Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T20:07:17.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Poet as Hero: Fifth-Century Autobiography and Subsequent Biographical Fiction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Mary R. Lefkowitz
Mary R. Lefkowitz
Affiliation:
Wellesley College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The old proverb (‘poets tell a lot of lies’) can still more accurately be applied to their biographers.‘ Even the more plausible and psycho logically tempting details in the lives of literary figures derive from these authors’ fictional works, poems, and dramas, and not from the kind of source material biographers use today, letters, documents, eyewitness testimony. Critics and readers eager to establish some historical correlation between any ancient poet's life and his work should expect to be disappointed. But even if the ancient lives are useless to the historian or critic trying to explain what in Euripides’ experience compelled him to write about Medea, these stories are of interest to mythologists. If we stop being angry at the Lives for failing to be historical, and look at them rather as myths or fairy tales, some informative patterns begin to emerge.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , December 1978 , pp. 459 - 469
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Paroem. Gr. 1. 371. 17, attributed first to Solon, fr. 29 W. On poets’ lives, see esp. Fairweather, J. A., ‘Fiction in the Biographies of Ancient Writers’, Ancient Society 5 (1974), 231–75.Google Scholar Also Lefkowitz, M. R., ‘Pindar's Lives’, Classica et Iberica (Festschrift Matique; Worcester, Mass., 1975), 71–93Google Scholar; ‘Fictions in Literary Biography: the New Poem and the Arcehilochus Legend’, Arethusa 9 (1976), 181–9Google Scholar; Riginos, A. S., Platonica: The Anecdotes Concerning the Life and Writings of Plato (CSCT 3; Leiden, 1976).Google Scholar

2 Cf., e.g., the legal documents assembled in Crow, M. M. and Olson, C. C., edd., Chaucer Life-Records (Austin/Oxford, 1966).Google Scholar

3 Citations of the poets’ Lives, unless otherwise indicated, are from Westermann, A., ed., Biographi Graeci Minores (Braunschweig, 1845; repr. Amsterdam, 1964).Google Scholar

4 On Aristophanes, and Plato, , see Riginos (n. 1), pp. 176–8.Google Scholar A comic scene also turns up as a ‘historical’ instance in Plutarch; see Robertson, D. S., ‘Cleon and the Assembly’, CR 37 (1923), 165.Google Scholar

1 On the angry hero, see Lefkowitz, M. R., ‘Pindar's Pytbian 8’, CJ 72 (1977), 213–14, 217–19.Google Scholar

6 Coulter, J. A., ‘The Relation of the Apology of Socrates to Gorgias’ Defense of Palamedes, etc.,’ HSCP 68 (1964), 289–95; Fairweather (n. 1), 238.Google Scholar See also n. 49 below. Another case in point is the story (first told in the fourth century) about the poet Tyrtaeus being a lame Athenian general imported by the Spartans (Tyrt., fr. 10W/ Lycurg, , Leocr. 107; fr. 5W/∑PI., Leg, 629 a.Google Scholar

7 Momigliano, A., The Development of Greek Biography (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), pp. 18–28Google Scholar; ‘Second Thoughts on Greek Biography,’ Meded. d. Kon. Ned. Akad. v. Wet. Afd. Lett. Nieuwe Reeks 34 (1971), 5–6. Theagenes B 1, I. D-KGoogle Scholar; see Allen, T. W., Homer: The Origins and the Transmission (Oxford, 1924), pp. 36–7.Google Scholar

8 Hesiod puts distinctive emphasis on the poet's ability to alter men's perception of experience. On traditional views of the powers of speech, see Roth, C. P., ‘The Kings and the Muses in Hesiod's Theogony’, TAPA 106 (1976), 331–8Google Scholar; L. Bieler, (Vienna, 1935) ii. 43–5.

9 Cf. also the poet Solon's hardly unbiased description of his own singularly righteous conduct of Athenian politics, fr. 39W, and the story about his poem on Salamis, fr. 1W.

10 Fairweather, (n. 1), 234.Google Scholar

11 On the dangers of biographical criticism, see esp. Lefkowitz, , ‘Pindar's Lives’ (n. 1), pp. 79–87.Google Scholar

12 Lefkowitz, , ‘Fictions in Literary Biography’ (n. 1), p. 185.Google Scholar

13 Cf. also Parmenides B6, 1. 233 D–K ; Dover, K. J., Greek Popular Morality (Oxford, 1974), pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

14 Young, D. C., Three Odes of Pindar (Mnemosyne Suppl. 9; Leiden 1978), p. 13 n. 15.Google Scholar A similar approach is adopted by Stoneman, R., ‘The ’Theban Eagle” CQ N.S. 26 (1926), 188–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar, but cf. Nisbet, R. G. M. and Hubbard, M., A Commentary on Horace: Odes Book 2 (Oxford, 1978) on Carm. 2. 20.Google Scholar

