Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches Series Editor: Gregory Nagy, Harvard University Iambic Ideas Assistant Editor: Timothy Power, Harvard University
On the front cover: A calendar frieze representing the Athenian months, reused 111 the Byzantine Church of the Little Metropolis in Athens. The cross is Essays on a Poetic Tradition superimposed, obliterating Taurus of the Zodiac. The choice of this frieze for hooks in Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches reflects this series' from Archaic Greece to the Late t·mphasis on the blending of the diverse heritages-Near Eastern, Classical, and <'lu istian-in the Greek tradition. Drawing by Laurie Kain Hart, based on a Roman Empire photograph. Recent titles in the series are: ·
Nothing is As It Seems: The Tragedy of the Implicit in Euripides' Hippolytus by HannaM. Roisman /1'1ir· Quotation in Plato EDITED BY by Marian Demos ALBERTO CA VARZERE, ANTONIO ALONI, I Iff,· and the Poetics of Loss in Greek Tradition hy Nancy Sultan AND ALESSANDRO BARCHIESI n,,. <' lassica/ Moment: Views from Seven Literatures t·d i led by Gail Holst-Warhaft and David R. McCann "'11111'l issays on Homer t·dllt:d by Miriam Carlisle and Olga Levaniouk 11/,·,l:on• and the Tragic Chorus in Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus hy Roger Travis /liolt\'.l'f\'111rm d Comedy hy Xavier Riu 1 'onl!'\ltwlizing Classics: Ideology, Performance, Dialogue t•thh·d by Thomas M. Falkner, Nancy Felson, and David Konstan '1/t, 1'111' ofAchilles: Oral Style and the Unity of the Iliad hy .I in yo Kim /kfll '''' '" Magic and Religion: interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Af,•tltl!'ll'lllll'lllt Religion and Society t'dllt·d hy Sulochana R. Asirvatham, Corinne Ondine Pache, and lol111Wall ous
!,unhtr' lt/,•n.l" h'.\·,wys on a f>o£'/ic 1hulition from Archaic Greece to the Lat ,,.,,/111/l , ...,,,,.,. ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS , IN nl111·d hy 1\llw•lo CltVIIIZCIC, 1\nhHIIO /\lo1H, and 1\kssandro Barchicsi Umlwm • /Joulder • New York • Olford xiv Preface
of Greek poetry there has been spectacular progress in making sense of iambos in its social and performative context and important advance in exegetical and textual studies. These chapters refuse to make a clear-cut choice between those two approaches, and accept the challenge of discussing scraps of evidence and problematic fragments while trying to redefine the concept of the genre in its evolution. Watson focuses on a Horatian epode that defies interpretation because the deft allusive strategy of the Roman poet has been fatally reinforced by the loss of crucial information regarding Anacreon and his verse. Aloni and Andrisano meet the double challenge of working on fragmentary utterances by Early Greek Iambic Poetry: The Importance of Sappho and Alcaeus while making inferences on the evolution of iambic Nnra·ative discourse and its recognizability in an alien context. Bowie criticizes the construction of iambos as essentially blame and slander but also contributes to a wider and richer assessment of its potential. Zanetto recuperates from the 1,:,,.,.11/Jowie apparently unitary language of abuse of Old Comedy strands and inflexions that could have been recognized as iambic moments by the audience. Both Zanetto and Edmunds usefully remind us that iambos as a literary genre-if this is a I Iii~l'lwpt er explores the relative importance of invective and narrative in the correct definition-coexists and negotiates for a long time with a genre of ' 'Ill Ill'S I surviving fragments of Greek iambic poetry, and argues that narrative discourse, ainos, the Aisopic tradition, and interested readers might want to save '''''Y have been just as important as invective in defining the genre. In this insight for a later encounter with Cavarzere's Phaedrus. '1'1'1111\Ching this question it is important to remember that these surviving We regret not having had more contributions on Callimachus, but the timing lillf(llll'llts 1 are very unlikely to represent the beginnings of Greek iambic poetry. of the conference might have been too early for an anticipated revival of \\ In nt•vcr and wherever these beginnings may have been, they were almost Callimachean/iambic studies, since two major contributions to the text of the 1 1 illltnly some time, perhaps many generations, before our first fragments, which Iambs by Benjamin Acosta-Hughes and Amd Kerkhecker are forthcoming in the d111r r,o m around 650 B.C. I am very sceptical about the possibility of year 2000 as we write this preface. One could also deplore the absence of 1, 111~11ucting plausible hypotheses about the development of iambic poetry before Hipponax and of Herodas, the focus of much exciting research recently (R. 1111 poems from which these fragments come. In them we find no trace that their Hunter, G. Mastromarco, C. Miralles, R. Rosen, to name but a few: updated 11 1111poscrs, Archilochus of Paros and Semonides of Amorgos, are at an early critical assessment in R. Hunter, "The presentation of Herodas' Mimiambi." t.lf.tl' 111 the development of the genre or in the handling of its meters-rather Antichthon 27 (1993): 31-44). Another author whose work might have 1h1 y di splay an assured skill in both respects. I suppose that they had illuminated ancient iambos from the margins is Martial, whose corpus I'' n k rcssors whose work was not preserved because it was only around 650 B.C. reproduces the small-scale work of Catullus metrically, and in many of its tlt.tl w• iting came into use for the transmission of literary texts, and I see in attitudes; but unlike his model he refuses the label iambus, never using the word, \1 1 lulochus the presence of some phrases that might be seen as iambic formulae 2 and instead produces a seminal text for the genre "epigram." ~~i l possible product of an earlier tradition.
