wandering poets sa ancient greece

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Wandering Poets in Ancient Greek Culture

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Mary Bachvarova

Laura Miguélez-Cavero

Fotiny Christakoudy

The motif of travelling in Greek poetry in the interwar period The cosmopolitan travelling of Greek poetry begins with the emblematic work of Cavafy Ithaka (1910). However 'travelling' will vary its meaning in the following decades and will become the turning point for realizing the despair and the irreversible loss of the ideal by the so-called generation of the 1930s whose sense of tragic doom will cement the topos of the 'lost native land' in Greek literature. In its wanderings during the interwar period Greek poesy shows us 'travelling' (act equal to separation from/acquisition of new space and time) as sadness, but also as an adventure and infinity (N. Kavvadias); as an action, that is pointless (The city, C. Cavafy), and yet obtains absolute dimensions as a bearer of knowledge and wisdom (Ithaka, C. Cavafy), while in the end in G. Seferis's verses the voyage reaches its total disembodiment, but also its transformation into something new – into an individual/ ancestral memory (obviously the only possible island of salvation), into a transcendent immortality of a universal human consciousness.

Rationes Rerum

Francesco Mari

This paper focuses on poetic mobility throughout the Greek world down to the middle of the fifth century BC. The aim of the enquiry is to ascertain the importance of a singer’s social promotion as a reason for traveling, and to account for the different forms that this social promotion could take. Under the term ‘singers’ I shall comprehend the two overlapping categories of the poets performing their own compositions and the rhapsodes interpreting pieces from the traditional repertory. Part of “Social mobility as a consequence of the spatial mobility from sixth to fourth-century Greece”, edited by Laura Loddo.

International Journal of the Classical Tradition

Alex Purves

Flore Kimmel-Clauzet

It is now well-known that the Lives of ancient Greek poets contain biographical information inspired by their work. These elements are the product of a selection of specific aspects of their work, which present an image of the poet – but reduced to a part of their work or certain aspects of their poems. A specific type of poetry is thus attributed to the poet (which again is reduced to only some distinctive traits) and he becomes the representative of that type. This ‘specialisation’ of poets could be related to their canonisation, referring to what a Modern would call “poetic genre” (as illustrated by Aristoteles’ Poetics and later by the classification project of the scholars of the Museum in Alexandria). This study focuses on the testimonies about the tombs of major ancient Greek poets: Homer, Hesiod, Archilochus, Stesichorus, Simonides, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. It considers their potential as testimony about the kind of poetry with which the dead poet is identified. It adresses the following issues: do the place and design of the monument or his epitaph (as transmitted by tradition or revealed to us by archeological research) refers to the poetry of the deceased? Does it give an image of the poet that reflects the type of poetry he was supposed to have composed (as per the content, style, genre)? Is this image coherent with the image given by the rest of the biographical tradition, or does it reveal significant discrepancies? The comparative study of multiple cases highlights recurring tendencies, specifically regarding the representation of poets as belonging to particular poetic genres, or more widely, types of poetry. It also shows the growing role of ancient criticism in biographical tradition through the centuries, and of the representation of canonical poets as a group where each one has his own place.

Interpreting the Seventh Century BC. Tradition and Innovation (X. Charalambidou & C. Morgan eds.), Archaeolopress, Oxford, 2017, 382-392.

Jan Paul Crielaard

In this contribution I discuss what lyric poetry can contribute to our knowledge of the 7th century BC. After making some general remarks about its value as an historical source, I focus on what lyric poetry tells us about various forms of group identity related to, for instance, the polis community, gender, age, social class and supralocal collectives. Lyric poetry is generally thought to provide testimony to the ‘rise of the individual’, but I intend to show that ‘the rise of the community’ is a theme that is no less significant for lyric poets and their audiences, suggesting that the 7th century was instrumental for the conceptualization of these forms of shared identities.

Journal of Modern Greek Studies

Maria Kakavoulia

Jacqueline Arthur-Montagne

This class explores the places and spaces of Greek lyric poetry from the seventh to fifth centuries BCE, using the polis as a shorthand for overlapping layers of geographic, sociopolitical, and religious context that define the genre's richness. Grouping the lyric poets by their main centers of performance and patronage (rather than meter or chronology), we will proceed from the early elegists and iambographers of Asia Minor to the wandering poets and Western Greece, and finally conclude with the panhellenic victory odes of Bacchylides and Pindar.

