work is marred by an excess of typing errors.
24 24 Carey 2017: 34–60.
25 25 Swift 2010.
26 26 “Thus the paian is used to indicate a form of religious morality which the play encourages us to question” (p. 88).
27 27 The remark applies to the papyri in the Green Collection. See Obbink 2015b. The first poem I discuss, the “Old Age Poem,” is transmitted separately (see below).
28 28 P.Köln inv. 21351 + 21376. See West 2005; duBois 2011: 5–6.
29 29 Following West’s restorations of the lacunose text: ὔμμες πεδὰ Μοίσαν ἰ]οκ[ό]λπων κάλα δῶρα, παῖδες, / σπουδάσδετε καὶ τὰ]ν φιλάοιδον λιγύραν χελύνναν.
30 30 Homeric Hymn to Hermes, with Vergados’ commentary (2012).
31 31 Cf. Bremmer 1987; Veyne 1988; Gantz 1996.
32 32 Tithonos occupies a kind of unfortunate limbo between mortality and immortality, as he ages and ages without dying. Structuralists might say that he “mediates” between the conditions of mortal and immortal.
33 33 See Obbink 2014: 32–49.
34 34 Suggested by West’s supplement of the last line of the (defective) first stanza ] σε μᾶ[τερ].
35 35 Reading, with West ἐπ, ἄρηον and not ἐπάρωγον Π. Even the parallel in Theocritus 17.132 (cited by Henrichs) does not convince me of the latter. The actual reading of the papyrus is επαρωηγον.
36 36 permitte divis cetera, qui simul / stravēre ventos aequore fervido / deproeliantes, nec cupressi / nec veteres agitantur orni, “leave the rest to the gods who, the moment when they lay to rest winds raging on the heaving seas, nor cypresses nor ancient ashes toss.”
37 37 Herodotus 2.135.3–4; Larichos is only known from Athenaios X = 425a Sappho test. 203a V. A third brother called Erigyion was, apparently, named by the Peripatetic philosopher Chamaileon in his treatise on Sappho (see P.Oxy. 2506 fr. 48, col. iii lines 36–48).
38 38 For the former Hutchinson uses “narrator” to emphasize that it is not necessarily Sappho.
39 39 That detail is also important: the girl hopes for affluence.
40 40 This is not the place to consider possible interpretations of the Larichos stanza at the end.
41 41 If Sappho had wanted to write a biographical memo about her brothers she would have chosen prose, like Hekataios, perhaps. The lyric medium involves interplay between biography and timeless situations constructed by the words and music. Detailed biographical interpretations of the poem are, in my opinion, misguided.
42 42 Other hymns/prayers: fr. 5 Nereids; fr. 327 Eros; fr. 325 Athena.
43 43 The so-called Kypris poem, see Obbink (2014), lines 45–49: πῶς̣ κε δή τις οὐ θαμέω̣ς̣ ἄσαιτο, / Κύπρι δέσ̣π̣ο̣ι̣ν̣, ὄ̣τ̣τ̣ι̣να [δ]ὴ̣ φ̣ι̣λ[είη / και] θέλοι μά[λιστα] π̣ά̣λ̣ι̣ν κάλ̣[εσσαι; “how could anyone not suffer greatly, Lady Kypris, when he/she loved someone and greatly wished to call them back?.”
44 44 De Comp. 23 (vi 114ss. Us.-Rad.) (+P. Oxy. 2288).
45 45 For an exploration of the lyric “I” in Sappho see Calame 2012.
46 46 For the formula “give as you have given” and variants see Bremer 1981.
47 47 And in the new “Kypris Poem,” the narrator asks Kypris in a spirit of desperate resignation “What do you have in mind to torture me thus idly with such uncertainty?” (v. difficult text) [ποῖ]ον ἔχησθα / [νῶν] σ̣άλοισι̣ μ, ἀλεμά̣τ̣ω̣ς̣ δ̣αί̣σ̣δ̣[ην].
