Mixed Choruses and Marriage Songs: A New Interpretation of the Third Stasimon of the "Hippolytos" Author(s): L. A.

Swift Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 126 (2006), pp. 125-140 Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30033403 . Accessed: 10/11/2011 09:13
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Journal of Hellenic Studies 126 (2006) 125-40

MIXED CHORUSESAND MARRIAGESONGS: A NEW INTERPRETATION THE THIRD STASIMONOF THE HIPPOLYTOS* OF
Abstract: This article uses evidence drawn from hymenaiosand wedding ritualto reach a new interpretation the of third stasimon of the Hippolytos, and its rile in the play. There is longstandingcontentionabout whether a second (male) chorusparticipatesin the ode, singing in antiphonywith the existing tragic chorus. Even scholarswho accept that a second chorusis presenthave tended to regardit as an aberration which needs to be explainedaway, ratherthan a deliberatechoice with poetic significance. I discuss the culturalimplicationsof such a chorus, examiningour evidence for real-life mixed choruses,and then applyingthis to the ode itself. The evidence for mixed chorusessuggests they are strongly associatedwith marriage. Looking more closely at the language and imagery of the ode, there are allusions to the topoi of wedding songs and ritualrunningthroughit. The ode can use these as a device to trigger deep-rootedresponses and associationsfrom the audience,as these motifs are drawnfrom the culturaltraditionwhich the audience shares. The topoi tie in with the theme of marriageand sexuality within the Hippolytosas a whole. But while theirusual purposeis to set up conventionalmodels and ways of thinking,the way they are deployed in the ode in fact serves to underminethese models, and to put a darkerspin on the norms of sexual behaviour. This strandof imagerythereforealso providesa filter for interpreting Hippolytos'own attitudetowardssexuality,and a guide to how we are meant to respondto it.

THE third stasimon of the Hippolytos (1102-50) has long been a crux of interpretation.Firstly, textual evidence suggests the ode is sung by two separatechoral groups, one the originaltragic chorus (women of Troezen), and the other a group of men. The antiphonyof the two choruses here is unique in survivingtragedy. Therehas thereforebeen much contentionover whetherthis is plausible, or whethertherecan be anotherway of interpreting text. Secondly,the language the and imagery of the third stasimon are confusing in their own right. The ode is a lament for Hippolytos'exile, but its details are strangeand do not tie into the story as Euripidestells it. For example, the chorus describes girls vying for Hippolytos' bed (1139-40). This seems bizarre it given that his chastity is the main focus of the play, even if we understand as an allusion to his cult status afterhis death (1423-30). Similarly,Hippolytos'motheris describedas being unfortunate in having given birthto him (1144-5), but this referencecomes out of the blue: not only does she have no rrle in the play, but mythological convention is that she is long dead.1 In this article I suggest thatboth these difficulties can be solved by a single answer. The key to the third stasimon is the language of hymenaios.2 I will identify ways in which the themes and topoi of wedding poetry run throughthe ode. I will then examine the evidence for mixed choralperformanceas a hymeneal motif. And finally I will explore how the hymeneal imagery of the thirdstasimonfits in with the broaderthemes of the Hippolytos,and arguethatthe mixed

* This article was first presentedorally at an internal seminar in Oxford, and at the Canadian Classical Association Conference in May 2005, and I am grateful for the feedback and comments I received from the audiences at both occasions. Particularthanks are owed to ArmandD'Angour,Angus Bowie, PatrickFinglass, Scott Scullion and Oliver Taplin for reading earlier drafts of this article and for their comments. 1 Pace Meridor(1972), I do not find the referenceto the cessation of music problematic. The most obvious is interpretation that it is Hippolytos' own musical performancewhich will cease in the house, and so it is a general statementabout what life in the house will be like without him (just like the absence of horse-training and

is offeringsto Artemis). Musicalperformance considered as much a partof young male aristocratic lifestyle as hunting - in fact Hippolytosleads the lyric song for Artemisat the startof the play. 2 For the purposesof this article, I intend the terms 'epithalamic'and 'hymeneal'simply to mean 'connected with marriage',and to be interchangeable.In fact, I take the genre term epithalamionoriginally to have referred specificallyto songs sung outsidethe house once the bride andgroomare inside,andhymenaiosto be a catch-allterm referringto all wedding songs, but the distinctionis not relevant here. This follows the interpretation Muth of (1954): 'Hymenaios ... verhiiltsich zu Epithalamionwie das logische Genus zur Species.'

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chorus of the Hippolytos is not somethingwhich needs to be explained away or apologized for, but a deliberatepiece of tragic innovationwhich ties in with and enhances Euripides'presentation of the myth.3 THE THIRD STASIMON:INITIALTHOUGHTS(BACK TO THE MEADOW) The thirdstasimonbegins with a strophicpair consisting of generalizinggnomai and the chorus' hopes for their future, before moving on to Hippolytos' situation. This part of the ode is not directly hymeneal. But the first two stanzas establish a tone of foreboding,which sets us up for the later part of the ode. The language of the hymenaios enters the ode in the second section (1120-50), which I give here:
O~1JK~t

y~Xp Krxarxpcv (ppCV' 7nXp~6' ~Xiri6' Xr~~oo iXo), a~

tbv ~nit~ 'EXhcavfrx cpve:pdttxtov &~o'rp' 'A~i-v;la4

ii i6ogCLv ctio8iC1v iExtp6; 6py&; ~iXhxv ~i' ohxv i~jCtrvov.

SW~p~41o; 6pco; Z60i lKv~v c Orpcx; (0K11c~660) Cietzx i~vctpcv

Ai~ruvvxv &4Olpi cTE1vdlv. O~)K~tt cr~ZY'icV 7C(0X0)V 'Evvr~jv ~irpicorit -rbv &~~FuPi Ai~tvct; 'rp6ov KczXTEXv lTo6l yutv6~6o; Yiunoo Xop6&V iioioax 6' ~iumvo; ~iVmZY int'I Xhj~iS1TcxtpG~ov &v~x 66jCov

cu t~z~pavot Kicpx; 6~ &xv~urowh Acuroi5 paeOcixv xXhav 6~v~ vuypt6ix 6' &ir6Xhohc o&t qrny~i. X~ctPo3v 4uXlthKoIjpcd;. iy&~ ct 6Guozuixi 6i:
&Oi5o) &X~Kp1YM

J ~iito-rov. ti~hcnva pL~rsp, ir6'rg~ov wxavfo EOroic~v. i&u idj

ou;yiat Xi~ptte;, Ti tbv t6Xxav' E~K inczpifS yO( &tct; &&rltov o~6&~v IiILETE tc?)v6 c~t oKoov;

'No longer is my mind clear, and what I see is contraryto my hope, since we saw, we saw the brightest star of GreekAthens rushingto anotherland because of his father's anger. Oh sands of the city's shore, oh mountain thicket where he killed wild beasts with his swift hounds, along with holy Dictynna.

3 The connection between the mixed chorus and hymeneal language has also been suggested by Burnett of (1986) 173-4, though her interpretation what it conveys is slightly differentto what I set out below. In particular,as I shall argue later in this paper,the song does not simply set up the normsof sexual behaviourbut does so in a way that makes them worrying.

