N. E"Ur"- fl+l o -H 6l^ru1_,o**^ {rnoderniry's reflexivity makes a break, nor only with pre-ceding eras, but with other cultures. Since reason provesunable to provide an ulrimate justification of itself^, therers no point pretending that this break does not resr on cul_tural commitment (and power). yet power does not in_evitably settle issues rhat arise as a resulr of the spread ofthe reflexivity of rnodernity, especially in so far ai modesof discursive argumenration become widely accepted and

_respe ctedlLTlEturwhrch rs constitutive of natural science, involves criteriathat override cultural differentiations. There is nothing"Western" about this if the commitment ro su.h

"rgulmentation, as a means of Igglyi{rxUs$ute.s, is forrhcom_ing. Who can ffitoweverilfi"itirnirc might be placedupon the spread of such commirmenr? For the rajicalis_ing of doubt is itself always subjecr ro doubt and thereforea principle that provokes stern resistance.

Co n c lu din g O b s eruatio n s

-

Let me attempt, in conclusion, a sumrnary of thethemes of this srudy. In the industrialised socieries aboveall, but to some e*t.nffie, *eTa'eenTereillf perioTb@e from irs

. f-'----moorings in the reassuEnce oFtraffion and in what wasfor a long while an anchored ,.vantage-point', (both- forthose on the "inside" and for others)-lire dominance olthe'v/est. Although its originarors loo{ed for certaintiesto replace preestablished dogmas, mofernity effecrively

those on the "inside" and for others)-lire dominance ofthe'v/est. Although its originarors loo{ed for certaintiesinvolves the institurionalisation of douit. Ali knsreled&e_13!IS'-rs-qq-ditiaot-"f *ud.u*i+y',,ry5oh.,"ogoo.[l.rr:tlhqggj{gfl9}bg1-.ry" has a differ{nt connoration inth.;"r*il-* .ornparJ ro the social

_r!i.n..r. l" if.r. f.r-

176r77

(_,2 --)/ / / .; ''\ 'r[ktLi1'{ // I (P{JT* ] /, t.t14--1 (ilmer, it concerns the fact that science ls purr: rnethocl, suchthat all substantive forms of ",rccepted kno'*'ledge" are iuprinciple open ro being discarded. "I'he r;ocial sciencespresume a ci'rcularity in a twofold senser which is consti-tutively fundamental ro modern institutions. The knowl-edge'claims they produce are allin principle i:evisablc, butalso become "revised" in a.plactical serrse as they circu-late in and out of the environrnenr they deseribe.

Moderniry is inherently globalising, anclrhe unsettlingconsequences of this phenom,:non cornbine with the eir-

\ cularity of its reflexive character ro l,orm rr universe ol:'r events in which risk and hazard take on a novel character.

The .globalising rendencies of modernity are simuha-

neously extensional and intensional--they connect indj-viduals to large-scale systems as part of cornplex dialec-tics of change at both local and global poles" Many of thephenomena often labeled as post-modcrn actually con-cern the experience of living in a world in rvhich pre,senceand absence mingle in hisrorically novel *ayr. hr.g.,,r,becomes emptied of conrcnr as rhe circulariry of moder-nity takes hold, and on a lateral level the amounr of dailyinward information'flor,v involved in living in ,.oncworld" can sometimes be overwhelrning. \tt this is motprimarily an expression c,f cultural fragmentarion or olthe dissolution of the subject into a "world of signs" wirh

Modernir| is inherently future-orienred, such thar rhe"future" has the statur'of counterfactual nrodeling. Al-though there are other reasorrs for cloirrg so, this is onefactor upon which I base the norion of ,irotri"n realisrn.Anticipations of the furure become part of rhe presenr,

(- no centre. It is a process of rrhe simultane,rus transfor-\ mation of subjectiyrg*q,d Si66al-soCihl,irganisirion,| ffimt atroub I ifr fB actd ; p .f iiieh:;oni.,l *n i" I G r* r.

--ti/I

I

:/ ."

lGl"rxl!' ', ''1{ \il']lt\ /

I "'*-'

,.a.' - ]{A J

,/ ,-s i

A HISTORY o{G RE E K

LITERATTJREfrom Hctmer to

the Hellenistic Period

EI Albrecht Dihle

,\GLI

---

HISTORY ofRE E KTERATIJRE

This is *re most up-to-date history ofGreek literature from its Homeric origins tothe age of Augustus. Greek literaryproducrion throughout this period of someeight cenruries is embedded in its historicaland social context. This history seesliterarure as a historical phenomenon, aparricular mode of linguistic communicarion,rvith its specific forms developing both in anorganic way and in response to the changingrvorld around. In this it differs fromconventional humanist approaches to Greekand l-atin literature which analyse the worksas objects of timeless value independent ofanv historical setting or purpose.

A History of Greek Lircratureis amagisterial survey by one of the leadingEuropean authorities on classical literature.It will establish itself, as it already has inGermany, as the standard account ofthe subject.

The bibliography has been especially revisedfor the use ofEnglish-speaking readers.

g\

:: ':

AHISTORY OF

LITE,RATFrom Flomer to the Hellenistic Period

Albrecbt Dibletranslated byClare Krojil

HI

GREE,KURE

London and Ncw York

First published by C.H. Beck'scheVerlagsbuchhandlung 1991

First published in English tll4by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EESimuitaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge29 \West 35th Street, New York, Ny 1OOO1

O 1991 C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, MunichTranslation @ 1994 Routledge

Typeset in Garamond byPonting-Green'Publishing Services, ihesham, Bucks

Printed and bound in Great Britain byTJ Press (Padstow) Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

All rights reserved. No part of this book may bereprinted or reproduced or utilized,in any form or by

any electronic, mechanical, or other means, nowknown or hereafter invenred, including photocopying

and recording, or in any storage or informatibnretrieval sysrem, without permission in writing

from the publishers.Britisb Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available fromthe British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataDihle, Albrecht.

[Griechische Literaturgeschichte. EnglishlHistory of Greek literature: from Homer ro"thc Flcllcnistic

Period / Albrecht Dihle.D. Cm,

Includes bibliographical references and indcx.1. Greek literature-History and criticism. I. Titlc.

PA30s7.Ds13 1994880.9-dc20 93-45284

ISBN 0-41s_08620_5

CONTE,N'TS

l'reface

Part I Archaic literature'I'HE BEGINNINGS AND THE EARLY EPIC POEM'I'HE EARLIEST NON-EPIC POETRYI.]ARLY PROSEI,ATE ARCHAIC POETRYI'I {ILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE

Part I[ Classical literature of the fifth century ncAI]SCHYLUS AND THE BEGINNINGS OF TRAGEDYSOPHOCLES AND EURIPIDESOLD COMEDYI'I {ILOSOPHY, RHETORIC AND SCIENCEI II]RODOTUS AND THUCYDIDES

Part III Classical literature of the fourth century BcSOCRATES AND SOCRATIC THOUGHTI'I,ATO, ARISTOTLE AND THEIR SCHOOLS

IIETORICI ] NTERTAINMENT LITERATURE, FACTUALI I'I'ERATURE AND HISTORIOGRAPHYI'OI]TRY

vlt

3

30

57

64

82

li

Ir)

9l109

133

143

158

tlI'llrl

173

180

203

21s

223

1,6

l718

19

20

21.

22

23

24

25

CONTENTSPart IV Hellenistic literature

HELLENISM AND ITS PHILOSOPHYDRAMATIC POETRYCALLIMACHUS AND LYRIC POETRYAPOLLONIUS RHODIUS AND EPIC POETRYTHEOCRITUS AND BUCOLIC POETRYTHE EPIGRAMSPECIALIST PROSE AND RHETORICHISTORIOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHYENTERTAINMENT LITERATURE

JE\TISH LITERATURE

EpilogweBibliograpbyInd.ex

231

249

256

266

272

277

281

289

299

304

312315327

PREFACE

,\ r ! .r r ( nrpt will be made in the pages that follow to give an account of the mostrrup.rr.urt cvents in Greek literature from its beginnings up to the age of,\rr1'rrsrrrs.'fl-re reasons for this time-span will hopefully become clear fromrlr' .rr ( ()unt itself, and will be further discussed in the Epilogue.

l'1,r., l,ook is concerned with literary history in the conventional sense, i.e.,. rrlr l,orlr thc historical circumstances in which specific opportunities forlrrrl rrrrrit rrnd literary communication were discovered and implemented,,',,1 rlr,' ('nrcrgence, development and repercussions of literary forms. These,,lr1r'r rrvt's slrould explain the endeavour to examine linguistic works of art,, . l.r r .rs 1't,ssiblc in terms of their wider historical background.

',,, l.r rlrc lnost concerted efforts to come to terms with Greek literature,l rr, l r.nr r hc humanist tradition. This way of thinking about and looking atlir, | ,,ur t' lirst rnanifested itself in the intellectual life of the Imperial Roman1,, ,r,,,1, irr tlrc :rttention paid to Classical Greek and Roman works. Later it,1.,, l,,,.rrrt' thc established approach in fifteenth- and sixteenth-centurylr, ,r.rr., ,.urt t' Iiurope. It is characterised by a tendency to deal with individual!rr,r.rr\ ru,,r'ksof xrttosomedegreeinisolation,viewingthemprimarilyas,l',' rlrrr( rtrs.tl sl'rccific moral and aesthetic values which are acknowledged as,,',lr'.t,, rr..rlrlcbytheobserver.Forthisapproach,thehistoricalbackgroundto'

.. ,

" l! ,r.ry Irc intcrcsting, but is not important for evaluating the work itself.

I lr, l.r, | | lrilr ()Lrr own civilisation -

and by no means solely the literary and1,1,,1,,.,'1,1rit.rIsplrcrcs haslargelybeenshapedbythevaluesof thishumanist. r,lrrr'rr rrr,rkt'sit rnorcthanlegitimatetoseekadeeperunderstandingof its'

,, , , !r l, 'u n(l.rri()ns :rs prrrt c,f our inquiry into the nature of humanism. Every

i , i,, r ,rr, 'rr irr (lrc lrrst ccntLlry has supplied examples of how such inquiry can

i,',,,r., l,,rrlr llr'slr irrsights into tlrc nature of Greek literature, thus demon-rr rrr!rl, rrr,,';t lortilrly thccrrtlurirrgfrr-ritfr-rlncssof thistradition.Scholarsand,"',r,rr,,.rlrl,, t,rnstillgrrirrrlsnr:ulyircsthctic,rncl rnoral insightsbyexamining,',,,1'l',,, lr'.rrr {r,r1',ctly torlrry ils tlr('y could rr hurrrlrccl ()r two hundrcd years.i,' Ilr, ,, rrrsililrls,rrc v,rlrr,rlrlt'irt.tsntttclt:ls tllcy crrrich thc disccrrttt-rcrtt of,. ,,1,,, .r,r,l .rtr.lit'rr,cs witlr n('w l)('r'sl)('('tivt's or.lrt'i11lrtt'rrctl irrtcrrsity, tlrtrs,!r' ,, r'.rnl,, tlicir r.rp.tt ily lo l,ttt'intt'llt't'trl,tl t lr,tllt'rr1',t's.

T6

1.7

18

t920

21

22

23

24

25

(r()NllNlsPart IV I lcllclristic litcrnturc

F{ET,LENISM AND I'fS PFIILOSOPF{YDRAMATIC POETRYCALLIMACHUS AND LYRIC POETRYAPOLLONIUS RHODIUS AND EPIC POETRYTHEOCRITUS AND BUCOLIC POETRYTHE EPIGRAMSPECIALIST PROSE AND RHETORICHISTORIOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHYENTERTAINMENT LITERATURE

JE\TISH LITERATURE

EpilogweBibliograpbyIndex

231

249

256

266

272

277

281,

289

299

304

3',t2315327

PREFACE

.1 n lr.rrrpl willhcrn,rclcinthepagesthatfollowtogiveanaccountof themostlrrl,',rr.urr ('v('nts irr Greek literature from its beginnings up to the age of.1 rr1,rrrru..'l'lrc lcas()ns for this time-span will hopefully become clear fromI lr, r, , ,,rrrrt itscll, and will be further discussed in the Epilogue.

