Lesser and Anonymous Fragments of Greek Lyric Poetry: A Commentary

390 Pages·2021·14.958 MB·English

by  Malcolm Davies (editor)

LESSER AND ANONYMOUS FRAGMENTS
OF GREEK LYRIC POETRY
See pages 293-4. (From Carl Robert, Bild und Lied (1881) p.82.)
Lesser and Anonymous
Fragments of Greek Lyric
Poetry: A Commentary
EDITED BY MALCOLM DAVIES
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Preface
Tucked away at the back of editions or anthologies, the lyric poems, commented
on in this, and re-edited in the accompanying volume, have generally suffered
neglect, for reasons with which one can partly sympathise. They are sometimes
anonymous, almost invariably fragmentary, often textually corrupt and lacu-
nose, and frequently so brief as apparently to defy interpretation. Yet they
include such unusual works as fragments of Telesilla and Praxilla, two of the
very few female poets of antiquity other than Sappho. They also include part of
a victory ode by Euripides; the only lyric poem we know Aristotle to have com-
posed; and a lengthy versified account of the menu of a banquet. Also, what
may be the oldest Greek hymn, or indeed poem, to survive from ancient Greece.
They embrace a dazzlingly wide range of what we may call sub-genres:
Dithyramb, Paean, Scolia, hymns, and prayers; and they throw various light on
Greek history, religion, and culture. Some of them originated in the interval
between the deaths of Sophocles and Euripides and the rise of Hellenistic
poetry, a period about whose literature we still know frustratingly little. Until
relatively recently, hardly any concerted work had been published on any of
them in English since Herbert Weir Smyth's meritorious but now antiquated
commentary, Greek Melic Poets of 1900 (‘the most erudite and scholarly contri-
bution that America has yet made to the exegesis of Greek poetry, as B.L.
Gildersleeve assured Smyth: Letters (ed. W. W. Briggs, p.235)). But research has
now finally started to explore these pieces, and with the help of this I have
brought to completion the commentary that follows. Housman once identified
‘diffidence and flexibility’ as the keynotes to editing a certain non-fragmentary
Latin poet (CR 34 (1920)122 = Classical Papers 3.1007) and, given that we regu-
larly know so little—if anything!—of a given fragment's author and style, the
same qualities seem called for in handling our authors. Praxilla 754, for
instance, seems to me a perfect specimen of the type of composition where
secure conclusions are impossible for the reasons cited.
Having thus embarked on self-exculpation, let me next address what may be
regarded as sins of commission or omission. The present volume contains com-
mentaries on fragments included in Pages PMG even when it is likely that they
do not represent the lyric genre. The reader will meet the most obvious instance
near the beginning, with Pratinas' fascinating fr.708, long suspected to be, and
now almost universally accepted as, from the chorus of a satyr-play. This con-
sideration did not seem to me to exclude discussion of its fascinating content.
I have also commented on those citational fragments overlooked by PMG but
to which other scholars drew attention; and on those fragments in SLG not too
vi Preface
exiguous for comment. In addition, I have also supplied commentaries as
appropriate on the ancient testimonia to the life and art of our poets, which will
be included in the accompanying volume of texts, with the same numeration as
Campbell's Loeb edition. Recent research has increasingly revealed what one
might describe as ‘interaction’ between testimonia and fragments: precisely
because recorded traditions about a poet's life all too often transpire to contain
simplistic biographical inferences from his works, testimonia may conceal
valuable details regarding the latter. An even more recent development seeks to
interpret these testimonia under the rubric ‘reception, as revealing not reliable
biographical data, but ancient interpretations of the poets’ work. Here too
I have tried to provide suitable comment.
On the other hand, I have written nothing about perhaps the most signifi-
cant area in later Greek lyric, Timotheus Persae and his other fragments. After
Horderns detailed commentary, it seemed misdirection of time and effort to
engage in what would inevitably involve much duplication. A similar consid-
eration will explain if not excuse the lack of a more substantial set of Prolegomena
introducing the more important poets and in particular dealing with that
difficult but highly significant issue, definition of the sub-genres, Dithyramb,
Paean, and the like. Again, recent research has produced much illumination on
this matter, which really needs to be assessed and exploited, rather than repeat-
ed. What is now required and what is herewith supplied is detailed commen-
taries on the fragments providing a basis upon which further research may
proceed.
Returning finally to the dazzlingly wide range of sub-genres' outlined in the
first paragraph above, I confess that I have sometimes been inclined to wonder
whether co-authorship by a committee of experts in different fields would not
have produced a better result. However, I have done my best and here it is.
Several colleagues have helped me with specific individual problems, and this
help is gratefully acknowledged ad locc. At a more general level, Mark de Kreij
read through and variously improved a relatively early draft, and, at a much
later stage of proceedings, Gauthier Liberman and an anonymous reader drew
attention to several recent relevant studies, which I had overlooked.
It is precisely because the wide range just mentioned will presumably attract
an equally wide range of readers wishing to consult only parts of this book,that
I have deliberately erred in the direction of repeating full citations of all but the
most frequently mentioned secondary literature. To a bibliography of the latter
the reader is now invited to turn.
M.D.
Contents
Abbreviations and General Bibliography
List of Poets and Poems xiii
Commentaries
I Lesser Greek Lyric Fragments Assigned to Known Authors
II Carmina Popularia: ‘Popular’ Poetry, Largely Fragmentary,
in Lyric Metres
III Carmina Convivalia: Scolia: Drinking Songs Performed at Symposia
IV Fragmenta Adespota: Anonymous Lyric Fragments, Including those
Preserved on Papyri, Lapidary Inscriptions and on Vases
Addenda
Index Rerum
Index Nominum
Index Verborum

