Stesichorus

Stesichorus (Greek Στησίχορος ), also Tisia (c. 632-629 BC, probably in Himera in Sicily † around 556-553 BC in Catania) was the most important representatives of the older Doric poetry and belongs to the canon of nine lyric poets. He was also called the " lyrical Homer".

From him the division of choral songs in verse, antistrophe and Epode stems, also he is considered the founder of the higher fresh style. His scheduled by the Alexandrians in 26 books hard songs treated in a magnificent presentation mainly epic substances; also were close to the simple metric of the epic, as well as the dialect, which was mixed with a few Dorismen. We have from him only fragments.

The supposed blindness of Stesichorus is considered by the research today as a symbol and not as an actual loss of sight.

Narrated are fragments of, for example, following his poems:

  • Iliupersis ( The Wooden Horse)
  • Helena ( The shame of Helena )
  • Palinode ( Revocation )

Of great importance Stesichorus was also for the development of the tragedy. He made sort of a link between epic and tragedy. Clearly demonstrated by his Oresteia in two books, in particular, Euripides has served as a template. A discovered in the 1970s papyrus, which is kept in Lille, includes a significant fragment of Stesichorus ' work on the myth of the Seven against Thebes. Included are dramatic dialogues between Oedipus ' mother Jocasta and their two sons, Eteocles and Polynices. These are consequently designs, the prelude of the Attic tragedy directly. The underestimation of Stesichorus in modern research has something to do with the fact that in his poetry he plays no role in Aristotle's account of the development of the tragedy. Aristotle's history and analysis of this tragedy but was canonically to the Occident; However, research from the 1970s, this writer has strengthened again into its own. His exceptional importance in antiquity is reflected by the fact that in Alexandria, he was taken into the canon of the nine lyric poets. Since he was not indeed at the top - the top spot deserved Pindar - but he came in this canon before in a prominent place. - The Romans in the Augustan poets have these also estimated. But his descent from Himera in Sicily also shows how fruitful and vital the Greek culture of Magna Graecia has been already in the 7th century; and it shows how hard times had back in the 6th century, this culture of the mother country.

Expenditure

  • Malcolm Davies ( ed.): poetarum Melicorum Graecorum Fragmenta. Volume 1: Alcman, Stesichorus, Ibycus. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991, ISBN 978-0-19-814046-7.
  • Denys Lionel Page: poetae Melici Graeci. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1975.
  • January Maarten Bremer, Anna Maria van Erp Taalman Kip, Simon R. Slings: Some Recently Found Greek Poems: Text and Commentary. Brill, Leiden, 1987 ( Mnemosyne. Supplementum, Vol 99), ISBN 9-004-08319-7. Google Books: . ( Archilochus, Alcaeus, anonymous comment to Hipponax Stesichorus )
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