I lr,, l,r't,li is conccrned with literary history in the conventional sense, i'e.'.

rrlr lr,rlr tlrc lristorical circumstances in which specific opportunities forlrrr1.rrr,,rr. .rrrrl litcr:rry communication were discovered and implemented',r,,1 rlr, ('nr('r'gcncc, development and repercussions of literary forms. These,lr;rr rrvt's slrould cxplain the endeavour to examine linguistic works of art,r , I rr .r,, 1,,,ssilrlc in terms of their wider historical background.

',,, l.rr tlrt' nl()st concerted efforts to come to terms with Greek literature,lrr, lr,,rn llrr'hurnanist tradition. This way of thinking about and looking atlrr, r rrrrc lirst rnanifested itself in the intellectual life of the Imperial Roman1,,,r,',1, nr tlr('rrttcrltion paid to Classical Greek and Roman works. Later it.'1.,, l,,,.rrrrt' thc cstablished approach in fifteenth- and sixteenth-centurylr, rr

'.,,,.ur( (' Iruropc. It is characterised by a tendency to deal with individuall,r, r il \' w,,r'ks of xrt to some degree in isolation, viewing them primarily as,1", ,r!r( rls ,rl's1'rccific moral and aesthetic values which are acknowledged as,,,,1r.,1,, 115,11.,1cbytheobserver.Forthisapproach,thehistoricalbackgroundto, .' ,,r I rn.ry bc interesting, but is not important for evaluating the work itself'

I lr, l.rr'l tlrirt ()ur own civilisation -

and by no means solely the literary and1,l,rl,,...1,lric:rl sphcrcs - has largely been shaped by thevalues of this humanistrrr,lrrrr'nnr;rl(csitmorethanlegitimatetoseekadeeperunderstandingof itsr

. r , , l, l.r rrrtl:rtions as part of our inquiry into the nature of humanism. Everyi , ,' | .rr,,,rr irr thc lirst ccntury has supplied examples of how such inquiry can1,,,,r1. l'rtlr l'r'csh insights into the nature of Greek literature, thus demon-

, r r r r , .l, r r r, rs t l'orc ibly thc cr.rclu ring fruitfulness of this tradition. Scholars and,,, r r r { r n s .r l i lic cirn still gai n :rs rnany acsthetic and moral insights by examining, ',,'1,1,,,, |r.'.ur tragccly toclly as thcy coulcl a hundred or two hundred years,r ,, llrtst'irrsiglrts arc virlu,rblc in,rsrnuch as tl'rcy enrich the discernment o{r' rrl, ri ,rntl ,rrrtlicnccs witlr n('w l)crsl)cctivcs or hcightcncd intensity, thus!,ri | ( .r\r)l' tlrt'ir t,rprrt'ity lo l:tt't' irttcllt'ctttirl clrallclrgcs.

vii

l'lU lrA( |l l lt,ts rtttttt' t ltt' lt'ss lrt'r'tr gt'ttt't,rlly ,ryr1r.u t'rrt sirrt't' r lrt' nirrt.rr.t.rrl lr t t,rrt rrr.y :rr

lc:rst tlr:tt wlrilt' tlrc (:()rrstr'r.rcl ivc irrsiglrls grrinctl irr tlrc rnrrrurcr tlc,scrilrt.tl alrovcirnd thc notions :rbout thc n;rtlrrc of (lrcck trirgccly th:rt clcrivc lrorrr thcln

-

are valid in the scnsc indicatcd, thcy havc littlc to do cither with what Greektragedy was about in the fifth century nc, or with the intenrions of their poers.It therefore behoves scholars concerned with examining the great works ofGreek literature as a fountainhead of our own humanist-oriented civilisation-

while on the other hand remaining cognisant of the potential inherent ininvestigating historical facts

- ro test their convictions continuously against

the results .f historical inquiry. The failure to do so, for fear of jeoparJisingone's own convicrions, leads scholars to a perpetual sacrificiwm intellectws,as no few exponents of neo-humanism of various shades have indeed shown,and continue to show. Alternatively, where scholars attempt to dispense withthe values upheld by tradition, with the aim of focusing on ancienitexrs in anunhamper_ed way, their inquiry is left devoid of direction, since this approachremoves all incentive to broach the question posed by the ancient te*l insof".as the scholar is correlating its newly interpreted message with his or her ownvalues and those laid down by tradition.

Fresh access to the foundations of our own civilisation is thus nowadaysonly available to scholars prepared to meer two conditions: firstly, to takeseriously the tradition relating to the objects of inquiry,

"nd t"ke it intoaccount when formulating questions; secondly, the willingness, based onnewly acquired insights, to correcr or modify the traditional values under-pinning inquiries

- in other words not ro be cavalier with the capacity of the

intellect to free itself from traditional criteria, or modifv their vaiiditv.Scholars have admittedly long been aware th^t i cherished *irinr"r-

pretation of ancient achievements, derived from the perceprions and exigenciesof a subsequent epoch, has proved a thousand times ovei in human hisiory tobe a catalyst for intellectual growth. The history of literary genres acrossthe boundaries between ages, languages and peoples, for e*ample, is a stringof such productive misunderstandings. In reality, however, only naive mislunderstandings of this kind are productive

- those whose emergence has

not entailed a deliberate neglect of existing possibilities for verifi"cation inthe epoch concerned. since the nineteenth cenrury, when history was trulydiscovered, and the dramatic increase in opportunities for interpreting docu-ments in terms of their specific historical context, this naivety displayed whendealing with ancient literary documents has become a matter foi concern..

Taking seriousiy the humanist tradition and its values, and examining thedocuments on which it is based in terms of those values, while at the same rimenot skirting the issue of the historical background to particular works of arr,is no easy task. It places severe demands principally on inteliectual integrity,and grows no easier as research advances. on the other hand, a rich panoramaof all ancient culture has gradually been ope'ed up, and co'comirantly, anever more complicated background of historical

- which irlplies unique in

vil|IX

l'l(llA( |.' 1,, i., (.ut\(.5, t.llt.tls.rrr,l t.,,rrtlilit,rrs lr,rs l,t.r.rr rrrr,.,,v,,r.,.l,tt,..tirrst wlri,lr=;,,, rlr, 'lr,( unr(.lt\ rr,.t.,l 1,,l,c l,,,,kr,.l ,rt. Wlrrl,.tlr,,Irr,,,.t,rr,l..l,,,,,lr. tlrt.rr,riv.,::,.rr,,rr,,l tlrr..rltrr,lrrrt.ly tirrrt.lt,ss, rrot.rrr.rlivt.v,rlitlir.y ol tlrc gr.r.,rr r.l,rssics, it;"

' 11111 l' "'.tlt,tlrililrligltrswillrl:rr gr'(':lt('r'clrrlityarrtl suIrtlctytlrcir-r.clcvirrrt.t,l"' l'11111.111 r lvrlis.tti.lt ,t tclcv;rncc tlr,rt l;u' tllursccnds tlrc ..rp-,cctiuc c1.r1r(.115

"' ' ltr' lr tlr''t rvt't't' wt-iltctt .rs wcll as l-rrcilitrrt.irrg an urrclcrstlrrclirrg trl thc.

rr r,lrrr,,rr" r. rvlrir'lr rlrt.y g,rvc risc. As historic:al ich.rlarshilr,rclv,r,rf"r, thcr"' rr rrr "l rr'lr.rr is rt'crr ,ls ;rnr)()rtnnt or potcrrtiaily i,r'1',.,rt.t,,t irr ;rrrcicrrr

''tlrrtr' r",r'|rr',l.ttrllylrcirrgcxpanclcdandcr-rricl-rcd. Itissufhcicnttrccall t5cl,r, 1 1s111, ,,1 rlrt Arclr.ric.cl'r.ch, forcxample, which has only rcce'tly co'rc r()l" rr'r,r( { r.rr('(l .rs :r tcstirr()r.ry t. human civilisation in its own .igit, rothc,rl'rrrrr'r,'l\'.rrirrt.rrrplctcprcparatorystageprecedingtheclassical.

ll,r'. l,,r,rk rrr.rlit's r() attcmpt to offer a synthesis of the historical andl,,rrrrrrr"r r)('tsr)('('rivcs. It limits itself to the historical viewpoint, since thc!!!."1, r rt r,'.r,lt'r, slr:rpcd lry thc prevalent forces in modern iniellectual life, ist,,"r, r, { u:r()nr('(l t() sccking a descriptive and normative accommodation of'r,rr, rr,rl, rlrt'rt'l.r.t' lrcing particularly in need of aids to understanding that'l,rr', lr,rrr.r lrisr.r'ical treatmentof it.Thefactthatsuchastudyisbasedon: lrrrrrr.rrr',r I'rt't.rrccption,i.e.apositivepresuppositionaboutthevalueof the',1,1,, r rr.ril('r, slroulcl not be concealed, any more than the hope that as itrr"' ' ' (l\ rlrr',rt'c.ur.rt will confirm the correctness of thatpresupposition,

'\ 1,, ',,1i srt lr rrs this is intended to facilitare rarher than take ?he place of

,, 1,lrrr1'(,rt't'li, P.ctr-yandproseworks-eitherintheoriginalorintranslation.| "r rlrr" r(.rs(). thc nurnber of specimen texts has be.n*kept to a minimum,,1r1r,,111'11 rlrt'st'crrr.rr1'rbe_dispensedwithentirelywherethemodeof thoughii r,' | . \ r, r ,'ssi. rr .l' thc author in question is particularly far removed from Jur"'r,r. .r', is rlrt'crrsc notably with Archaic literature. Greek literature of the' | ,'",r, .rl ,rrrtl P.sr-classical periods is marked by such a degree of continuity'' r r lr r lrt lirt'r ,rry.:r.d p.hilosophical conventions of Europe ] via the Rom".rs,' lllr',lr.rri(y ,rlrd the humanist tradition

- that it is relatively rare for the

rrr,',lr'rr r,'.rtlcr to encounter barriers to understanding thai can only be" ' "

{'rr(' cxclusivcly by means of historical ,"ser.ch]In the reading of\r' lr'rrr lt'xts, lr.wever, such barriers are commonplace. since the m"ajo.l,'rrrrrl.rri,,rrs.l r'.clernintellectuallifewerestillbeinglaidduringtheArchaic, l"', l': rvltct'c:ts thcy were alryad1, in place by the Classical and p"ost-Classicals', r r,,ql';, ,.rr''Lrnication with Thucydides or piato in the mojern era posesl'

" , r ,lrsr rlclcs thi,r' one. might expect, given the time gap involved. To put it

'i,{'.r lr( r *,ry, thc obstacles wc cncount;r to our u.rdeistnding reside in the1rl'rr(rr.r.rr.rcr.bcingdiscussccl .rthcsubtletyofspeculatiorrjo.rtit,rather

rl, rrr rrr rlrc itliosyncrlsics of thcir historic"l .Lrrr.*,.llr, Ililrli.g'aplryrrtthccrrcl ofthcb.okhasbccnkeptasbriefaspossible,I'r'rrtl'lrt't'trcorrrPilccl solclywitlrthc,rirnofirssistingintercstednon-specialists"r ''rrrtl(rrlsirrlrrpitl ot'it'ttl:ttiorrollirrtlirrg,n,rr., ,lct,tilcclinformatior-rrr-rorrao.,,r lr, t ,,p1'1 itrlist lr;ctr.

PREFACE

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITIONFor the new edition of this short history of literature additions and modifi-cations have been made to the text at certain points, while the Bibliographyhas been thoroughly revised to bring it in line with advances made in Classicalstudies during the last decade. The author would like to thank the editors ofthe first edition for correcting numerous errors and oversights. It onlyremains for me to express my indebtedness to Albin Lesky for his valuablecomments, communicated by letter, over and above his editing suggestions.

Part IARCHAIC

LITERATURE

'I'I IL, BL,GINNINGS AND'I'HE, EARLY EPIC POEM

ll,, r,. lr,rs lrccn a nccd felt since the very earliest times to stylise verbalrr, r.rn((.s r'()lrtilining a meaning that transcends the specifically everydayr,nlr,\t 'l'lrisisrrccomplishedbyemployingrhythmicandtonalcounterparts,,ri,ll,r,,listirrguishingiuchutterancesfromeverydayspeechwiththeaidof a.,1,,, ,.,llv sr'lt'r'tccl u,r.nb.tl"ty. Inthisway'theinvocationof gods,magicspells,r, , , ,l n t:, ,,1 rrrcrnorable events and the formulation of a personal exPerience or,,1 , r.rltsrrr.rrrshil.r skills are all made easier to memorise) as well as beinglrrlr r\\.t.tl tlrror.rgh their very outward form with greater force than the casuallI r. | .r I r( ,.s .

