Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page b Also by Michael Schmidt criticism Fifty Modern British Poets: An Introduction Fifty English Poets 1300–1900: An Introduction Reading Modern Poetry Lives of the Poets The Story of Poetry: Volume One The Story of Poetry: Volume Two anthologies Eleven British Poets New Poetries I, II, III Poets on Poets (with Nick Rennison) The Harvill Book of Twentieth-Century Poetry in English poetry Choosing a Guest The Love of Strangers Selected Poems fiction The Colonist The Dresden Gate translations Flower and Song: Poems of the Aztec Peoples (with Edward Kissam) On Poets and Others, Octavio Paz Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page i the FIRST POETS Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page ii Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page iii the FIRST POETS Lives of the Ancient Greek Poets michael schmidt alfred a knopf n e w yo r k 2005 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page iv this is a borzoi book published by alfred a knopf Copyright © 2004 by Michael Schmidt Map and motifs copyright © 2004 Stephen Raw All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions Published in the United States by Alfred A Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York www.aaknopf.com Originally published in Great Britian by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, in 2004 Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schmidt, Michael, 1947‒ The first poets : lives of the ancient Greek poets / Michael Schmidt p cm Includes bibliographical references and index isbn 0-375-41120-8 Poets, Greek—Biography Greek poetry—History and criticism I Title pa3064 36 2005 881'.0109—dc22 [B] 2004048840 Manufactured in the United States of America First American Edition Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page v For Angel García Gómez “fixing emblazoned zones and fiery poles” Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page vi Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page vii Contents Preface Introduction i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii xiii xiv xv xvi xvii xviii xix xx xxi xxii xxiii xxiv xxv ix xi Orpheus of Thrace The Legend Poets Homer The Homeric Apocrypha The Iliad and the Odyssey Hesiod Archilochus of Paros Alcman of Sardis Mimnermus of Colophon Semonides of Amorgos Alcaeus of Mytilene Sappho of Eressus Theognis of Megara Solon of Athens Stesichorus of Himera Ibycus of Rhegion Anacreon of Teos Hipponax of Ephesus Simonides of Cos Corinna of Tanagra Pindar of Thebes Bacchylides of Cos Callimachus of Cyrene Apollonius of Rhodes Theocritus of Syracuse 21 30 56 65 100 119 129 143 150 159 170 185 192 203 212 217 232 239 253 259 293 302 322 334 Notes Glossary Bibliography Index Acknowledgments 351 385 389 399 411 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page viii Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page ix Preface that which hath receiv’d Approbation from so many, I have chosen not to omit Certain or uncertain, be that upon the Credit of those whom I must follow; so far as keeps aloof from impossible and absurd, attested by ancient Writers from Books more ancient, I refuse not, as the due and proper subject of Story JOHN MILTON, The History of Britain In “Mythistorema,” the Greek poet George Seferis recalls waking from a dream with “this marble head in my hands.” It is weighty, and he has no place to put it down Its eyes are neither open nor closed It is trying to speak but can say nothing The bone of the cheeks is breaking through the skin What was at first stone becomes flesh and bone The poet has not asked for the burden and is not free to discard it.1 Things that inadvertently shape us draw upon structures, forms, legends, and myths that have their origin in ancient Mediterranean cultures Our mother tongue may not be Greek, but—thanks to Rome’s adoption of the Hellenic spirit—we, too, inherit that fragmented legacy of ideas and figures, stories and histories that can be as real to us as our own more immediate past Even its strangest elements rise out of the darkness almost with the force of memory