Aristoteles Athenaion Politeia 56, 3

Ἔπειτα παραλαβὼν τοὺς χορηγούς, τοὺς ἐνηνεγμένους ὑπὸ τῶν φυλῶν εἰς Διονύσια ἀνδράσιν καὶ παισὶν καὶ κωμῳδοῖς, καὶ εἰς Θαργήλια ἀνδράσιν καὶ παισίν (εἰσὶ δ’οἱ μὲν εἰς Διονύσια κατὰ φυλάς, εἰς Θαργήλια <δὲ> δυεῖν φυλαῖν εἷς· παρέχει δ’ἐν μ[έρ]ει ἑκατέρα τῶν φυλῶν).

Afterwards he receives the Chorus-leaders nominated by the Tribes for the men’s and boys’ competitions and the comedies at the Dionysia and for men and boys at the Thargelia (for the Dionysia one for each tribe, for the Thargelia one for two tribes, which take turns to supply them). (trans. H. Rackham)

The second part of the Athenian Constitution (Ath. Pol., chapters 42–69) provides an overview of the functioning of the Athenian political system, with particular emphasis on its judicial institutions. Chapter 56 specifically outlines the duties assigned to the office of the archon. From Antiphon’s De choreuta, we learn that, at least until 419 BC (or possibly 412 BC), the appointment of choregoi fell under the authority of the eponymous archon (see Rhodes 1981, 624; Wilson 2000, 52). However, the passage referenced above makes it clear that by the 4th century BC—more precisely from 348/47 BC, when the first attestation of a new procedure appears in Demosthenes’ Contra Boeotum—this process underwent a significant change. The task of selecting choregoi for the choral competitions at the Dionysia and the Thargelia was transferred to the tribes (see Csapo and Slater 1995, 143), which would choose the choregoi and subsequently present them to the archon for formal appointment only. A key difference between the two festivals, however, emerges from the sources: at the Dionysia, each of the ten tribes appointed one choregos, whereas at the Thargelia, a single choregos was appointed by every two tribes, with each pair taking turns in contributing one. The relative ambiguity of the sources regarding the appointment of one choregos per pair of tribes at the Thargelia has given rise to various interpretations over time. The most widely accepted hypothesis posits that each pair of tribes provided two choregoi per edition of the festival—one for the paides (boys) and one for the andres (men)—with the roles alternating in the following year (see Amandry, 166 n. 4). Under this model, both tribes in each of the five pairs (formed by grouping the ten tribes into five duos) would participate annually in both age categories. Consequently, the total number of competing choruses at the Thargelia would be ten—five in each category—compared to the twenty (ten per category) at the Dionysia. This interpretation may also explain why, at some point, the original system of random tribal pairing was replaced by fixed tribal combinations. It is plausible that this transition occurred between the late 5th and the first half of the 4th century BC. For instance, the choregos who addressed Antiphon in 419 or 412 BC had received the pairing of his tribe, the Erechtheidai, with the Kekropidai by lot (the verb used is ἔλαχον). Nearly a century later, Ath. Pol. 56.3 indicates that the system had shifted to one in which fixed pairs of tribes alternated in providing a choregos (ἐν μέρει). In other words, the older model of selecting tribal pairs from two groups of five had been replaced by a stable arrangement of five predetermined pairs, each participating annually in the competition. Epigraphic evidence provides further chronological precision for this development. The first securely dated example of a fixed tribal pairing comes from a choregic dedication made by Aisios, son of Mnesiboulos, in 365/64 BC (see IG II² 3065). This inscription marks a transitional moment between the two organizational phases of the festival. In it, the tribes Akamantis and Pandionis appear as a pair—a pairing also attested in two subsequent inscriptions, one prior to the mid-4th century BC and another from 344/43 BC—confirming that fixed tribal pairs had been established by this period (see Wilson 2007, 156).

H. OPPERMANN, Aristotelis Ἀθηναίων Πολιτεία, Leipzig 1928 (repr. 1968).

P. AMANDRY, ‘Trépieds d’Athenes: I. Dionysies’, BCH 100, 1977, 15-93; E. BODENSTEINER, ‘Über coregische Weihinschriften’, in Commentationes philologicae conventui philologorum Monachii congregatorum oblatae, 1891, 38-92; C. BOTTIN, ‘Étude sur la chorégie dithyrambique en Attique jusqu’à l’époque de Démétrius de Phalère (308 avant J.-C.)’, Rev. Belg. Philol. Hist. , 1930, 749-782; M.E. DELLA BONA, ‘L’allestimento dei cori negli agoni ateniesi tra V e IV secolo: l’esempio delle Targelie’, FAEM n.s. 6.2, 2024, 63-95; E. CSAPO-W.J. SLATER, The Context of Ancient Drama, Ann-Arbor-Michigan 1995; P.J. RHODES, A commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia, Oxford 1981; P. WILSON, The Athenian Institution of the Khoregia, Cambridge 2000.

Appointment, choruses, matching, tribe, turn

[Maria Elena Della Bona]