4 I give the MSS version for simplicity's sake, though I concur that 'AOijvaois probablycorrupt. For the purposes of my argumenthere, the reading of this word is not important. See Halleran(1995) on 1122-3 for an outline of the various proposedemendations.

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No longer you mount will the youryokedteamof Eneticcoltsandholdyourcoursearound Lakewith musicbeneath strings' the frame ceasethroughout will horses,andyourunsleeping yourtrained your father's house.Throughout greenery, resting the the will placesof Leto'sdaughter be without garlands, andby yourexile the contestamongmaidens yourbridal hasbeenlost. for bed ButI will endure ill-fated in tearsforyourmisfortune. poormother, gavebirth vain. an fate Oh in you Ah, I ammadat thegods. Oh,yokedgraces, whydo you sendthisman,who is notat all responsible forhis ruin,outof his fatherland, awayfromthishouse?'5 At first glance, the point of the ode's imagery seems straightforward. In imagining how the house will be different after Hippolytos' departure,the chorus think of activities typical of a young man. The referenceto girls vying for him could be explainedaway on those terms:a natural consequence of having a talented and athletic young man in the house. Similarly,Pindar Pythian 9.98-100 describes women watching Telesikratesand wishing for him as a husbandor son as a result of his athleticprowess. It is worth bearingin mind that this reference,combined with the marriagetheme of the myth in Pythian 9, has led to a common interpretation that Telesikrateswas actually about to be married.6 Admiration and rivalry for the favours of the admired one are associated with marriage. Alkmanfr. 81 PMGF also describes girls admiringa young man and wishing they could marry him. Conversely, Theokritos' Epithalamionfor Helen describes Menelaos competing for Helen's bed (18.16-17).7 Emphasizinghow attractiveboth partnersare is a central theme of wedding poetry: Sappho praises her brides for their beauty and her grooms for their physical size, and comments on the desirabilityof both (frr. 108, 111, 112, 113 V). However, in the Hippolytos, the referenceto the girls is placed directly after the mention of Hippolytos putting garlands on Artemis' resting places. This recalls the scene at the start of the play where HippolytosbringsArtemisa garlandfrom an uncutmeadow,andhis fierce rejectionofAphrodite and of sexuality when he speaks to the servantimmediatelyafterwards. Thus, the girls in this ode are not just coincidentallyproblematicbut strikinglyout of place. It is almost as if they are meant to remindus that praising Hippolytos in the normal terms reserved for a talentedyoung aristocratis not appropriate. The allusion to the 'uncutmeadow' speech serves to remindus of the light which that speech casts onto Hippolytos' character. The uncut meadow itself is best understoodas an allusion to the eroticized locus amoenus of pre-tragicpoetry.8 While the meadow itself is a piece of general erotic and poetic imagery ratherthan a specific topos of marriagepoetry,its associations are with the time of life leading up to marriage:being linked to a meadow signifies readiness to model (the audience's marry. However, the descriptionsets up a tension between the traditional expectationsof how a meadow ought to be in poetry) and the way Hippolytosactuallydescribes his meadow.9 In particular, Euripidesweaves into the speech individualelements which seem designed to triggerthe audience's awarenessof this model, only to set them at odds with it:
5 All translationsare mine. Pindardescribes Telesikrates'victory 'in terms designed to suggest the winning of a bride'. Instone (1996) in his introductionto Pythian 9 comments that the linking of the marriagemotif to Telesikrates'own life was a widely held view by earlier commentators,and even he is prepared to concede that we can tell from the ode Telesikrates'was admiredby local girls and sought after as a husband'. 7 Also see Od. 6.244 where Nausikaa'sadmiration of Odysseus is expressed by her wish she could marry. Pind. Pyth. 10.59 also describes admirationby young girls for young men who are successful athletes. 8 E.g. II. 14.346-51, Horn.HymnDem. 4-10; Archil. PMGF. For the significance of such meadows in poetry, see Foley (1994) 33-4; Bremer(1975) 268-74 9 Some commentators(e.g. Barrett(1964) on 73-6) have taken the meadow to be a descriptionof a real or fantasized temenos of the goddess. However, to stress this too much risks overlooking the importantsymbolic undertonesof the piece. If there are genuine ritual elements they can perhapsbe best understoodby analogy with Sapph.fr. 2 V, which is a poeticized and symbolic description of a sanctuaryof Aphroditeusing the traditional languageof the eroticized meadow.
6 E.g. Carey (1981) 102, where he comments that fr. 196a W; Sapph.frr. 2, 94, 96, 122 V; Ibyc.fr. 286

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A~ llCP4Xt0l ao'tt~6vEICXCK~poV Gt~(C4C~V0V Wf J Xhijtlijvo;, &oiroinvx,oIjO~nLToct; (p~pw,

~v9' oitci~rn.llti~v &l~Oi q(P~P3IV P3Ot& out ht'E XOtir rlpo;, &XX' ~n aicijpctov ' ~PiVii 6i~pXcrt, Xixio~ac XEiClWv

(73-8) Ai&;~5~ozir~otoicu ml~ct~rc G6p~oitS I I froman uncutmeadow, whereno 'Mistress, bringyou this wovengarland havemade,gathered which darespasture flocksandwherethe ironhasnotyet come- no, an uncutmeadow his shepherd and tendswithdewyrivers.' thebee of spring passesthrough, whichRespect

Hippolytos' meadow possesses many of the featureswe find in classic descriptionsof the lyric locus amoenus. For example,the meadow containsflowers, which arepluckedto make garlands and it is in the proximityof dewy rivers. Even the epithetiptvjl is very reminiscentof the lanThe motif of lack of culguage used in descriptionsof similar scenes by Sapphoand Ibykos.0lo and the explicit veto of tivation is made particularly with the repetitionof forcefully, d&lcipxpo, shepherd,flocks and ploughing. Here, two normallydistinctthreadsin the pre-tragicpoetic tradition are woven together. Normally the meadow and cultivated land act in differentways as symbols, and trigger slightly differentassociations. Cultivation,and particularlyploughing, is symbolically associated with marriageand sexual maturity,while the meadow is presentedas a liminal zone, where sexuality is presentin the lush growth,but has not yet been channelledinto the social institution of marriageand legitimized procreation. But Hippolytos' vision of the meadow seems to deny the sexual potential implicit in the idea of the meadow, whilst still deploying the imagery that expresses it - an irony that an audience familiarwith the tradition would be able to tune into.1' A similareffect is achieved with the otherthings describedin the meadow. The bee is set up in oppositionto the plough and cultivation,as though it were somethingthat expresses the purity of the wilderness. htoioxa was indeed a cult title given to some priestesses of Artemis.12 However, the bee's more common associations are either with marriedvirtue or with love, and laterin the Hippolytosit becomes the symbol for the power ofAphrodite.'3 Similarly,rivers and dew are traditionally erotic symbols, but here they are introducedonly to be describedas belonging to Ai&~;, while the lteEKto; catepavo;, often associated with the symposium, or with rural scenes of lovers, is juxtaposed with the purityimplicit in &diipa'tog.Even the word d&miparctog itself has mixed resonances,as in Ibykosfr. 86 PMGF it is used of the gardenwhich is simultaneously sexual and virginal. This conflict between the meadow as an erotic and a pure space is broughtout more strongly in the next lines of the passage, when Hippolytos bars access to the meadow to all but those who possess and says that only they will be able to pick its flowers (79-81). The coppoonvrl motif of picking flowers is traditionallyassociatedwith the transitionto sexual maturity,and in par particularwith that of Persephone,the Ko6p7 excellence. However, it is alreadyclear from
10Sapph.fr. 2.10 V, Ibyc.fr. 286.1 PMGF. 11Ibykos' meadow is described as belonging to the Hap6lvat, and superficially contrastedwith the speaker's own violent erotic feelings. However,the meadow is 'virginal'in the sense of sexualityripe but not yet married ratherthan sexuality denied, and in fact the erotic is subtly incorporatedinto Ibykos' description. The language used to characterizethe meadow is itself sexual, and the 'leaking' of the erotic into the descriptionof the meadow is what enables the audienceto connect the world within the garden with the world outside, even though for the speakerthey remainirreconcilable.
12 Scholiast ad Pind. Pyth. 4.106, Aristoph. Frogs 1274. See Knox (1952) 28. 13Hipp. 564. The association of the bee is perhaps partly related to the idea of sting and honey, associated with 'Eros the bittersweet' (e.g. Sapph.fr. 130 V, and possibly a more explicit link infr. 146 V); cf Halleran (1991) 115. Equally, in Semon.fr. 7 W, the bee represents marriedvirtue and the bee woman is the only good type of wife.

