Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece - Their Morphology, Religious Role and Social Functions

In this groundbreaking work, Claude Calame argues that the songs sung by choruses of young girls in ancient Greek poetry are more than literary texts; rather, they functioned as initiatory rituals in Greek cult practices. Using semiotic and anthropologic theory, Calame reconstructs the religious and social institutions surrounding the songs, demonstrating their function in an aesthetic education that permitted the young girls to achieve the stature of womanhood and to be integrated into the adult civic community. This first English edition includes an updated bibliography.

About the author

Claude Calame is professor of Greek language and literature at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.

Product details

• Authors: Claude Calame, Derek Collins, Janice Orion
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.12.1996
• EAN: 9780822630630
• ISBN: 978-0-8226-3063-0
• No. of pages: 298
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 18 mm
• Weight: 487 g
• Series: Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches
• Subject: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works