Genealogy, History, and Mythology in Olympian 9

Genealogy, Hi layer, and Mythology in olympian 9From Polis to OikosAt the end of olympian 9, the ode for Epharmostos, the champion wrestler from Opountian Lokris, Pindar decl atomic number 18s phya, his idiosyncratic rendering of physis(alin concert best Ol. 9.100)1 he says that the heralds promulgation ought to record that his professional was born (with quick hands, nimble legs, de marginination in his look), all the natural and genetical endowments necessary for acrobatic conquest (Ol. 9.108ff).2 despite his focus on Epharmostos birth (with divine help he was born), Pindar, unusually, call neither the father of the skipper nor acknowledges any family whatsoever. In a tuneful genre as concerned with family and identity as epinikian, the omission is striking and potentially trouble few for the rhetoric of epinikian encomium. Miller remarks that such an omission would almost for sure further occur at the instruction of the client himself, and hence we should dissolve that Epharmostos did not regard family or fathers name as native to his self-definition.3 Pindars eulogium still purposes, except the absence of family disturbs many of the regular features of epinikian, e specially the exemplification integration of phya and family.4Family, via the fathers name, was an element of the heralds proclamation or angelia and would afford been announced afterward Epharmostos mastery.5 While Pindars epinikian evokes the angelia, it freely includes, excludes, or modifies elements of the proclamation.6 The modification, or omission, of a dower of the angelia thus serves as an opening for my analysis of the ode kind of than focus on the read/write head of why Pindar did not include the fathers name, this article explains how Pindaric extolment, particularly the encomium of inherited qualification, still functions in an ode that omits a key component of epinikian poetics. Pindar, despite the ostensive absence of family in this ode, nonethele ss praises phya done ethnos and polis and with a colonial narrative of early Lokrian and Opountian history. While the focus on the conjunction of the victor with ethnos and polis is certainly not without parallel, Ol. 9 is singular in its emphasis on the correlation of biography and history. The Archaic and early Classical immersion of genealogy to ethnic and civil history joins such seemingly disparate concepts as inheritance, family plicationage, and genealogy with ethnic descent and civic foundation. The polis, one component of the angelia, go off replace family, anformer(a) component, beca purpose of the conceiving of ethnic and civic identity as essentially genealogical.In her study of the economy of praise in epinikian, Kurke concludes that the family is essential not only to the celebration of acrobatic success just to success itself (1991, 3 cf. Cole 1987, 560). She suggests that the family connection is important enough that we should agnise Pindars (and his victo rs) different concept of self-identity, which was integrated, to a peachy degree, with family.7 In this conceiving of self-identity, personal athletic success can be understood as a revolution of the family, especially through the metaphors of new birth, marriage, and rites for dead ancestors.8 gum olibanum, the exclusion of family from Epharmostos ode is unexpected his success, small-arm it may hold up brought fame to his living relatives, is not represented as vicissitude or reviving the fame of his oikos, since the oikos is absent from the ode his prodigious victory cannot participate in the common epinikian analogizing of athletic victory to family renewal, since there is no misprint family in the poem. This omission is highly unusual in epinikian, which, as C atomic number 18y points out, memorializes through naming.9In only a few odes does Pindar not mention family members Ol. 1, Ol. 4, Ol. 9, Pyth. 3, Pyth. 12, and Isthm. 3. In a number of these, the paternal and fa milial absence may be equal to be rationalized the victor is either a ruler or politically or socially prominent and thus the ode focuses attention on them, or at any rate participates in a sooner obscure political context (Ol. 1 for Hieron Pyth. 3 for Hieron)10 in another deuce cases the fathers name appears in an earlier ode for the same victor, and thus perhaps familial self-identity had been fulfilled (Hierons fathers name appears in another ode as advantageously Pyth. 1.79 Ol. 4 for Psaumis of Kamarina, whose father Akron is named at Ol. 5.8, and his sons at 5.23 Isthm. 3 for Melissos of Thebes, whose father is named at Isthm. 