Artigos

Seeing Alcman: the Iconographic Evidence of Alcman’s Ancient Reception

Vasiliki Kousoulini
University of Athens, Grecia

Seeing Alcman: the Iconographic Evidence of Alcman’s Ancient Reception

Ágora. Estudos Clássicos em debate, no. 19, pp. 65-75, 2017

Universidade de Aveiro

Abstract: Although the reception of archaic Greek poets in antiquity has ignited the interest of many modern scholars, very little attention has been given to the visual representation of these poets, despite the fact that many artifacts or inscriptions date back to the late archaic and classical periods and are valuable sources of information. My aim is to examine a neglected subject on the ancient reception of Alcman, more specifically his reception through iconographic material. Despite the paucity of evidence, I suggest that the existing indications point to the direction that Alcman had a Panhellenic reception, at least from a later period on, and that he was, eventually, acknowledged as one of the classics.

Keywords: Alcman, reception in antiquity, visual representation.

References

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Notes

[2] The last decades there has been a plethora of books regarding the reception of an ancient author within antiquity. It is worthy to name a few, such as: Graziosi (2002); Acosta-Hughes and Stephens (2012); Priestley (2014).
[3] It is useful to mention some examples, such as: Rosenmeyer (1992); Yatromanolakis (2007); Rawles and Agocs and Carey (2012); Nagy (2009); Nagy and Noussia-Fantuzzi (2014); Rawles (2016).
[4] With the exception of Yatromanolakis’ approach (see Yatromanolakis (2001) and Yatromanolakis (2007)). Rosenmeyer (see Rosenmeyer (1992)), before him, had dedicated a chapter to the iconographic material on Anacreon.
[5] This is obvious from the recent publications on the poet, such as: Ferrari (2008); Hinge (2006); Tsantsanoglou (2012) and Römer’s book on alcmanic Scholia that belongs to the series Commentaria et Lexica Graeca in Papyris Reperta (see Römer (2013).
[6] More recently G. Hinge suggested that some or many of Alcman’s poems were composed to be performed by males in the Spartan equivalent occasion of Attic symposia and argued in a systematic way that this fact drastically influenced their reception. Hinge considers that the medium of their transmission and reception was oral and regards Attic symposia as a suitable occasion for their reperformance. He also believes that the songs reperformed in Attic symposia were not partheneia or any other kind of ritual songs. According to him, they were originally performed in Spartan syssitia or other occasions similar to Attic symposia. This is the reason they had a different transmission (see Hinge (2006); Hinge (2009)).
[7] See Carey (2011) 437-461.
[8] See Carey (2011) 453.
[9] See Carey (2011) 445.
[10] See Carey (2011) 453; Thomas (see Thomas (2009) 42) also notes that in Athens, at least from the 480-470 B.C., ‘‘the very active democratic citizen’’ had to obtain an elevated level of literacy, thus that the aim of his education had to change. It can be assumed that there were people able and willing to read copies of the ‘classics’.
[11] For the artistic representation of Sappho see Yatromanolakis (2001) 159-168 and Yatromanolakis (2007) 51-164. For Anacreon see Rosenmeyer (1992) 22-36. Yatromanolakis (see Yatromanolakis (2001) 160) notes that Alcman, Archilochus or Stesichorus did not appear in vases of the classical period, unlike Sappho or Anacreon. He states that this fact reflected the popularity of each poet during the classical period. For the visual representation of other poets (Archilochus, Stesichorus, Alkaios, Solon, Simonides, Ibycus, Pindar, Telesilla, Corinna, Pindar) see Richter (1965) 67-75; Richter (1984) 156, 177, 204.
[12] See Richter (1965) 17. Alcman is never mentioned in her book as a poet whose figure was identified and catalogued. This choice is highly indicative of the scarcity of evidence regarding Alcman’s visual representation.
[13] See Clay (2004) 108.
[14] Nagy (see Nagy (1989) 55) notes that any poet is a ritual substitute for the god Apollo, and relates the concept of ritual substitute with hero-cult.
[15] Christodorus lived during the 5th-6th century A.D. The portico described dates back to the 2nd century A.D., but the statues described were added around the 4th century A.D.
[16] See Miguélz-Cavero (2008) 32.
[17] According to Suda (s.v. Arion), Alcman had at least one famous pupil, Arion, like other poets or prophets. In a 2nd century B.C. papyrus, a cosmogonic poem is attributed to the poet (5 PMGF). According to Aelian (Collection of Wonderful Tales, 12.50), Alcman’s exceptional abilities had, as a result, the restoration of peace in Sparta.
[18] See Piccirillo (1986) 32.
[19] See Richter (1965) 68. She believes that Stesichorus was coupled with Ourania which is a rather unusual pairing.
[20] See Grossman (2006) 152.
[21] For the reading of the depiction of musical instruments as indicative of a poet’s categorization see Rotstein (2010) 14, n. 4.
[22] See Piccirillo (1986) 32.
[23] See Yatromanolakis (2001) 160. This excerpt was taken from Parson (2001) 56.
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