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- Herausgeber: Delphi Publishing Ltd
- Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
- Serie: Delphi Ancient Classics
- Sprache: Englisch
One of the nine canonical lyric poets of Greek antiquity, Stesichorus flourished in the sixth century BC. He is best known for composing epic stories in lyric metres and for the colourful ancient traditions concerning his life. Scholars at Alexandria divided his verses into 26 books, which now only survive in fragments. The extant titles suggest themes from the traditional epic heritage found in mainland Greece and Asia Minor, as well as in Italy and Sicily. Stesichorus’ poetry broke with the epic tradition, in which a single performer declaimed verse in dactylic hexameters, as his lyric verses in the Doric dialect were accompanied by a stringed instrument. He completed the form of the choral ode by adding the epode to the strophe and antistrophe. 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 Stesichorus’ fragments, with illustrations and an informative introduction. (Version 1)
* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Stesichorus’ life and works
* Features the fragments of Stesichorus, in both English translation and the original Greek
* Concise introduction to the text
* Includes J. M. Edmonds’ 1924 translation, previously appearing in the Loeb Classical Library
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* Easily locate the fragments you want to read with individual contents tables
* Features two bonus biographies — discover Stesichorus’ ancient world
* Ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres
CONTENTS:
The Translations
The Fragments
The Greek Texts
List of Greek Texts
The Biographies
Stesichorus (1873) by William Smith
Stesichorus (1911)
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Seitenzahl: 79
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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The Fragments of
STESICHORUS
(c. 630-555 BC)
Contents
The Translations
The Fragments
The Greek Texts
List of Greek Texts
The Biographies
Stesichorus (1873) by William Smith
Stesichorus (1911)
The Delphi Classics Catalogue
© Delphi Classics 2024
Version 1
Browse Ancient Classics
The Fragments of
STESICHORUS OF METAUROS
By Delphi Classics, 2024
COPYRIGHT
The Fragments of Stesichorus
First published in the United Kingdom in 2024 by Delphi Classics.
© Delphi Classics, 2024.
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 181 5
Delphi Classics
is an imprint of
Delphi Publishing Ltd
Hastings, East Sussex
United Kingdom
Contact: [email protected]
www.delphiclassics.com
The Translations
Gioia Tauro, a comune in Calabria, Southern Italy, on the Tyrrhenian coast – Stesichorus was born in Metauros (modern Gioia Tauro) in c. 630 BC.
The Fragments
Translated by J. M. Edmonds, Loeb Classical Library, 1924
Regarded by the scholars of the Hellenistic age as one of the canonical nine lyric poets, Stesichorus flourished in the sixth century BC. He is best known for composing epic stories in lyric metres and for the colourful ancient traditions concerning his life, such as his opposition to the tyrant Phalaris and the blindness he is said to have incurred and cured by composing verses first insulting and then flattering Helen of Troy. Although his work attracted relatively little interest among ancient commentators, resulting in a low number of extant fragments, Stesichorus exerted an important influence on the representation of myth in sixth century art and on the development of Athenian dramatic poetry.
He was born in Metauros (modern-day Gioia Tauro, southern Italy) in c. 630 BC. Some commentators claimed that he came from Himera in Sicily, but this is now believed to be false. When exiled from Pallantium in Arcadia he came to Katane (Catania) in Sicily, where he is believed to have died in 555 BC. There is still much confusion regarding the dates and events of his life. We do know that he was later than the lyric poet Alcman, since he was born in the 37th Olympiad (632/28 BC). He died in the 56th Olympiad (556/2 BC). He had a brother, Mamertinus, who was an expert in geometry and a second brother, Helianax, who served as a law-giver. More importantly, he was called ‘Stesichorus’ as he was believed to be the first poet to establish a chorus of singers to the cithara; his name was originally Teisias.
The Suda (a large tenth-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient world) claims that Stesichorus was the son of Hesiod, though this has been largely dismissed as fantasy. Still, the legend is also mentioned by Tzetzes and the Hesiodic scholiast Proclus. According to another tradition known to Cicero, Stesichorus was the grandson of Hesiod, yet even this verges on anachronism since Hesiod was composing verses in c. 700 BC, long before Stesichorus’ birth. Certainly, he can be regarded as Hesiod’s literary “heir”, as his treatment of Helen in the Palinode, for example, may have owed much to Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women, which may explain the original source of confusion about their relationship. According to Stephanus of Byzantium and the philosopher Plato, Stesichorus’ father was named Euphemus, but an inscription on a herm from Tivoli lists him as Euclides.
