The Justice of Chiron (Titanomachia, Fr. 6 and 11B.)

Philologus

Volumn 142, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 3-10

  Lebedev, Andrei ^a  

^a NONE   (Russian Federation)

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EID: 84966944667     PISSN: 00317985     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1524/phil.1998.142.1.3     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. The fragments of Titanomachia are quoted after two recent editions: A. Bernabé, Poetarum Epicorum Fragmenta. Pars I (Leipzig 1987), pp. 11–16 (henceforeward Bernabé, PEF I) and M. Davies, Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Göttingen 1988), pp. 16–20 (henceforeward Davies, EGF). Earlier editions mentioned in the apparatus criticus are: G. Kinkel, Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta I (Lipsiae 1877) and Allen's fifth volume of the OCT Homer.
2. F. G. Welcker, Der epische Cyclus oder die Homerischen Dichter, II (Bonn 1849), p. 412;
3. A. Severyns, Le cycle épique dans l'école d'Aristarque (Paris 1928), p. 166;
4. F. Vian, La guerre des Géants (Paris 1952), p. 172 (“La dance triomphale de Zeus”);
5. W. Kranz, Titanomachia, in: Studien zur antiken Literatur und ihrem Fortwirken (Heidelberg 1967), p. 93;
6. G. L. Huxley, Greek Epic Poetry (London 1969), p. 24;
7. A. Bernabé, PEF I, 14 n. 6. The dissenting view of J. Dörig und O. Gigon, Der Kampf der Götter und Titanen (Olten and Lausanne 1961), p. XIX, who relate fr. 6 B./5 D. to the dance of the Couretes, can easily be refuted: the infant Zeus could not be called “father of gods and men”.
8. Eurip. Heracles, 177–180; Vian, Martin West (per litteras) adds Hermippus fr. 31 Kassel–Austin (the gods using plates of rock as castanets); Dion. Hal. Ant. 7.72.7 (Athena dancing the πυϱϱίχη following the destruction of Titans); and Pamprepios 4.13 Livrea Ζῆνα γ]ιγαντοφόνοιο κυβεϱνητῆϱα χοϱείης.
9. Callim. Hymn. in Apoll. 97–103; Apoll. Rhod. 2. 712–713 with Schol. ad loc. (p. 183, 3 Wendel);
10. Schol. in Iliad. XXII. 391 (V. 339.74 Erbse) μετὰ δὲ τὴν νίκην τοῦ δϱάκοντος αὐτὸν (sc. παιᾶνα) ἐξεῦϱεν. Eustath. Comm. ad Iliad. 4.637. 18 –20 Van der Valk εὕϱημα δέ, φασίν, Ἀπόλλωνος ὁ τοιοῦτος παιάν, ἐξευϱεϑεὶς μετὰ τὴν νίκην τοῦ ἐν Πυϑοῖ δϱάκοντος, ἐξ οὗ καὶ Πύϑιος καλεῖται. Clearch. fr. 64 Wehrli = Athen. 701 b (Leto says ἵε παῖ); Heraclid. Pont. fr. 158 Wehrli = Athen. 701e. In the first Einsiedeln eclogue, 32. (PLM III 62 Baehrens) Talis Phoebus erat, cum laetus caede draconis / docta repercusso generauit carmina plectro.
11. K. F. Smith, The Elegies of Albius Tibullus (New York 1913), p. 446 ad loc. This is clear from the description of Apollo Palatinus in Propertius 2.31.5 = Overbeck XXX: the allegorical equation of Juppiter's victory over Titans with Augustus' victory over Antony and Cleopatra; and from the connection of Messalinus as one of the XVviri with libri Sibyllini which were kept in two coffers under the same statue of Apollo. J. Cagé, Apollon romain (Paris 1955), p. 533.