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Aphrodite'sspeech in the prologue, and will become still more so from the scene following this passage, that Hippolytos hates and fears this transition. In his attemptto de-eroticizethe world of the meadow, and make it a suitablelocation for his worship of Artemis, he attemptsto transform flower-pickinginto a chaste and safe activity. Yet while picking flowers seems innocentto the virgins concerned,'4the audience knows that the fact of the action indicates their readiness to move on to the world of marriage. Hippolytos' attemptto restrictit to those whose purity is permanentwould jar with any alert listener.'5 Additionally,the fact that flower-pickingis so often a preludeto violence, and in particular rape, introducesan anticipationof dangerwhich is borne out by the ending of the play.16Hippolytos'failureto go throughthe topos properlyends in disaster,and his being torn apartactualizesphysical violation of the most extremekind. From this speech, an audience steeped in the poetic traditionwould have been attunedto a the strangenessin Hippolytos'descriptionof the meadow. In particular, way that eroticismand chastity enter into it runs counterto the model set up by the poetic tradition. This sets up the way thatHippolytos'attitudeto sexualityis depictedin the play, and affects ourresponseto him. The third stasimon again evokes the tension between traditionalexpectationsand Hippolytos' ideas by contrastingthe girls' desire for Hippolytos with his desire for the wilderness and to weave garlandsfor Artemis. 'NEVER AGAIN': HIPPOLYTOS' APPROPRIATION FEMALE OF HYMENEALMOTIFS The mention of girls and garlandsin the third stasimon should alert us to Hippolytos'troubled relationshipto the normalcodes of sexual behaviourand remindus of how this has alreadybeen establishedin the play. The imageryelsewhere in the ode continuesto illuminateand expandon this. One final strangenessis thereforeworth noting about the uncut meadow, that by identifythe ing with it, Hippolytos is appropriating language of female sexual transition. The meadow as an erotic space is a distinctly female image - for example, when Ibykos as a male speaker describes it, it is to convey his own exclusion from it. The identificationof humanfertilitywith the earthis limited to female fertility. If the wife is the ploughed earth,the husbandis by implication the farmeror the plough itself.'7 More generally,the issues associatedwith transitionto sexual maturitytend to be connected with females. Though men also undergoa transition,there is nothing to parallelthe sharpcutoff between parthenos and guns, and the ideas associated with male transitionare more to do with assuming citizen responsibilitiesthan a total change of status. After all, the ephebeia took place well after puberty. This oddity is broughtout again in the third stasimon. The language of the chorusnot only evokes the languageof hymenaiosbut specifically the languageassociated with the woman. In the poetic codes, Hippolytoshas become the bride. It is in this light that we should re-examine the chorus' ratherodd referenceto Hippolytos' mother. Meridor suggests that this reference implies mourning: rather than a lament for Hippolytos' exile, the ode becomes a threnosfor his death.'8 However, while it might be natural for a motherto lament a son's death,the mother'sr6le in wedding ritualis also crucial. The separationof the bride from her motheris one of the most strikingtopoi of marriagepoetry. It is the poignant culminationof Hesperus'powers in Sappho 104ab V, and echoed in more dra14 See Hom. Hymn Dem. 15-16 for Persephone's innocence. 15 The locus classicus is Archil.fr. 196a W where the encountertakes place in a meadow, and the imagery associated with the meadow is allowed to creep into that associatedwith the erotic, thus blurringthe boundariesof the metaphors.
16 For flower-pickingand rape, Homrn HymnDem. 418; Eur.Ion 887-96, Hel. 244-9. 17 Cf the wording of the betrothalceremony at Men. Pk. 435-6 and Luc. Tim. 17, where the woman is given The ~n' yvaoiwv rtoi6wov. phrasingis generally p6ptpo thoughtto come from a real marriageceremony. 18Meridor(1972) 235.

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matic termsby Catullus(62.20-2). Theokritosalso refers to the separationof the bride from her mother when his chorus of girls tease Menelaos that if he is going to go to sleep already he should have left his bride with her mother (18.12-14). We know of the Roman custom of rap19 tio, wherebythe bridalprocession symbolically snatchedthe bride from her mother. Plutarch's Lykourgos(15) provides evidence for a similar 'mock abduction'in Sparta,and Dionysios of Halikarnassos(2.30.5) implies that abductionfrom the bride's friends and family was probably a motif in wedding ceremonies elsewhere in Greece too. This hypothesis is also backed up by iconographicevidence.20 The 'threnodic'element in this is one of the range of ways in which marriageis construedas a type of death. This is common in many types of rites de passage, and clear in Greek cultureby the story of Persephone,whose marriageis literally made particularly a marriageto death.21 The emphasison Hippolytosleaving his home and homeland(1148-50) is also reminiscentof fromher home and old life. Justas Helen's wedding ritual,with its focus on the bride'sdeparture companionsin Theokritos18 dwell on the details of Helen's old life as aparthenos, and the locations to which the chorus themselves will later returnbut from which Helen is now separated, here the chorusreferto Hippolytos'old hauntsand activities fromwhich he is now debarred.As of from his father'shome symbolicallybecomes an ekdosis (the departure Hippolytos'departure the bride from her father'shouse), the Charitesare called upon as his escorts (1148-50). These appliedto them goddesses have associationswith marriagein any case, and the epithet o0rtwt here strengthensthis connection.22The Charitesare describedas escorting Hippolytusfrom his
often has the sense of 'convey home' house (7nLrtn E trzv6' 1150). The verb tIkatCo 6rn'oi'iwov

