The Fragments of Alcman Illustrated E-Book

Alcman of Sparta

• Herausgeber: Delphi Publishing Ltd
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: Delphi Ancient Classics
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 174

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Flourishing in the seventh century BC, Alcman was a choral lyric poet from Sparta. He was the earliest representative of the Alexandrian canon of the Nine Lyric Poets and composed poetry in the local Doric dialect, with Homeric influences. The extant fragments reveal that his verses were mostly hymns composed in long stanzas, comprising lines of varying metres. Alcman’s poetry is noted for its clear, light and pleasant tone, while employing rich visual description. Delphi’s Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both English translations and the original Greek texts. This eBook presents Alcman’s fragments, with illustrations, an informative introduction and bonus material. (Version 1)

* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Alcman's life and works
* Features the extant fragments of Alcman, in both English translation and the original Greek
* Concise introduction to the text
* Features J. M. Edmonds’ 1922 translation, previously appearing in the Loeb Classical Library edition
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* Easily locate the fragments you want to read with individual contents tables
* Features a bonus contextual essay by John Addington Symonds — discover the history of ancient lyric poetry
* Ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres

CONTENTS:

The Translation
The Fragments of Alcman (1922)

The Greek Text
List of Greek Fragments

The Contextual Essay
The Lyric Poets (1873) by John Addington Symonds

Leseprobe

The Fragments of

ALCMAN

(fl. 7th century BC)

Contents

The Translation

The Fragments of Alcman (1922)

The Greek Text

List of Greek Fragments

The Contextual Essay

The Lyric Poets (1873) by John Addington Symonds

The Delphi Classics Catalogue

© Delphi Classics 2023

Version 1

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The Fragments of

ALCMAN OF SPARTA

By Delphi Classics, 2023

COPYRIGHT

The Fragments of Alcman

First published in the United Kingdom in 2023 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2023.

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 the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 80170 145 7

Delphi Classics

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The Translation

Ruins of ancient Sparta — Alcman’s birthplace

Depiction of Ancient Sparta by John Steeple Davis, 1900

The Fragments of Alcman (1922)

Translated by J. M. Edmonds, Loeb Classical Library, 1922

Flourishing in the seventh century BC, Alcman was a choral lyric poet from Sparta. Little is known about his life. The earliest representative of the Alexandrian canon of the Nine Lyric Poets, he wrote six books of choral poetry, most of which is now lost; only quotations survive in the works of other ancient authors and fragmentary papyri discovered in Egypt. Alcman’s poetry was composed in the local Doric dialect, with Homeric influences. The extant fragments reveal that his verses were mostly hymns composed in long stanzas, comprising lines in several different metres.

Alcman’s nationality was disputed even in antiquity. The records of the ancient authors were often deduced from biographic readings of their poetry and the details are often untrustworthy. Antipater of Thessalonica wrote that both “the continents of Europe and Asia” claimed Alcman as their son. Others assumed he was born in Sardis, capital of ancient Lydia, though the Suda (a tenth century Byzantine lexicon) claimed that Alcman was actually a Laconian from Messoa. This settlement existed before the Dorian conquest and was united with three other such settlements (Pitane, Limnae and Cynosura) by a common sacrifice to Artemis. Messoa was eventually coalesced into ancient Sparta. It is probable that the settlement was in the southeast part of the city, although its site remains undiscovered.

The compound nature of Alcman’s dialect only added to the uncertainty of his origins, but the many references to Lydian and Asian culture in the fragments hint at a Lydian origin. In one fragment, Alcman claims he learned his skills from the “strident partridges” — a bird native to Asia Minor and not naturally found in Greece. Several modern scholars defend his Lydian origin on the basis of the language and content of some of the fragments. Still, in the seventh century Sardis was a cosmopolitan city and so the implicit and explicit references to Lydian culture may be a means of describing the girls of the choruses as fashionable.

A tradition going back to Aristotle suggested that Alcman came to Sparta as a slave to the family of Agesidas and that he was eventually emancipated due to his great poetic skill. Aristotle reported that it was believed Alcman died from a pustulant infestation of lice, though he may have been confused with the philosopher Alcmaeon of Croton. According to Pausanias, Alcman is buried in Sparta next to the shrine of Helen of Troy.

