ThePyrrhichios orPyrrhike dance ("Pyrrhic dance";Ancient Greek: πυρρίχιος or πυρρίχη,[1] but often misspelled as πυρρίχειος or πυρήχειος) was the best knownwar dance of the Greeks. It was probably ofDorian origin and practiced at first solely as a training for war. According to ancient sources, it was aweapon dance.[2]
Plato (Leges, 815a) describes it as imitating by quick movements the ways in which blows and darts are to be avoided and also the modes in which an enemy is to be attacked. It was danced to the sound of theaulos; its time was quick and light, as is also shown by the metric foot called pyrrhic.[3]
It was described byXenophon in his work theAnabasis. In that work he writes that the dance was performed at a banquet held inKotyora during which Greek andPaphalagonian forces settled their differences. The following is the part in which the Pyrrhic dance is mentioned:
The Paphlagonians were amazed to see all these dances performed by men in arms. At this Mysus, perceiving their astonishment, prevailed on one of the Arcadians, who had a woman dancer, to let him bring her in; which he did accordingly, after he had dressed her in the handsomest manner he was able, and given her a light buckler. She danced the Pyrrhic dance with great agility: on which there was great clapping; and the Paphlagonians asked whether the woman also charged with their troops. The others answered, that it was they who drove the king out of their camp. This was the end of that night's entertainment.[4]
According to a tradition reported byAristotle, the originator of thepyrriche wasAchilles, who danced it around the funeral pyre ofPatroclus.[5]
The dance was loved in all of Greece and especially by theSpartans, who considered it light war training. This belief led the Spartans to teach the dance to their children while they were still young.
Athenian youth performed the dance in thepalaestra as part of training in gymnastics.[6] The dance was also performed in thePanathenaic Games. There were three classes of competitors: men, youth, and boys.[6]