Aulodes and Rhapsodes: Performance and Forms of Greek Elegy from Mimnermus to Hermesianax

Abstract

The present discussion reconsiders Hermesianax Leontion fr. 7.35–46 Powell (3.35–46 Lightfoot) as offering a synthesis and aesthetic evaluation of the tradition of Colophonian elegy from the archaic to the Hellenistic period. It is argued that the terminology employed in this passage makes a clear distinction between Hermesianax’ two great predecessors, Mimnermus and Antimachus, by implying that the former composed elegy for sung execution with the accompaniment of the aulos, whereas the latter probably intended his poetry either for chanting recitative performance with accompaniment (parakataloge) or for purely recitative performance without accompaniment. In the early Hellenistic age, Hermesianax, with his Leontion, made an effort to revive sympotic elegy in its original aulodic form, as practised by Mimnermus, and to reconcile it with the rhapsodic form of an extended, thematically coherent elegiac composition modelled on Antimachus’ Lyde. A similar attempt to recreate sympotic elegy was made by Hermesianax’ contemporary and acquaintance Philitas of Cos in the Paignia, as can be inferred from a short fragment of Philitas (fr. 15 Lightfoot = 18 Sbardella = 20 Spanoudakis) and from a new reading of the passage of Hermesianax devoted to him.