DOCSLIB.ORG

Pindar the Pious Poet: Prayer and Its Significance in Pindar’S Epinician Odes

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Pindar the Pious Poet: Prayer and Its Significance in Pindar’S Epinician Odes PINDAR THE PIOUS POET: PRAYER AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN PINDAR’S EPINICIAN ODES By KRISTEN N. BAXTER A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Classics written under the direction of Timothy Power and approved by _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey May 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Pindar the Pious Poet: Prayer and its Significance in Pindar’s Epinician Odes by KRISTEN N. BAXTER Dissertation Director: Timothy Power Scholars studying Pindar’s epinician odes have often focused on the relationship of the victor with his family, his community, and the poet. The odes have even been labeled secular poems because of this perceived emphasis on mortal parties. An athletic victory is a moment of divine favor, however, and Pindar’s epinician odes deal with the relationship between the victor and his gods. The victor has received favor from the gods in the form of his victory, and now must discharge his debt to the gods through praise and thanks. He may then reassess his relationship with the gods, and attempt to secure future favors from them. Pindar uses the epinician performance as a medium in which to mediate this interaction. Prayers act as a nexus of communication between men and the gods. By studying the prayers of five of Pindar’s epinician odes (Pythian 8, Isthmian 6, Nemean 9, and Olympian 13), I show how Pindar uses his position as an aoidos, an intermediary between men and gods, to facilitate communication between them. Acting on behalf of the victor, Pindar frequently calls the gods to attention and reminds them of their previous relationship with the victor, especially the previous victories they have bestowed on him. He also assures the gods that the victor embraces the positive qualities that make him a worthy candidate for further favor, as he shows the gods that the victor will offer the gods their due of thanks for success, and that the victor will not attempt to transgress the limits ii the gods have set on mortal men. At the same time, Pindar acts on behalf of the gods by reminding the victor of those very conditions that accompany their divine favor. These elements are woven together neatly into the larger structure of the odes, and allow Pindar, and the victor, to feel hopeful that the gods will continue to show favor to the victor, his family, and his community in the future. The epinician ode is a numinous moment when communication between men and gods is possible, and Pindar takes care to facilitate these negotiations. iii Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without a great deal of help. I would like to thank Tim Power for his guidance and advice, as well as Tom Figueira, Emily Allen-Hornblower, and Zoe Stamatopolou for their helpful comments and suggestions. I would like to thank Aaron Schachter for his help with Chapter 1. I would like to thank Rob Bierbower for help with formatting. I would also like to thank my parents, whose repeated requests to know when this would finally be done helped me keep going. iv Dedication To Andy: without your love, support, and encouragement, I would still be on Chapter 1. v Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………….………………ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….….iv Dedication…………………………………………………………………………….....v List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………vi Chapter 1….......................................................................................................................1 Chapter 2……………………………………………………………………….…..…..50 Chapter 3…………………………………………………………………….……..…..88 Chapter 4…………………………………………………………………….………..122 Chapter 5………………………………………………………………………….…..157 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….…………197 Appendix……………………………………………………………………….……..203 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..216 vi List of Tables Table 1: The Prayers of the Epinician Odes……………………………………….212 vii 1 Chapter 1: Introduction I. Introduction Pindar’s epinician odes have long held a reputation for density. Indeed, early scholarship argued that in order to understand these odes, one must first discover the ‘key’ to the poem, a signifier such as a word or image that would make its meaning clear. This approach has since been abandoned; as Young observes, “poetry does not make a simple prose statement”.1 In the place of a unitarian approach came a holistic one, in which every aspect of Pindaric epinician is studied in an attempt to build a rounded understanding of the genre. The poetry of Pindar cannot be understood simply by knowing the social circumstances of the victor or the ways Pindar manipulates traditional epinician features; each of these aspects is only part of our overall understanding of the poem as a complex whole. Multiple approaches are necessary; more than one lens must be applied. In recent years, however, these approaches have tended to focus on the people involved in an epinician performance. It is perhaps the influence of Bundy, who told us that every epinician ode attempts, in its every part, to praise the victor;2 while this idea has not been embraced wholesale by scholars of Pindar, recent trends in scholarship have shown a marked interest in the status and relationships of men. Consider, for instance, the studies that explore the ways epinician negotiates the relationship between the victor and his community: Crotty and Kurke have examined the way epinician facilitates the victor’s reintegration into the community after his victory;3 Currie has suggested epinician can establish grounds for the later heroization of the victor;4 and the 1 Young (1970) 7. 