Chapter 7 - Dance History

Summary

Chapter Seven offers a pair of readings in Greek historiography, drawing from the various models outlined in the preceding chapters to illuminate the role of dance description in scenes from Herodotus’ Histories and Xenophon’s Anabasis. My analysis demonstrates that these historians draw on familiar tropes about the social status and cultural significance of solo dancers (both male and female), yet also refigure them to serve their own creative and narrative ends. I suggest that the act of writing about embodied action – of fixing dance in words – is an analog for the work of the historian in translating disparate actions and events into a coherent narrative.