Dear friends!
We know of a series of
ancient coins depicting famous poets, philosophers and scientists. The best-known are probably coins of
Homer, but there are too coins of Hipparchos, Pythagoras, Chrysippos, Hippokrates or - a
bit rarer - of Anakreon. Recently a coin of Aratos from Soloi Pompeiopolis popped up in the
German Forum. Now I was lucky enough to find a coin of Stesichoros, a discovery which I want to share.
Even though he is one of the most important ancient poets, he was unknown to me until now. At Bruno Snell, whom I highly admire - not only because he was student too on my own school, Johanneum Lüneburg (founded 1406), he appears only in a short article as bucolic poet. Yes, a scientist once has written: "Time has dealt more harshly with Stesichorus than with any other major lyric poet".
The main reason was that he has not played a role in Aristoteles'
Poetik, in which he covers the developement of the Tragedy. And the books of Aristoteles have influenced the occidental science for centuries. But in the meantime he was rediscovered, particularly by previously undiscovered texts in the
Oxyrhynchus Papyri and the
Lille Papyrus, and since recently scientists are concerned with him increasingly, so that hopefully he will get
his appropriate position again. But first
The coin:Sicily, Thermai Himeraiai, late 2nd - early 1st century BC
AE 26, 12.56g, 90°
obv. Bust of
Tyche, veiled and wearing
mural crown, r., behind
cornucopiaerev. ΘEPMITAN IMEPAIΩN
The poet Stesichoros, in
himation, stg. r.,
writing with r. hand a poem on a wax
tablet in l. hand; a long staff leaning against
his r. shoulder.
ref.
Calciati I p.120, 18;
BMC Sicily p.84, 9;
HGC 2 1616 (R2); not in
SNG ANS,
SNG Copenhagen,
SNG München,
SNG Morcom extremely
rare, F+, dark green
patina, some porousity, lightly corroded
pedigree:
ex
Roma Numismatics e-sale 2 (2. Nov. 2013), Lot 28
ex
Forum Ancient Coins, thanks!
Note:Romolo
Calciati, Corpus Nummorum Siculorum (
CNS), The Bronze Coinage,
Vol. I: Nordost-Sizilien, Westsizilien. 1983
Calciati writes, that this
type is
rare, especially in better state, because it - as many other Sicilian
types in
Roman time too - was struck from metal of inferior
quality threatened by corrosion.
Biography:Stesichoros was born about 630 BC in Metauros/Calabria and died in 555 in
Katane (today
Catania) in
Sicily. So he was
contemporary of Sappho. There is a place in
Catania today called
Piazza Stesicoro. That
Himera is sometimes claimed as
his birthplace is due to the fact that later in
his life he moved to
Himera. When
Himera was destroyed by the Carthaginians in 409 BC the survivors founded not far away the city of Thermai Himeraia. Even here and
still under
Roman reign Stesichoros was hold for its most famous citizen.
His actual name was Tisias. Stesichoros he was called only later.
Lyric:Stesichoros mainly has written Doric, which was usual in
Magna Graecia and
Sicily, but has incorporated Ionic influences too. The ancient have compared
his lyrical qualities with the voice of a nightingale which has been said to have perched on
his lips immediately after
his birth and has bestowed him this gift. This story was
still repeated by Pliny the Elder. Hieronymus writes, that
his poems became even sweeter at the end of
his life and more swan-like as he approached death. I have found only one poem at poemhunter.com. But I was excited:
Forget the wars.
It is time to sing.
Take out the flute from Phrygia
and recall the songs of our blond Graces.
Clamor of babbling swallows:
it is already spring.The Alexandrians have counted him as one of the 9 most important poets in their canon. On top stood
Pindar, but Stesichoros holds an prominent position.
By
his work about the shepherd Daphnis he was the founder of the bucolic lyric. This is a kind of lyric playing under shepherds in a romantic natural landscape, most often Arcadia, emphasizing the contrast to daily life. Later one of the most famous bucolic poets was Theokritos.
Epics:But most of all Stesichoros has impressed by
his epical capabilities. He has practised an important influence on the representation of the
mythology of the 6th century BC and on the developement of the Attic dramatic poetry. He denotes plainestly the transition from the declamation by a Rhapsode, as he belongs f.e. to
Homer, to the choral singing in the tragedies (
Pauly).
According to Suda he has written 26 roles of which sadly only fragments have come to us.
His texts cover the
Trojan War and several myths of
heros, especially of
Herakles. But he too gave attention to myths of
his own time and
contemporary events. So Aristoteles reports a speech of him against the tyrannical ambitions of Phalaris.
I want to elaborate on 2 of
his works:
Helena and
Palinodia, which have to be seen together. In
Helena he blames her for her bad character and condemns her for her adultery - as described by
Homer and Hesiod - and the fall of
Troy by her immorality. That was not unusual in
his times, and appears too at Sappho and Alkaios.
