Fragmenta...

by Alcman (Creator)

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition ++++ Fragmenta Alcman, Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker Heyer, 1815 History; Ancient; Greece; Health & Fitness / Sleep & Sleep Disorders; History / Ancient / Greece

Genres: Poetry

94 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 651

About the author

7th century BC Greek poet, citizen of Sparta

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcman

Reviews

[Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

After I finished reading the poetry of Homer and Hesiod, I decided to turn next to Greek lyric poetry, on the grounds that it came next chronologically. The first poem that greeted me in the Oxford Classics edition of Lyrica Graeca Selecta was a 100-line poem, partly fragmentary, by Alcman. I had never heard of this poet, the language was strange (I later learned it was in the Laconian dialect of Sparta), the meter was new to me, and I had no idea what the poem was about. After a little searching on Wikipedia, I discovered that Denys Page, whose books on the Iliad and the Odyssey I have enjoyed, had written a monograph on this very poem, known as "The Partheneion" (roughly, the maidens' song). Sadly it was not easy to find a copy of this book, but I eventually procured one from a British bookseller.

By the time I started reading Page's book, I had gotten more comfortable with the language and style of Alcman and the other Greek lyric poets. But I still learned a tremendous amount about the poem, its context, and Alcman's language. The text of the Partheneion comes from a long papyrus roll found in the Egyptian desert. Page's book starts by giving the text as clearly as possible exactly as it stands on the papyrus, meaning without any punctuation, word divisions, or distinction between capital and lower-case letters. He also gives the various "scholia," comments written in the margins by scribes. This was all revelatory to me, as I had never fully considered all the decisions an editor faces in presenting an ancient text like this in a modern edition.

The next part of the book delves into the context of the poem. Page looks into other sources of Spartan myth, especially as recorded in Pausanias, a later travel writer. These help to make some sense of the list of names that begin Alcman's poem. Page also works through different hypotheses to arrive at a convincing argument that this poem was sung by a chorus of young women in competition with another chorus. Some details remain foggy, but I came away with a much better concept of what the Partheneion was "about."

The last section of the book is a thorough discussion of Alcman's language. Page argues that he essentially writes in the Laconian dialect, i.e. not in an artificial poetic language but in the language of his time and place. He goes through the various oddities compared with what later became standard Greek, and then gives a detailed line-by-line commentary on the poem itself.

All in all, this is a perfect companion to reading Alcman's Partheneion.

[Stephen Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fragments that remain of Alcman, the seventh-century BCE poet, present a different side of Spartan life than is commonly known: love between women and reverence for the natural world.

Here's the most beautiful passage I found in M. L. West's translation:

Muses of Olympus, my heart is rapt
with desire of hearing a new song
and the unison of girls in lovely melody
. . . will dispel
the sweetness of sleepy eyelids.
. . . draws me along to the piazza,
there where I'll be tossing my flaxen hair
. . . a dance for tender feet . . .

and with crippling longing. Her glance
more melting than sleep or death;
hers is a potent sweetness.

[Giorgos Lyc]

I want to read the Page's scholia.