X. Riu; J. Pòrtulas (eds.), Approaches to Archaic Greek Poetry

Jaume Portulas

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Wandering poets in ancient Greek culture : travel, locality, and pan-hellenism

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• List of figures
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• 1. Introduction Richard Hunter and Ian Rutherford
• 2. Hittite and Greek perspectives on travelling poets, texts and festivals Mary Bachvarova
• 3. Thamyris the Thracian: the archetypal wandering poet? Peter Wilson
• 4. Read on arrival Richard P. Martin
• 5. Wandering poets, archaic style Ewen Bowie
• 6. Defining local communities in Greek lyric poetry Giovan Battista D'Alessio
• 7. Wandering poetry, 'travelling' music: Timotheus' Muse and some case-studies of shifting cultural identities Lucia Prauscello
• 8. Epigrammatic contest, poeti vaganti and local history Andrej Petrovic
• 9. World travellers: the associations of Artists of Dionysus Sophia Aneziri
• 10. Aristodama and the Aetolians: an itinerant poetess and her agenda Ian Rutherford
• 11. Travelling memories in the Hellenistic world Angelos Chaniotis
• Bibliography
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Bibliographic information

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The Judith L. Davis Memorial Fund

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Wandering Poets and Other Essays on Late Greek Literature and Philosophy

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This book presents a revised version of some of the most important and innovative articles published by Alan Cameron in the field of late antique Greek poetry and philosophy. New material has been added to the account of the “Wandering Poets” from early Byzantine Egypt, and earlier judgment on their paganism is nuanced. The story of Cyrus of Panopolis and the empress Eudocia takes into account important recent work on the poetry of Eudocia. Several chapters discuss the date and identity of the influential poet Nonnus; another describes the remarkable revival of classicizing poetry in late antiquity; and another offers a new perspective on the life, work, and death of the philosopher Hypatia. The longest chapter reviews the celebrated story of the so-called closing of the Academy of Athens and the trip of its seven remaining philosophers to the court of the Persian king Chosroes, rejecting the fashionable current idea that they set up a new school at Harrân on the Persian border. A new chapter discusses a recently published papyrus containing poems of the Alexandrian epigrammatist Palladas, rejecting the editor's claim that Palladas wrote almost a century earlier than hitherto believed. In conclusion, another new chapter discusses the claim that paganism represented a deep and continuing current of belief in the world of Justinian.

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Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture

Isabelle torrance . [email protected].

Dealing with literature and philosophy from Homer down to the Greek novel, this is a work of ambitious and impressive scope, which analyzes the concept of wandering both as an element of factual life in Greek antiquity and as a metaphorical theme. The thread which holds the broad range of different sources together is, as M. announces in her introduction (p.1), the figure of Odysseus, who naturally appears more prominently in some chapters than in others. Throughout the book, M. highlights the paradoxical nature of wandering, which as she sums up in her conclusion ‘is synonymous with dislocation, ignorance, and dispossession but also provides exposure to otherwise inaccessible sources of wisdom’ (p. 263). Each type of source is discussed on its own merits, and the change in attitude to wandering is charted during the course of the book, becoming particularly apparent in the later chapters dealing with the literature of the Second Sophistic and the increased safety of travelling afforded within the Roman empire.

The book is divided into ten chapters, with an introduction and an epilogue, a substantial bibliography and a useful index. In her introduction, M. explains that her work will be based on analysis of three basic verbs (and their cognates): planaomai , alaomai , and phoitaô . Chapter one, entitled ‘Wandering in Space and Time’ examines the association between wandering and liminality, the sea, and omnidirectional movement, and also its links with various rites of passage including pregnancy as a cure for the wandering womb. Chapter two ‘Pains and Privations of Wandering’ addresses the mortal condition of wandering. It is shown to be a debasing condition, and the state of the exile/fugitive is emphasised, as is madness as a type of wandering with no return, both physical madness induced by gods (such as the case of Io’s pursuit by the gadfly) and mental derangement. This investigation into wandering as a mortal condition is developed in chapter three where the theme of wandering is examined in relation to the concept of life as a journey to death. M. introduces the philosophers here and remarks that both Stoics and Neoplatonists use Odysseus as their model, in spite of their different approaches to life (for the Stoics, it is explained, the purpose of wandering is an internal destination whereas for the Neoplatonists man wanders on earth because his true home is elsewhere). There is great emphasis in this chapter on wandering as defining mortality. M. states on p. 45 ‘to become immortal means to stop wandering’, and stresses that, in Homer at least, ‘wandering is viewed more as an inevitable punishment for being human than as an exceptional one due to an individual’s impiety’ (p.47).

