Stesichorus

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Tabula Iliaca
, bearing the inscription "Sack of Troy according to Stesichorus"

Stesichorus (/stəˈsɪkərəs/; Greek: Στησίχορος, Stēsichoros; c. 630 – 555 BC) was a Greek lyric poet native of today's Calabria (Southern Italy). He is best known for telling epic stories in lyric metres,[1] and for some ancient traditions about his life, such as his opposition to the tyrant Phalaris, and the blindness he is said to have incurred and cured by composing verses first insulting and then flattering to Helen of Troy.

He was ranked among the

Hellenistic Alexandria, and yet his work attracted relatively little interest among ancient commentators,[2] so that remarkably few fragments of his poetry now survive. As David Campbell notes: "Time has dealt more harshly with Stesichorus than with any other major lyric poet."[3] Recent discoveries, recorded on Egyptian papyrus (notably and controversially, the Lille Stesichorus),[4] have led to some improvements in our understanding of his work, confirming his role as a link between Homer's epic narrative and the lyric narrative of poets like Pindar.[5]

Stesichorus also exercised an important influence on the representation of myth in 6th century art,[6] and on the development of Athenian dramatic poetry.[7]

Biography

Stesichorus was born in

cithara
; his name was originally Tisias.

Chronology

The specific dates given by the Suda for Stesichorus have been dismissed by one modern scholar as "specious precision"

Hieronymus declared that his poems became sweeter and more swan-like as he approached death,[19] and Cicero knew of a bronzed statue representing him as a bent old man holding a book.[20] Eusebius dated his floruit in Olympiad 42.2 (611/10 BC) and his death in Olympiad 55.1 (560/59 BC).[21]

Family

The Suda's claim that

Tivoli listed him as Euclides.[31] The poet's mathematically inclined brother was named Mamertinus by the Suda but a scholiast in a commentary on Euclid named him Mamercus.[32]

Background

Stesichorus's lyrical treatment of epic themes was well-suited to a western Greek audience, owing to the popularity of hero-cults in southern Italy and

Photius, the term eight all (used by gamblers at dice) derives from an expensive burial the poet received outside Catana, including a monument with eight pillars, eight steps and eight corners,[44] but the 3rd century grammarian Julius Pollux attributed the same term to an 'eight all ways' tomb given to the poet outside Himera.[45]

Career

Many modern scholars don't accept the Suda's claim that Stesichorus was named for his innovations in choral poetry — there are good reasons to believe that his lyrical narratives were composed for solo performance (see Works below). Moreover the name wasn't unique — there seems to have been more than one poet of this name[46] (see Spurious works below). The Suda in yet another entry refers to the fact, now verified by Papyrus fragments, that Stesichorus composed verses in units of three stanzas (strophe, antistrophe and epode), a format later followed by poets such as Bacchylides and Pindar. Suda claims this three-stanza format was popularly referred to as the three of Stesichorus in a proverbial saying rebuking cultural buffoons ("You don't even know the three of Stesichorus!"). According to one modern scholar, however, this saying could instead refer to the following three lines of his poem The Palinode, addressed to Helen of Troy:[47]

There is no truth in that story,
You didn't ride in the well-rowed galleys,
You didn't reach the walls of Troy.[48]

Helen of Troy's bad character was a common theme among poets such as Sappho and Alcaeus[49] and, according to various ancient accounts, Stesichorus viewed her in the same light until she magically punished him with blindness for blaspheming her in one of his poems.[50] According to a colourful account recorded by Pausanias, she later sent an explanation to Stesichorus via a man from Croton, who was on a pilgrimage to White Island in the Black Sea (near the mouth of the Blue Danube), and it was in response to this that Stesichorus composed the Palinode,[51] absolving her of all blame for the Trojan War and thus restoring himself to full sight.

