The Poetics of Victory in the Greek West

Epinician, Oral Tradition, and the Deinomenid Empire

Bibliographic Data

ID9288147
AuthorsNigel Nicholson (corresponding author)
Year2015
Pages368
Publication date2015-11-18
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenuePoetics of Victory in the Greek West (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190209094.001.0001
OpenAlexW4235693218
Open LibraryOL28575938M
ISBN9780190209094
GOOGLE_BOOK_IDrVwCgAAQBAJ
LanguageEN
Citations received9

This book examines the relationship between epinician and the heroizing narratives about athletes, or "hero-athlete narratives," that circulated orally in Sicily and Italy in the late archaic and early classical period. Drawing on the colorful stories told about athletes in later sources, the fragments of Simonides, and the surviving odes of Pindar and Bacchylides, it argues that epinician was formed in opposition to orally transmitted narratives and that these two forms—epinician and the "hero-athlete narrative"—promoted opposed political visions, with epinician supporting the Deinomenid empire and its structures and the hero-athlete narrative opposing Deinomenid rule. Combining an intimate knowledge of the material culture of the Greek West with an innovative use of available source material, it exposes the rich intersections between athletics and politics in Sicily and Italy. It offers a new and compelling account of Deinomenid self-promotion and of the varied and complex communities that operated under Deinomenids' control or within their shadow. Further, by establishing models of production and interpretation for the orally transmitted narratives and bringing them into dialogue with epinician, the book reveals much about epinician as a form, how it developed in the West, what meanings it already carried, and what meanings it accrued as it was appropriated by Hieron after Gelon's death

Ancient history · Art · Empire · HERO · Literature · Narrative · Opposition (politics · Poetics · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Victory · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Literary Studies · History · Law · ancient · Ancient & Classical · Athletes in literature · Athletics · Greece · Greek Narrative poetry · Greek Odes · Greek poetry · Greek poetry, history and criticism · Heroes in literature · History and criticism · Italy · Kings and rulers · Literary Criticism · Narrative poetry · Narrative poetry, history and criticism · Odes · Oral tradition · Sicily · To 800

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