Truth and the Song

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Classical Association of Canada

Truth and the Song: Bacchylides 3.96-98Author(s): Leonard WoodburySource: Phoenix, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Winter, 1969), pp. 331-335Published by: Classical Association of CanadaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1086453.

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TRUTH AND THE SONG: BACCHYLIDES 3.96-98LEONARD WOODBURY

ovpYa' aXaO[eiq1] KaX(^,Kat /ieXMyXCd0arTOVLr v1iVPf7E Xaptv

Kfltas arlbovos.

T HE COMMON INTERPRETATION of these lines, which concludeBacchylides' epinician ode for the great chariot-victory won by Hieronat Olympia in 468, is exhibited by Jebb's version of them: And alongwith thy genuine glories men shall praise also the charm of the sweetsinger, the nightingale of Ceos. 'Hieron's victory of 468 was the crown of his racing career and hischoice of Bacchylides rather than Pindar to write for the celebration thatfollowed was a marked distinction for the poet. Whether he found, likethe ancient Scholiasts and modern commentators on Pindar,2 derogatoryallusions to himself and his uncle Simonides in Pindar's Second Olympianof 476, we cannot tell. But it seems to be true that in this ode, whichsignals his final triumph in the long literary rivalry with Pindar in theSyracusan court, he challenges comparison with the Theban poet on hisown ground. In the First Pythian of 470 Pindar had compared the kindlyand generous excellence of Croesus, whose fame lived on undiminished tothe present day, with the ruthless cruelty of Phalaris, whose name becamean abomination instead of a subject for song. The theme of Croesus'magnificence is now taken up by Bacchylides two years later in this ode,but it is much more fully illustrated by the great myth of the king'sescape from his funeral pyre. With greater daring he attempts in hisconclusion (85-98) an essay in the Priamel which appears to imitate thesteeply towering style of the opening of Pindar's First Olympian.3 This

'J. M. Edmonds, in the Loeb Lyra Graeca2 (Cambridge, Mass. and London 1940) 3.143,gives so there shall be a true tale of things well done, and along with it men shall praisethe grace of the honey-tongued nightingale of Ceos ; R. Lattimore, in Greek Lyrics(Chicago 1955) 45, renders And with his honors here remembered, men shall sound outtoo the exquisite grace of me, the nightingale of Keos ; B. Gentili, in his Bacchilide: Studi(Urbino 1958) 104, provides an Italian version, Con la vera tua gloria si cantera anchela grazia del dolce poeta, 1' usignuolo di Ceo ; R. Fagles, in his translation of the poet(New Haven and London 1961) has They will resound your splendor of truth, andresound too the rolling finesse of the nightingale of Ceos.'The evidence is collected and discussed by Jebb on pp. 13-24 of his edition. Cf. alsoU.v.Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Pindaros (Berlin 1922) 312-318 and C. M. Bowra,Pindar (Oxford 1964) 229-236.

O3n the Priamel, cf. E. Fraenkel's note, in his edition of Aeschylus' Agamemnon331

PHOENIX,Vol. 23 (1969) 4.


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PHOENIX

uncharacteristic passage, which is only partially successful, is introducedby the uncompromising pronouncement, kpoveovTr avver' yapvb, inwhich it is easy to hear an echo, in words as well as in thought, of Pindar'sprophetic tone in 01.2.83-85, e'Xrt.. ,wvaevra avvE7roitv. This impressionis strengthened when it is remembered that Pindar then goes on to thelines in which the Scholiasts found the most persuasive evidence of anattack on Simonides and Bacchylides (01.2.86-88). He is wise, he says,in that he knows much because of his nature and birth; by contrast, theclamorous learners, like crows, speak to no purpose (aiKpavra 'yapierov)against the divine bird of Zeus. The verb, in the telling dual number,seems to point directly at the two lesser poets, uncle and nephew. It ishighly suggestive at the least that Bacchylides uses the same verb inbeginning his trial flight in the Pindaric manner.Whatever may be the truth concerning these implications of poeticrivalry and polemics, it is certain that Bacchylides is here moving in theambient air of traditional forms and styles, not all of them familiar inhis work. Jebb is therefore able to support his interpretation of 3.96-98by adducing another parallel, this time from the end of the First Olympian(115-116), in which, as he says, Pindar links his own fame with Hieron'sjust as Bacchylides does for his patron and himself in his gentler Ionianfashion. Whether this is another Pindaric imitation or only a traditionalstatement, it is in place at the end of an epinician ode.4Difficulties have nevertheless been found in the lines. ProfessorHermann Frankel, in a brief but learned note, deals with a number.5 Hefinds no offence in avwaXatOet,as Bacchylides also elsewhere emphasizesthe truth of his pronouncements (e.g., 8.19-25; 9.82-87); but he findsKaXGjvnsuitable and tentatively conjectures KX\OV, translating, mitwahrem Wort dich feiernd (?) A second difficulty is found in attributingto Bacchylides the statement that some one will sing of the charm of hisart. Frankel finds this impossible and proposes for xaptv, on Pindaricauthority, the meaning, Freude und Freundesgabe, used of the songitself.6These difficulties are troublesome enough, but what is decisive againstthe usual interpretation, though this seems to be unrecognized, is thepractice of Bacchylides himself in his use of avv and xapLv n similarcontexts. What we should expect from them, of course, is that awvaXaeti0qKaX&v hould have an adverbial function in association with the(Oxford 1950), on lines 899-902 and E. L. Bundy, Studia Pindarica I: The EleventhOlympian Ode in Univ. of Calif. Publ. in Class. Phil. vol. 18, no. 1 (1962) 4-10.4For a similar ending of a choral ode, cf. Ibycus fr. 1. 46-48: 282 PMG.5Cf. H. Frankel, Dichtung und Philosophie desfriihen Griechentums2(Munich 1962) 530,n. 44.

