Alcman Fragment1 Annotation

Alcman Fragment1:
...
No abundance of crimson cloth
is great enough to ward them off,
no intricate snake,
all gold, nor headband
from Lyddia, ornament
of soft-eyed girls,
nor even Nanno's tresses,
nor yet again Areta, like a goddess in looks,
nor Thylakis and Kleeisithera;
nor, going to Ainesimbrota's, will you say:
"May Astaphis be mine,
may Philylla turn her gaze this way,
and Damareta and lovely Ianthemis"--
no, it is Hagesichora who makes me pine
...
-crimson cloth, intricate snake, gold, headband, ornament, tresses: qualities attributed by the chorus to its own. Enumerating the chorus maiden' valuable and beautiful items in order to later compare to and stress the importance of the chorus leaders.
-Lyddia, Nanno, Thylakis, Kleeisithera, Aniesmbrota: names of the chorus maidens who are inferior to the leaders--Hagesichora and Agido
-soft-eyed girls--refer to the chorus maidens themselves. they are soft-eyed meaning they are tender
-a goddess in looks: Areta's beauty is to compare to a goddess, and yet not compared to the leaders'
-Aniesimbrota: probably a woman who can work magic spells to reward a girl's unrequited desire with success, the purveyor of love charm, someone ‘to whom you would say “I long for Astaphis ...”.
-May Astaphis be mine...Ianthemis: The names are also members of the chorus. The maidens are not interested in the ordinary members, as they are only attracted by the two leaders
-Hagesichora: chorus leader, who is in a competing relationship with Agido, the other leader. It is also possible that Hagesichora is representative of Spartan divinity. In specific, she could be one of the two cult figures, a female pair known as Lukippides, who are associated with Helen of Sparta.
-pine: desir, admire

This fragment is a chorus or khoros, which is a song and dance performance by maidens at public festivals to celebrate fertility and beauty. It is an interesting piece because the subjects of the lyrics are also likely the maidens who are performing the piece. I tried to understand the lyrics by researching about who the many mentioned names are, and their roles in the chorus. Hagesichora is definitely the main character. She is a khorēgos or chorus leade whose beauty is extolled throughout the song, outshining all other maidens even though they are beautiful too. Second to her is Agido, who is also a leader. The two leaders could be in competition with one another, and the maidens could be in a competitive relationship as well. Further, the fact that the maidens sing the lyrics from a first person standpoint, expressing their fondness and desire for Hagesichora, makes some scholars believe that there is an element of lesbianism in the song.

Sources:
http://acmap.ehess.fr/docannexe.php?id=50
http://www.skidmore.edu/classics/courses/2009fall/hi203/Women%20in%20Archaic%20Greece%20v2.pdf
https://www.academia.edu/649289/Topics_in_Alcmans_Partheneion
http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/nagy/PHISM/chapter12.html
http://www.connellodonovan.com/parth.html