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Alcman's Partheneion: Legend and Choral Ceremony*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

E. Robbins
Affiliation:
University of Toronto

Extract

The papyrus text of the Partheneion, discovered in 1855 and now in the Louvre, consists of 101 lines in three columns. Of these the first 34 lines (column i) are badly mutilated owing to the disappearance of the left-hand side of the column, whereas lines 35–101 (columns ii and iii) can be restored with almost complete confidence. Of a fourth column nothing is legible, though a coronis opposite the fifth line of column iii shows that the poem ended only four lines after our text runs out. The lengths of the existing columns are 34 lines (i), 34 lines (ii), 33 lines (iii). If a full column of 35 lines has been lost before our column i—a pre-eminently reasonable hypothesis—the entire poem will have consisted of 140 lines. Since each strophe consists of fourteen lines, we may thus imagine the whole to have consisted of ten strophes. By a curious coincidence the part of the poem which is almost intact and which deals with the occasion consists of five strophes or seventy lines: it seems to be the case, thus, that the lost or damaged part also consisted of five strophes or seventy lines of choral lyric and dealt with myth: what we can make out, certainly, appears to be exclusively myth and attendant moralising.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1994

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References

1 The strophe, with its metrical pattern abab abab ccddef, may also be construed as our first example of a triad, with strophe, identical antistrophe, and epode. The 14-line pattern is curiously anticipatory of the Petrarchan sonnet if the whole is read as an octave with two identical quatrains containing but two metrical patterns (a and b) followed by a sestet that introduces three new ones (c, d, and e).

2 Campbell, D. A., Greek Lyric Poetry2 (Bristol, 1982), p. 195Google Scholar, maintains that ‘Alcman spent little time on the legend’. But half of the poem appears to deal with the legend. It might be more correct to say that there is more of the poem devoted to occasion than we find in the epinician odes of Pindar (though perhaps not in his Partheneia).

3 Puelma, M., ‘Die Selbstbeschreibung des Chores in Alkmans grossem Partheneion-Fragment’, MH 34 (1977), 155Google Scholar, hereafter Puelma. The present article is heavily indebted to Puelma's study.

4 The most exhaustive studies are those of Page, D. L., Alcman: The Partheneion (Oxford, 1951)Google Scholar, hereafter Page, and Pavese, C. O., Il grande Partenio di Alcmane (Amsterdam, 1992)Google Scholar, hereafter Pavese. The common view is exemplified by Clay, D., ‘Alcman's Partheneion’, QUCC N.S. 39.3 (1991), 53Google Scholar: ‘There seems to be no reflection of the poem's context in the first column of the poem….’

5 Useful discussions and bibliography will be found in Page, Puelma, Pavese, and in Calame, C., Alcman (Rome, 1983)Google Scholar, hereafter Calame; see too Calame's, Les chœurs de jeunes filles en Grèce archaïque II: Alcman (Rome, 1977)Google Scholar. There is a useful bibliographical article by Vetta, M., ‘Studi recenti sul primo Partenio di Alcmane’, QUCC N.S. 10 (1982), 127–36Google Scholar. Volume I of Davies', M.Poetarum Melicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Oxford, 1991)Google Scholar also contains much relevant bibliography in the apparatus. And there are valuable observations in Garzya, A., Alcmane: I frammenti (Naples, 1954).Google Scholar

6 29–31. See also Campbell, D. A., ‘Three Notes on Alcman I P. (= 3 Calame)’, QUCC N.S. 26.2 (1987), 6971.Google Scholar

7 μϕοτρω[ν διαπρε]ποντων, says the B scholiast, giving Aristarchus as his authority.

8 The inability of commentators to agree, on the basis of the text, which of the two is superior is in the end the most eloquent testimony to this equivalence.

9 Following Puelma we get, ‘She (= Hagesichora), second after Agido (accusative) in beauty, will run [alongside her]’. Garzya and Calame take Agido as nominative and render, ‘She, Agido, second in beauty, will run after (πεδ᾽ in tmesis with δραμται) her (= Hagesichora)’. On both these interpretations the two leaders are placed together and apart from the rank and file of the choir. Most recently, Hansen, O., ‘Alcman's Louvre-Partheneion vv: 58–9 again’, Hermes 121 (1993), 118–19Google Scholar, argues once more that Agido is nominative with πεδ᾽ in tmesis, but emends Ἰβην⋯ι to εἰβνοις, allegedly ‘mongrels of dogs and foxes’. The purpose of the comparison is supposed to be suddenly to denigrate Agido, who was earlier praised. This construction of the passage is bizarre, and not tied to any view of the poem as a whole. But it still compares Agido and Hagesichora, the two most important girls, basically to each other.

