§ 4 The Training of the Chorus
The archon had now for the present finished his part of the business. He had seen that the proper number of poets, actors, and choregi had been chosen. He had seen that each choregus was provided with his own poet and actor. It was now the duty of choregus and poet to attend to the subsequent preparations. The choregus was responsible for the selection and payment of the chorus. He had also to provide a room for them to rehearse in.237 Very little is known concerning the relations between the choregus and his chorus. Such few details as have been recorded refer rather to the dithyramb than to the drama. The dithyrambic choruses were selected exclusively from the tribes which they represented in the competition. Each tribe had a specially appointed agent, who was employed by the choregus to collect his chorus for him.238 But the drama having nothing to do with the tribes, there was no limitation upon the selection of the dramatic choruses. Aristotle happens in one place to remark that a tragic and a comic chorus often consisted of much the same individual members.239 It is quite clear, therefore, that the dramatic choruses were chosen from the general body of citizens, and that a man might serve in two of them at the same time. There was probably a class of professional singers who made their livelihood by serving in these choruses. A rich choregus would have a great advantage over his rivals by offering higher pay, and so securing better singers. The stories about the boarding and lodging of the choreutae also refer mainly to the dithyrambic choruses. The choregus in Antiphon’s speech lodged his chorus in his own house, and gave special directions that every delicacy which was ordered by the trainer should be provided for them.240 But this was a chorus of boys. The professionals who served in the dramatic choruses are not likely to have been lodged in the house of the choregus, especially as they were often in the service of two choregi at the same time. However, it seems that the diet of the choruses was well attended to, so that the members should appear in the best possible condition on the day of the contests. Plutarch mentions eels, lettuce, garlic, and cheese as delicacies provided for this purpose. The appetite of the Attic choreutae passed into a proverb.241
During the earlier period of the Athenian drama the principal part in the training and instruction of the chorus was undertaken by the poet himself. In fact, the regular name at Athens for a dramatic or dithyrambic poet was didaskalos, or ‘the teacher’, owing to the part he took in teaching his play or poem to the chorus. In the same way, when a poet brought out a tragedy or a comedy, the technical expression was that he ‘taught’ such and such a play. The play, or group of plays, exhibited by a single poet was called a ‘teaching’242. In addition to the evidence supplied by these expressions, there is also no lack of direct testimony as to the important part taken by the older poets in the production of their plays. In fact, they were quite as much stage-managers as poets. The older dramatic writers, such as Thespis, Pratinas, Cratinus, and Phrynichus, were called ‘dancers’, not only because of the prominent part which the chorus and the dancing filled in their plays, but also because they gave instruction in choric dancing.243 Aeschylus is said to have superintended personally the whole of the training of his choruses, and to have invented many new dances and movements for them. His innovations in regard to the scenery and the dresses of the actors entirely transformed the outward appearance of the drama.244 This intimate connexion between the poet and the stage, between the literary and the theatrical part of dramatic production, continued to exist during the great period of Athenian drama. Sophocles appeared personally in some of his plays. In the Thamyris he played the harp. In the Nausicaa he won great applause by the skill with which he played ball in the scene where Nausicaa is sporting with her maidens.245 Euripides also seems to have superintended the training of his choruses in person, as there is a story in Plutarch which represents him as singing over one of his odes to the choreutae.246
The poet was assisted in his task by a subordinate, who looked after the routine part of the work, and was called a hypodidaskalos, or ‘assistant teacher’. This was the proper term to denote the professional trainer, as opposed to the didaskalos, or poet.247 But towards the end of the fifth and the beginning of the fourth century the practice in these matters underwent a change. Poetry and stage-management began to be sharply discriminated from one another. A class of literary dramatic writers arose, such as Theodectes and Aphareus, who were quite as much rhetoricians as poets. They knew nothing about the details of training a chorus, or preparing a play for representation. In these circumstances the greater part of the management was undertaken by the professional instructor. The term didaskalos, which had originally been confined to the poet, was now applied to these hired trainers.248 A class of men came into existence who made choral instruction their regular business. One of these, named Sannio, is mentioned by Demosthenes, and was celebrated for his skill in training tragic choruses.249 These professional teachers were hired and paid by the choregus. A rich choregus had a great advantage in being able to secure the best assistance. Xenophon mentions the case of a certain choregus called Antisthenes, who knew little or nothing about music and choruses himself, but was always successful in his competitions, because he took care to provide himself with the most skilful trainers procurable.250 It is obvious that in these later times, when the poets ceased to attend to the details of stage-management, the importance of the professional trainers must have been very much increased. The hiring of a good trainer would be one of the first conditions of success.