Reasoning: The Scythians

In reading Herodotus' Histories, I was always intrigued by the mysterious nomadic Scythians. Herodotus views them as fierce warriors and a people with a bizarre and mysterious culture. I am not a historian so the actual people that inspired his descriptions have not been anything more than a vague interest. However, I was excited to see an article in the New York Times about the sophistication of these ancient nomads.

Reasoning: Constructs of Ethnic Identity in the Ancient World

Instead of what I was supposed to be doing today (reading Medea), I spent a lovely cool spring day on the porch reading the Landmark Herodotus and the Iliad (which I do have to read in preparation for reading book 14 in Greek with Propertius II). Much of Herodotus, in my mind, is a combination of political science and a quest to understanding ethnic identity. The way that the Greeks defined themselves and others is a fascinating question int he ancient world and one i would like ot expore more thoroughly.

In the last few days, both AWOL and Egyptology News have recommended a new open-access journal and magazine called Egyptological. I decided to browse around and read an article on Ancient Egyptian perceptions of Ethnic identities that sounded intriguing. The article was a comparison between two different books on ethnic identity in ancient Egypt which each take a different anthropological view of the way that Egyptians perceived foreigners.

Reasoning: The Politics of Helen

Helen was one of the most discussed characters in the Greek world. However, no ancient author seems to agree on Helen's nature, and even the portrayal of Helen in the Iliad and the Odyssey are different. I have been reading Gorgias' Encomium of Helen with Propertius II (although more slowly than I intended) and noticed that one of the defenses that he uses is that if she were seized, specifically under the will of the gods, then it is not her fault but the fault of the person who seized her (and the gods).

This immediately struck me as interesting. I remembered reading the beginning of the Histories in my fabulous Herodotus class. Herodotus introduces his tale of the Persian wars with an incredible prologue [1] and then launches into a discussion of the causes of the war: specifically a long train of young women captured by the opposing side starting with Io and moving on through Helen and finally to Medea. In each case, he blames the woman, rather than the sailors who seize her, for her capture. Gorgias makes the opposite argument. As the two wrote relatively close together, I was wondering which argument about captured women might have been more persuasive to an audience. Food for thought.

Endnotes

1. There is an amazing article by Egbert Bakker on Herodotus' prologue called "The Making of History: Herodotus' Histories Apodexis" from Brill's Companion to Herodotus.

Appetitive: Herodotus and Ancient Temples

So I checked my twitter this morning and reaffirmed my reason for having a twitter (no matter how stupid Cerinthus and his parents think it is).

First, I happened upon (through Marathon 2500's twitter) an online version of Herodotus with facing Greek on sacred-texts.com. Unlike the Perseus version, this does not have a built in dictionary, but it is a clean format for browsing the English and Greek.

Second, I came upon a Huffington Post slideshow of Ancient Greek and Roman temples in Europe and the Middle East. The pictures are not fabulous (many of Cerinthus' pictures are better), but they show a number of temples in France and the Middle East that I had not seen before.

Acropolis, from Cerinthus' photos

This is not Cerinthus' best photo, but I thought I would include something of the pictures that he took and there are a few thousand of them so I thought I would just pick one I liked. More on Plato coming soon.

Appetitive/Reasoning: Landmark Editions and Xenenphon

Looking for the Landmark Herodotus to put in my last blogpost, when I happened upon the newest book in the landmark series, The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander. Although Alexander's campaigns and the Hellenistic world are not my area of expertise or interest, I think the Landmark Series is incredible, and I am glad that they are branching out.

As someone who is not a particularly adept historian, the Landmark Herodotus and Thucydides have been invaluable tools for my classes on the two texts because they provide so much context (and most importantly, maps). As I mentioned in my last blogpost, Robert Strassler, the editor of the Landmark Series, is giving a free talk on Herodotus on May 10th for the Marathon 2500 project (online).

 

I have vaguely considered whether or not I would like the Landmark Hellenika (Xenophon) since my wonderful Greek History professor mentioned that Xenophon intended to finish Thucydides' unfinished work. After finishing my thesis on Plato and reading 20 of the 35 dialogues that were attributed to Plato, I decided to read Xenophon's Conversations of Socrates. It seemed to me that I should read the only other surviving work of the once popular genre of the Socratic Dialogue. However, I found that although Xenephon provides interesting fodder for a comparison to Plato, his works lack the character depth, humor, and subtlety of Plato's works and is both stilted and boring.

