Contents of JHS 125 (2005)
Articles
Sheila L.
Ager,
‘Familiarity breeds: incest and the Ptolemaic dynasty’
Douglas
Cairns, ‘Myth and
the Polis in Bacchylides’ Eleventh Ode’
Susanne
Ebbinghaus,
‘Protector of the city, or the art of storage in early Greece’
Sara
Forsdyke,
‘Revelry and riot in archaic Megara: democratic disorder or ritual reversal?’
Polly Low, ‘Looking for the language of Athenian
imperialism’
John Moles, ‘The thirteenth
oration of Dio Chrysostom: complexity and simplicity, rhetoric and moralism,
literature and life’
Shorter contributions
Myles
Burnyeat, ‘On the source of Burnet's construal of Apology 30b2-4: a
correction’
John H.
Oakley, Laurialan Reitzammer, ‘A Hellenistic terracotta and the
Gardens of Adonis’
Tim
Whitmarsh, ‘The lexicon of love: Longus and Philetas grammatikos’
Abstracts
Sheila L.
Ager: Familiarity
breeds: incest and the Ptolemaic dynasty
This paper examines the problem of Ptolemaic incest
from a variety of cross-disciplinary perspectives. Specifically, it seeks to
establish the following: that there is little in the ancient record to support
the common claim that the Ptolemies suffered extensively from the deleterious
genetic effects of inbreeding; that the various theories so far put forward as
explanations for Ptolemaic incest offer at best only a partial rationale for
this dynastic practice; that the most compelling rationale for Ptolemaic incest
is to be found in complex, and perhaps unconscious, symbolic motivations
analogous to those observed by anthropologists in other cultures; and finally,
that, for the Ptolemies, incest was, like the truphê for which they were so
notorious, a dynastic signature which highlighted their singularity and above
all, their power.
Douglas
Cairns: Myth and the polis
in Bacchylides’ Eleventh Ode
Bacchylides’ eleventh epinician ends not with renewed praise of the victor but
with an extension to the ode’s main myth which forges a link between the
Arcadian cult of Artemis founded by Proetus and his daughters and the
foundation of the victor’s home city of Metapontum by Achaean colonists
identified with the heroic captors of Troy . The
culmination of the ode in praise of a successful colonial foundation, it is
argued, is the key to the principles on which Bacchylides has selected and
moulded the mythological elements that he deploys in the rest of the ode.
Proetus’ foundation of Tiryns resolves the civil strife which threatened to
destroy Argos and commends colonization as a means of social and political
progress; while the cult of Artemis at Lousoi, founded
to expiate the Proetids’ offence against Hera, emphasizes the role of marriage
in maintaining the strength and solidarity of the community. The emphasis in
both these myths on the divine intervention which rectifies human error links
them to the experience of the victor and to the theme of the proper cultivation
of the gods that is emphasized in the ode’s conclusion. In constructing
mythical narratives that are exemplary for the victor and his community,
Bacchylides departs from mythological tradition in significant respects and in
ways which suggest that the ode’s argument reflects both the victor’s status in
the community and perhaps also the circumstances of its own performance.
Susanne
Ebbinghaus: Protector
of the city, or the art of storage in early Greece
In the Late Geometric and Orientalizing periods, storage vessels with elaborate
relief decoration were produced in several Aegean islands, most notably the
northern Cyclades, Crete and Rhodes. This article interprets the amphora-shaped
relief pithos as a function of prevailing social, economic and living
conditions. It is argued that rather than being inspired by funerary or votive
uses, the relief pithoi of the Tenian-Boeotian group are the material
expression of the vital importance of food storage, which not only ensured
subsistence but was an essential prerequisite for social differentiation.
Relief pithoi were a form of conspicuous storage. Against this
background, the unique iconography of the Tenian-Boeotian pithoi is
revisited and the enigmatic fallen warrior on the Mykonos Pithos
identified as a possible role model for seventh-century aristocrats.
Sara
Forsdyke: Revelry and
riot in Archaic Megara: democratic disorder or ritual reversal?
