The centrality of choral performance in ancient Athenian civic life has generated increased scholarly discussion – now concerted, now antiphonic – since Arion 3 (1994–95), if not earlier; and the past decade in particular has seen the subject of generic interactivity between choral song and other genres of poetry become a central topic in that discussion. S. elegantly amplifies these strains of scholarship whilst inviting further investigation: her project is to shift our understanding of the chorus ‘in terms of tragedy's inheritance’ and to resituate it within ‘the wider contemporary musical culture in which tragedy is rooted’ (p. 2). S. does well to ‘explore the various ways in which tragedy interacts with other choral genres’ and to demonstrate ‘that this generic interaction is more wide-ranging and sophisticated than has been recognized’. Readers well acquainted with Greek tragedy will hardly challenge S.'s premise that ‘when tragedy alludes to lyric genres, it evokes a whole set of cultural and normative assumptions involved in them’ (p. 2): this hermeneutics sounds so very obvious. Yet S.'s first – and indispensable – book constitutes a most original contribution, I daresay one of the most original contributions, to studies not only of Greek tragedy, but also of Greek poetic culture(s) as a whole to have emerged in recent years. This is that rare scholarly book which has its origins in a doctoral thesis whilst being, pari passu, a joy to read.
The core value of this book consists in five genre-chapters, among which Chapter 3 on paian is the first lyric genre treated, for indeed, ‘a paian-refrain provides an assurance of generic interaction which is hard for even a sceptic to doubt’ (p. 61). We are subsequently led through epinikion, partheneia, hymenaios, thrênos (and ritual lament): each genre-chapter outlines the lyric genre; situates that genre within Athenian civic life; provides an overview of that genre within and without tragedy; and offers close readings of that genre's interactivity across two or three tragedies in detail (and other plays in less detail, so admirably omnivorous is this book).
The introduction and first two chapters (pp. 1–60) unfussily contextualise and ground historically S.'s methodology: whilst wonderful in clarity, these pages do raise two programmatic concerns. First, has S.'s omission of ditharymbos limited the range of tragic evidence explored? Reasons given for not treating ditharymbos (pp. 22–6) are not unsound; but conversely the generic porosity of partheneia (pp. 173–240), delicately handled, heightens appreciation of the plays themselves – despite relying (perhaps too) much on Alcman and Pindar. Why not at least offer a cursory treatment of ditharymbos? (No Stesichorus here, I am afraid.) Second, whilst S.'s boundaries concerning allusiveness are safely based on broad thematics of interactivity, and thus free of the sort of dogmatism which can constrict studies of this kind, some readers might not readily accept the notion of function which apparently drives S.'s modalities of generic interactivities. Potential problems concerning S.'s functionally driven approach are too complex for present space: I refer the reader instead to M. Heath's ‘The “Social Function” of Tragedy: Clarifications and Questions’, in D.L. Cairns and V. Liapis (edd.), Dionysalexandros (2006), pp. 253–81. None the less, S.'s dutiful organisation offers a clear overall argument and nicely circumvents the risk of mechanical palaver.
S.'s thoroughgoing accounts of interactivity between lyric and tragedy generate sensitive readings of eleven plays: Soph. O.T., Eur. Ion (for paian); Eur. H.F., Eur. El. (epinikion); Eur. I.A., Eur. Hel. (partheneia); Eur. Hipp., Aesch. Supp. (hymenaios); Aesch. Persae, Soph. El., Eur. Alc. (thrênos). Sophocles' Antigone, referenced eight times (mostly in passing: cf. S.'s index locorum), is not among the eleven plays treated in detail. Might Ant. not inform study of, for example, partheneia or hymenaios or thrênos? But that query leads me to one of this book's outstanding qualities: S.'s ideas will surely catalyse further exploration of the lyric genres and the plays themselves, whether those plays are treated here in detail or not.
In so laudatory a review, it is perhaps necessary to point out a few reservations. I hesitate to accept that ‘the tragedians take pains to present lyric material in an accessible way’ (p. 4) – a claim without which the arguments in Chapter 2 (‘Lyric Poetry in an Athenian Context’) none the less stand strong. Whether the aforementioned ‘pains’ constitute meaningfully a ‘technique … designed to be meaningful to a mass audience’ (p. 4) is questionable – indeed, M. Griffith seems to have suggested otherwise in ‘Brilliant Dynasts: Power and Politics in the Oresteia’ (ClAnt 14 [1995], 62–129). Furthermore, S.'s approach to allusionary limits is not unproblematic: after cataloguing several paeanic moments in Greek tragedy, S. asserts, ‘once over, the allusion is no longer relevant, and we are not meant to keep it in mind later during the play’ (p. 72). How do we know what the poet meant for us to keep in mind? How do we know whether the purported allusion, if not relevant to one member of the audience, will have been relevant to another? Reservations aside, S.'s strenuous rhetoric is admirable. Similarly, S.'s commitment to divisions among ‘Low-level interaction’, ‘Medium-level interaction’ and ‘High-level interaction’ tidies up such verbiage as is too often found in scholarship concerning generic allusiveness in general.
S. is particularly sharp when treating generic interactions in Soph. O.T. This section commences with the convincing idea that ‘[t]he relevance of the paian to Oedipus Tyrannus is clear from the play's opening, for we are immediately presented with a city … in need of healing. It is this need to find a cure for the plague which sets in motion the play's action, and leads to the uncovering of Oedipus’ identity' (p. 74). Here we see how sensitivity towards generic interactivity can be brought fruitfully to bear upon deeper understandings of Greek tragedy. Yes: this paian ‘is not simply included to add colour or detail. Rather, paeanic language becomes woven into the play's questions about the nature of the divine, and is used to explore the differing facets of Apollo and of divine justice’ (p. 75).
‘Attitudes to Elite Material in Athens’ is one of the stronger sections of this book for readers concerned primarily with lyric, coming as this section does early on, and deploying as it does, with originality, evidence from comedy, whilst the section on ‘Tragedy and Democracy’ is comparatively weaker (to this reviewer). Whether the terms ‘elite’ and ‘democracy’ run the risk of anachronism is another question, beyond this review, and perhaps beyond the scope of S.'s bold undertaking. Yet, S. states without much qualification, ‘Tragedy is a democratic medium’ (p. 55), a heuristic which tends to receive insufficient nuance throughout this book: that something is ‘open to all’ and is ‘a civic festival’ does not eo ipso make it ‘democratic’ (p. 55). S. does gracefully concede that ‘a detailed treatment of’ elite and democratic values ‘is beyond the remit of this book’ (p. 55), whilst providing the reader with a brisk overview of the debate (pp. 55–60).
Once one completes the chapter on thrênos one is left wanting more case studies of generic interactivity. The selection of plays is determined by their putative depth and range of generic interaction; this method can result in tragic evidence less broad than one might have hoped for (de gustibus …). However, S.'s exhaustive and meticulously organised appendix, ‘References to Genres and Related Imagery in Tragedy’ (pp. 377–410 [sic]), eases anxiety concerning the range of evidence – and makes this book required consulting for scholars of Greek tragedy. I daresay £75 is a wise investment for this copious and critical appendix alone: ‘It includes all references to choral lyric and its related imagery which I have to date found in my reading of tragedy, organized by genre’ (p. 377). I have struggled to find a single salient reference overlooked. I encourage readers to attempt different arrangements of her appendix via different organisational schemes, for example, by chronology of play, by author, by classification of choral identity group and so on. This is an edifying exercise – proof, if any were needed, of what intellectual avenues S. has opened for the imaginative reader through a book so well imagined.