2 Bundy (1962) 35. 3 Crotty (1982) and Kurke (1991). 4 Currie (2005). 2 debates over whether citizen choruses performed the epinician odes have raised questions about the benefits and obligations owed to the victor and community. Epinician has emerged in these cases as a medium by which the poet can confront the status of the victor, a man who has become marked by his great achievement, in his community. While this trend in scholarship has certainly produced important studies that have improved our understanding of epinician poetry, it has not exhausted the functions of the genre. In this dissertation, I would like to look at the way in which epinician odes can negotiate another set of relationships, namely those between the victor and the gods. In the world of archaic Greece, men and gods are bound together in a relationship predicated on χάρις, favor, in which each party acts to benefit the other in order to create and repay obligations or debts.5 Men honor the gods with sacrifice and praise, and the gods in turn grant the requests of men for peace, prosperity, and other desires. When a man achieves an athletic victory, it is because the gods have favored him, and just as men must celebrate a victor and recognize the favor he has performed for his community,6 so must the victor acknowledge the gods and pay the debt he now owes them. The 5 As Bulman (1992) 11 comments, “Reciprocity between human and divine action is one of Pindar’s great themes.” Furley (1995) 32, in looking at Greek hymns, explained that, “ritual and choral worship combined to flatter, woo, charm and persuade a single god or a group of gods that the worshipper(s) was deserving of sympathy and aid. The relationship aimed at between worshipper and deity was one of χάρις...As Race has shown, charis denotes both the adoring worship by people of a god, and, conversely, the reciprocal grace or favour with which the people hope a god will reward them in turn. Everything about the ceremony and the choice of words used in worship goes toward establishing this essential relationship of mutual charis.” Similarly, Gould (1985) 15 says: “Behind the [second aspect of prayer] lies a more fundamental assumption still, one that is central to ancient Greek culture: the assumption of reciprocity, the assumption that lies behind the Greek use of the word charis, which is both the doing of good by one person to another but also the (necessary) repayment of that good, the obligationt hat exists until it is repaid and the feelings of gratitude that should accompany the obligation. The assumption is that any action will be met by a matching and balancing action…and therefore the implication that divinity will respond in kind and reciprocate human action for good or ill, is one that locates the divine powers squarely within the conceptual framework by means of which ancient Greeks understood the ordering of their world…” 6 The theme of the community’s obligation to praise the victor is hinted at in Pindar. Modern scholars explain that the victor’s achievement reflects honor upon the entire community: thus, for instance, Carne- Ross (1985) 13, Burnett (2010) 5 describe how the athletic victory benefits the community, while Kurke (1991) 102 discusses the debt formed by the athlete’s achievement. 3 celebration of the victory, the epinician ode itself, is a perfect moment for the victor, family, and polis not only to pay their debts by praising the gods, but also to elicit future favors; it is a moment to settle debts and renegotiate the relationship with a new set of favors, promises, and requests. The religious elements of Pindar’s epinician odes have not necessarily been overlooked. Many scholars have discussed the importance of religion in Pindar, a poet who spends much time recounting myths and who seems ever conscious of not offending the gods. Thus Hutchinson says broadly: “The god of the festival and others have granted the victory; the relation of man and gods usually concerns every part of the poem,”7 while Easterling similarly notes, “The many surviving poems composed…for victorious athletes shows very clearly that the gods and their worship were ever-present in people’s minds.”8 There is a tendency, however, to think about these religious elements as ornamental rather than functional.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Echo of Delphi: the Pythian Games Ancient and Modern Steven Armstrong, F.R.C., M.A