When we listen to the verse phrases and whole poems that have made the hard journey through time, space and language, phrases and poems that Shakespeare, Milton, Dickinson, Shelley, Pound, Rich and others may have heard at different times and in different ways, we are enthralled as much by what we cannot know as by what we hear Though we are seldom certain that a text is accurate, though we cannot approach its sound, invent its musical accompaniment and ceremonial, join the general audience or the élite symposium, or affirm that something said is literally true, we understand what is true in a sense, and in what sense it is true Yet we must retain an awareness of the otherness of the cultures we are exploring This is a protestant book in a fundamental sense: it both affirms the importance of the Greek texts and believes in the possibility of English vernacular access to them I concede that in academic terms, the scope of this book is unrealistically, perhaps improperly broad; no amateur can begin to Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:32 PM Page 401 index Boer, Charles, 18 Boleyn, Anne, 223 Bowles, William Lisle, 239 Bowra, C M., 24, 132, 134, 135, 139, 149, 150, 151–2, 153, 179, 202, 210, 211, 214, 222, 223, 226, 237, 243, 245, 247, 249, 263, 269, 271, 288, 335, 340 Bridges, Robert, xxiii–xxiv, 261 Briseis, 97 Bupalos, 234–5 Burckhardt, Jacob, xxvii, 44, 48, 71, 235 Butler, Samuel, 39, 65, 66, 74, 81, 84, 85, 96 Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 45, 58, 175 Cadmus, 25, 210, 264 Caedmon, 122 Calasso, Roberto, xxiii, xxvii, xxviii, 322 Caligula, 212 Callimachus of Cyrene, xvi, xxii, 18, 57, 144, 145, 239, 249, 291, 294, 302–21, 322, 323–4, 325, 327, 333, 336, 337–8, 339, 340, 343, 347, 348, 349 Aetia, 57, 144, 249, 291, 309, 310–13, 325 Diegeis, 313, 314 Epigrams, 314–15 Hecale, 314, 327, 336 Hymns, 315–21 Iambi, 294, 309, 312–13 Pinakes, xvi, 305, 309 Callimachus the Younger, 308–9 On Islands, 309 Callinus, 144, 148 Calliope, 3, 5, 34, 61, 111 Calvino, Italo, 95 “The Odysseys Within the Odyssey,” 95 Calypso, 96–7 Camões, Luis vaz de, 70 Campbell, David A., 139, 215, 243, 255, 295, 297 Campion, Thomas, 253 Carpenter, Rhys, 45 Carson, Anne, 209–10 Cartledge, Paul, Cassandra, 79, 167 Casson, Lionel, 53, 305–6 Castor, 12, 129, 132, 142, 160, 247, 338 Catullus, 128, 180, 181, 240, 246, 311, 341 Cephalas, Constantinus, 143 Palatine Anthology, 143 Cercylas of Andros, 179 401 Cercyon, 301 Chagall, Marc, Chapman, George, 32, 42–3, 276 Charaxus, 179 Charmus, 193 Charon, Chaucer, Geoffrey, 63, 245 Cheiron, 323 Chilon of Sparta, 196 Choeroboscus, 236 Choirilos of Samos, 325 Christodorus, 204 Chryseis, 97 Cicero, 160, 170, 203, 214, 226, 240, 244 Cinaethon, 78 Oidipodeia, 78 Circe, 67, 77, 79, 95, 96, 331 Cleanax, 35 Cleis, 159, 178–9 Clement of Alexandria, 151, 226, 291, 301 Cleobulus of Lindos, 196, 221, 224, 248 Cleodice, 267 Cleopatra, 277, 347 Clio, 3, 111, 298 Clonas, 136 Clough, Arthur Hugh, 164 Clymene, 38 Clytemnestra, 129, 132, 186 Clytios, 13 Coeus, 110 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 63, 260, 261 Comas, 233 Comatas, 343, 345 Congreve, William, 259 Constantine the Great, 101, 173 Contest Between Hesiod and Homer, The, 61, 78, 114–17 Corax, 125 Corinna of Tanagra, xxvii, 253–8, 262, 267 Cory, William Johnson, 143, 315 Ionica, 315 Cowley, Abraham, 259 Pindarique Odes, 260 Crates of Mallos, 55 Cratidas, 343 Creon, 239 Creophylus of Samos, 37 Critheis, 34, 35 Crius, 110 Croesus, 162, 201, 295, 298 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 402 12:32 PM Page 402 index Cronus, 59, 106, 110, 256, 319 Ctimene, 117, 204 Cupid, 256 Cybele, 10 Cybisthus, 194 Cynaethus, 206 Cypria, 78 Cypselus, 23 Cyrene, 7, 319 Cyrnus, 187, 188–90 Daëmon, 34 Daiphantus, 267 Damas, 139 Damophyla, 180 Danaë, 249, 280 Dante Alighieri, 63–4, 70, 110, 209 Daphne, 10, 27 Daphnis, 206, 341, 345 Darius I, 233 Davenport, Guy, 120, 123, 126, 127, 131–2, 172, 217, 220, 221, 222 Davie, Donald, xxvii Dawn, 86, 174, 175, 180, 215, 329 Deianira, 300 Deiphobus, 214 Delaunay, Robert, Delos, 317, 320 Delphis, 336 Demeter, 26, 111, 114, 121, 128, 195, 236, 266, 310, 317, 318, 