|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Perhaps the New Historicism will shake matters up. To be sure, it may fade away fairly quickly itself, for it is unlikely to be able to resist for long the elementary truth that interpretation involves systematic recourse to both internal and external contextualizations, cooperating with one another as constant checks and confirmations. In the meantime it may do some good; at the very least, it should serve to undermine facile oppositions between history and literature. Not only Simonides' ode to Scopas, but many other ancient poetic texts, may end up benefiting by being put into historical contexts which are highly specific, not because they are made up exclusively of particular identifiable political or personal events, but instead because they form complex and dynamic ideological structures. In the present case, the contrasts between a Thessalian landed feudal dynast and an island-born but pan-Hellenically ambitious enlightened poet, between the controlled exploitation of commissioned praise and the eruptive possibilities of unfettered blame, between traditional admiration of success and power on the one hand and of moral virtue on the other, create a unique set of contradictions and imbalances within the general system of relations between power and discourse in late sixth-century Greece. Simonides' poem is not only a response to a particular historical situation which we shall never fully recover: it is also the medium in which a larger and more complex historical context theorizes itself, bringing to consciousness and to eloquent expression its richly self-contradictory identity. Small wonder, then, that Simonides chose to begin his ode with Pittacus' proverb: for in his subtle attempt to unfold the ambiguity of  is it hard to be good, or is it impossible? are concentrated many of the contradictions of his whole culture. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Aars J. (1888) "Das Gedicht des Simonides in Platons Protagoras", Christiana Videnskabs-Selskabs Forhandlinger 5 (1888). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Adkins A.W.H. (1960) Merit and Responsibility. A Study in Greek Values (Oxford: 1960). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Apelt O. (1922) Platons Dialog Protagoras (Leipzig: 21922). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Babut D. (1975) "Simonide Moraliste", Revue des Etudes Grecques 88 (1975) 2062. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Balasch M. (1967) "Sófocles y Simónides", Boletin des Instituto de Estudios Helenicos (Barcelona, Facoldade de Filosofia) 1 (1967) 4563. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bergk T. (1882) Poetae Lyrici Graeci. 3: Poetas Melicos continens (Leipzig: 41882). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bertram H. (1885) Platons Protagoras für den Schulgebrauch erklärt (Gotha: 1885). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Blass F. (1872) "Das Simonideische Gedicht im Protagoras des Platon", Rheinisches Museum 27 (1872) 32632. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bowie E.L. (1986) "Early Greek Elegy, Symposium, and Public Festival", Journal of Hellenic Studies 106 (1986) 1335. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bowra C.M. (1934) "Simonides and Scopas", Classical Philology 29 (1934) 2309. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(1961) Greek Lyric Poetry (Oxford: 21961). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Campbell D.A. (1967) Greek Lyric Poetry: A Selection (London: 1967). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Carson A. (1992) "How Not to Read a Poem: Unmixing Simonides from Protagoras", Classical Philology 87 (1992) 11030. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Christ G. (1941). Simonidesstudien (Freiburg: 1941). |
|
|
|
|
|