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dithyramb

  (dĭth'ĭ-răm', -rămb') pronunciation
n.
  1. A frenzied, impassioned choric hymn and dance of ancient Greece in honor of Dionysus.
  2. An irregular poetic expression suggestive of the ancient Greek dithyramb.
  3. A wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writing.

[Latin dīthyrambus, from Greek dīthurambos.]

dithyrambic dith'y·ramb'ic adj.
 
 

Name for Dionysus and a song in his honour. Greek dithyrambs were written between about 700bc and ad 200. The term was revived in the 19th century for pieces intended to evoke the wild and vehement qualities of Dionysus (Bacchus); there are examples this century by Medtner and Stravinsky.



 

dithyramb [dith‐i‐ram], a form of hymn or choral lyric in which the god Dionysus was honoured in Greek religious festivities from about the 7th century BC onwards. Later in Athenian competitions, dithyrambs were composed—by Pindar among others—on episodes from myths of other gods, and the arrangement in matched strophes came to be relaxed. Dithyrambs seem to have been performed by a large chorus of singers, possibly dressed as satyrs, to flute accompaniment. A rare English imitation is Dryden's Alexander's Feast (1697). The adjective dithyrambic is sometimes applied to rhapsodies, or wildly impassioned chants.

 

Choric poem, chant, or hymn of ancient Greece. Dithyrambs were sung by revelers at the festival in honour of Dionysus. The form originated about the 7th century BC in extemporaneous songs of banqueters; it was a recognized literary genre by the end of the 6th century BC. Dithyrambs were composed by Arion and Pindar, among others. By c. 450 BC the form was in decline; most dithyrambs were bombastic and turgid.

For more information on dithyramb, visit Britannica.com.

 

Dithyramb (dithyrambos), in Greek, form of choral lyric sung to the god Dionysus; the word is of unknown origin, almost certainly not Greek. Its development into a literary genre was the work of the poet Arion in Corinth in the last quarter of the seventh century BC. From Corinth it was brought to Athens by Lasus of Hermione, and in 509 BC it became a subject for competition at the festivals of Dionysus (see DIONYSIA). Simonides, Pindar, and Bacchylides all wrote dithyrambs; of the first two only fragments exist, but several of Bacchylides' survive almost entire. The dithyrambic chorus did not wear masks; they danced and sang in a circle in the orchestra (see DIONYSUS, THEATRE OF). Narrative plays a large part in these poems, but its subject-matter is not particularly connected with Dionysus. At the Great Dionysia at Athens each tribe entered two choruses for the dithyrambic competitions, one of boys and one of men, each under the charge of a choregos (see CHOREGIA) chosen from the tribe. Lots were drawn to determine the order for selecting poets and flute-players; the choregos also needed the services of a good chorus-trainer. The inscriptions preserving the lists of victors in the dithyrambic contests at Athens (see DIDASCALIA) preserve the names of the victorious tribes and their choregoi but not the names of the poets, no matter how famous. The successful choregos received, as the representative of his tribe, a tripod, which he erected at his own expense upon a monument, with an inscription. After Bacchylides the musical component of the dithyramb seems to have increased in importance at the expense of the words, but since no music has survived it is hard to discern what happened. Up to this time the dithyramb had been composed in regular form in strophes and antistrophes, but now this correspondence was abandoned in favour of a freer style of composition, with solo songs, and the language became farfetched and artificial. The names chiefly associated with these changes are Melanippides of Melos (flourished c.480 BC) who introduced lyric solos, Philoxenus of Cythera (c.436–380) who introduced in his Cyclops a solo sung to the lyre, Cinesias of Athens, and Timotheus of Miletus. After the fourth century BC it seems that the dithyramb was no longer an important form of literary composition, although the competitions survived into the time of the Roman emperors.

 
(dĭth'ĭrăm) , in ancient Greece, hymn to the god Dionysus, choral lyric with exchanges between the leader and the chorus. It arose, probably, in the extemporaneous songs of the Dionysiac festivals and was developed (according to tradition, by Arion) into the literary form to be found, for example, in the dithyrambs of Bacchylides. In its later development by such poets as Philoxenus and Timotheus it became freer in its meter and more musical. The tragedy seems to have come out of the dithyramb, but the dithyramb was also cultivated after tragedy was invented.

