A Reading of Fragments 926(a) and 926(g) PMG within the Context of the New Music
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu20.2021.102Abstract
There has been much controversy regarding the date, the performative context, and the generic quality of fragment 926 PMG, which has been preserved on papyrus (P. Oxy. 9 + P. Oxy 2687) in a rhythmical treatise by an unknown author. The verse fragments on this papyrus were composed in iambic dactyls (∪ — ∪ –) and used as examples of the occurrence of syncope in various lyric meters. Fragments 926(a) and (g) PMG are from a composition performed by a maiden chorus which bear similarities to Alcman’s partheneia and have affinities with archaic epic and lyric poetry. Supposedly, these fragments might have been fragments of partheneia composed in the time of the New Music. Nonetheless, they are not shaped according to the bulk of the aesthetic values and the compositional rules of the New Music. These fragments seem to belong to cultic songs created for maiden choruses, possibly, to honor Dionysus. The alternative is that they imitate such songs within a dramatic context. We may assume that these quasi-dithyrambic partheneia were composed to serve religious needs or at least imitated cultic songs. They looked backward to the archaic and early classical tradition of partheneia, and their existence is an indication that, in the days of the New Music, there was a poetic tradition upheld by “reactionary” poets.
Keywords:
New Music, partheneia, late classical lyric
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Acosta–Hughes B. The Prefigured Muse, Rethinking a Few Assumptions on Hellenistic Poetics, in: J. J. Clauss, M. Cuypers (eds). A Companion to Hellenistic Literature, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010, 81–91.
Almazova N. A. Lyre on the Ground. Hyperboreus 2012, 16 (1), 54–74.
Blass F. W. Neuestes aus Oxyrhynchos (Aristoxenos, Alkman (?), Sappho). Neue Jahrbücher für das Klassische Altertum, Geschichte und Deutsche Literatur 1899, 2 (3), 30–49.
Bowra C. M. Greek Lyric Poetry from Alcman to Simonides. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1961.
Bravo B. Pannychis e Simposio: Feste Private Notturne di Donne e Uomini nei Testi Letterari e nel Culto, con uno Studio Iconografico di Françoise Frontisi–Ducroux. Pisa — Roma, Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali, 1997.
Bubel F. (ed., comm.). Euripides. Andromeda, Stuttgart, Steiner, 1991.
Budelman F., LeVen P. A. Timotheus’ Poetics of Blending: A Cognitive Approach to the Language of the New Music. CPh 2014, 109 (3), 191–210.
Budelmann F., Power T. Another Look at Female Choruses in Classical Athens. Cl. Ant. 2015, 34 (2), 252–295.
Calame C. Les Choeurs de Jeunes Filles II: Alcman. Roma, Edizioni dell’Ateneo e Bizzarri, 1983a.
Calame C. (ed., comm.). Alcman, Texte Critique, Témoignages, Traduction et Commentaire. Roma, Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1983b.
Calame C. Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece: their Morphology, Religious Role, and Social Functions. Lanham, MD — New York — London, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1997.
Calvié L. Le Fragment Rythmique du P. Oxy. 9 + 2687 Attribué à Aristoxène de Tarente. Revue de Philologie 2014, 88 (1), 7–54.
Campbell D. A. (ed., comm.). Greek Lyric, Volume V: The New School of Poetry and Anonymous Songs and Hymns. Cambridge, MA — London, Harvard University Press, 1993.
Chryssoulaki S. The Participation of Women in the Worship and Festivals of Dionysos, in: N. Kaltsas, A. Shapiro (eds) Worshiping Women. Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens. Athens — New York, 2008, Alexander S. Onassis, 267–275.
Cole T. Epiploke: Rhythmical Continuity and Poetic Structure in Greek Lyric. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1988.
Csapo E. Later Euripidean Music. ICS 1999–2000, 24–25, 399–426.
Csapo E. The Dolphins of Dionysus, in: E. Csapo, M. Miller (eds) Poetry, Theory, Praxis: The Social Life of Myth, Word and Image in Ancient Greece. Essays in Honor of William J. Slater. Oxford, Oxbow, 2003, 68–98.
Csapo E. The Politics of the New Music, in: P. Murray, P. Wilson (eds) Music and the Muses: The Culture of Mousike in the Classical Athenian City. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004, 207–248.
Csapo E. New Music’s Gallery of Images: the ‘‘Dithyrambic’’ First Stasimon of Euripides’ Electra, in: J. R. C. Cousland, J. R. Hume (eds) The Play of Texts and Fragments: Essays in Honour of Martin Cropp. Leiden, Brill, 2009, 91–109.
