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Only Mostly Dead: Immortality and Related States in Pindar's Victory Odes

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Only Mostly Dead: Immortality and Related States in Pindar's Victory Odes Only Mostly Dead: Immortality and Related States in Pindar's Victory Odes Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Hanne Ellen Eisenfeld, M.A. Graduate Program in Greek and Latin The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Sarah Iles Johnston, Advisor Fritz Graf Tom Hawkins Carolina López-Ruiz 1 Copyright by Hanne Ellen Eisenfeld 2014 2 Abstract Pindar's victory odes have long been the subject of frustration, admiration, and bafflement - often all at the same time. Their perceived obscurity, however, derives largely from a lack of the contexts that surrounded fifth century audiences. In this study I argue that an important element of that context lies in the complex religious landscapes inhabited by Pindar and his contemporaries. The communities of fifth century Greece were shaped by their experiences - communal and individual - of the divine. Interaction with the gods was as much a part of life as interaction with one's neighbors or the state. Despite the integration of what we, as modern scholars, would call 'religious' experience into every aspect of fifth century life, the importance of the divine in Pindar's victory songs has been insufficiently appreciated. Epinician representations of the divine draw on the stories and hymns that the audience already knew, the festivals they attended, the traditions of their cities and families. These contexts are now fragmentary, but by looking to the many types of evidence we have - from visual representations to cult inscriptions to mythical narratives - I have tried to glimpse the interwoven frameworks that expressed contemporary conceptions of the divine. When Pindar sings about gods and heroes he is neither simply repeating tired scripture nor telling empty stories for entertainment. Instead, representations of these beings in the odes ii articulate the order of the world and (re)constitute the appropriate relationships between humans and the gods. As part of the project of asserting order Pindar introduces into the odes figures who exist in a borderland between mortality and immortality. The elements of ambiguity inherent to these beings constitute a challenge to which the surrounding material of the ode responds, reaffirming the validity of the human/divine distinction. Four of these figures - Amphiaraos, Herakles, and the Dioskouroi - are examined here within the contexts of their individual odes and with reference to the broader epinician project. iii Dedication To my parents, for their unwavering belief and support and to Mark: βραχύ μοι στόμα πάντ᾽ ἀναγήσασθαι. iv Acknowledgments In the winter of 2009 I took Sarah Iles Johnston's seminar on the performative contexts of myth. For the seeds planted by that seminar, and for the conversation, criticism, and many varieties of support since then much appreciation is owed. Many thanks are due as well to Carolina López-Ruiz who is unstinting with her time and enthusiasm, and to Tom Hawkins and Fritz Graf whose broad perspectives have enriched my own. This has been a peripatetic journey, and I thank my committee for their flexibility, and Erica Kallis and Wayne Lovely for their indispensable and frequent help. I have also been made welcome - and been given access to university libraries - by departments around the country: the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at Creighton University (where Christina Clark kindly allowed me the run of her personal library), the Department of Classics at the University of Arizona, and the Department of Classical Studies at Boston College. To my families on the West Coast and in Minnesota, who have learned that graduate school stress often comes home for the holidays; to Isabel, a faithful mascot if ever there was one; to Claire for encouragement and distraction in equal measure; and to Mark, for everything - more thanks than I can say. v Vita 2006 ..................................................................... B.A. Classics, Brown University 2010..................................................................... M.A. Classics, The Ohio State University 2010-present........................................................ University Fellow and Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Classics, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Greek and Latin vi Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ................................................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................... v Vita ............................................................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1 More Things in Heaven and Earth: an Intoduction...............................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 2 Holding in Place, Out of Time: Amphiaraos as Absent Presence..................................................................................................................................................38 Fixity and Dislocation ..................................................................................................................... 38 The Humanity of Heroism: Amphiaraos in Nemean 9 ........................................................ 44 Human Exemplarity: Amphiaraos as Father in Pythian 8 ................................................. 70 Envois ................................................................................................................................................... 96 Chapter 3 Looking Back at the World: Heraklean Perspectives from the Borders of Humanity and Beyond..........................................................................................................................................101 Setting Boundaries: ....................................................................................................................... 101 You Can’t Go Home Again: the families of Herakles in Isthmian 4 ............................... 110 vii Idealized Earth: Herakles at Akragas in Olympian 3 ......................................................... 137 Pointing the Way Home in the Third and Fourth Nemean: Herakles the God in Aigina ......................................................................................................... 157 Envois ................................................................................................................................................. 197 Chapter 4 Dislocation as Orientation: The Productive Ambiguity of the Dioskouroi...........................................................................................................................................200 Golden Halls and/or Earthen Caves? ...................................................................................... 200 Friends of Friends: Olympian 3 and the refracted glory of the gods ........................... 209 How much half is more than whole: the human turn in Nemean 10 ........................... 246 Envois ................................................................................................................................................. 287 Chapter 5 Drawing to a Close.............................................................................................................................. 289 Abbreviations and Frequent References..................................................................................300 Bibliography.......................................................................................................................................301 Appendix: Odes in Translation.....................................................................................................312 viii "It is hazardous, in dealing with the tangle of ancient polytheism, to pronounce with absolute dogmatism about any not insane hypothesis..." - Farnell, Cults of the Greek States Chapter 1 More Things in Heaven and Earth: an Introduction Accounting for the Gods The Greek gods were real: to begin with. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the argument I am going to relate.1 But real is a dangerous word, and in this case an impossible one. It may be that scholars have been a little chauvinistic in rejecting out of hand the existence of the Greek pantheon while continuing to worship their own deities in their own ways, but that question is beyond the scope of scholarly investigation.2 What I mean by the slippery word 'real' is something else: that, as perceived by the individuals and communities of the ancient Greek world, the divine was a present and powerful force. Engagement with such a subjective reality challenges the boundaries of academic responsibility, and so this facet of the ancient world is often largely left aside or limited to discussions fully 1 With apologies and credit to Charles Dickens (and Jacob Marley), A Christmas Carol. 2 Or at least to be left to the theologians, whose efforts might be extrapolated. 1 dedicated to the study of 'ancient religion' or 'the history of religion'.3 My dissatisfaction
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