Melodic repetition in the antistrophes of Greek tragedy

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.