Csapo E. The Economics, Poetics, Politics, Metaphysics, and Ethics of the ‘‘New Music’’, in: D. Yatromanolakis (ed.) Music and Cultural Politics in Greek and Chinese Societies: Volume 1: Greek Antiquity. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2011, 65–135.
Dale A. M. The Lyric Metres of Greek Drama. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1948.
D’Alessio G. B. The Name of the Dithyramb: Diachronic and Diatopic Variations, in: B. Kowalzig, P. Wilson (eds) Dithyramb in Context. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, 113–132.
D’Angour A. The New Music: So What’s New, in: S. Goldhill, R. Osborne (eds) Rethinking Revolution through Ancient Greece. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006, 264–283.
Denniston J. D. Lyric Iambics in Greek Drama, in: Greek Poetry and Life, Essays Presented to Gilbert Murray. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1936, 121–144.
Dickmann-Boedeker D. Aphrodite’s Entry into Greek Poetry. Leiden, Brill, 1974.
Dover K. J. Ancient Greek Literature. Oxford, Oxford University Press 1997.
Fearn D. Lyric Reception and Sophistic Literality in Timotheus’ Persae, in: B. G. F. Currie, I. Rutherford (eds) The Reception of Greek Lyric Poetry 600 BC–400 AD: Transmission, Canonization, and Paratext. Proceedings of the Network for the Study of Archaic and Classical Greek Song. Leiden, Brill, 2015, 1–39.
Ford A. The Origins of Criticism: Literary Culture and Poetic Theory in Classical Greece. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2002.
Ford A. The Poetics of Dithyramb, in: P. Wilson, B. Kowalzig (eds) Dithyramb in Context. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, 313–331.
Franklin J. C. Song–benders of Circular Choruses. Dithyramb and the Demise of Music, in: P. Wilson, B. Kowalzig (eds) Dithyramb in Context. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, 213–236.
Gentili B., Lomiento L. Problemi di Ritmica Greca, in: B. Gentili, F. Perusino (eds) Mousike. Metrica, Ritmica e Musica Greca in Memoria di Giovanni Comotti. Pisa — Roma, Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici Internationali, 1995, 61–76.
Grenfell B., Hunt A. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri I. London, Egypt Exploration Society, 1898.
Jouan F., Van Looy H. (ed., comm.). Euripide, Tragédies. Tome viii. Paris, CUF, 1998.
Hamilton R. Alcman and the Athenian Arkteia. Hesperia 1989, 58 (4), 449–472.
Henrichs A. ‘‘Why should I Dance?’’: Choral Self-Referentiality in Greek Tragedy. Arion 1994–1995, 3 (1), 56–111.
Henrichs A. Dancing in Athens, Dancing on Delos: Some Patterns of Choral Projection in Euripides. Philologus 1996, 140, 48–62.
Hordern J. H. (ed., comm.). The Fragments of Timotheus of Miletus. Oxford, Oxford University Press 2002.
Irigoin J. Euripide Poète et Musicien selon Denys d’Halicarnasse. Pallas 2006, 72, 219–227.
Klimek–Winter R. Andromedatragödien. Sophokles, Euripides, Livius Andronikos, Ennius, Accius. Text, Einleitung und Kommentar. Stuttgart, B. G. Teubner, 1993.
Koster W. J. Quelques Remarques sur l’Etude Rhythmique [de l’Ecole d’Aristoxene]: Ox. Pap. 2687. REG 1972, 85, 47–56.
Lefkowitz M. R. First–Person Fictions, Pindar’s Poetic I. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991.
LeVen P. A. New Music and its Myths: Athenaeus’ Reading of the Aulos Revolution ‘Deipnosophistae 14.616e–617f ’. JHS 2010, 130, 35–47.
LeVen P. A. The Many-Headed Muse: Tradition and Innovation in Late Classical Greek Lyric Poetry. Cambridge — New York, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Mace S. Utopian and Erotic Fusion in a New Elegy by Simonides (22 West). ZPE 1996, 113, 233–247.
Marchetti C. C. Aristoxenus’ Elements of Rhythm: Text, Translation, and Commentary with a Translation and Commentary on POXY 2687. New Jersey, Diss. Rutgers, 2009.
Martin R. The Pipes Are Brawling: Conceptualizing Musical Performance in Athens, in: C. Dougherty, L. Kurke (eds) The Cultures within Ancient Greek Culture: Contact, Conflict, Collaboration. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 153–180.
