The Kōmos ( grc, κῶμος; pl. kōmoi) was a ritualistic drunken procession performed by revelers in ancient Greece, whose participants were known as komasts (κωμασταί, ''kōmastaí''). Its precise nature has been difficult to reconstruct from the diverse literary sources and evidence derived from vase painting.
The earliest reference to the komos is in
Hesiod
Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...
's ''
Shield of Herakles'', which indicates it took place as part of wedding festivities (line 281). And famously
Alcibiades
Alcibiades ( ; grc-gre, Ἀλκιβιάδης; 450 – 404 BC) was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last of the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War. He played a major role in t ...
gate-crashes the ''
Symposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...
'' while carousing in a komos. However, no one kind of event is associated with the komos:
Pindar describes them taking place at the city festivals (Pythian 5.21, 8.20, Olympian 4.9), while
Demosthenes mentions them taking place after the ''
''pompe'''' and ''
choregoi'' on the first day of the
Greater Dionysia
The Dionysia (, , ; Greek: Διονύσια) was a large festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central events of which were the theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies and, from 487 BC, comedies. It was the sec ...
(Speeches 21.10), which may indicate the komos might have been a competitive event.
The komos must be distinguished from the ''
pompe'', or ritual procession, and the
chorus
Chorus may refer to:
Music
* Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse
* Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound
* Chorus form, song in which all verse ...
, both of which were scripted. The komos lacked a
chorus leader, script, or rehearsal. In the performance of Greek victory odes (
''epinikia'') at post-
Game
A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...
celebrations for winning athletes, the choral singers often present themselves as komasts, or extend an invitation to join the komos, as if the formal song were a preliminary to spontaneous revelry. Nevertheless some komoi were expressly described as "''semnoí''" ("modest", "decent"), which implies that standard ''komoi'' were anything but.
Demosthenes upbraids the brother-in-law of
Aeschines for not wearing a mask during the komos, as was the custom (On the Embassy 19.287), suggesting costume or disguise may have been involved. The playing of music during the komos is also mentioned by
Aristophanes (''
Thesmophoriazusae
''Thesmophoriazusae'' ( grc-gre, Θεσμοφοριάζουσαι; ''Thesmophoriazousai'', meaning ''Women Celebrating the Festival of the Thesmophoria''), or ''Women at the Thesmophoria'' (sometimes also called ''The Poet and the Women''), is o ...
'' 104, 988) and Pindar (Olympian 4.9, Pythian 5.22). There are also depictions of torch-lit processions in vase painting, yet it is not always clear from the evidence of vases if they depict
symposia
''Symposia'' is a genus of South American araneomorph spiders in the family Cybaeidae, and was first described by Eugène Simon in 1898.
Species
it contains six species in Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic o ...
, choruses or komoi.
It is now widely thought that komos and ''κωμῳδία - komoidia'' "comedy" are etymologically related, the derivation being ''komos'' + ''ᾠδή - o(i)de'' "song" (from ''ἀείδω - aeido'' "sing"). However, in part III of the
Poetics
Poetics is the theory of structure, form, and discourse within literature, and, in particular, within poetry.
History
The term ''poetics'' derives from the Ancient Greek ποιητικός ''poietikos'' "pertaining to poetry"; also "creative" an ...
,
Aristotle records the tradition that the word ''komoedia'' derives from the
Megara
Megara (; el, Μέγαρα, ) is a historic town and a municipality in West Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis Island, Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, befo ...
n
mime that took place in the villages of
Sicily, hence from ''κώμη - kome'' (the Dorian word for village
[The '' SOED'' cites both etymologies.]). Nevertheless, it remains unclear exactly how the revel-song developed into the
Greek Old comedy of the Dionysian festival in the 6th century BC.
See also
*
Corpus vasorum antiquorum
Notes
References
*Kenneth S. Rothwell Jr. ‘’Nature, Culture and the Origins of Greek Comedy: A Study of Animal Choruses’’. CUP 2006.
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Ancient Greek comedy
Cult of Dionysus