Just as one is beginning to feel that M. is overstating her case since not all humans wander, and, in fact, some gods do, she moves on to her next chapter: ‘To Judge and to Deceive: The Wandering of the Gods’. The opening of chapter four addresses the paradox of the argument. If to be immortal means to stop wandering, how then are some gods characterized as wandering? In some ways one didn’t feel that this question was answered completely satisfactorily, although some interesting issues were raised during the course of the chapter. Zeus, as the chief god, is discussed as characterized by his immobility. He is generally seated, watching the world. But Zeus’ ‘holidays’ to Ethiopia are not mentioned by M., although in a sense they would confirm her association between immobility and observation, for when the gods are in Ethiopia, they are unaware of the world outside. 1 A distinction is drawn between the aimless wandering of mortals and the wandering of the gods which is purposeful and often aggressive, where the gods’ wandering is a threatening movement comparable to the sudden wandering of diseases. Three subsections discuss Demeter, Dionysus, and the ‘enfants terribles’ Eros and Hermes. It is argued that Demeter’s wandering casts her as a human in distress, thus bridging the gap in the paradox of the original argument. Similarly Dionysus is presented as suffering like a mortal in his wandering. The paradox in Dionysus’ own nature is well brought out in the discussion, as is the association with Dionysiac madness. As regards Eros and Hermes, Eros’ wandering is said to be ubiquitous, while Hermes’ wandering is similar to that of Eros because it is deceptive in nature (p.88). But no distinction is made between Hermes’ function as (purposeful) messenger and his potential for wandering. Surely the two are different. The distinction made between wandering aimlessly and wandering with a purpose needed to be defended more clearly. Is not wandering by its nature aimless? The wandering of the gods is seemingly purposeful as a threat to mortals. But are not the gods a potential threat to mortals whether or not they wander?

Chapter five addresses itinerant sages in archaic and classical Greece, raising another paradox that ‘wandering is a mark of helplessness, and yet of superior power’ (p.91). The introduction which addresses the ambivalence between wandering, knowledge and truth leads in well to the discussion of ‘the enigmatic aura attached to wandering’ which is ‘exploited by sages’ (p.100). Empedocles’ complex self-representation is given particular attention here. The last section of this chapter addresses ‘wandering for the sake of profit’ considering both the ability to acquire wealth by wandering in Homer and the itinerant lifestyle of the Sophists, who are presented as lacking civic commitment through, for example, non-payment of taxes. The focus of chapter six is primarily theoria , the contemplation or observation of the world which is associated with wandering. M. discusses the figure of Io in the plays of Aeschylus, ‘Suppliant Women’ and ‘Prometheus Bound’, and emphasises the tension between Io’s indifference to the places she comes across and the potential for audience interest in the description of exotic locations. The wanderings of Io and Heracles are seen to be complementary, as between them they cover the entire surface of the earth (p.122). ‘Prometheus Bound’ is shown to bring out the opposition between wandering and authorised knowledge which comes through inspiration rather than exploration. An interesting point is made in this chapter about Greek perceptions of world travel as essentially wandering, not ‘travelling’, though the element of suffering associated with wandering is absent in this case. Discoveries are accidental rather than planned. The writings of Herodotus are important for the discussion here, and his wanderings are compared to those of Odysseus. Links, of course, are made between Herodotus’ wanderings and the wandering style of his writing. A minor criticism of this section is that the scholarly controversy surrounding whether or not Herodotus did travel to many of the places he describes was not adequately represented by p.127n.32 on Babylon. Doubts have been raised about other areas of Herodotus’ travel. 2 M.’s arguments may have been better expressed here by treating the wanderings of ‘The Histories’ as a literary construct, rather than a factual narrative as she seemed to do.

