Books by Cecilia Nobili
Roma, Carocci, 2023
This books examines the voices of some female characters in the Iliad and the Odyssey, underlying... more This books examines the voices of some female characters in the Iliad and the Odyssey, underlying their connection with some feminine literary genres, such as laments, prayers, wedding songs. Although Homeric women exhibit different personalities and perform their agency at different levels, a common aspect, shared by all of them, is represented by weaving, as a metaphor for song, which becomes either an amplifier of women's voices, or its antithesis.
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Alceo nacque sull’isola di Lesbo alla fine del VII sec. a.C., come Saffo che fu sua contemporanea... more Alceo nacque sull’isola di Lesbo alla fine del VII sec. a.C., come Saffo che fu sua contemporanea. Partecipò attivamente alla vita politica dell’isola, lottando duramente contro l’affermarsi dei tiranni Mirsilo e Pittaco. La sua fazione fu però sempre sconfitta e Alceo trascorse gran parte della propria vita in esilio. Compose carmi simposiali di argomento politico indirizzati contro i tiranni suoi nemici, ma non mancano anche componimenti dedicati al vino, alle gioie del simposio e agli dei. Fu ammirato dai poeti successivi, in particolare Orazio, per la sua forte passione civile, che ne hanno fatto un paladino della libertà e un modello di resilienza per i secoli a venire.
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La celebrazione di una vittoria atletica costituisce un momento unico per un atleta, per la sua f... more La celebrazione di una vittoria atletica costituisce un momento unico per un atleta, per la sua famiglia e la sua città, e incarna meglio di qualsiasi altro fenomeno culturale gli ideali e le aspirazioni della classe aristocratica greca in età arcaica e classica. Tale celebrazione poteva essere attuata secondo molteplici modalità, che variano nel tempo e nello spazio a seconda dei gusti individuali, di tendenze di carattere regionale, e di fattori di ordine socio-economico. Le forme più note e diffuse a livello panellenico sono però certamente il canto epinicio e le statue agonistiche, queste ultime in genere accompagnate da un epigramma, atto a veicolare le informazioni essenziali sull’atleta e le sue vittorie.
Proprio al rapporto tra epigrammi agonistici di epoca arcaica e classica ed epinici è dedicato questo volume, che intende mettere in luce il comune background ideologico e sociale sotteso a entrambi i generi e il continuo scambio di materiale tematico e formulare che si attua fra essi. Il risultato è un’indagine nuova su una forma poetica spesso ritenuta “ancillare” come l’epigramma agonistico, che ne evidenzia gli aspetti di letterarietà e la sua funzione fondamentale di medium tra l’ode celebrativa e la scultura, nel contesto di quella conflittuale competizione tra le due più importanti forme di celebrazione artistica del mondo greco, che tanta parte occupa nella riflessione estetica antica.
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L’Inno omerico a Ermes nel quale, tra il serio e il faceto, l’anonimo autore racconta due episodi... more L’Inno omerico a Ermes nel quale, tra il serio e il faceto, l’anonimo autore racconta due episodi fondamentali nell’infanzia del dio, costituisce una delle pagine più divertenti nel panorama della poesia greca arcaica. Lingua e stile fanno pensare a una datazione relativamente tarda (VI secolo), ma nessuno studio sistematico è stato finora dedicato al problema della sua localizzazione (a differenza di quanto è accaduto nel caso degli altri Inni omerici maggiori). Tuttavia, il confronto con le tradizioni poetiche locali apre nuove prospettive di ricerca e consente di raggiungere risultati inediti: l’episodio centrale dell’Inno, ossia il furto delle vacche di Apollo da parte del neonato Ermes, deve essere messo in relazione con la ricca tradizione di miti di abigeato nati nel Peloponneso occidentale (e connessi in particolare con il regno miceneo di Pilo). Nel corso del VII secolo, insieme alle genti stanziate nel regno di Pilo, migrarono ad Atene le loro tradizioni mitiche, e lì furono rielaborate. Tra queste si deve includere anche il mito del furto delle vacche di Apollo, poiché l’Inno omerico a Ermes si presenta come il prodotto di un abile poeta ateniese. L’accurata analisi delle testimonianze vascolari, oltre a numerosi indizi di carattere storico e cultuale, rimanda infatti da vicino alla realtà ateniese e consente di collocare il carme, con più precisione, negli anni a cavallo tra la fine del VI e l’inizio del V secolo, in contemporanea con l’introduzione del culto di Ermes ad Atene per opera dei Pisistratidi. La composizione dell’Inno si inserisce nel medesimo movimento culturale ed è probabile che esso servisse come proemio per i nuovi concorsi rapsodici delle Panatenee.