    An Echo of Delphi: The Pythian Games Ancient and Modern Steven Armstrong, F.R.C., M.A. erhaps less well known than today’s to Northern India, and from Rus’ to Egypt, Olympics, the Pythian Games at was that of kaloi k’agathoi, the Beautiful and PDelphi, named after the slain Python the Good, certainly part of the tradition of Delphi and the Prophetesses, were a mani­ of Apollo. festation of the “the beautiful and the good,” a Essentially, since the Gods loved that hallmark of the Hellenistic spirituality which which was Good—and for the Athenians comes from the Mystery Schools. in particular, what was good was beautiful The Olympic Games, now held every —this maxim summed up Hellenic piety. It two years in alternating summer and winter was no great leap then to wish to present to versions, were the first and the best known the Gods every four years the best of what of the ancient Greek religious and cultural human beings could offer—in the arts, festivals known as the Pan-Hellenic Games. and in athletics. When these were coupled In all, there were four major celebrations, together with their religious rites, the three which followed one another in succession. lifted up the human body, soul, and spirit, That is the reason for the four year cycle of and through the microcosm of humanity, the Olympics, observed since the restoration the whole cosmos, to be Divinized. The of the Olympics in 1859. teachings of the Mystery Schools were played out on the fields and in the theaters of the games.
    [Show full text]
  • Giovan Battista D'alessio Pindar's Prosodia and the Classification Of
    GIOVAN BATTISTA D’ALESSIO PINDAR’S PROSODIA AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF PINDARIC PAPYRUS FRAGMENTS aus: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 118 (1997) 23–60 © Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn 23 PINDAR’S PROSODIA AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF PINDARIC PAPYRUS FRAGMENTS* I. The attribution of Pindaric papyrus fragments Judging from current editions, the two books of Pindar’s Prosodia seem to be by far the most scantily represented among the 17 books in which his work was divided by ancient editors.1 In the Teubner edition (the only critical edition taking account of the bulk of papyrus fragments published in 1961, and of the few scraps subsequently known) the Prosodia occupy less than two pages, which compares rather poorly with the second worst represented category, the Hyporchemata, where five pages are the remains of one or two books,2 not to say of the Dithyrambs (14 pages from two books), the Threnoi (9 pages from a single book) or of the apparently massively represented Paeans (57 pages from a single book!). Together with the single book of the Encomia (whose indirect tradition is better represented) the Prosodia are the only category to which Snell and Maehler attribute no papyrus fragment.3 The distribution of the fragments among the different books of Pindar’s works, apart from the few cases where we have explicit evidence that a quotation or a poem came from one or other book, rests, unavoidably, on a certain degree of speculation. Since the 18th century (and in some cases earlier) many fragments, known thanks to indirect tradition, have been conjecturally attributed to different genres on different grounds: in the recent Teubner edition this fact is signalled by an asterisk, preceding the con- jecturally assigned fragment, while two asterisks indicate a fragment whose attribution to Pindar is conjectural too.
    [Show full text]
  • Rejuvenations and Satyricons of Yesterday
    REJUVENATIONS AND SATYRICONS OF YESTERDAY By PAN. S. CODELLAS, M.D. SAN FRANCISCO Whence and Whithe r ? and hard labour and exhausting diseases, HEN the grey matter in which the Fates give to men; they lived the human cortex began to like Gods with a soul not touched by sorrow, far away from labour and grief; develop and establish sen- there was no miserable senility; for always sation, perception, emo- the arms and legs were strong and inde- tions, instinctive, purposefulfatigable, or ra - enjoying merry feasts beyond tionalW reactions towards a desired the reach of all evils. They died as if they objective, association, memory, gen- were subdued into sleep.” [Hesiod’s eral intelligence, judgment, then man “Works and Days,” 90 seq.] began to realize environment and attempt to control it. The early man Impos ition of Death in his later intellectual infancy prob- ably was imbued with the curiosity Death was the subject of numerous to answer the question of the origin speculations as to its origin. Among of his earthly appearance and dis- the earliest primitive theories we appearance, of Life and Death. find it commonly thought to be a To primitive intellect human in- trick. At a later period it appears itium and exitus were not two op- to be due to the malevolence of posing ends as they are to maturing demons craving human flesh and for more advanced mind. this inflicting death to men. To some The earliest men thought of life death was the separation of the soul as a natural, normal condition, be- from the body, which was the result cause they realized by it in the male of sorcery.
