Bacchylides’ Fifth Epinician Ode includes the only example in extant lyric poetry where τανίσφυρος combines with a figure it also describes in earlier hexameter verse, with Persephone. This poem is an encomium to Hieron, a triumphant celebration of his victory in the horse race at Olympia. Yet the main body of this song is curiously concerned with death. For Bacchylides uses the bleak story of Heracles’ descent in Hades as the mythological exemplum and central narrative of the work. After delivering the traditional warning that no man is happy in all respects, he turns abruptly to a narration of Heracles’ descent. Within the first few lines of the tale he establishes a grim picture, abandoning earthy triumph and creating an infernal scene:

This description of Persephone as τανίσφυρος echoes the passages in the Hymn to Demeter where the same description appears. In echoing these lines, Bacchylides brings the entire tale of Persephone and her suffering to bear on his poem. He recalls the implication of the myth—the power of Hades, his possible encroachment on the living, his constant presence and influence on earth. This association deepens the bleakness and the significance of this mythological exemplum. It is the realization of mortality and human limitations that underlies the narration of the tale; even the most powerful heroes like Meleager and Heracles lack control over their fates. Bacchylides presents this cruel message for Hieron to remember, even—if not especially—at the moment of victory.

Heracles’ experience is both a flattering comparison and an ominous warning to Hieron. Heracles is a great hero who achieves a miraculous victory by entering the land of the dead and returning from it. In this respect the exemplum is appropriately flattering. But Heracles’ experience as Bacchylides depicts it is primarily shattering and depressing, because it forces him to confront death. And his encounter with Meleager presages his own death. Meleager’s final words seem to end the story abruptly, but they are in fact portentous, alluding to the specific circumstances of Heracles’ death.

The entrance of Heracles into the realms of Persephone is more significant than it initially appears. For Heracles’ adventure is analogous to Persephone’s own fate: he experiences death without dying; he is able to return to earth, but the horror of his vision is permanent and the inevitability of his return there is implied. It is perhaps not irrelevant that Heracles himself is associated with this epithet in archaic verse. The mention of Persephone and her description as τανίσφυρος not only set the tenor of the narrative but also supply an additional unexpressed exemplum embodying the themes of the ode.

τανίσφυρος also appears in the Third Epinician Ode of Bacchylides, one also honoring Hieron after a victory at Olympia. This ode, like the fifth, begins with praise of Hieron’s victory and with recognition of his happiness and fame. And, again like the fifth, this introductory address ends with a proverbial warning on the human condition, that everyone should give generous gifts to the gods because that is the best guarantee of good fortune. It is this warning which prompts the story of Croesus’ death, a story of piety rewarded. For when faced with military defeat, he chooses to kill himself and his family, but Zeus and Apollo save him because of his generous gifts to Pytho. Zeus extinguishes the fire of the pyre on which the family is burning and then Apollo transports Croesus and his daughters to the land of the Hyperboreans. It is in the description of this translation that the daughters of Croesus are τανίσφυρος:

While the appearance of τανίσφυρος in the fifth ode echoes archaic verse, its combination here with the daughters of Croesus is an innovation. The epithet is particularly conspicuous here because it is separated from its noun by the main verb κατένασσε. While its literal meaning bears no pertinence to the passage, its connotations must on some level relate thematically to its context.

This passage concludes the mythical exemplum. The story ends on a triumphant note of redemption, but most of the narrative is horrifying, depicting in detail the agony and terror men feel as they face death. The most poignant description is of the daughters as they cry and reach for their mother. And Bacchylides underscores the horror of this by commenting:

They confront their own death, they experience what it is to die; it is only through divine agency that they do not in fact perish, that they are translated to the Hyperboreans, a distant mythical land, comparable to Elysion or to Leuke.

This story of death, abduction and rebirth is a variant of the Persephone story. Bacchylides is perhaps specifically recalling the rape of Persephone by using the epithet τανίσφυρος as he does. The fifth ode shows that he is familiar with this description of the goddess. And this use of τανίσφυρος also connects the passage with other recipients of the epithet and its variants in archaic literature—with Danae, Ino, Helen, Marpessa, for example—all of whom have experiences comparable to that of the daughters of Croesus. The epithet has thematic significance for Bacchylides and connects his work with older poetry and traditions. This symbolism and these allusions enhance the meaning of the passage and lend it an archaic and thereby more traditional aspect. He uses the epithet in creating his own myth.