In the end it seems to us that our contributors have responded to the 1 In citing the fragments I use the numeration and (with a few exceptions) the text provocation of Iambic Ideas with constructive approaches and that future 111' W1·~t 19!l9. revisitations of the field might profit from individual contributions and address .:. I 01 possible iambic formulae compare Zeu<; n:ati]Q 'OA.ut.miwv frr. 25.6,
some of the broader issues in this volume. In praising the authors who have now 1.!~1 , Zr"ilc; 'OA.uf.Ln:lw[v.)o.L[ fr. 98.13; a dative version 8ec.i>v'OAUf.LJtLWV vo
become our friends we are aware that editors, of all people, are the least likely to 111.11, rtA.r c; This exploration has been prompted by an interest in two problems, one more have opened the "Cologne epode" (fr. 196 and 196A):6 that is, he is actually general and the other more particular. The more general problem is whether in performing poetry which his words deny that he can compose. If that were so, a J\rchilochus' time there was a recognised genre iambos, and if so, how it was poem which commemorated his dead brother-in-law and which was composed in defined. The more particular, but of course related, problem is the generic place the metre we call iambic trimeters would for Archilochus be an example of of the long trochaic tetrameter fragments of Archilochus, much of them iambos. But the term need not be self-reflexive: he could equally well be saying containing narratives of war, that have been preserved chiefly on papyrus and on that his grief prevented him being interested in either iamboi or jollifications and the two big inscriptions from the Archilocheion on Paros. 3 assume that the poem that he was currently performing would be perceived as The question of the existence and nature of an early genre iambos has been 4 falling into neither category. It would of course be helpful if the disjunction oih' much discussed. I shall try as far as possible to avoid engaging too closely with t And I have interest in neither iamboi nor jollifications. nQiv y' ote &~xA.eun~ f.tLV'lcif.t~ll x€&v' d&uia noA.A.anaQaax.dmtova' etQbjJato n6tvtav ayv~v Archilochus fr. 215 f!£L<'li'jamytA.ciom t£ x.ai t:A.aov oxtiv 6u f.tOV. In his citation Tzetzes tells us that the iambic trimeter relates to a situation Until, that is, with jests Iambe of good counsel, where Archiloehus is mourning the loss of his sister's husband at sea (a calamity intervening with many jibes, moved the holy lady that also occasioned an elegiac poem, 9-1 I and perhaps 8 and 12) and says that to smile and to laugh and to acquire a tranquil spirit. Homeric hymn to Demeter, 202-04 Arehilochus composed the line in answer to people who were trying to force him 5 to "write. " It is attractive to suppose that the term iamboi is here self-reflexive, This story clearly relates to the OXWf.,lf.,lata (jibes) later attested as part and that Archilochus is deploying the same trope as that with which he seems to of Eleusinian ritual, and shows that there was a conceptual link between iamboi and OXW!L!Lata, but of course it does not demonstrate that the genre iambos had ritual origins. It is compatible both with the hypothesis that iambos began in a 3. The temenos and altar for the cult of Archilochus (alongside other gods) was ritual context and then became secular, as it clearly has become by the generation constructed by Mnesiepes ca. 350-300 B.C., as attested by a third-century inscription (SEC 15.517), cf. Gerber 1999, Archilochus testimonium 3. This inscription offers a of Archilochus and Semonides, and with the hypothesis that iamboi were a form biography using local tradition and quoting fragments. Another inscription was of secular poetry that regularly or often involved OXW!L!Lata, and that it was for erected by Sosthenes in the first century B.C., probably also in the Archilocheion, /G this reason that the creator of the story of the woman who consoled Demeter 12.5.445 + suppl. p. 212: cf. Jacoby FGrH 502, Peek 1985, Gerber 1999, gave her the name Jam be. Archilochus testimonium 4. On it is inscribed a life based on an account by Demeas, Whichever of these hypotheses we support, it is valuable to have evidence of a quoting much military narrative in tetrameters. link between iamboi and OXW!L!Lata as early as the hymn to Demeter (some 4. Important recent contributions are those of West 1974, 22-39; Nagy 1979, a time in the sixth century B.C.).7 That link is also clear in the later fourth slightly revised version of Nagy 1976; Degani 1984; Carey 1986; Rosen 1988; Bartol 1993, 30-41, 61- 74. For further discussions see the bibliography for 1921- 1989 by Gerber 1991. 