11. Xenophanes Most vicious and explicit in his criticism of epic, by which is meant Homer and Hesiod, is of course Xenophanes of Colophon (frr. 21 B 11 and 12 DK from his Silloi), and it is important to establish the vantage point of his critique. Xenophanes was not only said to have composed hexametric poetry but also to have performed his own poetry rhapsodically. [… Read more
10. Symposiasts versus Rhapsodes In Part III we shall see how rhapsodes performing at a major public festival like the Panathenaia were capable of improvising in the course of reciting memorized verses. Memorized lines of Homeric poetry furnish the basis for modifications in sense or embellishment, in other words improvisation, as each competing rhapsode contributes to the larger performance demand of interweaving passages or episodes of Homer. Read more
9. The Attic Skolia, Theognis, and Riddles By pairing the so-called “Attic skolia” preserved for us by Athenaeus (694c–695f = PMG 884–908) with Theognis, I have in mind to demonstrate that the form of both sets of poetry as we have them reflects, at least in part, an improvisational heritage. Both Athenaeus’ collection of skolia and the doublets in Theognis give evidence of being performance variations, recorded… Read more
8. Aristophanes’ Wasps 1222–49 We are fortunate to possess in Aristophanes’ Wasps 1222–49 one of the earliest depictions of how the skolion game was actually played. [1] It involves examples 3) and 4) (given earlier) as definitions of skolion—known lyric passages or improvised poetry recited to cap a previous verse or verses. We might note at the outset that the game’s very… Read more
7. The Skolion Game Our sources tell us that the most common poetry game played at symposia was called skolion, the testimonia of which were thoroughly outlined in 1893 by Richard Reitzenstein, [1] whose work has significantly influenced generations of other critics. [2] The term itself, however, admits of several different usages already in the earliest literary… Read more
Part II. Sporting at Symposia: Verse and Skolia Competitions ’Sblood, do you think I am easier to be play’d on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me. Hamlet, Act III, Scene ii 6. Play and the Seriousness of Sympotic Poetry Games In contrast to the rather severe traditional concerns… Read more
5. Conclusion The two most obvious features of classical drama neglected by this Part in general are the agôn and the strophic/antistrophic divisions of choral odes. Both of these features of Athenian drama show similarities in the form of point ~ counterpoint to the capping phenomena that we have explored on a smaller scale. Where the agôn presents two often irreconcilable sides to a central issue, and… Read more
4. Excursus: Theocritus and the Problem of Judgment At least one critic has remarked that the stichomythic competition between sophists in Plato’s Euthydemus can be compared to the representation of the Streitgesang ‘singing match’ in several of Theocritus’ Idylls, especially the fifth. [1] This comparison can now be expanded to include the many other passages of Greek literature we have seen that… Read more
3. Stichomythia and σκώμματα: Euripides’ Cyclops, Aristophanes’ Wealth, and Plato’s Euthydemus One of the most interesting adaptations of stichomythia in satyr play and late Old Comedy is that its structure is deliberately made to incorporate ridicule and abuse. Something of the structural formalism of tragic stichomythia remains, but the main point is clearly for one member in the exchange to ridicule the other. The ridicule is enhanced… Read more
2. The ἀντιλαβή and Aristophanes’ Frogs 1198–1248 Old Comedy furnishes us not only with parallel statements that seem to include virtual definitions of tragic stichomythia (as e.g. above, Clouds 1374–75 with Eumenides 586), but it also provides examples of “stichomythic” exchanges that would lose their point if they were not meant to be understood as modeled on instances from tragedy. Heated confrontations, such as that between the… Read more