But the worst was that he has called her thrice married (
τριγαμος). Because of this blasphemy
Helena has blended him. Pausanias reports that later
Helena has send a pilgrim to him who has revealed this causal relationship. Thereupon he decided to write a recall, the
Palinodia. Therein he withdraws all he has written before and asserted now that
Helena never has been in
Troy, but that
Paris has abducted only a phantom to
Troy for that then was battled. The true
Helena has been brought to
Egypt where Menelaos she has rediscovered after the
Trojan War has ended. So Stesichoros has got back
his eyesight. Grossardt is meaning that the motive of blinding and healing has been taken over from
Isis. But probably this event reported by Stesichoros himself is meant only allegorical ("I must have been smited with blindness!"), and Stesichoros has written
his recall out of consideration for Sparta where
Helena was highly adorated as deity. The
Palinodia was made of 2 parts: In the first
part Homer was blamed for
his defamatory texts, in the second it was the same with Hesiod.
The
Palinodia, the recall, became an important stylistic device in Greek poetry and literature. The Greek language
per se has an inclination to
μην - δε (= indeed - but), thinking in antitheses. Platon
applied it in
his Phaidros where Sokrates first disparagingly descants on the "mania" of
Eros and the infamous role he played in human love affaires, to praise him in the 2nd
part (the so-called "
Palinodia of Sokrates) as deep mental emotion and of divine origin.
The Lille Papyus:The most about
his style we have learned from the papyrus which was found in 1976 as packaging material in a mummy chest in the Museum of Lille/France and was named
Papyrus Lille after the site of its find. The content is about the myths of Thebes and the most important
part is the speech of queen Jokaste to her sons Eteokles and Polyneikes. To prevent the fraticide which was predicted by a prophecy she offers to one of her sons the palace of Thebes, to the other her wealth and the flocks, this all in lyrically elaborate sentences. Oedipus seems to be dead at this time. But making Oedipus father of this two sons Stesichoros was the first one who has introduced the motive of incestuous paternity to
mythology. Euripides takes over the motive from Stesichoros that Jokaste tries to pease the conflict between her two sons, but without
success. The texts which were found here confirm
his role as link between the epical storytelling of
Homer and the lyric of
Pindar. Hence
his name "the lyrical
Homer".
His influence on tragedy:Of great importance he was too for the developement of tragedy. Especially clear this can bee seen in the 2 books of
his Oresteia which was the model for Euripides. The arrangement of choral songs in 3 parts
strophe,
antistrophe and
epode (= final song), the so-called
triadic structure, was attributed by the Greek to Stesichoros, although it was introduced already by Archilochos. Under Bacchylides and then under
Pindar it reaches its highest boom. Stesichoros was even the first one who has accompanied the songs to the
kithara by a chorus. And this is
his very name: Stesichoros = he who has placed a singing choir to the
kithara!
The Tabulae Iliacae:
These small reliefs came from the time of
Augustus and show depictions from the Ilias. The most important, the
Tabula Iliaca Capitolina, was found in 1683 and is now in the Capitoline Museum in
Rome. In the middle it shows a closely inscribed pillar, on the left
side the sack of
Troy, the grave of Hektor, the Greek
ships and the flight of
Aeneas, on the right
side scenes from the
Trojan War. A Greek
inscription reads: "Sack of
Troy according to Stesichoros". The
Tabulae Iliacae reflected Alexandrian knowledge and served for the education of the citizens. They are important because they describe the so-called pseudo-homeric
mythology, the time after the fall of
Troy, which mostly is lost.
Sources:(1)
Homer, Ilias
(2) Hesiod, Theogony
(3) Archilochos, Gedichte,
Tusculum(4) Sappho, Lieder,
Tusculum(5) Eclogae Poetarum Graecorum, Teubner
(7)
Plato, Phaidros
(8) Strabo, Geographica
(9) Plinius the Elder,
Naturalis historiaLiterature:(1)
Peter Grossardt, Stesichoros zwischen kultischer Praxis, mythischer Tradition und
eigenem Kunstanspruch, Zur Behandlung
des Helenamythos im Werk
des Dichters aus
Himera, Leipziger Studien zur klassischen Philologie 9, Tübingen
2012
(2) Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon
(3) Der Kleine
Pauly, dtv
(4) Bruno Snell, Die Entdeckung
des Geistes, Studien zur Entstehung
des europäischen Denkens bei den Griechen, Claassen&Goverts Hamburg 1946
(5) J. Vurtheim, Stesichoros, Lyrik und Biographie, Leyden 1919 (Reprint)
Online Sources:(1)
Google Pictures
(2)
Wikipedia(3) Enzyclopaedia Britannica
(4) Roger Aluja, Reexamining the Lille Stesichorus about the Theban Version of
Stesich, über
http://www.academia.edu(5)
http://www.poemhunter.com I have added the following pictures:
(1) The coin
(2)
Bust of Stesichoros from
Catania(3) Fragments of Papyri Oxyrhinchus
(4) Fragments of Papyrus Lille
(5) Tabula Iliaca Capitolina
Best regards