Chapter seven discusses the paths of the philosophers from Parmenides to Plato on their journeys to the truth. For Parmenides, the truth is reached ‘by traveling in his mind along a straight path’ (p.147) and M. demonstrates how Parmenides highlights his rejection of wandering through Homeric echoes. The figure of Socrates is shown to be complex. He rejects wandering in the world at large, but wanders in his native city and is never in search of material gain. The case of Plato is also full of complexities. He travels himself after the death of Socrates but in his ideal state the guardians do not need to travel. For Plato, as for Parmenides, the journey to the truth is a straight path, although Plato adds the concept of ascent. But Plato can simultaneously welcome wandering as the kind of unsettling motion which can initiate philosophical thought. M. remarks that ‘The Laws’ is the only Platonic dialogue to take place while walking, a point which could have been linked (as with Herodotus) to the particularly rambling style of this dialogue. As one would expect, this chapter dealt with many complex issues, but there seemed to be one point of confusion, or at least a distinction in terminology that was not clearly explained. M. used both the term ‘wandering’ and the term ‘travelling’ in this chapter. Clearly a journey on a straight path to a specific goal is not ‘wandering’ and this is why M. uses the term ‘traveling’ in the phrase quoted above, but it was not made clear to what extent philosophical ‘travelling’ and ‘wandering’ were different, or whether M. wished to argue that they were the same.

The following two chapters, ‘In Praise of Homeless Wandering’ and ‘The World as Home’, deal with the Cynics and Stoics respectively. In her discussion of Diogenes, M. points to an important development in the perception of wandering, where this most dreaded state can be turned into a chosen role through which the Cynic can achieve freedom. Dio Chrysostom is also given some attention here, as are the wandering heroes who become models of Cynic wisdom. The link between the two chapters is made effectively by raising the issue of the influence exerted on Dio by the Stoic Posidonius. M. sets herself the questions: ‘Did the Stoics glamorize wandering? If so, in what sense?’ (p. 204). Posidonius was unorthodox in his views, but his ideas were not completely dismissed by later Stoics. Although they do not glamorize wandering, Stoic contemplation is possible while wandering. The case of Apollonius of Tyana is then examined and it is found that his biographer Philostratus shows Apollonius’ movements as wandering only to put them on a par with ‘godlike elusiveness’.

The final chapter addresses wandering in the Greek novel. Here the context of increasing mobility in the world is important, and M. remarks on the development of travel as ‘tourism’ in this period. The philapodêmos is described as a character who ‘bordered on the wanderer’ (p.221), and it is argued that the ‘distinction between traveling and wandering is very thin in the novel’ (p.223). An important development here is the irrelevance of the return journey in most novels, a significant contrast to the nostos wanderings of the archaic epic heroes. M. suggests that this is a development from Apollonius’ ‘Argonautica’ and the sense of dislocation felt in its last episodes. Wandering in the novel is usually a determined search for the beloved. It is noted that the exception to the rule is Heliodorus’ Aethiopica , where the journey is a clear linear nostos and that this has Platonic overtones. The association between wandering and unbelievable stories is shown to have been exploited by writers such as Antonius Diogenes and Lucian, and M. argues for a play on words between plasma ‘creation’ and planê ‘wandering’ in both authors. The chapter comes to a close with a discussion of the intersection of fictionality with the wandering of narrative progression in the novelists. The ‘Epilogue’ gives an overview of the book’s findings and relates some of the philosophical trends to those found in Christianity.

This book is well presented, although longer footnotes would have been easier to read had they been justified on the right hand side (an editorial point). I noticed just one typographical error: Choephorae for Choephoroi or Choephoroe (p.38 and p.65n.9). To a classical scholar, the time period dealt with in each chapter will be obvious, but one wondered whether the undergraduate student might have benefited from some dates with which to contextualise the sources used. Inevitably with a work of this scope, each scholar within his/her own field may have wished to see more detail developed in one or other area. But this aside, there was one methodological approach which was disappointing. Given that M. refers to the specific Greek terminology which she is investigating in her introduction, it is frustrating that the Greek terms used in any given quotation are only randomly supplied. Often quotations are given only in English with the translation ‘wandering’. M. does occasionally point to distinctions in the usage of the terminology for wandering in the Greek world (e.g. pp. 81-2 on phoitaô ). However it is impossible to judge whether there is any development in the significance of the terms themselves over time, for example, or whether certain terms are used in circumstances particular to each, which is a shame. In the later chapters, there is too much slippage between ‘travelling’ and ‘wandering’. The point made briefly in chapter six about perceptions of travel as wandering with relation to the earlier sources does not necessarily hold for the later sources and needed to be redefined accordingly. Confusion of this kind could have been avoided if the Greek terms for ‘wandering’ and ‘travelling’ had been given in all instances. Nevertheless, the broad scope of this book will ensure that scholars and students from many fields will consult it.

