The Stanzaic Architecture of Early Greek Elegy

by Christopher A. Faraone

Overview

In this study of poetic form in early Greek elegy, Christopher A. Faraone argues against the prevailing assumption that it was a genre of stichic poetry derived from or dependent on epic verse. Faraone emphasizes the fact that early elegiac poets composed their songs to the tune of an aulos (a kind of oboe) and used a five-couplet stanza as a basic unit of composition. He points out how knowledge of the elegiac stanza can give us insight into how these poets alternated between stanzas of exhortation and meditation, used co-ordinated pairs of stanzas to construct lengthy arguments about excellence or proper human government, and created generic set pieces that they could deploy in longer compositions. Faraone's close analysis of nearly all the important elegiac fragments will greatly enhance understanding and appreciation of this poetic genre.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191553189
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	04/24/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Christopher A. Faraone is The Springer Professor of Classics and the Humanities, University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Note on Abbreviations and Transliterations     xii
Introduction     1
Internal Structure     16
Stanzas with an Internal Twist     16
Archilochus 13
Mimnermus 1 and 2
Ring-Composition and Prayers     23
Theognidea 1341-50 (= Evenus 8c), 183-92, 341-50 and 773-88
Tyrtaeus 4
Catalogues and Priamels     31
'Simonides' Epigram XVI (Page)
Tyrtaeus 12.1-10
Solon 13.33-42 and 43-62 (the midsection of 'Hymn to the Muses')
Composition     44
Alternation     45
Tyrtaeus 10 and 11.1-20
Callinus 1
Theognidea 19-38 ('The Seal Poem')
Coordination     60
Tyrtaeus 11.21-38
Solon 27 ('Ages of Man')
Performance     71
The Sympotic Setting     72
Adespota Elegiaca 27 ('Elephantine Poem')
Ion of Chios 27
Generic 'City-Poems' as Vehicles for Political Debate     76
Theognidea 39-48 and 53-62
Solon 4.1-10
A Fragment of a Theognidean Chain     86
Theognidea 467-96 (= Evenus 8a)
Improvisation     93
Theognidea 699-718
Tyrtaeus 12
Innovation and Archaism     114
The Six-Couplet Stanzas of Xenophanes     116
Euripides Andromache 103-16 and the Tradition of Elegiac Lament     127
Revival     138
Callimachus, Aetia 1-38 ('Prologue')
Conclusions     156
Appendice
Elegiac Digressions (Mimnermus 12)     165
Solon 4 ('Eunomia')     168
Theognidea 133-42     175
Glossary     177
Bibliography     179
Indexes     189

Editorial Reviews

"[B]uilding on nineteenth-century scholarship, Faraone gives us a modern reading of these archaic poems. Anyone interested in archaic Greece on in poetic performance will this book with profit."—Anne Mahoney, The Classical Outlook

From the Publisher