Works

The ancients associated the lyrical qualities of Stesichorus with the voice of the nightingale, as in this quote from the Palatine Anthology: "...at his birth, when he had just reached the light of day, a nightingale, travelling through the air from somewhere or other, perched unnoticed on his lips and struck up her clear song."[52] The account is repeated by Pliny the Elder[53] but it was the epic qualities of his work that most impressed ancient commentators,[46] though with some reservations on the part of Quintilian:

The greatness of Stesichorus' genius is shown among other things by his subject-matter: he sings of the most important wars and the most famous commanders and sustains on his lyre the weight of epic poetry. In both their actions and their speeches he gives due dignity to his characters, and if only he had shown restraint he could possibly have been regarded as a close rival of Homer; but he is redundant and diffuse, a fault to be sure but explained by the abundance of what he had to say. —Quintilian[54]

In a similar vein,

Longinus puts him in select company with Herodotus, Archilochus and Plato as the 'most Homeric' of authors.[56]

Modern scholars tend to accept the general thrust of the ancient comments – even the 'fault' noted by Quintilian gets endorsement: 'longwindedness', as one modern scholar calls it, citing, as proof of it, the interval of 400 lines separating Geryon's death from his eloquent anticipation of it.[57] Similarly, "the repetitiveness and slackness of the style" of the recently discovered Lille papyrus has even been interpreted by one modern scholar as proof of Stesichorean authorship[58] – though others originally used it as an argument against.[4] Possibly Stesichorus was even more Homeric than ancient commentators realized – they had assumed that he composed verses for performance by choirs (the triadic structure of the stanzas, comprising strophe, antistrophe and epode, is consistent with choreographed movement) but a poem such as the Geryoneis included some 1500 lines and it probably required about four hours to perform – longer than a chorus might reasonably be expected to dance.[59] Moreover, the versatility of lyric meter is suited to solo performance with self-accompaniment on the lyre[60] – which is how Homer himself delivered poetry. Whether or not it was a choral technique, the triadic structure of Stesichorean lyrics allowed for novel arrangements of dactylic meter – the dominant meter in his poems and also the defining meter of Homeric epic – thus allowing for Homeric phrasing to be adapted to new settings. However, Stesichorus did more than recast the form of epic poetry – works such as the Palinode were also a recasting of epic material: in that version of the Trojan War, the combatants fought over a phantom Helen while the real Helen either stayed home or went to Egypt (see a summary below). The 'Lyric Age' of Greece was in part self-discovery and self-expression – as in the works of Alcaeus and Sappho – but a concern for heroic values and epic themes still endured:

Stesichorus'

citharodic narrative points to the simultaneous coexistence of different literary genres and currents in an age of great artistic energy and experimentation. It is one of the exciting qualities of early Greek culture that forms continue to evolve, but the old traditions still remain strong as points of stability and proud community, unifying but not suffocating. —Charles Segal.[61]

Style

The following description of the birthplace of the monster Geryon, preserved as a quote by the geographer Strabo,[62] is characteristic of the "descriptive fulness" of his style:[63]

σχεδὸν ἀντιπέρας κλεινᾶς Ἐρυθείας
<
                                              > Ταρτησ-
σοῦ ποταμοῦ παρὰ παγὰσ ἀπείρονας ἀρ-
γυρορίζους
ἐν κευθμῶνι πέτρας.[64]

A nineteenth century translation imaginatively fills in the gaps while communicating something of the richness of the language:

Where monster Geryon first beheld the light,
Famed Erytheia rises to the sight;
Born near th' unfathomed silver springs that gleam
'Mid caverned rocks, and feed
Tartessus' stream.[65]

See The Queen's Speech in the Lille fragment for more on Stesichorus's style.

An "Homeric" simile

The Homeric qualities of Stesichorus' poetry are demonstrated in a fragment of his poem Geryoneis describing the death of the monster Geryon. A scholiast writing in a margin on Hesiod's Theogony noted that Stesichorus gave the monster wings, six hands and six feet, whereas Hesiod himself had only described it as 'three-headed'.[66] yet Stesichorus adapted Homeric motifs to create a humanized portrait of the monster,[67] whose death in battle mirrors the death of Gorgythion in Homer's Iliad, translated here by Richmond Lattimore:

He bent drooping his head to one side, as a garden poppy
bends beneath the weight of its yield and the rains of springtime;" (Iliad 8.306-8)[68]