Most of the humor comes from laughing at Xenephon, whose Socrates feels like a bizarre melding of Socrates' caricatured personality and Xenephon's aristocratic and prudish moralizing. There are places where Socrates inserts phrases such as "and that is how best to run an estate" in a similar way to Aeschylus' insertion of "I lost my little oil bottle" into Euripides' prologues in Aristophanes' Frogs [1]. However, I realize that Xenephon is a valuable historical and literary source, especially because of his version of the Constitution of the Lakedaemonians [2] and his attempt to finish the story of the Peloponnesian Wars.

Endnotes

1. This is my all-time favorite ancient comedy and the scene I reference is particularly hilarious. I highly suggest it (although definitely read it with a cometary that explains the political references). You can download a free copy of the Greek from Project Gutenberg and a free copy of the English from Project Gutenberg (although I cannot vouch for the quality of the translation).
2. Which can be found online here or, I think, can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg.

Reasoning: Marathon 2500

The Marathon 2500 project celebrates the 2500 year anniversary of the Battle of Marathon. I found this though AWOL this morning. The Project is providing a series of live online lectures (i.e. webinars), for which one can register for free, and ask questions via email.

Paul Cartledge, a wonderful Greek History scholar who specializes in the Spartan history among other things, gives the first lecture. You can download the first lecture here, and supposedly you can download the podcast, although I cannot figure out how (if someone figures it out, please comment and let me know). The only problem with the lecture is that the sound quality is very poor. However, the successive lectures have a significantly better sound quality. The slideshow that accompanied Cartledge's lecture can be found here.

The second lecture is by Peter Krentz and can be found here. I was only able to download it via the RealPlayer extension for Firefox, but there are probably other ways to do this. The website claims that you can download it directly off the site. I know he had a slideshow, but I am not sure how to access it. If anyone figures it out, please comment.

The third lecture will take place on November 10th. It will be given by Victor Hanson and it is entitled "A Soldier's Life." Registration is free and you can listen to the event live and send in questions.

The group has also put together a Herodotus reading group (in English) using the Landmark Herodotus. Robert Strassler, the editor and compiler of the Landmark Series, will also lecture on May 10, 2011.

Reasoning/Spirited: An Addendum to the Barbara Kowalzig Post

At Barbara Kowalzig's talk, she talked about the differing depictions of chorality in ancient Greece and ancient Egypt. She explains that the Eygptian depictions were much more rigid and formulaic than the corresponding artistic representations in Greece. Also, she mentioned that the according to Herodotus, the Egyptians did not use choruses in their celebrations of Dionysus, which were otherwise much these same as the Greek celebrations (Herodotus 2.48). This aroused my curiosity because of the way that the Athenian Stranger in Plato's Laws advocates employing Egyptian principles for musical and choral dance.

I tried to ask the following question, but unfortunately Mary Louise Hart ended the question-and-answer session before I got the chance:

"In the Laws, the Athenian Stranger suggest using Egyptian Laws for music, but to use them in order to celebrate Dionysus with a chorus. Does Plato's schema alter the civic Hellenic culture of choruses by incorporating the Egyptian rhythms and musical modes (which were different than the Greek choruses) into the musical and military education?"

At the end of the conference during the wine and cheese social, I managed to find her and ask her this question. Gratifyingly, she told me that it was a good question. She explained that at the time that Plato was writing, the art of dithyramb was changing. This change involved the incorporation of new rhythms and modes and came to be called New Music. She explained that the regulation with the unchanging Egyptian rhythms would be a way to strain out the new experimental influence.

This may indeed have been the case. However, it brings up two new questions. First, if this is true, it might call into question Zuckert's dramatic timeline for Plato's dialogues. I say might because I am not sure whether the introduction of New Music happened in around 450 (Zuckert's hypothesis for when the Laws took place.). On the other hand, I cannot seem to find much on New Music at all, so this might not throw off the timeline. [1] Second, if Herodotus, who I strongly believe that Plato would have read for reasons that I can substantiate at some other time, pointed out the connection between Egypt and chorality, could Plato have been trying to make another point, rather than just considering the rigidity of Egyptian rhythms, with the references to the system?