320–1, 338, 344, 345 Demetrius of Phalerum, xvii, 305 Democedes, 212 Democritus, 227 Demodes, 117 Demodocus, 32, 65, 67, 70, 137 Dickinson, Emily, ix Didymus of Alexandria, xi, xxv, 301, 306 Epitome, 306 Dillon, George, 263 Diodorus Siculus, 22, 56, 163, 201 Diogenes Laertius, 162, 195, 201, 226 Diomede, 74, 77, 227, 264 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, xvi, 162, 174, 176, 208, 246, 286, 287, 310 Demosthenes, 176 On Literary Composition, 174 Dionysus, 3, 5, 10, 11, 60, 61, 128, 137, 166, 190, 216, 221, 224, 231, 244, 264, 268, 324 Dionysus-Zagreus, 16 Diphilus, 128 Dirce, 25 Diringer, David, 302 Dodsley, Robert, 259 Dolon, 74 Donne, John, 219 D[oolittle], H[ilda], 142 Dover, K J., 215, 343 Draco, 197 Dropides, 193, 200 Dryden, John, 146, 259 All for Love, 146 Dryops, 61 Duchamp, Marcel, Dufy, Raoul, Echecratidas, 225, 247 Echion, 12 Eliot, T S., 137, 186, 251 The Waste Land, 186 Elizabeth I, Queen, xxi Endymion, 215 Enipo, 122 Eos, 61 Epigoni, 78 Epimetheus, 113 Erasistratus, 244 Erato, 3, 111, 328 Eratosthenes of Cyrene, 39, 117, 306 Erebus, 110 Eriboia, 300 Eris, 105–6 Eritimus, 267 Eros, 109–10, 223, 231, 254, 328–9, 330 Erytos, 12 Eteocles, 207–8, 265 Euclid, 306 Eugammon of Cyrene, 79 Telegonia, 79 Eugnetho, 34 Eukleides, 186 Eumaeus, 67, 90 Eumelus of Corinth, 78 Eumenides, Eumetis, 267 Eunica of Salamis, 182 Eunomia, 193 Euonymus, 257 Eupeithes, 98 Euphronios, 173 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:32 PM Page 403 index Euphrosyne, 290 Eupolis, xvi Euripedes, xvii, xxii, 15, 234, 324, 339 Alcestis, 15 Hippolytus, 15 Eurydice, 6–9, 10, 244, 330 Eurygius, 179 Eurylachus, 92 Euryphaëssa, 61 Eurypyle, 222 Eurysaces, 196 Euterpe, 111 Euthydemus the Handsome, xvi Evelyn-White, Hugh G., 57, 77 Execestides, 173, 193 Fennell, C A M., 286 Ficino, Marsilio, 20 Fitzgerald, Robert, 73, 87 Flaubert, Gustave, 80 Ford, Ford Madox, 68, 182 Fourmont, Abbé, 129, 130, 132 Fowler, Barbara Hughes, 220–1, 227 Frost, Robert, 251 Gaetulicus, 121, 124, 126 Gaia, 193 Galatea, 337 Ganyctor, 114 Ganymede, 215, 284 Gea, 141, 177 Gell, William, 41 George, Stefan, 189 Gerber, Douglas, 237 Geryon, 207, 209 Gilgamesh, xii Glaucos, 36, 123, 245, 273, 332 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 65, 141, 259 Gongula of Colophon, 180, 182 Gorgo, 182, 334–5 Gower, John, 245 Grant, Michael, xxiii, xxv, 24, 212, 225, 229, 230 Graves, Robert, 7, 22, 74, 98, 132, 334 Gray, Thomas, 259 Green, Peter, 325 Gregory of Corinth, 226 Griffiths, F T., 345 Guthrie, W K C., 5, 19 Gyges, 122, 147 403 Hadrian, 34 Hagesias of Syracuse, 283 Hammurabi, xii, xiii Hardy, Thomas, 164–5 Haslam, Michael, 320 Hazlitt, William, 143, 290 Heaney, Seamus, 23 Hecale, 314 Hecate, 318, 336 Hector, 63, 65, 66, 83, 87, 88, 90, 91, 93, 95, 116, 166 Hecuba, 88 Hegesias, 78 Helen, 12, 66, 73, 78, 79, 88, 92, 93, 97, 129, 132, 142, 155, 166–7, 180, 204–5, 214, 300, 339 Helianax, 204 Helicon, 256, 257, 266 Helios, 58, 61 Henry VIII, King, 223 Hephaestus, 5, 58, 71, 91, 114, 145, 219 Hephaistion, 169, 173 Handbook of Metres, 173 Hera, 58, 87, 89, 114, 166, 167, 212, 262, 327, 328 Heracleides of Pontus, 15, 139, 193, 264 Heracles, 5, 12, 22, 62, 121–2, 142, 147–8, 207, 209–10, 214, 227, 245, 264, 273, 275, 277, 280, 295, 299, 327, 332, 337 Hermann, Gottfried, 94 Hermes, 12, 25, 26, 58–61, 96, 160, 234, 237, 256, 313, 342 Hermesianax of Alexandria, 6–7, 147 Hermes Trismegistus, 4, 20 Herodas, 294, 346 Herodotus, xii, 16, 17, 23, 24, 26, 29, 35, 61, 109, 119, 121, 161, 192, 198, 199, 201, 212, 229, 244, 289 Life of Homer, 61 Herodotus of Thebes, 289 Herrick, Robert, 217, 219 Hesiod, xiii, xiv, xix, xxii, xxvi, xxvii, 3, 4, 9, 13, 15, 31, 34, 48, 54, 61, 64, 83, 100–18, 120, 127, 128, 133, 139, 141, 145, 150, 151, 155, 158, 167, 177, 185, 192–3, 204, 229, 232, 256, 258, 266, 290, 303, 304, 311, 323, 324, 339–40, 342, 344, 345 Ehoiai, 102 Shield of Heracles, 102 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 404 2/2/05 12:32 PM Page 404 index Hesiod (continued ) Theogony, xxvi, 55, 83, 101–2, 103–5, 106–7, 109–12, 114–17, 151, 344 Works and Days, 31, 102, 103, 104–8, 109, 112–14, 116, 133, 150, 151, 167, 232 Hesperus, 