(Sappho) or politically engaged in stasis (Alkaios). Dionysos (Anakreon) and Aphrodite (Sappho again), whom we have not examined, dominate the world of the symposium, both of men and women. Pindar is exceptional both in the length of his compositions and his sophistication; Bacchylides equals his length but his compositions in the traditional fields of paian and dithyramb do not match Pindar’s semnotēs, elevation.91 These last two are the only true representatives of cult lyric, as their trained choruses performed at the great cult centers of Greece. As such they represented their city-states (Kowalzig) and performed with an agenda suiting both home city and place of performance (Lozynksi). It is vital to remember that all compositions we have been considering were meant for oral performance (Depew) before an audience whose constitution we can sometimes only guess at. Sappho’s works were “hits” still sung in later centuries.92 We must never forget, either, the agonistic quality of many Greek poems. Whether explicitly or not, the poet usually wanted to win, or win praise.
FURTHER READING
Many Greek hymns are collected in Furley and Bremer 2001, along with a discussion of their conventions and the wider hymn-culture in which they originate. Much work has also been done on the paian: see in particular Ford 2006, and on Pindar’s paianes in particular Rutherford 2001. Pindar’s cult poetry more broadly is collected in Snell and Maehler 1975 vol. ii. On the dithyramb, see Kowalzig and Wilson 2013a. On the intersection between myth, history, and cult, see Kowalzig 2007, and for the relationship between lyric and Homeric perspectives, see Nagy 1990a.
Notes
1 1 Even if someone is a practicing Christian, the “pagan” gods seem merely quaint. There have been classicists who have expressed sympathy with the ancient gods: Jane Harrison, for example, Robert Graves (in a way), Walter F. Otto.
2 2 An example: the annual climbdown from a cliff face to harvest gannet eggs by the Faraoh Islanders may be explained by them (emic) by the desire to harvest nourishing eggs; the outsider (etic) will prefer to explain the ritual as some kind of rite de passage, as similar eggs may be obtained from hens. Cf. Morris 1993: 15–45.
3 3 Latacz 2004.
4 4 See Burkert 1987.
5 5 Minchin 2011: 17–35.
6 6 See further Hägg 1996.
7 7 One may consult Versnel’s essay “Did the Greeks Believe in Their Gods?” (2011: 539–559). He argues against the “ritualists” that there was such a thing as “believe in the gods” in ancient Greece: p. 552: “On the other hand, the fact that Greek religion was basically a matter of ritual action in no way implies the consequence that Greeks did not believe in (the existence) of their gods;” same page: “Stating that Greek religion is ritualist and at the same time that ‘the Athenians did not believe in their gods’ is either nonsense or a kind of sophistry run wild.”
8 8 Cf. Depew 2000: 59–79; 254–263.
9 9 Furley and Bremer 2001.
10 10 As Wilamowitz-Moellendorff 1921 said: “Die gottesdienstliche Poesie der alten Zeit ist verloren.”
11 11 As (young) people today share on social media lyric poets then shared in their group of flesh-and-blood friends.
12 12 For more cf. Garland 1994.
13 13 Dignas and Trampedach 2008.
14 14 For example in the Birds 959–992 (chresmologue); Peace 1046–1126 (Hierokles); Knights 961–1111 (Kleon and Sausage-Seller vie with pseudo-oracles).
15 15 See Flower 2008.
16 16 An interesting testimony to this at the turn of the fifth century is the Derveni Papyrus, which is all about the “correct” interpretation of an Orphic poem.
17 17 Furley and Bremer 2001: no. 4.1.
18 18 Cf. Furley and Bremer 2001: nos. 4.3, 4.3.
19 19 Furley and Bremer 2001: 1.1.
20 20 Furley and Bremer 2001: 2.6.1 and 2.6.2.
21 21 Kowalzig 2007.
22 22 Cf. Simon 1997: 247–259.
23 23 The work is marred by an excess of typing errors.
24 24 Carey 2017: 34–60.
25 25 Swift 2010.
26 26 “Thus the paian is used to indicate a form of religious morality which the play encourages us to question” (p. 88).
27 27 The remark applies to the papyri in the Green Collection. See Obbink 2015b. The first poem I discuss, the “Old Age Poem,” is transmitted separately (see below).
28 28 P.Köln inv. 21351 + 21376. See West 2005; duBois 2011: 5–6.
29 29 Following West’s restorations of the lacunose text: ὔμμες πεδὰ Μοίσαν ἰ]οκ[ό]λπων κάλα δῶρα, παῖδες, / σπουδάσδετε καὶ τὰ]ν φιλάοιδον λιγύραν χελύνναν.
30 30 Homeric Hymn to Hermes, with Vergados’ commentary (2012).
31 31 Cf. Bremmer 1987; Veyne 1988; Gantz 1996.
32 32 Tithonos occupies a kind of unfortunate limbo between mortality and immortality, as he ages and ages without dying. Structuralists might say that he “mediates” between the conditions of mortal and immortal.
33 33 See Obbink 2014: 32–49.
34 34 Suggested by West’s supplement of the last line of the (defective) first stanza ] σε μᾶ[τερ].
35 35 Reading, with West ἐπ, ἄρηον and not ἐπάρωγον Π. Even the parallel in Theocritus 17.132 (cited by Henrichs) does not convince me of the latter. The actual reading of the papyrus is επαρωηγον.
36 36 permitte divis cetera, qui simul / stravēre ventos aequore fervido / deproeliantes, nec cupressi / nec veteres agitantur orni, “leave the rest to the gods who, the moment when they lay to rest winds raging on the heaving seas, nor cypresses nor ancient ashes toss.”
37 37 Herodotus 2.135.3–4; Larichos is only known from Athenaios X = 425a Sappho test. 203a V. A third brother called Erigyion was, apparently, named by the Peripatetic philosopher Chamaileon in his treatise on Sappho (see P.Oxy. 2506 fr. 48, col. iii lines 36–48).
38 38 For the former Hutchinson uses “narrator” to emphasize that it is not necessarily Sappho.
39 39 That detail is also important: the girl hopes for affluence.
40 40 This is not the place to consider possible interpretations of the Larichos stanza at the end.
41 41 If Sappho had wanted to write a biographical memo about her brothers she would have chosen prose, like Hekataios, perhaps. The lyric medium involves interplay between biography and timeless situations constructed by the words and music. Detailed biographical interpretations of the poem are, in my opinion, misguided.
42 42 Other hymns/prayers: fr. 5 Nereids; fr. 327 Eros; fr. 325 Athena.
