Bibasis (dance)

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

History[edit]

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^[a] 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.^[b]
This girl once jumped a thousand times, the most ever.

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

Sources[edit]

• Lawler, Lillian B. (1964). The Dance in Ancient Greece. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. p. 121.
• Müller, C. O. (1830). The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race. Vol. 2. Tufnell, Henry, and Lewis, George Cornewall (trans.). Oxford: S. Collingwood. pp. 351–352.
• Preger, Theodor. (1891). Inscriptiones graecae metricae ex scriptoribus praeter Anthologiam collectae. Leipzig: Teubner. pp. 107–108, no. 134.
• Raftis, Alkis, ed. "βίβασις, bibasis, vivasis". Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Dance. International Dance Council CID. Accessed 10 July 2022.
• Reisch, Emil (1896). "Bibasis (2)". In Wissowa, Georg (ed.). Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Vol. 3: Barbarus–Campanus. Stuttgart: Metzler. pp. 390–391.
• Roebuck, Mary C., and Roebuck, Carl A. (April–June 1955). "A Prize Aryballos". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 24(2): pp. 158–163.
• Rogers, Benjamin Bickley (1946). Aristophanes III. London: William Heinemann Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 13.
• Sider, David (December 2021). "Pyrwias Leading the Dance". Antichistica, 31. Edizioni Ca’Foscari. pp. 115–129.
• Smith, William (1890). "Saltatio". In Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E. (eds.). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 3rd ed. London: John Murray. p. 594. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2016). The Encyclopedia of World Folk Dance. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 112, 119.
• Threatte, Leslie (1967). "An Interpretation of a Sixth-Century Corinthian Dipinto". Glotta, 45(3/4): pp. 186–194.
• "Two-handled storage jar (pelike) depicting young athletes jumping". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Accessed 10 July 2022.