According to Plato’s Laws, men ages thirty to sixty should sing and dance for Dionysus, an ancient Greek god of festivity and fecundity. To help old men overcome the stiffness of age and performance anxiety, the Laws allows old men to drink much wine:
When a man has matured to forty years of age, he may join in the convivial gatherings and invoke Dionysus above all other gods. He may invite Dionysus’s presence at the rite, which is also the recreation of the elders, by which Dionysus bestowed on humans wine as a medicine potent against the bodily distortions of old age. We might thereby renew our youth. Through forgetfulness of care, the temper of our souls might lose its hardness and become softer and more ductile, just as does iron when it has been forged in fire. Will not this softer disposition primarily make each person more willing and less ashamed to dance and sing chants and incantations, as we have often called them, in the presence of a small number of close friends, not before a large crowd of strangers?
{ τετταράκοντα δὲ ἐπιβαίνοντα ἐτῶν, ἐν τοῖς ξυσσιτίοις εὐωχηθέντα, καλεῖν τούς τε ἄλλους θεοὺς καὶ δὴ καὶ Διόνυσον παρακαλεῖν εἰς τὴν τῶν πρεσβυτῶν τελετὴν ἅμα καὶ παιδιάν, ἣν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐπίκουρον τῆς τοῦ γήρως αὐστηρότητος ἐδωρήσατο [τὸν οἶνον] φάρμακον ὥστ᾿ ἀνηβᾷν ἡμᾶς, καὶ δυσθυμίας λήθῃ γίγνεσθαι μαλακώτερον ἐκ σκληροτέρου τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἦθος, καθάπερ εἰς πῦρ σίδηρον ἐντεθέντα τηκόμενον, καὶ οὕτως εὐπλαστότερον εἶναι; πρῶτον μὲν δὴ διατεθεὶς οὕτως ἕκαστος ἆρ᾿ οὐκ ἂν ἐθέλοι προθυμότερόν γε, ἧττον αἰσχυνόμενος, οὐκ ἐν πολλοῖς ἀλλ᾿ ἐν μετρίοις, καὶ οὐκ ἐν ἀλλοτρίοις ἀλλ᾿ ἐν οἰκείοις, ᾄδειν τε καὶ ὃ πολλάκις εἰρήκαμεν ἐπᾴδειν }[1]
Defending the consul-designate Lucius Licinius Murena against the charge of electoral bribery, Cicero about the year 63 BGC declared that the respectable Murena was not associated with the sort of circumstances in which an old man would dance:
No sober man would dance, except perhaps if he’s insane, not even dance in solitude, nor at a restrained and respectable banquet.
{ Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit, neque in solitudine neque in convivio moderato atque honesto. }[2]
Cicero might have been alluding to Plato’s idea of wine prompting old to men to dance. In any case, Cicero surely was exaggerating for rhetorical effect. In ancient Greek and Roman cultures, men danced. Even old men danced.
Old men dancing indicated a well-ordered cosmos in ancient Greek and Roman culture. In traditional Roman religion, a religious ritual, once begun, must be completed or dire effects would ensue. A story circulating in Rome no later than about two millennia ago recounts the heroic dancing of an old man:
When the circus games for Apollo were being celebrated, it was reported that Hannibal was attacking the city near the Colline Gate. All the men grabbed their weapons and ran there. Later, when they returned and were afraid about the broken propitiatory sacrifice, they found a certain old man dancing in the circus. When asked, he told them that he had not stopped dancing. So is said the proverb: “All is well in heaven and on earth — the old man is dancing.”
