Pythian Games Research Articles

Les jeux panhelléniques dans les rapports entre les cités grecques d'Europe et d'Asie

This article focuses in a first part on the four main games that brought together the Greeks of Europe and those of Asia. These four major contests were the Olympic Games, Isthmian Games, Pythian Games, and Nemean Games. In addition, it highlights the conclusion of the truces which were considered an essential condition for the organization of these games. In a second part, the study shows that Greeks came from all cities to participate in the games. It also mentions the honor both an athlete and a city derived from a victory during these games. Finally, the study addresses the fact that the games were opportunities to strengthen the bonds of cultural kinship between Greek city-states and occasions for diplomatic negotiations.

Przedstawienia i symbolika roślin w poezji Pindara

The extensive use of plant motifs is at the heart of Pindar’s poetic images and metaphors. In his epinicions, the poet uses the symbolism of plants associated with Olympian and Pythian games to praise the victor and to show the importance of his achievement. The olive and laurel wreaths with which the victorious athletes are crowned become symbols of excellence and of the immortal fame accompanying human achievements, which is guaranteed by the poet’s song. Spring flowers such as roses and violets have a specific ritual meaning in Pindar’s cult songs, especially in his dithyrambs, where they symbolize vitality and rebirth. Aside from the plants typical of Greek flora, the Theban poet mentions those with miraculous properties, distinguished by their golden colour, which are associated with the divine and characteristic of sacred places and mythical landscape with paradisical connotations. Therefore, the symbolic meaning of floral imagery in Pindar’s Laments and in some passages from his victory songs cannot be recognized without taking into account its eschatological context.

Juniors age categories of athletes at the Panathenaic Games

The article is devoted to some aspects of ancient athletics of the classical period. The author traces the history of the formation of the Olympic Games program and its influence on the programs of Pan-Hellenic and local Games. The popularity of the Pan-Hellenic Games led over time to the complication of the program and an increase in the number of athletes participating in the games, for whom different age classification systems were developed. At the Olympic and Pythian Games, all athletes were divided into two age groups: paides and andres, whereas at the Isthmian and Nemean Games there were three age groups of athletes: paides, ageneioi and andres. The author explores the history of the Panathenaic Games in Athens, which are often called the “fifth” Panhellenic Games. The article shows that the program of the Panathenaic Games, on the one hand, was created on the basis of the programs of the Olympic and Pythian Games, on the other hand, it differed from it in that it included a number of competitions in which only Athenians could take part. The author shows that both the competitions “only for Athenians” and the introduction of younger age groups of athletes created more opportunities for local athletes to succeed at the Panathenaic Games and thus contributed to the development of athletics in Athens.

Thebes, Amphiaraus and Alcmaeon in Pindar’s Pythian 8: instruction to the winner

The article examines the didactical component of Pindar’s Pythian 8, which includes the Theban mythohistorical line — the plot of “Seven against Thebes” and the Epigoni’s march on Thebes. In this ode, Pindar instructs Aeginet Aristomenes, the winner of the Pythian Games, through Amphiaraus’ prophecy. Glorifying Aristomenes, Pindar instructs him not to become proud beyond measure, not to overstep the bounds, because Hes-ychia can destroy anyone who lets “merciless malice” into his heart, as it happened with Adrastus and his son. At the same time, Pindar compares Aristomenes with the hero Alcmaeon, the son of Amphiaraus, emphasizing that the glorious blood of their fathers flows in the veins of both. This interpretation of the fragment from Pind. Pyth. 8.56-60 differs from the traditional one since here Pindar meets not Alcmaeon, but Amphiaraus, receiving a prophecy from the latter. It is Amphiaraus who is called Pindar’s "neighbor" and the “guardian” of the Thebans’ possessions. In our opinion, Amphiaraus appears to Pindar in Delphi or on the way to Delphi. This interpretation is based on a comparison of Pindar’s text with a fragment from Herodotus (Hdt. 8.134.1-2), as well as on paleotopographic, archaeological and epigraphic studies. Considering that there is no information about the cult of Alcmaeon in Thebes and in Aegina at the moment, it seems like-ly that Pindar implies his meeting with Amphiaraus, whose sanc-tuary was located, according to a number of scholars, including the author of the article, near Thebes. However, according to He-rodotus who stated that the Thebans could not inquire the oracle of Amphiaraus in this sanctuary, and also on the basis of the pos-sible location of this sanctuary off the road to Delphi, it is sug-gested that Amphiaraus appeared to Pindar not at Amphiareum.