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Edited Books by Cecilia Nobili
This volume collects some papers concerning the creation of convivial literature and its connecti... more This volume collects some papers concerning the creation of convivial literature and its connection with philosophical thought. Convivial literature is strictly related to the symposium, whose importance as a literary and cultural model is well explained by Plato's Symposium, which makes banquet the ideal context for philosophical conversation. From Plato onwards, sympotic philosophical dialogue becomes a literary genre, which enjoys great fortune in Greek, Roman, Late Antique and Medieval Culture.
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Philoxenia: perché la Grecia ci ha sempre accolto con generosità e amore; e poi Axion esti, dignu... more Philoxenia: perché la Grecia ci ha sempre accolto con generosità e amore; e poi Axion esti, dignum est, “merita”, “vale la pena”. È una frase che ha viaggiato: dai resoconti classici è passata nella liturgia bizantina per diventare poi un titolo famoso del Nobel Odysseas Elytis, che al mirabile microcosmo della Grecia ha dedicato le sue liriche forse più famose. Ma è anche la frase che meglio esprime l’idea di Giuseppe Zanetto: la Grecia va studiata, amata, e compresa, ma in Grecia vale soprattutto la pena andare, con gli occhi ben aperti sulle meraviglie di ieri e di oggi. Forte di questa convinzione, Lello Zanetto organizza da oltre vent’anni un viaggio in Grecia che è ormai un’istituzione per gli studenti della Statale di Milano e rappresenta un fattore di rinnovamento per il mondo dell’università. I saggi raccolti in questo volume sono un piccolo regalo per i suoi settant’anni, da parte degli amici che il viaggio lo hanno vissuto in volo, in pullman, in mare aperto, per poi portare nelle aule di scuole e università un raggio di luce greca.
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Papers- Female poets and poetics by Cecilia Nobili
Nuova secondaria 41.8, 2024, pp. 250-260
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter offers several possible readings, as it is, on the one hand, the foun... more The Homeric Hymn to Demeter offers several possible readings, as it is, on the one hand, the foundation text for the Eleusinian Mysteries, on the other, an extraordinary example of female epic poetry. Its protagonist, in fact, is a goddess, who acts and dominates her own actions like the Homeric heroes. Hereby, we examine the references in the text to the Eleusinian cult and its connections with female poetry, which make Persephone (a young bride, deprived of her mother), a ritualized
model for the acceptance and elaboration of wedding as an institution.
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Maia 75.2-3, 2023, pp. 423-435.
This article examines and analyses Praxilla’s fr. PMG 747, from a Hymn to
Adonis, composed by thi... more This article examines and analyses Praxilla’s fr. PMG 747, from a Hymn to
Adonis, composed by this female poet, born and active in Sykion at the half of the fifth century bc. The fragment is put in comparison with the overall remains of Praxilla’s poetry, with Sappho’s fragments dedicated to Adonis, and with the threnodic tradition – both literary and epigrammatic – which presents several affinities. Praxilla’s style looks argute and humoristic, so that it was perceived as appropriate for the sympotic reception, giving the image of a female poet embedded with an original style, and well inserted in the poetic milieu of her region.
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Philologia Antiqua 16, 2023, pp. 65-81.
Homeric women are good singers: Circe and Calypso sing while weaving and Nausicaa sings while pla... more Homeric women are good singers: Circe and Calypso sing while weaving and Nausicaa sings while playing the ball with her comrades. However, the words of their songs are not reported: the poet seems to refrain from entering the world of female song. Nonetheless, their discourses and conversations are embedded with motifs comparable to female poetry, primarily Sappho’s songs. My paper thus aims at investigating the point of contacts between female narrative and discourse in the Homeric poems and the tradition of female lyric poetry, as exemplified by Sappho
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RFIC 144, 2016, 5-24
The new Sappho papyrus containing the ‘brothers poem’ must be connected to the other poems that r... more The new Sappho papyrus containing the ‘brothers poem’ must be connected to the other poems that recount the story of Charaxos and
Rhodopis, known from later sources. Doubt arises as to whether it is
inspired by Sappho’s biography or draws on conventional topoi. A long
and continuous tradition from the Archaic to the Imperial age reports
stories of rich merchants who waste their fortunes on greedy courtesans.