1 . Cf. e.g. Iliad 1.424-5 and see J. S. Romm, The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought (Princeton, 1992) 50ff.

2 . E.g. O. K. Armayor, ‘Did Herodotus ever go to the Black Sea?’, HSCP 82 (1978), 45-62.

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Wandering Poets in Ancient Greek Culture: Travel, Locality and Pan-Hellenism 1st Edition

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• ISBN-10 1107404053
• ISBN-13 978-1107404052
• Edition 1st
• Publisher Cambridge University Press
• Publication date December 15, 2011
• Language English
• Dimensions 5.98 x 0.74 x 8.98 inches
• Print length 328 pages
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Book description, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (December 15, 2011)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 328 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1107404053
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1107404052
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.5 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.98 x 0.74 x 8.98 inches
• #1,625 in Classic Greek Literature
• #3,915 in Ancient History (Books)
• #5,219 in Ancient & Classical Literature

About the author

Richard p. martin.

Professor Richard P. Martin teaches Greek and Latin literature at Stanford. Martin's research focuses primarily on Homeric poetry and how it functioned as a performance art in ancient Greece. His research has involved fieldwork in modern Crete, interviewing those who still perform traditional oral epics. In addition,he has studied resemblances between ancient oral poetry and modern rap. He has worked on presenting Homer digitally, in a full-scale multimedia version of the Odyssey on CD, in connection with distance learning projects. Martin is also interested in the performance of Greek lyric as represented in myth and art, and the analysis of Greek myth.

Prof. Martin is currently working on three books: Homeric Religion; Comic Community (about the social contexts of comic productions in ancient Athens); and Homer Abroad, about Greek epic as compared with other ancient and contemporary epic traditions.

Born and raised in Boston, he studied Classics as well as Medieval and Modern Irish language and literature at Harvard University where he received his B.A. in Classics and Celtic Literature and M.A. and Ph.D. in Classical Philology. Prior to his position at Stanford, Professor Martin taught Classics for eighteen years at Princeton University. He was the Chair of the Classics department at Stanford from 2002 through 2008.

"Read on Arrival," in The Wandering Poets of Ancient Greece, edit. R. Hunter and I. Rutherford. Cambridge 2009.

"Words Alone are Certain Good(s)" TAPA (138.2) 313-49 (2008)

"Myth, Performance, Poetics: the Gaze from Classics," pp. 45-52 in Ethnographica Moralia: Experiments in Interpretive Anthropology, edit. Neni Panourgia and George Marcus. New York: Fordham UP.

"Outer Limits, Choral Space," pp.35-62 in Visualizing the Tragic: Drama, Myth, and Ritual in Greek Art and Literature, edit. Chris Kraus, Simon Goldhill, Helene P. Foley, Jas Elsner. Oxford, 2007.

"Homer among the Irish: Synge, Yeats, George Thompson, and Parry," pp 75-91 in Homer in the Twentieth Century: Between World Literature and the Western Canon, edit. Barbara Graziosi and Emily Greenwood. Oxford.

The Birds (Aristophanes). Translated and adapted with Paul Muldoon. Gallery Press, 1999.

"The Scythian Accent: Anacharsis and the Cynics" in B. Branham & M.-O. Goulet-Caze eds. The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy. University of California Press, 1997: 136-55.

The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad. Cornell University Press, 1993.

"The Seven Sages as Performers of Wisdom" in C. Dougherty and L. Kurke eds. Cultural Poetics of Archaic Greece: Cult, Performance, Politics. Cambridge University Press, 1993: 108-128.

"Telemachus and the Last Hero Song" Colby Quarterly 29.3 (1993): 222-40.

"Hesiod's Metanastic Poetics" Ramus 21.1 (1992): 11-33.

Healing, Sacrifice, and Battle: Amechania and Related Concepts in Early Greek Poetry. Institut fur Sprachwissenschaft der Universitat Innsbruck, 1983.

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