'l cvcryday life. Virtually every nation can be shown to possess theil,,, r, r r rt.rrr iorrccl" dispositions towards a literature, arising as they do out ofrlr. .1..1)lr,rli()n t() cloihe significant utterances that afe worth being handed,1,,,. rr ur .r lorrrt that is appropriate to circumstances.

\\', rt.rrrI ro:rssociatetheword'literature'withthenotionofawrittenform,l,rrr rlr,..ut ol vcrbal stylisation connected with significant utterances can.1, ,rlr .rlr.rirr a higl-r standard of accomplishment without the sociery in,lirr ,.trorr n(.((.ss:lrily having a written language at its disposal. Conversely, itlrr, rl..r,1,,..'rrslrownthatthewritingsystemsofancientorexoticpeopleswere1, 1 r r, r r r rt',u rs,r l w,rys used, or even devised, for literary purposes. In many cases| 1,, \ \\.(.r,. ,l,,v.,l,rpcd in the first instance to facilitate trade and administration,,, .r, lr r.r,;ks :rs tlr,rwing up inventories and similar documents.

\\ lr, rr', lror'vcvcq a writing system is indeed used to record literary texts,r 1,, , lr.r., rrr.r jol r.e pcrcussions for the art of language. Fresh Potential arises forl,,,,,irrr1,(l()wn tcxts, for literary reference to earlierworks, for the arrange-,,,,rrr ,rl ',rrlrittr nrilttcrandforimpartinglanguageskills.Oneof theunique1r|,rl'r||(,,,,1 (,r'ccklitcrature,indeed,isthefactthatthetwoearliestknown,,,rrIrr \\'r,rlrs,wlricltforvarit'rusrcasonsexertedaninfluenceonsubsequent,1,.,l,,l,rn,.nrs tlrrit ct5 scarccly be overestimated, both date from the,,,,,.,rr,,rr l,t'r'iotl lrctwccrt oral tnd written Poetry. This holds good-not,,,,,,lr rrrtlrt.rncclrrrnicrrl scnsctlratthcyrcpresentthefirstwrittenrecordsof.. , ,, l, ., lrr,t lr t .rrrp.sqrl ,rrr.l lr:rrrrlccl clown in oral form. They in fact document,1,, ,r'., ,rl :t1, lisli,. rlt'viccs (lt;rt wcrc originally invented for oral PurPoses'!,t 1,,., rr \ ( ()1rl)()s('(l irr wlitrcrt l,,r'rtr, bttt intcndcd for oral per{ormance.

/\l(( llAl( I ill l(/\illl(l'l'lrt'st',l,,t tttll('nls llttts l't nr,trr irtst'lt,rr,rlrlt't

'rrrP.srri,rr.rl rrrrity witlr 1,rrrt'ly()f:ll l)()ctr'_y.In this vcry spccific scnsc, tl)crclor-c, 1hc two rn:rj.r cxt.lnr cl)ic l)()cnls,

thc Iliad and thc Odysscy, documcnt thc cmcrgcncc ()f l;tcr:rrurc in a wryunmatched by any other extant work in world literarure. More than this,they represent the earliest and perhaps most impressive records depictingthe Greek world and its people, as well as the threshold to a long literarytradition in which authors were to have recourse to them again and again asadmired models.

The historical preconditions that led up to the emergence of Greek epicpoetry are briefly as follows: the first Greek-speaking tribes to migrate intothe Balkan peninsula in the period around 2000 ec were very soon influencedin their new homeland by an advanced pre-Greek civilisation centred on thewealthy palaces of Crete. This highly distinctive culrure, which was incommunication with both the Greek mainland and Egypt by virtue of itsvigorous maritime commercial traffic, was to live on in later Greek tradition inthe legends about King Minos of Knossos. It is for this reason that archaeol-ogists, excavating Cretan palaces since the beginning of the twentieth century,tend to refer to it as the Minoan civilisation. Under this influence, the Greekshad developed an advanced culture by the middle of the second millenniumnc. Despite adopting countless details from Crete in rerms of mores, dress,technology and religion, among other spheres, it differed in a number ofsubstantial respects from its Cretan archetype. The palaces of Crete, forexample, are open edifices, evincing a sophisticated capacity for the enjoymentof life. The seats of the rising early Greek state, on the other hand, are defiant,massive strongholds.

By the middle of the second millennium BC, the Greeks seem to have gainedhegemony over previous cultural centres. They continued the commercialactivity of their Minoan predecessors, cultivating iinks with Syria, Egypt,Sicily and Spain, founding colonies on the Aegean islands, as well as on rhemainland of Asia Minor.

Greek acquisitions from the Cretans included a writing system that theyadapted to suit their language. This system has been successfully deciphered:the texts

- clay tablets documenting lists of tribute and similar material

-

provide insight into the make-up of the state and society. Theirs was astate system and society rigidly structured along hierarchical lines, with anextensive bureaucracy and highly advanced military organisation

- a fitting

counterpart to the monarchies in power in the Near East and Egypt at thattime. This culture was highly homogeneous throughout Greece, and has leftpalpable archaeological relics in the form of strongholds, sewage systems,ostentatious tombs and other such monuments. Its main centres were in thefertile plains of Messenia and Laconia, on Aegina and in Athens, Boeotia andThessaly, as well as on the Ionian islands. The most impressive of all itscultural ccntres, lrowcvcr, was locltcr.I in thc Argolis whcrc, to this clay, thc

'l'lll lll(;lNNlN(;',,,\Nl) llll li\l(l\ ll'l( l'()l l\l,r,r'.',r\( rv,rlls,,l 'l'ir 1'rrs,rrr,l My( ( n.r('l)(,rt wrln(:,:, lo tltt l'lot 1',tl llrt',r1it'. ll rr;r{,r In()wrr '"vlrt'tlrt'r tlrt' tlylr.rsl]' t. ti,l.'rtl irr M yt t'rr,tt' t'xt'tcist'tl ltt'g.'rtt,ttty,,r, r tlrt'r

Al{( ilAt| | t'|l,t(A't'llt|,stttttltltt'tl tl,ry vt'sst'ls ol tlt:tt tirrrt'. [.Jrrlikt'tlrt'v;rriorrs rlistlir'ts,lrrlirrg rlrr.Myccttrrc:rtt crit, itt tlris pcriocl tlrcrc wrrs corrsiclcrir[rlc tlivclgcrrcc:urr()r]llmatcri:rl cultLlrcs, which nray bc attributcd to thcir disrinctly scpirr:rrc ways oflife. Similarly, links with the non-Greek world wcrc far ,r-,o.. ii,trit..l than inthe Mycenaean period. It was the Phoenicians who carried on rhe heritage ofthe Mycenaeans as the leading trading narion of the eastern Medirerranean,and it was from them that the Greeks took their script, adapting it to their ownlanguage, at the end of this 'dark age', some time in the mid-eighrh century BC.The writing skill utilised by the Mycenaean authorities, and possibly masteredby no more than a handful of professional scribes, had disappeared with thedestruction of their strongholds.

The Greeks of this 'dark age' none the less conrinued to recall the gloriousMycenaean age: the massive walls of the abandoned strongholds were therefor all to see. The cult of the dead persisted for centuries ar a number of royalburial places, while many a noble dynasty rightly or wrongly traced its originsback to those who had once reigned in the great strongholds. such recollectionof the magnificent past was particul arly actlve among Greeks who had founda new home in Asia Minor. Precisely because the land in which they hadsettled was devoid of all traces of Mycenaean histor/, they felt the need for thiscultivation of a verbal tradition. A typical colonial people in this regard, theywere able to deal with that tradition with greater intellectual agility than theGreeks of the mother counrry.

None the less, it was through the medium of oral epic poetry thatinformation about this long-lost glory was formed into a garland of myths,which even today has lost none of its attractive force, and which continues tosupply European literature with motifs, metaphors and symbols.

Oral heroic poetry exists or has existed among many peoples. Our under-standing of Homeric poetry has been greaiy enhanced by the Austrianscholar Murko and the American scholar Milman Parry. who have madedetailed studies of the oral poetry of south Slavonic Muslims, which wasstill a living tradition until very recently. The preconditions and strucruralelements of oral epic poetry may be described roughly as follows.

In a society of largely aristocratic make-up, and above all among its leadingfamilies, there is a need to keep alive the memory of forefathers and theirdeeds. This helps to bolster both their own privileged position and the sysremof values associated with it. In other forms of society, a sense of history of thiskind is linked more with such social institutions as the believing community,the nation or class. Leisure time is thus pleasurably taken r'rp *ith listeningagain and again to accounts of the deeds of forefathers, already highly familiarin outline. The more often they are repeated, the better it is to hear them frompeople who are outstanding for their powers of recollection, their crearivegenius and their elegance of speech. This earliest class of intellectuals'thusfound itself responsible for the technical perfection of these accounrs. overthe course of generations, this work produced a poetry, often accompanied by

't'ilt |il (;lNNlN(;s ANI)'l l|t t,Alil .l' I t'l( t,()1,61tttttsi..I)rrrirrli lltisltt,rtcss,,tt.tlt'1ti, l)()('lry w,rs,rl,lt'to

AIi( llAl( I lll l(Allll(ltlcs..r'ilrctl lry tlrt. ilrrplovisilrg l)()('l usinli st'l lollttttl,ts, wlrit lr ll)ily ( ()llll)lrs('()uc ()r scvcrrrl vcrscs. ()vcrall, thclclor-c, it rrriry bc,rsscrtctl tlr:rt strclr:r [)()cl-composcs his or lrcr work of art from formulas r;lthcr thrln words irs such. Allthis applies to extant Homeric poetry, whose total of 28,000 verses c.rntain atleast 25,000 {ormulas, and which by comparison display few features suggest-ing a written conception of the relevant passages.

It -"y be stated with some certainty that oral epic poetry of the kind

described above already existed in the Mycenaean period. Book 10 of theIliad, for example, describes through the devices of epic language a helmetwhich according to current (archaeological) knowledge of the era had alreadyfallen into disuse by the end of the Mycenaean period, hence prior to the finalcatastrophe. The Greeks - or the Achaeans, as they are called in the lliad,written t.fo.e the name Hellenes became a generic term - are denoted by theepithet 'those with the good greaves'. This relates to the fact that throughoutthe Mediterranean world of the second millennium BC greaves were an item ofarmour known solely in Greece, whereas by the first millennium they hadbecome indispensable for heavily armed men everywhere. Similarly, a numberof locations mentioned in the lliad and the Odyssey, verifiable from thedescriptions given, bear names which were unknown to the Greeks of thehistorical age, and which must, therefore, derive from Mycenaean names.

A study of Homeric language is similarly instructive. scholars have longbee.r

"*aie that this poetry was written in a synthetic language that had never

been spoken, combining elemenrs which never appeared side by side in anyhistoriially demonstrable dialect. Homeric Greek is closest, if anything, to theIonic dialecq to this may be added the fact that diverse traditions tell of aparticularly active cultivation of epic poetry in the Ionian colonial iands inAsia Minor and its offshore islands.

Nevertheless, so deeply embedded in the Ionic fund of poetry that itsvarious layers are impossible to separate, are elements that were formerlyrermed Aeolic, denoting a stage in the development of epic poetry that can belocated in the north-west Anatolian colonial region. Nowadays, however,there is an increasing tendency to regard these elements as archaisms,components from Mycenaean Greek which preceded the process of dialectdifferentiation after the great wave of migration.