15 On the generalizing function of first person statements, see Lefkowitz, M. R.The Victory Ode (Park Ridge, N. J., 1976). p. 155.Google Scholar

16 Critias, for example, takes poets’ first-person statements as literal autobiography; see Lefkowitz, , ‘Fictions in Literary Biogra phy’ (n. 1), 182–83Google Scholar; see below p.463. Cf. the story of how everyone in the theatre looked at Aristides when they heard the complimentary description of Amphiaraus during the performance of Aeschylus’ Septem (lines, 592–4Google Scholar; Plut, . Aristides 3. 4).Google Scholar

17 On the conventional content of these lines, see Young, , Three Odes (n. 14), pp. 6–19Google Scholar; and on the conventions themselves, Dover, K. J., ‘The Political Aspect of Aeschylus‘ Eumenides,’ JHS (1957), 233–5.Google Scholar

18 See also Carey, C., ‘Pindar's Eighth Nemean Ode,’ PCPS 22 (1976), 33–4.Google Scholar Cf. the poet's wish ‘may 1 be sought after by the city and all its people’ (lines 21 ff.) in Lloyd-Jones, H., ‘The Seal of Posidippus,’ JHS 83 (1963), 81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 See esp. Lefkowitz, , The Victory Ode (n. 15), pp. 30–2.Google Scholar

20 On the revised myths of Ol. 1, see Lefkowitz, , The Victory Ode (n. 15), pp. 86–9Google Scholar and Stinton, T. C. W., ‘Si Credere Dignum Est,’ PCPS 22 (1976), 68–9.Google Scholar

21 Cf. also the universally applicable advice attributed to Chiton the Wise by Critias, , ‘nothing to excess. All good things come at the right time’ (13 7,11. 380 D–K).Google Scholar

22 Apollodorus, 1. 8. 5, 3. 6. 8.Google Scholar

23 On the relation of these portraits to later biographies, see Dihle, A., Studien zur griechischen Biographie (Abhand. Akad. Wissen. Gottingen, Phil.- Hist. Kl. 111. 37) pp. 20 ff.Google Scholar On emphasis in popular literature on friendship, see Trenkner, S., The Greek Novella in the Classical Period (Cambridge, 1958), pp. 69 ff.Google Scholar, with Adkins's, A. W. H. observations about using drama and philosophy as evidence, ‘Problems in Greek Popular Morality’, CP 73 (1978), 144–5.Google Scholar

24 On the reasons for competition with great poets of the past, see Bloom, H., The Anxiety of Influence (Oxford, 1973), pp. 5–14.Google Scholar

25 See above, n. 16.

26 Achilles, ’ resentment was vividly portrayed in the Myrmidons, see P. Oxy. 2163.Google Scholar Cf. also the comic ellipsis, ‘Lycis and Ameipsias carry baggage () each time in their comedies’ (Ran. 14–15) for ‘the put baggage carriers in every play’; see Kassel, R., ‘Kritische and exegetische Kleinigkeiten, Nr. 15’, RhM 109 (1966), 8–10.Google Scholar

27 e.g. 1038–42; cf. Thuc. 1. 22. 1, ‘to speak particularly what should be said about events occuring at the moment’.

28 Perhaps, also 1446–50Google Scholar; see Higham, T. F.in Russell, D. A. and Winterbottom, M., edd., Ancient Literary Criticism (Oxford, 1972), p. 11Google Scholar; also Dover, K. J., ‘Ancient Interpolations in Aristophanes’, ICS 2 (1977), 150–1.Google Scholar

29 Tr. Higham (n. 28); citations of Aeschylus’ Life are from the O.C.T. ed. D.L. Page.

30 For an evaluation of this criticism, see Taplin, O., ‘Aeschylean Silences and Silences in Aeschylus’, HSCP 76 (1972), 58–64.Google Scholar

31 On poets’ epitaphs, see Fairweather, (n. 1), p. 254. The presence of such an epitaph in Alcidamas’ On Homer indicates that they were considered a necessary feature of literary biography in the fourth century; see below pp. 467 f.Google Scholar

32 Jacoby, F., FGrHist 392, Comm. p. 197.Google Scholar A lyre-player in this painting was identified as Sophocles, ‘a piece of bluffing on the part of an imaginative gallery guide;’ Fairweather, (n. 1), pp. 252–3.Google Scholar See also Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U. v., Aischylos: Interpretationem (Berlin, 1914), p. 16.Google Scholar

33 Jacoby, , FGrHist 392, Comm. p. 193Google Scholar; Wilamowitz, (n. 32), p. 15Google Scholar; cf. Fairweather, (n. 1), 243.Google Scholar