English

There was an ancient tradition claiming that the name of the Greek long run ( dolichos ) was coined at Delphi. However, this contest is believed to have been first established at Olympia. Perhaps, the date of introduction of the long run ( dolichos ) was conjectured by Hippias of Elis (from 50 th Olympics in 580 BC to 15 th in 720 BC), and the Pythian Games of 582 BC were the first Pan-Hellenic festival including dolichos . This chronology corresponds better with another ancient tradition that linked the origins of athletic nudity with the first Olympic long run.

Le sifflement du serpent : du son inarticulé à la mise en musique

The hissing of the snake: how is it possible to set an inarticulate sound to music ?For a Greek mind animal cries cannot be associated to human logos, for being inarticulate sounds. One of the best examples is the snake, whose cry is usually transcribed by the consonant [s], without any vocalizing. Therefore, snakes seem not to be musicians: melody is produced by vocals, according to Greek treatises on music. However, snakes are considered as musician animals by Greeks, like cicadas. The word syrigma, that Greeks used to define the hissing of the snake, means also the sound of the Pan flute. Moreover, Pytho's hissing becomes a theme of a musical composition that every musician has to make and to perform at the Pythian Games, the nomos pythikos: in one of its parts, he has to depict, with his Pythian aulos, the hissing Pytho gives when it is killed by Apollo's arrows. By consequence, he has to set to music something that is properly not musical.

Greek mythology: poetics, pragmatics and fiction

Foreword 1. Narrative and poetic creations 2. Bellerophon and the pragmatics of epic narrative 3. Clytemnestra and Orestes at the Pythian games 4. Io, the Danaids, the outside and tragic inflections 5. Helen and the purposes of historiography 6. Tiresias in an Alexandrian hymn 7. Pausanias and the pantheon of Troezen 8. Conclusion: virtual realities.

La carriera di un cittadino di Hierapolis di Frigia : G. Memmios Eutychos

Oggetto di questo studio è un’ iscrizione onoraria da Hierapolis di Frigia, databile al regno di Caracalla. Il documento permette di appurare la data della concessione di un tempio provinciale del culto imperiale a questa città e contiene inoltre la menzione di una lunga serie di funzioni pubbliche svolte dal personaggio onorato, G. Memmios Eutychos, una parte delle quali non era finora documentata a Hierapolis. Fra le parti più interessanti dell’iscrizione possiamo menzionare la carica di alitarca, che era qui collegata agli agoni pitici, e non, come di solito, alle feste olimpiche. Memmios Eutychos era stato presidente del Consiglio municipale e dell’associazione dei cittadini romani residenti nella città ; apprendiamo anche che egli aveva inviato a proprie spese un soldato all’imperatore e che più volte aveva svolto compiti relativi all’annona imperiale.

The Roman Theater at Carthage

Even when it was discovered in 1904, the Carthage theater was not well preserved; nor has time dealt kindly with the exposed remains. In spite of two excavations, many aspects of the building's plan, elevation, and history have remained unclear. This article draws on a variety of evidence, including the preserved remains, plans from both excavations, early photographs, comparisons with other theaters, and Vitruvius's rules for theater planning. The results include an improved understanding of the theater's substructures, a restored plan of the building, and the identification of a number of the marble architectural elements from the colonnades of the scaenae frons. The evidence suggests a date for the construction of the extant theater around the middle of the second century A. D. For a theater of this date, its plan is surprisingly Vitruvian. This fact, together with a variety of other indirect evidence, suggests that Carthage might have possessed a theater as early as the time of Augustus. The stage of the extant theater was richly decorated with sculpture. It is here proposed that the colossal statues of Apollo and Hercules, which stood above two of the three doors of the scaenae frons, were erected in connection with the instigation of the Pythian Games at Carthage in the early third century A. D.

