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