Pindar and the Poetics of Permanence
Published on 17. May 2018
Book
Hardback
376 pages
978-0-19-882127-4 (ISBN)
Description
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.
Reviews / Votes
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 *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
604 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-882127-4 (9780198821274)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Henry Spelman
Pindar and the Poetics of Permanence
E-Book
05/2018
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€64.49
Available for download
Henry Spelman
Pindar and the Poetics of Permanence
E-Book
04/2018
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€64.49
Available for download
Person
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.
Content
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
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