<Alcman Fragment 59a+b>
Love once again, by the will of Kypris,
Pours down in sweetness and melts my
heart.
This gift of the sweet Muses
was shown forth by one blessed among
maidens,
the fair-haired Megalostrata.
Must know Kypris to understand the her will.
Kypris: another name for Aphrodite, the Goddess of physical beauty and sexual
love. Kypris meaning “the Cyprian”, used because “she first came ashore on the
island of Cyprus”.
“love affairs were always the represented under guise of the
will of Kypris.”
“Melts my heart” shows that Alcman is
clearly in love with Megalostrata as a will of Kypris.
Muses are the “nine daughters of Zeus
and Memory born in Pieria living on Olympos and have a sanctuary on Mt.Helikon.”
From this information we can extract that “This gift of the sweet Muses” comes
from Muses representations which are “epic song, history, lyric song, tragedy
dance, erotic poetry, sacred song, astronomy, comedy and bucolic poetry. “The
gift” is the ability to write poetry.
Words “Love once again” and “one blessed
among maidens” go together indicating that Alcman has found one among the
others.
Megalostrat, a Spartan poet, “beloved by
Alcman. Alcman was “attracted by her stimulating conversation”. Therefore, “the
gift” is given to Megalostrat by the Muses which leads Alcman to fall in love. However,
it is not clear enough that “the gift” was the ability to write poetry but the
fact that Megalostrat was “indeed a poetess” and Alcman being attracted by her
poets provides possibility.
To annotate this piece of fragment clearly, the one he was fall in love with, Megalostrata's information had to be determined clearly. Information of Megalostrata begins with the poets sex, ability and the relation due to Alcmans's style of poetry lyrics. His work contains a lot of lesbianism, therefore, had to make sure if it is Alcman himself who is in love with Megalostrata, a female poet. With that being understood, rest words could be understood accordingly.
Resources used:
-Greek Lyric
-Greek life and thought: from the age of Alexander to the Roman conquest
(pg. 273)
No comments:
Post a Comment