The Journal of Hellenic Studies· 2026Q2
Melodic repetition in the antistrophes of Greek tragedy
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- Q2SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Ancient evidence strongly supports the practice of repeating melodies for responding stanzas (antistrophes) in Greek tragedy, despite recent scholarly debate.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Scholarship on Greek metre often assumes responding stanzas used the same melody.
- Recent studies have proposed that Archaic and early Classical antistrophes did not feature melodic repetition.
- This paper thoroughly investigates the ancient evidence for melodic repetition in responding stanzas.
- The conclusion is that evidence strongly supports the general repetition of melodies for antistrophes.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract Scholarship on Greek metre routinely asserts that responding stanzas were sung to the same melody, but the ancient evidence for this practice is difficult and rarely discussed. In response to several recent studies proposing that Archaic and early Classical antistrophes did not feature melodic repetition, this paper offers a thorough investigation of the evidence for melodic repetition in responding stanzas. I conclude that the evidence strongly supports the view that responding stanzas did generally repeat the same melody, even if this overall pattern was subject to the variations and liberties characteristic of any artistic practice.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Anthropology
AnthropologySocial Sciences