6. Fr. I 96 &A.A.a!A' 6 AUOL!J.EA~~I JnaiQ£ M!J.vatm n66o~(but limb-loosing 5. I:cpi'j~&otA.cpi'j~YOQ av~vyov 1tvty€vta tfl 6aA.aaan 1t£QL1ta6w~w<'ll1Q£t0, longing, my friend , overpowers me) appear to be the second and third lines of the first YQcicpctv fl.~0€A.wv oA.w ~,Mywv 1tQO~tOU~~ta~ovta~ OUYYQclf.tf!UOLV strophe of the poem whose middle and end are fr. I 96A. They would follow coherently ty xvm:t:tv (fr. 215 Jo.Tzetz. a/leg Hom. Q 125 ff.). an opening line of the form "1 cannot compose poetry." 7. ('f . Richardson 1974. 5 Early Greek Iambic Poetry: The Importance of Narrative 4 Ewen Bowie the sense of O'X.WJt'tELVand o'X.Wflfla'ta, although these terms have the further century. Aristotle in the Poetics identifies a type of blame poetry that was implication that the abuse is humorous and amuses those who hear it. It may be composed by EtJ'tEAEO'tE(~OL(people of lesser quality) than those who, being that the verb iafl~l~ELVhad been used earlier, in the remark attributed to the OEflVO'tEQOL(more dignified), composed hymns and encomia. These blame Gorgias w<; historical Gorgias on reading Plato's dialogue named after him:9 poems he terms 'tjJ6yoL (vituperations), and sees the Margites as their first x.aA.w<;o16e ITA.a1:wv tafl~l~ELV(How well Plato knows how to defame). But extant example. He also notes a link with the iambic trimeter which, he says, the chronology is tight, to say the least, and I take the remark to be ben trovato acquired its name, tafl~Ei:ov,because it was in this metre that people uttered rather than vero. 8 tafl~OLagainst each other, on £v 'tql flE'tQq>wthq> Lclfl~L~ov&A.A.~A.ov<;. It seems clear, then, that Aristotle saw a close link between iamboi and This passage of the Poetics is important in establishing a sense of the verb humorous abuse. But the Poetics passage also takes us into the problem of the Lafl~L~ELVwhich involves vituperation or abuse, something that is also part of relation between the metrical term tafl~dov(iambic trimeter) and the genre iamboi. That metrical term is in existence by the time of the late-fifth-century Athenian aristocrat Critias: 8. ~LEO:rtcX08l]be Kata ta OLK£Iafj8l] ~ :rtOll]OL£.OL !lEV yag 0£1-lVO'tEQOLtU<; xaA.a<; f:~tt~toiivw:n:g ov y !JL!l~OEL£oga!Janx.a<; f::n:oilJoEv),oilTw<; x.al. To tfj<; xw!J II. E.g., West 1974, 22- 39. For a good discussion cf. Bartol 1993, 30-41. xal. tfJ<; omo8EV t OQ008UQTJ<;< X > ~AOclf.tl]V 12. There is not space to review the evidence here. I introduce the distinction "Ionian" and "Aeolic," however, because the narrative element in Alcaeus seems to be and I thrust my way into the back entrance greater than in Ibycus and Anacreon, and on my hypothesis that might be explained Semonides fr. 17 by the fact that in an Ionian context a poet who had in mind the composition of some sort of narrative might use iambic trimeters or trochaic tetrameters whereas in an The context of fr. 13 W. is irrecoverable: a fable has been suggested, but the Aeolic context these metres (and the genre iambos with which I see them as closely speaker could as well be a human narrator as an animal talking in a fable. In associated) were simply not available. either case the telling of a story is implied. Both fr. 16 and fr. 17 look like first I 3. I use the term "short, sympotic elegy" to refer to the sort of poem best person erotic narratives. But the speaker offr. 16 might more probably be female represented in our surviving material as opposed to the longer elegies intended, in my than male (although as so often in ancient quotation, Clement, citing the lines, view, for fonnal and festive perfonnance (cf. Bowie 1986, 27-34), of which only assumes the speaker to be the poet himself). 14 On the other hand the speaker of slight traces remained until the publication in 1992 of the Simonides elegy on Plataea. The few narrative sections of short, sympotic elegy include Mimnerrnus fr. 9 on the arrival of Pylian colonists at Colophon (significantly, perhaps, a theme correct) and Theogn. 265- 66, a very brief erotic narrative apparently subjoined to the Mimnennus is likely also to have treated in his long poem Smyrneis, if indeed the fragment's attribution by Strabo 14.634C to the Nanna and not to the Smyrn eis is poet' s comment on a girl's feelings for him. 14. Clem. Paed. 2.8.64.3 4. Hwcn Bowie Early Greek Iambic Poetry: The Importance of Narrative 9 ·,,l! lill• 't " ~~1nclaphorical and it refers to buggery, should be and ftT]QLWVxcxau~-tevwv (of burnt thigh-bones). m,rl\', 1lw11, lhul tJ1ese fragments come from two erotic narrative It is likely (but no more) that frr. 22 and 23 come from the opening of a different poem: Athenaeus deserves our thanks for telling us that they are from I• ll iii ~"''"' ~ lluutionis implied by frr. 24-26 (and perhaps frr. 27- 28 the beginning ( UQX~)of a poem. The speaker seems first to praise its addressee, lu •! •It' ll . I, nn ws tl·. 