Homer here transforms Gorgythion's death in battle into a thing of beauty—the poppy has not wilted or died.[69] Stesichorus adapted the simile to restore Death's ugliness while still retaining the poignancy of the moment:[70]

Then Geryon rested his neck to one side
As might a poppy when it mars
The tenderness of its body shedding
Suddenly all of its petals... (Geryoneis)[71]

The mutual self-reflection of the two passages is part of the novel aesthetic experience that Stesichorus here puts into play.[72] The enduring freshness of his art, in spite of its epic traditions, is borne out by Ammianus Marcellinus in an anecdote about Socrates: happening to overhear, on the eve of his own execution, the rendition of a song of Stesichorus, the old philosopher asked to be taught it: "So that I may know something more when I depart from life."[73]

The 26 books

According to the Suda, the works of Stesichorus were collected in 26 books, but each of these was probably a long, narrative poem. The titles of more than half of them are recorded by ancient sources:[74]

Spurious works

Some poems were wrongly attributed to Stesichorus by ancient sources, including

Marmor Parium.[99]

Tabula Iliaca

Capitoline Museum. The stone monument features scenes from the fall of Troy, depicted in low relief, and an inscription: Ιλίου Πέρσις κατα Στησίχορον ('Sack of Troy according to Stesichorus').[100] Scholars are divided as to whether or not it accurately depicts incidents described by Stesichorus in his poem Sack of Troy. There is, for example, a scene showing Aeneas and his father Anchises departing 'for Hesperia' with 'sacred objects', which might have more to do with the poetry of Virgil than with that of Stesichorus.[101][102][103]

