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Reflections on Simonides' 'Plataia' Elegy (frr. 10—18 W2)

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Mayer P.

Antik Tanulmanyok (Studia Antiqua)

2006

vol. 50

issue 1

5-18

The 'communis opinio' classifies the 'Plataia'-Elegy of Simonides as a poem intended for performance at a public festival. Since the elegy speaks highly of Pausanias, the victorious commander of the battle at Plataea, the time of his political downfall in 478 B.C. was regarded by the scholarship as a 'terminus ante quem', until whch the poem could be composed and officially performed. This paper argues for the sympotical performance of the elegy, and by postulating an exclusive performance context of this kind, defers the closing date of the composition until the time of the poet's death in the first half of the 460's B.C. In case of a relatively late composition we have to take into account the possibility, that Simonides was reflecting on the death of Pausanias about 470 B.C. in the poem, drawing a parallel between the Spartan commander-politician and the figure of Achilles in the poem.

The first Cologne Epode of Archilocus

100%

Mayer P.

Antik Tanulmanyok (Studia Antiqua)

2007

vol. 51

issue 1

1-14

The first Cologne Epode of Archilochus (196a W2) is widely considered to be a poetic account of a malicious seduction, committed or invented and uttered in revenge by the poet. The narrator as rejected suitor of Neobule seduces her younger sister, reaching his goal both by means of a promise of future marriage and of a proposition for sex on the spot. Actually, the first conception can not be proved or even made probable by the text. On the other hand the sexually coded proposition of the man (vv. 21-24) should rather be taken as a sparkling double-voiced utterance, understood in its metaphorical sense only by the male publicum of the iambos, whereas for the girl being equivalent to an invitation to innocent conversation. These observations, along with psychological and reception-aesthetical considerations, make a strong case for the minority opinion, that the Cologne Epode as erotic poem relates the meeting between a man filled with desire (rather than with thirst for vengeance), and an unknown virgin, who is unlikely to be the younger sister of Neobule.

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2 Antik Tanulmanyok (Studia Antiqua)

2 Mayer P.

1 2007

1 2006

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Reflections on Simonides' 'Plataia' Elegy (frr. 10—18 W2)

The first Cologne Epode of Archilocus