dolphin(s) description in the first stasimon of Electra have interesting similarities with the adespoton dithyrambic fragment 939 PMG, which is attributed by Aelian (NA 12.45) to Arion, but is written in the manner of the New Dithyramb (c.400 bc).Footnote ⁴⁷ The reserved verses (1–19), containing an invocation of Poseidon by Arion, describe the dolphins that rescued Arion as dancing around Poseidon in a circle:

Apart from the obviously dithyrambic – and consequently dionysiac – circular mode of the dance (κύκλωι),Footnote ⁴⁹ the romping movements of the dolphins imitate Bacchic dancing. In some cases, the dolphins leap (ἀναπαλλόμενοι, 7) calmly with light (κούϕοισι, ἐλαϕρά) tossings of feet (ποδῶν ῥίμμασιν, 6–7), while in other instances they rush quickly and offensively, like dogs (ὠκύδρομοι σκύλακες, 8). The ethereal movements may bring to mind the choral projection onto choruses of maenads dancing like a young nebros (‘fawn’) in the third stasimon of Euripides' Bacchae (862–76, especially 864–7: δέραν / αἰθέρ' ἐς δροσερὸν ῥίπτουσ', / ὡς νεβρὸς χλοεραῖς ἐμπαί–/ ζουσα λείμακος ἡδοναῖς, and 873–4 ἀελ– / λὰς θρώισκῃ πεδίον παραποτάμιον, ‘tossing my throat to the dewy air of heaven, like a fawn playing in the verdant pleasures of a meadow’ and ‘it bounds, storm-swift…to the plain by the river’Footnote ⁵⁰).

As regards the dolphins' rush, it is described with wording similar to that of the fourth stasimon of the Bacchae, where the maenads of Cithaeron are called to tear apart Pentheus as θοαὶ Λύσσας κύνες (‘rushing hounds of ‘Frenzy’; 977). Moreover, the dolphins tossing their neck back (ϕριξαύχενες, 8), by curving their bodies (σιμοί, 7) while dancing, resembles hair-streaming in the Bacchae (147–50, 862–5). In particular, the epithet ϕριξαύχενες has more choral connotations than ῥιψαύχενι in the Theban Dithyramb of Pindar fr. 70b.14 (ῥιψαύχενι σὺν κλόνῳ, ‘in the agitation of tossing necks’), because it is compounded with ϕρίξ (deriving from the verb ϕρίσσω), which means ‘ripple’ (see the comparison of the chorus to a swan in Heracles 692–3, in the choral projection onto the Deliades referred to above).Footnote ⁵¹ In addition, in our dithyrambic fragment, the neck-tossing description is inserted between the calm and wild images of the dolphins, joining them in a single two-faced image of dionysiac dancing, which is reminiscent of the messenger's report of the calm and wild deeds of the maenads in the Bacchae (692–711 and 731–64 respectively).Footnote ⁵² Carefully considered, the adespoton dithyrambic fragment 939 PMG appears as if it is a detailed and sophisticated interpretation of the dionysiac spirit of the synoptic εἱλισσόμενος characterizing the dancing dolphin(s) in Electra’s first stasimon.Footnote ⁵³

Furthermore, we can observe some more similarities concerning the wording of the two texts. In both Electra's first stasimon and fr. 939 PMG the dolphin(s) are characterized as lovers of music, and their dancing is represented by the same verb pallein or pallesthai (ἔπαλλε in Euripides' Electra 435 and ἀναπαλλόμενοι in fr. 939.7 PMG), which means ‘leaping’. In my opinion, the verb ἔπαλλε, which metaphorically reflects vivid dance steps, actually means ‘vibrate, ring, or throb’. Consequently, it may be thought of as implying choral activity more effectively than the verb πηδῶ, used for the katapontismos of both the pirates and Arion in the Hymn and Herodotus respectively. Moreover, in both texts the dancing dolphins are connected with the Nereids. In Electra's stasimon the dancing dolphin(s) are described as if emerging from the choruses of the Nereids. In the dithyrambic fragment the dolphins are referred to as being nurtured (θρέμματα, 9) by the Nereids, which means that they are represented as children of the Nereids or educated by them. As far as I know, these two texts along with Helen 1451–5 (discussed above)Footnote ⁵⁴ are the only contemporary ones in which dancing dolphins are so obviously connected with the Nereids. Moreover, the dolphin's/dolphins' dance in the first stasimon of Electra is cited by Aristophanes in Frogs (1317–18), as if it were representative of Euripides' choral odes (1301–29), and is parodied with a comic exaggeration of the verb ἑλίσσειν (εἱειειειλίσσετε, 1314). Thus, one may suppose that Euripides' choral projection onto dolphin(s) and Nereids in Electra's first stasimon stands as exemplary for the descriptions of the unknown dithyrambic poet in fr. 939.Footnote ⁵⁵