12. On the importance of Ion in explaining non-Aeschylean elements in Seneca's play see R. T. Tarrant, Seneca. Agamemnon (Cambridge 1976), pp. 10–11.
13. G. Nemethy (ed.), Albii Tibulli carmina (Budapestii 1905), p. 275.
14. It is not clear whether Strabo's remark VII Fr. 40 ὁ παιανισμὸς τῶν Θϱαικῶν τιτανισμὸς ὑπὸ τῶνἙλλήνων λέγεται is somehow connected with the myth of the defeat of Titans. According to U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Kronos und die Titanen, in: Kleine Schriften, V. 2 Glaube und Sage (Berlin 1937), p. 181 this means that Thracians, unlike Greeks, sing ἰὼ Τιτάν.
15. J. Dörig und O. Gigon, Der Kampf der Götter und Titanen (Olten and Lausanne 1961), p. XIX–XX.
16. F. G. Welcker, Der epische Cyclus oder die Homerischen Dichter, II (Bonn 1849), p. 411.
17. H. Koechly, Conjectaneorum epicorum fasciculus I, in: Opuscula Philologica I (Lipsiae 1881), p. 230.
18. J. Schwartz, Pseudo-Hesiodeia (Université de Paris 1960), p. 239;
19. Kranz, Titanomachia, p. 95;
20. G. L. Huxley, Greek Epic Poetry, p. 25 who, surprisingly, prints ἱλαϱάς, but translates “holy”;
21. M. L. West (ed.), Hesiod. Works and Days (Oxford 1978), p. 23 dubitanter; A. Bernabé, PEF I, 15 note 11;
22. M. Davies, The Date of the Epic Cycle, Glotta 67 (1989), 91, note 9.
23. I know only two attempts to explain the relation of astronomy to “justice” in our fragment: J. Dietze, Zur kyklischen Theogonie, RhM 69 (1914), p. 535: “… die Erscheinungen des Himmels … die zur Mantik gehören und deren Beobachtung die gerechtere Ordnung des menschlichen Lebens ermöglicht.” Kranz, Titanomachia, 95: “… Daß die Sternkunde die Menschen zu δικαιοσύνη führen kann, ist ja ein echt hellenischer Gedanke, da eben das Weltall mit seiner ewigen Gesetzmäßigkeit δίκη enthielt und darum auch als Kosmos gesehen wurde.” Dietze's interpretation is apparently based on Euripides, Melanippe sap., fr. 482 N. πϱοὐμαντεύσατο χϱησμοῖσι … ἀστέϱων ἐπ' ἀνατοῖς cited by Clement in the context, the relevance of which has to be proved. What Kranz calls a “genuinely Hellenic thought” (always a dangerous type of language) is in fact a “genuinely Pythagorean and Platonic thought” (Kranz himself cites Plato, Gorges, 507, ).
24. It is not even clear whether ἔσχατος Ὄλυμπος in Parmenides' cosmology means 1) firmamentum, as L. Tarán, Parmenides (Princeton 1965), p. 241, thinks, 2) the upper part of heaven as distinguished from the lower (sublunar) which is called οὐϱανός, or 3) caelum empyraeum which encircles the solid vault from the outside and shines through the holes of the stars. In any case we are dealing with a very artificial, technical use of the word the origins of which should be sought not in traditional epic, but in the Pythagorean philosophy and ideas of the astral immortality of souls: cf. the distinction between ὄλυμπος (caelum empy–reum), κόσμος = the sphere of planets, and οὐϱανός = sublunar world in Philolaus A 16 DK. Empedocles 31 B 44 DK simply imitates this pythagorizing usage (contra Kranz, 95). Such astronomical interpretation of Olympus in a piece of non–philosophical Greek epos has the same methodological value as, e.g. the allegorical interpretation of Homeric Hades as “sublunar air” or of Hestia as “spherical earth”.
