Bestial Imagery in Bacchylides' Ode 11 Stern, Jacob Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1965; 6, 4; ProQuest pg. 275 Bestial Imagery in Bacchylides' Ode 11 Jacob Stern THE ELEVENTH ODE of Bacchylides narrates, in honor of Alexi­ damos of Metapontion, the myth of the Proetides, who were driven mad by the goddess Hera because they dared to boast that their father was richer than she.1 Throughout this narration there is discernible a primary image concerned with animals, by means of which the Proetides' madness is shown to be a type of bestiality capable of being tamed and cured only by a special civilizing force. This verbal image, which is basic to the poetic conception, first becomes obvious in the structure of the ode at lines 37-39: ~ ~, "A ' I VVV 0 PT€f1-L~ aypOT€pa xpvaa'\aKaTo~ '\L7Tapav < ] I (: I , I ,,~ YJf1- Epa TO~ OKI\VTO~ VLKav EUWK€. The CfltICS have been most severe over this passage: Farnell's "grotesque accumulation of epithets," is typical; "no poet who had any sense of the real significance of divine epithets could have written these lines."2 Smyth is kinder: "the passage is an extreme case of the poet's fondness for epitheta ornantia."3 That the lines are peculiar cannot be denied, but the poet has a triple purpose in mind: first, to pivot as swiftly and as obviously as possible away from the introductory section of the ode concerned only with the victor; secondly, to establish what is to be the major image of the ode; and finally, to suggest with purposely ambivalent language what might be called the double function of that image, which is to illustrate the bestiality of the Proetides in their madness and also to show the process of their cure as a taming and cultivation. Thus Tog6K'\VTOS and ~f1-'pa are set in antithesis. The former refers to Artemis 1 All references to Bacchylides are to the edition of B. Snell (Leipzig 1961). I would like here to thank Professors Howard N. Porter and William M. Calder III of Columbia Univer­ sity for the great assistance which they gave me while I was writing not only this article, but also my dissertation from which this article has been in part extracted. 2 L. R. Farnell, CR 12 (1898) 345-6. a H. W. Smyth, Greek Melic Poets (London 1904) 420. 275 276 BESTIAL IMAGERY IN BACCHYLIDES' ODE 11 the goddess of the hunt, she who is to playa special role with regard to the wild and, as we shall learn, animal-like daughters of Proetus; the latter, without departing from the association of animalism, suggests Artemis' secondary position as the goddess who tames and makes gentle, under whose power Alexidamos has been granted his victory and the Proetides are to gain their release from the madness imposed upon them by Hera.4 As we shall see later, Artemis' act is exactly a taming of girls who by the power of a hostile divinity have been turned-at least meta­ phOrically-into animals. Yet before they can be released from their madness, the girls must momentarily be put in the position of the hunted animal. This two-stage process is suggested also by the single epithet a:ypo-r1pa, which is ambiguous in meaning: Artemis is the goddess associated with aypa, the hunting of wild animals, and also with the ayp6s, the settled life of the farm.5 The significance of this particular contrast will be explained more fully below; for the moment it is sufficient to mention that in Bacchylides' ode bestiality, or being hunted, is associated with flight and unsettled living, whereas the cure eventually achieved will depend in great part on the station­ ary quality of the characters' lives. It is in the fourth epithet, xpvO'aA&'KaTos, however, that the ambiva­ lence in Artemis' role is best epitomized. The commentators do not agree: Smyth takes the word in connection with Tog6KAvTOS as H of the golden bow"; Jebb, following Hesychius,6 translates "with the golden shaft," noting that the sense is not incompatible with that of Tog6KAvTOS; and, while Macurdy translates" golden spindle," LS] only emphasize the difficulty when, s. v. ~AaK&.'T7}. they follow Hesychius: H ••• in Compds. (e.g. XpvO"Y}A&'KaTos). arrow," whereas in their article under xpvO"Y}A&'KaTos they write "with distaff of gold. not ... with arrow of gold."7 The word seems in essence to have a meaning of golden , In the terms ofO. Hense, "Zu Bakchylides XI," RhM 53 (lS9S) 321, Artemis becomes the ode's "kraftige Fundament." See also F. Blass, "Nachlese zu Bakchylides," Hermes 36 (1901) 2S1. 5 BacchyHdes, The Poems and Fragments, ed. R. C. Jebb (Cambridge 1905) 211, n.1. 6 Hesychii Alexandrini Lexicon IV, ed. M. Schmidt (Jena lS62) 299. 