10 A simile without ὡς.

11 See Slater, W. J., ‘Futures in Pindar’, CQ 19 (1969), 8694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 So Page in his monograph and Puelma. The word is not accented on the papyrus. Garzya (n. 5) accents αὕτα. It is wrongly, or, rather, meaninglessly accented as αὔτα by Calame, Davies (n. 5), and Campbell (n. 6). The error appears to be tralaticious and to originate with Page's, D. L.Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford, 1962)Google Scholar: see Pavese, p. 58 n. 52.

13 Ὀρθραι as Artemis Ortheia is very difficult—the intrusive ρ and the short ι militate against this identification. But recently Clay (n. 4) has argued again for the identity of the goddess with Artemis. All of Calame's argument for Helen is circumstantial; there is simply nothing in the poem that suggests her. Other candidates have been proposed: Bruno Gentili thinks that the goddess is Aphrodite (Addendum to Clay's article); Burnett, A. P. thinks that she is Eileithyia, ‘The Race with the Pleiades’, CP 59 (1964), 30–3.Google Scholar

14 The theory of a rival choir has today been all but abandoned: see, e.g., Charles, Segal, ‘Sinus and the Pleiades in Alcman's Louvre Partheneion’, Mnemosyne 36 (1983), 262Google Scholar with n. 7. Similarly there is little current support for the theory of rival half-choirs, though the idea has recently been defended again by Peron, J., ‘Demi-chœurs chez Alcman, Parth. I, v. 39–59’, GB 14 (1987), 3553.Google Scholar

15 A traditional metaphor for helplessness: cf. Semonides 1.4 West.

16 E.g., Puelma and Calame: so too Segal, loc. cit. (n. 14).

17 Segal, , art. cit. (n. 14), 263–4.Google Scholar

18 Garvie, A. F., ‘A Note on the Deity of Alcman's Partheneion’, CQ 15 (1965), 185–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar, following a suggestion of Bowra's, thinks that Agido and Hagesichora may in fact be π⋯λοι, or ‘foals’, a ritual title.

19 Puelma, Calame: see also Vetta (n. 5), 130–1.

20 Though Davies (n. 5) does not do so.

21 Giangrande, G., ‘On Alcman's Partheneion’, MPhL 2 (1977), 151–4.Google Scholar

22 Davies (n. 5) prints δεκ[ς ἅδ᾽ ε]δει, following Page. This will be a self-reference on the part of a choir of ten maidens. But if this is the case ϕθγγεται in the following line (there is no change of subject) will also have to refer to the choir of ten and the same girls who were screechowls in line 87 are now swans!

23 The scholiast's ντ is, then, not a lemma but an interpretation in his own prose, in which the word ἄντα does not exist.

24 We find some of the same language in 88–90. The antagonism of the eleven to the two is only playful pretence. In this vein, rivalry is resolved with achievement of the success (or peace) for which the choir strives, and if the choir pleases the goddess it is thanks to the beauty of Hagesichora. ἰτωρ and πνων may simply be a continuation of the metaphorical language and point to a resolution that is successful accomplishment of a religious ritual. But this does not exclude its also pointing to a genuine and heartfelt sense that the goddess is beneficent to her devotees. We do not know what services the choir felt she performed for them in their daily lives: the choir is both graceful and grateful.

25 This leaves out Aenesimbrota as a possible member of the choir. But she is clearly not present in any case. I accept West's suggestion (‘Alcmanica’, CQ 15 [1965], 200Google Scholar), further argued by Puelma, that Aenesimbrota is best explained as a local ϕαρμακετρια to whose talents one might appeal in trying to win a love-object.

26 Calame quite rightly points out (p. 317) that this is a form of ring composition and that, with regard to παρσομες, ‘cette forme verbale n'est pas forcément accompagnée…d'une négation comme l'ont supposé la plupart des interprètes de ce passage’. So too Pavese.

27 A genitive plural ending in ]ν and preceded by a connective in line 8 is one possibility—this will put the two names in line 9. A connective plus a name ending in ]ν in line 8 will put the necessary genitive accompanying γρταν in line 9.

28 The phrase in line 10 remains puzzling and there is no convincing supplement. But the line will not have contained a name—the missing cretic at the beginning probably belongs with ]πώρω, which appears to be part of a word in the genitive depending on κλνον: see Page ad loc.