or 'escort'. It is used in the Odyssey of a fathersending his daughterto be a bride (4.5), and it is languagemore suitablefor a socially sanctionedprocessionthan for an ignominiousdeparture into exile.23 The epode builds up a sense of Hippolytos'wretchednesswith series of words referringto his bad luck, and that of others associated with him (6 -zrXiat 1141; Eitozqtov, tixatva 1145; zt&av' 1148). One of the centralpieces of wedding ritualwas the makarismos,where the bridal couple are called 'blessed' for the first time. As Halleranpoints out, the makarismosis often While marriageitself is often presentedas a source of ambiguityand manipulatedby tragedy.24 concernfor the bride, it is also a cause forjoy and celebration;thus the makarismoscountersthe darkerstrandswe also find surrounding wedding poetry. However,whereasthe real makarismos describes the ekdosis as bringing about luck and happiness, its tragic counterpartdescribes as Hippolytos'departure causing and being caused by misfortuneand unhappiness. Having establishedthese referencesto hymenaios,let us look again at the way Hippolytos is is presentedwhen the idea of his departure introducedat the very startof the second strophe. The
19 Cf Fest. 364 L; Macrob. Sat. 1.15.21. Also see Fedeli (1983) 53. 20 Sourvinou-Inwood(1973) 17-18 suggests that a similarcustom took place at Locriand otherGreekstates, and Jenkins (1983) suggests abduction as a wedding motif in Athens. Jenkinsalso notes a fragmentary figred ure skyphosc. 430 BC (ARV2 647, 21; Jenkinsfig. 18b) showing Persephonebeing abductedby Hades and reaching out her arms to Demeter who is pursuing them. Alexiou (1974) 120 gives modern Greek examples of plaintive exchanges between motherand daughteras part of the marriageritual. The accumulationof this evidence leads me to wonderwhethersomethingsimilarto the raptio was in fact also a partof Greekwedding customs. For an anthropologicalperspective on rites of rape and capture, see van Gennep (1960) 123; Radcliffe-Brown (1951) 20; and see Sourvinou-Inwood (1991) 65-70 for a

more general account of violence and abduction representing marriage. 21 Cf Seaford (1987) 106-7; Rehm (1994) 1-6. See van Gennep (1960) for examples in differentcultures. 22 See the scholiast ad loc. Bushala (1969) 23-9 discusses the implicationsof the epithetand suggests a connection to the wider importanceof marriagein the play. Halleran(1991) 120 and Burnett(1986) 173-4 both note the marriageconnotationsof the addressto the Charites here. 23 I am gratefulto LaurelBowman for this point. 24 Halleran (1991) 114, where he also suggests an allusion to the makarismosat Hipp. 525-64. For other cases of a manipulated or parodied makarismos in tragedy, he cites Eur. Alc. 918-19, Andr 1218, Suppl. 995-9, Hel. 639-40, IA 1076-9, Phaeth. 240-4 (Diggle), and Tro.308ff.

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choruscall Hippolytosthe 'EXhavi{; pavep6ractov &cmtp''Ailvcg (1123). As Hallerannotes, while referringto a person as a light (p&yyog qpxo;)is reasonablycommon, calling someone or a star is unique in pre-Hellenisticliterature.25 Euripidesintendshis metaphorto be striking. A comparisonto a star or other astralbody is by no means unique. However, it is often an image used to describe female desirability. The point of the comparisonis usually that the desired object eclipses all others (just as Hippolytoshere is the brightestof all stars). Thus, Sapphofr. 96 V (which may well be about a girl's marriage)describes a girl as being like the moon surpassing the otherstars,an image which is also echoed atfr. 34 V. SimilarlyatAlkmanfr. 1.3943 PMGF,the fact thatAgido is desirableis expressed in a strikingmetaphoras her 'light'. She is then comparedto the light of the sun at the startof a series of images meant to convey how much more attractiveshe and Hagesichoraare than the rest of the girls. We find an equivalent at Alkmanfr. 3.66-7, where Astymeloisa's exceptionalbeauty is expressedby comparingher to a star, and like Hippolytos a star that is rushing throughthe sky. This imagery is not strictly hymeneal. However, it conveys associations of unmarriedfemale desirabilitywhich link in to the presentationof Hippolytos as a parthenos ripe for marriageratherthan the huntersworn to chastity he actually is. IS THEREA MIXED CHORUS? the Having establishedthe importanceof hymeneal motifs in understanding thirdstasimon,we can now turnback to the question of its performance. I shall first briefly explain why I take the mixed chorus interpretation be correct, following Verrall,Murrayand Diggle, amongst othto ers.26 The hypothesis arises from the alternatinggenders of the participlesby which the chorus refer to themselves 1107 (and in some MSS also at 1121), eqagivat 1105, (K6~v ,eXGooov The most straightforward of interpretation this is that the stanzas 1111, pt Xa[ho~va1118). are sung by people of differentgenders. Indeed,while the text can be emendedto give consistent genders, doing so is a fairly difficult process.27 The scholia allege that the chorus use the masculine because they are speaking as the poet's mouthpiece,2sbut this is unparalleledin tragedy,where the dramaticidentityof the chorus is never challenged like this. A more plausible explanationwould be thatwomen speakingin the abstractcan use the masculine to referto themselves, as Wilamowitzargues.29But the examples he provides for females Womencan use a using a singularmasculineparticipleto referto themselves are problematic.30 masculine plural to generalize about themselves (a phenomenonwhich Wilamowitz correctly does not adduce as relevant),but even in this case there is no parallelfor the switching of genders within a single ode. To do so would seem bizarre. If women can refer to themselves in the abstractas males, it must dependon the fact thatthe male participlecan be perceivedby the listener as 'standard' i.e. that he will not notice the oddity.31Switching between the two forms seems designed to draw attentionto this. A Greek audience would find it baffling, particularly
25 Halleran(1995) on 1123. 31 Similarly, 6 Eivpontog can be used to refer to 26 The hypothesis was originally set out at Verrall mankindgenerally whereasi1 &ivporxogis specifically a

(1889) 1 of the introduction.MurrayandDiggle both fol- woman; 6 'intog is the general word for a horse, we find low it in their OCTs. Also see Bond (1980), who argues il to mean 'mare', and we also sometimes find '(ritog in favourof the mixed chorus. Halleran(1995) on 1102- some kind of qualifierto make the gender apparent,pre50 gives an overview of the argumentsfor and againstthe cisely because the noun uses the male form as 'standard' mixed chorus interpretation. and a horse of either sex could be meant (e.g. OiljE; 27 Barrett(1964) 369: 'emendationis not easy'. '(ittoi II. 5.269; 'intot ~Bilheta 11.680, Od. 4.635; ij 28 See Schwartz(1887) on 1102. 'trixogHdt 3.86). See LSJ s.v. iOle iveporto;, ''itto;. 29 von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (1891) on 1103. Moorhouse (1982) 8-10 discusses this in terms of 30 Barrett(1964) 366-7 outlines the difficulties with 'marked'and 'unmarked'terms, whereby the masculine them. However, see Kannicht(1969) on Hel. 1630. indicates non-commitmentin terms of gender, but the feminine carriesa more specific meaning.