7 Smyth, l"c.cit. (supra, n.3); Jebb. ad loc.; G. H. Macurdy. TAPA 44 (1913) xxxvii; also W. Christ, Hermes 36 (1901) lOS: "goldene Spindel." It is probable that the editors of the Homeric Hymns are correct to insist on "arrows" in the Hymns, while they admit that "other poets, Pindar ... Nonnus ... understood it to refer to the distaff: so Bacchyl. himself." The question is whether they could have "understood" this. and still have chosen to work with the archaic meaning; The Homeric Hymns. ed. T. W. Allen, W. R. Halliday, E. E. Sikes (Oxford 1936) 353. JACOB STERN 277 "stalk" (Hesychius' KaAafLos) , but quite early to have taken on two basic meanings. Bacchylides, whose propensity for literal and even etymological meanings this paper hopes to establish, is not beyond playing against both of them. To him at least the word is not merely a "klangvolles Beiwort": 8 to call it such in the face of a meaningful poetic association is unreasonable. The ambiguity of this word is perfect for the context, for essential to the meaning of the poem is the contrast between cultivated society, as aptly represented by "spindle," which is the proper" emblem of women," 9 and which ought to be the nor­ mal concern of the Proetides and Artemis ~JL€pa; and wildness and hunting, as seen in the notion of the arrow, which recalls Artemis 'TogoKAvTOS, and the abnormal state of the young girls who can only be cured of their bestial madness by a goddess who later functions as {)TJPOUK07TOS (107).10 It is then in these ambivalent epithets of Artemis that a contrast basic to the whole ode is initially suggested. It is a contrast which the poet will work into the structure of his ode in a somewhat loose, but nevertheless demonstrable, fashion. As it continues to develop we shall see it in a variety of forms; the life of the city will be set against that of the forest, stationary living will be opposed to the wildness of flight, taming of the bestial to uncontrolled animalism. As this pattern unfolds we shall find associated with it also a par­ ticular verbal technique: Bacchylides often relies on traditional, hackneyed epithets from lyric and epic poetry; but consistently he recalls to us the literal, even etymological meaning of these adjectives. Through a series of conceits he revitalizes the old epithets, which had by time and over-use lost their original force, and through this revitalization emerges a consistent image pattern which reinforces the thematic material. Of this type of etymologizing we have already seen examples in aypoTt.pa and xpvuaAaKaTos. We now must trace the pattern farther: at line 84 of the ode the young daughters ofProetus are found, recently inflicted with their strange malady, running wildly from the city, aSfLaToL: "jungfraulich, unverheiratet," says Buchholz, and Jebb agrees 8 So U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Griechische Verskunst (Berlin 1921) 531, referring to the use of the word at Sophocles, Trachiniae 636. 9 Macurdy, loc.cit. (supra, n.7). 10 XPVUa.A&Ka.TO~ is used with a similar double implication at Trachiniae 636: the chorus uses the traditional adjective with reference both to the 8~p K'vTct.vpo~ (680) shot by the "bitter barb" (681) of Heracles, and the famous 1T'1TAO~ by which the hero dies. 278 BESTIAL IMAGERY IN BACCHYLIDES' ODE 11 with "maidens."ll Yet the virginity of the girls is not here apropos; what is important is that they are "nicht bezwungen."12 Snell points out that the word refers primarily to animals, which may be called "untamed" or "unyoked" ; it is by metaphor that the word is extended to virgins. Yet the context in Bacchylides demands that we leap over the traditional metaphor back to the original, literal nuance. The daughters are mad and roaming in the woods, a/L€p8aMav cpwvav L€LaaL (56); to restore their senses it takes a sacrifice of {3ovs ~~vyas (105) to a goddess, aypoTEpa, who hears in her special capacity as (}7JpoaKo7Tos (107); it is only by "looking out for wild beasts" that Artemis can function in this context.IS The connection between madness and bestiality in this ode is most carefully developed by the metaphor hinted at in the adjective ~8/LaTos: the poet centers specifically on the act of "yoking" (~€Jy_),14 which becomes in the poem's view an image for the exercizing of control-originally over animals, but metaphorically also over men. This idea is initially introduced by the Iliadic epithet vljJ[~vyos (3): ]ebb's «throned on high" does not do the term complete justice but is adequate at least on one ground. The listener would not, so early in the poem, have any reason to think that the word was to be taken in anything but its traditional sense: «sitting on the highest bench of the Ship."IS But the sequel makes clear that Bacchylides again intends for the epithet to have a precisely etymological significance: 0 vcp' €avTip V7T€~€VXWS 7TCfvTa.16 It is Zeus' ability to yoke the wild beast and impose order, not his position as helmsman, which is here in point. Later in the poem, for instance, Hera, insulted by the Proetides, will exercize over them a similar control: cpPEVaS ~€Jgaa' (46). Her control is specific­ ally that she "yoked" them in their malady, and this malady is exactly their lack of control over themselves. In the poet's metaphor, therefore, they become ~8/LaTOL in contrast to Zeus and Hera, who 11 Anthologie aus den Lyrikern der Griechen III, ed. E. Buchholz (Leipzig 1898) 153, referring to the use of the word at 5.167. 12 B. Snell and H. J. Mette, Lex. des fruhgriechischen Epos (Gottingen 1955) s.v. &8/LaTos. 13 In his note on Ode 5.167 Jebb explains the ambiguity in &8/LaTo.which is here suggested. H In his note on 10(11).30 Jebb speculates that Bacchylides in his choice of the epithet '1TOP'TLTPOCPOV might have been influenced by the etymology which derived Italia from vitulus, "calf"; it seems not beyond possibility that the whole image of yoking is influenced by this traditional derivation, for though it is a slim thread of connection from the myth to the Metapontine victor, it might still have been in the poet's mind. 15 Hesychius, op.cit. (supra, n.6) 223, s.v. vtPl~vyos; cf Et. Gudianum, ed. F. Sturz (Leipzig 1818) 546. 