The poetics of aethalides: Silence and poikilia in apollonius' argonautica

Classical Quarterly

Volumn 48, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 456-469

  Nishimura Jensen, Julie ^a  

^a ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 62449307681     PISSN: 00098388     EISSN: 14716844     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/cq/48.2.456     Document Type: Review

References (42)

1. I. J. F. De Jong, Narrators and Focalizers: The Presentation of the Story in the Iliad (Amsterdam, 1987), p. 180 offers a set of norms for the transmission of messages
2. For the status conceded to those who can recall past events accurately, see R. P. Martin, The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad (Ithaca, 1989), pp. 77-88
3. Apollonius and his contemporaries show no signs of being aware that the Homeric poems were the result of oral composition. The Hellenistic avoidance of repetition, therefore, is not a conscious affirmation of literary composition but rather the reflection of Hellenistic aesthetic preferences. For the infrequency of Apollonian repetition, see G. W. Elderkin, 'Repetition in the Argonautica of Apollonius', AJP 34 (1913), 198-201
4. L. Deubner, 'Ein Stilprinzip hellenistischer Dichtkunst', NJbb 47 (1921), 361-78
5. W. Moskalew, Formular Language and Poetic Design in the Aeneid (Leiden, 1982), pp. 60-72
6. I will not discuss poet-figures such as Orpheus and Phineus in this article. See S. Goldhill, The Poet's Voice (Cambridge, 1991)
7. R. L. Hunter, The Argonautica of Apollonius: Literary Studies (Cambridge, 1993)
8. and, most recently, R. V. Albis, Poet and Audience in the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius (Boulder, 1996), pp. 28-31 on the affinities between poets and the bards whom they depict.
9. A point noted by F. Vian at Argonautiques I (Paris, 1976), p. 7; comparison with Pindar's approach makes it clear that Apollonius emphasizes the mortality of his heroes
10. The impact of having an immortal father may be lessened because, as D. N. Levin comments in Apollonius' Argonautica Re-examined: The Neglected First and Second Books (Leiden, 1971), p. 63, Erytus and Echion are introduced first as sons of Hermes while Aethalides is called their (1.53)
11. G. Genette, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (Ithaca, 1980), pp. 194-8 discusses the change in focalization that occurs when less information than necessary is given. Such paralipses break the poetic code without destroying it; instead, they call attention to its existence
12. See also M. Bal, Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative (Toronto, 1985), pp. 142-9 on the relationship of primary and embedded texts
13. H. Fränkel, Noten zu den Argonautika des Apollonios (Munich, 1968) at pp. 641-9 considers this to be an inverted aetion since it explains the origin of something in the past rather than something in the author's present. The latter is the normal pattern of usage. Both the narrator and characters within the narrative employ the phrase as well as variations such as. In six out of seven occurrences of the original phrase in the Argonautica, it appears as part of an aetion (1.644, 825, 1061; 2.1214; 3.312; 4.480, 599). The seventh instance occurs when Hypsipyle gives her half-truthful version of the events on Lemnos. At 1.825, she claims that the Lemnian men live in Thrace, covering her lie with a false aetion and perhaps attempting to give her story the illusion of credibility
14. The avoidance of non-fictional characters may have distinguished Apollonius' work from historical and panegyric epics of this period. Whether or not Alexandrian scholars differentiated between historical and mythological epic, however, remains debatable. The long-standing belief that the Hellenistic period saw an explosion of historical epics gained much of its momentum from K. Ziegler's book, Das Hellenistische Epos (Leipzig, 1934)
15. This view has fallen into disfavour of late; see S. M. Goldberg, Epic in Republican Rome (Oxford, 1995), p. 53
16. and especially A. Cameron, Callimachus and his Critics (Princeton, 1995), pp. 263-302
17. I prefer the broader definition of epic used by D. C. Feeney, The Gods in Epic (Oxford, 1991), p. 266, where he has collected convincing evidence for historical and panegyric epic of the Hellenistic period by expanding his field of vision to include shorter poems. These works were perhaps not 'full' epics, but they undoubtedly existed and most likely were known by Apollonius
18. 2 (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 228-9
19. M. L. West, The Orphic Poems (Oxford, 1983), pp. 1-38
20. and H. S. Schibli, Pherekydes of Syros (Oxford, 1990), pp. 10-13 for some of the far-fetched tales connected to Pythagoras and his conflation with Orpheus and Pherecydes
21. 2 (Paris, 1973), pp. 290f
22. See S. Scully, 'The language of Achilles: the formulas', TAPA 114 (1984), 11-27 for discussion of the formulaic opening phrase
23. For the deliberation between two choices as a 'type-scene' of Homeric poetry, see W. Arend, Die Typischen Scenen bei Homer (Berlin, 1933), pp. 108f
24. also W. Schadewalt, Monolog und Selbstgesprāch (Berlin, 1926), especially pp. 189ff
25. and B. Fenik, Typical Battle Scenes in the Iliad: Studies in the Narrative Technique of Homeric Battle Description (Wiesbaden, 1968), pp. 96-8