4.45).Pythian 12 and Olympian 9 stand out, since they lack any explicit abduce to the father, clan, or family of the victor. Pyth. 12 praises the victory of Midas of Akragas in the aulos competition at the Pythian Games significantly, it is the only extant ode to praise a victor in a musical contest. While Strauss-Clay suggests that the absence of Mid as father and family is explained by his professional standing as an aulos player, Maria Pavlou offers a convincing and subtle commentary that situates the absence of family in the context of Akragrantine politics.11 She suggests that Midas victory is an agalma for the urban center, since Akragas itself receives an extended encomium (Pyth. 12.1-5), and she argues that Midas victory ode was commissioned by the then-ascendant Emmenidae (perhaps Theron himself), in order to tautness their power, and to relate them to a celebration of Akragantine culture. Thus Pythian 12 does not offer try out that lower-status athletes (if, indeed, Midas was lower-status) would not celebrate their fathers, but or else indicates the potential utility of an epinikian victory to the political program of an aim tyrant.12Consequently, Ol. 9 is alone in its complete absence of a literal family or ancestry, or at least, it is the only ode in which an obvious explanation does not appear to be forthcoming through the political or social context of the poem, and the lack of fathers name cannot be explained because of any cognise personal political prominence or a powerful patron. level if Epharmostos family had not had previous athletic success, family could still appear, since in other odes victory acts retroactively to glorify otherwise obscure ancestors (e.g., Nem. 6.17-29).Aside from Epharmostos, the ode mentions one other app atomic number 18ntly historical individual, Lampromachos, whose comportment has sparked oftentimes ancient and modern discussion.13 He is introduced as a cause for the poets presence at the celebration of Olympian 9 (82-84)Because of guest friendship and achievementI have total to honor the Isthmian fillets of Lampromachos, when both wontheir victories in one day.The scholiasts are divided on the meaning of 123a and 123c regard Lampromachos as a proxenos in the technical mind, while 123d and 123e consider to be equivalent to in this race finally, 125 c considers Lampromachos a kinsman of Epharmostos.14 Modern scholarship has been similarly divided.15 While the origination of proxenia existed in the fifth-century, it is not certain that an institutionalized proxenia has any relevance to Pindars use of the term in Ol. 9.16 In one of the only accounts to try to rationalize the air of proxenos here, Pavlou focuses on the early evidence for proxenia in Lokris circumstantialally she is skeptical that Pindar would use a technical term so loosely and she contends that by the fifth-century, proxenia was firmly entrenched as an institution.17 Pavlou follows the opinion of one of the scholiasts and regards Lampromachos as the proxenos of the Thebans at Opous, and thus a relevant personage to Pindars presence and the commissioning of the ode.18The Pindaric usage of proxenia and cogitate words, however, suggests that proxenia could withal signify vaguer hospitality. Isthm. 4.8, for example, teams proxenia with the adverb which renders it unlikely that the word rears to a contemporary institution it is probable that appropriate hospitality is evidently another component of the praise of the Kleonymidai.19 In fr. 94b, Pindar uses the plural dative describes a tradition of hospitality, which began in the foregone and extends to the present day (38-45), and once again, it is unlikely that the combination of a secular adverb hangring to the past and proxenia refers to the institution.20 Nem. 7 has presented its own issues of recitation, in terms of situating the passage in the larger organization of the poem, but proxenia, nonetheless, likely remains general rather than specific.21 At Nem. 7.64-65, the book of facts to proxenia probably has little to do with the Achaian man, and rather, proxenia evokes the previous quote to xenia at Nem. 7.61 ( I am a guest-friend).22 Again, an institutionalized meaning is highly unlikely.In other poetic uses from the early fifth-century, the term can refer to general hospital ity in Aeschylus Suppliant Women, proxenia refers to general protection by a powerful patron (or deity), rather than an institutionalized system of urban center-sponsored hosting (Aesch. Supp. 420, 491, 919). A fragment of Aeschylus Diktyouloi uses proxenia but then glosses it with the word champion (TrGF III fr. 47a.768-770). Therefore, proxenia in Ol. 9, and throughout the Pindaric corpus, can occur as a metaphor for hospitality, guest-friend relations, and philia, rather than a reference to the civic institution the term is not evidence for a civic commissioning or biographical speculation but rather reinforces the intimate connection of city and victor.Lampromachos opens the victory catalogue cardinal other Isthmian wins are recorded separately in the following(a) line (Ol. 9.86). The mention of Lampromachos is likely a flourish with which to open the catalogue, an subject in which Epharmostos and his countryman both won at a Panhellenic festival on the same day. Pindar be gins with a special victory, and then number to begin the catalogue-proper of Epharmostos, proceeding, as is normal, from