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as believing the tragic chorusto be female in any case requiresthatthe listeneracclimatizehimself not to find it strangeto hear male voices referringto themselves as female. So this switching of participlesseems a priori difficult, as well as being unheardof anywhere else in extant Greek. Assuming the arrivalof a second chorus solves the participleproblemstraightforwardly. Secondarychoruses in tragedy are normally introducedon their appearanceinto the play.32 However,Verrallplausibly suggested thatthe male singers of the thirdstasimonconsisted of the same groupof huntsmenwho were introducedat the startof the play as an additionalchorus(5871). It is true that the chorus are not re-introduced despite remainingsilent for nearly all of the but this is less problematicsince we alreadyknow of their existence. Immediatelybefore play, the third stasimon, Hippolytos calls on his contemporaries addresshim and escort him from to the country(1098-9). As Bond points out, the phrasingof this is similarto the formulaby which the subsidiarychorus is announcedat 58-60.33 There is no particular reason to believe that the of 67ct6oi of the opening scene need be a differentgroup of people from the 6otllrtKES 1098.34 One might imagine thathe is meantto be accompaniedby this groupof his age-matesat all times when he is on-stage.35Alternatively,even if they do not attendhim while he is at home, they thatthey go with him when accompanyhim on all huntingexpeditions,and so it is not surprising he leaves the house. I envisage the male chorus leaving the stage afterthe end of the stasimon, to follow Hippolytos,who has alreadyleft.36 The time between their leaving and the messenger tragicodes reportingHippolytos'deathis admittedlyextremelyshort,but the timing surrounding is always loose and variable,and I do not see strict 'realism'of chronologybeing a majorproblem.37 A subsidiarychorusper se is not unique in tragedy. We find one in the Phaethon (227), and the scholiast on Hippolytos58 mentions subsidiarychoruses in the AlexandrosandAntiope. We even have examples of other choruses singing in alternationwith the main chorus (Euripides, 1123-64;Aeschylus, SuppliantWomen 1018-74). The mere existence of a subSuppliantWomen in with the main chorus, should not be an insurmountable probsidiarychorus, even one bound lem. It is true that the wholly antiphonaldouble chorus here is a step beyond this, and it would be deceptive to claim it is not a unique innovation. However, the tragedianswere not averse to innovatingin orderto achieve a dramaticpurpose,and I hope to show that the mixed chorus of the Hippolytos does precisely that.38 The problem becomes more interestingwhen we examine the evidence we have elsewhere for mixed-sex choralperformance,and the implicationsof this kind of performance. While we have a reasonablenumberof examples for semi-choruses,only a small fractionof these are of a different gender to the main chorus.39 Given what we know about the social contexts of the
38A parallel would be the chorus' exits at Soph. Aj. 814; Eur.Hel. 385, Rhes. 564 and Alc. 746, which break 33 Bond (1980) 60. 34Murray'sOCT equatesthe two, calling both Xopb6 the convention that choruses remain on-stage until the end of the play, in orderto allow the characterson-stage cf Bond (1980) 60. :uvTryfov; 35 I am gratefulto Oliver Taplinfor this suggestion. genuine solitude for dramatic purposes. Similarly the 36 Another option would be to have the male chorus scene-change at Aesch. Eum. 234 breaks the convention leave the stage before the end of the stasimon,leaving the that a tragedyis set in one place. 39 The double chorusat Eur.Suppl. 1123-64 is mixedfemale chorus to sing the epode, but I find this less likewould sex but consists of mothersand children,and as far as we ly. Having half the chorus leave mid-performance be unique, and would surely damage the performance. know is not meantto reflect any real life choralgrouping. While in theory it helps with the chronologyproblem, in Here in any case the familial relationship is what is practice the disruptiveeffect would draw attentionto it, important,not the gender difference. The identities and as the choruswould be effectively rushedoff-stage before genders of the supplementarychoruses at Aesch. Eum. we expect them to leave, heightening the sense that the 1032-44 and Suppl. 1014-73 are disputed. However, Taplin (1977) suggests that both choruses are male: the timing does not quite work. 37 See Taplin (1977) 290-4. As Bond (1980) 62 former consisting of the jurors, and the latter of Argive points out, 'at the very least 1102-50 marksa gap of sev- bodyguards. eral hours'.
32 Taplin(1977) 186 and 230-8.

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Greek chorus, this is not surprising. The most fundamentalfeatureof the chorus is its uniformity - each of its membersbelongs to the same category. Occasions where more than one chorus is performingare often choralcompetitions. Here too, categoriesof competitionwould have been divided as much by the categorizationof the membersof the chorus as by the type of song they were performing, just as men's andboys' events were kept separateat athleticcompetitions. In any case, choruses in competitionwould have been performingconsecutively,not simultaneously. It thereforeseems reasonableto make two generalstatementsaboutthe mixed chorus. Firstly, the concept of mixed choralperformancesits very oddly with the culturalassumptionsboundup in the concept of a chorus. As such, the connotationsit carries must be particularlymarked. Secondly, if this is trueof mixed choruses in general,Euripidesmust be aiming to do something special with the mixed chorus in the Hippolytos, as he has chosen to introducea mixed chorus in a context where it is extremely unusual. I shall thereforeexamine the evidence we have for mixed choruses outside the Hippolytos, and suggest the type of associationsthey would evoke. SETTINGUP THE MIXED CHORUS:MEANINGSAND CONTEXTS One of the most explicit pieces of testimonyon the meaningswhich mixed-sex chorusesconvey can be found in Lucian's On Dance 12. In this passage he has been discussing how trainingin dancing can teach importantlife skills:
Olota 8E Kai( t v Opiov KaXoXCos)vov oi OPXoIgtEvotnotoml)yV. 0b8 8FtOpg p OPXorOI(W t KCotvI tV (-pEllowV Ka 7cxp8ovov, Exop' O.ec ivaO XopEv)ovTO Kac 6); Xr1cow; 6jpgCot UCOtKlWV iy~ "Kti b

WpOrlo; vecviic 6pXO-O4wEvo; 6toot; i5eTEpov noX(fLon piiYoEat, T pOuvo;& ifi6elTatC -r Kal v X gi Ko(YgiUozTO 011X xopeieiv 6tdX(TKO)(YT, g (0;vat zbv opgyov K o1(TWppoo)vrl; (Xv6peia neKOO Kcti TX

gwVov. similar doneby thosewho dancewhatis calledthe Necklace. TheNecklaceis a dance is Something of boys andgirlstogether movein a rowandtrulyresemble necklace.Theboy leads,dancing who a the stepsof youngmanhood, thosewhichhe will lateruse in war;the maidenfollows,showing and howto do thefemaledancewithdecency; so thenecklace wovenoutof chastity manliness. and is and Combiningthe sexes in the hormos dance expresses the complementingroles they play in society. Lucianhas alreadysuggested thatin a sense all dancesby young men preparethem for war and express their manliness (8-11). However, the mixing of boys and girls draws attentionto genderas a theme in the dance. The very presenceof the girls crystallizesthe audience'sawareness of how they differ from the boys; the differencein theirdance steps reflects a wider reality. Othertexts referringto mixed choruses also pick up on the way that they highlight complementing gender roles. Some link them more directly to the way genders are combined within society - namely marriage. At Odyssey23.130-40, Odysseus wants to cover the noise of killing the suitors,and so tells Penelope to arrangefor somethingthat sounds like a wedding feast to be performed. The featurewhich makes it instantlyidentifiableas such is thatmen and women are singing together: & p~ya &tjuxa nptonevaxt,gonoaoxv d&v6porv catt':xov I(xXktr,6vov yxvatcxxOv. zE ' E & ti t gT;8~OavEio[o,OK 8 l~c V (XKOm.)yOv k~~L~a rt; cyq g noX-L~vp;lYvjv Ppxoy'X~tov.' (23.146-9)
toiailv
8Ti