25. W. Teuffei, Zimmermanns Zeitschrift für die Altertumswissenschaft, 2 (1835), p. 86 citing Parmen. B 10, 2 DK and Aratus. The same conjecture with intended meaning “signa divinae voluntatis” is mentioned by Welcker, Ep. Cyclus, II, 410. In general mantic fits better the “arts of Chiron” than astronomy, but the phrase remains bizarre.
26. Chiron appears as teacher of Achilleus and Orpheus in connection with the paean and kathartic music in Schol. Horn. Il. V. 340.2 Erbse. See also: Ovid. Ars amat. I. 11; Plut. De musica 40; Valer. Flacc. Arg. I. 139 (plays lyra); Roscher, Lex. Myth. I/1 890, s.v. Cheiron; Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, I/1 (München 1981) s.v. Achilleus, Nr. 50–62; v.III/1 s.v. Cheiron, Nr. 3–11. 65–73a; M. Vogel, Chiron, der Kentaur mit der Kithara (Bonn 1978), passim.
27. Religion as dikaiosyne between gods and men: cf. Arist. De virt. e vitiis 5, 1250 b 15–22.
28. On the Hesiodic concept of justice see, e.g., H. Lloyd-Jones, The Justice of Zeus (Berkeley 1971), p. 32;
29. M. Gagarin, Dike in the Works and Days, ClPh 68 (1973), pp. 81–94;
30. idem, Early Greek Law (Berkeley 1989), p. 46.
31. In the Titanomachia Prometheus probably fought against the gods as “herald of the Titans”, Hesych. 2.354 Latte s.v. Ἴϑας = Davies, EGF, 17 (not in Bernabé): ὁ τῶν Τιτήνων κῆϱυξ. Πϱομηϑεύς, attributed to Titanom. by Welcker, Ep. Cyclus, II, 415 and Pohlenz. On Prometheus in Titanom. see also Stephanie West, Prometheus Orientalized, Mus. Helv. 51 (1994), p. 145.
32. J. Schwartz, Pseudo-Hesiodeia (Université de Paris 1960), p. 239 leaves, the question of interrelation undecided.
33. Chiron's herb medicine is documented in W. H. Roscher, Lex. Myth. I.1 (Lpz. 1884–6), s.v. Cheiron, 890.19.
34. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1.73.2 Ἡϱόδωϱος δὲ τὸν Ἡϱακλέα μάντιν καὶ φυσικὸν γενόμενον ἱστοϱεῖ παϱὰ Ἄτλαντος τοῦ βαϱβάϱου τοῦ Φϱυγὸς διαδέχεσϑαι τοὺς τοῦ κόσμου κίονας, αἰνιττομένου τοῦ μύϑου τὴν τῶν οὐϱανίων ἐπιστήμην μαϑήσει διαδέχεσϑαι. ὁ δὲ Βηϱύτιος Ἕϱμιππος Χείϱωνα τὸν Κένταυϱον σοφὸν καλεῖ, φἐ' οὗ καί ὁ τὴν Τιτανομαχίας γϱάψας φησίν, ὡς πϱῶτος οὗτος εἴς τε δικαιοσύνην κτλ. (Titanom. fr. 11) παϱὰ τούτῳ Ἀχιλλεὺς παιδεύεται ὁ ἐπ' Ἴλιον στϱατεύσας, Ἱππὼ δὲ ἡ ϑυγάτηϱ τοῦ Κενταύϱου συνοικήσασα Αἰόλῳ ἐδιδάξατο αὐτὸν τὴν φυσικὴν ϑεωϱίαν, τὴν πάτϱιον ἐπιστήμην. μαϱτυϱεῖ καὶ Εὐϱωτίδης πεϱὶ τῆς Ἱπποῦς ὧδέ πψς͘ ἣ πϱῶτα μὲν τὰ ϑεῖα πϱοὐμαντεύσατο / χϱησμοῖσι 〈σαφέσιν〉 ἀστέϱων πἐ' ἀντολαῖς. Cf. C. Collard, M. J. Cropp and K. H. Lee (Edd.), Euripides. Selected Fragmentary Plays, vol. I (1995), 250, Nr. 482.
35. Cited by Welcker, Ep. Cyclus, II, p. 411.
36. M. Davies, The Date of the Epic Cycle, p. 90–91. 100.
37. U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Homerische Untersuchungen (Berlin 1884), p. 366 n. 45, followed byM. Davies, The Date of the Epic Cycle, p. 90–91. 90.