The topos will be analyzed in terms of the economic transactions
within Mediterranean societies, including Greece.
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«Rendiconti dell’Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere. Classe di Lettere e Scienze morali e storiche» 140, pp. 59-74., Jan 1, 2006
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Papers - Epic and lyric Poetry: interactions by Cecilia Nobili
Giornale Italiano di Filologia 75, 2023, pp. 9-32
This paper aims at examining some literary texts concerning the foundation of Delphi sanctuary by... more This paper aims at examining some literary texts concerning the foundation of Delphi sanctuary by Apollo (the Homeric Hymn, the Hymn to Apollo by Alcaeus, Aeschylus’ Eumenides, Ephorus), in order to envisage Apollo’s civilizing purpose. A key role is played by Alcaeus’ Hymn to Apollo (at least according to Himerius’ paraphrasis), due to the explicit connection with Themis, vehiculated by Apollo’s passage in the land of the Hyperboreans. According to several traditions, these mythic people had an innate attitude towards justice and their connection with the sanctuary’s foundation represents an important step in the process of human civilization, supported by Apollo.
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C. Nobili, R. Saccenti (eds.), Filosofia e convivialità. Dall'antichità al Medioevo, Milano - Udine, Mimesis 2023, pp. 29-49.
This paper examines the reception of Hesiodic Poetry (particularly the Workd and Days) in Greek ... more This paper examines the reception of Hesiodic Poetry (particularly the Workd and Days) in Greek lyric poets of the Archaic age (Alcaeus, Solon, Theognis). Hesiod is a favourite model for lyric poets and this is possibly due to the sympotic traits embedded in his work. The comparison with Xenophanes clarifies the image of archaic poets dealing with philosophical issues in sympotic context.
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C. Nobili, R. Saccenti (eds.), Filosofia e convivialità. Dall'antichità al Medioevo, Mimesis 2023, pp. 13-28.
The history of philosophical convivial dialogue, from its early antecedents in Archaic Greece, to... more The history of philosophical convivial dialogue, from its early antecedents in Archaic Greece, to its development as literary construction thanks to Plato's Symposium and its further reception in the Greek, Roman, and Medieval world.
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G. Zanetto (ed.), Delfi e Apollo nella letteratura greca, Pisa-Roma 2022, pp. 55-70.
As Alcman also adfirms (PMG 98), symposia were normally opened by a paean in honour of Apollo. He... more As Alcman also adfirms (PMG 98), symposia were normally opened by a paean in honour of Apollo. Hence derives the Alexandrian practice of opening the collections of sympotic poetry with a hymn to the gods (mainly Apollo, but other gods may also appear). The aim of this contribution is examining the hymns to Apollo included in the Theognidean Sylloge (ll. 757-764, 773-782) and in the collection of Attic skolia (3 Fabbro) in order to envisage their peculiarities, since they share elements common both to choral paeans and to skolia. Some typical sympotic traits they exhibit are the overlap of performance modes (monodic or choral), or the interest towards the community in relation to specific historical events.
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QUCC 129.3, 2021, pp. 53-65, 2021
Bacchylides and the poetics of symposium (Bacch. Pae. 4.21-25 e 61-78).
This article aims at anal... more Bacchylides and the poetics of symposium (Bacch. Pae. 4.21-25 e 61-78).
This article aims at analyzing Bacchylides’ Paean 4 (ll. 21-25 and 61-78), which exhibits some themes normally typical of sympotic poetry, such as considerations about Peace and Eunomia, or the opposition between symposium and war. Bacchylides’ choice is in line with his predilection for sympotic themes, even in odes not strictly connected with the symposium, such as Paean 4.
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in: Studi Classici e Orientali 66, 2020, pp. 37-51
The paper aims at analyzing three fragments by Simonides concerning the
myth of Theseus and argue... more The paper aims at analyzing three fragments by Simonides concerning the
myth of Theseus and argues that they originally belonged to the same work.
The fragments suggest that Simonides was the first to connect the Cretan
expedition with the Amazon’s abduction and to emphasize some
ideological aspects of the hero, that played an important role in the
development of this figure in the Athenian context.