The picture that emerges from all this is of a history of oral epic poetry inwhich a shift took place from the princely courts of the Mycenaean period tothe noble courts and rising towns of Ionian and Aeolian emigrants to AsiaMinor, culminating in the first written records of oral compositions some timeafter the adoption of the Phoenician alphabet'

The history of oral epic poetry may also be traced on the basis of otherdetails. Poets were very fond of illustrating the mood of key scenes in theiraccounts by means of extensive similes. Thus, whereas the heroes themselveslived and moved in a world in which, as in the Mycenaean culture, only bronzcwas known, thcsc similcs contain rcfcrcnccs to iron, which did not cornc int()

llll ltl (,lNNIN('\ ANI) llll l Alil \ | l'l{ l'()l l\lr,,(.until.rltt.rtlr

/\l(( ll,,\li I rlr tiAl'Itils(,rll Irtrorrrirrg, tlrc lrrolt'ssiorr,tl synll)()l ,rl tlrt'w,rrr

At(( ilAt( | l|l t{Ailrt{t.lttc'clt,ttticltl r'ollt'r'tiorr ol st'P;tt.:ttt', nlutuitlly (rnc()nn('ct('(l sorrgs, Irtrt lrssurrrcsinstcr-rd a scrics of cpic p()cllrs, sul).icctc(l to lrcslr rrd:rptrrtions lrrcl ct,rrt.rnrinations, rcsulting in thc tcxts now at our disposal. tly thc sarrc t()kcll, n()unitarian would now deny the subsequent insertion of ccrtain passages orverse groups into an overall context which can nevertheless be interpreted asnomogeneous.

Since the discovery of the essential characteristics of oral poetry, the overallfocus of this problem has in fact shifted, its traditional formulation havingbeen shown to be inadequate. The processes involved between the livingpractice of oral poetry and the writing down of those rexrs which are availableto us are far too complex to be completely clarified using traditional methodsof interpretation, developed for use with texts conceived in written form. Theprofound differences in style demonstrated by V. H. Friedrich (1955) onthe smallest scale within epic narrative are sufficient proof that further studywill be required before scholars learn to distinguish with any certaintybetween, for example, the written form of oral poetry, written conception inoral form, and oral form adapted for a written version. This will be necessary,however, before analysis of the narrative context produces any fresh insights.The incomparable sophistication of the storehouse of formulas in Greekcompared to other oral poetry traditions makes it highly likely that evenbefore the use of the written form the composition of verse narratives wassubject to rigorous standards, and that the orally composed 'original' Iliadwas even then a lengthy and complex piece of narrative.

It may be added that there is most unlikely to have been a prolonged periodof written epic poetry retaining the strict rules of oral formulation, such as isevinced by lengthy passages of the Iliad. Poets with writing at their disposalfor the conception of their poems would be more inclined to proceed bycomposing poetry from words rather than formulas, no longer adhering tothe mnemotechnical convention of using a single expression for a specific pointin the verse, likewise avoiding all metrical and semantic parallel expressions.For poets composing with the aid of writing, the form of the oral epic poemprovides no more than a model, not the binding rules of their diction.

\[ith regard to the documented use of writing among the Greeks from thelate eighth century BC onwards, howeveE it is difficult to reconcile ourknowledge of the earliest writing techniques with the idea of lengthy textsbeing written down in one piece before the sixth century BC, or even beingcomposed in written form. It is possible, therefore, rhat the earliest writrenpoetry consisted solely of short poems, with major epic works still for a longtime being preserved in oral form.

In view of this vast new field of research, which has scarcely mastered theidiosyncrasies of oral poetry, it would be presumptuous ro designate thenumber of allegedly reconstructible writtcn versions of the Iliad or to dividethe Odyssey up among three pocts. Ccrtairr m()rc ()r less discrctc parts of thcIliad nlay bc scparatccl ()Lrt r1s pr()birblc l,rtcr,rclditiorrs, origin;rlly indcpcnclcnt

l)

l'lll ltl(,lNNlN(,\ANI) llll lAl(l\ ll'l(ll'()l Nl.,lr,rIt'pit. l)()('nrs,,r'igirr,rlly,.,rrtt'ivt'tl irrtlr.'wrillcrtlottrr ()tt,l('(()tltlt.,1 tllt'ir'.,irr1.,,rrlrrl v,rc,rbtrl,uy, tlrcir slr.up rlt'vi;ttiorrs ltottt (ltt',,t,tl storclt,rtlsc oll,,r rrrtrl:rs,,trrtl rrtrt lcltst orr ilcc()unt ol tlrcir'lcss rlr,tlt coltvirrcilrg ilrscrtiorl inttrrlrt, .,vcl'rrll pkrt.'l'his wt,trltl apply both to tltc story of thc clupirrg of Zeus inl,,,ok l4 arrcl tlrc cltrcl bctwcclr Achillcs,rnd Acncas in book20.

'l'lrc rruc contplcxity of thc situatic,n, howcver, is revealed by a glance atl,,rok lO,undoubtcdlyoncof theselaterinsertions. Itsplot,areconnaissancel,y .r grgup of Achacan heroes to the camP of the Trojan allies, falls entirely,,,,,ri.f"thccontext of thelliadnarrative,somuchsothatitsdeletionfromthe,,r,..r.rrll composition of thelliadwouldbemoreof ahelpthanahindrance.The1,,,,,k also evinces many remarkable features. Its language shows a particular,rl,rlrtlrrnce of deviations from the storehouse of epic formulas; the entire,r, Iion t:rkes placc at night, which is unknown elsewhere in epic poetry; as well.,., r lrc charioieer warriors of the epic age, Phrygians and riders appear who can,,rlrr.r-wisc be named nowhere and who did not in fact exist in the Aegean'r.,,r

ltl until after the first Dorian migration - and so on. And yet in the self-,..rn(.nrlrrarive we find, deeply and inextricably embedded in ancient epicl,, r r r r u l is, the description of a helmet which was demonstrably no longer wornl, r' t lrc lrrte Mycenaean period. This shows how complex were the conditions* lr,.rt'by poems were handed down, ultimately leading to the emergence ofrlrt' lrlt'scnt extant versions of the epic Poems'

l', what follows below, epic texts will be viewed without further differ-, rrr.rti()n, and the world depicted in them and the literary achievements they| ,.1,r (.\cnt ;rs homogeneous phenomena. This will be done from the viewpoint,,1 rlr

A t{( IIA l( | |'t,t{ A't tItr I()nly in v('r's(', in rlrt'pot'rrr,:rrt'rrrrrltil,rlrous. lior'()n(,rlrinri, llrc r,sst,rrti;tl()Lrtlinc ol thc cxtcrrrirl coursc ol cvcrrts w:rs;t givcrr lor'pocls.'l'lrcy wcrc rrotfrec in thcir work to lcavc'['roy uncrlnclucrccl, or to lirr-rtl I Icctor's victoryover Achilles. This fixed, predetermined coursc of extcrnal cvc'lts rcquircdthe poet to create a corresponding logic in the internal strucrure of the epicworld. The people involved in the events being described, like the audienceswho listened to early epic poetry, belonged ro an arisrocratic society whosethought, speech and actions unfolded according to fixed rules, bound bytradition. Listeners could therefore enrirely predict the reactions of theirheroes in specific situations.

The more consisrent and discrete a system of communication is, the lessdetailed information is required ro understand a set of circumstances: a fewpoints of reference suffice ro reconstruct the whole. The art of epic poerryused this 'law' to the urmost. The wholly individual characterisarions ofAchilles and Odysseus, Ajax and Hector, Paris and Agamemnon have neverescaped the notice of any reader of Homer, nor has any of their individualitybeen lost over rhree millennia of literary and artistic tradition. only in thecourse of explicit mythological criticism or re-evaluation has this changed.\[hat makes this precision in the poruayal of the main characrers possible isthe fact that many of the typical features of the Homeric hero coulJ be takenfor granted within the society to which he belonged. Few additional traitswere required, therefore, to create an individual out of the typical hero.

The same applies to the depiction of evenrs themselves. Given the markedtypification of numerous scenes and sequences of events, relatively few hintsare needed to evoke the unusual aspects of a situation before the inner eye ofthe listener. A rhythm may, moreover, frequently be observed in epicnarrative, whereby a weapon, a contingent of troops, a splendid house orother such feature is depicted with that famous epic breadth, and even ease,that was so highly prized in the eighteenrh century, whereas the deeds of thehero or god, his decisions and ordeals, are described with the barest minimumof words. In addition, the listener is always led by the poet, through the directspeech of those involved, to the emotion intended. occasionallv. this art ofomission or leaving things unsaid can condense into creative achievements ofunsurpassed force, as in book 1 of the lliad. Agamemnon has rudely rebuffedthe old man Chryses, who is seeking the release of his daughter, captured bythe Greeks, by impressing on him the sanctity of his office as priest of ,tpollo.The old man makes his way to the seashore and asks the god to punish thisoutrage against his servanr. The god Apollo, who is able both to inflict anddispel pestilence, hears his plea (l,43ff .):

And so he said his prayer, and Phoebus Apollo heard him.He came down from the heights of Olympus with rage in his heart,Carrying on his shoulders the bow and the double-covered quiver.Thc arrows rattlcd against the shouldcr of thc cnragcd Apollo

t4 t5

'ilil, |il,(itNNtN(;\ ANI) l||t t,Atil \ t.t,l( l'()t N,lAs lrc str,,tl.'.l,rwrr,.rrr.l lr.',,rrrr. lik,'tlrt rrrl, lrt.'l'lrerr lrc took up lris lt,rsitiott ,r sltrttt w.ty lrortt tlrt'slriltsArrtl lirctl lris lirst,llr'()w.'li'r'r ilrlc w;rs tll(' sottttrl ol tltc silvc'r' lr,,r,. .liilst lrc stl'r.lcl( tlrc rrrr.rlcs :rrrtl tlrc glcy dogs,lltrt thcn hc rriruccl his b,rlbcd rnissilcs:rt thc Argivcs thcmselves,Slrootirrg lgliu arrd :rgain. Ancl in rapicl succession burned the

l'urrcral pyrcs for thc dead.

l lrr' potcnti:rl f

At(( ltAt( | |t.t(AtItilirr llrt'lt:rrt. lly;rrrti l.tt'gt, r,

/\l(( llr\l{ | ill l(,rZt'tts, l.rllrt'r ,,1 tlrt li,rtls,rrrrl lrrrrrr.rrrs,rlrl',., ir rrrr.rlrlr.t(' \,rv( lris l,t.l.,vt.tl sorrS:tt pctlort l t t,rtt t ltt'tlt'rtt lr lor lvlrit lr lrt' is tlt st irrt'tl. 'l'lris p,,irrt \( (.nls l() l,r, lr,u tlto recrrrtcilc to thc pr()clatll:rtr()r) llivcll irr tlrc 1,,,,..,rr to thc lli.,ttl tl.r.,ttevcryth;ng tlrat occurrcd at'I'roy was l)y thc dccrcc olrZcu.s. 'l'hc cxplan:rtirlnof contradictions is again facilitatccl by recalling thrrt thc coursc of cvcnts waslaid down for the poet by tradition, thus corresponding to'the decrce of Zeus'.\Where, however, poetic inventiveness made specific modifications to thecourse of the plot, and this was placed in relation to the desire and will ofparticular gods, a divergence could arise between what was predetermined,rnoirq and the subsequent intention of a god.

The characters of the gods as portrayed by Homer, with their distinct,individual profiles, exerted enormous impact in subsequenr centuries.Herodotus went so far as to declare that Homer and Hesiod had given theGreeks their gods. Certainly the three-dimensional quality of Homer'sportrayal of the gods, which became known throughout Greece through therecitation of epic poetry, displaced norions of earlier origin and a vaguernature connected with local cuits and their legends. These gods, who livedunconfined by any human constrainrs, aiding or harming human beings on awhim, but neither rewarding their good deeds nor punishing their wickedness,and who themselves did anything but set a good morai example, were soonseverely criticised in Greece for their'irnmorality'.

It may be asserted that the glorified aristocratic society represenred by theHomeric firmament of deities had an extraordinary aesthetic appeal, but wasof no outstanding significance in terms o{ the history of religion. Homer'sgods shed littie light on the religious notions of a Greek landowner of thegeometric age within the practice of his inherited cult. Indeed, the gods towhom simple folk prayed are only menrioned peripherally in Homer, if at ail.Just how unsat;sfactory the role of the gods, in their epic guise within themythical tradition, was for religious feeling, even in earlier cenruries, isalready hinted at in the Odyssey, but most particularly in Hesiod.

The ancient world consistently held the Odyssey to be the work of Homer,the author of the Iliad. Closer examination, however, reveals substantialdifferences between these two works, not merely in language and style, butabove ali in their outlook on humanity and the world. it is difficult to ascerrainwhether this is owing to a considerably later period of origin for the Odyssey,or simply to its entirely different themes.

