The Poetics of Old Age in Greek Epic, Lyric, and Tragedy

364 Pages·1995·5.157 MB·English

by  Thomas M. Falkner

THE POETICS OF OLD AGE
IN GREEK EPIC, LYRIC, AND TRAGEDY
OKLAHOMA SERIES IN CLASSICAL CULTURE
Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture
Series Editor
Susan Ford Wiltshire, Vanderbilt University
Advisory Board
Alfred S. Bradford, University of Oklahoma
Ward W Briggs, Jr., University of South Carolina
Susan Guettel Cole, State University of New York, Buffalo
Carolyn]. Dewald, University of Southern California
Thomas M. Falkner, The College of Wooster
Elaine Fantham, Princeton University
Nancy Felson-Rubin, University of Georgia
Arther Ferrill, University of Washington
Helene P. Foley, Barnard College
Ronald J. Leprohon, University of Toronto
Thomas R. Martin, College of the Holy Cross
A. Geoffrey Woodhead, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge/Ohio
State University
The Poetics
of Old Age in
Greek Epic, Lyric, and Tragedy
By Tho1nas M. Falkner
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS NORMAN AND LONDON
Falkner, Thomas M., 1947-
The poetics of old age in Greek epic, lyric, and tragedy / by Thomas
M. Falkner.
p. cm.-(Oklahoma series in classical culture; v. 19)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8061-2775-9 (alk. paper)
1. Greek literature-History and criticism. 2. Old age in leterature.
3. Age in literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PA3015.043F35 1995
880.09-dc20 95-17116
CIP
The Poetics of Old Age in Greek Epic, Lyric, and Tragedy is Volume 19 of the
Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture.
Book designed by Bill Cason.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources.9
Copyright© 1995 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publish
ing Division of the University. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the
U.S.A.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
For Renate, Annegret, and Karelisa.
ou8Ev TTaTpYl EPOVT0Lu yaTp6s.
~8LOV
-Euripides, Suppliant Women, 1101-2

CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
1. On the Threshold: Homeric Heroism, Old Age, 3
and the End of the Odyssey
2. Slouching Towards Boeotia: Age and Age-Grading 52
in the Hesiodic Myth of the Five Races
3. Erotic Dismembering, Poetic Remembering: 71
Sappho on Love, the Lyre, and the Life Course
4. Geronterotic Images: Age, Sex, and Society 108
in Early Greek Poetry
5. The Politics and the Poetics of Time: 153
Salon's "Ten Ages"
6. Euripides and the Tragedy of Old Age: 169
Children of Heracles and PhoenicianW omen
7. The Unpolished Rock: Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus 211
and the Lessons of Old Age
Epilogue 260
Notes 265
Glossary of Greek Terms 317
References 319
Index 337

Preface and Acknowledgments
IT was ten years ago that my wife Rose, who was then writing a
paper on the representation of the elderly in contemporary chil
dren's literature, asked me in passing about the treatment of old age
in Greek literature. Was there anything that Greek authors had to
say about this subject that might be relevant to her work? Of my
answer then I remember only that it was singularly unhelpful and
that I was embarassed to have never given the subject much
thought. But the question stuck and has occupied me in one form
or another in the years since, and the results of the inquiry are gath
ered in this book. To Rose I apologize for giving her a real answer
long after it might have done some good, one as prolix now as it
was halting then. I hope that she is pleased with the results.
This book owes much to the many institutions that provided the
time, financial support, and facilities required to complete it. I owe
an enormous debt of thanks to the College of Wooster, its Board of
Trustees and administration, for its generous and enlightened leaves
policy and for the research grants it provided in 1982-83, 1987-88,
and fall 1991, during which different portions of the work were
completed. In particular, I wish to acknowledge a major grant from
the Henry Luce III Fund for Distinguished Scholarship, which
allowed released time from teaching in spring 1990 and other sup
port that helped to make this work a reality. I am also deeply grate
ful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a Summer
Seminar in 1984, spent at Dartmouth reading Homer with James
Redfield, and for a Summer Stipend in 1989, spent at Cornell
University. I offer my sincere thanks to the faculties and chairper
sons at various departments of Classics where most of this book's
writing was done: Cornell University, Dartmouth University,
Princeton University, the University of California at Berkeley and at
Davis, and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. I
owe these institutions a debt of gratitude for the quality of their
facilities and their faculties and the opportunity to take advantage of
both.
Different versions of the following sections of this volume have
appeared in previous publications. Chapter 1 and the section of
Preface and Acknowledgments
X
chapter 6 entitled "The Wrath of Alcmene: Gender, Old Age, and
Vengeance in Children of Heracles" in Old Age in Greek and Latin
Literature, eds. Thomas M. Falkner and Judith de Luce (The State
University of New York Press, © 1989); chapter 2 in Classical
Antiquity 8 (1989): 42-60, © 1989 by the Regents of the University
of California; chapter 5 in The Classical Journal 86 (1990): 1-15, ©
1990 by the University of Virginia; the section of chapter 6 entitled
"Euripides' Stagecraft of Old Age" in The Many Faces of Drama, ed.
K. Hartigan (University Press of America, © 1985). I would like to
express my thanks to the publishers and editors of these materials
for granting permission to use them here.
I am also grateful to my faculty colleagues and to friends in and
out of Classics for their kindness and support over the years. Many
individuals have helped to nurture the ideas in this book to comple
tion in special ways, great and small, and of these I would thank in
particular Thomas Cole, Judith de Luce, Jenny Strauss Clay; Judith
Hallett, Karelisa Hartigan, Vivian Holliday, John Peradotto, James
Redfield, William C. Scott, James Strickland, David Traill, and
Thomas van N ortwick.
The greatest debt of all is owed to my family. They have endured
massive doses of boring conversation, countless inconveniences,
and at times the outright neglect that is the inevitable by-product of
a project like this. It is my deepest hope that the results below will
help to subtract in some way from the sum total.