About Alkerman: The Ancient Greek Poet
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Alkerman (;Greek: Ἀλκμάν Alkerman; Florida 7th century BC) was an ancient Greek choral lyric poet from Sparta. He is the earliest representative of the Alexander canon of nine lyric poets.
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Alkerman’s date is uncertain, but he was probably active in the late seventh century BC. His mother’s name is unknown; his father may have been called Damas or Taitarus. Even in ancient times, Alkerman’s nationality was disputed. Unfortunately, accounts of ancient writers are often extrapolated from their poetic biographies, and the details are often implausible. Antipater of Thessalonica wrote that the poet had “many mothers” and that both the European and Asian continents claimed Alkerman as their son. The Sudas are often thought to have been born in Sardis, the capital of ancient Lydia, and they claim that Alkerman was actually a Laconian from Messoa.
The complexities of his dialect may help keep his origins uncertain, but the many references to Lydian and Asian cultures in Alkerman’s poetry must have played quite a role in Alkerman’s tradition of Lydian origins big effect. Thus, Alkerman claims that he learned his skills from the “piercing partridge” (grasshopper), a bird native to Asia Minor that does not occur naturally in Greece. Ancient scholars seem to refer to a particular song, in which the chorus says: “He is not a rustic, nor a clumsy (not even in the eyes of an unskilled?), nor an ethnic Thessalian, Nor is it the Erysichaean shepherd: he is from the exalted Sardis.” However, given the discussion, it is impossible to determine who is the third person in this segment.
Some modern scholars defend his Lydian ancestry based on the language or content of some fragments. However, Sardis in the 7th century BC was a cosmopolitan city. Implicit and explicit references to Lydian culture may be a means of describing the choir’s girls’ fashion.
A tradition dating back to Aristotle holds that Alkerman came to Sparta as a slave of the family of Agesidas (= Hagsidamus?) and was eventually freed due to his great skill . Aristotle reports that Alkermann is believed to have died from a lice infestation of the abscess (prickly heat), but he could be mistaken for Croton’s philosopher Alkmeon. According to Pausanias, he was buried next to the tomb of Helen of Troy in Sparta.
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P. Oxygen. 8 Fragments with Alkerman poems
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There are six books of Alkerman’s ancient choral poems (about 50-60 hymns), but they are lost on the threshold of medieval times, Alkerman was only known through sporadic citations from other Greek writers until discovery a papyrus. 1855(?) in a tomb near the second pyramid in Saqqara, Egypt.The fragment, now kept in the Louvre in Paris, contains about 100 sections called Patignon, a song sung by unmarried young women. In the 1960s, more fragments were published in a collection of Egyptian papyrus found during excavations at an ancient garbage dump in Oxyrhynchus.Most of these fragments contain poetry (Patternia)but there are also other kinds of hymns in it.
dialect
Pausanias says that although Alkerman uses a Doric dialect, which usually doesn’t sound beautiful, it doesn’t spoil the beauty of his songs.
Alkerman’s songs were written in the Doric dialect of Sparta (the so-called Laconian dialect). This is particularly evident in the orthographic properties of fragments such as α = η, ω = ου, η = ει, σ = θ, and the use of Doric accents, although it is not certain that these features were actually present in Alkermann’s original work The use of contemporary rather than ancient Doric dialects by Laconian performers of mid- or later generations (see comments on the hinge below) or even by Alexandrian scholars gives the text a Doric feel.
Apollonius Dyscolus describes Alkerman as συνεχῶς αἰολίζων “in constant use of the Aeolic dialect”. However, the validity of this judgment is limited by the fact that it is about the use of digamma in the third-person pronoun ϝός “he/she”; it is also perfectly Doric. However, many of the extant fragments show prosodic, morphological and phrasal features common to the Greek epic Homeric language, and even distinct Aeolic and un-Doric features (σδ = ζ, -οισα = -ουσα) not present in Homer itself Will be passed on to all subsequent lyric poets. This mix of traits adds to the complexity of any analysis of his work.
The British linguist Denys Page, in his influential monograph (1951), draws the following conclusions about Alkerman’s dialect:
rhythmic form
Judging from his larger fragments, Alkerman’s poetry is often strophic: different rhythmic combinations of growing bars (lines 9-14), repeated several times.
