Editing Dithyramb (section)

{{Short description|Literary and music genre}}
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[[File:Relief flute player Glyptothek Munich.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Classical Athens|Attic]] [[relief]] (4th century BCE) depicting an ''[[aulos]]'' player and his family standing before [[Dionysos]] and a female consort, with theatrical [[masks]] displayed above]]
The '''dithyramb''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|d||ɪ|θ|ɪ|r|æ|m}};<ref>{{cite book |title=Longman Pronunciation Dictionary |url=https://archive.org/details/longman-pronunciation-dictionary/page/229/mode/2up |first=John C. |last= Wells |publisher=Longman |location=Harlow, England |year=2000 |orig-date=1990 |edition=new |isbn=978-0-582-36467-7 |page=229}}</ref> {{langx|grc|διθύραμβος}}, ''dithyrambos'') was an [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] [[hymn]] sung and danced in honor of [[Dionysus]], the god of [[wine]] and [[fertility]]; the term was also used as an [[epithet]] of the god.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2326816 Dithurambos], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', at Perseus. ''Dithyrambos'' seems to have arisen out of the hymn: just as ''paean'' was both a hymn to and a title of [[Apollo]], ''Dithyrambos'' was an [[epithet]] of Dionysos as well as a song in his honour; see Harrison (1922, 436).</ref> [[Plato]], in ''[[Laws (dialogue)|The Laws]]'', while discussing various kinds of music mentions "the birth of Dionysos, called, I think, the dithyramb."<ref>Plato, ''Laws'',  iii.700 B.</ref> Plato also remarks in the ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'' that dithyrambs are the clearest example of poetry in which the poet is the only speaker.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Plato|title=Republic|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0167:book=3:section=394c&highlight=diqura%2Fmbois}}</ref>

However, in ''[[Apology (Plato)|The Apology]]'' Socrates went to the dithyrambic poets<ref>
{{cite book
 |author1              = John Curtis Franklin
 |editor-last1         = Kowalzig
 |editor-first1        = Barbara
 |editor-last2         = Wilson
 |editor-first2        = Peter
 |date                 = 27 June 2013
 |chapter              = 'Songbenders of Circular Choruses': Dithyramb and the 'Demise of Music'
 |title                = Dithyramb in Context
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=uGm43LzqPNoC
 |publication-place    = Oxford
 |publisher            = Oxford University Press
 |page                 = 232
 |isbn                 = 9780199574681
 |access-date          = 21 March 2025
 |quote                = In the ''Apology'' (21e–22c), Socrates relates how he went in turn 'to the tragedians, the dithyrambic poets, and all the others' to test their ''sophia'' [...].
}}
</ref>
with some of their own most elaborate passages, asking their meaning, but got a response of, "Will you believe me?" which "showed me in an instant that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand the meaning of them."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Plato |title=The Republic &#124; Edited by Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler |url=http://www.feedbooks.com/book/678/apology}}</ref>

[[Plutarch]] contrasted the dithyramb's wild and [[Ecstasy (philosophy)|ecstatic]] character with the [[paean]].<ref>Plutarch, ''On the Ei at Delphi''. Plutarch himself was a priest of Dionysos at Delphi.</ref> According to [[Aristotle]], the dithyramb was the origin of [[Classical Athens|Athenian]] [[tragedy]].<ref>[[Aristotle]], ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]'' (1449a10–15): "Anyway, arising from an improvisatory beginning (both tragedy and comedy—tragedy from the leaders of the dithyramb, and comedy from the leaders of the [[Fertility rite|phallic processions]] which even now continue as a custom in many of our cities), [tragedy] grew little by little, as [the poets] developed whatever [new part] of it had appeared; and, passing through many changes, tragedy came to a halt, since it had attained its own nature"; see Janko (1987, 6).</ref> A wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writing is still occasionally described as ''dithyrambic''.<ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dithyrambic Definition of dithyrambic]. [[TheFreeDictionary.com]].</ref>