24 in a context that allows him to say it was spoken perhaps his host, for his laborious preparations: 11 i t li.lit (. (rook or butcher) <~>not..A.a f!EV 6'i] nQoux.novem Tl]AEJ!~Qote ~ttilc;< i'iv > &neiioa x.w~EJ.tiotuA.a XQEa !vwati· x.aL yaQ ou x.ax.GJ~£niotaJ.tm Indeed you have done a great deal of laborious preparation, Telembrotus, Semonides fr. 22 and how (?when) I singed the pig and cut up the meat in ritual mode: for in fact I am not short of that skiiJ. 15 The speaker then praises a cheese iliat he himself has brought from overseas: Semonides fr. 24 Evtaii8a f!EVtOL t1JQO££1; 'Axail]~ I' his fragment may have been closely followed by TQOf!tALO£8aUIJ.UO'tO£, ov x.at~yayov £6wx.ev oUbd£ oM' UQUOtfjQatQUYO£ Now here is something for you from Achaea, a marvellous Tromilian cheese which l brought back Nobody offered even a ladelful of dregs Semonides fr. 23 and by Semonides fr. 25 It can only be guesswork how the poem went on, but an account of the speaker's visit to Achaea would be a suitable continuation. &no tgane~aveTA£t vw not~Qta This may not seem much for the thirty or so fragments of Semonides that are He (?she) took away the table ... cups' longer than one word, but it is perhaps enough. Even the iambographer who has the least traces of narrative yields two accounts of erotic situations (frr. 16 and Semonides fr. 26 17), one account of a sacrifice (frr. 24-?28, ?30), another narration which is Perhaps one of those not taken away was this Argive cup: impossible to contextualise (fr. 13), and a fifth set of fragments (frr. 22- 23) that might well have continued with narrative. It may be that the account of the UU'tl] 6£ cpo1;~xeiAO£'Agyetlj X.UAL1; sacrifice was calculated to attach a reputation for stinginess to its organisers, but that is only a possibility, whereas it seems that ilie speaker of fr. 17 constructs But this was (?is) one tapered at the lip, an Argive cup. for himself a low and discreditable persona such as later was often adopted by Semonides fr. 27 Hipponax. All these fragments could (but of course need not) be fitted into an account of a sacrifice by a disgruntled narrator. There too might belong Hipponax 6nA.O.£hivn twv 6mo8iwv no6wv The case of Hipponax, a century or more later, l6 is easier and better known. On it kept moving the hooves of its back feet the one hand iliere was certainly ample vituperation of others. Pliny and ilie Suda Semonides fr. 28 report that Bupalus and Athenis, Chiote sculptors, made an obscene statue of an ugly Hipponax (this had become a painting by the time it reached Pseudo-Acron 15. x.w~most probably introduces a subordinate clause whether an indirect statement (" that", " <1KA.a~Of!EVLOL, Bou:rcaA.o~xatbneLv ev Ananius and Hermippus 0 K1azomenians, Bupalos killed Before proceeding to Archilochus, a brief glance at Ananius and Hennippus . Hipponax fr. 1 Ananius' six remaining fragments have no actual narrative. One addresses a second person in affectionate terms: The other lines that seem to belong in the first iambo s do not resort to vituperation. Rather they narrate a squalid orgy involving drink (frr. 13- 14), sex xat of: :rtoA.A.ovav8Q el,~tO KuALXQUV(J)V ~abt~wv O:rtAT]VO:rtEOOV acpLXOf!T]V. d6ov o\iv tllV 'HgaxA.eLav, xat ~t /!xouaa 8af../..6v !!UQGLVTJ~h£QJtEtO Trimeters QOOi'j~'tE x.aA.Ov av8o~ From this review of territory of varying fruitfulness in Semonides, Hipponax, She had a myrtle-sprig and a beautiful rose that she was playing with Ananius, and Hermippus I return to the much richer and flowerier meadows of Archilochus fr. 30 Archilochus. First, there were clearly erotic narratives in trimeters. The easiest to follow is The other asks us to admire her body: 23 W., fourteen relatively intelligible lines preceded by six others very fragmentarily preserved. When they begin to be readable the speaker is answering ~ b£ ot XO!!TJ a woman in a reassuring and self-confident speech. &t-tou~x.atwx.tal;E x.ai. !!E'tUCflQEVa her hair hung down £ymvta!J.EL~O!!