Plutarch (probably following Aristotle’s lost Constitution of the Megarians)
associates several episodes of riotous behaviour with the existence of a
radical democracy in Archaic Megara (Moralia 295c-d, 304e-f). Modern
historians, in turn, have accepted that Megara was ruled by a democracy in the
mid sixth century BC. I suggest that this conclusion is unjustified because the
connection between riotous behaviour and democracy in Plutarch is based on
fourth-century anti-democratic political thought. I propose instead that
anecdotes describing the insolent behaviour of the poor towards the rich are
better interpreted in terms of customary rituals of social inversion and
transgression. Drawing on comparative examples from the ancient world and early
modern Europe , I show that popular revelry involving
role reversal and transgression of social norms was an important locus for the
negotiation of relations between élites and masses. I argue that such rituals
provided temporary release from the constraints of the social hierarchy, and
served to articulate symbolically the obligation of the powerful to protect the
weak. The comparative examples show that such rituals were usually
non-revolutionary, but could turn violent in times of rapid social and economic
change. I argue that the violent episodes reported by Plutarch reflect the
escalation of ritual revelry into real protest and riot in response to the
breakdown of traditional relations of reciprocity between rich and poor in
Archaic Megara. I suggest that élites in Archaic Megara successfully warded off
more far-reaching rebellion and political reform by enacting new measures for
the economic relief of the poor (e.g. the return of interest legislation). In
conclusion, I address the broader historical question of why subordinate groups
use ritual forms to express discontent.
Polly Low: Looking for the language of Athenian
imperialism
Conventional portrayals of Athenian imperialism, heavily influenced by Thucydides,
tend to assume that the Athenians thought of, and described their imperialistic
actions in, frank, even brutal, terms. This article seeks to challenge that
assumption by exploring two sets of fifth-century Athenian epigraphical
material: documents which contain the phrase ‘the cities which the Athenians
rule’, and inscriptions imposing regulations on allied states which are erected
at the ally’s expense. In both cases, it is argued that if these apparently
overtly aggressive documents are considered in an epigraphic rather than a
Thucydidean context, they reveal the existence of a more subtle, nuanced and
diplomatic approach to imperial politics.
John Moles: The thirteenth oration of Dio Chrysostom:
complexity and simplicity, rhetoric and moralism, literature and life
This paper takes the Thirteenth Oration as a test case
of many of the questions raised by the career and works of Dio Chrysostom. The
speech’s generic creativity and philosophical expertise are demonstrated.
Historical problems are clarified. Analysis shows how Dio weaves seemingly
diverse themes into a complex unity. New answers are given to two crucial
interpretative problems. Exploration of Dio’s self-representation and of
his handling of internal and external audiences and of temporal and spatial
relationships leads to the conclusion that he has a serious philosophical
purpose: the advocacy of Antisthenic/Cynic paideia in place of the current
paideia both of Romans and Athenians. Paradoxically, this clever, ironic and
sophisticated speech deconstructs its own apparent values in the interests of
simple, practical moralizing.
Shorter Contributions
M.F.
Burnyeat: On the
source of Burnet’s construal of Apology 30b 2-4
The construal of Apology 30b 2-4 which
in JHS 123 (2003) I attributed to John Burnet had appeared in print
sixteen years before his edition of Euthyphro, Apology and Crito.
I now suggest that it probably originated in the mind of J.A. Smith, who was an
undergraduate contemporary of Burnet’s at Balliol College ,
Oxford , and later Waynflete Professor of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy.
The unexpected construal, transmitted by Balliol tradition, is typical of
Smith’s cast of mind.
John H.
Oakley and Laurialan Reitzammer: A Hellenistic terracotta and the gardens of Adonis
A Hellenistic terracotta from Myrina now in the Louvre is interpreted as
showing a young woman tending the ‘gardens of Adonis’ in connection with the
rites of the Adonia. Further associations are made between the perfume
apparently being poured into a planter from an alabastron that the young woman
holds, Adonis’ mother Myrrha, the provenience of the terracotta (Myrina) and
grave rituals.
Tim
Whitmarsh: The
lexicon of love: Longus and Philetas grammatikos
This article offers a fresh approach to the well-known
questions surrounding the identification of Longus’ character Philetas with the
Hellenistic poet Philetas or Philitas. Noting that the poet was famed in
antiquity also for his critical writing, particularly his lexicographical work
the ataktoi glôssai, it argues that the fictional characters Daphnis
and Chloe consult Philetas for, among other things, a lexical definition of erôs.