Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Greek chorus was central to ancient communal life. Some of the most famous poets of the archaic and classical age, such as Sappho or Pindar, wrote for women and men dancing in a chorus. Famously, Greek drama had its roots in pre-theatrical choral performances, but the power of the Greek chorus extended far beyond that: it could serve as a religious, ritual, social, political, and literary tool for people to create and uphold their communal identities. But what happened to the chorus in the Hellenistic and Roman imperial periods? So far, no one has tried to answer this question. Songs and Stones: The Post-Classical Greek Chorus and the Power of Placemaking demonstrates that contrary to the academic belief, chorality continued to be fundamental for communities’ existence in the post-classical era. It is the medium that changed: instead of scraps of papyri retrieved from the sands of Egypt, it is the epigraphic material across the Greek world that provides a wealth of evidence. By applying an interdisciplinary methodology that considers both the choral performance and lithic materiality of the text, Songs and Stones argues that inscriptions with choral lyric served to create space and place in which ancient people lived. This process of placemaking was entrenched in the physical location of inscriptions but could extend also to an immaterial conceptualization of a community’s place in the world.</jats:p>