(T]V shading her shoulders and her upper back "yuva(t), cpanv !!EV 't~VJtQO~ av8Q I replied The fragments are not certainly about the same girl, or even from the same "Lady, evil rum our at the hands of men poem, though that they are from the same poem is likely enough. you should not fear at all" Frr. 32-47 comprise several with graphic sexual detail. Again the poems from Archilochus fr. 23.7- 9 which they come seem to have included speeches. Thus there is a first person plural, perhaps spoken by girls refusing to offer themselves without payment: When it ends a speaker, whom I believe to be the woman and not the man, is inviting the other party to implement and enjoy that other party's manifestly & to8i. yaQ oE na nav ou bta;o 11Ev sexual conquest: 11 11 For on no account will we give you a ride for free n6)f..tv 6£ tUU'tl](V . . .) .(.. .. £)ma'tQE(cpea)t( Archilochus fr. 34 ou]tOL JtOt' UVOQE~E~E[Jt6Q8T]]aav, au 6[£ v)\iv dA.E~atx!l'fit x.a[t !!EY' £)~~Q(w)x.[A.]£o~. There is also a scene-setting description in the past tense: X.ELVT]~avaaaE x.at t[UQUV]VLT]VEX£ . Jt[ 0 )A.[A.ot]a[t 8)TJ[V ~]TJAWn)~a[ V8Q ] ~ 6£ ol. aa8Tj We seem to have the remains of a narrative of amatory conquest in which, as &o't' ovou IlQtl]VEW~ in fr. 196A, both the male narrator and his quarry are given speeches, but which x.T]A.wvo~E JtATJ!lllQEV(nQUYTJCflUVOU and his prick Early Greek Iambic Poetry: The Importance of Narrative 15 14 Ewen Bowie ).tof..tn swelled like that of a Prienian ass, ...... ]ATJOOf.lal a breeding-ass fed on grain. Archilochus fr. 43 £o8A.ijv yag aA.AT]voioa wwvwu cpuwu 'il]OlV [ )OOXEUJ Other imperfect verbs &.:n:tEQU00£1:0(she began flapping her wings: fr. 41 ); (?I Ef.LU~E(she sucked: fr. 42); :JtOAAOs o' a xat otfj8o£, [ W£ av xat y£gwv ~gaooaw. (b naux.[ Not to me do the holdings of gold- rich Gyges matter nor yet have I been seized by jealousy, nor do I envy their nanny (?brought) them, with scented hair the deeds of the gods, and I do not lust after a great tyranny. and breasts, so that even an old man would have lusted after them. For it is far away from my sights. OGiaucus Archilochus fr. 19 Archilochus fr. 48.5-7 This poem may have gone on to voice the criticisms of Thasos preserved in This looks like another narrative of seduction, and, like that in the "Cologne epode" 196A, it may have included some vituperation of a girl other than the one frr. 20-22: who is the speaker's immediate erotic target. But the mode of excited address to xA.atw ta eaotwv, ou ta Mayvl'JtWV xaxa. Glaucus suggests that erotics and not polemics furnished the frame: unfortunately the thirty-two-line beginnings preserved on the papyrus are too scrappy either to I bewail the ills of the Thasians, not of the Magnesians. Archilochus fr. 20 allow us to reconstruct the narrative or to test it for the presence of invective. Some other fragments seem to be from speeches that played a part in some sort Tfbe b' &ot' ovou gaxt~ of erotic exchange. There are first person verbs, some in the present, some in the EOtT]XEVUAfl~ ayQLll~ £motecpl'J£. future, as in 16 Ewen Bowie Early Greek Iambic Poetry: The Importance of Narrative 17 but this (?island) stands up like the spine of an ass clearly addressed to a named individual. The balance evidence would change crowned with wild forest. of if the unattributed but apparently trimeter papyrus fragment adespoton 35 were Archilochus fr. 21 secured for Archilochus: this seems to preach divine punishment of evil deeds and ou yciQ n xaA.o~XWQO~, oVb' f: singular oE, you, is a plausible supplement in line 14, i::!;ELa' UflOL]~ ~, for it is not a beautiful land, nor desirable, nor lovely, like that by the streams of the Siris. re[quital will get you]). As the evidence stands, however, a high proportion of trimeter fragments whose context is identifiable are erotic narrative, and nothing Archilochus fr. 22 is securely identifiable as straight invective directed to a second person. If the identity of the speaker Charon was finally revealed in the same way as that of Alfius in Horace epod. 2.67-70, the poem which had begun with an unidentified speaker ended with a vestigial narrative frame. What had seemed Epodes simply a diatribe becomes an amusing anecdote. Archilochus' epodes also yield a high proportion of narrative. Some is erotic: so Fr. 24 contributes little or nothing to the issue of the relative importance of our best and most famous example hitherto of Archilochean erotic narrative, frr. invective and narrative. A poem addressed to a male friend who had returned from 196 and 196A, addressed to an hai:Qoc; (comrade). The opening lines show that overseas, escaping shipwreck and other dangers of archaic travel, it is a declara telling a story that will explain Archilochus' current emotional plight is at least tion of the value of friends and friendship of the sort we might well find in elegy. the ostensible stance of the poem. In the exchange between the narrator and the Fr. 25 opens with a gnome about what gives different people pleasure, and girl whom he propositions he does indeed find a place for vehement abuse of seems to have continued with vituperative comments about named third parties' sexual proclivities: Lycambes' other daughter, Neobule: alai , nbt£LQa, 6i~'tOOl') ]'tt~UV8Qom:c.ov !pU~, avj8o~6' UrtEQQUI')XE rtaQ8EV~LOV &A.A.'