The basis of my conclusions may be found in the whole parody of Euripides' lyrics by Aristophanes in the Frogs (1309–63). This passage is generally considered to be proof of the influence of the contemporary New Dithyramb on Euripides, with the idea being introduced in lines 1301–3, precisely by the verb ϕέρει and the prepositional adjunct ἀπὸ πάντων in the wording of line 1301:Footnote ⁵⁶

However, the un-poetical πορνιδίων is metaphorically used, while the others are preceded by the songs of the minor poet Meletus, the son of the tragic poet of the same name, who is referred to after πορνιδίων. So, it may not be impossible to believe that Euripides' choral odes are parodied not for being influenced by that of the dithyrambic poets but for employing elements of low quality, also characteristic of the songs of minor poets. Above all, the features for which Euripides is parodied by Aristophanes are, among others, wordy poetic language (ἀλκυόνες…στωμύλλετε, ‘Halcyons…do chatter’; 1309–10)Footnote ⁵⁷ and the invention of complicated compound words (ὑπωρόϕιοι κατὰ γωνίας / εἱειειειλίσσετε δακτύλοις, ‘spiders, who in the corners under the roof wi–yi–yi–yi–yi–yind with your fingers’; 1313–14),Footnote ⁵⁸ which can be observed in the adespoton dithyrambic fr. 939 PMG of the New Music, but not in the choral description offered by Euripides for the same motif (of the dancing dolphins) in Electra. Therefore, Aristophanes' criticism may simply reflect common features in the composition of Euripides' lyrics and contemporary dithyrambs.

In this regard, what demand special attention are the passages cited by Aristophanes as representative of Euripides' lyrics. Aristophanes' criticism distinguishes between Euripides' choral odes (Frogs 1309–28) and lyric monodies performed by actors (1329–63). Apart from the passage citing Electra's dolphin(s) pattern (Frogs 1317–18, referred to above), two fragments from the now lost Hypsipyle offer another paradigm of Euripides' choral odes by implying dancing in dionysiac religious context (οἰνάνθα τρέϕει τὸν ἱερὸν βότρυν, ‘the vine-shoot nourishes its sacred cluster’; Frogs 1320–3 = TrGF 765 Kannicht, and ΥΨ. περίβαλλ', ὦ τέκνον, ὠλένας, ‘throw your arms around me, my child’; Frogs 1323 = TrGF 765a Kannicht). As for Euripides' monodies, there is a parody embodying a dubious fragment from the lost Temenidae (Frogs 1338 = TrGF [741] Kannicht) and one more from Cretans (ἀλλ' ὦ Κρῆτες, Ἴδας τέκνα, ‘O Cretans, sons of Ide’; Frogs 1356 = TrGF 472f Kannicht), relevant to a criticism of Euripides earlier in the Frogs (849): ὦ Κρητικὰς μὲν συλλέγων μονῳδίας (‘You collector of Cretan arias’). These two may point to dionysiac content, too, since the most famous fragment that survives from Cretans is that projecting onto the Bacchic chorus of the Kouretes, dancing for Zeus in the Idas cave of Crete (TrGF 472.10–19 Kannicht).