26. On the Abbruchsformel in Pindar, see W. H. Race, 'Some digressions and returns in Greek authors', CJ 76 (1980), 1-8
27. N. J. Richardson, 'Pindar and later literary criticism in antiquity', PLLS 5 (1985), 383-401, at pp. 395f
28. M. A. Harder, 'Untrodden paths: where do they lead?', HSPh 93 (1990), 287-309, at p. 296
29. and P. Kyriakou, 'A variation of the Pindaric break-off in Nemean 4', AJP 117.1 (1996), 17-35
30. A. W. Bulloch in his commentary on Callimachus' fifth hymn (Cambridge, 1985) on pp. 55-6 calls such protestations 'a stylistic topos in Hellenistic poetry', while T. Fuhrer, 'A Pindaric feature in the poems of Callimachus', AJP 109 (1988), 53-68, at p. 53 finds Callimachus' use of them to be borrowed from Pindar. Neither interpretation attributes much religious motivation to them
31. N. Hopkinson, A Hellenistic Anthology (Cambridge, 1988), p. 105
32. see also A. Cameron, 'Genre and style in Callimachus', TAPA 122 (1992), 305-12
33. Much ink has been spilled over the meaning of Callimachus' words. Hopkinson (n. 24), p. 87 and ad loc. suggests that Callimachus was against 'a single theme treated with smooth narrative progression'. Cameron (nn. 13 and 24) is much more specific, arguing forcefully that Callimachus was taking a stance against narrative elegy such as Antimachus' Lyde. I find that Hunter (n. 4), pp. 190-5 offers the most persuasive interpretation of this passage when he suggests that Callimachus alludes to Aristotle's theories of epic. My thanks to Stephen Heyworth for drawing my attention to Callimachus fr. 26.8, in which the poet explains his composition of the Aetia with the words; see S. J. Heyworth, 'Some allusions to Callimachus in Latin poetry', MD 33 (1994), 51-79 at pp. 72-5
34. J. J. Clauss, The Best of the Argonauts: The Redefinition of the Epic Hero in Book 1 of Apollonius's Argonautica (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1993), pp. 114f suggests that the story about Aethalides' imperishable memory serves as a replacement for the traditional messenger repetition; the fact that the narrator dwells so long on the source and abilities of mental agility suggests that his report must be verbatim. This is a neat explanation; however, the meta-narrative language of the digression suggests to me that the omission of Aethalides' speech is more significant than Clauss allows. Furthermore, his explanation does not account for the absence of the original speech as well
35. Callimachus fr. 11 singles out these qualities as desirable for poetry, a topos from lyric poetry that H. White, New Essays in Hellenistic Poetry (Amsterdam, 1985), pp. 20-3 and 69-75 traces to a Hellenistic epigrammatic tradition. Levin (n. 5), p. 63 notes that the connotations of this word are appropriate for the herald of Jason, a hero who uses 'honeyed words' to get his way with Medea (see 3.985, 3.1102, 4.394)
36. Heralds are supposed to go right up to the recipient and deliver the message. The incongruity of Talthybius' and Eurybates' action is noted by the scholiast, who comments ad 1.332b. Although silence can be a rhetorical tool (see O. C. Cramer, 'Speech and silence in the Iliad', CJ 71 [1975], 300-4), the narrator's specific mention of the heralds' fear and awe make rhetoric an unlikely source for their silence. Talthybius gives an appropriate repetition of a message a little later in the epic (Il.;. 4.193-7 - 204-7), showing that this initial silence was anomalous: he does in fact know what he is supposed to do
37. The change in adverb has been explained in various ways. F. Stössl, Apollonios Rhodios: Interpretationen zur Erzählungskunst und Quellenvenvertung (Leipzig, 1941), p. 40 posits that her haste is an element remaining from a proecdosis
38. E. V. George, 'Poet and characters in Apollonius Rhodius' Lemnian episode,' Hermes 100 (1972), 47-63, at pp. 60f claims that may show her emotional agitation, contrasting with Aethalides who is emblematic of the traditional objective herald
39. This is why I do not agree with the assertion of M. M. DeForest, Apollonius' Argonautica: A Callimachean Epic (Leiden, 1994), pp. 86-90 that the quick repetition mocks Homeric naïveté or her suggestion that Apollonius describes Iphinoë in such a way as to denigrate Jason's abilities. While I agree that Iphinoë's repetition emphasizes Aethalides' silence, I find DeForest's argument untenable because it posits the Homeric pattern as the only 'correct' one. Apollonius clearly used the Homeric poems as models, but they certainly were not his only sources of inspiration, and he certainly sought to rework the originals
40. B. Pavlock, Eros, Imitation, and the Epic Tradition (Ithaca, 1990), pp. 45-51 has been very influential for my reading of the Lemnian episode. The ongoing dialogue between the sexes that she sees can, I believe, be applied to Iphinoë and Aethalides
41. also see G. B. Walsh, The Varieties of Enchantment: Early Greek Views of the Nature and Function of Poetry (Chapel Hill, 1984), pp. 3-21 and especially pp. 14-19 on as the goal of Homeric bards
42. See R. Mondi, 'an argument for divine kingship in early Greece', Arethusa 13 (1980), 203-16 for a discussion of the sceptre as a twofold symbol, that of kingship and of the authority of the speaker holding it