16 Er. Magnum, ed. F. Sylburgius (Leipzig 1816) 712. JACOB STERN 279 exerdze their power by yoking. Soon Proetus, lamenting his daughters' uncontrollable madness,17 promises to Artemis as payment for curing them cattle which are a~vyaS'. The sacrifice of cows «pure from the goad" is traditional and proper,1S but here is given a particular vitality: the cure is made to fit the malady. It is not sufficient in this context to understand f3ovS' a~vyaS' in the merely traditional sense. Hera has seized Proetus' daughters and metaphorically turned them into uncontrollable cows; Proetus must then promise the same f30vs a~vyaS' in order to get his daughters back; the god cannot be cheated.19 The imagery of the ode is not, however, limited to the metaphor of the yoke: a secondary pattern of words exists by means of which the contrast between bestiality and cultivation, the cure for the malady, is emphasized. This secondary pattern will be most apparent if, momentarily, we approach the ode in a new way. Within his telling of the story of the Proetides Bacchylides digresses for more than twenty lines to narrate the feud between Proetus and Acrisius and Proetus' flight with his warriors from Argos to Tiryns. The narrative arrange­ ment, which is thought to give «mythical depth," is a clear example of the epic loquadty so typical of Bacchylides.20 But thematically also, as the ring-composition makes clear, the digression has importance (57-62) : T£pvv(hov aa'TV A£7Tovaa£ '() ~ I , I Ka£ €OOfLa'TOVS' ayv£aS', 17 Bacchylides' word for the madness is '\vuua (102) which apparently derives from '\OILA~s AL7TOVTES "Apyos vaLov aOEtUL{3oaL xaAKaU7TLOES ~P.t()Eot • .. A play on the participles of AEt7TW in the two genders introduces the interlude, and so also effects the exit from the digression and the return to the story of the Proetides (79-81): A \,. '{3 vaLaV KI\VTOV L7T7TO OTOV "A" \ '\ , pyOS T}pWES 7TEpLKI\E£Tot I\£7TOVTES. The purpose of this digression is to emphasize the theme of flight, which is made clear by the echoes: as the Proetides flee from Tiryns and Proetus himself rushes forth madly (85f) from his city in search of his daughters, so also the notion is introduced in the flight of the heroes from Argos. Flight in the case of both Proetus and his daughters is away from civilization to the wildness of the forest-the oaUK£OV vAav (93); but the case of the heroes who join Proetus in his flight from Argos presents the theme in the opposite order: they move from oppressive war to the civilization of Tiryns. built at the will of Zeus and with the aid of the Cyclopes. The basic contrast is between flight and settled living: the former is associated with some sort of madness and in the case of the Proetides with animalism. But city-dwelling too has its unique verbal association: Metapontion, the city of Alexidamos, is 7TOPTLTPOc/>OV (30); the territory of the sons of Abas is 7ToAvKpdJov (70); Argos is i7T7T0{30TOV (80); Arcadia P.T}AOTp6c/>ov (95); and again Meta­ pontion is described as /,7T7TOTPOc/>OV (114). It is in the idea of taming and raising domestic animals-in this ode introduced by epithets which have suffixes in -{30TOS and -Tpoc/>os-that we find the primary contrast to the &op.aTo£ Proetides, and the {3ofis a~vyas which must be sacrificed for them. The equation is consistent: animalism is associated with flight to the wilderness, whereas the ability to raise domestic animals or tame wild beasts is the prerogative of cities and settled living. The contrast is the same which we found summarized early in the poem in the character of Artemis, at one and the same time TOgoKAvTOS, "huntress," and ~p.Epa, "tamer"; the goddess who is warden of the spindle, the emblem of cultivated women, and whom the poet can also name with the traditional epithet of Hera, {30W7TLS (99). In so JACOB STERN 281 summarizing both aspects of the imagery, Artemis becomes truly the Hkraftige Fundament" of the poem. What is the source, it may be asked, of this bestial-or specifically bovine-imagery in the myth of the Proetides? Two answers are at hand. For the first we may refer to Vergil, Eclogue 6.48ff: Proetides inplerunt falsis mugitibus agros, at non tam turpes pecudum tamen ulla secuta est concuhitus, quamvis colla timuisset aratrum, et saepe in levi quaesisset cornua fronte. According to the most common version of the myth, the young girls are driven mad by Hera because they attacked her xoanon, or her temple, or claimed that they were richer or more beautiful than she.21 Servius and Probus comment that the girls 22 "se putantes vaccas in saltus ahirent . .. crederent se boves factas ... " The subtlety that while mad they believed themselves changed into cows is not so specifically stated by the Greek narrators of the myth,23 though it is believed to be at least as old as Hesiod.24 The bestial imagery could therefore have developed from the connection of Hera to COWS,25 though a separate source for the myth suggests another possible explanation: 26 aVT(XL ~ , " <,