<'iA.A.o~ <'iA.A.rpxaQ~Iil')v laivEl:aL x]ai xciQL~~ ngiv en~v. MEA.1')oci[v6Qc.o]Loci81'] ].1:[.]. XOQOVyag oux[ ]E ~oux6A.rp £~]x6Qaxa~. aJtEXE. ]human nature, f.l~w\h' lcp' .Lwv[ but one man's heart is warmed by one thing, another o)rtc.o~lyw yuvaixa l:[O]LaUl:I')VEXWV by another. ydwm XclQf.L'EGOf.LaL ]for Melesander, his prick ]for the cowherd Phalangius. Ah! She's over-ripe, twice your age, Archilochus fr. 25 and her maidenhood's flower has lost its bloom as has the chann that she once had. This is the nearest to a clear case of vituperation of named individuals in for she did not( . .. . ] satiety, Archilochus' iambic trimeters. We should note, however, that in one trimeter but revealed the measure of her( ... ], crazed woman, fragment Lycambes is addressed (fr. 54.8): the fragment is very scrappy, but To hell with her! Take her away! Gerber comments "Apparently we have a combination of abuse directed against May [ . ... ] not allow this That I shall have a wife like that Lycambes and a description of an erotic encounter with one of his daughters. "21 and be a laughing-stock to my neighbours. Another fragment (38) mentions his younger daughter, and Lycambes' name Archilochus fr. 196A.26- 34 might have appeared at fr. 60.2 ( ... ]QWV A.ux.[). It is possible that one or more of these fragments, if more completely preserved, would offer examples of abuse But the poem reverts to erotic narrative, closing with a brief telling of his success in seducing her younger sister: l:Ooja\il:' tcpWVEOV. JtaQ8EVOV6' Ev av8( £0LV 21. Gerber 1999, 123. 1:1'JA]E0ciwm A.a~wv IH Ewen Bowie Early Greek Iambic Poetry: The Importance of Narrative I 9 £x.A.tva ... I shall tell you people a fable, Cerycides, anav t)£ OWflU xaA.Ov Uf1Cpa It is possible that a similar structure was used for an epode of which only two When the community was gathering for the games and among them Batusiades. fragments survive, 193 and 194. As in fr. 196 (cf. above n.6), the poet represents Archilochus fr. 182 himself as felled by n68o<; (longing): At some point in the poet's story there was an account of a deceitful woman: OUOtl]VO~£yx£Lflat n68 a'IJuxo~,xaA.ertfjOL 8ewv 6Mvnotv EXT]tL !lEV MWQ EqJOQ£l nertaQf.IEVO~En' 6atewv. tfj boA.ocpQoveouoa X,£LQL,8~tEQU M niiQ poor wretch, I am swathed in desire lifeless, thanks to the gods, with dire pains in one hand she was carrying water pierced through my bones. with deceit in her heart, but in the other, fire. Archilochus fr. 184 Archilochus fr. I 93 l!~w8evex.aaw~ Another epode, represented by frr. 168-71, was addressed to a man whom l!mvev, Ev M ~axxlTJ Archilochus presents as a friend, Charilaus. There may have been criticism, but the clearest point to emerge from the fragments is how the poet draws attention outside each was drinking, and inside revelry to his role as a storyteller: Archilochus fr. 194 'EQUG!!OV[bT]XaQ[A.ae, A plausible reconstruction would suppose a claim about his present emotional XQl)!la tot yeA.oi:ov EQEW,noA.u cplA.ta8' halQwv, condition followed by a narrative explaining how it arose. tEQ'IJWL 0' axouwv. Another form of narrative in the epodes is the telling of a aivo<; (fable). Frr. 172-81 tell the animal fable of the fox and the eagle to Archilochus' enemy Charilaus of Erasmon's clan, Lycambes to illustrate the outrageousness of his betrayal of the poet and to it is indeed a funny thing that I shall tell you, far dearest of comrades, threaten him with the prospect of divine justice. Perhaps a similar mixture of and you will take delight in hearing it. accusation and warning was brought out by the fable of the fox's deception of the Archilochus fr. I 68 ape in frr. 185-87, addressed to a group among whom a real or pseudonymous person Cerycides is picked out: It is only in the second Cologne epode, frr. 188-92, that we find as clear a case of a frame of '\jloyo<; (vituperation) as in frr. 172-81. It opens with a blistering EQEWttv' UflLV alvov, <1KT]Quxlbl], attack on an apparently unnamed former mistress: U)(VlJflEVT]OXlJtUAT] ouxe8' 6f.1Ui~8aA.A.