THE POWER OF APHRODITE: BACCHYLIDES 17,10 BY CHRISTOPHER G. BROWN Bacchylides' Seventeenth Dithyramb concerns the conflict between Theseus and Minos on board the ship that carries the four- teen Athenian youths and maidens to Crete'). The poet is here following a tradition in which Minos himself comes to Athens to collect (or choose) the victims for the Minotaur (see Jacoby on Hellanicus, FGrHist 323a F 14). Bacchylides has set this conflict within the framework of the actions and influence of the gods. The wind that falls upon the sail of Minos' ship does so at the instigation of Athena. The dispute between the two heroes concerns divine parentage: Zeus hurls a lightning-bolt as a sign to Minos; Amphitrite receives Theseus in the home of Poseidon and gives him rich gifts. Moreover, in a gnomic passage Theseus sees the actions of the heroes and their conflict in terms of the dispensation of the gods and divine justice (24 ff.). Note especially that he says of direct conflict in line 46 8<x({jLMVxpw«. And so it is that the gods preside over the actions of 1) References to Bacchylides follow the Teubner edition of B. Snell and H. Maehler (Leipzig 1970). The following articles will be referred to by author's name only: D. E. Gerber, The Gifts of Aphrodite:Bacchylides 17.10, Phoenix 19 (1965), 212-213; G. J. Giesekam, SomeTextual Problems inBaccicylides XVII,CQn.s. 27 (1977), 249-255; G. W. Pieper, Conflictof Characterin Bacchylides' Ode17, TAPA 103 (1972), 395-404; G. Ieranò, Il ditiramboXVII di Bacchilidee le festeapollonee di Delo, QS 30 (1989), 157-183; R. Scodel, The Irony of Fatein Bacchylides17, Hermes 112 (1984), 137-143; C. Segal, The Myth of Bacchylides17: Heroic Questand Heroic Identity,Eranos 77 (1979), 23-37; J. Stern, The Structure of Bacchylides' OdeRBPh 17, 45 (1967), 40-47; B. Zimmermann, AphroditesGaben: zu Bakchylides17.10 Sn. -M., Prometheus 15 (1989), 34-36. For further bibliography, see the edition of Snell- Maehler, LV ff., and D. E. Gerber, Pindar andBacchylides 1934-1987, Lustrum 32 (1990). An earlier version of this paper was read at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of Canada in Montréal, May 27, 1985. I am much indebted to Pro- fessors J. M. Bremer, D. E. Gerber, R. D. Griffith, B. C. MacLachlan, and E. Robbins for commenting on this article in draft. 328 the heroes. I stress this point, principally because some recent scholars emphasize the heroes' actions in themselves with little attention to this larger picture2). The central conflict of the poem arises from the intervention of Aphrodite: - These lines are cruciai, for they set in motion the series of actions that occupies the rest of the poem: Minos makes advances towards Eriboea, Theseus intervenes, the question of the paternity of the two heroes results. These lines, however, are troubled by a rather stubborn textual problem. Is the word following K6xpiloq [ajyva (Blass) or (Kenyon)? This question is not trivial, for it affects how we view the nature of Cypris' gifts. ocyv6t is printed in the standard text of Snell-Maehler and was vigorously defended by Gerber3). The security of this reading, how- ever, has been called into question recently by Giesekam4). From the apparatus of the Teubner edition it appears that Snell was led to accept á¡vcX because of papyrological considerations. On his view, the space before the nu is more compatible with a gamma than with an iota. Giesekam has attacked this position by holding 2) Notably Segal, and Pieper, 395, who speaks simply of his "personal conflict" . 3) Gerber's arguments have been endorsed recently by leranò, 161 with n. 22, who does not address the objections of Giesekam. A. P. Burnett, The Art of Bac- chylides(Cambridge, Mass. 1985), 16, reproduces and translates the Teubner text without reference to the textual problem. Most recently, Zimmermann offers a defence of different from that of Gerber. He sees the as referr- ing to the beauty of Eriboea; the adjective indicates that she should not be defiled. Accordingly, Minos acts impiously by touching her (cf. ..., 21). Although ingenious, this reading is unlikely: see n. 17, below. 4) Cf. Scodel, 141 n. 11. Giesekam's support of α�νis� consonant with his argu- ment that Minos is portrayed by Bacchylides in this poem in a more sympathetic light than most commentators allow: see Giesekam's paper in F. Cairns (ed.), Latin Seminar,ARCA 2 On his view, Minos Papers of theLiverpool (1976), 237-252. " is the "reluctant victim of the 'dread gifts of Aphrodite' (243). Crucial to Giesekam's case is the interpretation of lines 86-90: see my discussion in ZPE 82 (1990) 32-34. It should be stressed, moreover, that his case is not undermined by the present discussion: Minos is subject to the power of the goddess, and his actions are thus manipulated. .