175 Hestia, 59 Hiero I of Syracuse, 241–2, 248, 270, 277, 284, 289, 291, 296, 297–8, 300 Hiero II of Syracuse, 347–8 Hill, Geoffrey, 137 Himerus, 169 Orations, 169 Hipparchus, 17, 26, 50, 225, 229, 241, 242, 247 Hippias, 241, 242, 247 Hippocleas of Thessaly, 278, 281 Hippocoön, 132, 142 Hippocrates, 194, 243 Hippodamia, 284 Hippolyta, 186 Hipponax of Ephesus (or Colophon), xxi, xxvi, 128, 144, 151–2, 153, 156, 201, 232–8, 312 Hipsypile, 328, 329 Homer, xiii, xiv, xv, xvi, xvii, xviii, xix, xx, xxi, xxii, xxiv, xxvi, xxvii, xxviii, 3, 4, 14, 15, 17, 18, 26, 30–55, 61, 62, 63, 64, 68, 69, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77–8, 80, 83, 86, 87, 94, 100, 106, 107, 108, 110, 111–12, 114, 115–16, 127, 128, 133, 137, 139, 141, 142, 145, 147, 149, 150, 151, 167, 169, 174, 175, 180, 194, 195–6, 203, 204, 206, 208, 211, 217, 219, 229, 235, 241, 242, 257, 258, 271, 273, 278, 284–5, 291, 294, 299, 303, 304, 306, 308, 310, 314, 317, 323, 324, 326, 329, 333, 337, 339, 342, 344, 347, 350 Batrachomyomachia, 39, 56, 62–3 Cercopes, 56, 62 Expedition of Amphiaraus to Thebes, 30 Hymns to the Gods, 30, 33, 35, 43, 56, 71, 216, 217, 286, 299, 321, 339 “Hymn to Aphrodite I,” 59 “Hymn to Artemis II,” 61, 320 “Hymn to Delian Apollo,” 31–2, 33, 37, 56, 57, 317, 320 “Hymn to Demeter I,” 57 “Hymn to Dionysus I,” 57 “Hymn to Dionysus II,” 57, 60 “Hymn to Helios,” 61 “Hymn to Hermes,” 58–9, 234 “Hymn to Pan,” 60 “Hymn to Pythian Apollo,” 56, 57 “Hymn to Selene,” 61 Iliad, xii, xvi, xviii, xxiv, xxvi, xxvii, xxviii, 5, 18, 30, 33, 34, 37, 39, 40, 43, 44–5, 47, 48–50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 62, 63, 65–99, 116, 125, 174, 195–6, 245, 278, 306, 308, 326, 328, 337 Margites, 56, 61–2, 127 Odyssey, xvi, xxviii, 18, 30, 32, 33, 36, 38, 39, 40, 43, 44–5, 47, 48–50, 52, 56, 59, 65–99, 111, 125, 174, 236, 278, 308 Oikalias Agosis, 37 Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 261 Horace, 15, 119, 125, 128, 135, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 166, 180, 181, 209, 240, 251, 255, 291–2, 301 Ars Poetica, 255 Epistles, 160 Odes, 159, 162 Housman, A E., 180 Hughes, Ted, 272 Hunter, Richard, 339, 344 Hyacinth, 129 Hylas, 327, 332, 337 Hyperides, 294 Hyperion, 61, 110 Hypsipyle, 294 Hyrieus, 257 Iadmon, 179 Iambicus, 173 Iapetus, 110 Ibycus of Rhegion, 18, 134, 138, 141, 161, 203, 204, 205, 212–16, 223, 228, 250, 267 Icarus, 268 Idas, 13, 329, 332, 338 Idmon, 13, 332 Idomeneus, 214 Ion, 51, 70, 313 Iphias, 327 Iphigeneia, 186 Iphitos, 13 Isis, 318 Ismene, 265 Isthmian Games, 245, 277 Ixion, Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:32 PM Page 405 index Jaeger, Werner, 239, 251 Jason, 7, 12, 13–14, 148, 289, 322, 326–33 Jay, Peter, 240 Jefferey, L H., 130 Jerome, St., xiv, 203 Jesus Christ, Jocasta, 207, 265 Johnson, Samuel, 41 Jones, David, 137 Jonson, Ben, 168, 187, 245, 259–60, 279, 286 Jowett, Benjamin, 200 Julian the Apostate, 173, 276, 301 Karrhotos, 288–9 Keats, John, 42–3 Kenyon, F G., 294 Kleoboea, 121 Kretschmer, Paul, 98 Kurke, Leslie, xix, xx, 133–4, 176, 183, 188, 207, 208 Kypria, 78, 79 Labdacus, 264 Lacon, 342–3 Laertes, 96, 98 Laius, 25 Lamberton, Robert, 109 Lampon, 270 Landor, Walter Savage, 179 Langland, William, 70 Larichus, 179 Larkin, Philip, 308 Laski, Marghanita, 80 Lasus, 52, 241, 267, 269, 287 Latona, 318 Lattimore, Richmond, 227, 262, 275, 279 Lazarus, 6, 83 Leda, 12, 129, 141, 338 Lefkowitz, Mary R., 195, 199, 310, 323 Léger, Fernand, Leighton, Frederic, Lord, 254 Leopardi, Giacomo, 63–4 Leoprepes, 244 Leotchydas I, King, 130 Lesches of Mitylene, 79 Ilias Mikra, 79 Lesky, Albin, 42, 50, 57, 82, 83, 90, 92, 93, 94–5, 97, 153, 218, 225, 226, 238, 261, 273, 281, 295, 326, 346, 348 Leto, 26, 61 405 Leucippus, 338 Levi, Peter, 22, 26, 117, 255, 256 Levi-Strauss, Claude, 328 Linforth, I M., Linos, 4, 5–6, 22, 24, 75 Lobel, Edgar, 256 Longinus, 33, 244, 296 Longinus on the Sublime, 171, 296 Lord, Albert B., 48–9, 50 Louis XV, King, 129 Luce, J V., 46, 47, 89, 96 Lucian, 153, 201 Lucie-Smith, Edward, 121 Lycambes, 123–4 Lycidas, 344–5 Lycurgus of Athens, xvii Lycus, 25 Lydè, 307 Lynceus, 262, 338 Lysistratus, 27 Machaon, 79, 87 Maclaren, Charles, 