Bibliography

See A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, Tragedy, and Comedy (1927, repr. 1962).


 
Poetry Glossary: Dithyramb

In classic poetry, a type of melic verse associated with drunken revelry and performed to honor of Dionysus (Bacchus), the Greek god of wine and ecstacy. In modern usage, the term has come to mean a poem of impassioned frenzy and irregular character.

 
Wikipedia: dithyramb

The dithyramb was originally an ancient Greek hymn sung to the god Dionysus. Its wild and ecstatic character was often contrasted with that of the paean: just as Paean was both a hymn to and a title of Apollo, Dithyrambos was also a title of Dionysus as well as a song in his honor. According to Aristotle, the dithyramb was the origin of the Ancient Greek theatre. Richard Bentley writes that the Dithyramb was an old Bacchic Hymn and too old to be dated.1

Form

Dithyrambs were sung by a Greek chorus of up to 50 men or boys dancing in circular formation (there is no certain evidence that they may have originally been dressed as satyrs) and probably accompanied by the aulos. They would normally relate some incident in the life of Dionysus. The leader of the chorus later became the solo protagonist, with lyrical interchanges taking place between him and the rest of the chorus.

Competitions between groups singing dithyrambs were an important part of festivals such as the Dionysia and Lenaia. Each tribe would enter two choruses, one of men and one of boys, each under the leadership of a choragos. The results of dithyrambic contests in Athens were recorded with the names of the winning teams and choregoi recorded but not the poets, most of whom remain unknown. The successful choregos would receive a statue which would be erected - at his own expense - on a public monument to commemorate his group's victory.

History

The first dithyrambs were composed in Athens around the 7th century BC. Their inspiration is unknown, although it was possibly non-Greek, as the word is of unknown but probably non-Greek derivation. The form soon spread to other Greek city-states, and dithyrambs were composed by the poets Simonides, Pindar, and Bacchylides (only the latter's works have survived in anything like their original form). Later examples were dedicated to other gods but the dithyramb subsequently was developed (traditionally by Arion) into a literary form. According to Aristotle, it evolved into the Greek tragedy, and dithyrambs continued to be developed alongside tragedies for some time. The clearest sense of dithyramb as proto-tragedy comes from a surviving dithyramb by Bacchylides 1 2, though it was composed after tragedy had already developed more fully; as a dialogue between a single actor and a chorus, it is suggestive of what tragedy may have resembled before Aeschylus added a second actor. By the 4th century BC the genre was in decline, although the dithyrambic competitions did not come to an end until well after the Roman takeover of Greece.

Dithyrambic compositions have rarely been written in English, although one notable exception is Alexander's Feast by John Dryden (written 1697). A wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writing is still occasionally described as dithyrambic.

Footnotes

  • 1 Works of Richard Bentley, p.252

References

  • Bentley, Richard, Works of Richard Bentley, originally written in 1699, and collected by Alexander Dyce, 1836. v. 1-2. Dissertations upon the epistles of Phalaris, Themistocles, Socrates, Euripides, and upon the fables of Aesop ; also, Epistola ad Joannem Millium -- v. 3. Sermons preached at Boyle's lecture ; remarks upon a discourse of free-thinking ; proposals for an edition of the Greek testament.
  • Buckham, Philip Wentworth, Theatre of the Greeks, 1827.
  • Pickard-Cambridge, Sir Arthur Wallace
    • Dithyramb, Tragedy, and Comedy , 1927.
    • The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, 1946.
    • The Dramatic Festivals of Athens, 1953.
  • Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane, Tragedy and Athenian Religion, Oxford University Press, 2003.
  • Wiles, David, The Masked Menander: Sign and Meaning in Greek and Roman Performance, 1991.

See also


 
 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Poetry Glossary. Copyright © 2007, ILOVEPOETRY, Inc, All Rights Reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dithyramb" Read more

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