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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2013
In the myth of Pelops in Ol. 1.25-93, Pindar makes various selections, elaborations and innovations of the mythic material available to him. Kakridis has shown that the mention of Zeus' house (line 42), of the anxiety of one of Pelops' parents (46) and of wondrous horses (87) makes the story conform to that of Ganymede, which Pindar cites as a parallel in lines 43–5, while other choices, which cannot be so explained, Kakridis attributes to Pindar's striving for variation.
Krischer has further shown that in lines 65–94, the explicit parallel with Ganymede is replaced by an implicit parallel with Achilles. Achilles has an ally in battle (Thetis), a divinity to whom he prays alone by the sea-shore (ll. i 349-50), who suddenly appears to him (ll. i 359), and to whom he claims to prefer a short life with honour to a long inglorious one (ll. xviii 155-21).
1 The exact nature and degree of Pindar's innovation in the myth of Ol. 1 is uncertain. It is clear, however, that some degree of innovation has taken place (cf. σἑ δ' άντία προτέρων φθέγξομαι 36). For a review of the evidence, see Howie, J. G., in Cairns, F., ed., Papers of the Liverpool Latin Seminar iv (1984) 277–313Google Scholar.
2 Kakridis, J. T., Philologus lxxxv (1930) 463–77Google Scholar = Calder, W. M. III and Stern, J. edd., Pindaros und Bakchylides, Wege der Forschung cxxxiv (Darmstadt 1970) 175–90Google Scholar, esp. 183 (this and subsequent references are to the pages in the Wege der Forschung volume).
3 Krischer, T., Grazer Beiträge x (1981) 69–75Google Scholar.
4 I interpret the narrative of Ol. 1.25–51 as follows. Lines 25–6 (kephalaion): the third event of the true story; Poseidon abducts Pelops. Lines 26–7 (archa): this may be interpreted either as the first event of the true story, in which case it would be translated as, ‘since from an untainted bath, the goddess of birth had drawn him … with an ivory birthmark,’ or as the fourth and last event of the false story, in which case it would be translated as, ‘when from a purifying stew-pot, the goddess of rebirth (?) drew him … with an ivory prosthesis’. On a second reading, we must choose the first interpretation, but on a first it remains ambiguous. Lines 28–36 (gnome): Pindar will tell the true story for the first time. Lines 37–9: the second event of the true story, which is the same as the first event of the false story; Tantalus invites the gods to dinner. Lines 40–5 (kephalaion-ring): the third event of the true story; Poseidon abducts Pelops. Lines 46–7 (beginning of the terminal exploits): the fourth event of the true story; a jealous neighbour circulates the false tale. Lines 48–50: the second event of the false tale; the gods cook Pelops. Line 51: the third event of the false tale; the gods eat Pelops.
This interpretation (above all as regards the ivory shoulder) is not universally accepted. See Kirkwood, G., Selections from Pindar=American Philological Association Textbook Series vii (Chico, Ca. 1982)Google Scholar ad 267 and Gerber, D. E., Pindar's Olympian One: a commentary (Toronto 1982) note ad 27 (page 58)Google Scholar. This is an important point for the interpretation of the ode, but it does not effect the present argument.
5 The importance of horses in various parts of the poem has been well discussed by Köhnken, A., CQ xxiv (1974) 199–206CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 Sec Freeman, E. A., History of Sicily from the earliest times (Oxford 1891) appendix xi 1.530–542Google Scholar; Dunbabin, T.J., The western Greeks: the history of Sicily and South Italy from the foundation of the Greek colonies to 480 BC (Oxford 1948) 176–81Google Scholar; and Zuntz, G., Persephone: three essays on religion and thought in Magna Graecia (Oxford 1971) 70–5Google Scholar.
7 See Calder, W. M. III, The inscription from Temple G at Selinus, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Monographs iv (1963) 31 32Google Scholar, and Landi, A., Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia della Università di Napoli xxv (1972–1973) 19–22Google Scholar.