Countless Deeds of Valour: Bacchylides 11

There was a time when the detractors of Bacchylides singled out his eleventh ode as inept even by Bacchylidean standards: it was like the unfortunate tenor who was so stupid that even the other tenors noticed. The time of such criticism is gone, and the unfavourable verdict against Bacchylides' ode has nearly disappeared as well. The mythical journey in time which proceeds from the building of Artemis' altar back to the madness of Proetus' daughters and back further to the quarrel between Proetus and Acrisius is no longer seen as rambling. Instead the ode's structure has been revealed as an elegant set of concentric rings. Proetus' unhappy daughters are no longer unwanted, for Bacchylides has woven images into and around their story which suggest the integration of young women into the structure of the Greek city: the girls' resistance to marriage (Hera) is overcome through the mediation of Artemis, and they are returned to their father at last fit to be wed to the men of Tiryns. The entire ode has now been described as a fitting song for a city delighting in a victory gained with the aid of Artemis.4 The ode's images have been analysed and found coherent. Epithets, once scorned as too plentiful and various to bear true meaning, have now been defended. And finally, for a wonder, the song has been singled out as an example of that very thing so routinely denied to Bacchylides: Pindaric style. But even the most complimentary treatments of the poem seem somehow to fall short of explaining how this song serves as proper and sufficient praise for Alexidamus, the boy from Metapontum who wrestled his way to victory at the Pythian games.

The Epoch of the Seven Sages

According to Diogenes Laertius (1.22.5), Thales was the first to be named sophos. He cites Demetrius of Phalerum for the date, according to whom Thales and the College of Seven were formally recognized as Wise during the archonship of Damasias.1 The date of Damasias' archonship is controversial. Most scholars now agree, however, that both the absolute date of Damasias' archonship and the rationale behind Demetrius' association of the Seven Sages with it can be inferred from the entry of the Marmor Parium at the year corresponding to 582/1. According to the Marmor, the first in the regular series of Pythian Games (agon stephanitis) was celebrated in Damasias' second archonship, 582/1.2 Thus, Demetrius followed a tradition similar to that attested by Plato (Protagoras 343a) that the Seven Sages met at Delphi and there dedicated to Apollo the first fruits of their wisdom. He chose the first Pythian Celebration as being an appropriate date both for the traditional synchronism and for the official recognition of the Seven as Wise.3 The Naming of the Seven Sages subsequently became an epoch in the chronographic tradition. Despite the authority of Demetrius and the appropriateness of his synchronism with the first Pythian Festival, however, the later Epoch of the Seven Sages is not reported at Demetrius' date, 582/1. The chronographic epoch is best attested in the Chronicle of Eusebius, where an entry for the Naming of the Seven Sages appears at the fiftieth Olympiad (580/77) in both versions of the Chronological Canons. The Armenian translation exhibits the notice at the year of Abraham 1439, Olympiad 50.4 (577/6), in this version's alignment of the tables

The Relations between Music and Literature as a Field of Study

T IS PRACTICALLY certain that music and literature, usually combined with dance, arose as a single activity long before the concept of an art existed. In later stages of history, the connections between the musical and literary arts have varied from nation to nation and period to period. The relationship was close in Elizabethan England and remote in Augustan England. It has always been close in the folk epic. The Homeric minstrel, the Anglo-Saxon scop, and the twentieth-century Yugoslavian singer of tales cannot function without a musical instrument. But in the literary epic has been at best vestigial, and the connections between the Aeneid or Paradise Lost and music are in general negligible. As soon as the arts of music and literature began to draw apart, the possibility of one's influencing the other arose. Instrumental music in its modern tradition is only some five centuries old, but Plato could complain that instrumental music is a bad thing because, in the absence of words, it is very difficult to recognize the meaning of the harmony and rhythm, or to see that any worthy object is imitated by them.' By Plato's time narrative program music was already two centuries old. In 582 B.C. the Pythian Games introduced a composition for aulossolo, the prescribed subject being Apollo's victory over the python, in five episodes. This contest, with the same subject and the same rules, held its place in some of the Greek games for more than three centuries.2 As the art of criticism was added to the others, naturally