45 Maeander, xv Maeon, 34 Maia, 58, 59 Mamertinus, 204 Mandelstam, Osip, 30 Mariette, Auguste, 131 Marlowe, Christopher, 296 Mars, 161 Maximus of Tyre, 182, 217, 224 Medea, 14, 214, 322, 326–7, 329–32, 336, 337 Medon, 37, 68 Megacleia, 267 Megacles, 269 Megalostrata, 134 Megara, 180 Meidon, 296 Melanchrus, 162 Melanthius, 90, 98 Melantho, 90 Meleager of Gadara, 143, 214, 240, 241, 295, 296, 297, 299 Garland, 241, 297 Meles, 34, 35 Melesias, 270 Melesigenes, 35 Melpomene, 3, 111 Memnon, 62, 79 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 406 12:32 PM index Menander, 134, 294 Menapolus, 35 Menelaus, 18, 66, 73, 79, 84, 90, 93, 95, 129, 214, 300 Menemachus, 34 Mentes, 35, 68 Mentor, 35–6, 98 Metis, 34 Meyer, Doris, 316 Michelangelo, 274 Miltiades, 248 Milton, John, ix, 63, 70, 94, 109, 110, 133, 226, 259, 341 Comus, 133 “L’Allegro,” 226 “Lycidas,” 341, 342 Paradise Lost, 94 Mimnermus of Colophon (or Smyrna), xxi, 143–9, 187, 202, 311, 313 Nanno, 144, 146–7, 249 Smyrneis, 144, 146–7 Minos, 295, 300 Mnasiepes, 102 Mnemosyne, 5, 110, 111 Mnesagoras, 34 Mnesiepes, 121 Mommsen, Christian Matthias Theodor, 293 Monteverdi, Claudio, Moore, Marianne, 262 Morrison, James, 90 Morson, 342 Moschus, 339, 341 Mulroy, David, 145, 152, 221, 227, 267, 284 Murray, Gilbert, 220 Musaeus, 3, 4, 18, 26–9, 52, 75 Myrsilus, 162 Myrtis, 253, 255, 268 Myrto, 345 Nagy, Gregory, xviii, 49, 50 Nausicaa, 66–7, 74, 97, 142, 331 Nebuchadnezzar, 161 Neleus, 147–8 Nemean Games, 245, 277 Neobulé, 120, 123–4, 126, 128 Neoptolemus, 79, 270 Nessus, 300 Nestor, 34, 46, 77, 92, 93, 148 Nicandor, 147 Nicias of Miletus, 337, 347 Page 406 Nietzsche, Friedrich, xxvi, xxvii, 105, 185, 188 Niobe, 25–6 Nonnus, 324 Oceanus, 110 Odysseus, 18, 34, 36, 38, 40, 44, 45, 65–7, 68, 71, 74, 76, 77, 79, 80–2, 84, 85, 87, 90, 91, 92, 93–4, 95–7, 98–9, 142, 186, 236, 300, 331 Oeagrus, Oedipus, 256, 264 Oenomaus, King, 284 Offenbach, Jacques, Orpheus in the Underworld, Olen, 18 Olson, Charles, 137 Olympian Games, 245, 264, 275, 289, 290 Olympichus, 266 Olympus of Phrygia, 136 Oneaea, 22 Onomacritos, 17, 26–7, 51–2, 67, 129, 196, 241, 302 Orestes, 205 Orion, 257 Oroetes, 212 Orpheus of Thrace, 3–20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27–8, 29, 34, 51, 74, 100, 108, 209, 215, 249, 289, 316, 323, 328, 330, 331, 332 Ovid, xv, xxi, 6, 180, 181, 182, 255, 307, 311 Amores, xxi Metamorphoses, xv, 311 Owen, Wilfred, 136 Page, Denys, 45 Pagondas, 267 Palaemenes, 82–3 Palgrave, Francis, 146 Pallas, 317, 320 Pamphos, 18 Pan, 60–1, 230, 266, 276, 342, 345 Pandarus, 73 Pandora, 112–13, 155 Paneides, King, 34, 114, 116 Paris, 69, 78, 79, 90, 93, 205 Parnell, Thomas, 63 Parry, Milman, 48–50 Pasiphae, 300 Passalus, 62 Patroclus, 9, 70–1, 82, 87, 92, 93, 95, 273 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:32 PM Page 407 index Pausanias, 3, 5, 6, 12, 15, 16, 18, 22, 26, 27, 38, 100, 105, 108, 118, 121, 131, 148, 186, 196, 211, 230, 254–5, 262, 264, 265, 266 Peck, John, x Pegasus, 101 Pelias, King, 326 Pelops, 284 Penelope, 34, 66, 68, 74, 79, 84, 96, 97, 98 Penthesileia, 79, 80 Pentheus, 256, 339 Periander, 23, 24, 25, 196–7 Pericles, xvii, 229, 230, 234, 269, 271 Persephone, 16, 57, 111, 266 Perses, 106, 112, 340 Perseus, 249, 279, 280–1 Petronius, 237 Satyricon, 237 Phalaris, 205 Phaon, 181, 220 Phegeus, 117 Phemius, 35, 68 Phidias, 230 Philaeus, 196 Philenus, 345 Philetadas, 313 Philetas of Cos, 144, 244, 306–7, 311, 347 Philina, 345 Philip of Macedon, 265, 304 Philochorus, 240 Philoctetes, 79 Philodemus, 214 Philomela, 186 Philostratus, 180 Phocylides, 144, 154, 187 Phoebe, 110 Phoebus, 11, 220 Phoenix, 147, 249 Photius, 77 Phytius, 213 Picabia, Francisco, Picard, Barbara Leonie, 35 Pigres, 62 Pindar of Thebes, xxii, xxvii, 16, 18, 22, 55, 108, 132, 133, 135, 137, 141, 145, 161, 165, 203, 207, 208, 209, 210, 225, 229, 243, 245, 246, 248–9, 250, 251, 253, 254–5, 256, 259–92, 294, 295, 296–8, 299, 303, 311, 335, 342 Isthmian Odes, 270, 272, 282, 288–9 407 Nemean Odes, 264, 272, 282, 283, 284, 288, 290 Olympian Odes, 271, 272, 282, 283, 286–7, 290, 292, 297, 298 Paeans, 262, 272, 276, 285, 291, 294 Pythian Odes, 268, 269, 271, 277, 278, 