Les Banquets chez Pindare

Abstract

Abstract Ph.D. dissertation, University of Gothenburg, Sweden 2008Title: Les banquets chez PindareEnglish title: Banquets in PindarAuthor: Kalle O. LundahlLanguage: FrenchDepartment: Department of Religious Studies, Theology and Classical Philology, University of Gothenburg, Box 200, SE-405 30 GöteborgThe book contains a study of banquets in Ancient Greece and especially in the poetry of Pindar (518 438 B.C.). The introduction discusses modern works on the poet and earlier studies of banquets in Pindar, gives a presentation of the First Olympian, and finally highlights the value of confronting text with iconography. The sequel is divided into three parts: 1) The focus here is on verses 1 2, 10 15 and 22 of the First Olympian Ode (476 B.C.) dealing with the banquet of Hieron, the king of Syracuse, who commanded the poem. With these verses as a starting point, the topics of water, gold, hearth/Hestia, apples, sheep and krater are studied. In the chapter L ambiguïté intentionnelle the subject of deliberate ambiguity is discussed: a great drawback of earlier scholarship of Pindar is the monosemic view, according to which only one interpretation of a certain word or passage is possible; instead it should be recognised that the great poet was the prophet of Apollo Loxias (Oblique) and that ambiguity better serves his encomiastic purpose; therefore it is more fruitful to adopt a polysemic approach. 2) An analysis of verses 88 93 of the same ode. In verses 90 93, Pindar describes the banquet of the hero Pelops. The analysis starts with a discussion of the religious rite called theoxenia hospitality to and of the gods [and the heroes] and proceeds to examine the heroic cult of Gelon, Hieron and Pelops. The symbolism of wine, blood, couch, grave, servant and altar is then studied. In the chapter La klinê , the origins of the reclining banquet are examined, suggesting that it was introduced earlier to Greece than is generally admitted. The statue of Alpheios in the east pediment of the temple of Zeus in Olympia is also discussed. The complex problem of personification is examined in the chapters Hestia (first part), La klinê and La tombe comme serviteur (both in the second part of the book) where a solution is presented to Pindar s enigmatic phrase: the grave as a servant . 3) An analysis of verses 39 42 of the Second Isthmian (ca 470 B.C.) and of a painting of Dionysus by the Athenian vase painter Exekias (ca 535 B.C.). Keywords: Pindar, Hieron, banquets, Parsifal (Wagner), iconography, water, gold, Hestia, hearth, personification, Oltos, apple, sheep, preparation , deliberate ambiguity, monosemic, polysemic, krater, Kleisophos, Douris, Epeleios, Euphronios, Antiphon, theoxenia, Gelon, Pelops, Pelopion, wine, blood, klinê, Phoenicia, Amos, Homer, Callinus, Archilochus, Theognis, Alpheios, grave, servant, priest, circumambulatio, Onesimos, Tomba del Tuffatore, Apollinaire, altar (bômós), crown, sacrifice, Xenocrates, Dionysus, Pleiades, Phasis, pheasant, Garden of Kolymbetra.