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In: AOQU. Forme e modi dell'epica 1, 2020, pp. 9-101, 2020
This paper hosts three case-studies that are meant to be representative of paradigm-shifting tren... more This paper hosts three case-studies that are meant to be representative of paradigm-shifting trends in Homeric Studies and to cater to specialists and non-specialists alike. Boosted by new archaeological findings and by an increased awareness of Homer’s Near-Eastern entanglements, the “historicity” of the poems has regained centre stage. Against this backdrop, Andrea Debiasi develops a persuasive interpretation of Homer’s name, whose meaning points to the performative-agonistic dimension of Homeric poetry in the context of the clashes that characterized Euboia in the archaic age. By contrast, George Gazis focuses on the one aspect of the Homeric world that cannot possibly be mapped onto space and history, namely Hades. The underworld is unfathomable even for the gods, which accounts for its potential as a trigger of poetic invention. No less than Debiasi’s, this approach resonates with recent scholarship: a return to “history” is often complemented by an opposite, but fully compatible, “symbolic” trend, which has unraveled the systematic juxtaposition, in Homer’s world, between “history” and symbolic constructs. Finally, Cecilia Nobili shows that Homeric epics builds on pre-existing poetic genres such as elegy, although the earliest extant examples of the latter date to a later time. The claim that lyric poetry emerges though a confrontation with epics, then, is no less plausible than its opposite. One more important consequence of Nobili’s approach is that the “subjective” turn scholars have long recognized in Hellenistic and Roman epics is in fact firmly grounded in Homer himself.
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In C. Carey, L. Swift (eds.), Iambus and Elegy. New Approaches, Oxford 2016, 33-55
This paper aims to detect some exceptions to the commonly accepted idea that elegy was an exclusi... more This paper aims to detect some exceptions to the commonly accepted idea that elegy was an exclusively monodic genre. Pausanias (4.16.6) refers that a chorus of Messenian women celebrated Aristomenes’ victory against the Spartans with an elegiac couplet and this is not an isolated case. In the Laconian area the festival of the Gymnopaidia may have played an important role in the widespread of choral elegies, thanks to some well known aulodes and elegiac poets of the archaic age, such as Sacadas and Polymnestus. Choruses may also have been involved in the re-performance of sympotic elegies. Theognis (238-243) imagines that his song will be sung in the symposia by young men at the sound of the pipes, whereas Plato (Tim. 21b) attests that Solons’ elegies were sung by boys at the Athenian festival of the Apatouria.
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Maia: rivista di letterature classiche 61, pp. 229-249, Jan 1, 2009
Si indaga il rapporto tra epos ed elegia alla luce del nuovo P. Oxy. 4708 contente l'elegia di Ar... more Si indaga il rapporto tra epos ed elegia alla luce del nuovo P. Oxy. 4708 contente l'elegia di Archiloco sul mito di Telefo. Il contenuto mitico e il linguaggio epico fanno pensare ad un'elegia pubblica, riconducibile ad un episodio della colonizzazione di Taso.
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Books by Cecilia Nobili
Proprio al rapporto tra epigrammi agonistici di epoca arcaica e classica ed epinici è dedicato questo volume, che intende mettere in luce il comune background ideologico e sociale sotteso a entrambi i generi e il continuo scambio di materiale tematico e formulare che si attua fra essi. Il risultato è un’indagine nuova su una forma poetica spesso ritenuta “ancillare” come l’epigramma agonistico, che ne evidenzia gli aspetti di letterarietà e la sua funzione fondamentale di medium tra l’ode celebrativa e la scultura, nel contesto di quella conflittuale competizione tra le due più importanti forme di celebrazione artistica del mondo greco, che tanta parte occupa nella riflessione estetica antica.
Edited Books by Cecilia Nobili
Papers- Female poets and poetics by Cecilia Nobili
model for the acceptance and elaboration of wedding as an institution.
Adonis, composed by this female poet, born and active in Sykion at the half of the fifth century bc. The fragment is put in comparison with the overall remains of Praxilla’s poetry, with Sappho’s fragments dedicated to Adonis, and with the threnodic tradition – both literary and epigrammatic – which presents several affinities. Praxilla’s style looks argute and humoristic, so that it was perceived as appropriate for the sympotic reception, giving the image of a female poet embedded with an original style, and well inserted in the poetic milieu of her region.