victories in the Crown Games.23 The victory with Lampromachos is given special prominence (it begins the catalogue) because of its significance to the city of Opous, a city poorly represented in victories at the Crown Games.24 Considering the odes explicit focus on praise of Opous asfountainheadasEpharmostos, the inclusion of its other stephanitic victor is hardly surprising. It may be strange, in this case, that Pindar does not mention Menalkes (Moretti no. 240), who won at boxing at the same Olympics as Epharmostos, though perhaps the inclusion of another Olympic victor would challenge the primacy of Epharmostos praise in the ode Lampromachos lesser Isthmian victory fulfills the function of praising the city without eclipsing the praise of the laudandus.The mythic section of the ode, in which hospitality and guest-friendship not institutionalized proxenia are conjoined, when foreigners are welcomed to the new city of Opous (Ol. 9.67-69), supports my interpretation of proxenia at Lampromachos manner. In fact, the settlement of foreigners (explicitly xenoi Ol. 9.67) and the arete of Opous himself (Ol. 9.65-66 and the polis at Ol. 9.16) as well as one of the descendants of the new settlers (Patroklos, Ol. 9.70-76), have already appeared together in the odes narrative. Thus, Pindar comes to Opous because of the same qualities that have already characterized the polis and ethnos in the mythic narrative he, like the xenoi in the myth, is attracted to the presence of the famous residents of the city, and its famous hospitality. repetition and a cyclical perspective on Lokrian and Opountian history predominate in the structure of the ode, and so the rationale for Pindars visit seems to reinforce the identity of Epharmostos victory with the past history and mythology of his city and ethnos. Lampromachos is not included because of any poli tical office, special relation, or involvement in the commissioning of the ode (all the suggestions of the scholiasts), but simply because of his status as an Opountian pan- Hellenic victor.25 Regardless of the always vague, and impossible to kick upstairs historical circumstances surrounding the commissioning of the ode, the focus is on Opountian achievements in the victory catalogue, first in the single victory of Lampromachos, and then in the longer record of Epharmostos myriad victories this is not proof of a civic commissioning, but rather exemplary of Pindars method of integrating victor with community.26Ol. 9 exemplifies the Pindaric tendency to merge oikos and polis epinikian is a form of civic adornment by the monied after all. Merger, however, does not fully satisfy in the context of the ode, since the family in Ol. 9 is not simply combined with the polis that, in athletics, is the normal call forth of affairs, because the angelia teams together individual, familial, and civic identities. 27 In Ol. 9, in production line, Epharmostos family is absent, and the ethnos of Lokris and the polis of Opous replace the oikos of the victor. The presence of Lampromachos in the victory catalogue, in a place generally close for family achievements, as a result of his civic identity, indicates this replacement the polis relegates family and positions itself as the family of the seemingly family-less Epharmostos, so that the history of Lokris and Opous becomes the biographyof Epharmostos, the citys putative ancestry replaces the victors actual genealogy.While father domain of a function praise is a commonplace in Pindaric criticism, Kurke notes that the place of neither family praise nor homeland praise in epinikian has ever been questioned.28 She stresses the public and communal personality of the reception of Pindars art, and comments that Pindar uses foundation myths because of their inherently political quality, since they transform an entire polis into a single family descended from a common mythic ancestor.29 The public aspect of epinikian, and the function of homeland praise as part of the political performative of epinikian provokes this articles new interpretation of Olympian 9 the recognition of Opous and Lokris standing in as the oikos of this victor allows us to reimagine the connection between Epharmostos Olympic victories and the mythic narrative in the ode in the context of replacement family and substitute ancestry.This reimagining begins by situating the series of foundations and renewals in the performance of the poem itself. The respective arrangement of ethnos and polis are accentuate in the ode and function to praise Epharmostos by placing him in a persistency of inheritance (Pindaric phya), modulated through civic and ethnic lineage. Although he has no actual family worth mentioning in the ode, the song manufactures a lineage (and inheritance) of great deeds through the telling and re-telling of history and m ythology. It is therefore in the ii figures who complete great deeds, Deukalion and Opous (ethnic and civic founders, and themselves involved with unusual family), that we should look