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Download Thesis This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Ancient Greek folksong tradition begging, work, and ritual song Genova, Antonio Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 26. Sep. 2021 Ancient Greek Folksong Tradition Begging, Work, and Ritual Song by Antonio Genova A Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classics King’s College London November 2018 Abstract This dissertation investigates whether and in what sense the concept of folksong can be applied to the ancient Greek texts. The starting point is a new conceptualisation that clarifies that ‘folksong’ is not a category of form but is a category determined by occasion, use and consumption. In light of this methodological and theoretical framework, some of the texts included in the modern collection of the carmina popularia (PMG 847-883) are examined. These texts are printed together with a revised critical apparatus, translation, and comparanda. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the conceptual and cultural origins of folklore and folksong and describes the inadequacies of a romantically-inclined approach which considers folk songs according to preconceived contexts of origin and production. To rectify this scholarly bias, a new conceptualisation of folksong is delineated. This conceptualisation defines the genre of folksong not by looking at what types of texts are sung and by whom, but by establishing how certain songs are used and perceived in their performative contexts. In the chapters to follow, this approach and conceptualisation is extended to the specific analysis of some ancient Greek texts included in the carmina popularia. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 focus on the begging-song (PMG 848) and work-song (PMG 849 and 869) traditions of ancient Greece respectively. Finally, Chapter 4 examines the folkloric status of a series of cult and ritual songs (PMG 847, 851, 854, 860, 862, 864, 868, 870, 871). This dissertation challenges the view of the ancient Greek folksong tradition as a set (or subset) of texts which are to be distinguished a priori from literature and literary texts on the basis of preconceived contexts of origin and composition and absolute criteria of sophistication. On the contrary, it clarifies that the category of folksong depends on how certain texts are used and perceived in their (everyday) contexts of performance. ii Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the guidance and help of numerous individuals. By far my greatest debt of gratitude is owed to my supervisor, Pavlos Avlamis, who has been tirelessly supportive throughout the project and has given very generously of his time and energy, guiding me through the perilous waters of ancient popular culture. His inestimable insights and recommendations and our fruitful discussions have helped me to improve skills, knowledge, and ideas. Enormous thanks are also due to David Ricks, whose commitment has far exceeded the remit of a second supervisor and who has been meticulous in his reading and scrupulous in his feedback. I would also like to thank Giambattista D’Alessio and Michael Trapp, who first accepted this research project within the Department of Classics at KCL. I would like to express my personal gratitude to Federico Condello and Camillo Neri at Bologna, who introduced me, in the course of my postgraduate studies, to the submerged world of the carmina popularia. I gratefully acknowledge the generous financial support of The London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP). Finally, special thanks are due to Jonathan Griffiths, who has helped me to improve my English, and Flavia Licciardello, who has shared the burden of the final proofreading. iii Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... iv Sigla codicum ............................................................................................................................ vi Chapter 1: What is folksong? 1.0 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Popular culture, folklore, and folksong ........................................................................... 2 1.1.1 The discovery of folklore and folksong ................................................................. 4 1.1.2 Post-romantic conceptualisations of folklore and folksong ................................. 13 1.1.2.i Folksong as oral poetry ............................................................................ 17 1.1.2.ii Folksong as unsophisticated poetry......................................................... 19 1.1.2.iii Folksong as anonymous poetry .............................................................. 20 1.1.2.iv Folksong as traditional poetry ................................................................ 23 1.1.2.v Final remarks ........................................................................................... 24 1.2 The collection of the carmina popularia and their (ancient and modern) interpretations .. 25 1.2.1 Orality in the carmina popularia ......................................................................... 28 1.2.1.i Institutions, textualisation, and local folklore .......................................... 31 1.2.1.ii Ancient conceptualisations of ‘popular’ poetry ...................................... 37 1.2.2 The carmina popularia as lowbrow poetry ......................................................... 43 1.2.3 Anonymity in the carmina popularia .................................................................. 45 1.2.4 Traditionality in the carmina popularia .............................................................. 49 1.2.5 Final remarks ....................................................................................................... 51 1.3 Approaching a new conceptualisation of folksong ....................................................... 51 1.3.1 Methodological premises: folklore as a form of cultural appropriation .............. 52 1.3.2 The occasional-functional perspective: modes of reception and contexts of reperformance ............................................................................................................... 56 1.3.3 Traditionality in synchronic reperformances ....................................................... 67 1.3.4 Anonymity qua absence of the ‘author-function’: folk songs as unauthorised songs ...................................................................................................................................... 68 1.3.5 Final remarks ....................................................................................................... 80 iv Chapter 2: The Rhodian chelidonisma (PMG 848) and the tradition of the begging songs in ancient Greece 2.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 83 2.1 PMG 848: between folklore and literature .................................................................... 90 2.2 Final remarks ............................................................................................................... 111 Chapter 3: Work songs in ancient Greece: a multifaceted genre 3.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 113 3.1 The ioulos-song tradition (PMG 849): between work and religion ............................ 121 3.2 The integration of PMG 869 into symposium literature ............................................. 140 3.3 Final remarks ............................................................................................................... 153 Chapter 4: Cultic and festive songs: religious hymns and other ritual songs 4.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 154 4.1 Singing for Dionysus ..................................................................................................
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