34 Wilamowitz, (n. 32), 25; Hdt. 4. 114.Google Scholar

35 Warner, M., Alone of All her Sex (London, 1976), pp. 344–5.Google Scholar

36 There was an Eleusinian Aeschylus in the fourth century; see Davies, J. K., Athenian Propertied Families (Oxford, 1971), pp. 6–8.Google Scholar

37 For bibliography, see Fairweather, (n. 1), p. 245.Google Scholar

38 All citations are to the editio princeps, P. Oxy. 1176, on the advice of West, S. R., Gnomon 38 (1966), 546–50.Google Scholar On Satyrus’ use of comedy as source material, see Lewis, L. C. St. A. in New Chapters in the History of Greek Literature, edd. Powell, and Barber, (Oxford, 1921); Dihle (n. 23), pp. 106–7.Google Scholar

39 Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U. v., Einleitung in die Griechische Tragödie (Euripides Herakles i; Berlin, 1899), p. 6. But because of the Bacchae he accepts the idea of Euripides‘ visit to Macedonia, p. 33.Google Scholar On the dangers of psychoanalytic interpretation of the cave incident, see Fairweather, (n. 1), p. 239.Google Scholar

40 The well-liked Sophocles, , however, is said to have rejected offers from ‘many kings’ (p. 128. 40–1/p. xix. 10 Pearson).Google Scholar

41 On writers’ deaths, see Fairweather, (n. 1), pp. 269–70 and Riginos (n. l), pp. 194, 195, n. 5Google Scholar; also Fairweather, J., ‘The Death of Heraclitus’, GRBS 14 (1973), 238–9.Google Scholar

42 Bettelheim, B., The Uses of Enchantment (New York, 1976), p. 11. In post-Hellenistic biographies fairy-tale magic is sometimes rationalized, e.g. in the Herodotean Life of Homer miraculous birth becomes ordinary illegitimacy (p. 1. 12–13/p. 193. 12–13 Allen)Google Scholar; see Fairweather, (n. 1), pp. 272–3.Google Scholar

43 Renehan, R., ‘The Michigan Alcidamas Papyrus: A Problem in Methodology’, HSCP 75 (1971), 85–105Google Scholar; all references in this article are to his text, pp. 85–6. See also his ‘Linguistic Criteria for Dating and Author ship: The Alcidamas Papyrus’, Studies in Greek Texts (Hypomnemata 43 (1976), 144–59).Google Scholar Aristotle fr. 76 tells story of Homer's mother (Plut, . Vit. Hom. 3, p. 240 Allen)Google Scholar; Trenkner, (n. 23), p. 30.Google Scholar

44 C.f. Allen, (n. 7), p. 38Google Scholar; the men daciously inventive John of Salisbury told this same story about Plato, , Riginos (n. 1), p. 197.Google Scholar

45 It is interesting to note that in the Contest the corroborative detail ‘he died on the third day’ is added; for a helpful schematic presentation of variants, see Kirk, G. S., ‘The Michigan Alcidamas-Papyrus,’ CQ 44 (1950), 104–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 On Satyrus’ date and works, see West, S. R., ‘Satyrus: Peripatetic or Alexandrian‘, GRBS 15 (1974), 279–87.Google Scholar

47 See esp. Vogt, E., ‘Die Schrift vom Wettkampf Homers and Hesiods’, RhM 102 (1959), 219–21Google Scholar and also Gnomon 33 (1961), 697–703.Google Scholar

48 On fictional techniques in Herodotus, see Fehling, D., Die Quellenangaben bei Herodot: Studien zur Erzabikunst Herodots (Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur and Geschichte 9; Berlin, 1971), pp. 67–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar More, however, needs to be said about what Herodotus and his contemporaries regarded as ‘true;’ see Cobet’s, J. review of Fehling, Gnomon 47 (1974), 737–46.Google Scholar

49 On mythical patterns in the Apol., see Bieler, (n. 8) ii. 86Google Scholar; and on fiction in Xen, . Mem., Dihle (n. 23), p. 32.Google Scholar

50 For criteria, see Syme, R., ‘Fraud and Imposture’, Pseudepigrapha i (Ent. Hardt 18), 5–6.Google Scholar N. Gulley,‘The Authenticity of the Platonic Epistles’, ibid. 105–30. On fiction in the N.T., see Dibelius, M., Studies in the Acts of the Apostles (New York, 1951), pp. 26–77.Google Scholar

51 This article is based on a paper read at the Institute of Classical Studies in London, and at the Universities of Oxford and of Cambridge. I am especially grateful to the following for suggestions and information: E. Badian, W. Calder, J. Fairweather, E. W. Handley, H. Lloyd-Jones, A. A. Long, C. Macleod, R. Syme, S. West.