Réminiscences de Pindare dans l’Hymne à Sarapis d’Aelius Aristide (Or. XLV)

Abstract

In this article, I propose a reading of Aelius Aristides’ Hymn to Sarapis (Or. XLV), in which I try to identify the reminiscences of (references and allusions to) Pindar. The first part of the Hymn is devoted to the claiming of the right of the orators to praise the gods in prose; the defense of the hymn in prose entails the criticism of the poetic praise of the gods, although the goal of this criticism is not, as Aristide declares in the §9, to deny the rank of poetry, but to postulate the right of rhetoric to a similar rank; the intention of the author is to see the two types of hymn coexist and enjoy the same estimation, rather that the one prevail over the other. Having received a (primarily) literary and oratorical formation, Aristide bases his argumentation on the superiority of the prosaic praise of the gods on words of the poets themselves. Although, between these poets, he only denominates Homer, the references and allusions to Pindar are frequent. In spite of his definitely reprobatory attitude towards poetry, Aristide borrows pindaric expressions in the praise he himself devotes to the god Sarapis. Many are, in addition, the affinities of spirit which bind the two authors.