Hipponax Fragment 128W: Epic Parody or Expulsive Incantation?
Scholars have traditionally interpreted Hipponax fragment 128 (West) as an epic parody designed to belittle the grand pretensions and gluttonous habits of his enemy. I suggest, however, that this traditional reading ultimately falls short because of two unexamined assumptions: (1) that the meter and...
| Publicado en: | Classical Antiquity Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 210 - 247 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of California Press
Oct2004
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=15277964&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 15277964 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 02786656 CLA jtl: Classical Antiquity issn: 02786656 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Oct2004 vid: 23 iid: 2 pid: 414 pub: University of California Press artinfo: ui: 15277964 10.1525/ca.2004.23.2.209 ppf: 210 ppct: 37 formats: tig: atl: Hipponax Fragment 128W: Epic Parody or Expulsive Incantation? aug: au: Faraone, Christopher A. affil: University of Chicago su: Scholars Poetry (Literary form) Literature Poets Artists sug: subj: Scholars Poetry (Literary form) Literature Poets Artists ab: Scholars have traditionally interpreted Hipponax fragment 128 (West) as an epic parody designed to belittle the grand pretensions and gluttonous habits of his enemy. I suggest, however, that this traditional reading ultimately falls short because of two unexamined assumptions: (1) that the meter and diction of the fragment are exclusively meant to recall epic narrative and not any other early hexametrical genre, and (2) that the descriptive epithets in lines 2 and 3 are the ad hoc comic creations of the poet and simply refer to the table manners of a glutton or a parasite. I argue instead that this fragment in several ways reflects the language, the meter and the performative goal of hexametrical chants or incantations designed to expel harmful famine demons or to escort human scapegoats from the city. I also suggest that the vivid and somewhat comic descriptions of the enemy in fragment 128 probably do not aim at his personal eating disorders, but rather they are drawn from two interrelated and generic features of archaic Greek thought: a tradition of describing famine-demons as insatiable eaters, and a popular theme in Greek invective which demonizes political enemies as rapacious pests who threaten to gobble up the commonwealth of the city and who therefore must be expelled from the community, precisely like a famine-demon. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2004 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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