Stesichorus’ lyrical treatment of epic themes was well-suited to a western Greek audience, owing to the popularity of hero-cults in southern Italy and Magna Graecia at the time; for example, the cults of Philoctetes at Sybaris, Diomedes at Thurii and the Atreidae at Tarentum. It was also a sympathetic environment for his most famous poem, the Palinode, composed in praise of Helen, an important cult figure in the Doric diaspora. However, the life and works of the western Greeks were similar to their eastern counterparts and his poetry cannot be regarded exclusively as a product of the Greek west. His fragments reveal both Doric and Ionian influences, which is consistent with the Suda’s claim that his birthplace was either Metauria or Himera, both of which were founded by colonists of mixed Ionian and Doric descent. On the other hand, such a flavour was fashionable among later poets, as shown in the lyrics of the Ionian poets Simonides and Bacchylides. Stesichorus’ poetry included a description of the river Himera, as well as praise for the town named after it. His poem Geryoneis included a famous description of Pallantium in Arcadia.
His possible exile from Arcadia is attributed by some to a rivalry between Tegea and Sparta. Traditional accounts indicate that he was politically active in Magna Graecia. Aristotle mentions two public speeches by Stesichorus: one to the people of Himera, warning them against Phalaris, and another to the people of Locri, warning them against presumption (likely in reference to their war against Rhegium). Philodemus tells of a time when Stesichorus stood between two unnamed armies and reconciled them with the power of his song, though there is a similar story about Terpander. According to the ninth century scholar Photius, the term eight all (used by gamblers at dice) derives from the expensive burial the poet received outside Catana, including a monument with eight pillars, eight steps and eight corners. Yet, the third century grammarian Julius Pollux attributed the term to an ‘eight all ways’ tomb given to the poet outside Himera.
According to the Suda, Stesichorus’ works were collected into 26 books, but each of these was probably a long, narrative poem. The titles of more than half of them are recorded by ancient sources, with notable examples being Helen, Sack of Troy, Nostoi (‘The Returns’ — dealing with the return of the Greek warriors from Troy), Geryoneis (relating the theft by Heracles of Geryon’s cattle), Thebaid (‘A Seven against Thebes’ tale), Oresteia and The Funeral Games of Pelias.
The Suda also refers to the fact, now verified by papyrus fragments, that Stesichorus composed verses in units of three stanzas (strophe, antistrophe and epode), a format later adopted by Bacchylides and Pindar. This three-stanza format was popularly referred to as the ‘three of Stesichorus’ in a proverbial saying rebuking cultural buffoons (e.g. “You don’t even know the three of Stesichorus!”). According to others, however, this saying could instead refer to the three lines of the Palinode, addressed to Helen of Troy:
There is no truth in that story,
You didn’t ride in the well-rowed galleys,
You didn’t reach the walls of Troy.
These famous lines (as reported by Plato in Phaedrus 243a) were reportedly written by Stesichorus as a recantation, or rejection, of the Myth of Helen going to Troy. The story goes that Stesichorus had written slanderous verses about the mythical Queen of Sparta, blaming her for the cause of the Trojan War. In response, Helen suddenly blinded the poet and he quickly redressed his insult by the writing of the Palinode.
The ancients associated the lyrical qualities of Stesichorus with the voice of the nightingale, as in this quote from the Palatine Anthology:
“...at his birth, when he had just reached the light of day, a nightingale, travelling through the air from somewhere or other, perched unnoticed on his lips and struck up her clear song.”
The account is repeated by Pliny the Elder. Nevertheless, it was the epic quality of Stesichorus’ work that most impressed ancient commentators. Dionysius of Halicarnassus commends Stesichorus for “...the magnificence of the settings of his subject matter; in them he has preserved the traits and reputations of his characters” and Longinus ranks him among Herodotus, Archilochus and Plato as the ‘most Homeric’ of authors.
Possible bust of Stesichorus, private collection, France
The P. Oxy XXXII 2617 fragment, which contains remains of Stesichorus’ ‘Geryoneis’
CONTENTS
FRAGMENTS PERTAINING TO THE LIFE OF STESICHORUS
FRAGMENTS FROM THE POEMS OF STESICHORUS
1-4 THE FUNERAL GAMES OF PELIAS
2 & 3
4
5-10 THE TALE OF GERYON
6
7
8
9
10
11 DAPHNIS
12-17 HELEN
13
14
15
16
17
18 THE PALINODE
19-20 ERIPHYLE
20
21 EUROPEIA
22-31 THE SACK OF TROY
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32 CERBERUS
33 CYCNUS
34 THE RETURN FROM TROY
35-43 THE TALE OF ORESTES
36
37 & 38
39
39 A
40
41
42
43
44 SCYLLA
45 THE BOAR-HUNTERS
46 CALYCE
47-48 RHADINE
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
Bust of Stesichorus, Bellini Garden, Catania, Italy
A scene from the ‘Tabula Iliaca’, a first century AD marble relief, bearing the inscription “Sack of Troy according to Stesichorus”
FRAGMENTS PERTAINING TO THE LIFE OF STESICHORUS
SIMONIDESFRAGMENT 61:
For thus have Homer and Stesichorus sung to the peoples.
Plutarch Music [on Linus, Thamyris, Demodocus, etc.]: The manner of the poems of the aforesaid poets was not free and without metre, but like those of Stesichorus and the older lyric poets who made epic verse and put it to music.