Abbreviations and General Bibliography
EDITIONS, COMMENTARIES, AND TRANSLATIONS
CITED BY AUTHOR'S NAME ALONE
Of Greek Lyric poems commented on in this volume
Bergk Th. Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci (1st edn. 1863, 4th edn.1882,
repr. 1924)
Campbell D.A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry (London 1967, repr. 1972)
Campbell* D.A. Campbell, Greek Lyric: the new school of poetry and
anonymous songs and hymns [vol.5 of Loeb Greek Lyric (1993)]
Edmonds Lyra Graeca [vol.3 of superseded Loeb (1927)]
Farnell G.S. Farnell, Greek Lyric Poetry (London 1891)
Hartung J.A. Hartung, Die gr. Lyriker: Skolien- Lohn- und Preisdichter
(Leipzig 1857)
Page D.L. Page, Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford 1962)
Smyth W.S. Smyth, Greek Melic Poets (London 1900)
Note also West* = M.L. West, CR 45 (1995) 11-13 [review of Campbell*]
Abreviations of editions of other fragmentary poems
Lloyd-Jones and Parsons, Supplementum Hellenisticum (Berlin 1983) = SH
Lloyd-Jones, Supplementum Supplementi Hellenistici (Berlin 2005) = SSH
Powell, CA Collectanea Alexandrina (Oxford 1925) = CA
Other fragmentarily preserved authors are cited from the editions listed in A
Canon of Greek Authors and Works, ed. L. Berkowitz and K.A. Squiter, 3rd edn.
(Oxford 1999: see esp. pp.lv-lvii). Note that early epic fragments are cited from
my Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Góttingen 1988), Stesichorean from
Davies and Finglass (Cambridge 2014), and Euripidean from Kannicht's two
volume edition (Góttingen 2004). For fragmentarily preserved inscriptional
epigrams, note P. A. Hansen, Carmina Epigraphica Graeca saec. VIII-V Chr.N.
(Berlin 1983) = CEG 1.
Other Greek authors are generally cited from the editions listed in Berkowitz
and Squiter.
X Abbreviations and General Bibliography
MONOGRAPHS CITED BY ABBREVIATED TITLE
Monographs specifically devoted to Greek Lyric
Bowra, GLP? Greek Lyric Poetry? (Oxford 1961)
Schneidewin, Beitráge ^ Beitráge zur Kritik der Poetae Lyrici Graeci ed. Bergk
(Góttingen 1844)
Wilamowitz, Textg. Textgeschichte der Griechische Lyrik (Berlin 1900)
SS Sappho und Simonides (Berlin 1913)
NOTE For a bibliography of recent monographs on ‘sub-genres’ such as
Dithyramb or Paean see p.xi below.
Monographs of more general application
D. Fehling Wiederholungsfiguren und ihre Gebrauch bei den
Griechen vor Gorgias (Berlin 1969)
W.D. Furley and Greek Hymns (Tübingen 2001), vols. ! and 2
J.M. Bremer
E. Norden Agnostos Theos: Formgeschichtliche Religiose
Untersuchungen (Leipzig/ Berlin 1912) = AT
S. Pulleyn Prayer in Greek Religion (Oxford 1997) = Prayer
W.H. Race The Classical Priamel from Homer to Boethius
Mnemos. Suppl. 74 (1982) = Priamel
W. Schmidt Geschichte der gr. Literatur I. 1 (Munich 1934) = GGL
M.S. Silk Interaction Interaction in Poetic Imagery (Cambridge
1974) = Interaction
M.L. West Greek Metre (Oxford 1984) - GM
Ancient Greek Music (Oxford 1987) 2 AGM
Wilamowitz Griechische Verskunst (Berlin 1920) = GV
NOTE: The above bibliographies are deliberately general and minimalistic.
Longer and more specialised bibliographies are to be found at the start of each
section devoted to an author; and thereafter within that section at the start of
each individual fragment. Also at the start of the larger sections devoted to
‘popular’ poetry and to scolia and the sections dealing with lyric fragments
preserved as graffiti on vases; and as lapidary inscriptions.
For other abbreviated works, e.g. ‘LSJ, see the lists of ‘Abbreviations of
Frequently Cited Works’ in my The Theban Epics (2014), The Aethiopis (2016),
and The Cypria (2019). Note also R. Fowler, Early Greek Mythography vol.2