8 The Hymn sets the rape ‘upon the Nysian plain’ (line 17) but this information is as good as useless owing to the large number of sites throughout the Greek world which bore the name of Nysa. See Richardson, N.J., The Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Oxford 1974) note ad 17Google Scholar.
9 See Richardson, 76–7.
10 Zuntz 71–2 and Langlotz, E. and Hirmer, M., Die Kunst der Westgriechen in Sizilien und Unteritalien (Munich 1963) plate 3Google Scholar.
11 See How, W. W. and Wells, J., A commentary on Herodotus (Oxford 1928) ii 192Google Scholar.
12 See Lavagnini, B., Archivio Storico per la Sicilia Orientate series ii (1933) 9–5-14 at 7Google Scholar.
13 Δημἠτηρ ἐλθοῡ έκ τῆς θυγαταρὸς Зηγἡσεως, καὶ ἀγνοοῦσα, τὸν ὦμον κατέβρωξεν.
14 Gerber writes ad 52 (page 89), ‘It is probable that Pindar wrote γαστρίμαγον μακάρων τιν' instead of γαστριμάργους μάκαρας because he was thinking of the version according to which only one deity actually ate any of the flesh.’
15 The golden car is a common feature of divine rapes; see Richardson on Hymn. Horn. Cer. 19.
16 This detail is mentioned by Diod. v 4.3., Cic. Verr. 114.48 [106], Ov. Fast. iv 491–4, Met., v 441–3, Stat. Theb. xii 270–3, etc.
17 See Lorimer, H. L., Greek poetry and life: essays presented to Gilbert Murray (Oxford 1936) 14–33Google Scholar at 30–3.
18 See Richardson on Hymn. Horn. Cer. 399 ff. for the proportion of the year which Persephone must spend below the earth according to various accounts and for the various possible significances of this stay.
19 See Lord, A. B., The singer of tales (Cambridge, Mass. 1960) 186Google Scholar and Lord, M. L., CJ lxii (1966–1967) 241–8Google Scholar.
20 See Frame, D., The myth of return in early Greek epic (New Haven and London 1978)Google Scholar.
21 See Crotty, K., Song and action: the victory odes of Pindar (Baltimore 1982) 104–38Google Scholar.
22 Three of these stages are also continued in different form in the Ganymede-myth, namely [1] abduction (by whirlwind instead of chariot) (Hymn. Ham. Ven. 202–3 and 220–3 and 208). [2] grief uncertainty of parent (father) over whereabouts of child (Hymn. Horn. Ven. 208–9) and [5] connection between worlds established by love (Zeus' gift of horses to Tros) (Hymn. Horn. Ven. 210–7). See Kakridis 176–7.
23 The term ‘hypogram’ is suggested to me by Professor Robbins, Emmet. Riffaterre, M. writes, Semiotics of poetry (Bloomington and London 1978) 23Google Scholar, ‘… the production of the poetic sign is determined by hypogrammatic derivation: a word or phrase is poeticized when it refers to (and, if a phrase, patterns itself upon) a preexistent word group. The hypogram is already a system of signs comprising at least a predication, and it may be as large as a text.’
24 Krischer 72.
25 Zuntz 75–83; Richardson pp. 16–20.
26 See Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies xxvii (1986) 5–13Google Scholar.
27 Bacchyl. epin. 5.16–30:
The similarity of the two passages has been discussed by Maehler, H., Bakchylides: Lieder und Fragmente (Berlin 1968) 13Google Scholar, and Die Lieder des Bakchylides, i: Die Siegeslieder, vol ii Kommentar (Leiden 1982) ad 5.16–30 (page 93), Lefkowitz, M. R., HSCP lxxiii (1969) 45–96 at 95–6Google Scholar, and The victory ode (Park Ridge, N.J. 1976) 46Google Scholar, and Richardson ad Hymn. Hom. Cer. 383 (page 280).
I am grateful to Professors Emmet Robbins and Gloria D'Ambrosio-Griffith and to three anonymous referees from the Journal for their kind advice during the writing of this note.