Rhodopis, known from later sources. Doubt arises as to whether it is
inspired by Sappho’s biography or draws on conventional topoi. A long
and continuous tradition from the Archaic to the Imperial age reports
stories of rich merchants who waste their fortunes on greedy courtesans.
The topos will be analyzed in terms of the economic transactions
within Mediterranean societies, including Greece.
Papers - Epic and lyric Poetry: interactions by Cecilia Nobili
This article aims at analyzing Bacchylides’ Paean 4 (ll. 21-25 and 61-78), which exhibits some themes normally typical of sympotic poetry, such as considerations about Peace and Eunomia, or the opposition between symposium and war. Bacchylides’ choice is in line with his predilection for sympotic themes, even in odes not strictly connected with the symposium, such as Paean 4.
myth of Theseus and argues that they originally belonged to the same work.
The fragments suggest that Simonides was the first to connect the Cretan
expedition with the Amazon’s abduction and to emphasize some
ideological aspects of the hero, that played an important role in the
development of this figure in the Athenian context.
Proprio al rapporto tra epigrammi agonistici di epoca arcaica e classica ed epinici è dedicato questo volume, che intende mettere in luce il comune background ideologico e sociale sotteso a entrambi i generi e il continuo scambio di materiale tematico e formulare che si attua fra essi. Il risultato è un’indagine nuova su una forma poetica spesso ritenuta “ancillare” come l’epigramma agonistico, che ne evidenzia gli aspetti di letterarietà e la sua funzione fondamentale di medium tra l’ode celebrativa e la scultura, nel contesto di quella conflittuale competizione tra le due più importanti forme di celebrazione artistica del mondo greco, che tanta parte occupa nella riflessione estetica antica.
model for the acceptance and elaboration of wedding as an institution.
Adonis, composed by this female poet, born and active in Sykion at the half of the fifth century bc. The fragment is put in comparison with the overall remains of Praxilla’s poetry, with Sappho’s fragments dedicated to Adonis, and with the threnodic tradition – both literary and epigrammatic – which presents several affinities. Praxilla’s style looks argute and humoristic, so that it was perceived as appropriate for the sympotic reception, giving the image of a female poet embedded with an original style, and well inserted in the poetic milieu of her region.
Rhodopis, known from later sources. Doubt arises as to whether it is
inspired by Sappho’s biography or draws on conventional topoi. A long
and continuous tradition from the Archaic to the Imperial age reports
stories of rich merchants who waste their fortunes on greedy courtesans.
The topos will be analyzed in terms of the economic transactions
within Mediterranean societies, including Greece.
This article aims at analyzing Bacchylides’ Paean 4 (ll. 21-25 and 61-78), which exhibits some themes normally typical of sympotic poetry, such as considerations about Peace and Eunomia, or the opposition between symposium and war. Bacchylides’ choice is in line with his predilection for sympotic themes, even in odes not strictly connected with the symposium, such as Paean 4.
myth of Theseus and argues that they originally belonged to the same work.
The fragments suggest that Simonides was the first to connect the Cretan
expedition with the Amazon’s abduction and to emphasize some
ideological aspects of the hero, that played an important role in the
development of this figure in the Athenian context.
one it was gradually to acquire over the course of the fifth century. As some recent studies on Athenian topography have shown, the main civic and religious spaces of the polis were located either on the Acropolis or in the area to the south-east, delimited by the river Ilissos. Located there were the Old Agora (with the city’s most important buildings), the temple of Zeus Olympios, the Delphinion, and the Pythion (the two major shrines of Apollo). Lyric poets, active between the end of the sixth century and the first half of the fifth, provide information on the archaic layout of the city and make implicit references to the monuments located in the Old Agora or on the banks of the Ilissos. Examples will be made particularly concerning the works of Solon and Bacchylides.
The aim of this chapter is to detect the intervisual allusions to Athenian public spaces in the works of lyric poets, in order to create a sort of map of late-archaic Athens, highlighting the deep relationship between the poets and the city.
to verisimilitude. For this reason, some of the agonistic epigrams seem to be aware of the innovative character of the statue they accompany and do not fail to praise its beauty or the ability of the sculptor.
