Talk:Stesichorus

Untitled

This article is not well written and needs a clean up. Writing thesis at moment but hope someone has the time to clean up the content and removes the bad grammar, punctuation and rhetorical questions.

"Hesiod, Late?"

This aritcle says "Not wishing to late-date Hesiod, there could still be descendant substance to the note". So? Hesiod's date's late anyway(as the modern scholarly consensus)!

New edit

I've ordered a copy of The Cambridge History of Classical Literature - Early Greek Poetry and I am about to order all the Loeb volumes on Greek lyrical poetry as well. I now have to justify the cost of these books, which are totally useless for my continued existence in any practical sense, so I will probably start by giving this article a facelift. I already have David Campbell's Greek Lyric Poetry and I'll use that too. Or I might recover my sanity and do something better with my time. Amphitryoniades (talk) 03:44, 18 May 2010 (UTC) I have recovered my sanity. - Amphitryoniades (forget to sign in) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.222.52.251 (talk) 02:46, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Tabula Iliaca

I am going to be mad anyhow and do some work on this article. I've attached a picture from the Tabula Iliaca - inscription in Greek attributes scenes to Stesichorus, evidently inspired by his 'Sack of Troy', though scholars argue about the authenticity of the claim. The Greek inscription is hard to see but it's on the lower left, if you look hard enough . Amphitryoniades (talk) 07:43, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Drafting

I have now started a new draft. Some material, which I have removed from the introduction, will be reinstated in other sections - eg the issue of his name (Choirmaster) should be discussed when considering whether or not his poetry was actually performed by a chorus. It might have been like 'Wordsworth', a good name for a poet but not really descriptive of his literary merits.

I copied the Loeb fragment about Geryon's birthplace, including the gap and the line divisions, which doesn't look quite right but I am assuming it represents the metrical arrangement deduced from fragments. The same fragment is printed in the Cambridge History of Classical Literature, but without the gap or the line divisions. I prefer the look of this latter version and I might restructure the quote accordingly - unless somebody knows better.

I have provided the fragment with an 1849 translation, which is the best I could find - its charmingly anachronistic 19th Century style is in character, I think, since Stesichorus himself wrote in an anachronistic style, and it also captures some of the silkiness of the word-play. Amphitryoniades (talk) 10:01, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

I have other commitments at present and I might not be able to do anything more here for quite some time, which is a shame since nobody else seems much interested in this poet and I have barely scratched the surface. I'll pop back when I can. Amphitryoniades (talk) 12:23, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

Deleted section

I have (temporarily?) deleted the following section (italics mine). The section has more to do with Herodotus than Stesichorus and, either way, it's a fanciful account that doesn't deserve the prominence given it here. I will briefly mention the account of Stesichorus as son of Hesiod in the new edit. I'll recover the Latimore reference at that time.:

Possible chronologic disputes aside, there is a note in the Harvard University Press' Loeb Classical Library's Introduction to Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica (pp. xvi) concerning the story of the death of Hesiod, in which briefly it is told that after Hesiod won a tripod for the contest in song at Chalcis, he "went to Delphi and there was warned that the 'issue of death should overtake him in the fair grove of Nemean Zeus'". Avoiding therefore Nemea on the Isthmus of Corinth, to which he supposed the oracle to refer, Hesiod retired to Oenoe in Locris where he was entertained by Amphiphanes and Ganyctor, sons of a certain Phegeus." This place also being sacred to Nemean Zeus, the poet suspected of seducing their sister was murdered. The Note reads: "She is said to have given birth to the lyrist Stesichorus." Not wishing to late-date Hesiod, there could still be descendant substance to the note. Or "he is "The Son of Hesiod" because he drew heavily on the Hesiodic poems particularly "The Catalogue".(ref Richard Lattimore translation, "Hesiod" Intro. pp. 5, The University of Michigan Press, 1959) According to the Suda he lived from the 37th Olympiad to the 56th and had two brothers: Mamertinus and Helianax. Amphitryoniades (talk) 07:14, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

References

Suda

I've copied the Loeb version of the Suda's Life of Stesichorus in full. The Suda constantly features in biographies as a reference and I think the reader should be given at least one full copy of a Suda entry. I intend supplementing this with notes under various subheadings such as 'Genealogy', 'Chronology', 'Work' etc. Amphitryoniades (talk) 08:11, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

I have now done a fair amount of work on this article but possibly I have overloaded it with information - it could bore the average reader to death, which would be a great shame for the average reader and for Stesichorus, who deserves an appreciative audience on this side of the grave. I might weed it or maybe someone else can run a plough over it. Amphitryoniades (talk) 13:24, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

I'll get on and finish this article over the next few weeks/months. It's looking OK now I see it through the lense of a different day. Amphitryoniades (talk) 22:28, 21 July 2010 (UTC)