Alcman’s six books of choral poetry (containing 50-60 hymns) were lost at the beginning of the Middle Ages, resulting in the preservation of only a handful of quotations from other Greek authors. However, a significant discovery of a papyrus in 1855 by the French scholar Auguste Mariette in a tomb near the second pyramid at Saqqâra in Egypt greatly improved our understanding of this important early poet. Now held at the Louvre, the papyrus fragment contains approximately 100 verses of a so-called partheneion — a song performed by a chorus of young unmarried women. In the mid-twentieth century, many more fragments were identified and published in a collection of the Egyptian papyri found in a dig at an ancient garbage dump at Oxyrhynchus. Most of these fragments are also part of partheneia, but there are also examples other kinds of hymns, as well as some drinking songs.

Alcman’s verses were composed in the Doric dialect of Sparta (the so-called Laconian dialect). Pausanias argues that even though Alcman used this dialect, which does not usually sound attractive, it “did not spoil the beauty of his songs”. Apollonius Dyscolus describes Alcman as “constantly using the Aeolic dialect”. However, the validity of this judgment is disputed. Also, many of the fragments reveal prosodic, morphological and phraseological features that are common to the Homeric language of epic poetry. This compound of features adds complexity to any analysis of the extant fragments.

Much uncertainty still exists as to how Alcman’s choral works were first performed. Some scholars believe that the chorus was divided in two halves, each with its own leader; at the beginning and close of their performance, the two halves performed as a single group, but during most of the recital, each half would compete with the other, claiming that their leader or favorite was superior of all girls in Sparta. There is, however, little evidence that the chorus was in fact divided. Alcman may have composed songs for Spartan boys as well. Yet, the only statement in support of this comes from Sosibius, a Spartan historian from the second century BC, who reported that songs of Alcman were performed during the Gymnopaedia festival.

Alcman’s poetry is noted for its clear, light and pleasant tone, which is referenced by several ancient commentators. Details from rituals and festivals are described with care, even though the context of some of those details can no longer be understood. His use of language is rich with visual description, conveying an interest in appealing imagery. Much attention is focused on nature: ravines, mountains, flowering forests at night, the quiet sound of water lapping over seaweed. Animals and other creatures are also often included: birds, horses, bees, lions, reptiles and even crawling insects.

The Suda describes Alcman as a man “of an extremely amorous disposition and the inventor of love poems.” The longest extant fragment — the papyrus discovered in Egypt in 1855 — was probably written to celebrate a rite of passage and is characterised by sensuous imagery and erotic implications. Early research into the poet tended to overlook the erotic aspect of love presented in Alcman’s poems. More recent scholars have commented on how his portrayal of homoerotic love is similar to that found in the lyrics of the contemporaneous Sappho. The homosexual relationship between the female choral singers could be likened to the pederasty of the Spartan males and was possibly an integrated part of the initiation rites. At a much later period, relying on older sources, Plutarch wrote that the Spartan women were engaged in same sex relationships. Still, it remains uncertain if these relationships tended to have a physical side and, if so, of what nature.

Alcman’s light-hearted manner, which differs greatly from the later Spartan style, gave rise to the traditional notion that he was not a Spartan, but a native of Sardis. However, it is important to remember that recent research has indentified how Sparta in the seventh century BC enjoyed a brilliant cultural life, fitting perfectly with Alcman’s style and vocabulary. Only in the ensuing centuries would the city become associated with a more severe and frugal form of culture.

Mosaic portrait of Alcman in Jerash, Jordan, late second century AD

View of the Saqqara necropolis, Egypt, including Djoser’s step pyramid (centre), the Pyramid of Unas (left) and the Pyramid of Userkaf (right). The most important fragment of Alcman was discovered here in 1855.

