Detail of a pelike, c. 520–515 BC, by the circle of Euthymides, depicting young male athletes dancing and jumping to the aulos. The scene may represent the Greek competitive dance exercise called bibasis, a Laconian dance for both boys and girls.[1]

The Bibasis (Greek: βίβασις) was a common dance at ancient Sparta, which was much practised both by men and women.[2]

History

The Bibasis, a dance of men and women, was of the gymnastic kind.[3] The dance consisted in springing rapidly from the ground, and striking the feet behind; a feat of which the Spartan woman Lampito, in the Lysistrata of Aristophanes,[4] prides herself.[2] She derives her strength and her beauty essentially from this exercise.[5]

γυμνάδδομαι γὰρ[lower-alpha 1] καὶ ποτὶ πυγὰν ἅλλομαι.
Αn' I can loup an' fling an' kick my hurdies.[6]

The dance consisted in kicking one's own buttocks, to music, as rapidly as possible.[7] The number of successful strokes was counted, and the most skilful received prizes in competitions. We are told by a verse from an epigram, which has been preserved by Pollux,[8] that a Laconian girl had won by dancing the Bibasis a thousand times, which was more than had ever been done before.[3][2]

χήλι' ἅδε ποκὰ βίβαντι, πλεῖστα δὴ τᾶν πήποκα.[lower-alpha 2]
This girl once jumped a thousand times, the most ever.

References

  1. ↑ Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
  2. 1 2 3 Smith 1890, p. 594.
  3. 1 2 Müller 1830, iv. 6, § 8.
  4. ↑ Ar. Lys. 82.
  5. ↑ Reisch 1896, p. 391.
  6. ↑ Rogers 1946, p. 13.
  7. ↑ Lawler 1964, p. 121.
  8. ↑ Poll. iv. 102.

Notes

  1. ↑ or: γε.
  2. ↑ The text of the verse as preserved in the manuscripts of Pollux (χίλια ποκὰ βίβαντι, πλεῖστα δὴ τῶν πήποκα) is corrupt and unmetrical. Various attempts have been made to restore it; the version reproduced here is that of Preger 1891.

Sources

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