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Thegreathallresounded thefeet of dancing with menandbeautifully women.Andso anyone girdled who heard fromoutside housewouldsay,'Oh,so someone actually the has married much-courted the queen. Men and women are also portrayedas dancing together on the shield of Achilles in the Iliad (18.590-606). Here the occasion for the dance is not stated. Arguably,it is unlikely to be a wedding itself, given that we have alreadyseen a wedding procession earlieron the shield (18.4917). However, the epithet applied to the girls (&Xspeoipota) refers to dowries, and suggests that

there are overtonesof marriageto the occasion. The boys and girls are describedas dancing fii groom takes the bride by the wrist, which formed part of classical wedding ritual and is often alludedto in literature art.40Genderdifferencesand r6les are also suggested by the way the and dwells on the appearanceof the boys and girls, contrastingmale and female clothing, and poet the knives worn by the boys with the garlandsworn by the girls. In the descriptionof the wedding procession in Hesiod's Shield 272-9, we find a similar emphasis on how both sexes participate in the songs and festivities. Plato advocates mixed-sex dances as a means of organizing marriage (Laws 771e-772a), and the mixed-sex procession in honour of Artemis which Xenophon of Ephesos describes is a means of finding marriagepartners(Ephesiaka 1.2-3). A text that actually purportsto be a wedding song performedby a mixed-sex chorus is Catullus 62. Catullus is not bound into any one culturalsetting, and can pick and choose elements from differentGreekand Romanmores that appealto him.41The choice of an amoebean style is usually thoughtto be derived from Greekpastoralpoetry,and examples can be found in Theokritos. However, Catullusdiffers from these pastoralmodels in that his alternatingstanzas are sung by choral groups, ratherthan two individuals. Thus the alternationrefers to different takes on an occasion, ratherthan the personal relationshipbetween the two speakers. The poem's scenario and the 'stage directions' are imaginary ones - I am not suggesting that Catullus'song was designed to be performedby a real mixed chorus on any particular occasion, or that it was designed to be a directpastiche of anotherpoem (in the way that, say, poem 51 is directly modelled on Sapphofr. 31 V). However, it seems likely that in composing this poem, Catullus knew of and was drawingon a traditionof mixed-sex choruses being associated with weddings. Otherdetails of the poem, such as alternatingstyle and 'capping', are found in other types of Greekpoetry,but might also be drawnfromthis tradition.Naturallythis example comes with caveats. Catullus'poem is a craftedart piece written for a sophisticatedliterateaudience, not a direct relic of a performanceculture. In fact, Catullus 62 is self-consciously artificial, becoming as much a poem about a performanceas simply the text performed.Nevertheless, Catulluschooses to introducea mixed chorus in a poem which elsewhere echoes the themes and motifs of Greekwedding poetry,and presumablydoes so for a reason. In searchingfor the traditionon which Catullus could be drawing,we find tantalizinghints in Sapphowhich seem to corroborate this model. Fr. 30 V describes the night-long epithalathe mion outside the house on the marriagenight. In particular, poem describes a group of girls and a group of boys (who are specifically the groom's party) as responsible for the festivities. Fr. 44, describingthe wedding of HektorandAndromache,describesa slightly differentversion of mixed singing: adultwomen (yvatieg) sing a women's ritualcry of eleleu, while men sing the male equivalentof paean. Again the focus is on the combining of both sexes, while each groupneverthelessremainsaligned to its own gender r61e.
hi KXapn1t Eipaq;EXovrg;(594). This presumably reflects the 'XEyip' capuigt' gesture when the

40 Cf Rehm (1994) 14-17, 35-6, 39-40, and see figs 2 and 3 for the 'Xcip' ~id apKuat' gesture on vases depictingweddings. The symbolismof the gestureis also addressedby Jenkins(1983).

41 See Godwin (1995) in his introductionto 62 for Roman features, including agriculturaldetail (marrying vines to trees) and colloquial language. Fedeli (1983) ch. 1 examinesthe mixing of culturaltopoi in Catullus61.

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More direct linguistic echoes and parallels are found in other epithalamic fragments.42 Catullusstartshis poem with an addressto Hesperus,the evening star whose presence symbolizes the journey to the bridal house. The boys' and girls' attitudesto Hesperus are opposite, reflecting their attitudeto the marriageitself. The girls' hostility to the star, and their specific accusationthatit tearsa girl from her mother'sembrace(21-2), reflects the pathosimplicit in the more understatedSapphofr. 104a V, where Hesperus is described as taking a child from her mother. The girls' descriptionof virginitylost as a flower plucked and ruinedin a meadow also echoes Sapphofr. 105b V, where a hyacinthis describedas crushedby shepherds. Equally,the boys' accountof agricultural activity as a metaphorfor marriage(marryingthe vine to the elm) perhapsreflects Sappho's metaphorof the apple and the apple-pickers(fr. 105a V). Several scholars have connected the two Sapphic fragmentsand suggested that they are partof a single poem, possibly sung in amoebean form by two groups.43 In this case the parallelism with Catullus would be even more precise. In general, the attitudetowards marriageexpressed by Catullus' girls seems to reflect (in extreme form) some of the ambiguity and fears we find in Sappho'slyrics (for example,frr. 107 and 114 V, also amoebean,thoughprobablybetween solo singers). Similar ambiguityis also expressed in Catullus61, where despite a much more positive approachto marriage,Hymen is still describedas abductingthe bride (rapis, 3) and as taking her from her mother's lap (58-9). This is not the place to go into detailed speculation about the meanings of this ambiguity towardsmarriageor the precise relationshipbetween Catullusand Sappho.44 WhatI am attemptto establish is that in composing epithalamia,Catullusdrew heavily on Sapphicmodels (as ing one might expect given that Sapphowas famous in antiquityfor her epithalamia),and that he alludes to Sappho in details of performanceas well as themes and verbal echoes.45 The choice of a mixed amoebean chorus, aligning themselves with the bride and the groom respectively, reflects an earlierpoetic traditionwhich Catulluswas awareof.46 This is certainlynot to say that all wedding songs would have been composed in this form - indeed, all our evidence suggests the contrary. But the mixed chorus itself would have triggeredassumptionsof marriagein the minds of an ancient audience. And such a connection is appropriate, since we know that both the bride's and the groom's friends had a r6le to play in the wedding festivities, that men and women both attendedthe wedding feast, and that marriageritual itself symbolizes the combining of male and female.47 Turningto drama,we find similarthemes emergingwhen we examine the chorus of old men and women in the Lysistrata. For most of the play the chorus is divided into two semi-choruses, who enter separately. Until they unite at 1042, they are polarized along gender lines. Their interactionconsists of competitive and aggressive banter,often focused on a 'male' or 'female'
42 Cf Bowra (1961) 223-5, who also links the imageryand themes in Catullus62 with Sapphicepithalamia. 43 Smyth (1900) 249; Davison (1968) 244. Hunter (1983) also supports the connection on the basis of Longus' adaptationin Daphnis and Chloe. See Griffith (1989) for an accountof the debate and the various interpretationsof the fragments. 44 See below for more discussion of the separationof the bride from home and family construedas abduction. For generalaccountsof the anxieties involved in the transition to marriage, see Seaford (1987) 106-7; Jenkins (1983). 45For Sapphoand wedding songs, cf Himer.Or. 9.4; Mich. Ital. Or. ad Mich. Oxit.,Anth. Pal. 7.407, Demetr. Eloc. 132. 46 The mock-hymenaiosat Aristoph.Peace 1333-54 is amoebeanbut not mixed-sex. Even so, there is some trace of alignmentwith bride's or groom's partyat 134950 where one group praises/teasesthe bride's "fig", and the otherthe groom's. 47 Also see Gernet and Boulanger (1932) 38-40 on mixed dancing and marriage. Euangelos, Anakalyptomene (PCG 5.184-5,fr. I = CAF 3.376, ap. Athenaios 14.644d-f) describes men and women at the wedding feast: both genders are involved, but they sit at separate tables. Similarly, Men. Dys. 949 describes women at the wedding feast. On wedding ritual, see Oakley and Sinos (1993).