CONTENTS

Fragments Regarding Alcman’s Life

Fragments of Alcman’s Poetry

BOOKS I AND II. MAIDEN SONGS

FRAGMENT 1

FRAGMENT 2A-2C TO THE DIOSCURI

FRAGMENT 2B

FRAGMENT 2C

FRAGMENT 3-7 TO THE DIOSCURI or TO LYCAEAN ZEUS

FRAGMENT 4

FRAGMENT 5

FRAGMENT 6

FRAGMENT 7

FRAGMENTS 8-15 TO LYCAEAN ZEUS

FRAGMENT 9

FRAGMENT 10

FRAGMENT 11

FRAGMENTS 12, 13

FRAGMENT 14

FRAGMENT 15

FRAGMENT 16 TO HERA

FRAGMENTS 17-23 TO ARTEMIS 33

FRAGMENT 18

FRAGMENT 19

FRAGMENT 20

FRAGMENT 21

FRAGMENT 22

FRAGMENT 23

FRAGMENT 24 TO APHRODITE

FRAGMENT 25

FRAGMENT 26

FRAGMENT 27

FRAGMENTS 28–35 39

FRAGMENT 29 40

FRAGMENT 30 41

FRAGMENT 31 43

FRAGMENT 32 44

FRAGMENT 33 45

FRAGMENT 34

FRAGMENT 35

FRAGMENT 36

FRAGMENT 37

FRAGMENT 38

FRAGMENT 39

FRAGMENT 40

FRAGMENT 41

FRAGMENT 42

BOOK III. 52

FRAGMENT 43

FRAGMENT 44

FRAGMENT 45

FRAGMENT 46

FRAGMENT 47

FRAGMENT 48

FRAGMENT 49

FRAGMENT 50

FRAGMENT 51

FRAGMENT 52

FRAGMENT 53

FRAGMENT 54

FRAGMENT 55

FRAGMENT 56

FRAGMENT 57

FRAGMENT 58

FRAGMENT 59

FRAGMENT 60

FRAGMENT 61

FRAGMENT 62

FRAGMENT 63

FRAGMENT 64

FRAGMENT 65

FRAGMENT 66

FRAGMENT 67

FRAGMENT 68

FRAGMENT 69

FRAGMENT 70

FRAGMENT 71

FRAGMENT 72

FRAGMENT 73, 74

FRAGMENT 75

FRAGMENT 76

FRAGMENT 77

FRAGMENTS 78, 79

FRAGMENT 80

FRAGMENT 81 70

FRAGMENT 82

FRAGMENT 83

FRAGMENT 84

FRAGMENTS 85, 86

FRAGMENT 87

FRAGMENT 88

FRAGMENT 89

FRAGMENT 90

FRAGMENT 91

FRAGMENT 92

FRAGMENT 93

FRAGMENT 94

FRAGMENT 95

FRAGMENT 96

FRAGMENT 97

FRAGMENT 98

FRAGMENT 99

FRAGMENT 100

FRAGMENT 101

FRAGMENT 102

FRAGMENT 103

FRAGMENT 104

FRAGMENT 105

FRAGMENT 106

FRAGMENT 107

FRAGMENT 108

FRAGMENT 109

FRAGMENT 110

FRAGMENT 111

FRAGMENT 112

FRAGMENT 113

FRAGMENT 114

FRAGMENT 115

FRAGMENT 116

FRAGMENT 117

FRAGMENT 118

FRAGMENT 119

FRAGMENT 120

FRAGMENT 121

FRAGMENT 122

FRAGMENT 123

FRAGMENT 124

FRAGMENT 125

FRAGMENT 126

FRAGMENT 127

FRAGMENT 128

FRAGMENT 129

BOOK IV. LOVES SONGS

FRAGMENT 130

FRAGMENT 131

FRAGMENT 132

FRAGMENT 133

FRAGMENT 134

FRAGMENT 135

FRAGMENT 136

BOOK V. DRINKING-SONGS

FRAGMENT 137

FRAGMENT 138

FRAGMENT 139

FRAGMENT 140

FRAGMENT 141

FRAGMENT 142

FRAGMENT 143

FRAGMENT 144

BOOK VI. 101

FRAGMENT 145

FRAGMENT 146

FRAGMENT 147

FRAGMENT 148

FRAGMENT 149

FRAGMENT 150

FRAGMENT 151

FRAGMENT 152

FRAGMENT 153

FRAGMENT 154

FRAGMENT 155

FRAGMENT 156

FRAGMENT 157

FRAGMENT 158

FRAGMENT 159

FRAGMENT 160

FRAGMENT 161

FRAGMENT 162

FRAGMENT 163

FRAGMENT 164

FRAGMENT 165

ENDNOTES.

The French scholar Auguste Mariette, photographed by Nadar, c. 1861

P. Oxy. 8 — a fragment of Alcman

Fragments Regarding Alcman’s Life

Suidas Lexicon:Alcman:– A Laconian of Messoa, wrongly called by Crates a Lydian of Sardis. A lyric poet, the son of Damas or, according to some authorities, of Titarus. He flourished in the 37th Olympiad (B.C. 631-625), when Ardys father of Alyattes was king of Lydia. He was of an extremely amorous disposition and the inventor of love-poems, but by birth a slave. He wrote six Books of lyric poems, and was the first to adopt the practice of not accompanying the hexameter with music.1 Being a Spartan, he uses the Doric dialect.