for the mythic parallels through which Pindar praises his patron, Epharmostos, and the polis, Opous.30Pindars narrative in Ol. 9 is one of the earliest, and most complete, Lokrian myths.31 He begins from the flood, after which Deukalion and Pyrrha descend from Mount Parnassos to found a city and lay down its autochtho idea inhabitants (Ol. 9.43-46), the Leleges who become the ethnos of the Lokrians32 second, the lineage of kings is renewed through the credence of a son, Opous, descended directly from genus Zeus (Ol. 9.57-66), through whom the civic identity of Opountians is established.33 In both cases, foundations are not straightforward. Standard Greek origin stories go around around autochthony or migration (Hall 2002 31-35), but in Pindars narrative, colonial-style foundation is conjugated wit h autochthony (Deukalion and Pyrrha) and hereditary inheritance is manifold by adoption (Opous) a productive merger for representing Epharmostos civic and ethnic genealogy. Thus, Pindar finds room in his Lokrian and Opountian origination myths to accommodate all manners of foundation and presidential term, and in doing so, firmly establishes the Hellenic identity of Epharmostos Lokrian ancestors.34The section on Deukalion and Pyrrha opens after Pindars self-recrimination for the Herakles narrative. While the digression accords with Pindars noble use of Abbruchsformeln,35 the specific rationale for the inclusion of Herakles here has generated debate, and some have compared Herakles stance against the gods (mortal versus immortal) with Epharmostos victory at Marathon, when he was, according to Pindar, incorrectly displace in the mens category (Ol. 9.89-90).36 Though some audience members may have make this connection, I concur with Gerber, who regards the comparison as inappropr iate, since it would claim some glory for doing combat with the gods (surely, un-Pindaric see Ol. 9.35-41 cf. Ol. 1.35).37 Rather, the Abbruchsformel, as often, allows Pindar to draw a connection through collocation, where one is logically absent here, Herakles descent from Zeus and its consequent effect on his abilities (for the general principle of inherited ability and divine grace Ol. 9.28-29 for the specific application to Epharmostos, see Ol. 9.100-104) is placed in close contact with the founding story of Opous and the Lokrians, in which Zeus allow similarly play a major(ip) role and will forget abilities to Lokrian and Opountian progeny (Ol. 9.56-65).38 By the end of the ode, the connection of divinity and ability is made clear in the latest generation, in the object of the odes praise, when Pindar observes that men do poorly (Ol. 9.103).After this apparent interruption, with characteristic self-recrimination (though with the effect generated by the juxtaposition in pla ce), Pindar directs himself to stay to the topic at hand, which is the city of Protogeneia (Ol. 9.41-56) , , 45 . , , . 50 , - -. 55, , apply your speech toProtogeneiascity, where, by decree of Zeus of the opalinethunderbolt,Pyrrha and Deukalion came down from Parnassosand first established their home, and, without coupling,founded one folk, an offspring of stoneand they were called people. charge up for them a clear-sounding path of wordspraise wine that is old, but the blooms of hymnsthat are newer. Indeed they tell thatmighty waters had flooded overthe temperamental earth, but,through Zeus contriving, an ebb tide suddenlydrained the floodwater. From them cameyour ancestors of the bronze shieldsin the beginning, sons from the daughters of Iapetosrace and from the mightiest sons of Kronos, creation always a native line of kings,In this passage, Pindar briefly summarizes the end of the flood narrative, which left only Deukalion and Pyrrha animate atop of Mount Parnassos. In Pindars telling, the origin of the flood is left obscure, though Zeus will is the clear cause of its cessation.39The significance of 48-49 has been interpreted variously.40 in spite of some attempts to connect this comment to Simonides, the phrase must make sense in the context of its performance and patron, not to mention in re-performance scenarios.41 The contrast is perhaps best understood in terms of praising the essential qualities of things antiquity in wine is best (e.g., Od. 2.340), whereas novelty in songs, at least in the context of this ode (which opens, after all, with a contrast between old and new songs Ol. 9.1), is best. Here I am not competition for a universal motif in Pindar, but rather, that in thisodeinparticular, Pindar opens by stressing the novelty of his song (the Archilochus song), and thus, in this ode, newness in song is an important element42 Pindar buttresses this contention perhaps not so self-evident by the compa rison with wine.43 In fact, since essential qualities generally phya play a major part in the praise of the victor (Ol. 9.100ff), the extension of this opinion to the song that praises that victor makes thematic sense and further strengthens the encomium. If the following myth is