adams, pindar and the origin of tragedy

8/12/2019 Adams, Pindar and the Origin of Tragedy

1/6

Classical Association of Canada

Pindar and the Origin of TragedyAuthor(s): S. M. AdamsSource: Phoenix, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Winter, 1955), pp. 170-174Published by: Classical Association of CanadaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1086343Accessed: 24/11/2010 10:06

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cac .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Classical Association of Canada is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toPhoenix.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cachttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1086343?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cachttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cachttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1086343?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cac


2/6

PINDAR AND THE ORIGIN OF TRAGEDY

S. M. ADAMS

roXX& 6' iv Kap6lats aavSpi'v f3aXop 16

'ppat lro\Xv&veotL &p-Xata aockioLoCa'. tirav 6' epovros Cepyov.

Tat Awvbov 7r6oev eV4avevavv Po7XaX&rq.&ApLtrs &vp&iQlpa;ris yap inreLoLs vp 'evrea(TLP Aerpa, 20

ij Oc,w vaoLoalv lwvAv faalX&a 6i6vUpovTr0rjKc'; ( v 68 MoZO' ad'rTroos

kv 6' 'Aprls &ytv6 ve'w

ovXLats atX,lal'av avlppCv.

19. f3oX&Trw aris. gr. 2774-01. 13

Flower-laden Hours have placed in men's understanding many an accomplishmentreaching nto the past. But every achievement is to be attributed to its discoverer. Howdid it come to pass that the lovely art of Dionysus made its appearance n associationwith the ox-driving dithyramb? Who, indeed, imposed control upon horses by means ofreins, or set the twin king of birds upon the temples of the gods? Herein flourishes thecharming Muse, as Ares flourishes amongst the deadly spears of warriors.

DISSATISFACTION with what Aristotle has to say about the originof tragedy (Poetics 1449a 9ff) springs from unwillingness on the part ofscholars to believe that anything so solemn and grand as tragedy ori-ginated in connection with anything so lively and grotesque as a primi-tive wine-song, and that the satyr-play was intermediate in the develop-ment of tragedy from this early dithyramb. Yet, distant though he is,Aristotle is

verymuch closer than other authorities to the

originof

tragedy. It is obvious from his brevity here that he is setting forth factsgenerally known in his day; when he is dealing with what is less familiar(for instance, the technical divisions of a play) he is much more detailed.Nowhere in the field of religion could drama have arisen more naturallythan in connection with this performance. Nowhere could a devotee morenaturally assume a part than those who prefaced it; the devotee ofDionysus, by virtue of the wine he consumed, was potentially an actor.Moreover, Aristotle does not say that tragedy originated in the dithy-

ramb itself; he states that it originated with the exarchontes-theseactors -in the plural; and it is certainly natural that what the Greekscalled tragedy should pass through some intermediary half-poeticizedstate, such as the satyr-play, before it achieved the semnotes that Aris-

170

THE PHOENIX, ol. 9 (1955) 4.


3/6


4/6

THE PHOENIX

It will be apparent that this interpretation centres on verses 18 and19. The general sense of these has been taken to be Where else than in

Corinth did the lovely dithyramb arise? That is the sense that Pindarfully expected Xenophon and the Corinthians to extract. But elsethan in Corinth is a translator's interpolation. It is not what Pindarreally asks; he asks How did the lovely art of Dionysus come to lightin connection with the ox-driving dithyramb? Beneath his words liessurprise that anything so f3orX&Tr7s ould yield anything so lovely; andthis is the same surprise that has led scholars to seek the origin of tragedyalong the tortuous paths of speculation. Nor is this surprise indicatedmerely by the summary nature of the question. It is made more emphaticby the juxtaposition of 3orXXa&rt and x&PLres. The contrast here isdeliberate; this is surprise inescapable. If the Corinthians take theseverses as they are meant to take them, so much the better; Pindarexpects this; but he is far from committing himself. He proceeds, ineffect, We do not know, any more than we know who invented reins orthe eagle-pediment. These things happen, often surprisingly; but theirultimate origin is too remote to be attributed locally: Corinthians shallnot be said by Pindar to have derived such graces. If in what followshe refers allusively to the reins, as Sandys holds,4 and if he tells at somelength the story of Bellerophon and Pegasus,5 he has already done hisduty.

Two phrases in these verses perhaps require further comment:1. Atwvibaov &plres. So far as I am aware, commentators are agreed

on the impersonal nature of these graces. In Farnell's words, they arenot here personal goddesses as they are in the old ritual hymn of Elis

which associates them with Dionysos ;6 in Heyne's pithy words, vixesse possunt nisi carmina, hymni. It is also usually assumed that thereference is to the

poeticized dithyramb and not to its original invention,although the point is disputed. The answer to this question, writesFennell, is Arion of Methymna, who, according to Herodotus I 23, wassaid by the Corinthians to have first composed and given its name to thedithyramb at Corinth. But, while two of the older scholia tell us thatArion first instituted the KKXLOS xop&s and arranged it, one suchscholium asserts that Pindar in his Hyporchemata ascribes the inventionof the dithyramb to Naxos, and to Thebes in his first Dithyramb. Fromthis it is clear that the Corinthian claim to the dithyramb was disputed;

'On juxtapositions in Pindar see L. Woodbury, TAPA 78 (1947) 368-375, especiallywith regard to Hartung's 7rotKtXa in Isth. 4. 19.