Moreover, the presumably dionysiac content of the parodied Euripidean lyrics is expanded by a mention of the Nymphs (dancing?) in the mountains (Νύμϕαι ὀρεσσίγονοι, Frogs 1344), relevant to that of the Bacchae (Bacch. 116, 140, 164, 986), an invocation of the personified Μανία (Mania) as a goddess (ὦ Μανία, ξύλλαβε, ‘O Mania, help!’; Frogs 1345), and, of course, by the repetition of ἑλίσσειν (εἱειειειλίσουσα, Frogs 1348), directly recalling the imperative εἱειειειλίσσετε at line 1314. The whirling of Euripides' dancers thus implied is represented as following various and effective changes of musical rhythms, parodied by a reference to the prostitute Cyrene (Frogs 1325–8 = TrGF 765b Kannicht, for Euripides' choral odes) and the aerial wording of the modes of the poetic synthesis itself (Frogs 1328, 1352–3, for Euripides' monodies). Aristophanes had already criticized contemporary dithyrambic poets for pompous and empty diction along with rhythmical innovations (Clouds 333–4 and Birds 1372–1409). But what Euripides' work shares with the dithyrambic poets in the Frogs is its dionysiac content, since Aristophanes' parody is concentrated in the polymorphic and many-sounded εἱειειειλίσσειν, repeated (twice) at crucial moments of his criticism. For the purposes of my article, therefore, it is important that, with the exception of the latest Bacchae, in two of Euripides' plays choral projections embody elements of pure dionysiac rituals and constitute two of the best-known of his embolima.

The song of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis in the third stasimon of Iphigenia at Aulis (406 bc) is often regarded as having little to do with the dramatic plot of the play.Footnote ⁵⁹ Even if we suppose that the blessed marriage of Achilles' parents contrasts implicitly with the false marriage of Iphigenia and Achilles,Footnote ⁶⁰ the narrative stands as a separate scene. For the aims of this study, it is of particular interest that the strophe of the stasimon is a prominent choral projection:Footnote ⁶¹

There are two projected choruses here: the Pierides Muses, who are referred to as dancing on Pelion, and the Nereids, who dance beside the sea. The dancing of the Pierides is lively, with steps hitting the earth (1043), and it is placed in a dionysiac atmosphere, suggested by the accompaniment of the Lydian pipe (1036)Footnote ⁶³ and the wine offered by Ganymede in golden kraters (1051–3). The chorus of the Nereids dances in a circle (1055), comparable to the chorus in the third stasimon of Ion and with much the same effect.Footnote ⁶⁴ Once more, the dramatic space is transported to a sacred place, the dramatic time freezes, and the chorus of the play appears to be investigating its role (τίνα…ἰαχάν, 1036–9) in the choreia of a divine marriage.

The most complex choral projection is found in Helen (412 bc). The plot of the play, first attested by Stesichorus in the Palinode, refers to a mythical aspect which was that the heroine's phantom was transferred to Troy rather than Helen herself. But, in lines 1301–68, the chorus performs an ‘alien’ ode, usually characterized as the Euripidean embolimon.Footnote ⁶⁵ It refers to Persephone's abduction by Pluto and the subsequent grief of her mother Demeter.Footnote ⁶⁶ The mythical events are given in narrative style. The narration starts from Demeter's search for her daughter (1301–12) and then moves backwards to the moment of Persephone's abduction (1312–18), while she was dancing with other virgins.Footnote ⁶⁷ The narrative style continues up to the second strophe, where Zeus intervenes to rescue mortals and gods from the wrath of the grieving goddess. The father of the gods gives no solution to Persephone's abduction. However, he gladdens Demeter by summoning the Muses and the Graces to a jubilant divine choreia:

