Dear Friends! Because the article about Anakreon was received so well I want to post here an article about another poet, Stesichoros, a discovery which I want to share. Even though he is one of the most important ancient poets, he was unknown to me until now. At Bruno Snell, whom I highly admire - not only because he was student too on my own school, Johanneum Lüneburg, he appears only in a short article as bucolic Poet in his famous "The Discovery of the Mind: The Greek Origins of European Thought". Yes, a scientist has written once: "Time has dealt more harshly with Stesichorus than with any other major lyric poet". The main reason was that he has not played a role in Aristoteles' Poetics, in which he covers the developement of the Tragedy. And the books of Aristoteles have influenced the occidental science for centuries. But in the meantime he was rediscovered, particularly by previously undiscovered texts in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri and the Lille Papyrus, and since recently scientists are concerned with him increasingly, so that hopefully he will get his appropriate position again. But first The coin: Sicily, Thermai Himeraiai, late 2nd - early 1st century BC AE 26, 12.56g, 90° obv. Bust of Tyche, veiled and wearing mural crown, r., behind cornucopiae rev. ΘEPMITAN IMEPAIΩN The poet Stesichoros, in himation, stg. r., writing with r. hand a poem on a wax tablet in l. hand; a long staff leaning against his r. shoulder. ref. Calciati I p.120, 18; BMC Sicily p.84, 9; HGC 2 1616 (R2); not in SNG ANS, SNG Copenhagen, SNG München, SNG Morcom extremely rare, F+, dark green patina, some porousity, lightly corroded pedigree: ex Roma Numismatics e-sale 2 (2. Nov. 2013), Lot 28 ex Forum Ancient Coins Note: Romolo Calciati, Corpus Nummorum Siculorum (CNS), The Bronze Coinage, Vol. I: Nordost-Sizilien, Westsizilien. 1983. Calciati writes, that this type is rare, especially in better state, because it - as many other Sicilian types in Roman time too - was struck of metal of inferior quality threatened by corrosion. Biography: Stesichoros was born about 630 BC in Metauros/Calabria and died in 555 in Katane (today Catania) in Sicily. So he was contemporary of Sappho. There is a place in Catania today called Piazza Stesicoro. That Himera is sometimes claimed as his birthplace is due to the fact that later in his life he moved to Himera. When Himera was destroyed by the Carthaginians in 409 BC the survivors founded not far away the city of Thermai Himeraia. Even here and still under Roman reign Stesichoros was hold for its most famous citizen. His actual name was Tisias. Stesichoros he was called later. Lyrics: Stesichoros mainly has written in Doric dialect, which was usual in Magna Graecia and Sicily, but has incorporated Ionic influences too. The ancient have compared his lyrical qualities with the voice of a nightingale which has been said to have perched on his lips immediately after his birth and has bestowed him this gift. This story was still repeated by Pliny the Elder. Hieronymus writes, that hies poems became even sweeter at the end of his life and more swan-like as he approached death. I have found only one poem at poemhunter.com. But I was excited: Forget the wars. It is time to sing. Take out the flute from Phrygia and recall the songs of our blond Graces. Clamor of babbling swallows: it is already spring. The Alexandrians have counted him as one of the 9 most important poets in their canon. On top stood Pindar, but Stesichoros holds an prominent position. By his work about the shepherd Daphnis he was the founder of the bucolic lyric. This is a kind of lyric playing under shepherds in a romantic natural landscape, most often Arcadia, emphasizing the contrast to daily life. Later one of the most famous bucolic poets was Theokritos. Epics: But most of all Stesichoros has impressed by his epical capabilities. He has practised an important influence on the representation of the mythology of the 6th century BC and on the developement of the Attic dramatic poetry. He denotes plainestly the transition from the declamation by a rhapsode as he belongs f.e. to Homer, to the choral singing in the tragedies (Pauly). According to Suda he has written 26 roles of which sadly only fragments have come to us. His texts cover the Trojan War and several myths of heroes, especially of Herakles. But he too gave attention to myths of his own time and contemporary events. So Aristoteles reports a speech of him against the tyrannical ambitions of Phalaris. I want to elaborate on 2 of his works: Helena and Palinodia, which have to be seen together. In Helena he blames her for her bad character and condemns her for her adultery as described by Homer and Hesiod, and the fall of Troy by her immorality. That was not unusual in his times, and appears too at Sappho and Alkaios. But the worst was that he has called her thrice married (τριγαμος). Because of this blasphemy Helena has blended him. Pausanias reports that later Helena has send a pilgrim to him who has revealed this causal relationship. Thereupon he decided to write a recall, the Palinodia. Therein he withdraws all he has written before and asserted now that Helena never has been in Troy, but that Paris has abducted only a phantom to Troy for that then was battled. The true Helena has been brought to Egypt where Menelaos she has rediscovered after the Trojan War has ended. So Stesichoros has got back his eyesight. Grossardt is meaning that the motive of blinding and healing has been taken over from Isis. But probably this event reported by Stesichoros himself is meant only allegorical ("I must have been smited