The poem about the return of Odysseus combines three motifs, each ofwhich merits handling in a separate narrarive: the unexpected return of a heroafter a long voyage, bringing libr:ration from diverse calamities for his loyaland long-suffering wife, Penelop,,.; the first expedition by the young hcro ofgood family, Telemachus, in which he must prove his manhood; and the hair-raising adventures of the well-travelled seafarer, who has voyaged to rhe endsof the earth, to thc vcry kingdonr of thc clcld, and who has hacl to dcal withgiants ancl s()rccrcrs.'l'lrc thirtl scrics ol.rrrotifs irr thc cxtirrrt tcxt is closcly

ts

llll lil.(,tt\.1 Nil'l (;,, i\Nl' lIt l./\til \ tl'l( l'()l l\ll,,,li,,l rvrtlr lrrst tlrr,,lr,lr tlr,'.r,,orrrrl ol ( )1lV.,rt'rr:,,rt tlr, ,()tll ()l n l(rrrotrs,lr.irrl; ,,1 l'lr.r,'.rt i.r, wlrilt' tlr. r|. lll,i'r,lirr1, lrlot sttr r('lltt(lirrg 'li'1r.'rrr,rt Irtrs,,l.rlror'.ttctl intlr('l(lr()r r,l ,rlriglrs.,ti:rltullrrrt', lt.rstt't,uttctl rtcct-l:ritt.lcgrcc,tl.url()n()n)y. I)t'spitc its crrtilc'ly pc.r.'clul ..'lt,tr',tt'lct, tlris corrcspotrcls ttrost,l,rst'ly to thc lilcstylc .rl thc llirrtlic hcr'.r, wltctc,rs thc ()clysscus t,f the twtr,,tlrcr"scrics olrnrotifs clispleys lcw of thc trrrits lssociatccl with such a her,r. Thelrt'r',, ol thc Odysscy is outstancling ncit[rcr f

Al(( llAl( | lll l(Allrl(lN.tttslt.t.t, rtt lrr't()ttl( ttttttt('ts((t ln (()ltv('ts,rll(|n wtll' 1l11. 11V1rr1rlr (..rlVtrso.( )tlvsst'tts ('ttl('vs

.t l. l.rti,,rrslri;t ,,1 Pt r\(ln.rl (,,rrlrrlcrrtt wirlr I'ir P.l1'1,,,tg()clclcss Atlrcrr,r strcl);ls is tluit.c urrkrrowrr.lrll()r)ll tlrt. lrt.r'ot,s t,l tlrc //r)r/, c,vt.rrhaving sc()pc f()r hunrour.

On the other hand, granted thc fatc of such a sclf-rcli;rnt rnan, thc p()ctreflects far more extensively on human acrion than is rhc casc in thc Iliad.Ylcis no longer satisfied by the notion of the predeterminarion of all events by thcdecree of Zeus. Instead, he explains the many unexpected vicissitudes o{mortals by asserting that peopie, through their own ?olly and wickedness,bring on themselves events that transcend the bounds set by F-'re. For the firsttime in Greek literature, we discern a new sense of real human responsibilityin the making.

Both this and the above-mentioned social dimension encompassed in theO dy ssey make it a quite different work from the I I i a d.The return of Odysseussignifies a restoration of political order on Ithaca. The portrayal of thePhaeacians and the cyclopes may be read as didactic pieces on politicaltheory, illustrating both a perfectly functioning and an entirely absent socialorder. Odysseus shows a tireless concern for the welfare of his companions,whereas the heroes of the Iliad are solicitous exclusively for their own fame,their underlings being immaterial ro their acrions.

As has rightly been pointed out, the Odyssey contains out-and-out criticismof the epic world and its ideals (Odyssey 8,52lff .). The as yet unrecognisedOdysseus, a guest at the Phaeacian court, on hearing a singer lauding the fameof his own deeds at the defeat of Troy, sheds bitter tears. Using a simile, thepoet compares these tears with those of the woman who clings distraught tothe corpse of her husband, fallen in the defence of the city, and who is thenbeaten and led away to slavery. In this way, Odysseus the hero and conqueroris placed on the same plane as the defenceless victims of his epic deeds.

It has likewise correcly been pointed out rhat the Odyssey contains muchmore detailed reference to everyday life than the Iliad, where such infor-mation appears solely in similes. The latter occur much less frequentiy in theOdyssey. Similarly, Phoenicians and Egyptians appear inthe Odyssey, and ithas also been remarked that the island of the cyclopes is described from theviewpoint of Greek colonists in search of land. As the unrecognised guest ofhis former swineherd, the returned Odysseus spins a long fabricated yarnabout military and pirate life in which the Trojan \ilZar is depicted from theperspective of a freezing guard. All these are realistic touches betraying afeeling for life that is quite alien to the Iliad, although nor necessarily one thatcame chronologically later. However rempting it is to interpret these detailshistorically, this is a precarious enrerprise, since the entire work is deeplyembedded in a fairy-tale world embracing elemenrs of widely divcrse origins.

To return to the manner in which Homeric poetry was handed down: thcart of cpic poetry rapidly spread throughout the Greck-speaking r.cgiorr,making it thc rnost itnport:rnt rlccliur.l.r in 1-rrcl.rlrirrg thc grourrd lor prrrr,

20

|il tjl(,tNNtf..t r,,, r\|\.t l) |u Ii\til \ |t't( l,()t NtIl,ll,rrr, rr,rti,,rr.rl l,'.lrrr1'. lt r., rr,'l l\no\\,'rr rvlr,.llr,.r tlri.,lirr.rrrrn.rtr.n w.rsrrrt,rr:;rlrt'rl Irt,tl','slriltt,,,r rvrillt.rrlorrrr.'l'lrisisrrot .r ,rrr,.i.rlPoinl,lrowt,vt,r.,',tttrt lltt'lirsl lt'xts lrt lrt'totttt tst,rl,lislrctl irr r.r,rillt'rr lorrrr wt'r'c,rrot irrtt'rrtlcrll,,r rt.,rtlirrg, l)ur:ll)l)('.ll'(.(l in.r sll,ust'rrrrrrrlrt'r ,rl t.,r1rics lor r-ccitation [)Lrrp()scs.

Itislirtowrttlt:tl llotttt'r''sl)()('llyw,tsc

Al(( ll/\l( I |ll li/\llrt(lIlt".r,',1 ]',r( \v lrl) lr tlr(. 1){)or |,(.,r:,,url vrll.r1i,. ,,l A:;t r.r. Ilt. tt.lls lr()w ,ls tr(,

1ir'.r2.,'tl sllt t p r)tl llt('ltt()llrrt.rirr ol I lt lir,,rr, tlr

Alt( llAl( | Ill l(Allrl(lr,l Zt'trs, is lltt' w,,t l.l trtrly ,l ( ()srn()s, tlrr'1'otls l,t't onrirrpi t lrt.t lr.rrrrpiorrs t,l I:rw,trrtl t,ttlt'r'ittll()llll lrtrttt,uts. Il is rrow tlr.rt tlrt. Mrrscs,llt,Irolrr, tlrc tl:ruglrtcrs 6l]Zctls:tlttl Mttt'lttosyrtc, l)lcrlr()l'y.'l'lrcy givt'nl(,lr lr()t. ()nly (lrurcc lurd s()ng, butrrlso tltc gif[ ()l'bcing ablc to rcsolvc clisputcs and discord without uioie.rce.'l'hc gloorny rnyrh adoptccl by Hcsiod from thc orient rhus serves toclcm.nstrate law and order as hard-won achievements, only possible throughtlrc dcfeat of the unbridled chaos out of which the world neverrheless arose.

'fhis impressive conception, which could only have been achieved throughpcrspicacious reflection on both experienced and inherited knowledge, r"rr."ltI lcsiod to be a particularly venerable figure in Greek history. He was nor agrcat poet: his wording is clumsy and provincial, and far removed from theclcga.t fluency of the Homeric narrative style. However, it may simply havebccn too mammoth a task to adapt the epic formulas, intended for utterancesof quite a different kind, to these profound speculations.

Another epic poem has come down to us from the pen of Hesiod that iscvcn more original and engaging than the Tbeogony,"rrJ .rr"r, less convincing'rs

;r literary composition. Like the Theogony,however, it has been marred bydivcrsc errors in the process of being handed down. Hesiod had a brother bythc

'ame of Perses, who cheated him in the partition of their estate, finding

p:rtronage among bribable 'kings', as Hesiod, in epic style, calls the memberstif local noble families in whose hands rested all cult and other traditions ofirrrprortance for the community, hence also control of the judicial system. Ab:rd manager, however, Perses soon squandered his dishonestly acquiredPropcrty. using the same means as the first time, he then set about acquiringotlrcr portions of his brother's assets.

It was while in this predicament that Hesiod wrote the epic poem known inI,rtcr antiquity as worhs and Days (there were no book titles in Hesiod's owntir'c). It has been suggested that Hesiod's dispute with perses was a mereP.ctic fiction used to clothe his didactic contenr. other undoubtedly bio-grrphical details in the work make this most unlikely, however.

'l'hc second, more substantial part of the work contains the rules, arranged;rccording to the calendar, for rural life and,work, including both technicali'structions for the farmer, and a wealth of informatio.r on ih" customs andt:rb..s of rural folk religion. Although the composition may be regarded asl.r.sc and amateurish, the poet manages some vivid depiction of scenes fromrLrral lifc. The second part additionally contains seafaring rules, of whichI I csiod, a Boeotian farmer who travelled but once as a rhapsode to a festival inIrrboca, undoubtedly had no personal experience. He muit have obtained thisi.f..rrnation from his father, who came from cyme in Asia Minor and who,I lcsi.d tclls us, only settled as a farmer in the impoverished backwater ofAscrrt rrut o[ 6nancial necessity.

Morc intcrcsting is the first part of the epic poem, from which may bctlcrluccd thc rcasons for F'lcsiocl's com;rosition of this utterly unheroic, ruralrlitl,rctic p()cnr. lt corrrpriscs whrrl:rr {irst glancc sccms to bc an cndlcss

)4

llll. lil,(,tNNtN(;\ ANt) lIt,IAt{t\ |t,t( t,()t /\l''ll"rr,,rr,,l rlttitcsltotlvtt\( l'roul)\,,,rrt.rirrirr1,,

At(( ilAt( |t't't t(At'Iil(l/.t'ttsst'ttrlslltr'tttsotttt'llrirrgt'vilirtllt,'l,,t tr'l l'.tttrlot.r,,r w()nr,urc(lril)l)('(l l)ytlrc gotls wit lr st'tlut tiv('lltIrlt( ti()n.'lir irrlrorlut't' lrcr':rrrr.rrrg n)('n, wl)() lr,tvc s

At(( |Al( I l'lt l{Alltl(|( )tl.l,sst'.y w.'r'r' rrrr.l,rrrlrlctlly rot (()lnl)()s('(l rntil .lltcr I ltsiotl's 1ro

2THE EARLIE,STNON-EPIC

POETRY

Greek epic poetry evolved in an agrarian society ruled by noble families witha strong sense of tradition. It was a society fragmented into numerouspolitically independent and geographically distinct clans, each with its ownseparate identity

- and one not enjoying particularly close ties with the non-

Greek world. (In the latter respect, rhe Ionians on the mainland of Asia Minormay perhaps be regarded as an exception.)

From the eighth cenrury BC onwards, Greek society was gripped byprofound upheavals. Part of the body of extant epic rexts, all of whiih darcfrom the latter phase of the epic tradition, documents these upheavals quitcclearly. In their aftermath, the productive energies of epic poetry *"n.d inGreek society.

The most important ot these changes may be described as a replacement ofthe institutions of the aristocratic federation by the city-state * th. .-.rg.n..of the Greek polis"rnirially, however, this did not entail a concenrrarion of th"population in urban serrlements. The institutions of commerce were still tooweak for this. Neverr.heless, those who were economically self-sufficientprobably increasingly saw themselves less as members of a clan associationdependent on a noble estate, and more as members of a community.

