Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece: Their Morphology, Religous Role, and Social Functions

This work argues that the songs sung by choruses of young girls in ancient Greek poetry are more than literary texts; rather they functioned as initiatory rituals in Greek cult practices. Using semiotic and anthropologic theory, the author reconstructs the religious and social institutions surrounding the songs, demonstrating their function in an aesthetic education that permitted the young girls to achieve the stature of womanhood and to be integrated into the adult civic community.