with blindness!"), and Stesichoros has written his recall out of consideration for Sparta where Helena was highly adorated. The Palinodia was made of 2 parts: In the first part Homer was blamed for his defamatory texts, in the second it was Hesiod. The palinode, the recall, became an important stylistic device in Greek poetry and literature. The Greek language per se has an inclination to μην - δε (= indeed - but), thinking in antitheses. Platon applied it in his Phaidros where Sokrates first disparagingly descants on the "mania" of Eros and the infamous role he played in human love affaires, to praise him in the 2nd part (the so-called "Palinodia of Sokrates") as deep mental emotion and of divine origin. The Lille Papyus: The most about his style we have learned from the papyrus which was found in 1976 as packaging material in a mummy chest in the Museum of Lille/France and was named Papyrus Lille after the site of its find. The content is about the myths of Thebes and the most important part is the speech of queen Jokaste to her sons Eteokles and Polyneikes. To prevent the fraticide which was predicted by a prophecy she offers to one of her sons the palace of Thebes, to the other her wealth and the flocks, this all in lyrically elaborate sentences. Oedipus seems to be dead at this time. But making Oedipus father of this two sons he seems to be the first one who has introduced the motive of incestuous paternity to mythology. Euripides takes over the motive from Stesichoros that Jokaste tries to pease the conflict between her two sons, but without success. The texts which were found here confirm his role as link between the epical storytelling of Homer and the lyric of Pindar. Hence his name "the lyrical Homer". Fragments of the Papyrus Lille His influence on tragedy: Of great importance he was too for the developement of tragedy. Especially clear this can bee seen in the 2 books of his Oresteia which was the model for Euripides. The arrangement of choral songs in 3 parts strophe, antistrophe and epode (= final song), the so-called triadic structure, was attributed by the Greek to Stesichoros, although it was introduced already by Archilochos. Under Bacchylides and then under Pindar it reaches its highest boom. Stesichoros was even the first one who has accompanied the songs to the kithara by a chorus. And this is his very name: Stesichoros, he who has placed a singing choir to the kithara! The Tabulae Iliacae: These small reliefs came from the time of Augustus and show depictions from the Ilias. The most important, the Tabula Iliaca Capitolina, was found in 1683 and is now in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. In the middle it shows a closely inscribed pillar, on the left side the devastation of Troy, the grave of Hektor, the Greek ships and the flight of Aeneas, on the right side scenes from the Trojan War. A Greek inscription reads: "Sack of Troy according to Stesichoros". The Tabulae Iliacae reflected Alexandrian knowledge and served for the education of the citizens. They are important because they describe the so-called pseudo-homeric mythology, the time after the fall of Troy, which mostly is lost. The Tabulae Iliacae Sources: (1) Homer, Ilias (2) Hesiod, Theogony (3) Archilochos, Gedichte, Tusculum (4) Sappho, Lieder, Tusculum (5) Eclogae Poetarum Graecorum, Teubner (7) Plato, Phaidros (8) Strabo, Geographica (9) Plinius the Elder, Naturalis historia Literature: (1) Peter Grossardt, Stesichoros zwischen kultischer Praxis, mythischer Tradition und eigenem Kunstanspruch, Zur Behandlung des Helenamythos im Werk des Dichters aus Himera, Leipziger Studien zur klassischen Philologie 9, Tübingen 2012 (2) Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon (3) Der Kleine Pauly, dtv (4) Bruno Snell, The Discovery of the Mind: The Greek Origins of European Thought (Die Entdeckung des Geistes, Studien zur Entstehung des europäischen Denkens bei den Griechen, Claassen&Goverts Hamburg 1946) (5) J. Vurtheim, Stesichoros, Lyrik und Biographie, Leyden 1919 (Reprint) Online Sources: (1) Google Pictures (2) Wikipedia (3) Enzyclopaedia Britannica (4) Roger Aluja, Reexamining the Lille Stesichorus about the Theban Version of Stesich, über http://www.academia.edu (5) http://www.poemhunter.com I have added the following Pictures: (1) Bust of Stesichoros from Catanai (2) Fragments of Papyri Oxyrhinchus (3) Fragments of Papyrus Lille (4) Tabula Iliaca Capitolina Best regards
Another excellent writeup and coin, Jochen. I’d really love to have one of these some day. Of course, you’re now expected to follow through on the theme and show us next a coin depicting Bias of Priene.
“Take out the flute from Phrygia”... PHRYGIA, Apameia AE16. 3.31g, 16mm. PHRYGIA, Apameia, 133-48 BC. SNG Cop 193. O: Turreted head of Artemis as Tyche right, bow and quiver over shoulder. R: Marsyas [walking right on maeander pattern], naked, but for cloak behind, playing aulos (double-piped flute),APAME right; PANKP ZHNO (magistrate) left. “and recall the songs of our blond Graces”... COMMODUS AE25. 7.69g, 25mm, MOESIA INFERIOR, Marcianopolis. H&J 6.10.26.4 (this coin illustrated); RPC IV online 4319; AMNG I 540; Varbanov 702 corr. (direction of heads). O: ΑΥ ΚΑΙ Λ ΑΥΡΗ ΚΟΜΟΔΟС, Bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed bust right. R: ΜΑΡΚΙΑΝΟΠΟΛƐΙΤΩΝ, the Three Graces standing facing, heads left, right, and right, respectively: the left holds oinochoe over dolphin, the center drapes arms over others, and the right holds wreath over oinochoe. Ex Dr. George Spradling Collection; Ex Alexandre de Barros Collection (CNG E143, 12 July 2006, lot 115); ex CNG 47 (16 Sep 1998) lot 833.