{ cum ludi circenses Apollini celebrarentur et Hannibal nuntiatus esset circa portam Collinam urbi ingruere, omnes raptis armis concurrerunt. reversi postea cum piaculum formidarent, invenerunt saltantem in circo senem quendam. qui cum interrogatus dixisset se non interrupisse saltationem, dictum est hoc proverbium “salva res est, saltat senex.” }[3]
A form of the proverb “all is well in heaven and on earth — the old man is dancing {salva res est, saltat senex}” apparent was known in classical Athens. In his play Peace {Εἰρήνη / Pax}, the comic playwright Aristophanes has a domestic slave announce to his master: “The servant girl has had a bath, and all is well with her buttocks {ἡ παῖς λέλουται καὶ τὰ τῆς πυγῆς καλά}.”[4] That’s probably a lewd parody of the proverb about an old man dancing. In Sophocles’s tragedy Oedipus the King / Oedipus Tyrannus {Οἰδίπους Τύραννος}, a chorus of old men lament lack of punishment for humans who violate divine law. They collectively declare:
For if such practices are respected,
why should I continue dancing?{ εἰ γὰρ αἱ τοιαίδε πράξεις τίμιαι,
τί δεῖ με χορεύειν }[5]
In other words, if all isn’t well in heaven and on earth, the old man will stop dancing. Old men ceasing to dance signals tragedy.
Amid all the gender injustices that men endure, old men dancing represents a triumph of the human spirit. Old men lack young men’s physical vitality. More significantly, by virtue of their years, old men have had greater exposure to toxic attitudes toward masculinity, normalized violence against men, state-supported cuckolding, and forced financial fatherhood. Yet some old men still dance:
And if the old man dances,
then he’s old by his hair,
but young at heart.{ ἂν δ᾿ ὁ γέρων χορεύῃ,
τρίχας γέρων μέν ἐστιν,
τὰς δὲ φρένας νεάζει. }[6]
Men should be encouraged to dance for joy. When even old men dance for joy, all might not be well in heaven and on earth, but at least men are striving to be fully alive as human beings.[7]
* * * * *
Read more:
- men dancing for war and pleasure in ancient Greek poetry
- Montaigne essayed his sexual difficulties and inadequacies
- Piers Plowman: sober, common labor over symposia of Plato & Xenophon
Notes:
[1] Plato, Laws {Νόμοι} 666B-C (Book 2), ancient Greek Text and English translation (modified slightly) from Bury (1926). See also Νόμοι 665B. Subsequent quotes from Plato’s Laws are similarly sourced. On the mistake of narrowly interpreting in Plato poetry, singing, and music not to include dance, Scott (2023).
In Plato’s hypothetical city Magnesia, men older than sixty, called “myth-tellers {μυθολόγοι},” participate in a Nocturnal Council and chant didactic myths. Νόμοι 951D, 961B–962C. Alcohol, dance, and poetry were foundations of ancient Greek society. Murray (2013) p. 120.
Plato regarded old men as inferior to young men in dancing. The Athenian stranger declares:
Now while our young men are fitted for actually dancing themselves, don’t we regard as suitable for us elders to spend our time looking upon them and taking pleasure in their sport and merry-making, now that our former nimbleness is leaving us? And our yearning regret for this causes us to set up such dance contests for those who are best able to awaken us to youth through recollection.
{ Ἆρ᾿ οὖν οὐχ ἡμῶν οἱ μὲν νέοι αὐτοὶ χορεύειν ἕτοιμοι, τὸ δὲ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων ἡμῶν ἐκείνους αὖ θεωροῦντες διάγειν ἡγούμεθα πρεπόντως, χαίροντες τῇ ἐκείνων παιδιᾷ τε καὶ ἑορτάσει, ἐπειδὴ τὸ παρ᾿ ἡμῖν ἡμᾶς ἐλαφρὸν ἐκλείπει νῦν, ὃ ποθοῦντες καὶ ἀσπαζόμενοι τίθεμεν οὕτως ἀγῶνας τοῖς δυναμένοις ἡμᾶς ὅτι μάλιστα εἰς τὴν νεότητα μνήμῃ ἐπεγείρειν }
Plato, Νόμοι 967D, ancient Greek text from Bury (1926), English translation (modified slightly) from Yu (2021) p. 618. While old men dance in honor of Dionysus, young men dance in honor of Apollo Paian, an ancient Greek god associated with good order and beauty.
Plato associates old men with infants. Old men experience a “second childhood {ὁ γέρων δὶς παῖς γίγνοιτ’ ἄν}.” Νόμοι 646A. Neither old men nor infants can control well their bodies, and hence both old men and infants honor the disorderly god Dionysus. On the ideological demographics of dance in Plato’s Νόμοι, Yu (2021).
