Overview

Recent scholarship on early Greek lyric has been primarily concerned with the immediate contexts of its first performance. This volume instead turns its attention to the rhetoric and realities of poetic permanence. Taking Pindar and archaic Greek literary culture as its focus, it offers a new reading of Pindar's victory odes which explores not only how they were received by those who first experienced them, but also what they can mean to later audiences. Part One of the discussion investigates Pindar's relationship to both of these audiences, demonstrating how his epinicia address the listeners present at their premiere performance and also a broader secondary audience across space and time. It argues that a full appreciation of these texts involves taking both perspectives into account. Part Two describes how Pindar engages with a wide variety of other poetry, particularly earlier lyric, in order to situate his work both within an immanent poetic history and a contemporary poetic culture. It shows how Pindar's vision of the world shaped the meaning of his work and illuminates the context within which he anticipated its permanence. The book offers new insights into the texts themselves and invites us to rethink early Greek poetic culture through a combination of historical and literary perspectives.

Full Product Details

Author:   Henry Spelman (Christ's College, Cambridge, Christ's College, Cambridge, WHD Rouse Junior Research Fellow)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.70cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 22.30cm
Weight:   0.594kg
ISBN:  

9780198821274

ISBN 10:   0198821271
Pages:   376
Publication Date:   17 May 2018
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter Note on Translations and Conventions List of Abbreviations Precis Part One: Pindar's Audiences Introduction to Part One I: Secondary Audiences I.1: Knowledge of first performance I.2: Knowledge of external realities I.2.A: Public matters I.2.B: Individual circumstances I.2.C: Mythology I.3: Difficult pleasures I.4: Orality and writing II: Vital Light in Isthmian 4 III: Event and Artefact: From Performance to Permanence III.1: Isthmian 2.43 8 III.2: Olympian 10.91 6 III.3: Bacchylides 13.220 31 III.4: Pindar fr. 52o III.5: Nemean 3.76 84 III.6: Bacchylides 3.90 8 III.7: Conclusions IV: The Poetics of Permanence IV.1: Time travel and tradition: Pythian 1 IV.2: The victor's perspective: Nemean 4 IV.3: Epinician lessons: Pythian 6 IV.4: Epic analogues: Pythian 3 IV.5: Epigrammatic interactions: Nemean 5 IV.6: Interwoven perspectives: Nemean 7 and Paean 6 V: Genre and Tradition V.1: Genre V.1.A: Occasions and audiences in cultic poetry V.1.B: Permanence outside epinician V.1.B.i: Paean 7b V.1.B.ii: Dithyramb 2 (fr. 70b) V.1.C: Conclusions: rhetoric and reality V.2: Tradition V.2.A: Alcman and Stesichorus V.2.B: Alcaeus and Sappho V.2.C: Ibycus and Anacreon V.2.D: Common considerations V.2.E: Conclusions: development and continuity V.3: Coda Part Two: Pindar and the Traditions of Lyric Introduction to Part Two VI: The Epinician Past VI.1: Epinician origins in history: athletics, Ibycus, Simonides VI.2: Epinician origins in epinician: from revel to literature VI.2.A: Nemean 8 VI.2.B: Olympian 10 VI.3: The flowers of new poems: Olympian 9 VII: The Epinician Present VII.1: Generic references VII.2: The poet's career VII.3: Patrons and communities VII.4: Other eulogists VII.5: Epinician revels VII.6: Nemean 6 VII.7: Conclusions VIII: The Lyric Past VIII.1: Lyric history VIII.2: Generic enrichment VIII.2.A: Pythian 2 VIII.2.B: Pythian 1 VIII.2.C: Isthmian 2 VIII.3: Conclusions Epilogue Endmatter Bibliography 1. Texts 2. Works cited Index

Reviews

Spelman's thought-provoking book, with a wide variety of literary evidence and the brand new perspectives he offers, is a useful work that accomplishes its aleged purpose. I therefore recommend it to all interested readers. * M Sotiriou, CJ-Online *

Author Information

Henry Spelman was raised in Philadelphia and received his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2015. He is the author of numerous articles on early Greek poetry and currently holds the WHD Rouse Junior Research Fellowship at Christ's College, Cambridge.

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