    [Show full text]
  • Herakles Iconography on Tyrrhenian Amphorae
    HERAKLES ICONOGRAPHY ON TYRRHENIAN AMPHORAE _____________________________________________ A Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School University of Missouri-Columbia _____________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts ______________________________________________ by MEGAN LYNNE THOMSEN Dr. Susan Langdon, Thesis Supervisor DECEMBER 2005 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Susan Langdon, and the other members of my committee, Dr. Marcus Rautman and Dr. David Schenker, for their help during this process. Also, thanks must be given to my family and friends who were a constant support and listening ear this past year. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS……………………………………………………………..v Chapter 1. TYRRHENIAN AMPHORAE—A BRIEF STUDY…..……………………....1 Early Studies Characteristics of Decoration on Tyrrhenian Amphorae Attribution Studies: Identifying Painters and Workshops Market Considerations Recent Scholarship The Present Study 2. HERAKLES ON TYRRHENIAN AMPHORAE………………………….…30 Herakles in Vase-Painting Herakles and the Amazons Herakles, Nessos and Deianeira Other Myths of Herakles Etruscan Imitators and Contemporary Vase-Painting 3. HERAKLES AND THE FUNERARY CONTEXT………………………..…48 Herakles in Etruria Etruscan Concepts of Death and the Underworld Etruscan Funerary Banquets and Games 4. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………..67 iii APPENDIX: Herakles Myths on Tyrrhenian Amphorae……………………………...…72 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………..77 ILLUSTRATIONS………………………………………………………………………82 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Tyrrhenian Amphora by Guglielmi Painter. Bloomington, IUAM 73.6. Herakles fights Nessos (Side A), Four youths on horseback (Side B). Photos taken by Megan Thomsen 82 2. Tyrrhenian Amphora (Beazley #310039) by Fallow Deer Painter. Munich, Antikensammlungen 1428. Photo CVA, MUNICH, MUSEUM ANTIKER KLEINKUNST 7, PL. 322.3 83 3. Tyrrhenian Amphora (Beazley #310045) by Timiades Painter (name vase).
    [Show full text]
  • Poetic Authority and Oral Tradition in Hesiod and Pindar
    CHAPTER SIX POETIC AUTHORITY AND ORAL TRADITION IN HESIOD AND PINDAR Ruth Scodel Elsewhere, I have discussed the distinction Homer makes, especially in the Odyssey, between the songs of bards and other storytelling.1 This argument rests especially on three recent insights that appear to point in quite opposite directions. First, Andrew Ford shows in Homer: the Poetry of the Past how the Odyssey evades the reality of the transmission of poetic tradition as well as that of bardic contests. The Muses simply replace poets’ teachers; the narrative content of per- formance has no naturalistic source.2 S. Douglas Olson has shown in Blood and Iron how richly the same epic depicts the workings of everyday oral tradition, its considerable interest in how news gets around.3 Third, Louise Pratt argues convincingly that the truth-claims of early Greek poetry need to be interpreted relative to their rhetor- ical functions in context. While only fables are truly fiction, for most poetic narrative historical accuracy is not the primary concern.4 Homer, then, shows how people in reality create and spread kleos, but he seems to want to avoid facing the obvious implication that poetic performances depend on what earlier storytellers have trans- mitted. The proem to the Catalogue of Ships perfectly demonstrates this peculiarity in its distinction between the Muses, who see and hear everything, and poet and audience, who only hear the kleos and know nothing (Il. 2.484–93). So in asking why Homer does not acknowledge openly that his stories depend on tradition, I looked at what distinguishes bardic performances from other storytelling prac- tices in Homer, and concluded that the most important distinctions 1 R.