This manifested itself most cleariy in military organisation. I.r the societyclescribed by Homer, except in a handful of verses, only the aristocratic lonccombatant mattered. All other participants in war were mere retainers. Now,h.wever, came the advent of the phalanx of heavily armed foot soldiers, whoscrnilitary superiority depended on numbers and the disciplined solidarity of ancgalitarian fighting body. Since arms were cosrly, only relatively well-offwarriors could afford to fight in the phalanx, but the numbers of men riskinglifc'and property for the common weal, and who consequently also ."p..t..lto have a say in government in peace time, increased substantially compareclwith carlier times.

olcarly thc social and above all cultic privileges of ancient noble farnilicswcrc n()t to bc swept asidc ovcrnight, but thc city-statc grew stcadily instrt'rrgtlt, cspccially in Ioni,r. In tnirrry inst:rnccs thc farnily cults of thc nobilitywt'rc:ttlttptt'cl rts rrrttrticiprrl institrrtiorrs, thcrc[ry cnsur-irrg thc l:avour ol thc

i0

ilil, I Atil il \'t N( )N I l,l( l,(}; ;y1 1'i ,,,1',

"rrrril,rr Iy, rrt'w .rss,,t i,rri,rrrs ,rl lrrlly llt.tlgctl . itizt.rrs wcr.t. t.r.c:rtcrl,

,,rrtrr'tl.rrllrt'.'rrlt,.rsllrcl,rrrrrt'r:rlistot'r:rli..lt.,lt.r..tti.,nshltclbccrr.|1r,,,,' tlt.vt.lol)nr('nls wt.r't' lrttrlr c.rrt..rrrr.,rgt.tl ,rrrd lccl in st.rnrc clarrgcrous

,lrr,, rr.rrs Iry ('(()r)()nlic l;rctors. As Lr-ldc Ircgrrrr to flourisl-r, thc forrnerly,r rrrrr.rl 1'r ivilcgctl st:rr.us ol thc l,rrrclowncr tcnclccl to be undermined in mostrrr r'.. rlr,,ulilr wirlr varying clcgrccs tlf rapidity. Another factor was the*rr',rlr( ri,'rr lrorrr AsirMinorintheseventhcenturyacof theuseof coinage,,, *r, .r',ril,' rvlrir'h Pcrnrittccl thc propertied classes a certain degree of mobility,tr'l .r'\\' rrPP.r'tr-rnitics for socio-economic advancement, but which also1,,,'rry'lrr rrt'w, lritlrcrto unknown forms of expropriation and enslavement,r' .rrlrrrrl' lr.rrr hirrsh clcbt laws. In the seventh and sixth centuries, the socialr.lr.rr,lr', I'r,'rrghr about in this way led in many poleis to conditions of so-..'ll,,l r\'r,rrry, in which a member of the ruling class of full citizens,,,,111;,,,',1 11 .rr rhrrrtirncof boththeoldnobilityandnouveauxriches,wouldr rl,, , r'rrr{)l ()l ;r cliscontented lower class that was not further involved in.,llrr" ,rl sl.rrt', rrncl cstablish a monarchy legitimated by personal influencer rrlr, r rlr.rrr l.rw.r descent. There were aiso sporadic attempts from time tor,,r. rr' , rrrlr s.cinl unrest by means of piecemeal reforms such as debtr. r!!r',.r,rrr, .r rhc written codification of laws hitherto handed down orally,,, I rrrrrll rr,rtliri..s * in other words by improving the unequivocal adminis-'1r,'r ,'l l.rw. I)cspite a range of typical features common to all Greek, rrl ',r.rr{

", s,,cio political developments were so heterogeneous that by the

l' lr lr , , rrr r r y n( r, thc Classical period, a profusion of diverging constitutional..i

.r. ur.. rr'.rs irr plrrcc, ranging from radical democracy to monarchy.llri rrrrrt'sr rhirr sciz.ed the Greeks from the end of the eighth century BC'',r" rr,l,r,,,,l,t'llcdthemequallyforciblyinanoutwarddirection.Asidefrom:lr,, rrrl','rrvirlrilstronginlandorientation,theGreeksonceagainbecamea',,

'l rr rrrl' rr.rri.n, trading with all the Mediterranean countries from Syria to,1''',

.r r rr l l r,rrr rhc Nile to the Don estuary. In addition to this, there was ai,r' ,| \\.rr', ,'l ,',l.rrisation,beginningwithamovementof westernIoniansin!"l',,,.r,.rrr.l rlrt'rri.volvi.gall Greektribes,includingtheDorians,Thecoasts't

"r' rlr ,,'r,l s.,urhcrn Italy were soon garlanded with burgeoning Greek

, - r, ., r, l,t l.ll.wcd by the coasts of the northern Aegean and the Black sea,, lrr r'. rlr,' ( lr.irrrc:r ,rrd the caucasus. other colonial cities sprang up in! ,l.r ,, l lir 1'r. Syrirr, sourhern France and Spain, even though the western' l, ,lr r, r | .r r('.r r w,rs ,rctually the domain of the Carthaginian phoenicians and,l,' I i

' u.,( .lu:i ,rl rr

Al(( |IAl( I|r'1, l(AltIltIlrrrtl t'virlcrrt t',rll ovcr ( ilct'r't'ol t lrc irrrP.rt t ol .rrlv.rrrt t'rl ( )r'icrrt;rl t trltrrn's.'l'lrisis pcrhaps rttost clc:trly tlisccrniblt'irr pottt'ty, wlrcrt'tltt':rus(cr('()nlillllcn-trrtion ol thc gconrctric pcri(xl girvc wily to tlrc lull girnrLlt ol'()ricnt:rl pictoriirlscnse, unleashing an immcnsc flowcring of figurrrtivc vasc clccoration.lnspircdby Oriental models, the seventh century uc saw thc first achicvcrncnts inmajor sculptures and temples. Musical instruments, rnelodies and compo-sitional techniques

- and the use of coinage

- came from Asia Minor. Advanccs

in shipbuilding, systems of measurement, and above all a script, were adoptcdfrom Phoenicia, medical knowledge from Egypt, and other advances frorlother Oriental countries. Most important of all, perhaps, were the religiousnotions and conceptions that swept into Greece, chiefly from Egypt but alsofrom the Near East.

The Greeks were avid for knowledge, opening themselves unreservedly upto outside influences in the centuries between the demise of the epic-geometric epoch and the Persian'Wars. In this period nothing could have beerrfurther from their minds than a preoccupation with their own nationalcharacter. Because of this openness, probably no other epoch in the history ofthe human mind witnessed the discovery of so much that was new, or so muchfresh potential in thought, speech and creativity as those two centuries ofArchaic Greek culture.

The first post-Hesiodic poet who is even tolerably accessible to us is thcEphesian Callinus, who probably lived in the early or mid-seventh century BC.Ephesus, one of the foremost towns in the Ionian colonial land, where culturaland social developments had progressed the furthest, was at that time havingto wage a number of arduous wars against other Greek cities and againstthe Lydians. In addition to this, the whole of Anatolia was being disruptedby raids carried out by Iranian or Thracian-Phrygian nomadic tribes, theCimmerians and the Trerians. The sole extant elegy by Callinus elucidates thissituation for us. In forceful language that is nevertheless so restrained ingeneral that it gives us no historical clues, he calls on his fellow citizens to facethe enemy manfully, to fight for their land, wives and children, and not toshrink from the death that is none the less to be their universal lot. All thatcounts is the incomparably greater esteem enjoyed by the courageous man,both alive and dead, among his people.

A new tone may be discerned here compared to epic war poetry. It is one'sfellow citizens, the demos,who are to be protected, and the land which is to bedefended. Fame rests not on the tradition of a noble dynasty, but on thcjudgement of fellow citizens concerning the living and the dead. The com-batant whom Callinus has in mind is not the lone aristocratic combatant. butthe hoplite (heavily armed foot soldier) in the phalanx.

The style used by the poet, however, differs from the epic only in its newIonisms, although the tone is sterner. The metre has been developed out ofepic metre, and consists of a sequence of verse pairs, in which thc first vcrsc isa normal cpic hcxametcr, thc sccond a slightly adaptcd dactylic vcrsc:

12

lill l Al{l il \'l N( )N t t't(

,\ l",r'nr,,l tlris typrc lras lry its vcly sc(lucnc:c ol vcrscs:L nl()rc clrrph:rtic:tlly,rrrrrl.rlr'tl t'llc.ttlrrrrraptrrclylrcx:rrrrctriccpicnrrrrrrtivc.'I'hism:rkcsthcclcgy, lrrl.lrly srrit.rlrlc lorrrr in which to couch an aclr.nonitory spccch thirt is to deal,. , l, .rr l1' .rrrrl lorccl'ully as possiblc

- and hcncc not too extensively

- with a

,,,rrrrl,,r ,'l tlivcrging lrut at tlrc samc timc cqually topical points. The poet's,1,,,,,, ,'l tlrt' Ilonrcric stylistic idiom

- onc that differed from the idiom

,1,.Ir'rr Iry r'vcryorrc, and was only comprehensible to those with a Homeric, rlrr, ,rrr,n ,rriscs tluitc simply from the absence of any other alternative for.rr lr.,,rtl()n ('irl)irl)lc of raising utterance above the everyday level. Dactylic'|,, r, ( t Jt l)wls rnorcovcrcloselylinkedwiththeepicstylistictradition andrr , liil iltul.lS.

llrr r.r'rr .'lcgy is of non-Greek origin. As late as the Classical period,,rrrr',,1,,1',ir',rllyrcl;rtcdwords\Merestillpartof thevocabularyof thedirge. It,,,r\ l,,,tlr,'r't'lorc,thatthcclegystartedoutasaformofritualdirge.Thepoeml,r Arr lrrl.rt lrrrs to bc dealt with below (p.38) atany rare demonstrates that a,lrr 1,, , ,,rrltl r1r-ritc casily be the subject of an elegy in the seventh century BC.

11r, 111,1j111i1y of cxamples of early elegiac artmay nevertheless safely be,l,',.,,1 ,'r ' j.trrrnrrlisrn'. This'journalism'naturally reached its audience, the,,,, ,,,1', r., ,'l .r clrrss of full citizens continuing the aristocratic tradition in the,'1,1,',r 1,,'ltis, by rncans of oral rendition, most frequently at an all-malel,,r,1rrr'r lrr tlrc socicty of that time, this was an exceptionally important,,!..rrtutr,'rr,

'11[y'gg1 ro srrict ritual. It is understood that both elegy and epic1,,,, r' r' .u,.r'..r't'citccl, but to a flute accompaniment. A developed art form ofI I r | | i I r r r | \ r( wrrs u nknown to the Homeric noble society, being an import from,1 r r Nluror rlr:rt clicl not reach the Greek world until the eighth gr seventh. {

'rrr y trr . lilrrtc music nevcr attained the same degree of social esteem as,,,,r'.r, 1'1.1y,1'11 on stringed instruments, already indigenous to Greece in earlier,''r. , .rr(l trrrtlcr the spccial patronage of the god Apollo. It was also regarded, ,r,'rrrlrrlrrrt',1 ,rncl provocativc, an idea which may derive from the use of the| | r r r, r r r,', l',r,rrt ic cults in Asia Minor. Nevertheless, by the seventh century theit ,,r, .. r,l l.rnrour; virtuoso flautists and flute composers began to appeat someir,,rrr r\.,r.r Mirror, but sor-nc from the Peloponnese. At the same time, the flute.,,!,, 1,',1'1rr'tl itscll.ils:rncvcntintheprogrammeof someof thegreatpan-ll, ll, rrr,

"rrrsic.rl rrrrcl athlctic contests. It may be that the close connectioni., r'.,, rr rlrt't'lcgy ,rnd flutc rnusic contributed to the speedy recognition ofrl,i. rrr..tuun(.n1.'l'hc cornbination of elegist and flute composer in one and!li, . ,rr( ll('rs()n, ,r.s, lor cx,rrn;rlc, in thc poet Mimnermus of Colophon (seei,, 1,,,', 1' 'r.))w:rs t'crtainly not rarc.\ 1l.rrr,t. .rr thc vcry sinrilar clcgi:rc poctry of the Greek homeland is1,, , , ' 1,11 ,1 I' y r t.lit'. ol :r collccl ion ,rttrilrutccl to e poct by the name of Tyrtaeus,'l '. lrr, lr rlr,.t..u.lit.st l):lrts tlrrtc back to tlrc latc scvcnth ccntury nc. (Later

1l

At{( ilAt( t t'il trAllttrlpicr:cs irr tlrc collt't tiorr, irlt'ntili;rl,lr' p.rrtly Iry rlr..'ir ,lill('r('nt ( ()nrl)ositionrrltcchniqLrc irrrd prrrtly [ry thcir usc ol l:rtc lirrgrristit rrr,rr.plr.rlogy, tl:rtc lr.orrt tltt'sixrh ancl fifth ccnturics tl

n t((]tAt( t ilt.t(At|lt(lwitlr tlrc tttot';tl sltr'tlttc tltlt strt lr .r siglrt rlr,,ultl irrspir.t,, .rr tlrc s;rrrrc tr1rt.autontirtically cvokcs thc courrtcr.iln:tgc ol tlrt. lrt..rrr(y ol Voutlt..

