Cordax

Cordax

The cordax (Ancient Greek: Κόρδαξ),[1] was a provocative, licentious, and often obscene mask dance[2] of ancient Greek comedy.[3][4] In his play the The Clouds, Aristophanes complains that other playwrights of his time try to hide the feebleness of their plays by bringing an old woman onto the stage to dance the cordax. He notes with pride that his patrons will not find such gimmicks in his plays.

Petronius Arbiter in his Roman novel the Satyricon has Trimalchio boast to his dinner guests that no one dances the cordax better than his wife, Fortunata. The nature of this dance is described in the satires of Juvenal, who says "the girls encouraged by applause sink to the ground with tremulous buttocks." The poet Horace and playwright Plautus refer to the same dance as iconici motus.

Modern philologists[who?] maintain that the cordax later became the fandango. Juvenal makes specific mention of the testarum crepitus (clicking of castanets). In the earlier Greek form, finger cymbals were used.

Notes

References



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  • Cordax — La cordax était une danse lascive, provocante, voire licencieuse et souvent obscène de la comédie grecque antique. Dans sa pièce Les Nuées, Aristophane se plaint que d autres dramaturges de son temps essayent de cacher la faiblesse de leurs… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • cordax — cor·dax …   English syllables

  • cordax — ˈkȯ(r)ˌdaks variant of kordax …   Useful english dictionary

  • κόρδαχ' — κόρδᾱκα , κόρδαξ cordax masc acc sg κόρδᾱκι , κόρδαξ cordax masc dat sg κόρδᾱκε , κόρδαξ cordax masc nom/voc/acc dual …   Greek morphological index (Ελληνική μορφολογικούς δείκτες)

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