Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to present a metachoral reading of the first stasimon of Agamemnon, in connection with other passages in the Oresteia, drawing from the concepts of choral self-referentiality and choral mimesis, in order to highlight both the connections of the chorus of tragedy with a long tradition of ritual chorality and the specificic features of the tragic chorus. In Agamemnon, the theme of choral performativity is thematized and dramatically enacted to represent the loss of the efficient action of the chorus, which is related to the loss of charis provoked by the departure of Helen from Sparta in the central episode of the first stasimon. Here and at the beginning of the second stasimon a subtle play with the Stesichorean version of Helen’s story in the Palinode is shown to be at work in relationship to the metachoral theme of the loss of choral performativity, which runs throughout the work and culminates in the virtual disappearance of the chorus at the end of the play. In marked contrast, choral performativity is emphatically restored with the last chorus of Eumenides, which projects this active power upon the present of the polis.