£L~ anaA.Ov XQ6a· XclQCjl£tat yaQ ~OT] oyllo~,xaxou of. y~Qao~xa8atQ£i: 21 Early Greek Iambic Poetry: The Importance of Narrative 20 Ewen Bowie the son of Peisistratus No longer does your skin have the same soft bloom. For by now your furrow is brought men (?only skilled in) the pipe and lyre shrivelled, and old age's [.... ] is ravaging you to Thasos, with gifts for the Thracian dogs of pure fr. gold, and for their personal gain they banned the community Archilochus 188.1-2 Archilochus fr. 93a.4- 7 After attributing the victim's decay to excessive sexual indulgence (it is unclear whether her behaviour was narrated in greater detail than the suggestive meta Others narrate full-scale battles, for example, phors frr. 188-89) the poet seems to have switched to a narrative her of of "tWV6' 'A8T]VULTJf.LUXTI seduction of him in his youth (o1o~~v£qJ' if~l']~,such was I in my youth: fr. \:1-..ao~:rtaQaom8ei:oa :n;ai:~EQLX"tu:rtou L'.to~ 190): 1WQbLT]VWQLVEV wio~yaQ cptA6•TJ•o~€Qw~uno xaQDLTJV£A.uo8d~ in these men's battle Athena :rtOAA~Vxa"t' cqA.uv Of!f.L XAE'Ij!a~EX O"tTJ8EWV cmaA.a~ QlQEVa~ of loud-thundering Zeus, and stirred up their hearts For such a desire for love-making, coiled up beneath my heart, Archilochus fr. 94.1-3 poured a thick mist down over my eyes, stealing my tender- wits from my chest Archilochus fr. 191 and ]e "tWV 6' £Mf,Lv[af.L]E[v v[6ov As well as this, a narrative of a now distant sexual encounter, there seems also £x Wlwv £6e[i.t-Laf.L]E[v to have been a story straddling the world of aivo~(animal fable) and human action, the tale of Coeranus and the dolphin. 22 aLXf.L]fj(L]OLV8ofjLOL :rtT]f.LOV~v£m']yo).l(EV The epodes, then, have at least two examples of a frame which is vituperative ]61:' UJ.lQlL:rtuQyov £omoav nove( OJ.lEVOL (frr. 172-81, frr. 188-92), other cases where vituperation was embedded (fr. xA.i.J.Laxa~] 196A, perhaps frr. 168-71, 182- 84, 185-87, conceivably 193-40), but the we subjugated their spirit dominant pattern in all these is one of storytelling. from stones we built Tetrameters ... with our swift (spears] we inflicted pain ... then?] they put up (ladders] near the tower, labouring I have retained the trochaic tetrameters until last, for it is here that there seem to Archilochus fr. 98.6, 10, 14-16 have been long stretches of political and military narrative, and where the temptation has been greatest to infer that they belong to a different genre. Are But even in this predominantly narrative sequence we find a spin that links it these poems which Archilochus and his b:ai:QOL(comrades) would not have seen to a named addressee. At one point the poet seems to criticise Glaucus for an act as iamboi? of folly (the supplement is based on the words used to introduce the lines in the Some sequences of the poems excerpted in the Sosthenes monument on Paros Sosthenes inscription): are unambiguously marked as narrative by their use of past tenses. Of these some are "political," claiming underhand diplomacy and bribery: (hL DE naux[ 0~- - a:rtfjQEVd~ ea ]oov f.LUXTI 1!.QaLTJO[UV"tWV - - - ] DT]AoL0 :rtOLTJ"tTJ[~EV "tOU"tOL~] miL~I1ELOLO"tQ 22. See Bowie 1987. 22 Ewen Bowie Early Greek Iambic Poetry: The Importance of Narrative 23 Glaucus, which of the gods know then, if indeed [ led astray your mind and heart? Archilochus fr. 96. intro. & 1-2 they ravage the land [ Erxies, overrun[ b]£botxa~(te]I' &Qta(t]e(uaa~ :n: you were afraid, you before did such glorious deeds The mid-narrative address to Erxies suggests that the whole poem may have Archilochus fr. 97a.4 began with fr. 88, also an address to Erxies: It is reasonable to suppose that the poem as a whole was addressed to Glaucus, 'EQ~ll),:n:fjt bl)iit' avoA.~o~MQOl~ftat atgat taiita f!OL81.Jf!O~( naux' oQa, ~aeu£yaQ ~orrx.uf.tamv tagaaanm yvwet vuv, d tot( :JtOVtO£,Uf.t:JtL 6' UX.Qarug£wv OQ86v l:atatm VfCjJO£, afjf.ta XELf.tWVO£,x.txavet {>' f:~aeA.ntLl)\; cp6~o£. yfjv &etx.itoumv[ Look is now up 'EQ~Ll'J,x.atabQaf.t[ Glaucus, the sea stirred with waves to its depths, and on the Gyraean heights a cloud stands right above them, They will surround with smoke [ the sign of a stonn, and from the unexpected with ships, and sharp [ comes fear. Archilochus fr. I 05 and cutting down of trees[ men hold at bay [ It was probably continued in fr. 106: cf. aAA.a au Jl:Q0!-1-~ewm(but you fell beneath blows [ must give thought to the future, fr. 106.7). Another was addressed, though not these things my heart [ necessarily delivered, to Archilochus' fellow citizens as a body: 23. SEC 15.517 8 (E2) col. I 11-12. 