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Truth and the Song: Bacchylides 3.96-98 Author(s): Leonard Woodbury Source: Phoenix, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Winter, 1969), pp. 331-335 Published by: Classical Association of Canada Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1086453 . Accessed: 21/04/2011 03:38
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TRUTH AND THE SONG: BACCHYLIDES

LEONARD WOODBURY

3.96-98

ovpY a' aXaO[eiq1] Kat /ieXMyXCd0arTOV TLr v1iVPf7E

KaX(^,

Xaptv

Kfltas arlbovos.

T HE

Bacchylides'

COMMON INTERPRETATION of these lines, which conclude epinician ode for the great chariot-victory won by Hieron

at Olympia in 468, is exhibited by Jebb's version of them: "And along with thy genuine glories men shall praise also the charm of the sweet singer, the nightingale of Ceos."' Hieron's victory of 468 was the crown of his racing career and his choice of Bacchylides rather than Pindar to write for the celebration that followed was a marked distinction for the poet. Whether he found, like the ancient Scholiasts and modern commentators on Pindar,2 derogatory allusions to himself and his uncle Simonides in Pindar's Second Olympian of 476, we cannot tell. But it seems to be true that in this ode, which signals his final triumph in the long literary rivalry with Pindar in the Syracusan court, he challenges comparison with the Theban poet on his own ground. In the First Pythian of 470 Pindar had compared the kindly and generous excellence of Croesus, whose fame lived on undiminished to the present day, with the ruthless cruelty of Phalaris, whose name became an abomination instead of a subject for song. The theme of Croesus' magnificence is now taken up by Bacchylides two years later in this ode, but it is much more fully illustrated by the great myth of the king's escape from his funeral pyre. With greater daring he attempts in his
conclusion (85-98) an essay in the Priamel which appears to imitate the

steeply towering style of the opening of Pindar's First Olympian.3 This

'J. M. Edmonds, in the Loeb Lyra Graeca2 (Cambridge, Mass. and London 1940) 3.143, gives "so there shall be a true tale of things well done, and along with it men shall praise the grace of the honey-tongued nightingale of Ceos"; R. Lattimore, in Greek Lyrics (Chicago 1955) 45, renders "And with his honors here remembered, men shall sound out too the exquisite grace of me, the nightingale of Keos"; B. Gentili, in his Bacchilide: Studi (Urbino 1958) 104, provides an Italian version, "Con la vera tua gloria si cantera anche la grazia del dolce poeta, 1' usignuolo di Ceo"; R. Fagles, in his translation of the poet (New Haven and London 1961) has "They will resound your splendor of truth, and resound too the rolling finesse of the nightingale of Ceos." 'The evidence is collected and discussed by Jebb on pp. 13-24 of his edition. Cf. also Pindaros (Berlin 1922) 312-318 and C. M. Bowra, U.v.Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Pindar (Oxford 1964) 229-236. O3n the Priamel, cf. E. Fraenkel's note, in his edition of Aeschylus' Agamemnon 331 PHOENIX,Vol. 23 (1969) 4.

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PHOENIX

uncharacteristic passage, which is only partially successful, is introduced by the uncompromising pronouncement, kpoveovTr avver' yapvb, in which it is easy to hear an echo, in words as well as in thought, of Pindar's ... ,wvaevra avvE7roitv. This impression prophetic tone in 01.2.83-85, e'Xrt is strengthened when it is remembered that Pindar then goes on to the lines in which the Scholiasts found the most persuasive evidence of an attack on Simonides and Bacchylides (01.2.86-88). He is wise, he says, in that he knows much because of his nature and birth; by contrast, the
clamorous learners, like crows, speak to no purpose
(aiKpavra 'yapierov)