4Sir J. E. Sandys, Pindar (Loeb Classical Library, London 1915) 135, n. 2.6See Norwood, Pindar 21: This whole story has an air somewhat chilly and aloof:

the reminder at its close, that Bellerophon's end was bitter, cannot have pleased thelisteners whose pride in the legend is shown by the Pegasus upon their coins.

6Plut. 9uaest. Gr. 36 [299B]: XOev, ipwc At6vvae, | 'AXeo esas v avyv6v a'vXapiTreaav I Es vabv I rTC Oo4w 7ro8t BOwov.

172


5/6

PINDAR AND THE ORIGIN OF TRAGEDY

and it is not convincing to argue, with Farnell, that Greek local tradi-tions were happily inconsistent. It may well be doubted that Pindar is

referring only to the dithyramb, old or new.7 No poet of his quality couldwrite what really could only mean How did the poeticized dithyrambarise in connection with the ox-driving dithyramb? However much hewrapped his meaning in poetic circumlocution, the fact remains that6LavpaAfy is in the dative case; something other than the dithyramb isinvolved. This, I submit, is nothing less than tragedy itself; and thescholiast who wrote at eopral a Tb eraTywyov exovaat left the reference

sufficiently wide.2. aov 1or7X&Trq Ltvp&A#4qo: in association with (abv) the ox-driving

dithyramb. On the epithet Gildersleeve reflects the divided opinion ofscholiasts and editors. It refers, he says, either to the victor's prize in thedithyramb or to the symbolical identification of Dionysus with the bull.The former opinion is held by certain scholiasts and by Heyne, Fennell,Sandys, and others; a fragment of Simonides is quoted in support.8 Onthe alternative Fennell merely quotes Donatus, but Farnell is explicit:from the form of the word, the epithet can only mean ox-driving ;that is, the dithyramb as sung by those driving the bull along in a pro-cession- such a dithyramb, with its refrain tite ralpe, as was sungby the Elean women. It cannot be used, he maintains, to express thefact of a bull as the prize. But all this points to confusion on the part ofeditors ancient and modern.9 Pindar may have a double meaning, but heis not so obscure as this. From time immemorial the gait of the bull is

shambling ; cf. the Homeric eXtirovs.1? Placed next to xaPTreS, theword to non-Corinthian ears means shambling or, more prosaically,

clumsy. The termination arrns is certainly active; that is why a laterscribe (if we add the subscript iota) wrote fo?7Xar., from the passive

pfotXaros.The

adjective, here at least, describes the gait of the bull andthe gait of those who act the bull.Pindar, then, is saying How did the lovely art of Dionysus come into

existence in association with the clumsy dithyramb? The fact surprises7It is true that, as Farnell says, in Isth. 3. 8 Pindar uses the word as a synonym for

actual songs: XPi 8~ KCwiaoovr' ayavais XapireaL oc faartaaL. But the present pass-age is different from this; there is a clear contrast in 01. 13.

8Simon. fr. 145 (202): 'Eri 7revrTrKOvTa, L/CILWoV1l, 7pao ravpovs 1 al Tpl7rokas,rpiv rbv6' a&vOp/.vaE 7rvaKa' I ro70a?aKL ' lepo6evra L a Uevos xopov avSpw [

ev66oov NlKacs &yXa6v &p/u' lri's. Fragments 147 (203) and 148 (205) show, it issaid, that the reference is to dithyrambs.

9One speculation can be summarily dismissed: this epithet is not to be derived frompo7.

?0The shambling and stamping of oxen is a commonplace in Greek literature as inothers, and the wine-flushed performers of the early dithyramb may well have meritedthis description. Modern folk-dances sometimes come within its scope.

In this connection cf. rT /3o,C T7roSt aovwn the Elean hymn, where Oivw probablydoes not mean to hasten: see LSJ sub voc. (B).

173


6/6

174 THE PHOENIX

him, as it surprised so many scholars of later date. He is referring especi-ally to tragedy, and he accepts the fact of this origin; so does Aristotle,

and so should we. Nor need we wonder that Pindar prefaces the passageI have quoted by:

eXW KaX& -re pp&o(ua, r6oX,ca re ,oteUOela yX'Xaaav opvvet Xe'yEtv.

a./aXov 6a Kpna. r o' Tvyyevhs '6os.

Tolma, he says, will guide my tongue to its goal. I cannot quell myinborn nature. He knows what he means to say to those who willunderstand; others are at liberty to suppose he is only apologizing for

plunging into the thick of his praises. Pindar's poems have indeed ameaning for the wise.

adams, pindar and the origin of tragedy

Documents