A popular meter is the finger tetrameter (as opposed to Homer and Hesiod’s finger hexagon).
content
The first Parthenon
The type of song that Alkerman writes most often seems to be hymn, Patinja (virgin song Greek παρθένος “maiden”), and Promea (Prelude to epic recitation). Most of what is almost non-existent is in pieces and fragments that are difficult to sort through. The most important fragment is the first Parthenon or Louvre-Parthenon, found in Saqqara, Egypt in 1855 by the French scholar Auguste Mariette. This Parthenon consists of 101 lines, of which more than 30 lines are badly damaged. It is difficult to say anything about this fragment, and since its discovery and publication, scholars have debated its content and the occasions on which this partheneion might have been executed.
Alkerman’s choral lyrics are intended to be played in the social, political, and religious context of Sparta.Most of the existing snippets are from Patinja. These hymns are sung by unmarried women, but it is not clear how Patinja Conducted. The Swiss scholar Claude Calame (1977) saw them as a kind of drama for girls’ chorus. He associates them with initiation ceremonies.
The girls expressed their deep love for their choir leader (coryphaeus):
Early research often overlooked the erotic aspects of Patrene’s love. So, at the end of the first citation, without the verb τηρεῖ translated as “to guard”, the papyrus actually has the more explicit τείρει, “to exhaust me (with love)”. Calame pointed out that this homosexual love, which is similar to the lyrics of contemporary poet Sappho, matched with male prostitutes, was an integral part of the initiation ceremony. At a later time, but possibly relying on earlier sources, Plutarch confirmed that Spartan women engaged in such same-sex relationships. If the relationship also has a physical side, and if so, what nature it is, it remains open.
Contemporary classicist Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou, while not denying the erotic elements of the poem, argues that the second half of the first stanza critically portrays Hagesichora and emphasizes her absence, rather than praising her and emphasizing her approval. Tsantsanoglou’s interpretation has not received mainstream acceptance in classical studies.
Other scholars, including Hutchinson and Stehle, see First Partheneion as a song written for a harvest ritual, rather than a tribal initiation ritual. Stehle argues that the maidens of Parthenon carried plows (φάρος, or, in most translations, robes, φᾶρος) for the goddess of dawn (Orthria).The goddess of the dawn was revered for her qualities, especially at the time of harvest when the Greeks harvested at dawn (Hesiod, Works and Days, ll. 575-580: “Dawn provides a third of the work [that is, harvesting]”). Heat (represented by Sirius) is a threat to the dawn, so the chorus tries to defeat him. Meanwhile, the chorus members present themselves as women ready to marry. Stehle disagrees with Calame about the initiation ceremony, but cannot ignore what the poetry says “erotic” language of expression.
Some scholars believe that the choir is divided into two halves, each with its own leader; at the beginning and end of their performances, the two halves perform as a group, but for most performances, each half competes with each other, claiming that they The leader or favorite is the best of all the girls in Sparta. However, there is little evidence that the choir was actually split. The role of Aenesimbrota, another woman in Alkerman’s first Parthenon, was controversial.Some believe she is indeed a competing chorus leader, others believe she is some kind of witch who will offer magical love potions to girls who fall in love, like pharmacology Second Idyll of Theocritus and others argue again that she is the coach of the Andaesistrota Choir of the Second Partheneion in Pindar
other songs
Alkerman could also write songs for Spartan Boys. However, the only statement supporting this view comes from the Spartan historian Socibius in the 2nd century BC. He said that Alkerman’s song was played during the Gymnopaedia festival (according to Athenaeus):
Praise the gods, women and the natural world
Regardless of the subject matter, Alkerman’s poetry has the clear, light-hearted, cheerful tone that ancient critics have commented on. Details of ceremonies and festivals are carefully described, even if the context of some of these details is beyond comprehension.
Alkerman’s language is rich in visual descriptions. He describes the yellow hair of a woman and the gold chain she wears around her neck; the purple petals of Kalchas and the purple depths of the sea; the “bright and sparkling” colors of windflowers and the colorfulness of birds as they chew on green buds on vines feather.
Much attention is paid to nature: ravines, mountains, forests that bloom at night, the quiet sound of water lapping seaweed. Animals and other creatures fill his lines: birds, horses, bees, lions, reptiles, and even crawling insects.
His work has also intrigued historians as Alkerman discusses the customs and characteristics of Sparta. For example, the assertion that Sparta had few material goods—part of the “Spartan Phantom”—is disproved by Alkerman’s observations of various women wearing gold chains. Details like this can provide a deeper insight into life in Sparta.
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