Aelian Historical Miscellanies 12. 50:The Spartans, who bent was for bodily exercises and feats of arms, had no skill in music. Yet if ever they required the aid o the Muses on occasion of general sickness of body or mind or any like public affliction, their custom was to send for foreigners, at the bidding of the Delphic oracle, to act as healers and purifiers. For instance they summoned Terpander, Thales, Tyrtaeus, Nymphaeus of Cydonia, and Alcman.

Velleius Paterculus Roman History 1. 18. 2:The Spartan claim to Alcman is false.

Palatine Anthology 7. 709:Alexander of Aetolia: Ancient Sardis, abode of my fathers, had I been reared in you I should have been a maund-bearer unto Cybele or beaten pretty tambours as one of her gilded eunuchs; but instead my name is Alcman and my home Sparta, town of prize-tripods, and the lore I know is of the Muses of Helicon, who have made me a greater king even than Gyges son of Dasyclus.

Ibid. 7. 18:Antipater of Thessalonica on Alcman: Judge not the man by the gravestone. The tomb you see is small, but it holds the bones of a great man. You shall know this for Alcman, striker pre-eminent of the Laconian lyre, one possessed of the nine Muses.2 And twin continents dispute whether he is of Lydia or Laconia; for the mothers of a minstrel are many.

Heracleides of Pontus Constitutions 2:Alcman was the salve of Agesidas, but received his freedom because he was a man of parts.3

Eusebius Chronicle 403:Olympiad 42. 2 (B.C. 611): Flourished Alcman, according to some authorities.

Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner 15. 678b:[on garlands]: “Thyreateic”:– This, according to Sosibius in his tract on Sacrifices, is the name of a kind of garland at Sparta, made of palm-leaves, and known nowadays as psilinos. These garlands, he says, are worn in memory of the victory at Thyrea by the leaders of the choruses which dance on the festival of that victory, which coincides with the Gymnopaidiae or Feast of Naked Youths. These choruses are three in number, the youths in front, the old men on the right, and the men on the left; and they dance naked, singing songs by Thaletas and Alcman and the paeans of the Spartan Dionysodotus.

Aristotle History of Animals 557 a1:[on the morbus pedicularis]: Mankind is liable to this disease when the body contains too much moisture, and several victims of it are recorded, notably the poet Alcman and Pherecydes the Syrian.

Pausanias Description of Greece 3. 15. 1:[on Sparta]: Behind the colonnade which runs beside the Grove of Planes there are shrines of Alcimus and Enarsphorus and, close by, one of Dorceus, and adjoining this again one of Sebrus, all of whom are said to have been sons of Hippocoön. The spring near one of them is called Dorceian after Dorceus, and the plot near another, Sebrian after Sebrus. On the right of this plot is a monument to Alcman “whose poems were not made the less sweet because he used the tongue of Sparta,” a dialect not too euphonious. The temples of Helen and Heracles lie the one near the tomb of Alcman, the other close to the wall. In the latter there is a statue of Heracles armed, this form being due, it is said, to the fight he had with Hippocoön and his sons.

Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner 14. 638e:The author of the comedy called The Helots says: “It is old-fashioned to sing Stesichorus, or Alcman, or Simonides. We can listen to Gnesippus...”

Suidas Lexicon:Philochorus... wrote... a treatise on Alcman.

Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner 14. 646a:Similarly Sosibius in the 3rd Book of his Treatise on Alcman.

Stephanus of Byzantium Lexicon:... as Alexander Cornelius says in his tract On the Topical Allusions of Alcman.

Hephaestion 138 On Graphical Signs:The outward-looking diplè is frequent in the works of the comic and tragic writers, but unusual in those of the lyrists. It occurs in Alcman, who in writing a poem of fourteen stanzas made the first seven alike of one metre, and the rest alike of another; in these the diplè is placed where the second part begins, to indicate that the poem is written in two different metres.

See also A.P. 7. 19, Plin. N.H. 11. 112, Plut. Sulla 36, Christod. Ecphr. 395.

Fragments of Alcman’s Poetry

BOOKS I AND II. MAIDEN SONGS

FRAGMENT 1

Scholiast on Clement of Alexandria 4. 107 Klotz:There was a Spartan called Hippocoön whose sons, called after him the Hippocoöntids, killed in anger Oeonus son of Licymnius, a companion of Heracles, because he had killed a dog of theirs. Heracles’ revenge was to levy war upon them, and he killed many of them and was wounded in the hand himself. The story is told by Alcman in his first Book.