24. Plut. praec. reip. ger. 803a. Early Greek Iambic Poetry: The Importance of Narrative 25 24 Ewen Bowie But they came intent on plunder. They had rich hopes <<1> /..megvfjc££ no/..hm, l:Uf!U bi] ouvi£1:£ and each one of them thought that he would find great prosperity. Q~f!aca. Solon fr. 34.1 - 2 Destitute citizens, listen to my words. Archilochus fr. 109 The report continues with further criticism of these opponents. In fr. 33 we find a feature common in the iamboi of Archilochus, a speech in the form of a All these poems whose surviving fragments mark them as exhortatory may narrative, delivered by a character in the poem: in this case the speakers are indeed have involved criticism, as we have already seen that frr. 96 and 97a seem Solon's opponents, and the speech offers an account of Solon's actions, to have involved criticism of Glaucus. There was surely criticism too in the criticising him for not establishing himself in a tyranny which he might have poem beginning done: UQ:X.C>£di f!UEl[w]v axovn t( oux ECjl'll ~6/..wv~aeucpQUlV oM£ ~O'UA~EL£ av~Q. OUX Jt£tg€m; /..il']V/..t A commander well-trained with a javelin [(why is Solon was not by nature a man of profound thought or of it of?) . .. ) judgement. that you make trial? You are too zealous [ For when god offered him good things he did not Archilochus fr. 113.7- 8 himself take them Solon fr. 33.1-2 What is important to notice here is the way prima facie similar military and political material is handled from different angles. The angle can range from what Although it cannot be said that narrative dominates Solon's tetrameters, among is principally narrative, with a critical spin, through exhortation remarkably the five trimeter fragments it constitutes the largest part of the longest (fr. 36, of similar to that found in elegiac poetry, to advice blended with castigation. The twenty-six lines), which has a sequence of aorist verbs setting out Solon's castigatory element should deter us from trying to dissociate some of these political achievements: OQOU£ avdA.ov "I tore up boundary-markers" (6), fragments from iambos, and the links between 93a, 94, and 98, and the others av~yayov"I brought back" (9), {).. EU8EQOU£ E8T]Xa "I made them free" (15), that exhort, warn, or criticise, make it clear that they all belong to the same EQd;a "I achieved" (17), 8EO!!OU£ ... EYQU'ljJa "I drafted laws" (17- 20), genre. EO'tQUCjll"]Y"I twisted and turned" (27). The last two lines of fr. 37 are also It is also worth noting that among Archilochus' other tetrameter fragments narrative: there are some that are erotic (frr. 118-19) and others in which ha'l:QOl tyw &e 1:ou1:wv &oneg £v f!EWLX.f!LWL (comrades) were criticised ( fr. 124, Pericles) or may have been criticised ( fr. 117) OQO£ XatEOtf]V. in a sympotic context, perhaps in jest rather than with rancour. The tetrameters, then, have a mix of subjects that overlaps that of the trimeters. But as if in a no-man's land between them 1 took my stance as a boundary-marker. Solon fr. 37.9- 10 Solon A very different descriptive narrative, of people's diet in some place that seems I deal only in the briefest way with Solon. His three tetrameter fragments display to be different from contemporary Athens, is found in the third substantial some features that link them with other examples of iambos. Their chief purpose trimeter fragment (38, of five lines). is apparently to act as a defence of Solon's own political actions. Although these actions are not narrated, fr. 34 includes a narrative of others' actions and motives: Conclusions I cannot claim that my explorations in this paper have proved any proposition. ot b' Ecp' agnayfjtOLV ~/..eov.£/..nib' Elxov acpve~v, x&Mx[e]ov EXU01:0£ mhwv o/..~ovelJQ~O£LV JtOAUV In this sort of question, and in the light of the fact that so much early iambic 27 Early Greek Iambic Poetry: The Importance of Narrative 26 Ewen Bowie References poetry is lost, one ought not to expect to be able to establish the truth of a hypothesis, though it may sometimes be possible to falsify one. However, what Bartol, K. Greek elegy and iambus. Poznarl: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza, seems in my view to be probable is, as I have tried to show, that in poems and 1993. (more often) fragments which most scholars are prepared to recognise as iambos Bond, G. W. "P. Dub!. inv. 193a." Hermathena 80 (1952): 3-11. narrative played almost as important a part as vituperation. This may have been Bowie, E. L. "Early Greek elegy, symposium and public festival." Journal of Hellenic apparent to Aristotle, who in the passage of his Poetics cited earlier (n. 8) judged Studies I 06 ( 1986): 13-3 5. ---. "One that got away: Archilochus 188-192W and Horace Odes i 4 & 5." Pp. 13- that the composers of '\j!oym (vituperations) which constituted tcq.t~tl~ELV 23 in Homo Viator: Classical essays for John Bramble, L. M. Whitby, P. R. Hardie (uttering iamboi) were engaged in !.ll!.tl]OLt;(imitation) of tat; tU>v