Endnotes

1. If you have any ideas for articles about New Music, please comment or email me.

Reasoning: The Iconography of Greek Theater #5, Barbara Kowalzig

Barbara Kowalzig is a historian and anthropologist who is currently a visiting associate professor at NYU. She appears to work primarily on Greek religion and its relationship to music and ritual. Kowalzig received her PhD from St. John's College, Oxford, and speaks with a fabulous Oxford accent that drifts easily between English and French. She is quite a striking woman of average height with a mane of curly flaxen hair and this strange combination of stance and gesture that makes her seem at once both extremely persuasive and rather meek. Her general air is charming, but with a surprising frankness and without any trace whatsoever of the superficiality that often accompanies charm. She comes off as having a brilliance that is neither easy nor labored but clearly demonstrates an engaged thought process working behind it.

Her talk focuses on the imagery of chorality (i.e. choruses and chorus dancing) on archaic and classical Greek vases. Specifically, she discusses the interaction between the dolphins, choruses, and hoplites. Through these images, she illustrates the relationship between the development of the chorus and chorus rituals and the evolution of Greek political institutions.

Generally, classicists and historians consider theater to be a specifically and uniquely Athenian institution. However, evidence highlighted at this conference demonstrates that theater, although it might have started in Athens, began to spread out through magna Graeca. Kowalzig expands the importance of theater and specifically chorality as part of a Hellenic rather than simply an Athenian identity.

Barbara explains that the social transformation in the 7th and 6th century coincided with a transformation and upsurge in the importance of chorality. Consequently, chorality becomes a part of the Hellenic identity and a connective medium through the expanse of the Greek world. Choral dancing existed throughout Indoeuropean and other cultures in the Mediteranean including in Mycenean, Cypriot, Hittite, Egyptian civilizations, as well as other eastern cultures. She explains that the Greeks considered there to be something unique about choruses, which is probably why they figure so heavily into treatises of the political imaginary such as Plato's Laws.

In her talk, Kowalzig employs a number of different surviving cultural instances to demonstrate the importance of chorality and its ties to politics and culture. The first image is the red figure pyskter below from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Barbara explains that this image comes at the end of a long process of the development of images, language, and chorality.

This picture comes from The Met's website

One of the stories that she uses demonstrates the link between language, images, and chorality is the Story of Arion from Herodotus' Histories. In the story, merchants turn pirates who threaten Arion, a wealthy man who needed passage back to Tarentum, and tell him either he can jump over the side of the ship (leaving his money behind) or they will kill him. Arion asks if he can sing before he jumps over the side. As he sings, dolphins gather around the ship and he jumps on the back of one of them and rides to safety. He later named the song he composed and sang the dithyramb, and taught it at Corinth (Herodotus 1.23-24). She explained that this story took the shape of a traditional "Dionysiac resistance myth" because a Dionysian practice is first rejected and then accepted. it also demonstrates the traditional understanding of the seas where merchants become pirates. The dolphin is also linked to Dionysus as far back as the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus, where sailors leap overboard into the sea and become dolphins. Kowalzig explains that the riding on dolphins and the transformation into dolphins is turning into a dancing chorus in the cultural imaginary of dithyramb.

Many other vases show the morphing of people and sailors into dolphins or have patterns of humans with equivalent patterns of dolphins on opposite sides of the vase. This evokes chorality and the idea of dithyramb. In the picture above, as in many of the other vases, the dolphin-riders or dolphin-men are armed, using imagery to invoke civic duty and the hoplite phalanx. This is because, as Barbara Kowalzig argues, the quintessential citizen not only in Athens but in Greece, includes both the civic duty of war and that of dancing and Dionysian celebration. Choruses were made up, so far as can be discerned, of ephebes, men right on the brink of military age. Plato's Laws effectively demonstrates this though the emphasis laid on the dual nature of education: the physical military training and the musical chorus training.

Kowalzig argues that the transition from sailor to dolphin corresponds to the transition from pirate to hoplite whereas in other traditions pirates/sailors became satyrs on shore. She also emphasizes that this is a Hellenic rather than Athenian piece of imagery.