283, 284, 287, 288–9, 291, 298 Pisistratus, 17, 24, 26, 39, 40, 48, 50–1, 52, 53–4, 67, 72, 73, 111, 193, 195, 201–2, 229 Pittacus, 161, 162, 166, 167, 179, 196, 201 Plato, 3, 9, 10, 15, 20, 51, 81, 93, 194, 197, 200, 201, 204, 213, 226, 240, 250, 291, 310, 344, 345–6 Apology, Critias, 200 Hippias, 81 Ion, 51 Lysis, 344 Phaedrus, 204, 344 Protagoras, 197 Republic, 93 Symposium, Pliny the Elder, xv, 203, 204, 232, 233–4 Natural History, xv, 203, 232 Pliny the Younger, 337 Plutarch, xvi, xviii, 3, 16, 111, 117, 131, 135, 168, 171, 192, 193, 194–5, 196, 199, 202, 240, 242, 248, 253, 254, 262, 268, 303 Life of Theseus, 111 On Love and Wealth, 168 Pluto, 8, 57 Pollux, see Polydeuces Pollux, Julius, 174 Polyanax, 175, 177 Polycasta, 34 Polycrates, 212–13, 223–4, 225, 226, 228–9, 240, 243 Polydeuces, 12, 129, 132, 142, 160, 245, 247, 273, 278, 338 Polygnotus, 121 Polyhymnia, 3, 111 Polymnestus of Colophon, 136, 226 Polynices, 208, 265 Polyphemus, 97, 337 Pope, Alexander, 63, 182 Porphyry, 151 Poseidippus, 21–2, 147, 310 Poseidon, 22, 27, 45, 85, 87, 89, 97, 103, 118, 147, 200, 257, 277, 284, 295, 300, 330 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 408 12:32 PM Page 408 index Pound, Ezra, ix, 25, 126, 137, 171, 180, 204, 251, 261, 282–3, 288, 302, 310 Cantos, 282 Praxagoras, 347 Praxinoa, 334–5 Praxiphanes of Mytilene, 309, 310 Praxiteles, 186, 213 Priam, xxvi, 66, 80, 83, 85, 88, 89, 92, 95, 300, 314 Priscian, 215 Proclus, 77, 79, 167, 307, 316 Chrestomatheia, 77, 79 Procne, 186 Procoptes (or Procrustes), 301 Prometheus, 3, 17, 155 Propertius, Sextus, 25, 145, 255, 307, 310, 311 Proserpina, Protagoras, 227 Proteus, 7–8, 39, 95, 205, 278 Protis, 233 Protomache, 267 Proust, Marcel, 168 Psalms of David, xxvii Ptolemy I (Soter), xvii, 55, 305, 308 Ptolemy II (Philadelphus), 305, 306, 309, 313, 319, 334, 335, 344, 347–8 Ptolemy III, 318 Pushkin, Alexander, 23 Pycimede, 101 Pythagoras, 20, 203, 213 Pytheas, 233 Pythian Games, 245, 276, 279, 291 Quintilian, 163, 208, 246, 271, 307 Principles of Oratory, 307 Race, William H., 284, 288 Raphael, Frederic, x, 76 Rassam, Hormuzd, xiii Rhea, 110, 266, 318, 328 Rhodopis, 179 Rich, Adrienne, ix Romilly, Jacqueline de, 82 Ronsard, Pierre de, 217 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 175 Rudden, Sarah, 257 Sacadas, 22 Sappho of Eressus, xvi, xix, xxi, 128, 130, 133, 134, 136–7, 139, 141, 144, 159–60, 162, 163, 168–9, 170–84, 203, 209, 220, 223, 225, 226, 229, 255, 257, 258, 283, 294, 348 Sargent, Thelma, 35 Schiller, Friedrich, 94 Schlag, Evelyn, x Sciron, 301 Scopas, 239, 251 Scopelinus, 267 Seferis, George, ix Selene, 61 Semonides of Amorgos, xxi, 128, 144, 150–8, 232, 238 Seneca, xi Shakespeare, William, ix, 52, 63, 81, 146, 245, 296 Antony and Cleopatra, 146 Hamlet, 202 Measure for Measure, 197 Shelley, Percy Bysshe, ix, 56, 58, 192, 341 Sidney, Sir Philip, 47 Silenus, 230 Simaetha, 336 Simichidas, 340, 344 Simichus, 345 Simonides of Cos, 54, 141, 144, 149, 196, 203, 214, 215, 225, 239–52, 263, 266, 268, 273, 274–5, 282, 294, 295, 296–7, 301 Sylloge Simonidea, 240–1 Sinis, 301 Sisson, C H., 260 Sisyphus, Skadas of Argos, 108 Skopas, 186 Smerdies, 223–4 Smiles, Samuel, 114 Socrates, 51, 70, 182, 186, 197, 225 Sogenes, 288 Solon of Athens, xviii, 24, 50, 51, 55, 67, 73, 144, 147, 149, 161, 162, 173, 179, 187, 188–90, 192–3, 242, 246, 267, 303, 316, 349 Sophocles, xvii, xxii, 44, 78, 244 Sophron, 345, 346 Spendon, 131 Spenser, Edmund, xxiv Stasinus, 78 Statius, 208 Steiner, George, xxviii, 34–5, 48–9 Stendhal, 168 Sterne, Laurence, xi Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:32 PM Page 409 index Stesichorus of Himera, 138, 141, 203–11, 214–15, 245, 250, 266, 343 Athla epi Pelia, 210 Cerberus, 210 Cycnus, 210 Eriphyle, 210 Europa, 210 Geryon, 209 Helen, 210 Iliou Persis, 210 Oresteia, 209, 210 Suotherai, 210 Stesimbrotus of Thasos, 51, 55 Stevens, Wallace, 252 Sthenelus, 77 Stobaeus, Johannes, 143–4, 146, 153, 283 Greek Anthology, 143–4 Strabo, xvii, 22, 45, 48, 146, 161, 162, 181, 244, 265, 305 Geography, 181 Suda, 62, 139, 150, 152, 193, 203, 204, 205, 214, 215, 226, 233, 244, 263, 267, 308–9 Suetonius, 212 Svarlien, Diane Arnson, 