against the divine bird of Zeus. The verb, in the telling dual number, seems to point directly at the two lesser poets, uncle and nephew. It is highly suggestive at the least that Bacchylides uses the same verb in beginning his trial flight in the Pindaric manner. Whatever may be the truth concerning these implications of poetic rivalry and polemics, it is certain that Bacchylides is here moving in the ambient air of traditional forms and styles, not all of them familiar in his work. Jebb is therefore able to support his interpretation of 3.96-98 by adducing another parallel, this time from the end of the First Olympian (115-116), in which, as he says, "Pindar links his own fame with Hieron's" just as Bacchylides does for his patron and himself "in his gentler Ionian fashion." Whether this is another Pindaric imitation or only a traditional statement, it is in place at the end of an epinician ode.4 Difficulties have nevertheless been found in the lines. Professor Hermann Frankel, in a brief but learned note, deals with a number.5 He finds no offence in avwaXatOet,as Bacchylides also elsewhere emphasizes the truth of his pronouncements (e.g., 8.19-25; 9.82-87); but he finds unsuitable and tentatively conjectures KX\OV, translating, "mit KaXGjv wahrem Wort dich feiernd (?)" A second difficulty is found in attributing to Bacchylides the statement that some one will sing of the charm of his art. Frankel finds this impossible and proposes for xaptv, on Pindaric authority, the meaning, "Freude und Freundesgabe," used of the song itself.6 These difficulties are troublesome enough, but what is decisive against the usual interpretation, though this seems to be unrecognized, is the practice of Bacchylides himself in his use of avv and xapLvin similar contexts. What we should expect from them, of course, is that awv should have an adverbial function in association with the aXaeti0qKaX&v
(Oxford 1950), on lines 899-902 and E. L. Bundy, Studia Pindarica I: The Eleventh Olympian Ode in Univ. of Calif. Publ. in Class. Phil. vol. 18, no. 1 (1962) 4-10. 4For a similar ending of a choral ode, cf. Ibycus fr. 1. 46-48: 282 PMG. 5Cf. H. Frankel, Dichtung und Philosophie desfriihen Griechentums2 (Munich 1962) 530, n. 44. eFrankel cites Pind. 01. 10.78; Pyth. 11.12; Nem. 7.75, etc.

TRUTH

AND THE SONG

333

verb. Excellent examples, also with verbs signifying song, are found in
5.9-10: a'v Xapltreo-ao aUOvcvots 'tavas/viulov; 13.201-202:
alvetlrow aoo6v

&vpal/avv 51Kq;

cf. also 9.85-87. Other prepositions are used freely in a

rKT6r in 10.51-52,

similar way, e.g., lKart in 5.33-34,

and xapLv in 5.187.

The last-mentioned passage offers more than one point of comparison with 3.96-98: xalptv Xp)i]a &Xaaelas
alvelv, f)O6vovatt4[oTrpaLoLv
XEpoLp ac7rco)oa/tEvOV, ELTLS eV Trpa&aoL /porTPv.

Here the last line corresponds in meaning with KaX&v there and AXd8eLa is present in both; if aXaOelas xaptv modifies the verb here,7 why should not both a-v and xapiv govern adverbial phrases there?8 On that reading the difficulties offered by the syntax of avv and the sense of xapLv would

disappear together.9
The doubts about the meaning of aov aXa0cLEqKaXov are readily dispelled by another consideration. It seems now to be recognized more and more widely that the effective etymology of aXi0eLa in the Greek underor "unstanding assumes a meaning something like "dis-closure" This must be the in sense both covering."10 required Bacchylidean passages (3.96 and 5.187).11 It is the disclosure of the glories of the victor
7That &XaOelas xtptLv is adverbial here is shown by the parallel use of avv aXaOel,i in in 13.202) and by the sense (cf. p.333 f. below). 3.96, 8.20-21, and 9.85 (as well as oav LKL. The adverbial use of Xaptv is as old as Hom. II. 15.744, occurs several times in the texts of the poets, and is used by Pindar in O1.7.5; Pyth. 2.70, 3.95, 10.64; and Nem. 1.6; and by Bacchylides in 14.19 and fr.11.5 Snell.8 8For an example of a verb used absolutely with two adverbial phrases, cf. Pind. Nem. 3.83-84. 9For parallels in construction and sense, cf. 2.9-10 and 4.5-6 (&[eIte]TcaL/co[Kv]7r68ov ap[era] aT v' ir7rco). 10Cf., e.g., E. Heitsch, "Die nicht-philosophische AAHOEIA, " Hermes 90 (1962) 24-33 (with a bibliography in n. 4 on p. 24); W. Luther, "Wahrheit, Licht und Erkenntnis in der griechischen Philosophie bis Demokrit," Arch.f.Begriffsgesch. 10 (1966) 1-240; H. D. Rankin, '''A-AHOEIA in Plato," Glotta 41 (1963) 51-54; M. Detienne, Les maitres de v6rite dans la Grece archaique (Paris 1967) 48, n. 107; and for a recent bibliography, cf. Heitsch in RhM 109 (1966) 199, n. 16. That the Greeks felt the connection with XtOw is evident from passages such as Horn. 11. 23.359-361 with 647-649; Hes. Theog. 226-236; Hdt. 3.75.1; and others collected by Heitsch. Whether the basic meaning is an "unhiddenness" of things, as was proposed by M. Heidegger in his Sein und Zeit in 1927, is still in dispute. Cf., e.g., P. Friedlander's revision in the third edition of his Platon (Berlin 1964) 234-235 of the opposing arguments presented in earlier editions of the work; also C. J. Classen in Stud.Gen. 18 (1965) 100 and n. 38. "By contrast, envy seeks to hide or obscure (16.31-33; Pind. Nem. 4.36-41; 7.61-63) but is defeated by truth and time (5.187-190; 13.199-220; Pind. 01. 1. 28-34, 46-51; 10.52-55). &XaiOea 7rayKparTs, which grants excellence to a few, is contrasted with the ineffectiveness of smoke (which seeks to obscure and stain) and compared with gold,