Mathiesen T. J. Apollo’s Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Nebraska, University of Nebraska Press, 1999.
McIntosh–Snyder J. Public Occasion and Private Passion in the Lyrics of Sappho, in: S. B. Pomeroy (ed.) Women’s History and Ancient History. Chapel Hill, London, UNC Press Books, 1991, 1–19.
Mülke C. Solons Politische Elegien und Iamben (Fr. 1–13; 32–37 West). Einleitung, Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar. München — Leipzig, K. G. Saur, 2002.
Nagy G. Pindar’s Homer: The Lyric Possession of an Epic Past. Baltimore — London, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.
Nagy G. The Delian Maidens and their Relevance to Choral Mimesis in Classical Drama, in: R. Gagné, M. G. Hopman (eds) Choral Mediations in Greek Tragedy. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013, 227–256.
Neer T., Kurke L. Pindar Fr. 75 SM and the Politics of Athenian Space. GRBS 2014, 54, 527–579.
Nooter S. The Mortal Voice in the Tragedies of Aeschylus, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Page D. L. (ed., comm.). Select Papyri III. London — Cambridge, MA, Loeb Classical Library, 1941.
Page D. L. (ed., comm.). Poetae Melici Graeci. Oxford, Oxbow Books, 1962.
Pearson L. (ed., comm.). Aristoxenus Elementa Rhythmica: The Fragments of Book II and the Additional Evidence for Aristoxenean Rhythmic Theory. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1990.
Pavese C. O. Alcmane, il Partenio del Louvre. QUCC, 1967, 4, 113–133.
Peponi A. E. Initiating the Viewer: Deixis and Visual Perception in Alcman’s Lyric Drama. Arethusa 2004, 37, 295–316.
Powell J. U. (ed., comm.). Collectanea Alexandrina, Reliquae Minoris Poetarum Graecorum Aetatis Ptolemaice 323–146 A. C. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1970.
Power T. The Culture of Kitharôidia. Washington, Center for Hellenic Studies, 2010.
Power T. Aristoxenus and the ‘‘Neoclassicists’’, in: C. A. Huffmann (ed.) Aristoxenus of Tarentum: Discussion. New Brunswick, NJ, Transaction Publishers, 2012, 129–154.
Power T. Kyklops Kitharoidos: Dithyramb and Nomos in Play, in: P. Wilson, B. Kowalzig (eds) Dithyramb in Context. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, 237–256.
Reinach T. Sur une Nouvelle Papire Musicale. REG 1898, 11, 398–415.
Reiter S. De Syllabarum in Trisemam Longitudinem Productarum uso Aeschyleo et Sophocleo. PhD. Diss., Universität Wien, 1887.
Reiter S. Drei- und Vierzeitige Längen bei Euripides. SBAW 1893, 129.
Rossi L. E. POxy 9 + POxy 2687: Trattato Ritmico–Metrico, in: A. Brancacci (ed.) Aristoxenica, Menandrea Fragmenta Philosophica. Studi e Testi per il Corpus dei Papiri Filosofici Greci e Latini. Firenze, Olschki, 1988, 11–30.
Schönewolf H. Der Jungattische Dithyrambos, Wesen, Wirkung, Gegenwirkung. Diss. Gießen, 1938.
Seaford R. Euripides: Bacchae, with an Introduction, Translation and Commentary. Warminster, Aris & Phillips, 1996.
Stanford B. The Sound of Greek: Studies in the Greek Theory and Practice of Euphony. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1967.
Stehle–Stigers E. Retreat from the Male: Catullus 62 and Sappho’s Erotic Flowers. Ramus 1977, 6 (2), 83–102.
Swift L. A. The Hidden Chorus: Echoes of Genre in Tragic Lyric. Oxford — New York, Oxford University Press, 2010.
Weiss N. The Music of Tragedy: Performance and Imagination in Euripidean Theater. Oakland, University of California Press, 2018.
West M. L. Greek Metre. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982.
West M. L. Studies in Aeschylus. Stuttgart, De Gruyter, 1990.
Wilamowitz–Moellendorff U. (rec.) B. Grenfell, A. Hunt. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. I. London, 1898. Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen 1898, 160, 673–704.
Downloads
Published
2021-07-28
How to Cite
Kousoulini, V. (2021). A Reading of Fragments 926(a) and 926(g) PMG within the Context of the New Music. Philologia Classica, 16(1), 18–31. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu20.2021.102
Issue
Section
Graecia antiqua
License
Articles of "Philologia Classica" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.