Simonides plays a crucial in role in the relationship between the text and the material support, because he is the first author who gives literary dignity to a genre so far considered as “ancillary” like the epigram. As a lyric poet, author of epinician and encomiastic odes, he intends the epigram as a poetic product and not as a mere “complement” of the statue and its base. At the same time, he is well aware that the material support is a fundamental trait of this genre, which makes his art unique: this is the reason why he never forgets to obey to the laws of the stone and to the stylistic conventions which took place in the epigraphic field. The brevity imposed by the material support forces the poet to invent new modes in order to concentrate all the necessary informations in two lines and, possibly, find some artistic variations to the most essential lists.
Another difference between agonistic epigrams and epinician odes is the context of performance: epigrams we know were mainly dedicated in Panhellenic sanctuaries, whereas the great part of epinicians were performed in the victor’s home town. This implies a different mode of self-presentation of the victor in accordance to the audience (local or panhellenic), which becomes particularly evident in those few lucky cases in which we possess both odes and epigrams of the same dedicator (e.g. Hieron of Syracuse).
terms athyrma/athyro in archaic epic and lyric
poetry, where the original meanings of ‘toy’/‘playing’
gradually evolves into their musical counterparts.
The semantic shift is implied and possibly encouraged
by the connection with the realm of marvel and
fascination that the terms assume since their earliest
occurrences.
proem on the birth of the gods, similar to the Homeric Hymns. The poet of the Hymn thus seems to delineate the history of the proemial genre and reveals that the rhapsodic long hymn was born as an independent genre in imitation of kitharodic erotic nomoi on the gods’ deed. In the sixth century the Homeric Hymns were regarded as a new poetical genre, invented by the rhapsodes in order to imitate the success of the kitharodes; they were modeled on the kitharodic nomoi but occasionally served as proems for long epic recitations.
poems to be performed in the symposium. This demonstrates that iambic poetry was not unknown in Sparta, as is normally believed, and may be connected to the more general dynamics of praise and blame, which were very important in Sparta, especially in local symposia.
the choral performances that might have involved them. It is commonly assumed that the Hyakinthia had an important
initiatic function both for girls and boys, but I will now try to show that the initiation of girls was enacted through the
musical performance. I will also try to elucidate the relevant role that the cult of Dionysus played at this festival and to
what extent this cult might be connected with the choruses of girls.
the Spartans, apart from Ibycus’ fr. S 166, which Barron persuasively
considers an epinician for the victory of a Spartan athlete at the
Sicyonian games. A new analysis of Simonides’ fr. 34 Poltera (= 519 fr.
132 PMG/S 319) contradicts this assumption, because the fragment
was probably part of an epinician ode composed to celebrate a member
of the eurypontid family, Zeuxidamos II or his father Leotychidas. The
exaltation of their military deeds, together with the mention of their
most illustrious ancestors, served to legitimate their right to rule over
Sparta, after the coup d’etat enacted by Leotychidas against his relative
and former king Damaratus. Another fragment from the same papyrus
(fr. 76 Poltera = S 363 SLG) possibly belonged to the same ode and,
with its mythological content, suggests that the epinician contained a
long genealogical section about the origins of the eurypontid family.
The careful examination of the historical data concerning Leotychidas
and his son leads to date the ode between 494 and 488 BC, thus adding
a new chapter in the history of Simonides’ career, which sees a strong
relationships with Spartan leaders, well before Pausanias’ commitment
of Plataea’s elegy in 479 BC."
The paper argues that Heliodorus’ reconstruction of the sanctuary is in line with contemporary material evidence, except for some aspects based on literary sources. Authors of the Classical era, such as Euripides and Pindar, are fruitfully placed alongside authors closer to Heliodorus’ age, such as Plutarch and Philostratus. This overlap reflects the discrepancy between the dramatic date of the novel (4th century BC), to which Heliodorus consistently tries to keep throughout the novel with the aid of his Classical sources, and the date of composition of the novel (4th century AD), which places it in the context of the ‘hellenization’ and ‘paganization’ promoted by Emperor Julian. The result is a dynamic and realistic reconstruction of Delphi that brings the idealized portrait of Classical Greece and its authors to life.
tartaruga, che diventa per lui un giocattolo (athyrma) con cui scoprire il nuovo mondo della musica.
L’Inno gioca con la sovrapposizione semantica tra musica e gioco (athyrma – athyro), e l’elemento
ludico ricorre in tutto il componimento ad indicare le azioni del dio bambino. Allo stesso tempo,
però, i canti di Ermes hanno carattere fondativo e inaugurano un nuovo modo di concepire il canto e
la poesia: egli inventa il genere proemiale di contenuto mitico e teogonico, ma l’elemento ludico
torna prepotentemente in scena trasformando l’inno in scherzo simposiale.