eFrankel cites Pind. 01. 10.78; Pyth. 11.12; Nem. 7.75, etc.

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TRUTH AND THE SONGverb. Excellent examples, also with verbs signifying song, are found in5.9-10: a'v Xapltreo-ao aUOvcvots 'tavas/viulov; 13.201-202: alvetlrow aoo6v&vpal/avv 51Kq; cf. also 9.85-87. Other prepositions are used freely in asimilar way, e.g., lKart in 5.33-34, rKT6rin 10.51-52, and xapLv in 5.187.The last-mentioned passage offers more than one point of comparisonwith 3.96-98:

Xp)i]a &Xaaelasalptvalvelv, f)O6vovatt4[oTrpaLoLvXEpoLp ac7rco)oa/tEvOV,ELTLSeV Trpa&aoL /porTPv.

Here the last line corresponds in meaning with KaX&vhere and AXd8eLais present in both; if aXaOelas xaptv modifies the verb here,7 why shouldnot both a-v and xapiv govern adverbial phrases there?8 On that readingthe difficulties offered by the syntax of avv and the sense of xapLv woulddisappear together.9The doubts about the meaning of aov aXa0cLEqKaXov are readily dis-pelled by another consideration. It seems now to be recognized more andmore widely that the effective etymology of aXi0eLa in the Greek under-standing assumes a meaning something like dis-closure or un-covering. 10 This must be the sense required in both Bacchylideanpassages (3.96 and 5.187).11 It is the disclosure of the glories of the victor

7That &XaOelas xtptLv is adverbial here is shown by the parallel use of avv aXaOel,i in3.96, 8.20-21, and 9.85 (as well as oav LKL.n 13.202) and by the sense (cf. p.333 f. below).The adverbial use of Xaptv is as old as Hom. II. 15.744, occurs several times in the texts ofthe poets, and is used by Pindar in O1.7.5; Pyth. 2.70, 3.95, 10.64; and Nem. 1.6; and byBacchylides in 14.19 and fr.11.5 Snell.88For an example of a verb used absolutely with two adverbial phrases, cf. Pind.Nem. 3.83-84.9For parallels in construction and sense, cf. 2.9-10 and 4.5-6 (&[eIte]TcaL/co[Kv]7r68ovap[era] aT v' ir7rco).10Cf., e.g., E. Heitsch, Die nicht-philosophische AAHOEIA, Hermes 90 (1962) 24-33(with a bibliography in n. 4 on p. 24); W. Luther, Wahrheit, Licht und Erkenntnis inder griechischen Philosophie bis Demokrit, Arch.f.Begriffsgesch. 10 (1966) 1-240; H. D.Rankin, '''A-AHOEIA in Plato, Glotta 41 (1963) 51-54; M. Detienne, Les maitres dev6rite dans la Grece archaique (Paris 1967) 48, n. 107; and for a recent bibliography, cf.Heitsch in RhM 109 (1966) 199, n. 16. That the Greeks felt the connection with XtOw isevident from passages such as Horn. 11. 23.359-361 with 647-649; Hes. Theog. 226-236;Hdt. 3.75.1; and others collected by Heitsch. Whether the basic meaning is an un-hiddenness of things, as was proposed by M. Heidegger in his Sein und Zeit in 1927, isstill in dispute. Cf., e.g., P. Friedlander's revision in the third edition of his Platon(Berlin 1964) 234-235 of the opposing arguments presented in earlier editions of thework; also C. J. Classen in Stud.Gen. 18 (1965) 100 and n. 38.By contrast, envy seeks to hide or obscure (16.31-33; Pind. Nem. 4.36-41; 7.61-63)but is defeated by truth and time (5.187-190; 13.199-220; Pind. 01. 1. 28-34, 46-51;10.52-55). &XaiOea7rayKparTs, which grants excellence to a few, is contrasted with theineffectiveness of smoke (which seeks to obscure and stain) and compared with gold,