    [Show full text]
  • General Index
    GENERAL INDEX A.GILIM, and n. Aesopic tradition, , and abstractions, n. nn. –, Acarnania, Aetna, , Acastus, Aetna, n. Accius, and n. Agamemnon, n. , , , accusative, , n. , –, , –, , – Agdistis, Achelous, Agenor, Achilles, , , , , , , , ages, myth of, see races, myth of –, , , , , Agias of Troezen, , Acontius, , n. , , agriculture, , , , , , – and n. , , , , , –, Actaeon, n. , , , , n. , –, ; Actor, agriculture section in Works and Acusilaus of Argos, and n. , Days, , , –, and n. Agrius, Adad, aidos, n. , ; personified, , adamant, adjective(s), , , Aietes, Admonitions of Ipuwar,andn. Aigipan, Adodos, ainos, , –, Adrasteia, Aither, and n. Adriatic (sea), Aithon, , n. Aegean (sea), , , aitiology, , , nn. –, Aegimius, – and n. , , , and Aegle, , n. , , , , Aelian Ajax son of Oileus, Historical miscellany, , Ajax son of Telamon, , , – and n. Aeolic dialect, , –, , Akkadian, n. , n. , , , , –; East Al Mina, , or Asiatic Aeolic, –, Alalu, , n. , , Alcaeus, , , n. Aeolids, , , Alcidamas, , , , , , Aeolis, Eastern, , , –, , n. Aeolism, , , , Alcinous, , n. , n. , Aeolus, –, , , , Aeschines, Alcmaeonidae, Aeschylus, , , , and Alcmaeonis, n. , Alcman, n. , and n. , Prometheus Bound, n. , and n. n. Alcmaon, – general index Alcmene, –, –, Antoninus Liberalis, , , n. , , , Anu, –, , –, –, aoidos see singer Alcyone, , , , aorist, , –, Alexander Aetolus, , n. apate, ; personified, Alexander the Great, n. , Aphrodite, , , n. , and n. , n. , and n. ,
    [Show full text]
  • Marathon 2,500 Years Edited by Christopher Carey & Michael Edwards
    MARATHON 2,500 YEARS EDITED BY CHRISTOPHER CAREY & MICHAEL EDWARDS INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON MARATHON – 2,500 YEARS BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SUPPLEMENT 124 DIRECTOR & GENERAL EDITOR: JOHN NORTH DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS: RICHARD SIMPSON MARATHON – 2,500 YEARS PROCEEDINGS OF THE MARATHON CONFERENCE 2010 EDITED BY CHRISTOPHER CAREY & MICHAEL EDWARDS INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 2013 The cover image shows Persian warriors at Ishtar Gate, from before the fourth century BC. Pergamon Museum/Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. Photo Mohammed Shamma (2003). Used under CC‐BY terms. All rights reserved. This PDF edition published in 2019 First published in print in 2013 This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. More information regarding CC licenses is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Available to download free at http://www.humanities-digital-library.org ISBN: 978-1-905670-81-9 (2019 PDF edition) DOI: 10.14296/1019.9781905670819 ISBN: 978-1-905670-52-9 (2013 paperback edition) ©2013 Institute of Classical Studies, University of London The right of contributors to be identified as the authors of the work published here has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Designed and typeset at the Institute of Classical Studies TABLE OF CONTENTS Introductory note 1 P. J. Rhodes The battle of Marathon and modern scholarship 3 Christopher Pelling Herodotus’ Marathon 23 Peter Krentz Marathon and the development of the exclusive hoplite phalanx 35 Andrej Petrovic The battle of Marathon in pre-Herodotean sources: on Marathon verse-inscriptions (IG I3 503/504; Seg Lvi 430) 45 V.