unconventional, or stresses unconventional aspects by focusing on the Lokrian and Opountian origin of human beingsity after the flood, then the statement serves as a self-reference to the poets skill as well as being emphatic about one of the objects of the odes praise.44 In fact, when Pindar turns to the story of Lokrian and Opountian foundation, he foregrounds the connections amongst ethnos, polis, and Epharmostos (and thus strengthens his case for a continuity of inheritance), by ask for a clear-sounding path of words for them (Ol. 9.47) surely here we read a reference to the whole race of the Lokrians through all the temporal stages of the ode, since for them follows the riddling reference to their name (Ol. 9.45-46). Thus, the whole of 48-49 serves as a transition and, via a short-change priamel, an explicit way to focus audience attention on the objects of the odes praise, in advance turning to implicit praise via the mythic narrative.45The foundation of Opous, the first human habitation following the destruction of the race, comes about (by decree of Zeus, Ol. 9.42). is a complicated word in Pindar, though its basic meaning of share or portion often metaphorically denotes need (s.v. (A), Slater), and, in several instances, is the fate that allows athletic victory to come to fruition in Nem. 3.16, Aristokleidas strength in the pankration persists (thanks to your i.e., the Muses prefer) at Nem. 6.13, Alkimidas fortune at Nemea is expressly connected to Zeus favor ( a fortune from Zeus) in Pyth. 10, it is (duly) that a living man sees his son crowned at the Pythian Games (10.25-26).46 Ol. 9 points to the necessity of the favor of the gods (above all, Zeus) to ath letic victory , / (but when god takes no part, each deed is no worse / for being left in silence, 103-104) (also, Ol. 9.28-29) in fact, Zeus is one of the honorees of Epharmostos ode (Ol. 9.6).47 The involvement of the nous of Zeus in Opountian history connects the distant foundation of ethnos, the legendary establishment of polis, and the present praise of Epharmostos, especially through a word that can be used to describe the role of fate in athletic victory. As Pindar describes it, these three instances are correlative, not through content, but through the aition for each, that is, divine will (and Zeus is particularly attuned to watching over Lokrian history, as this odes mythic narrative demonstrates) they are thematically contiguous despite the ample expanse of time.48Deukalion and Pyrrha are the founders of the Lokrian ethnos their arrival at what will be Opous is characterized less as an arrival at a foreign land and rather as the arrival at their destined home Deuk alion and Pyrrha are not alien (although simultaneously not native) to the land of Opous, and it is there that they establish their home (Ol. 9.44 cf. Str. 9.4.2). suggestively combines foundation language ( to found) with parentage ( offspring) it also evokes Pindars phraseology for athletic inscriptions (cf. Ol. 7.86 / while in Megara the record in stone / tells no other tale).49 Deukalion and Pyrrha begin the replacement of oikos by ethnos and polis their natural daughter, Protogeneia, evaporates into the city they found (Ol. 9. 41-42)50 the (stone people) are treated as if their children the original inhabitants of Opous, their fellow-citizens, are also their descendants. Pindar emphasizes the blurring of oikos and polis he describes the descendants of the as from them came your ancestors of the bronze shields (Ol. 9.53-54).The antecedent of has provoked much discussion among commentators ancient and modern, though rather than stress a specific meaning, ambigui ty, as often, renders Pindars rime more, not less understandable ambiguity exists in the initial description of the city of Protogeneia and the parentage of the .51 As so often, Pindars verse resists an interpretive straightjacket the ambiguous demonstrative suggestively begins the replacement of oikos by polis, which is, of course, owing(p) to the encomium of the odes laudandus, Epharmostos.The understanding of (Ol. 9.54) has proceeded along similarly fraught lines, though again, sensitiveness to the theme of replacement and identity of oikos, ethnos, and polis in the ode provides some clarity.52 can refer to both Epharmostos family and the Opountians generally because Epharmostos family, as represented in the ode, istheOpountians (thus, Epharmostos is like his mythological antecedent, Opous, whose true family are the inhabitants of his eponymous city). Pindars verse, through mythic narrative and businesslike ambiguity completes not a merger of oikos and ethnos and polis, b ut rather a replacement of one by the others Deukalions natural daughter becomes an pick name for a city that is populated by the fellow-citizens (or family) of the descendants of the .The appearance of the autochthonous original inhabitants of Opous, the race of stone, evokes colonial motifs, which muddles distinctions between native and foreign, and which stress the rele