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PHOENIXby his success in the games that prompts and justifies the song.12 Somuch is clear from the association of aXaOLcawith athletic success (as inKaXwOvnd dlrs ev rpaaaot 1porS)v) and from the explicit sense of 3.92-94:13

'Ipowv, av 6' '\Xf3ovKa\XX\taT're[elt]ao OvarotsavOea'rpata[vTn] 8' ec....

What is disclosed by aXaGOLa ay be uncovered in the victory itself, asin 3.92-98 and 5.187-190, or in its celebration in song, as in 8.19-21(y7 6' rTEtaK?'rTTWvXEpa/KOt'raoiat- oL'av aXa/Oel'a e irav Xat.reL xpeos) and9.85: (aov ... aXa0'ca/l3poTrv).'4 Or the two may be combined, as in fr.14Snell8:

Avola uAeva&p l\os/uavave Xpvaov, av-

b8pv a'apeTav Taocta rera'yKpaTr7sr' eX^YXEta&XAELa...

As the Lydian stone reveals pure gold, so the poet's wisdom (in song)and the invincible demonstration of truth (in the games or other events)test (and reveal) human excellence. In an epinician ode there are twobasic facts: one is the winning of the victory, the other is the choralperformance of the song. Whatever good and honourable thing is revealedby them jointly can never die.'1The meaning proposed for 3.96-98 by this interpretation runs some-thing like this: The splendour of men's excellence does not wane withtheir bodies, for the Muse gives it nurture. Hieron, it is you who havewhich cannot be marred,in a lyric fragment firstpublished n Ox.Pap. 2432; it is attri-buted to Simonides by E. Lobel (Ox.Pap.2432) and D. Page (fr.36:541 PMG) and toBacchylides by C. M. Bowra Simonidesor Bacchylides? Hermes91 (1963)257-267 andby H. Lloyd-Jonesin CR11 (1961) 19. Cf. also Detienne, op.cit. (above, n. 10) 109,n. 20for fuller information.

12pv,vec is regularly transitive, though Aesch.fr.350.7Nauck2:280 Mette provides anexceptionamongthe poets and a constructionwith 7rept ppears n prose,as in Thuc.1.21andPlato,Rep.463D. In any case,verbsof similarmeaningaresometimesusedabsolutelyin lyric: cf. Bacchyl.5.187-188 (alkvw);Pind. Nem. 5.22-23, Isthm.7.39, and Paeans8.71Snell3 (aEdiS); and Pyth. 2.15-16 (KeXaacEow). n Bacchyl.3.97 an object may easily in anycase be supplied to complete the sense from KaXC\Wf the precedingline.On the demonstrationof glories in the games, cf. also 2.6-10.14With the use of aXaOetaboth subjectively (with fpor&rv n 9.85) and objectively(with KaX&vn 3.96), cf. Pindar'suse of TrXa both of the giver (Nem.4.7: avu XapirwvrTvx) and the gift (01. 13.115: Trbav repIrve v y'vKelav))and Jebb's note on Bacch.16.132.'Cf., e.g., 9.82-87 and 13.199-209.

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TRUTH AND THE SONG 335revealed to mortal men prosperity in its fairest bloom. But if some onehas achieved great success, honour is not conferred on him by silence.'1By right of those glories that have been made manifest in the outcomeof the contest there shall be a song of praise (about them), and by gracealso of the honey-voiced nightingale of Ceos. '7

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO

16Silence is the KOO'Jos of women: cf. Soph.Aj.293: yvvat~L K6Oa.OVr a0Lr') ckpet(KO6aoov cpeLtTLYLalso in Hdt. 8.60 and 142); fr.64.4 P; Aesch. Agam. 611; Thuc. 2.45.2.But it is inappropriate to a victor: cf. Pind.Pyth. 9.92; Nem. 9.7; Isthm. 2.44; fr. 240Snell.3 K6oalosis the adornment that apeTr requires and receives from song, as in Pind.01. 11.13 and fr.194 Snell.317At the end of another of Bacchylides' epinicians (13) it is said that there shall besongs, if Clio has truly (eruiutcs) instilled the theme in the poet's 4p&ves: songs thereforeby grace of the poet also. Pindar too (Nem. 3.83-84) speaks of twin causes of the victor'sglory, but his second cause is, characteristically, not the poet himself, but his Muse.

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