[2] Cicero, For Murena {Pro Murena} 6.13, Latin text from Clark (1909), my English translation. With Cicero’s help, Lucius Licinius Murena was acquitted of electoral bribery and became Consul of the Roman Republic (the highest elected public office) in 62 BGC. On Cicero’s “rhetorical exaggeration” in this passage, Schlapbach (2022) p. 12.
[3] Servius the Grammarian (also questionably called Maurus Servius Honoratus), Commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil {In Vergilii Aeneidem Commentarii} 8.110, Latin text from Thilo (1881-1902), my English translation. The phrase “salva res est” could be translated as “all is well” or “everything is fine.” However, that simple translation obscures the contextual religious significance of the word “salvus” in “salva res est, saltat senex.” Servius elsewhere provides a slightly different version:
It is indeed known that it was customary to celebrate games after a wrong had been committed. When the Romans were laboring to appease the anger of the mother goddess, neither sacrifices nor games could please her. A certain old man danced at the established circus games. That was the sole cause of appeasing the goddess. Hence originated the proverb: “All is properly ordered — the old man is dancing.”
{ sciendum sane moris fuisse, ut piaculo commisso ludi celebrarentur: nam cum Romani iracundia matris deum laborarent et eam nec sacrificiis nec ludis placare possent, quidam senex statutis ludis circensibus saltavit, quae sola fuit causa placationis: unde et natum proverbium est “omnia secunda, saltat senex.” }
Servius, In Vergilii Aeneidem Commentarii 3.279, sourced as previously. In the version, “All is properly ordered — the old man is dancing {omnia secunda, saltat senex},” the religious significance is more obscure.
The Roman grammarian Sextus Pompeius Festus compiled in the middle of the second century GC an epitome of Verrius Flaccus’s Latin dictionary About the Meaning of Words {De verborum significatu}. Verrius Flaccus himself worked under the Roman Emperors Augustus and Tiberius at the start of the first millennium GC. Festus’s dictionary testifies to earlier existence of the proverb:
“All is well in heaven and earth — the old man is dancing.” The reason why the Parasites of Apollo recite this formula on the stage was given by Verrius in the fifth book of those entries which begin with the letter P. He said it was because, in the consulship of C. Sulpicius and C. Fulvius, while M. Calpurnius Piso as praetor urbanus was celebrating the games, those present suddenly ran out to arms on the news of the enemy’s approach. They returned to the theater victorious. They worried that the interruption of the games might require atonement and that the games would have to be repeated. However, they found there the freedman C. Pomponius, a mime of great age, who was dancing to the flute. And so this remark was uttered in delight that the ritual had not been interrupted, and it is still commonly used today.
But in this book he quotes the words of Sinnius Capito, in which he says that those games of Apollo were celebrated in the consulship of Claudius and Fulvius. He says the games were established in accordance with the instructions of the Sibylline books and the prophecy of the seer Marcius. There is no mention of any Pomponius. Ridiculously enough, he gives here the reason for the title “Parasites of Apollo,” although in the other place he had passed over it. He says that they are so called, because C. Volumnius, the man who danced to the flute, was a “second-part actor” — an actor who in almost all mimes plays the role of a parasite. I have not recorded this inconsistency in our Verrius without blushing.
{ “Salva res [est dum cantat] senex,” quare parasiti Apollonis in scaena dictitent, causam Verrius in lib. V, quorum prima est p littera, reddidit, quod C. Sulpicio, C. Fulvio cos., M. Calpurnio Pisone praetore urb. faciente ludos, subito ad arma exierint, nuntiatio adventus hostium, victoresque in theatrum redierint solliciti, ne intermissi religionem adferrent, instaurati qui essent: inventum esse ibi C. Pomponium, libertinum mimum magno natu, qui ad tibicinem saltaret. Itaque gaudio non interruptae religionis editam vocem nunc quoque celebrari.