Pavese, pp. 17–20, seeks to put twelve names where Page says there can be only ten. He must posit an unwelcome and unparalleled asyndeton in line 9 in order to get two names in addition to that of Eurytus into lines 8 and 9 (see previous note). And he must accept πώρω as a self-contained noun in line 10. But, as Page points out, there is no reason to believe that such a word ever existed. Page's analysis remains, accordingly, the most convincing.

29 Calame, loc. cit. (n. 26), says that the names which the choir declares its intention of omitting are those of the heroes (τὼς ρστως) opposed to the Hippocoontidae (i.e. the names in the preceding catalogue). I do not understand this.

30 For the evidence, see Page, pp. 30–3. The scholia appear to be confused here, with one notice maintaining that the chorus does not include Lycaethus among the Hippocoontidae and another saying that not only Lycaethus but the other sons of Derites are named (does this commentator think that all those mentioned were in fact sons of Derites?). Garzya (n. 5, ad loc.), thinks that the scholiast is simply erroneous in introducing the name of Derites. Either the scholiast or Apollodorus is wrong, certainly, on the basis of what we can make out, and since the scholia are both badly broken and unclear, it is best to follow Apollodorus and believe that we are dealing solely with Hippocoontidae.

31 Or the reference to Heracles, if it was in this poem, may have been a parenthetic reference, of the sort common in Pindar, to an earlier conflict.

32 Hippocoon and Tyndareus were sons of Oebalus and so their own sons are first cousins. Derites is a brother of Oebalus, hence in the (unlikely) case that all the slain are Deritidae we still have to do with consanguinity, though the cousins are no longer first cousins.

33 Powell, J. U., Collectanea Alexandrina (Oxford, 1925), p. 35, n. 29.Google Scholar

34 See Pausanias 1.18.1, 3.17.3, 3.18.11, 4.31.9.

35 It is interesting that the sons of Aphareus, like the sons of Hippocoon, are cousins of the Tyndaridae: Tyndareus is son of Perieres and brother of Aphareus in some versions (Apollodorus 1.9.5), son of Oebalus and brother of Hippocoon in others (Apollodorus 3.10.4).

38 See Campbell's discussion of the passage, art. cit. (n. 6), pp. 67–9. π]διλος, ‘without sandals’, is a curious word and has been much discussed. There seems to be no other possible supplement, however. It is hard to resist a pun here in English translation: ‘their valour was bootless’.

37 Burkert, W., Greek Religion (Eng. tr. Raffan, J. [Cambridge, MA, 1985]), p. 213.Google Scholar

38 Garvie, art. cit. (n. 18).

39 That Alcman thought of the name Πωλνδεκης (the ω is anomalous and peculiar to Laconian) as connected with π⋯λος seems to be indicated by fragment 2 (a schema Alcmanicum): Κστωρ τε πώλων ὠκων δματ⋯ρες ἱππται σοϕο/ κα Πωλνδεκης κνδρς.

40 In Indian mythology both twins woo a single maiden, the Daughter of the Sun: see West, M. L., Immortal Helen (London, 1975), p. 9Google Scholar, on this ménage à trois.

41 See Zeller, G., Die Vedischen Zwillingsgötter (Wiesbaden, 1990)Google Scholar. The connection between the Dioscuri and the Aśvins is emphasised by Burkert, op. cit. (n. 37), and by West, M. L., op. cit. (n. 40), pp. 79.Google Scholar

42 If one is the Morning Star and the other the Evening Star we have a good explanation of the half-life/half-light in which the Dioscuri are condemned to live in Greek myth.

43 As they frequently are: see Chapouthier, F., Les Dioscures au service d'une déesse, Bibliothèque des Ecoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome 137 (Paris, 1935).Google Scholar

44 See Calame ad loc.: suggestions include the Giants, Otus and Ephialtes, Orion, Icarus.

45 A regular weapon in the heroic arsenal: cf. Iliad 7.270, 12.161.

46 In addition Nem. 10.64–5, μγα ἔργον μσαντ᾽ ὠκως/κα πθον δεινν (of the Apharetidae) seems to echo lines 34–5 of the Partheneion, ἄλαστα δ/Ϝργα πσον κακ μησμενοι.

47 See my ‘The Gifts of the Gods: Pindar's Third Pythian’, CQ 40 (1990), 307–18.Google Scholar

48 Coronis' story is not unlike that of the Hippocoontidae: in both cases there are rival suitors and punishment.

49 This is the normal disjunction, but it is not exclusive. δλος may be set against either πειθώ or βα: the Philoctetes of Sophocles is a study in the application of these three possibilities.