The Poetics of Victory in the Greek West: Epinician, Oral Tradition, and the Deinomenid Empire

374 Pages·2015·2.36 MB·English

by  Nigel Nicholson

The Poetics of Victory in the Greek West
GREEKS OVERSEAS
Series Editors
Carla Antonaccio and Nino Luraghi
This series presents a forum for new interpretations of Greek settlement
in the ancient Mediterranean in its cultural and political aspects. Focusing
on the period from the Iron Age until the advent of Alexander, it seeks to
undermine the divide between colonial and metropolitan Greeks. It wel-
comes new scholarly work from archaeological, historical, and literary
perspectives, and invites interventions on the history of scholarship about
the Greeks in the Mediterranean.
A Small Greek World
Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean
Irad Malkin
Italy’s Lost Greece
Magna Graecia and the Making of Modern Archaeology
Giovanna Ceserani
The Invention of Greek Ethnography
From Homer to Herodotus
Joseph E. Skinner
Pindar and the Construction of Syracusan Monarchy
in the Fifth
Century b.c.
Kathryn A. Morgan
The Poetics of Victory in the Greek West
Epinician, Oral Tradition, and the Deinomenid Empire
Nigel Nicholson
The Poetics of Victory
in the Greek West
Epinician, Oral Tradition,
and the Deinomenid Empire
Nigel Nicholson
1
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of
Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research,
scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK
and in certain other countries
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
© Oxford University Press 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior
permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law,
by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization.
Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the
Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file at the Library of Congress
ISBN 978–0–19–020909–4
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Amicis Cataniensibus

CONTENTS
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xiii
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xvii
List of Abbreviations xix
Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Hero-Athlete Narrative 21

Chapter 2 Epinician and the Hero-Athlete Narrative 51

Chapter 3 Politics and Athlopolitics in Sicily and Southern Italy 79

Chapter 4 Epizephyrian Locri: Hagesidamus and Euthymus 99

Chapter 5 Croton: Astylus and Philippus 161

Chapter 6 Sicily under Gelon: The Two Glaucuses 203

Chapter 7 Sicily under and after Hieron: Ergoteles of Himera and
Tisander of Naxos 237

Chapter 8 Beyond the Deinomenids: Alexidamus of
Metapontum 277
Conclusion 309
Bibliography 319
Index 341

LIST OF FIGURES
3.1 Map of Sicily and southern Italy  87
4.1 Votive plaque for the cult of Euthymus, showing a statute of a bull
with a human face, with the inscription Εὐθύμου [ἱ]ε[ρά], “the
sacred statue of Euthymus,” visible on the pedestal, ca. 350–300.
Inv. Nr. 110, Museo Nazionale di Reggio Calabria; reproduced
by permission of the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali
e del Turismo n. 143 del 25/08/2014, Soprintendenza per i Beni
Archeologici della Calabria  108
4.2 Temesan alliance coinage, obverse and reverse, ca. 490.
Reproduced by permission, © The Trustees of the British
Museum  110
4.3 Marasà temple at Locri, ca. 470. Photograph by the author  127
4.4 Zeus and Ganymede Acroterion, Olympia, ca. 475. Reproduced by
permission of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut  132
4.5 Syracusan tetradrachm, “Type III,” obverse quadriga with
charioteer being crowned by Nike, reverse Arethusa surrounded
by dolphins, ca. 475. Reproduced by permission of the American
Numismatic Society  146
4.6 Tetradrachm of Gela, obverse quadriga with charioteer crowned
by Nike, reverse man-faced bull, ca. 476–466. Reproduced by
permission of the American Numismatic Society  146