155 Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 176 Sybil, Cumaean, 103 Talos, 215 Tantalus, 8, 284 Taplin, Oliver, 41, 48–9, 68, 69–70, 72, 74, 76, 80, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 95, 112, 324 Tartarus, 109 Taylor, Thomas, 18, 19, 28–9 Teiresias, 207, 264 Telegonus, 79 Telemachus, 34, 45, 68, 82, 83, 84, 90, 93, 96, 97–8, 236, 332 Telesicles, 122–3 Telesicrates of Cyrene, 271 Telesippa, 180 Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 21 Tereus, King, 186 Terpander, 22, 58, 131, 136, 140, 177 Terpsichore, 111 Tethys, 110 Teucer, 278 Thales of Miletus, 179, 194, 196, 201 Thaletas of Gortyn, 136 Thalia, 3, 111, 290 Thamyris, 29, 34, 108 409 Theagenes of Rhegion, 54, 186–7 Thebe, 25 Theia, 110 Themis, 110, 193 Themista, 34 Themistocles, 242, 244, 248 Theocritus of Syracuse, 57, 160, 168, 210, 232, 239, 244, 247, 306, 307, 334–50 Berenice, 348 Epigrams, 348 Idylls, 244, 334–5, 336–50 Syrinx, 348 Theodorus, 212 Theognis of Megara, xxi, 146, 149, 160–1, 185–91, 192, 271, 349 Theognidea, 187–91 Theophrastus, 305 Theoxenus, 268 Theron, 248, 270, 289 Theseus, 111, 295, 300, 314 Thespis, 201 Thestorides, 36 Lesser Iliad, 36 Phocais, 36 Thetis, 57, 58, 91, 331 Thorax, 278, 281 Thucydides, 33, 56, 117, 129–30, 308, 320 Thyrsis, 341–2 Timocreon, 248–9 Timotheus of Miletus, xvi Persae, xvi Titanomachia, 78 Titarus, 139 Tithonus, 86, 180, 215 Tottel, Richard, 146 Triton, 331 Troilus, 215, 314 Trypanis, Constantine A., 81, 106, 144, 145, 148 Tydeus, 77 Tyndareus, King (of Sparta), 129, 132–3, 338 Tyrtaeus, xviii, xxi, 135–6, 138–9, 144, 148, 187, 303 Eunomia, 135 Tzetzes, 55, 204, 208 Urania, 111 Uranus, 110, 141, 148, 177, 193 Valerius Maximus, 229 Verres, Gaius, 170–1, 203 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:32 PM 410 index Victoria, Queen, 176 Virgil, 6, 8, 42, 63, 67, 68, 70, 103, 209, 300, 301, 319, 341 Aeneid, 68, 103, 209 Vita Metrica, 267 Vita Thomana, 269 Voltaire, 102, 306 Vulcan, 161 Walpole, Horace, 259 Wells, Robert, x, 341, 347 West, Martin Litchfield, xxv, 54, 108, 120, 124, 148, 155, 172, 211, 221, 233, 236, 249 Whitman, Walt, 137, 272 Williams, Bernard, 44 Williams, William Carlos, 172 Wilner, Eleanor, xxvii Wolf, F A., 48 Wordsworth, William, 251, 293, 341 Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 223 Xanthippe, 182 Page 410 Xanthus, 68, 91, 206 Xenea, 345 Xenocritus of Locri, 206 Xenophanes, 144, 147, 149 Xenophon, xvi, 51 Memorabilia, 51 Xerxes, xii Yeats, W B., 315 Zanker, Paul, 230 Zenodotus of Epheses, 55, 77, 83, 305, 306 Zethus, 25 Zeus, 5, 11, 12, 16, 25, 38, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 66, 68, 78, 83, 85, 87–9, 92, 96, 98, 101, 104, 105, 109, 110, 111, 113, 115, 117, 124, 129, 141, 148, 157–8, 166, 167, 168, 177, 193, 212, 231, 249, 256, 262, 264, 275, 276, 277, 284, 289, 297, 298, 300, 311, 312, 314, 316, 317, 318–19, 320, 327, 331, 338, 344, 349 Zoroaster, 20, 328 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:32 PM Page 411 Acknowledgments The editor and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint the following poems and extracts in this book: David Mulroy, Early Greek Lyric Poetry (University of Michigan Press, 1992), by permission of the publisher; Apollonios Rhodios, The Argonautika: The Story of Jason and the Quest for the Golden Fleece, edited and translated by Peter Green (University of California Press, 1997), by permission of the publisher; Virgil, The Georgics, edited and translated by Robert Wells (Carcanet Press Ltd, 1982), by permission of the publisher; Elaine Feinstein, editor, After Pushkin (Carcanet Press Ltd., 1999), by permission of the publisher; Guy Davenport, Thasos and Ohio (Carcanet Press Ltd., 1985), by permission of the publisher; William Carlos Williams, Complete Poems I and II (Carcanet Press Ltd., 1987, 1988), by permission of the publisher; Richmond Lattimore, Greek Lyrics, second edition (University of Chicago Press, 1949, 1955 and 1960), by permission of the publisher; Pindar, The Odes, translated by Richmond Lattimore (University of Chicago Press, 1947), by permission of the publisher; Wallace Stevens, “Two Illustrations That the World Is