334

PHOENIX

by his success in the games that prompts and justifies the song.12 So with athletic success (as in much is clear from the association of aXaOLca KaXwOv and dl rs evtrpaaaot 1porS)v) and from the explicit sense of 3.92-94:13
'Ipowv, av 6' '\Xf3ov Ovarots Ka\XX\taT' tre[elt]ao

avOea' -rpata[vTn] 8' ec....

What is disclosed by aXaGOLa may be uncovered in the victory itself, as in 3.92-98 and 5.187-190, or in its celebration in song, as in 8.19-21
XEpa/KOt'raoiat- oL'av (y7 6' rTEtaK?'rTTWv aXa/Oel'a e irav Xat.reL xpeos) and

9.85: (aov ... aXa0'ca/l3poTrv).'4 Or the two may be combined, Snell8: Avola uAev ya&p Xl\os /uavave Xpvaov, avb8pv a'apeTav Taocta re
ra'yKpaTr7sr' eX^YXEt

as in fr.14

.... a&XAELa As the Lydian stone reveals pure gold, so the poet's wisdom (in song) and the invincible demonstration of truth (in the games or other events) test (and reveal) human excellence. In an epinician ode there are two basic facts: one is the winning of the victory, the other is the choral performance of the song. Whatever good and honourable thing is revealed by them jointly can never die.'1 The meaning proposed for 3.96-98 by this interpretation runs something like this: "The splendour of men's excellence does not wane with their bodies, for the Muse gives it nurture. Hieron, it is you who have which cannot be marred, in a lyric fragment first publishedin Ox. Pap. 2432; it is attributed to Simonides by E. Lobel (Ox.Pap.2432) and D. Page (fr.36:541 PMG) and to Bacchylides by C. M. Bowra "Simonidesor Bacchylides?"Hermes91 (1963) 257-267 and by H. Lloyd-Jones in CR 11 (1961) 19. Cf. also Detienne, op. cit. (above, n. 10) 109, n. 20 for fuller information. 12pv,vec is regularly transitive, though Aesch.fr.350.7Nauck2: 280 Mette provides an exception among the poets and a constructionwith 7rept appearsin prose, as in Thuc.1.21 and Plato, Rep. 463D. In any case, verbs of similarmeaningare sometimesused absolutely in lyric: cf. Bacchyl. 5.187-188 (alkvw); Pind. Nem. 5.22-23, Isthm. 7.39, and Paeans 8.71
Snell3 (aEdiS); and Pyth. 2.15-16 (KeXaacEow).In Bacchyl.3.97 an object may easily in any

case be supplied to complete the sense from KaXC\W of the preceding line. "On the demonstrationof glories in the games, cf. also 2.6-10. 14With the use of aXaOetaboth subjectively (with fpor&rvin 9.85) and objectively in 3.96), cf. Pindar's use of TrXa both of the giver (Nem. 4.7: avu Xapirwv (with KaX&v rTvx) and the gift (01. 13.115: Trbav repIrve v y'vKelav))and Jebb's note on Bacch. 16.132. 'Cf., e.g., 9.82-87 and 13.199-209.

TRUTH AND THE SONG

335

revealed to mortal men prosperity in its fairest bloom. But if some one has achieved great success, honour is not conferred on him by silence.'1 By right of those glories that have been made manifest in the outcome of the contest there shall be a song of praise (about them), and by grace also of the honey-voiced nightingale of Ceos."'7
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO

16Silence is the KOO'Jos of women: cf. Soph.Aj.293: yvvat~L K6Oa.OVr a0Lr') ckpet (KO6aoov cpeLtTLYLalso in Hdt. 8.60 and 142); fr.64.4 P; Aesch. Agam. 611; Thuc. 2.45.2. But it is inappropriate to a victor: cf. Pind.Pyth. 9.92; Nem. 9.7; Isthm. 2.44; fr. 240 Snell.3 K6oalos is the adornment that apeTr requires and receives from song, as in Pind. 01. 11.13 and fr.194 Snell.3 17At the end of another of Bacchylides' epinicians (13) it is said that there shall be songs, if Clio has truly (eruiutcs) instilled the theme in the poet's 4p&ves: songs therefore by grace of the poet also. Pindar too (Nem. 3.83-84) speaks of twin causes of the victor's glory, but his second cause is, characteristically, not the poet himself, but his Muse.