  We revisit a problem considered by Chow and Hale on the existence of
subharmonic solutions for perturbed systems. In the analytic setting, under
more general (weaker) conditions, we prove their results on the existence of
bifurcation curves from the nonexistence to the existence of subharmonic
solutions. In particular our results apply also when one has degeneracy to
first order -- i.e. when the subharmonic Melnikov function vanishes
identically. Moreover we can deal as well with the case in which degeneracy
persists to arbitrarily high orders, in the sense that suitable generalisations
to higher orders of the subharmonic Melnikov function are also identically
zero. In general the bifurcation curves are not analytic, and even when they
are smooth they can form cusps at the origin: we say in this case that the
curves are degenerate as the corresponding tangent lines coincide. The
technique we use is completely different from that of Chow and Hale, and it is
essentially based on rigorous perturbation theory.
