Bibasis (dance) explained

The Bibasis (Greek: βίβασις) was a common dance at ancient Sparta, which was much practised both by men and women.^[1]

History

The Bibasis, a dance of men and women, was of the gymnastic kind.^[2] 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,^[3] prides herself. She derives her strength and her beauty essentially from this exercise.^[4]

The dance consisted in kicking one's own buttocks, to music, as rapidly as possible.^[5] 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,^[6] that a Laconian girl had won by dancing the Bibasis a thousand times, which was more than had ever been done before.

References

1. Smith 1890, p. 594.
2. Müller 1830, iv. 6, § 8.
3. Ar. Lys. 82.
4. Reisch 1896, p. 391.
5. Lawler 1964, p. 121.
6. Poll. iv. 102.

Sources

• 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.
• 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.