The themes of this mythological exemplum—epitomized in the story of the maidens and the epithet τανίσφυρος—are both the inevitability of death and the possibility somehow of transcendence or rebirth. And it is these same themes with which Bacchylides concludes the ode. He attributes to Apollo the warning that man must face the constant possibility of death. And he pronounces in his own words that no man can escape age or recover youth. But in the end the poet offers some consolation, suggesting the possibility of spiritual immortality through inclusion in his poetry. The κλέος Hieron will acquire is somehow akin to the translation of Croesus and his daughters.

The poet calls attention to this epithet by placing it at the end of a line and by including the name it describes in the following line and by separating the two words by a verb. The epithet is also conspicuous because it does not occur anywhere in extant epic, and nowhere else appears with Kassandra. In line 10 of this poem Ibycus uses another unusual epithet, one not attested before this instance, ξειναπάταν, to describe Paris. This is an innovative description of Paris, but it is also a particularly apt one. It is unlikely that the use of τανίσφυρος in the next line is not equally appropriate and significant. For Ibycus seems to choose his epithets purposively, either for the purpose of evocation or of meaningful innovation.

Kassandra is not only a prophetess but a victim of sexual violence and a figure of doom. Her character is a reflection of the destruction and tragedy which overcomes Troy and which Ibycus tries to express. She is repeatedly subject to sexual violence. And she has a constant presentiment of doom, a knowledge which Bacchylides, in reference to the daughters of Croesus, deems most dreadful. Like Persephone, she confronts death in life. Her character and the themes it expresses parallel many of the figures who are εὔσφυρος or καλλίσφυρος or τανίσφυρος in earlier literature. So the occurrence of τανίσφυρος in Ibycus’ poem has many pertinent resonances with other literature, evoking other characters and adding significance to the events of Kassandra’s own life.

The tragic implications of the figure of Kassandra, reinforced by the use of the epithet, contribute to the horrifying effect of Ibycus’ description. It is not only her violent experiences but also her vision of death that is tragic and that the poet counters with his offer of spiritual immortality. For the story of Kassandra and of Troy, and of the heroes who won renown there, ironically lead to a comparison between the Greek hero Troilos and Polycrates, the poem’s subject of praise. The epic heroes are famous, but so will be Polycrates, because of his inclusion in Ibycus’ poetry. He will receive κλέος ἄφθιτον, true immortality. This poem, like both those of Bacchylides, begins with a vision of annihilation and ends with the assertion of poetic immortality. Once again the appearance of τανίσφυρος is not incidental to the poet’s themes.

The passage in which Hagesichora is καλλίσφυρος is, in a sense, the dramatic climax of the poem: the deity the maidens invoke is transcendent, but reveals herself as their ally, the fulfiller of their desires, the bridge between the mortal and the immortal realms.

The connotations of καλλίσφυρος gleaned from uses of the word elsewhere support this interpretation of the figure of Hagesichora and of the entire poem. In the Hesiodic fragments, the epithet is specifically associated with Helen, in the context of marriage and of abduction. And it is associated with figures thematically similar to Helen both in Hesiod and in other works. Furthermore, the added associations in the Partheneion with the dawn goddess, a figure embodying the miracle of death and rebirth, bear resonances with other connotations of the epithet, connotations connecting καλλίσφυρος with such figures as Persephone, Ino and Heracles. All these associations are pertinent to the interpretation of Hagesichora here presented. Finally, if the poem is in fact an epithalamium, the themes of abduction, of rebirth, of change from one realm of existence to another—all the themes the epithets connote elsewhere—are all appropriate to the poem. The description of Hagesichora as καλλίσφυρος is not at all arbitrary or insignificant. Alcman’s use of the epithet is its most evocative and richest application in lyric poetry.

The three lyric poets who use καλλίσφυρος and τανίσφυρος do recognize and exploit the connotations these epithets have in earlier poetry. They do not use them in automatic and arbitrary ways, simply to echo Homer, but adapt them in each case to enrich their specific descriptions and to reinforce the symbolism of their poetry.