Kommos (theatre)

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Kommos is a type of lyrical lament in ancient Greek drama where the chorus and a main character sing a sad passage together. The word comes from Greek kommós, meaning mourning or lament. A kommos usually occurs when the play reaches a peak of emotion, such as extreme grief, horror, or even joy. It is mainly found in tragedies, and it can appear in comedies as well, though with some different features.

Examples include: the final section of Aeschylus’s The Persians, where Xerxes laments the defeat of his army; the last appearance of Antigone in Sophocles’s Antigone; the moment in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex when Oedipus returns after blinding himself and the chorus speaks with him; and the exchange between Orestes, Electra, and the chorus after Clytemnestra’s murder in Euripides’s Electra.