At in hoc libro refert Sinni Capitonis verba, quibus eos ludos Apollinares Claudio et Fulvio cos. factos dicit ex libris Sibyllinis et vaticinio Marci vatis institutos, nec nominatur ullus Pomponius. Ridiculeque de ipsa appellatione parasitorum Apollinis hic causam reddit, cum in eo praeterisset. Ait enim ita appellari, quod C. Volumnius, qui ad tibicinem saltarit, secundarum partium fuerit, qui fere omnibus mimis parasitus inducatur. Quam inconstantiam Verrii nostri non sine rubore rettuli. }
Sextus Pompeius Festus, About the Meaning of Words {De verborum significatu}, Letter S, entry “Salva res [est dum cantat] senex,” Latin text (slightly simplified editorial presentation) from Lindsay (1913), English translation (modified slightly) from Reynolds (1943) pp. 56-7.
These etymologies of the proverb “salva res est, saltat senex” are “self-evidently unhistorical.” Slater (2001) p. 118. Similarly, Reynolds (1943). They do, however, attest to the importance and influence of the proverb and old men dancing.
[4] Aristophanes, Peace {Εἰρήνη / Pax} v. 868, ancient Greek text from Henderson (1998), my English translation, benefiting from that of id. On this verse parodying an ancient Greek form of the proverb “salva res est, saltat senex,” Slater (2001) p. 119.
The context in Aristophanes’s Εἰρήνη is clearly sexual. The domestic slave further announces:
The cake’s baked, the sesame buns are being rolled into shape,
and everything else is done. All that we need is the cock!{ ὁ πλακοῦς πέπεπται, σησαμῆ ξυμπλάττεται,
καὶ τἄλλ᾿ ἁπαξάπαντα· τοῦ πέους δὲ δεῖ. }
Εἰρήνη vv. 869-70, sourced as previously.
According to a scholion to Aristophanes’s Birds {Ὄρνιθες / Aves} v. 988, the late fifth-century BGC Attic comic playwright Phrynichus wrote in his play Chronos {Κρονοσ}: “The man dances in the chorus and the matters of the gods are well {ἀνὴρ χορεύει καὶ τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ καλά}.” Ancient Greek text and English translation (modified) from Storey (2011). For analysis, Slater (2001) pp. 118-9.
Slater further suggests as related to the proverb “salva res est, saltat senex” a verse from Aristophanes’s Wealth {Πλοῦτος / Plutus}. That verse describes old men happily escorting the god Wealth into Athens:
old men’s shoes beat out a good rhythm for the parade
{ ἐμβὰς γερόντων εὐρύθμοις προβήμασιν }
Πλοῦτος v. 759, ancient Greek text and English translation (modified slightly) from Henderson (2002). The old men here are more likely marching than dancing. Nooter (2023) p. 66. Cf. Slater (2001) p. 120, n. 34. Marching and dancing are closely related historically.
[5] Sophocles, Oedipus the King / Oedipus Tyrannus {Οἰδίπους Τύραννος} vv. 895-6, ancient Greek text from Lloyd-Jones (1994), my English translation, benefiting from that of id. For interpretation of these verses in relation to the proverb “salva res est, saltat senex,” Slater (2001) pp. 120-1. In ancient Greek cultures, men didn’t dance just to honor the gods. Geoffrey Steadman provides helpful language learning resources for Sophocles’s Oedipus Tyrannus.
[6] Anacreonta 39.3-5, ancient Greek text and English translation (modified slightly) from Campbell (1988). The first two verses of this lyric are:
I love a pleasant old man,
I love a young dancer.{ φιλῶ γέροντα τερπνόν,
φιλῶ νέον χορευτάν· }
Anacreonta 39.1-2, sourced as previously. This poem was once attributed to Anacreon, an eminent Greek lyric poet who lived in the sixth century BGC. Anacreon is know for erotic, sympotic lyrics. The Anacreonta are now generally thought to have been written about the beginning of the first millennium GC.
[7] In the joyful return of the remnant of Israel to Zion, old men dance with both young men and young women: “Then the young women shall rejoice in the dance, and both old and young men together { אָז תִּשְׂמַח בְּתוּלָה בְּמָחוֹל וּבַחֻרִים וּזְקֵנִים יַחְדָּו }.” Jeremiah 31:13, via Blue Letter Bible. Disparagement of old men has tended to be projected inappropriately onto biblical history.
