Picturing a Truth: Beast Fable, Early Iambos, and Semonides on the Creation of Women

Author:

Brown Christopher G.1

Affiliation:

1. Department of Classical Studies, University of Western Ontario

Abstract

Semonides’ poem on women (fr. 7W) is the longest surviving specimen of early ἴαµβος. Despite its length, however, the poem remains elusive, and its generic affiliations with the tradition associated with Archilochus and Hipponax are unclear. Invective has often been seen to stand near the heart of ἴαµβος, and in antiquity Semonides was regularly aligned with Archilochus and Hipponax as an ἰαµβοποιός—perhaps even as the πρῶτος εὑρετής of the genre, according to some (Suda σ 431 Adler = test. 7a Pellizer–Tedeschi)—but there is little in the surviving fragments that supports this view, and it is perhaps a telling point that the name of Semonides’ personal enemy, preserved by Lucian (Pseudol. 2 = test. 12 Pellizer–Tedeschi), cannot be made to fit an iambic line without emendation. While fr. 7 seems to lack specific personal targets, it nonetheless employs strategies of abuse and mockery familiar from ἴαµβος and comedy. Of particular interest are the poem’s affinities with beast fable, which were also prominent in the epodes of Archilochus. Semonides does not use any particular narrative, but the creation of different women from a variety of animals recalls fables such as 50 and 240 Perry. It is the purpose of this article to explore the use of such fables in early ἴαµβος, with particular emphasis on Semonides’ poem. It is shown to reflect the influence of a particular kind of creation story that is also found in Hesiodic poetry and Old Comedy.

Publisher

University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)

Subject

Archeology,Archeology,Classics

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