    [Show full text]
  • Sports, Theatre and Entertainment in the Ancient World
    Athletics, spectator sports, theatre, and other pastimes have become a consuming activity in our own time, cut short, at least temporarily, by our recent pandemic. How did these and other diversions develop in history? Are their antecedents found in the ancient world, especially in Greece and Rome? In this presentation, we will investigate the cultural roots and evolution of entertainment, especially the Greek and Roman games, as well as their theatre. Remember that the term culture comes from the Latin word cultus, in that most, if not all, of these activities have their origins in religious festivals or rites. We will also look into the social, economic and political dimensions of entertainment in antiquity. Since the Greek Olympic Year of 2014, dozens of studies have appeared that have enriched our understanding of these themes. While we will be concentrating on Greece and Rome, we will also briefly take glances of possible parallel developments in China, Egypt, Phoenicia, Byzantium, and elsewhere. Finally, we will study how these may have influenced our modern entertainments and recreation 1 In 2003, I participated in the First International Conference on History at the Athens Institute for Education and Research, and subsequently helped to edit the first collection of Essays, entitled Antiquity and Modernity: A Celebration of European History and Heritage in the Olympic Year 2004. It was soon followed by this host of publications. All of the books pictured (except two reprints) appeared between 2004 and 2015. A number of them gave new perspectives on Ancient athletics and sport, some of which I will briefly describe in this presentation….
    [Show full text]
  • The Higher Aspects of Greek Religion. Lectures Delivered at Oxford and In
    BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIET OF Henirg m. Sage 1891 .A^^^ffM3. islm^lix.. 5931 CornelJ University Library BL 25.H621911 The higher aspects of Greek religion.Lec 3 1924 007 845 450 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924007845450 THE HIBBERT LECTURES SECOND SERIES 1911 THE HIBBERT LECTURES SECOND SERIES THE HIGHER ASPECTS OF GREEK RELIGION LECTURES DELIVERED AT OXFORD AND IN LONDON IN APRIL AND MAY igii BY L. R. FARNELL, D.Litt. WILDE LECTURER IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD LONDON WILLIAMS AND NORGATE GARDEN, W.C. 14 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT 1912 CONTENTS Lecture I GENERAL FEATURES AND ORIGINS OF GREEK RELIGION Greek religion mainly a social-political system, 1. In its earliest " period a " theistic creed, that is^ a worship of personal individual deities, ethical personalities rather than mere nature forces, 2. Anthrqgomorphism its predominant bias, 2-3. Yet preserving many primitive features of " animism " or " animatism," 3-5. Its progress gradual without violent break with its distant past, 5-6. The ele- ment of magic fused with the religion but not predominant, 6-7. Hellenism and Hellenic religion a blend of two ethnic strains, one North-Aryan, the other Mediterranean, mainly Minoan-Mycenaean, 7-9. Criteria by which we can distinguish the various influences of these two, 9-1 6. The value of Homeric evidence, 18-20. Sum- mary of results, 21-24. Lecture II THE RELIGIOUS BOND AND MORALITY OF THE FAMILY The earliest type of family in Hellenic society patrilinear, 25-27.
    [Show full text]
  • Greek Lyric Syllabus
    Greek 115 Greek Lyric Grace Ledbetter Fall 2010: Early Greek Poetry and Philosophy This seminar will focus on the development of early Greek poetry and philosophy (including Archilochus, Callinus, Tyrtaeus, Alcaeus, Alcman, Sappho, Hipponax, Mimnermus, Semonides, Solon, Homeric Hymns to Demeter and Apollo, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Pindar) paying particular attention to questions of normativity and subversion, exclusivity and inclusion, monstrosity, aristocracy, praise, integration, anxiety, connection, deceit, language, and bees. Required books 1) Hesiod, Theogony. ed. Richard Hamilton, Bryn Mawr Commentary. 2) D. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry. 3) Homeric Hymn to Apollo, eds Peter Smith and Lee Pearcy, Bryn Mawr Commentary. 4) Homeric Hymn to Demeter, ed. Julia Haig Gaisser, Bryn Mawr Commentary. 5) Heraclitus: Peri Phuseus, Henry W. Johnston, jr. Bryn Mawr Commentary. 6 Parmenides, eds David Sider and Henry Johnston, Bryn Mawr Commentary. Required work Weekly reading, presentations and discussion Weekly short translation quizzes, marked but not graded Midterm exam Thursday, 10/28 Final exam will be scheduled by registrar (date will be posted Oct. 1) Final Paper due 12/18/10 (topics and drafts due earlier) 1 Week 1 (9/2) Reading: H. Fraenkel, Early Greek Poetry and Philosophy. Individual presentations on Fraenkel Week 2 (9/9) Hesiod. Reading in Greek: Theogony 1‐616 Rest of Theogony in English Works and Days in English M. L. West, Theogony. Introduction + commentary. Week 3 (9/16) Archilochus, Callinus, Tyrtaeus Reading in Greek: all of Archilochus in Campbell + Archilochus, “cologne epode” (text on blackboard) all of Callinus and Tyrtaeus in Campbell Secondary (required) B. Snell, “The Rise of the Individual in the Early Greek Lyric” in his The Discovery of the Mind, ch.