I will try to underline some possible comparative traits among poetesses and their works, and to make an assessment of the sources concerning them, which present several difficulties, because our direct knowledge of female poetry is poor and often limited to the testimonies of later authors.
In this paper I will focus on contexts, implying with this term both the original performance contexts for female poets’ works and the contexts of their reception in later authors, as they offer an interesting point of view of reception by - mainly - male authors of works by female poets. The relationship between men and women, the expression of women’s voice in the context of a male society, and the transmission of women’s voices in the context of a male history of cultural tradition will be an essential part of my talk.
Another relevant point that I will explore is the existence of a female poetic tradition. In an oral- performative society, gender represents a fundamental aspect of poets’ self-presentation and some poetic genres, such as laments, prayers, wedding songs, are typically connected to the female voice. Male authors’ testimonies concerning female genres and their expected audience will be put in comparison with women’s direct experience and voice, in order to the detect diversities and similarities among them. This opens the path to a reflection about male authors’ perception of female poetry and the supposed rivalry between men and women poets (e.g. Pindar VS Corinna). To what extent did men perceive female poetry differently from women and from the poetesses themselves? Sappho’s fr. 55 V. implies a high opinion of her own poetry (in opposition to her rivals’), to assure endless fame, but Sappho herself became object of mocking and blame in her afterlife. Male writers invented a series of anecdotes concerning the lives and works of poetesses that reveal a male perspective. Furthermore, sympotic reuse of female poetry represents an interesting case of selection which concerns not only Sappho and bears to the transformation of choral and cultic poets, such as Praxilla, into the typical exponent of skoliastic poetry.
A critical review of the different positions will serve the problematize the question and to propose some possible ways of reading female poetry in its context.
But what about Homeric women? Homeric women are good singers: Circe and Calypso sing while weaving and Nausicaa sings while playing the ball with her comrades. Nonetheless, the words of their songs are not reported (an exception is represented by the gooi of the Trojan women over Hectors’ body), and the poet seems to refrain from entering the world of female song. Nonetheless, their discourses and conversations are embedded with motifs comparable to female poetry, primarily Sappho’s songs. So Calypso melancholically bemoans her lonely life when Odysseus will be gone and envies her rival, Penelope, competing with her in beauty and youth (Od.5.203-213), in a typical Sapphic mode (see e.g. frr. 31 V); she also makes use of mythical exempla, like those of Eos and Orion, or Iasion and Demeter, in order to support her right to love a mortal man, which recalls Sappho’s use of the myth of Tithon and Eos in the Old age poem (fr. 58 V).
To the same extent, Nausicaa is depicted as a young woman, ready for marriage, so that her conversation with Odysseus in Odyssey 6 (149-185), contains several themes typical of hymenaic poetry, as we find it attested in Sappho’s odes, and in other testimonies.
My paper thus aims at investigating the point of contacts between female narrative and discourse in the Homeric poems and the tradition of female lyric poetry, as exemplified by Sappho.
Obiettivo di questo contributo è dunque esaminare gli inni ad Apollo contenuti principalmente nella Silloge teognidea (vv. 1-10, 757-764, 773-782) e nella raccolta di Skolia attici (3 Fabbro) in relazione con gli inni dedicati ad altre divinità conservati nelle raccolte dei poeti simposiali (ad esempio Anacreonte PMG 348, ad Artemide; carme conviviale 1 Fabbro, ad Atena…), al fine di individuare elementi comuni, in opposizione ad altre tipologie di inni, come quelli rapsodici o cultuali. Dall’indagine emerge infatti come, accanto a formule standardizzate tipiche del genere innodico o proemiale, gli inni destinati al simposio presentino alcune peculiarità tipiche della poesia conviviale, come la commistione di generi e di modalità di performance (in particolare nell’alternanza tra canto monodico e canto corale) o l’interesse nei confronti della comunità. Inoltre, anche gli inni dedicati a divinità diverse da Apollo sembrano uniformarsi alla prerogativa originaria del peana come canto destinato ad allontanare sciagure e flagelli, calata però in una prospettiva comunitaria e saldamente connessa con eventi storici contemporanei.