References

  1. ^ Charles Segal, "Archaic Choral Lyric" in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature, P. Easterling and B. Knox (eds.), Cambridge University Press (1985), page 186
  2. ^ D.A. Campbell (ed.), Greek Lyric Vol 3, Loeb Classical Library (1991) page 5
  3. ^ David Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classical Press (1982), page 253, reprinted from 1967 Macmillan edition
  4. ^ a b P.J. Parsons, "The Lille Stesichorus", Zeitschreift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik Vol. 26 (1977), pages 7–36
  5. ^ Charles Segal, "Archaic Choral Lyric" in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature, P. Easterling and B. Knox (eds.), Cambridge University Press (1985), page 187; Steve Reece, "Homeric Influence in Stesichorus' Nostoi," Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 25 (1988) 1-8.
  6. ^ C.M. Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry, Oxford University Press (1961), pages 119–26
  7. ^ Richard Jebb, Bacchylides: The poems and fragments Cambridge University Press (1905), page 32 Google digitalized version
  8. ^ "Stesichorus". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  9. ^ "Writers History - Stesichorus". writershistory.com. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14.
  10. ^ "Ooops! I can't find the page you're looking for". calabria.nu. Archived from the original on 2011-08-10. Retrieved 2012-09-13.
  11. .
  12. ^ "p.114-5. A History of Ancient Greek Literature". forgottenbooks.com. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14.
  13. ^ M.L.West, 'Stesichorus', The Classical Quarterly, New Series Vol.21, No.2 (Nov. 1971) page 302
  14. ^ Charles Segal, 'Archaic Choral Lyric' – P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 186-7
  15. ^ Campbell in Loeb page 3
  16. ^ Aristotle Rhet. 2.20.1393b, cited by David A.Campbell, Greek Lyric III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides and Others, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 39
  17. ^ Tzetzes Vit.Hes. 18, cited by David A.Campbell, Greek Lyric III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides and Others, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 33
  18. ^ Lucian Macr., cited by David A.Campbell, Greek Lyric III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides and Others, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 33
  19. ^ Hieronymus Epistles 52.3, David A.Campbell, Greek Lyric III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides and Others, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 33
  20. ^ Cicero Verr. 2.2.86, cited by David A.Campbell, Greek Lyric III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides and Others, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 45
  21. ^ Eusebius Chron., cited by David A.Campbell, Greek Lyric III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides and Others, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 31
  22. ^ Cambell, Loeb page 35
  23. ^ Tzetzes Vit.Hes. 18, cited by Campbell, Loeb page 35
  24. ^ Proclus Hes. Op. 271a, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 35
  25. ^ Cicero De Rep. 2.20, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 37
  26. ^ Jasper Griffin, "Greek Myth and Hesiod", J. Boardman, J. Griffin and O. Murray (eds), The Oxford History of the Classical World, Oxford University Press (1986), page 88
  27. ^ Charles Segal, "Archaic Choral Lyric" in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 191
  28. ^ Richard Lattimore translation, "Hesiod" Intro. pp. 5, The University of Michigan Press, 1959
  29. s.v.
    Μάταυρος, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 35
  30. ^ Plato Phaedrus 244a, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 37
  31. ^ Inscriptiones Graecae xiv 1213, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 37
  32. ^ Proclus in Euclid Prolog. 2, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 37
  33. ^ Richard Jebb, Bacchylides: The poems and fragments Cambridge Uni Press (1905), page 32
  34. ^ a b Charles Segal, 'Archaic Choral Lyric' – P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 191
  35. ^ G.O.Hutchinson, Greek Lyric Poetry: a commentary on selected larger pieces, Oxford University Press (2001), page 113
  36. ^ Charles Segal, 'Archaic Choral Lyric' – P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 186
  37. ^ G.O.Hutchinson, Greek Lyric Poetry: a commentary on selected larger pieces, Oxford University press (2001), page 115
  38. ^ Vibius Sequester, de fluminibus fontibus etc, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 181
  39. ^ Himerius Orationes 27.27, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 181
  40. ^ Pausanias 8.3.2, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 89
  41. ^ W.G.Forrest, A History of Sparta 950–192 BC, page 76, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 28, note 4
  42. ^ Aristotle Rhet. 2.21. 1394b-95a, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 39
  43. ^ Phildemus Mus. 1.30.31ss, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 41
  44. ^ Photius Lexicon, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 45
  45. ^ Pollux 9.100, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 43
  46. ^ a b Charles Segal, 'Archaic Choral Lyric' – P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 187
  47. ^ note 2 to Suda T 943, Campbell in Loeb page 49
  48. ^ Plato Phaedr. 243a, cited by Campbell in Loeb page 93
  49. ^ Sappho 16.6–10 and Alcaeus B 10 PLF, cited by Charles Segal, 'Archaic Choral Lyric' – P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 191
  50. ^ Isocrates Hel. 64, cited by Campbell in Loeb, page 93