From a First-Century Papyrus, the Mariette Papyrus:

[1]…Polydeuces.4 Among the slain ’tis true I cannot reckon Lycaeus, but both Enarsphorus I can and the swift Sebrus, Alcimus the mighty and Hippothoüs the helmeted, Euteiches and chieftain Areïus, and [Acmon] noblest of demigods. And shall we pass Scaeus by, that was so great a captain of the host, and Eurytus and Alcon that were supremest of heroes in the tumult of the battle-mellay? Not so; vanquished were they all by the eldest of Gods, to wit by Destiny (Aisa) and Device (Poros), and their strength had not so much as a shoe to her foot. Nay, mortal man may not go soaring to the heavens, nor seek to wed the Queen of Paphos or to wive any silver-shining daughter of Porcus5 of the sea; inviolate also is that chamber of Zeus where dwell the Graces whose eyes look love6... went; and they perished one of them by an arrow and another by a millstone of hard rock, till one and all were had to Hell. These by their own folly did seek them their dooms, and their evil imaginations brought them into suffering never to be forgot.

[36] Verily there is a vengeance from on high, and happy he that weaveth merrily one day’s weft without a tear. And so, as for me, I7 sing now of the light that is Agido’s. Bright I see it as the very sun’s which the same Agido now invoketh to shine upon us.8 And yet neither praise nor blame can I give at all to such as she without offence to our splendid leader, who herself appeareth as pre-eminent as would a well-knit steed of ringing hoof that overcometh in the race, if he were set to graze among the unsubstantial cattle9 of our dreams that fly.

[50] See you not first that the courser is of Enetic blood, and secondly that the tresses that bloom upon my cousin Hagesichora10 are like the purest gold? and as for her silvern face, how shall I put it you in express words? Such is Hagesichora; and yet she whose beauty shall run second not unto hers but unto Agido’s, shall run as courser Colaxaean to pure Ibenian-bred; for as we bear along her robe to Orthia, these our Doves11 rise to fight for us12 amid the ambrosial night not as those heavenly Doves but brighter, aye even as Sirius himself.

[64] For neither is abundance of purple defence enough,13 nor speckled snake of pure gold, nor the Lydian wimple that adorns the sweet and soft-eyed maid, nor yet the tresses of our Nanno, nay nor Areta the goddess-like, nor Thylacis and Cleësithera, nor again shalt thou go to Aenesimbrota’s and say “Give me Astaphis and let me see Philylla, and Damareta and the lovely Ianthemis;” there is no need of that, for I am safe14 with Hagesichora.

[74] For it is not the fair-ankled Hagesichora here present and abideth hard by Agido to commend our Thosteria?15 Then O receive their prayers, ye Gods; for to the Gods belongeth the accomplishment. And for the end of my song I will tell you a passing strange thing. My own singing hath been nought; I that am a girl have yet shrieked like a very owl from the housetop – albeit ’tis the same girl’s desire to please Aotis16 as far as in her lies, seeing the Goddess is the healer of our woe17 –; ’tis Hagesichora’s doing, hers alone, that the maidens have attained the longed-for peace.18

[92] For ’tis true the others have run well beside her even as horses beside the trace-horse; but here as on shipboard the steersman must needs have a good loud voice, and Hagesichora – she may not outsing the Sirens, for they are Gods, but I would set her higher than any child of human breed. Aye, she sings like a very swan beside the yellow streams of Xanthus, and she that cometh next to that knot of yellow hair... 19

FRAGMENT 2A-2C TO THE DIOSCURI

Stephanus of Byzantium Lexicon:Erysichè: A city of Acarnania... its adjective is Erusichaios “Erysichaean,” about which there is much discussion in the old writers. For Herodian says that Erusichaios is marked in our texts because it is accented proparaxytone though an ethnic adjective; and perhaps therefore it really contains chaios “a cowherd’s staff”and the future of eruô “to draw.” It will be ambiguous then, as is clear, in Alcman near the beginning of the second of his Maiden-Songs, where he says:

No boor art thou nor a lubber, nor yet a tender of sties, nay nor Thessalian born, nor Erysichaean (or drag-staff), nor a keeper of sheep, but a man of highest Sardis.