ARISTOTLE AS POET This page intentionally left blank ARISTOTLE AS POET The Song for Hermias and Its Contexts Andrew Ford 3 2011 3 OxfordUniversityPress,Inc.,publishesworksthatfurther OxfordUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellence inresearch,scholarship,andeducation. Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech RepublicFrance Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright©2011byOxfordUniversityPress PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NewYork10016 www.oup.com OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Ford,AndrewLaughlin. Aristotleaspoet:thesongforHermiasanditscontexts/AndrewL.Ford p.cm. ISBN978-0-19-973329-3 1.Aristotle.2.Poetry–Earlyworksto1800.I.Title. PN1040.A53F672010 (cid:2) 881.01—dc22 2010000006 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper ForAnnabelleandViviane quandj’aiétépère... –Balzac This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Abbreviations xix 1.TheText 1 Aristotle:TheSongforHermias 1 SourcesandFirstReading 3 2.HistoryandContext 9 DeconstructingAtarneus:QuestionsofMethod 10 ConstructingHermias:TheErythraeanInscription 17 TheEndofHermias:Theopompus’sLettertoPhilip 21 3.PerformanceandOccasion 27 CommemorativeEpigrams:AristotleandSimonides 29 BookEpigrams:TheocritusofChios 35 TextsandThings:HerodotusonHermotimus 41 4.PerformanceandContext 45 Witnesses:Callisthenes’Hermias 48 vii viii Contents Sources:Hermippus’sOnAristotle 54 Authenticity:“Aristotle’s”Apology 60 5.GenresofPoetry 69 LyricGenresfromPlatotoAlexandria 71 ImpiousSong:ThePaeantoLysander 80 Paean,Hymn,Skolion? 86 6.KindsofHymn 91 HymnicForm:Ariphron’sPaeantoHealth 91 HymnicFlexibility:Pindar’sFourteenthOlympicOde 97 HymnsinHexameters:“Homer”andAristotle 105 7.Ethos 113 EthosinDebate:AnAtticSkolionandaPoem bySappho 114 EthosinProtreptic:Aristotle’sHymntoHermias, vv.1–8 121 EthosinEpiphany:ImmortalVirtueinSophocles’ Philoctetes 127 8.Reading 137 Troping:(cid:2)o(cid:3)(cid:4)´(cid:5)o(cid:6)(cid:7)oςinEuripidesandBacchylides 138 Mythologizing:HymntoHermias,vv.9–16 144 Immortalizing:HymntoHermias,vv.17–21 147 9.Endurance 157 Memorial:Aristotle’sElegiacstoEudemus 160 Survival:ALetterfromPlato 166 NOTES 173 BIBLIOGRAPHY 217 GENERALINDEX 233 INDEXOFPASSAGESDISCUSSED 239 PREFACE People are often surprised to hear that Aristotle wrote poetry, naturally thinking of him in the first instance as a philosopher andindeedasoneofthegreatestthinkersintheancientworld.In fact,Aristotlecomposedenoughpoetrytofilltwopapyrusrolls in the ancient collections of his works, for it was not unusual thatawell-educatedgentlemanofhisdayshouldbeabletocome upwithaverseorsongtogracespecialoccasions.Whatisvery surprisingisthestorytoldaboutoneofhispoems,forthesources that preserve the text also tell us that it came near to costing the philosopher his life. This lyric, one of only two to survive complete, will be the central thread in the study that follows, which combines a close reading of that work with an attempt to understand its remarkable reception. Though very little of Aristotle’spoeticoutputsurvives,Ihopetherebytocastfurther lightonhisrelationtotheGreeklyrictraditionandtothemusical cultureofthelaterfourthcentury. The poem—strictly speaking, the lyric to a brief song— commemoratesHermiasofAtarneus,rulerofasmallprincipality in the northeast corner of the Aegean. In the late 340s BCE, ix