A.part froln lragrncnts [ry Callirrrrs ,ur,l 'l'yrt.r"r,r, littl"'w,rtlr rrrcrrtionirrlihas been preserved of what was undoubtcdly a rich b.cly .f clcgiac p.crry irrthe seventh cenrury ec. The spread of proficiency in cicgiac composition isnone the less-apparent from surviving shrine and tomb inscriprions in vcrscform, which from the sixth century si onwards consisted in tire main of oncor more elegiac verse pairs (distichs), although prior to that often only of e pichexameters. Although the literary merit oithese inscription, is ,roi

"l-"y.high, they do include some examples of fine poetic invenrion. Anothcrremarkable feature is the way they manage to combine epic style, which inliterature was firmly associated with the use of hexam.t..,

"rrd p.rrramerers.

with elements of local dialect.The elegiac form was likewise employed in numerous poems by the one ancl

only poetic genius of the early Archaic period, Archiloihus of pa.or. of thcprolific body of work by this poet, only

" handful of scant snarches havc

survived, mostly in the form of citations by later authors, although thcnumber of these has increased somewhat since the 1950s as a resuh of pipy.u,and inscription finds. Not one single complete poem is extant, howeier,-ar.,.leven fragments of six or eight lines are

".,

."..piio.,-Despite this lamentable fact, it is still possible to appreciate the unique talent

of this poet. His work, all of which was composed entirely for the needs of thcmomenq conrains such a wealth of biographical allusion that a rich body ofl.gl"9 grew up around him in later times ih"t .ro* enables us to glean somcuseful clues for the interpretation of one of his mutilated rexts. Tf,is may bcseen, for example, in a lengthy inscription dating from the third or secondcentury nc pertainingto a beroon, a cult edifice in honour of the poet. on hisnative island of Paros. The inscription includes an account of his c^onsecrationas a poet following an encounrer with the Muses. Archilochus. whose life hasbeen dated roughly on the strength of a reference to an eclipse of the sun in thcyear 648 Bc, seems to have been the illegitimate son of a nobleman of parosand a Thracian slave. As was cusromary in semi-feudal societies, however, hcwas. undoubtedly brought up as if he had been legitimare, apart from his rightsof inheritance. In this way he became

" -.r..r".y, involved in m-anv

escapades of those turbulent times, such as the attempi to colonise the islanclof Thasos in which there was fierce fighting with Thracians of the adjaccntcoast. Life among his war comrades, the various incidents of a precariousexistence, as well as sensual love, hatred, derision, grief over beie"u.-.nt,d-isgust at the faithlessness of a friend, and lastly, p..h"p, the mosr moving .fall, his reflections on the narure of man and his-faie, all inspired by a life livcc{to the utmost, are rhe themes of Archilochus, poetry.

In one distich whose context is unknown, Archilochus presents himsclf asthe servant of Ares and thc Muscs; in :.rn.rhcr hc dcscrib.is himsclf drinkingfinc Ismarian winc, lcarring orr his spc;rr. IIc is no w:rrrior iu t1.,"

".."1-,t",i1('

'I llt l Alil il \'t N()N 1, 1,;, I'()1,J,;q1.,,

"r,, lrowt.vcr', tortrrrri(tt..l 1,, lltt. r..,rlt. ol lrorrottr. ol .t Ilorrrct.it: ltcro

AI(( ilAI( Iiltt(A'l rr11 1tlt'w,ttttl ttttt'xPt't lt'tl, lrt'is trrr:rlrlr'r,rt lrs r)wtt tr) (.lr |\' tlu,,trglr lris ()wn,t(.ti()ns.trttl ittlt'rtti,,ns, (rr'('v(.r) lris owrr lt.t.lirrgs.rrr,l tlr,,lr,ilrt\. 1'lrtit,rrk in lr.rrrtl is loc()r)lc t() tcrrrrs with tlris lact ol lilc, wltit lr Ar,.lrilor.lrrrs ncvcr. tll.cs ()ldc'scribing. Givcn thc trattsictrcc ol all lrLrrrrru) (.xl)cri('ncc, it lrchevcs ss trrrejoice with moderation in our good forturrc,,.rrrci lrot to gricvc cxccssivt,lvover misfortune. Humans lack the ability of tlre goJs t.,,:.r..y.rut *l,,rt i.worth_ striving for. They.are, however, equipped *ith ,h. gift of rnarrfullyend.uring what they are obliged ro go throughlor the ,ho.t ,i".r of thcir lirt1,without losing their own identity in the process.

Archilochus' credo arose out of an eventful life lived to the full, a srrorgsense of his own identity, and an ability to reflect on the circumstances of hi.sown existence rhat was unhampered by the conventional value-judgemenrs olhis society. Perhaps the most moving expression of these qualities is fou.,cl i,-1a poem writt en after a group of men dear to him, inciuding ilis brother-in-law.were drowned in a shipwreck. Although unfortunatery J"ly

"

f"* g.oup, .,1lines have survived, it is still possible to piece tog.ih.. so-.thiig oi th.surrounding circumstances :

None of the citizens, ?ericles, nor anyone in the town, will reprove ourloud lament, even if they have now given vent to festive

-ooi, for finemen have been snatched from us_by the ocean sweli. Our very lungsare sore with lamentation. But the gods, my friend, have bestowedperseverance on us to soften irrevocable misfortune. It strikes first one,then another; here and now misfortune has struck ourselves, and wegroan, wounded and bleeding. Soon, however, it will strike othersdown. Therefore collect yourselves and bear it, and do away with thiswomanly lamentation.

(Archilochus fr. l3 \Vest)Later in the poem, Archilochus gives voice to his distress at nor beine able t.give his brother-in-law a proper burial. The verse is worded *iih g.",rrtenderness:'if Hephaestus had clothed and cared for his head and grafefLrllimbs in pure linen' (these lines have only survived because plutarch wanted t.illustrate the metaphorical use of the name of Hephaestus, god of fire, with ricitation). \Thether the beautiful line'and so we wlsh to ,..oi.. the distressiuggifts of Poseidon, lord of the seas' also formed part of this poem is uncertain.Tracing the line of thought back to its starting-point, like many literarycompositions of the Archaic period, it probably ioncluded with the .o,rpl"t,'I am unable to assuage my grief with anything, but can make marrers n,,worse by taking part in the feasting and the festive mood.' Three motifs irrcc.ombined here: complete_immersion in pain and grief, overcoming it withdeliberate patience and endurance

- rhe soie r"f.g,rnr"d of the individuil

"g,,i,,rrthe vicissitudes of life - 3"4 .l equally deliberate rerurn to rhc company ,,1the living (rcndercd particul:rrly graplric hcrc rrs rnisfortunc coincicictl wirlr ,r

fcstival irr thc town).I I'i

Illl, I Al(I ll\| N()N I l,t( l,()I'1 11 1'\,, lrrl, ', lrils' lt,tt'ilrs .lr (' nl()r t l lr,rrr ,r lt'sl irrrr )il1, 1{ ) ,t il('w ,ll)l)t,,.t, lr 1,, lil,. ,rrr,l

, lrrrlr, rt() unlur()wn sr'll ,tsstrr.urtt'.'l'lrt'v ,rt.,,tls,,.lnr()n1.,, llrt. lttosl (()nsunl,,,rt,lr l,,tntr',1 wotltsol (ilt't'lil)()('try.Asirlt'lr'()nr.ll('winsigrrificarrtrclicsol-.rr,,rr., l,vrrrrrs.rllri[rtrtctl loAn'lriloclrtrs,wlittt.rrirrlyrics()r'lgrnctlc,hiscxtantl,rr i,'. nr,r\' lrt'tlivitlccl irtto tltrcc gr'()Lll)s, rrccorrlirrg to rnctrical type: clcgies,rr,rlrrr rr,,, lr.rit'vo'sc,rirrcl corrrpositcvcrsctypcs.Oonccrningtheelegies,there!r r,l,r'r'rr.r t('n(l('ncy in rcccnttinrcstopl:rccunilatcral emphasisonArchilochus'|.,l{ I', n( l('n( r' I rrrrr tlrc cpic trirclition, undoubtedly failing to do him justice inrl,, 1'1,'.,.tr. An'lrilochus w;rs lssurcdly one in a long line of poets who made'

, ,,1 rlrc t';tit rlrctylic vcrse tcchnique and the stylistic form that went with,r I lr,

'rrrrrrlr

At({ ilAt( I ill l{/\'ttrl(lw('.t l,lr lr.'y.,r',l.rrytlrirrg s,, l.rr tlr'.rlr ,uvrrlr rrr;,rt.litt.r.rry P.1r111,11 j.1s1111j1l)()ctl'y. Mott'tlt:tlt (lris, ltowcvcr', lr.'lrrrrislrr.tl llrs vt.rst.t_ypc, lrcr.c,rltcr.rlrt.Inost wiclcly usccl spokcrt vcrsc ty[)c irr (ilcck l)()(.rly, witlr e li,rrnal pcr.lcctiprrnot encountcred again until thc highly s.plristic.rretl I lcllc'istic p,,"iry. whiclrwas intended for an exelusivc public of c..rrrrt,iss..urs.'l'lrc l'.-,rni.rl clcglrr.c,,lArchiloc.hus'poetry is a marvel of literary history defying all cxpl:rnati.'. I lt,observed rules of euphony, for example, which were not co.rsisteltly aclhcre,lto. by any.fifth-century BC aurhor of Greek tragedy. In addition, he manrrgctlwith absolutely unfailing good taste to devise what in terms of choice of w,i,.,1,and word order was the most unpretentious possible mode of expression r.suit this typical spoken verseJorm. A'poetic'word alien ro .u..yi"y s1-rccclrrs qurte a rare occurrence in his iambic and trochaic verse. The effect of hisverse thus derives not from ornamentation of speech, or from a character tlr:rrcontrasts with everyday speech, as in the case of epic-elegiac poerry, but fr,rrrra hitherto unknown degree of expressive concentiatiott,*"ttd

"

,hyih-i. f,,,.,,,that never flags.

The-third caregory of Archilochus' poetry consisrs of composite vcr.ri(.types' It is not possible to ascertain whether or not these existed befo.e he r.rsctlthem. They comprise both epodes composed of couprets with conflicti.grhythms, such as

"-"-,:-;1-"'in which an iambic trimeter alternates with a semi-dactylic penrameter, r.r.(lasynartic ('unbound') verse, such as

u. vu- uu- u- --u -u

in which two metrical components with conflicting rhythms are joincd r,form one long line. In these composite verse poemsih" .o.r.l"tion b.t*"",,choice of words and word order on the one hand and the metre on the .tht,r.is the same as in iambic and trochaic verse.

Archilochus'work marks a peak in Greek poetry that went unmatchccl lirrcenturies. This makes it all the more lamentable that little more than snarchr,sof his works are exranr today. The unique sratus of Archilochus in his owrrtime is most clearly revealed by an examination of iambography in tlresubsequent era. several lengthy pieces by a poet named s.-oiid", frorn tlrcIonian island of Amorgos have survived from the early sixth century BC. ()rcof the two most important pieces deals with an a.rci..rt th..rr. alrc,rtlybroached.in the od,yssey: the frailty of humanity. The other, a more amusirrgprece, seeks to expose woman as the greatest evil of mankind by means .l ,rdetailed comparison of various female types with a wide range of animal., ,r,,,1objects, in order to illustrate their chieivices. This theme is"already farlili,rrfrom Hesiod. However, this invcnt.ry .ffcrs onc rypc of woman irr wlri,.lrtherc is nothing to criticisc. Scrnorriclcs likcrrs hcr t,, th" b"". Thc rroint ol rlris.