  51. ^ Pausanias 3.19.11–13, cited by Campbell in Loeb, page 41 (Campbell's translation: "In the Black Sea off the mouths of the Danube there is an island called White Island...note: Actually off the estuary of the Dnieper.")
  52. ^ Anth.Pal. 2.125ss, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, pages 59
  53. ^ Plin.N.H.10.82, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 55
  54. ^ Quintilian Inst.10.1.62, cited by David Cambell, Loeb, pages 59
  55. ^ Dion.Hal.Imit.2.421, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, pages 55
  56. ^ Longinus de subl.13.3, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, pages 55
  57. ^ David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 4
  58. ^ Charles Segal, 'Archaic Choral Lyric' – P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 186, note 2
  59. ^ C.O.Pavese, Tradizione e generi poetici della Graecia arcaica, Rome (1972), cited by C.Segal, The Cambridge History of Greek Literature, page 187
  60. ^ M.L.West, 'Stesichorus', Classical Quarterly 21 (1971) pages 302–14, cited by D.Campbell in Greek Lyric III, page 5
  61. ^ a b Charles Segal, 'Archaic Choral Lyric' – P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 200
  62. ^ Strabo 3.2.11 = Stesichorus S7 = PMG 184.
  63. ^ Charles Segal, "Archaic Choral Lyric" in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature, P. Easterling and B. Knox (eds.), Cambridge University Press (1985), page 188
  64. ^ Stesichorus (S7 Loeb): D.A. Campbell (ed.), Greek Lyric Vol 3, Loeb Classical Library (1991) page 64
  65. ^ Sir Edward Bromhead, The Remains of Stesichorus in an English Version, (1849), page 11 Google digitalized version
  66. ^ Schol.Hes.Theog.287, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 89
  67. ^ Charles Segal, 'Archaic Choral Lyric' – P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 190, 194–95
  68. ^ Iliad 8.306-8, translated by Richmond Lattimore, The Iliad of Homer, University of Chicago Press (1951)
  69. ^ Susanne Lindgren Wofford, The Choice of Achilles: The Ideology of Figure in the Epic. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992.
  70. ^ Charles Segal, 'Archaic Choral Lyric' – P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 190
  71. ^ Geryoneis, P.Oxy.2617 fr.5, cited by D.Campbell, Greek Lyric III page 76
  72. ^ Richard Garner, From Homer to Tragedy: the art of allusion in Greek poetry, Routledge (1990), page 17
  73. ^ Amm.Marc.28.4.15, cited by D.Campbell, Greek Lyric III page 56
  74. ^ David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classical Press (1982), page 254
  75. ^ See M. Noussia-Fantuzzi in M. Fantuzzi and C. Tsagalis, eds., "The Epic Cycle and Its Ancient Reception," 2015; also P. J. Finglass and A. Kelly, eds. Stesichorus in Context, 2015.
  76. ^ Argum.Theocr.18, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 91
  77. ^ P.Oxy.2506 fr.26col.i, cited by David Cambell, Loeb, page 97
  78. ^ Dio Chrysostom Or.11.40s, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 95
  79. ^ Charles Segal, 'Archaic Choral Lyric' – P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 192
  80. ^ David Campbell, Loeb, pages 109, 119
  81. ^ a b Charles Segal, 'Archaic Choral Lyric' – P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 193
  82. ^ Iliad 12.310-280
  83. ^ Iliad 18
  84. ^ Iliad 22
  85. ^ Iliad 8.306-8.
  86. ^ Pollux 10.152, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 121
  87. ^ Schol.A.Pind.10.19, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 123
  88. ^ Schol.Ap.Rhod.4.825-31, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 133
  89. ^ David Campbell, Loeb, page 137
  90. ^ Anne Burnett, "Jocasta in the West: The Lille Stesichorus", Classical Antiquity Vol.7, No.2 (Oct 1988) page 107
  91. ^ Sextus Empiricus adv.mathem. 1.261, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 97
  92. ^ Schol.Eur.Phoen. 670, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 101
  93. ^ Ar.Pax 797ss, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 127
  94. ^ Schola.Vat. in Dion.Thrac. Art. 6, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 129
  95. ^ Athen. 3.95d, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 133
  96. ^ Zenobius vi 44, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 63
  97. ^ Athenaeus 4.172de, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 63
  98. ^ Et.Mag. 544.54, cited by David Campbell, Loeb, page 61
  99. ^ Marm.Par. Ep.50, cited by Charles Segal in 'Archaic Choral Lyric' page 192
  100. ^ I.G.14.1284
  101. ^ Zahra Newby, Art and Inscription in the Ancient World, Cambridge University Press (2006), Introduction
  102. ^ David A.Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 107
  103. ^ Charles Seagal, Archaic Choral Lyric, 'The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature', Cambridge University Press (1985), page 196, note 1

Further reading

  • Barrett, W. S., Greek Lyric, Tragedy, and Textual Criticism: Collected Papers, edited for publication by M. L. West (Oxford & New York, 2007)
  • Carson, Anne, Autobiography of Red. Modern retelling of Stesichoros' fragments.
  • Plato, Phaedrus.
  • M. Davies, Poetarum Melicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (PMGF) vol. 1, Oxford 1991: testimonies of his life and works pp. 134–151, fragments pp. 152–234 (previously D. L. Page, Poetae Melici Graeci (PMG), Oxford 1962, and Supplementum Lyricis Graecis (SLG), Oxford 1974).
  • D. A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides and Others (Loeb Classical Library).
  • G. O. Hutchinson
    , Greek Lyric Poetry: A Commentary on Selected Larger Pieces (Alcman, Stesichorus, Sappho, Alcaeus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides, Bacchylides, Pindar, Sophocles, Euripides), Oxford, 2001.
  • J. M. Edmonds, Lyra Graeca II, pp. 23 (Loeb Classical Library) Harvard University Press, 1958

External links