48 48 Boychenko 2017. The remark is based on Menander Rhetor’s comment “most [sc. hymns] by Sappho or Anacreon or other melic poets tend to be cletic, as they contain an appeal to many gods to come.”
49 49 See esp. the chapter “Gebet und Götterhymnus” in Tsomis 2001: 38–96.
50 50 The expression ἀφοσιοῦσθαι θεῶι implies “satisfy one’s conscience towards the gods.”
51 51 On the transmission of the Theognidea, see Bowie (Chapter 21 ) in this volume.
52 52 1–10 W in honor of Apollo, 11–14 W to Artemis, 15–18 W the Muses.
53 53 Simonides fr. 11 W (P.Oxy. 2327 fr. 5 + 6 + 27 col. i + 3965 fr. 1 + 2). Cf. Boedeker 1995.
54 54 According to West’s plausible supplements.
55 55 As Pausanias (3.4.7–8) says explicitly when he is discussing Leonidas’ glory in the Persian Wars: “It is only in a few (cases) where the virtue of one man alone has magnified that of many, as Achilles did in the Trojan War.”
56 56 Hall 1989.
57 57 Walker 2015, esp. ch. 5.
58 58 P.Oxy. 4708. Obbink 2006; and see West 2006. At least one more heroic work of this nature seems to have been Archilochus’ “Hymn to Herakles,” which was allegedly sung at Olympia for victors; cf. Eratosthenes (FGrH 241 F 44) who quotes an opening “Greetings lord Heracles, glorious in victory.” Pòrtulas 2012 suggests that the myth may have been about Herakles’ fight with Poseidon, Apollo, and Hades, as mentioned by Pindar Ol. 9.30–35. Note also his discussion of a new cult song introduced by Archilochus in Paros, as documented in the Mnesiepes Inscription. He taught the song (διδάξαντα) and organized its performance by “companions” (ἑταῖροι).
59 59 Cf. West 2006: 15.
60 60 2–3 [εἰ δὲ].[….].[].ι θεοῦ κρατερῆς ὑπ, ἀνάγκης, / [οὐ δεῖ ἀν]αλ̣[κείη]ν̣ κ̣αὶ κακότητα λέγει[ν].
61 61 7–8 [ἐ]ς̣ τόσα̣ δὴ μοῖρα θεῶν ἐ̣φόβε̣ι̣ -- / αἰχμητ̣α̣ί περ̣ ἐόντε[ς].
62 62 The epithet ἐρατήν, lovely, is perhaps not religious per se, but the attribute “of Teuthras” firmly locates it in the heroic sphere.
63 63 Cf. West loc. cit., who cites as parallel Adesp. iamb. 38.5–11, another case of sensible flight. We hear of another poem by Archilochus on the heroic myth of Herakles, this time in connection with the fateful crossing of the River Acheloos: frr. 286–288 W.
64 64 I don’t quite understand Swift’s point (2014) that there is a conflicting message in the paradigm: both the fleeing Greeks and Telephos are said to be brave: the point is, even the brave Greeks fled before a rampant Telephos.
65 65 Cf. Pseudo-Plutarch, On Music 1131b10-c1 ἀλλὰ καθάπερ <τὴν> Στησιχόρου τε καὶ τῶν ἀρχαίων μελοποιῶν, οἳ ποιοῦντες ἔπη τούτοις μέλη περιετίθεσαν· “but like the <diction> of Stesichorus and the archaic melic poets, who composed epic verses in melic [metres].” Later the author of this work says that Stesichorus imitated none other than Olympos, a legendary pupil of Marsyas, employing τῶι Ἁρματείωι νόμωι καὶ τῶι κατὰ δάκτυλον εἴδει (1133f3–6), “the Harmateion nome and dactylic meter.”
66 66 Parsons 1978.
67 67 On the identity of Oedipus’ wife and other questions of interpretation, see Hutchinson 2001: 120–139; Davies and Finglass 2014, ad loc.
68 68 The well-known mythical theme as dramatized