Abstract
AbstractThis article asks what the graffito incised on the Dipylon oinochoē (IG I2919, eighth centuryb.c.e.) reveals about the nature of the dance competition that it commemorates. Through a systematic analysis of the evaluative and descriptive meaning of the adjective ἀταλός and its cognates in early Greek epic, it is argued that a narrower definition compared to previous suggestions can be established. The word refers to the carefreeness that is specific to a child or young animal, and its uses typically imply a positive evaluation which is connected not only to the well-being that this carefreeness entails but also to the positive emotion of tenderness and the sentiment of care that it engenders in a perceiver. It is concluded that, when used to specify the criterion by which a dance contest will be adjudicated, the term refers to an aesthetic property that is repeatedly praised in archaic Greek texts in other words: that of dancing with the adorable but short-lived carefree abandon of a child.
Highlights
This article asks what the graffito incised on the Dipylon oinochoē (IG I2 919, eighth century B.C.E.) reveals about the nature of the dance competition that it commemorates
The word refers to the carefreeness that is specific to a child or young animal, and its uses typically imply a positive evaluation which is connected to the well-being that this carefreeness entails and to the positive emotion of tenderness and the sentiment of care that it engenders in a perceiver
It is concluded that, when used to specify the criterion by which a dance contest will be adjudicated, the term refers to an aesthetic property that is repeatedly praised in archaic Greek texts in other words: that of dancing with the adorable but short-lived carefree abandon of a child
Summary
The inscription is not merely a written commemoration of a foregone event but a recording, as it were, of an oral proclamation that preceded the dance contest. The thoroughly traditional and formulaic character of the language suggests that we are dealing with a snippet from a bardic song,[5] and the deictic ‘now’ (νῦν) appears to mark a transition from some other activity and the forthcoming event.[6] For these reasons, we have to imagine a festivity involving a variety of agonistic musico-athletic activities, perhaps similar to the idealized description of King Alcinous’ symposium in the Odyssey (8.250–380),[7] or the succession of different forms of dancing and acrobatics in the third and final dancing scene depicted on the Shield of Achilles (Il. 18.590–606) On such occasions we can imagine a bard at some point announcing that it is time to make way for some new kind of performance. Epigrammata: Greek Inscriptions in Verse from the Beginning to the Persian Wars (Los Angeles, 1948), 55
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