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set view. This model of competitive capping followed by resolution follows the pattemrn up in Catullus 62, and could be based on the conventions of real life mixed choruses.48 In addition, much of the banter in Lysistratacontains sexual undertones,as the hostility between the two groups is expressedthroughthe sexual tension between them. The choruses closely echo each other,both in structure and in linguistic detail. For example, at 781-96 the men tell the story of Melanion to demonstratethat men are better off without women. The women rebut this by telling the story of Timon (805-12). Lys. 614-705 is also a capping structure.The men stripdown to preparefor action, explainingtheirpatrioticloyalty to Athens. The women then do the same, explaining the civic importanceof the ritual r6les they perform. They then take it in turnsto taunt and threateneach other. Their language is closely related (for example, rif Oeoi; ~O p&;q 635, versus ypab; tlv yvwOov natdcat tfio6~ xrtif 7' 6 657). CoO6pvCot yvd6ov tilv dnl~icoli rxta t)7ot Sexual imageryunderliestheirbanter. At 377-8 the women throw water over the men to put Both choral groups strip off clothing out their torches, but describe it as a Vt4ptKO6v. %,o0tp6v for as the hostility between them increases. This is introducedas a gesture in preparation fighting, but women strippingnakedin frontof men would have carriedsexual ratherthanaggressive overtones. The men's insults at 671-6 are sexual ones 672, it7KntlOcatov 677), and (XetpoTyi{a the women's response to this at 694-5 is a sexual threat()L;Ei ~pei;, ntkepXKai tg6vov KaKo
o0o ydp, / aieSbyV tiKtOVm KQV0ap6; c" late)ooCat).49

The choruses unite when the women become reconciled to the men, and make overturesof friendshiptowardsthem. This model is also reminiscentof Catullus62. There,the girls' silence suggests that they have dropped(or at least hidden) their hostility towardsmarriage,and we are left with the impressionof marriageas a unifying ratherthan divisive force. The language the between chorususes afterthey unite also containssexual overtones,playing on double-entendres the languageof feasting and the language of sex.50so Finally, we find a parallel in the final scene of Aeschylus' Supplices, in the antiphonalsong which forms the closing lines of the play (1014-73).5' The second chorus is traditionally ascribedto a group of maids. However, as Taplinnotes, this is problematicin terms of staging, and breaks the conventions of choral entries in Greek drama. The scene works ratherbetter if instead we imagine it sung by a group of Argive bodyguards.52Here too, we see hymeneal motifs used in the context of mixed choral singing. Protectionof virginity versus the need to marryhas been an on-going theme of the play, and this is again picked up in the exodos. The Danaids express their dedicationto virginity,asking for Artemis' help againstAphrodite(10303), while the bodyguardsrespondby reaffirmingthe importanceof Aphroditeand sexual love (1034-51). The Danaids continue to refuse to accept that marriageis part of the naturalorder, and express theirhope thatZeus will preservethem from it (1052-3), while the men suggest that
48 Henderson (1987) and Sommerstein(1990) both of note the balancedstructure the choral interaction. It is like that also worth noting that this choral arrangement, of the Hippolytus, is unique, and seems to have been introduced to fulfil a poetic function in the play. Hendersonnotes that 'there is no other certain arrangement like this in comedy'. 49 Sommerstein (1990) suggests that etpoty'fa at 673 refers to manual stimulation of the penis, at 676 refers to the sexual position known itrtntxKyrtoov as 'equestrian', with the woman on top (cf 60, 619, Wasps 501-2, Peace 899-900). Henderson (1987) on 674-7 notes the sexual innuendo of vaoae~vxiv and which also refer to the partnerwho is on top (cf tXsiv, 59-60, 411, Frogs 434). 694-5 refer to a fable where the beetle avenges itself on the eagle by breaking its eggs: both Sommersteinand Hendersonsuggest a metaphorical use here referringto the testicles. 50 Sommerstein(1990) on 1061-4 notes the sexual natureof the language. Ezvo;('pea-soup') suggests vaginal secretions,cf. Eccl. 645-7, and Peace 716, 885, where is ('piggy') is well(CLo6g used of cunnilingus. 6EdaK,~tov attestedslang for the femalegenitals,cf. Ach. 786; Hesych. 6 599; Crat.fr. 4 K-A. is used of women's flesh &xta,6; at line 418 and at Eccl. 902; Sapphofr. 82 V. 51 I discuss this passage in more detail in my forthcoming doctoralthesis. See also Seaford (1987) 114-15, who argues convincingly for hymeneal references in the alternatingchoruses. 52 See Taplin(1977) 235-7.

