Chapter 2. Aesop: Satirist as Pharmakos in Archaic Greece Aesop is the Greek satirist, by broad definition a poet, [1] who is most clearly and richly assimilated to the pharmakos. The myth of Aesop’s death at Delphi under a false accusation was generally known by the time of Herodotus, according to whom the Delphians, commanded by the Delphic oracle, offered compensation for… Read more
Chapter 3. Archilochus: Sacred Obscenity and Judgment The vita of Aesop is something of a prototype, both in its fullness and in its ringing the changes on the “sacred” scapegoat theme. The lives of many Greek poets include similar themes. They will be surveyed in this and subsequent chapters, concentrating on poets whose vitae have been assimilated to the scapegoat in some way, or who have been… Read more
Chapter 4. Hipponax: Creating the Pharmakos Hipponax was an iambic satirist second only to Archilochus in fame, and his traditional life shares important themes with Archilochus’ (for example, causing death through satire). [1] Like Archilochus, he is an exiled poet. Hipponax is of special interest because he is the earliest extant witness for the pharmakos rite. It is striking that an exiled,… Read more
Chapter 5. Homer: The Trial of the Rhapsode Not surprisingly, considering the overwhelming prestige of the Iliad and the Odyssey, a heroizing body of legend attached itself to a person regarded as the author of those poems. The legend of Homer follows the pattern under consideration in important ways: the poet is a wanderer, like Aesop; he is exiled from inhospitable cities; and there is a dramatic… Read more
Chapter 6. Hesiod: Consecrate Murder In Hesiod’s vita, we find a substantial set of the familiar legendary themes we have encountered so far—consecration, victory in riddle contest, oracle-related death, and cult. Hesiod’s vita is clearly moving in the same orbit as those of Aesop and Archilochus, ringing the changes on the standard story of the sacral poet’s life and death. A. Brelich, in his study of hero… Read more
Chapter 7. Shadows of Hesiod: Divine Protection and Lonely Death The lives of Ibycus, Arion, Stesichorus, and Simonides echo Hesiod’s vita in their themes of divine protection, often through animals, and lonely, violent death. Therefore it will be useful to consider them in close proximity to Hesiod. Ibycus Ibycus [1] was born in Rhegium, Italy, and left there, for Samos,… Read more
Chapter 8. Sappho: The Barbed Rose One would not expect Sappho, who was associated largely with delicate love poetry, to have a vita that would resemble the patterns followed by the Aesop and Archilochus vitae. Yet, though she does not have as full a dossier of the scapegoat hero cult themes as do Aesop and Archilochus, and her life is not as (folklorically) well documented as theirs,… Read more
Chapter 9. Alcaeus: Poetry, Politics, Exile Alcaeus is an important transitional figure in this study, because with the vita of Alcaeus we seem to leave legend or legend-embroidered history and enter firmly into history. The events in his life, as reflected in his poetry, even though they concern jockeyings for power among rival clans and tyrants in a relatively unimportant island, still have the feeling of authenticity,… Read more
Chapter 10. Theognis: Faceless Exile Theognis of Megara is a shadowy figure whose poetry offers us some evocative hints about his life; one can only wonder if it is a real life or a stereotypical poet’s life. [1] As early as Plato, we read of the “poet … Theognis, a citizen of Megara in Sicily” (ποιητὴν … Θέογνιν, πολίτην τῶν ἐν Σικελίᾳ… Read more
Chapter 11. Tyrtaeus: The Lame General Virtually all critics agree that the story of Tyrtaeus, in which the lame Athenian schoolmaster is sent to the Spartans as a joke, only to become their general in the Second Messenian War, is unhistorical—a piece of Attic propaganda, perhaps, to account for the fact that the Spartans even produced a poet. [1] H. J. Rose… Read more