[images] (1) Dance procession in honor of Dionysus. From the left, the figures are Dionysus, with panther, skin, and thyrsus (giant fennel staff); a satyr playing the aulos (dual pipes); and a woman, probably a maenad (female follower of Dionysus), playing a tambourine. Roman marble relief made about 100 GC and found in Herculaneum. Preserved as inv. 6726 in Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Napoli, Italy). Source image via Wikimedia Commons. The British Museum holds a similar relief (item 1805,0703.128) excavated at the Via Appia of ancient Rome. A second-century marble sarcophagus held in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology Art & Artifact Collection, University of Michigan, is decorated with a relief similarly showing a Dionysian / Bacchic procession (item id. 1981.03.0001). (2) Old man dancing in honor of the goddess of love Venus. Illustration for the month of April. Apparently from the Chronograph of 354 / Calendar of Filocalus. Inked pen drawing made by Lucas Cranach in Vienna about 1500 on folio 5v of manuscript preserved as Vindobonensis MS. 3416, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. Here’s an alternate copy. On this ancient calendar, Salzman (1991). The calendar is just one part of the Chronograph of 354. On the whole manuscript and its complex history of transmission, Burgess (2012).
References:
Burgess, R. W. 2012. “The Chronograph of 354: Its Manuscripts, Contents, and History.” Journal of Late Antiquity. 5 (2): 345–96.
Bury, R. G., ed. and trans. 1926. Plato. Laws. Volume I: Books 1-6. Volume II: Books 7-12. Loeb Classical Library 187, 192. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Alternate presentation of English translation.
Campbell, David A., ed and trans. 1988. Greek Lyric, Volume II: Anacreon, Anacreontea, Choral Lyric from Olympus to Alcman. Loeb Classical Library 143. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Clark, Albert Curtis, ed. 1909. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes: Pro P. Quinctio, pro Q. Roscio Comoedo, pro A. Caecina, de Lege Agraria Contra Rullum, pro C. Rabirio Perduellionis Reo, pro L. Flacco, in L. Pisonem, pro C. Rabirio Postumo. Oxonii: E typographeo Clarendoniano. Web-native presentation.
Henderson, Jeffrey, ed. and trans. 1998. Aristophanes. Clouds. Wasps. Peace. Loeb Classical Library 488. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Henderson, Jeffrey, ed. and trans. 2002. Aristophanes. Frogs. Assemblywomen. Wealth. Loeb Classical Library 180. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lindsay, Wallace Martin. 1913. Sexti Pompei Festi de Verborum Significatu quae Supersunt cum Pauli Epitome. Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri.
Lloyd-Jones, Hugh, ed. and trans. 1994. Sophocles. Ajax. Electra. Oedipus Tyrannus. Loeb Classical Library 20. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Murray, Oswyn. 2013. “The chorus of Dionysus: alcohol and old age in the Laws.” Chapter 5 (pp. 109–22) in Anastasia-Erasmia Peponi, ed. Performance and Culture in Plato’s Laws. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Nooter, Sarah. 2023. Greek Poetry in the Age of Ephemerality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Reynolds, R. W. 1943. “Verrius Flaccus and the Early Mime at Rome.” Hermathena. 61: 56–62.
Schlapbach, Karin. 2022. “Dance at Rome — Roman Dance.” Introduction (pp. 9-34) in Schlapbach, Karin, ed. Aspects of Roman Dance Culture: Religious Cults, Theatrical Entertainments, Metaphorical Appropriations. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Salzman, Michele Renee. 1991. On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Scott, Gregory L. 2023. Dance Theory of Plato and Aristotle: 3 Essays. New York, NY: ExistencePS Press.
Slater, William J. 2001. “Gnomology and Criticism.” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. 41: 99–121.
Storey, Ian C., ed. and trans. 2011. Fragments of Old Comedy, Volume III: Philonicus to Xenophon. Adespota. Loeb Classical Library 515. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Thilo, Georgius, ed. 1881-1902. Servius Grammaticus. In Vergilii Carmina Commentarii. Lipsiae.
Yu, Kenneth W. 2021. “The Politics of Dance: Eunomia and the Exception of Dionysus in Plato’s Laws.” The Classical Quarterly. 70(2): 605–19.