    [Show full text]
  • Helen and Pandora: a Comparative Study with Emphasis on the Eidolon Theme As a Concept of Eris
    SOTEROULA CONSTANTINIDOU HELEN AND PANDORA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY WITH EMPHASIS ON THE EIDOLON THEME AS A CONCEPT OF ERIS "In a small-scale society myth tends to be viewed as the encoding of that society’s concept of truth; at the same time, from the viewpoint of We­ stern civilization, myth has become the opposite of fact, the antithesis of truth” (Gregory Nagy, Foreword to R.P. Martin, The Language of Heroes. Speech and Performance in the Iliad, Ithaca and London 1989, ix) *. This work is a comparative study of the myths of Helen and Pan­ dora* 1 with emphasis on the eidolon theme as a concept of eris and on the interaction between mytkos and logos. My aim is to read this theme in a different perspective, i.e. as a device of strife; as such, the eidolon- eris concept is personified in Helen’s heroic figure and gives heioic saga a stimulating version about the Cause of the Trojan War! More­ over, the idea of the association of Helen and Pandora is put forward here, as both figures acquired the mythical details of an image, of a phantom, although each one with essential discrepancies: for example, Pandora’s existence was confined to that of a phantom, a false creation rather than a human being, from the very beginning, whereas Helen’s ccanti-myth” makes her trespass from the world of the real to that of the eidola, of the imitation of the real. Thus, the two mythologi­ ♦ I wish to thank Professors Deborah Boedeker and Kurt Raaflaub for their useful comments on a much earlier and brief version of this work presented at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C., in the summer of 1999.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Reading Athenaios' Epigraphical Hymn to Apollo: Critical Edition And
    Reading Athenaios’ Epigraphical Hymn to Apollo: Critical Edition and Commentaries DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Corey M. Hackworth Graduate Program in Greek and Latin The Ohio State University 2015 Dissertation Committee: Fritz Graf, Advisor Benjamin Acosta-Hughes Carolina López-Ruiz 1 Copyright by Corey M. Hackworth 2015 2 Abstract This dissertation is a study of the Epigraphical Hymn to Apollo that was found at Delphi in 1893, and since attributed to Athenaios. It is believed to have been performed as part of the Athenian Pythaïdes festival in the year 128/7 BCE. After a brief introduction to the hymn, I provide a survey and history of the most important editions of the text. I offer a new critical edition equipped with a detailed apparatus. This is followed by an extended epigraphical commentary which aims to describe the history of, and arguments for and and against, readings of the text as well as proposed supplements and restorations. The guiding principle of this edition is a conservative one—to indicate where there is uncertainty, and to avoid relying on other, similar, texts as a resource for textual restoration. A commentary follows, which traces word usage and history, in an attempt to explore how an audience might have responded to the various choices of vocabulary employed throughout the text. Emphasis is placed on Athenaios’ predilection to utilize new words, as well as words that are non-traditional for Apolline narrative. The commentary considers what role prior word usage (texts) may have played as intertexts, or sources of poetic resonance in the ears of an audience.
    [Show full text]