What You Make of It” II, from Collected Poems (Faber & Faber, 1955), by permission of the publisher; Ezra Pound, “Lustra” and “Homage to Sextus Propertius,” Collected Shorter Poems (Faber & Faber, 1968), by permission of the publisher; David Campbell, editor and translator, Greek Lyric I: Sappho and Alcaeus, testimonia 22 (Harvard University Press, 1982), by permission of the publisher; Hesiod, Works and Days and Theogony, translated by Stanley Lombardo, introduction by Robert Lamerton (Hackett Publishing Company, 1993), by permission of the publisher; Barbara Hughes Fowler, Archaic Greek Poetry (University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), by permission of the publisher; Guy Davenport, Seven Greeks (New Directions, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1991, 1995), by permission of the publisher; Martin Litchfield West, Greek Lyric Poetry: The Poems and Fragments of the Greek Iambic, Elegiac, and Melic Poets (Oxford University Press, 1999), by permission of the publisher; Pausanias, Guide to Greece, Volume 1: Central Greece, translated by Peter Levi (Penguin Classics, 1971), by permission of the Penguin Group (UK); Peter Jay, The Greek Anthology and Other Ancient Greek Epigrams: A Selection of Modern Verse Translations (Allen Lane, 1973, Penguin Classics, 1981), by permission of the Penguin Group (UK); Friedrich Nietzsche, The Portable Nietzsche, edited and translated by Walter Kaufmann (Viking Press, 1954, Viking Penguin Inc., 1982), by permission of the Penguin Group (USA) Inc Every effort has been made to contact holders of material quoted and reproduced in this book, but any omissions will be restituted at the earliest opportunity Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:32 PM Page 412 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:32 PM Page 413 about the author Michael Schmidt is a critic and poet, and editorial and managing director of Carcanet Press He was born in Mexico in 1947 and grew up there He studied at Harvard and Oxford and is now Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University His books include Lives of the Poets, several collections of poems, two novels, critical books, and anthologies He has translated Nahuatl (Aztec) poetry, and essays by Mexican writer Octavio Paz Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:32 PM Page 414 Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:32 PM Page 415 a note on the type This book was set in Garamond, a type named for the famous Parisian type cutter Claude Garamond (ca 1480–1561) Garamond, a pupil of Geoffroy Tory, based his letter on the types of the Aldine Press in Venice, but he introduced a number of important differences, and it is to him that we owe the letter now known as “old style.” The version of Garamond used for this book was first introduced by the Monotype Corporation of London in 1922 It is not a true copy of any of the designs of Claude Garamond, but can be attributed to Jean Jannon, a Protestant printer working in Sedan in the early seventeenth century, who had worked with Garamond’s romans earlier but who was denied their use because of Catholic censorship Jannon’s matrices came into possession of the Imprimerie nationale, where they were thought to be by Garamond himself, and were so described when the Imprimerie revived the type in 1900 The italic is based on the types of Robert Granjon, a type cutter and printer active in Antwerp, Lyons, Paris, and Rome from 1523 to 1590 Composed by Stratford Publishing Services, Brattleboro, Vermont Printed and bound by Berryville Graphics, Berryville, Virginia ... and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schmidt, Michael, 1947‒ The first poets : lives of the ancient Greek poets / Michael. .. Sappho of Eressus Theognis of Megara Solon of Athens Stesichorus of Himera Ibycus of Rhegion Anacreon of Teos Hipponax of Ephesus Simonides of Cos Corinna of Tanagra Pindar of Thebes Bacchylides of. .. PM Page i the FIRST POETS Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page ii Schm_0375411208_3p_all_r4.qxp 2/2/05 12:31 PM Page iii the FIRST POETS Lives of the Ancient Greek Poets michael schmidt