This is a turning point, because the chorus's narrative stops and the Graces and the MusesFootnote ⁶⁹ are directly invoked (as if by Zeus's voice) to cure the goddess's grief with their dancing cries (ἀλαλᾷ, 1344).Footnote ⁷⁰ Aphrodite first takes up the drums of stretched hide (1347) while Demeter smilingly accepts the deep-sounding pipe (1349–51) and expresses her satisfaction with loud ritual cries (ἀλαλαγμῷ, 1352).Footnote ⁷¹ Dancing like a maenad, Demeter directly addresses Persephone in the vocative: ‘my child’ (ὦ παῖ, 1356),Footnote ⁷² as if her daughter were a participant in the choreia summoned by Zeus, and praises the Great Mother who should not be neglected. What is performed is a divine choreia in which Demeter's dancing is set off as a concrete ritual dance. What is also notable is the dionysiac character given to the ritual choreia, especially in the antistrophe (1353–68), through the use of Bacchic vocabulary (βακχεύουσα, 1364) and references to elements of actual dionysiac worship such as the hair-streamingFootnote ⁷³ (1364), the fawn-skin robesFootnote ⁷⁴ (1358), the ivy crownsFootnote ⁷⁵ (1360), the fennel stalksFootnote ⁷⁶ (1361), and the dinning rhombusFootnote ⁷⁷ (1362), as well as to Dionysus himself (Bromios, 1364).

We observe that, in Demeter's Ode of Helen, the chorus acts by narrating mythical events. But, as the predefined identity of Helen's maidens and the storyline of the dramatic events are irrelevant to the narrated mythical events (the abduction of Persephone), the narration, as a dramatic event, works for the spectators only if the chorus changes identity. Evidently, with the divine choreia summoned by Zeus, the identity of the chorus immediately changes, the previous narration becomes meaningful, and the audience is detached from the dramatic events. In its new, emphasized identity, the chorus can perform a ritually formed choreia independently of the dramatic events, having the audience follow its new performance. In other words, in Demeter's Ode, Euripides develops a long and explicit narration of a mythical event that is alien to the dramatic myth of the play. In fact, the poet maintains the narrative style of the performance of the dramatic events in order to distract the audience's attention; to complete this narration as a choral projection, he assigns the chorus a new identity with which it will perform a ritual choreia.Footnote ⁷⁸ In it the maidens of Helen dance independently of their dramatic identity, as if members of a divine chorus.

From the examples discussed above, we see that, in Euripides' hands, choral projections, especially those in which the chorus takes on another identity, become a tool to create moments of pure ritual choreia in full accordance with the tragic chorus's original intention. The fact that odes constructed with choral projections appear to be less dependent upon the dramatic plot of the play does not diminish the importance of the chorus. Instead, it shows the dynamic character of choral projections for retaining the original intention of the tragic chorus with moments of pure ritual atmosphere and frequently implied dionysiac choreia in the context of the Great Dionysia. In a recent essay, Luigi Battezzato argues the relevance of Demeter's Ode in Helen, by paying great attention to elements of Dionysus' and Demeter's female ritual dances at Sparta.Footnote ⁷⁹ Battezzato claims that this ode is an invitation by the chorus ‘to Helen to perform a religious rite, once she returns to her homeland’.Footnote ⁸⁰ The embolima were thus not odes composed to be recycled from play to play, and criticism of them should be removed from the criterion of their thematic relevance to the plot.

Some patterns of choral projection in Euripides' later plays, as in the dancing dolphin(s), offer a fresh approach to the poet's role in the innovative spirit of the contemporary New Music, since they seem to have inspired finely detailed descriptions in contemporary dithyrambic poets, who tried to reproduce patterns of Euripidean lyrics along with impressive musical compositions.Footnote ⁸¹ Such self-awareness of saving rituality is greatly manifested in Euripides' last play and the only dionysiac one extant among Greek tragedies, the Bacchae, where the poet showed that offering honour to Dionysus was to uncover the elements of the purest dionysiac choreia. Bacchae is the only tragedy in which the dramatic role of the chorus (accompanying Dionysus in establishing his worship) is perfectly harmonized with their ritual one (dancing for Dionysus) and is performed with varied choral projections of the Lydian Bacchae of the orchestra onto dionysiac ritual dancing, of which there is not one that could be characterized as embolimon.Footnote ⁸²

Considered in depth, Aristotle's criticism of the embolima as an inferior element of the tragic chorus reflects an emerging crisis concerning the relation of the chorus to dramatic actions. This crisis became clear in the Hellenistic period, when the tragic actors performed on the high stage of the proskenion separately from the chorus dancing on the orchestra.Footnote ⁸³ From this point of view, perhaps it is no mere accident that Euripides' Bacchae is the last of his tragedies to have survived.