Ancient Greek Measures and Athletic Records

A revised estimate of Greek units of linear measurement would appear to emerge from a study of the records of feats accomplished in the long jump by athletes of ancient Greece in the great festival games. M. Evangelos Kalfarentzos, Inspector-General of Physical Education at Athens, in a communication presented at the conference in connexion with the Lingiad Gymnastic Festival (The Times, July 31) arrives at the conclusion that the length of the remarkable jumps attributed to certain famous performers must be computed in terms of a ‘foot’ which was not uniform in all parts of the Greek world. He bases his argument on the evidence of a comparison of the reputed size of the stadium with the measurements of the various stadia as shown in the results of modern excavations. While it is true that the stadium at Olympia measured 600 ‘feet’, it is an error, M. Kalfarentzos maintains, to hold that all stadia were of this length. Thus the stadium at Delphi was 1,000 ‘feet’. The actual length of the Delphi stadium was 177·55 metres which, divided by 1,000, gives a ‘foot’ of 17·76 centimetres. Phaullus, the winner at the Pythian games, as he is named by contemporary writers, is universally accredited with a ‘record’ jump of 55 ‘feet’ and he is said to have been the first to clear the ditch of soft earth of 30 ft. breadth. Calculated on the revised estimate of the Delphic foot, this jump measures 9·77 metres, or almost exactly 32 feet according to British measurement; while the jump of Chionis, winner at the Olympic games in 664 B.C., is computed at 7·05 metres, or 23 ft. 1 in., on the basis of a ‘foot’ of which a nominal 600 went to a stadium length, which has been shown to be 192·25 metres.

The Pythais of 355 B.C. and the Third Sacred War

In the seventh speech of Isaeus (§27) there occurs one of the few references to the Pythais, the occasional sacred pilgrimage from Athens to Delphi. This allusion used to be misinterpreted as a reference to the Pythian games, and was used to date the speech. Elsewhere (§38) the same speaker alludes to the system of trierarchies organised in symmories, and as this was established by the law of Periander, dateable to 357–6 B.C., it is clear that the speech was delivered after that date. Hence it was taken that the Pythian games intended were those of 354 B.C., as it seemed unlikely that Isaeus' speech was written as late as the subsequent festivals of 350 B.C. or thereafter.In 1918 Boethius (Die Pythais, pp. 19 ff.) showed conclusively that the reference was not to the celebration of the Pythian games, but to the special form of sacred pilgrimage known as the Pythais. In the fourth century B.C. this procession used to be dispatched from Athens in response to certain omens of lightning-flashes which were looked for on certain days during the three summer months. The priestly observers were stationed at the precinct of Zeus Asteropaeus near the Pythion, and watched in the direction of Harma on Mount Parnes. Only if the proper omen was reported, was the Pythais prepared and sent off. But the irregularity and infrequency of the manifestation had become proverbial.

Pindar, Pythian Xl

The story of Orestes in Pindar's Pythian XI presents two problems. First, there is the manner of its introduction; as Wilamowitz says, ‘ganz ausserlich ist die Verbindung mit dem Mythos.’ After praising the victory of the Theban Thrasydaeus in the Pythian Games Pindar moves with astonishing abruptness to the story of Agamemnon's death and the vengeance of Orestes. At first sight nothing could be more superficial than the way in which Pindar passes to the myth. Thrasydaeus has glorified his home⋯ν ⋯φνεαῖς ⋯ραισι πυλ⋯δνικ⋯ν ξ⋯νου Λ⋯κωνος 'ο;ρ⋯στα,τ⋯ν δ⋯ φονευομ⋯νου πατρ⋯ς κτλ.