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marriageis predestined(1054-5). As we have seen elsewhere, the male and female chorusesare set in opposition,expressingcontrary'male' and 'female' views, andpick up on each others'language in orderto cap it.53 Mixed choral performancethereforecarrieswith it associations of marriage,and in particular chorusesperformingto celebratea wedding. In the Hippolytos,these associationsare deliberate and Euripidesexpects his audience to recognize them. The two problems with the third stasimonthatI set up at the startof this articleare solved by one answer. The ode is shot through with hymenealimagery,linked to the theme of marriageelsewhere in the play. And this imagery is given more force because it is performedby a mixed chorus. Viewed in this light, the mixed chorus ceases to be a problem to be explained away, and becomes something central to the themes of the play. In short, it is somethingworthy of innovation. Marriageand sexuality are centralthemes of the Hippolytos:it is Hippolytos'and Phaedra's distortionsof the idealized norms of sexuality which act as the catalyst for the disastrousaction of the play.54 However, the hymeneal natureof this chorus is more thanjust anotherreference to this theme. Euripidesdrawson the theme of marriageby using imageryand languagethatdo not just evoke marriage,but which allude specifically to the poetic models associatedwith marriage. He is thereforereferringto the very types of poetry and songs which were performedon the wedding day. This type of 'triggering'is a particularly powerfuland yet subtleone. By tying the tragicodes into a 'real-life'choraltype with which the audiencewould be familiar,Euripides is able to appealto their sharedculturalassumptions. Thus, the readingof the play that emerges throughthis imagery is one designed to be rooted in its social and culturalcontext. CHALLENGINGIDENTITIES: WIDER IMPLICATIONS THE THIRD STASIMON OF The implicationsthatcome bundledin with hymenealperformanceare deliberatelyplayed upon by the mixed chorus of the third stasimon, which contains subtle but clear allusions to the language associatedwith real-life hymeneal choruses. It remainsfor us to examine the effects and purposeof these allusions in the broadercontext of the play. As we have seen, Hippolytos' appropriation the language of female sexuality is already of suggested by the uncut meadow speech, to which the thirdstasimon points us back. However, the third stasimon's references to Hippolytos' archetypalmale activities also point us back to anothermoment in the play which suggests the way gendercodes and boundariesare becoming blurred.At 198-266, Phaedra'sravingsexpress her desire to be with Hippolytosand to take part in his lifestyle. In particularshe refers to wanting to hunt with dogs, wanting to drive Enetic horses aroundthe Limna, and to resting places in the wildemrness ('vatcraoigCav 211), all of which are strongly echoed in the third stasimon. The Nurse sees Phaedra'scomments as puzzling but very inappropriate presumablybecause Phaedrais expressing desires for activities which areunsuitablefor women, andso she too is disrupting genderboundaries normalsocithe of ety.55 However,Phaedra'scommentsalso serve to re-eroticizethe meadows and the wilderness, and turnit fromthe purespace Hippolytosenvisages into a place where sexual desirescan be fulfilled.56And Phaedra's 'male'desirescounter-balance as Hippolytos'portrayal aparthenos,underand scoringhow each of theirattitudesto sexualityare inappropriate problematic.
53Sommerstein(1977) 76 notes this sexualfrisson in his analysis of the passage, though I think he is wrong to suggest from it that the bodyguardsthemselves have sexual intentionstowardsthe Danaids. 54 Halleran(1991) 115-21 argues for the centralr61e of marriagein tying togetherthe charactersand action of the Hippolytos. Also see Segal (1965) 165-221; Segal (1993) 140; Bremer(1975); Walsh(1984) 121-3 for sexuality in the Hippolytos. 55 Hence her comment that Phaedrashould drink at the well near the city, where as a marriedwoman she belongs, ratherthan in the wilderness from which she is precludedandwhich is a dangerousplace for a woman to be. See Goff (1990) 31-4 on the erotic overtones of the scene and on the way it is used to constructgenderr61es. 56 See Halleranon 73-87 and 208-11.

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This contention over the meaning of the imagery of the wilderness lies at the heart of the play, and is used to stand for the different attitudes to sexual maturity we find expressed. By the end of the play, the hymeneal imagery of the third stasimon has led us to re-evaluate this imagery. Hippolytos' wilderness seems once again pure by virtue of the fact that it is construed as though

it representedthe pre-marital activities of the bride. But its purity is expressed by the fact that he can no longer remainwithin it: thereis a parallelin the way Theokritos'chorus contraststheir own girlish activities to Helen's new marriedlife. Hippolytos' meadow has in fact become realignedto the poetic norms of the meadow - a liminal zone where puritycan become sexualized, ratherthanthe permanentchastityHippolytos envisages. Hippolytosmay remainsexually chaste, but his exile and violent death are portrayedas the victory of Aphroditeover Artemis. It is Hippolytos' and Phaedra'sinability to behave as the norms of their r6les in society demand,and specifically Hippolytos' inability to become reconciled to adult or male sexuality, thatdrives the tragic action of the play. Hippolytos'r61eas a hunterhas been describedas symbolic of his status as a young man who has not yet become integratedinto the community- an insightful observation into the way social rituals work within the play.57 But the strand of imagery I have set out casts a different and complementarylight on Hippolytos' sexuality. Through it, he is presented as though he were a female parthenos who wants to stay in the wilderness, but as the hunted ratherthan the hunter.58This is a common imagery to apply to unmarried girls, but its applicationhere resonateswith Hippolytos'sexual identity in a way that is both surprisingand illuminating. The obvious strangeness of applying female motifs to
Hippolytos is balanced against the light it casts on his character: Hippolytos is someone who cannot accept the reality of his own sexuality - whose ultimate reconciliation to it is brought about through the actions of unmarried girls rather than boys (1423-30).59 The use of wedding language in the third stasimon is particularly poignant. The bride's transition to her new married status is construed as difficult and potentially even traumatic, and can be portrayed as a kind of death. However, it is also a transition to a new life in which she will fulfil her r6le in and respon-

sibilities to the community. Hippolytos' position is exactly the opposite. His traumaticand devastating departurefrom his home is portrayedin terms that suggest a transitionto a new life. But it is precisely because Hippolytos is unable to make this transitionthat he meets with
catastrophe.60 CONCLUSION The mixed chorus in the Hippolytos, far from being something which needs to be explained away, is in fact central to the themes of the play. By its very nature it alludes to and develops those themes. Mixed choral performance itself comes with automatic associations: a focus on gender r6les, the relationship between male and female, and associations with marriage rituals. These associations are further enhanced by the language the chorus in the Hippolytos uses, which ties into the topoi of wedding songs that the audience would link to the same occasions with which they would also associate mixed choruses.

57 Burnett (1986) 167-9; Vidal-Naquet(1968) 60-1 on the meaningof the huntingmotif. 58 Cf the common topos of theparthenos who rejects sexual attentionsand instead is transformedinto a wild animal (see Eur.Hel. 375-85, where Helen lists some of these parthenoi and expresses envy for them). rit59 A male deity's involvementin female transition ual is unusual in itself. Pausanias 1.43.4 mentions haircutting rites as part of female transitions,but the recipients are female. A counter-example might seem to be the

ritual prayerby girls in the Troadto the Skamandrosto take their virginity ([Aeschines], Epist. 10.3-5). However, in the Skamandrosstory, Skamandros'masculinity is deliberately sexualized: he is presented as a sexual partnerfor the girls as they reach maturity. The worship of Hippolytos is a lament, and focuses on his death before achieving marriage. premature 60 806-928. See Rehm (1994); Seaford (1987) for detailed analysis.

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I would conclude by suggesting that the way Euripidesuses these topoi is particularly powerful, as it draws directly not just on literaryand poetic precedentbut on the real-life performance-culturein which Euripides'audiencewould be steeped. The audience can be awareof the subtextof the ode immediatelyand withoutmuch conscious effort. The force of the comparison must also be significantly strongerthan ordinaryallusion. As the tragic chorusperforman ode with hymeneal features,they are in some sense becominga hymeneal chorus- the hymenaiosis not just being alluded to but actuallyperformed. By allusion to these culturalnorms, the chorus is able to portrayHippolytos in the r6le of a femaleparthenos on her wedding day, with its accompanyingculturalbaggage. The thirdstasimon draws on what we have alreadylearntabout Hippolytos'characterfrom earlierin the play, and casts it in this hymeneallight, giving us a filterthroughwhich to understand Hippolytos'attitude towardssexuality,and the ways in which this becomes relevantwithin the play.
L.A. SWIFT Magdalen College, Oxford

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