,t0

'l lll l Al(l ll \ l N( )N I l't( t,( )t 'l l(\1,,,t1','1'1'1, s('('tlts l() lrc tlr,rt tlrc l

Al((||At( |lilttAttrt(t'(1.1il((",',l.rrrr'irr1i l'r',,(rrr,l'.'l'lrc w,,rtlr, ol por'tr ! w('r('tlrus rrol .,rrly srrrrg,rrrrl:tt'totttP.tttit'tl lry rrrtrsic:rl ittslt'trtrt'rrts, l,Lrt,rls., illustr.rtt'tl eltort.r,gr':rltlrir'irlly.( )wirtg to tlrc sl.rrtlsity ol litcrary r.clcrt'rrt't's .rrrtl tlrc lcw sur.vivirrg picroli.rlilcc()Llrll-s, prcscrlt-clay knowlcclgc olr(jlcck rlrrncc is likcwisc irt [rcst skctclry.

Music unclcrwcnt a major flowcring in thc scvcntll ccr)tury B(:. I.'lutc rlr-rsit'as an art form had recently been adopted from Asia Minor, and music lorstringed instruments was considerably enriched both by technical advanccs irrinstrument-making, and by the adoption of new instrumental forms, rccol;nisable from their foreign names. Flute and kithara solos (aulody rrrtlkitharody) were included in the programmes of major musical contests suclras those held at Delphi (Pythian) and Sparta (Carnaea)

- regularly hcld

competitions which accelerated the growth of the art. Even by the seventhcentury nc techniques of composition and playing had grown so complcxthat only professional musicians could compete. All that can be stated todiryabout the character of this music is that, like oriental music, it was strictll,monophonic, and hence could only be further refined in terms of a consranrenrichment of the formal fund of rhythm and melody. This resulted irr ,rhighly developed sense for the effects of certain rhythms and musical moclcson ethics and educational psychology.

Some mention has already been made of flute music as an accompanimcrrrto elegies. The first among the great innovators, composers and virtuosos olkitharody still known of today, Terpander of Lesbos, accompanied hismusical performances with verses, a few of which have survived. His nativcsoil was in very close contact with the Lydian hinterland. None the less, tlrcmusical triumph that caused his name to be handed down as inventor of the'kitharodic nomos', the canonic compositional form for the kithara, was ducto the fact that his success at the Carnaea in Sparta rn676 or 673 scwas placctlfirst in the written list of winners.

It was now a quesrion of applying the achievemenrs of the floweringmusical art to the many opportunities for singing and dancing available irrearly Greek society, as in other similar forms of society. Aside from worlisongs and children's songs, which the Greeks of course also had and of whiclrthere are even a few extant examples, the many existing cults provided tlrcmost noteworthy occasions for musical performance, rnost of these bcingenriched with dancing and song, as also was the ritual character of weddirrgsand funerals. Responsibility for cults lay either with family associations or, ,rsin apolis that had already evolved into a definite community, with the groLr[)smodelled on them (or so-called tbiasoi). Cult associations originared fronr ,rhorizontal division of the population into such groups as girls' and y.utlrs'sets, which were entrusted with quite specific social functions such ,rseducation, the fostering of tradition, and defencc. They were enc()ullrcr.(,(lboth in early Greek socicty, ancl in virtr.r:rlly all carly cukurcs. (The instittrti'rr

n t(( ltAt( |il'l t(Ailtt{l'l'lrt'Pot't is t'rlrr.rlly l,,rrtl ol s1,...rkrrr1i.rl,,,rrt lrrrrrst.ll.rl sorrr

n l(( ll/\t{ | |]t t(,\ll t(ltlr,rt liirrtl, is litt,twtt lrorrr Ilt'r'otlr)llr:i,ur(l l rrripirlt':;. lt rrr.rv lr,rv

Al((.llnl( | l l t t(/\t rtU.clt:tr:ttlt't ol ,t tottlt-rttt lr

Att( llAt( | lt'l l(i\'iltt(llr

Att( ltAt( | ilt.t(AItll(lNt'vcrtht'lcss, tlrc liclr 1>ot'tit .rrrtl lrrrrsi,.rl tr.rtlitiorr ol tlrt'isl.rntl ol Lt'slros, tlrlclirssic:rl lruits ol wlrich arc,rv,ril,rlrlc l, lltt'rrtotlt'r'rt I-t',t.lt't irr tltt'wrtt'ks,,lSappho and Alcacus, proviclcs thc lirtt.cr with thc crlprrcity to dcscribc ltis owrrimpressions and fcelings effortlcssly, whilc rrlso cloing justicc to ltis owrrforceful temperament. From time to timc hc cvcn succccds in crc:rting ;r rtcwtradition with a poetic metaphor

- as in thc poem whcrc hc dcscribcs witlr

thrilling vividness, from the viewpoint of a passenger, a ship in troublc at se,r,meaning the polity tossed by the storms of civil war.

tVhen Horace was translating into Latin the poetic style of the Lcslri;rrrs,which experienced only a limited revival in the Hellenistic era, he adhcrcd toAlcaeus rather than Sappho. This indicates his unfailing judgement: althouglrthe two poets were equal in technical mastery, Alcaeus' poetry is lcssdifferentiated and stylistically more homogeneous, despite dealing with .rwider range of themes. The infinite sensitivity that marks the poetry of thcTenth Muse, as a later epigram styles her, was an obstacle to literary imitatiorr.

For us, the lyric poets of the turn of the century must be taken as tht'originators of the contemporary literary genre, even though their art prcsupposes quite a long tradition. Everything prior to them is now irrevocablylost. The elegists of that time, on the other hand, bear witness to furthcrgrowth within their sphere of poetry.

The first such poet to be mentioned in this regard is Mimnermus olColophon or Smyrna (this variation in tradition has little significance, sincc irrthe seventh century BC what was originally Aeolian Smyrna was occupied bythe Ionian Colophonians and turned into a colony). He was regarded byHeilenistic scholars as the true classic poet of old elegy, probably becausche established new themes for the genre. A number of fragments revc:rtlMimnermus to be quite of the old school

- parts of war poems relatirrg

examples of valour from previous generations for the encouragement olfellow citizens. \flhat is new, however, is that certain deeds of the forefathcrs,in this case the conquest of Smyrna, are exposed to moral judgement. T'hisshows that the poet is no longer able to separate affirmation and justificati

Al{( ilAt( I|1t.t(A.t t1til,l)()('tl1'w:ls;tll('.1(lys()(lill('r('rti,rtt'rl lrytlr,rt tirnt.,.rrr,l witlr ,r lr,rrgtlryrr:rtlilr'rrtlrat rrrrrtlt'.it.sr., crrsy lo 11.,11.,,, tlr,rt lrt.lr,rrl rr,, tlrlliculry trsirrg it lo givt..rrrllcc()ultt oI his irrtcrtr.iorrs rrnt.l ircti()r)s lor.corrtt.rrrpor.rrr.ics arr,l p.,stcrity,tliht,,Ilut his famc alsa rrcant-trrat p.crrr"^.r sir.ir:rr c().r.c.t t,r'r,i, ()w. w(.rr!attributed to his name, and that s.,n're crf his wcrc tarrrircrccl with or cx'irrrtlr.rl,Part of this bodv of poetry is directlyconccrned wiirr thc mcasurcs wlrc.clryhe resrored pr"r. to- A1h9ns. u. tarr, i.r example, of how hc lrrrrrglrtcountless Athenians back from debt siavery

"b.o"d, and libcratJ rrrc cir'r lr,the greatest mother "j:1" 9iy-pian gods - a reference to rhe removal .r rrcrrlstones from arable fields. He riro ri."k, with pride,f h"ri;;';.sistcrr rrretemptation to establish.his own tyrannicar r.rl., dir..ibi;gH;^;:r;rio,

.s .,eof arbitrator between the parties, .lik. a bou'i";;:rr;;:: 'rr vvJrI gave the people as much as was necessary, neither too many rigrrts,::l:::.1.I l:l],r*, the rich and powerfui, r,o*.u.r,,o r..ip,rr,,,r,;,,11unrawtul ln therr possession. Thus I srood, holding a great rlri"l.lbetween them, and a'owing none to gain the rpp.r-ir"""ai,, li" ,"",t,of the law.

(Solon fr. 3Z Vcsr)compared to this' the poem in which he encou-rages his fellow citiz.ens r() r.,lthe campaign against Sliamis has quite a feel of Tlr,*rr"

"u",rrlt.'iolu,., i. rr,.,true father of Athenian patriotism. He is filled with sorrow to see thc lrrll 'l'^the. most,ancient city, of the ioniar,r'- p.ob"bty

"..i.*r* tlJ"th. ,,,t.,,rAttica as the territorial starting point for th. ,.ttl.-.rrt of centrar Asia M irrr rrafter the disintegration of the "Mycenaean l.rltrrr..Nevertheless, these poems contain much more profound thoughts rlr,rrlthese topical remarks r,rgg"rt. soron was the hrst poet to take up rhc t

Att( ilAt( | ilt l(/\.t.ltt(ls'rl.rrr.rr' (l'lrr's'rrrrt i,.rrr,, r, rr. r.rrrrrr rlr r,.1i1,1rt ,rrr,r Mt.sr,1r,,r,rr'r,1.) ,r,rr(,;:i;,il:il, ;i:J1t:ll,"l:1,:,lii',:;i1,,:;::;il.:,1, l;,; , n li;..:i,,:lil::,,ilifrorn thc carly Archeic 1'cri.cl lrca'tlrc'u,,,r,",,1 arr irrrlivitl.:rl r.:rtlrcr tlrrrrr:rrrarchetypal author. Thc first hcxarncrcr ,rf flr"r" gr().rcs gcrrcr.aily .pc.s witrrthe words: 'This too is thc word .',r .h.r.yua..l.; s;;;;r:';i

..1r.,.", *H.r,more than any other type of litera.y d.r.r-.'rt would'scc- madc for handingdown eith,er "nory-orrly, o, ,rrrd.. ;;..- or less mythical names, arcpresented here as the intellecrual property

"f " q.ri;; ,p..in. ""rrror, albcito1. unlloln today. It was of .ou.r. porriut. ,. rirriiy.i, ,"-.llr., a",. ,t.,"sphragis (seal), as the endorsement of authorrhip ,.t i'if ;;;;;;;;", known,so that not all rhe extanr sayings of phocylides are necessarily ge'urnc.(Indeed, a HeltenicJey rybrr,.d".lUy pJlirn.a , ,-'"rrr ]i;;il pro._ una",-rhe name of phocylides.) Neverthei.rs, th. u,r: of ,t'r-rpi)iirt)enores ,rrentirely new mark of esteem for indiviiuar achrevement that was unknowrrto the Orient in this {orm.

.

Th: r"Tl period in which the Milesian phocylides rived is difficurt t.pinpoint. The date 544 nc.assu-.d.by ",r.1"r,, p'titotogf ;;;;; been hisfloruit (i.e' his fortieth.year) is probabli .o t"r.. hi,

-."r', ii,glri"r sayirrg,which breathes the snirit,of Solon, :rgg.r" ,".rlr"r;;;;, :fil roo d.t,sPhocylides say: The smalr town on b"iien rock that Iives in lawfur ordcr ismightier than foolish Nineveh.' th" .onqr"st of Nineveh that seared thcdownfall of the overreached Assyrir" g-pi. tookpl"r.irr lli"., *a was r'gvent of massive impact. For a Greek living in Asia Minor, however, t.isrmpact was eclipsed by,the disintegration of"the Lyd;; i;;ir."_ fo. hin., ,,byword for wealth and power. s;.;;;r";rrer event occurred in 547 n

Al(r llAlt I l|l t(Atlrt(tlrriti:rlly, lltt'lt'wtts lt(),lw,ll( rr('ss,rl

.r tlistirrr rr.rrlrt.twt.t'rr rrytlr.rrrtl lrisr,r y:cpic' nrytlrs, irr tlrcir- v:rrious l.rt.;rl grriscs, (.()nstit