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A Paean in the Philoctetes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. A. Haldane
J. A. Haldane
Affiliation:
King's College, London
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Extract

The short hymn to Hypnos at the opening of the first komrnos of the Philoctetes is of particular interest in view of Sophocles' association with the cult of Asclepius.

As suggested by the invocation the hymn is in fact intended to recall the paean, a form of liturgy with which Sophocles' audience must have become increasingly familiar in the years since the introduction in 420/19 of the Asclepius cult. Indeed if we are to judge by inscriptional and other remains the output of hymns for the cult of the healing gods from the fifth century onwards must have been a prolific one and considerably in excess of that for other deities in the same period. It is well known that amongst the earliest writers of hymns for the cult was Sophocles himself. The Suda in the list of his works records one of which at least, a paean to Asclepius, was known as late as the second and third centuries A.D. Probably this is not to be identified with the Sophoclean paean on the Sarapion monument of the same period, which in so far as the extremely fragmentary state of the inscription will allow us to determine would seem to be addressed not to Asclepius himself but to his mother Coronis.

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Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , May 1963 , pp. 53 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1963

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References

page 53 note 1 The text is Jebb's.

page 53 note 2 The following is a complete list of extant hymns and fragments for Asclepius and his circle together with the principal literature on the subject: Sophocles (for whom see further below), Bergk, , P.L.G. ii. 245–9;Google Scholar Homeric hymn 16; Ariphron, , P.L.G. iii. 595–7Google Scholar (Hygieia); Licymnius, ibid., p. 599 (Hygieia), and Keyssner, ‘Die Hygieia- hymnen des Ariphron und des Likimnios’, Ph. W. liii (1933), 1290–6;Google ScholarDiophantes, , P.L.G. iii. 249–50;Google Scholar Anon. ap. Stob. Ecl. Phys. 1. 2. 31 = P.L.G. iii. 682;Google Scholar the inscriptional hymns: the paean of Isyllus, Powell, , Collectanea Alexandrina, pp. 132–6,Google Scholar and Wilamowitz, , Isyllos von Epidauros, Philol. Unt. ix;Google Scholar the paean of Macedon, Powell, pp. 138–40 = P.L.G. iii. 676–8Google Scholar (Apollo and Asclepius) ; the Erythraean paean (I), which has been found in three further copies at Athens, Ptolemais, and Dium, Powell, pp. 136–8, and Wilamowitz, , Nordionische Steine (1909), pp. 42–48,Google ScholarBülow, , ‘Ein vielgesungener Asklepiospaean’, Xeniā Bonnensia (1929), pp. 35–49Google Scholar (Apollo and Asclepius); Erythraean paean (II), Powell, p. 140, Wilamowitz, , op. cit., p. 41Google Scholar (Apollo, but found in the Asclepieion); the paeans of the Cassel Stone, Kaib. Ep. Graec. 1027 a-c (1027 b = Ariphron‘s Hygieia-hymn), Maas, , Epidaurische Hymnen, Schriften d. Königsberger Gelehr. Ges. ix. 5 (1933), pp. 151–4Google Scholar (Asclepius, Hygieia, and Telesphorus); further Kaib. Ep. Graec. 797, 803, 1026 = P.L.G. ii. 245;Google Scholar in addition there are the Orphic hymns 67, 68 (Hygieia) and Orph. Frag. 297 a (Kern); an oracular fragment ap. Hendess, Orac. Graec. 34. 1; a magic hymn ap. Origen, Ref. omn. haeres. 4. 32 (Miller) (ZeusAsclepius); Herodas, Mime 4, 1–19, 81–88 and Wünsch, , A.R.W. vii (1904), 95–116;Google ScholarAristides, , Hieros Logos 4. 42, p. 436Google ScholarKeil, , and a prose hymn, Or. 42, pp. 334–9.Google Scholar See also Fairbanks, , ‘A Study of the Greek Paean’, Cornell Studies in Class. Phil. xii (1900), esp. pp. 35–38,Google Scholar and Blumenthal, in R.-E. s.v. Paean, esp. col. 2358.Google Scholar

page 53 note 3 Philostr. Iun. Imag. 13, Philostr. Vit. Apoll. 3. 17, Ps.-Luc. Demosth. Encom. 27, which are cited in Bergk, , P.L.G. iii. 245–9.Google Scholar

page 53 note 4 See Oliver, , ‘The Sarapion Monument and the Paean of Sophocles,’ Hesperia v (1936), 91–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 54 note 1 So the scholia on 635 and 636. Nauck (Fr. 639) was inclined to assign only 636 to Sophocles, but Pearson (Fr. 710) gives good grounds for restoring 635.

page 54 note 2 As shown by Ax, ‘Der Parodos des O.T.’, Hermes lxvii (1932), 413–37.Google Scholar

page 54 note 3 For the mythology and cult of Hypnos see the good ar icle of Jolles in R.-E. s.v.

page 54 note 4 Menander, , Rhet. Graec. iii. 334Google Scholar Spengel. For the style and characteristics of the hymn in general see esp. Norden, Agnostos Theos, pp. 143–76,Google ScholarAdami, , ‘De poetis scaenicis hymnorum sacrorum imitatoribus’, Jahrb. f. klass. Phil. Suppl. xxvi (1901), 213 ff.,Google Scholar Ausfeld, ‘De Graecorum precationi-bus quaestiones’, ibid. xxviii (1903), 503 ff., and Ziegler, , De precationum apud Graecos formis (Diss. Bresl. 1905).Google Scholar

page 55 note 1 For repetition as a feature of the liturgical style see Kranz, , Stasimon, pp. 128–9,Google ScholarSchwenn, , Gebet und Opfer, pp. 1 ff.Google Scholar

page 55 note 2 Fairbanks, , op. cit., p. 47,Google Scholar believes that it was original.

page 55 note 3 Which does actually appear in one of the manuscripts Γ, where it is probably a simple case of the substitution of a more familiar word for a rarer synonym. For the identity of meaning Jebb in apparatus quotes Hesychius. See also his note for the metre of .

page 55 note 4 Powell, , pp. 165–71,Google ScholarWeil, , B.C.H. xix (1895), 393–48,Google ScholarFairbanks, , op. cit., pp. 139–53.Google Scholar

page 55 note 5 See further Wilamowitz, , Isyllos, pp. 18, 90.Google Scholar

page 56 note 1 Paus. I. 28. 4, Eur. Ion 938, and Owen, ad loc. There is some uncertainty as to whether the two deities actually shared the same cave. The question is discussed with reference to their joint cult on Hymettus by Mingazzini, , B.C.H. xlv (1929), 492.Google Scholar

page 56 note 2 For a discussion of the hymn widi reference to die cult hymn see Adami, , op. cit., pp. 237–43.Google Scholar

page 56 note 3 This is in fact the earliest passage in which Iacchos is mentioned as a god. It can be assumed that before Salamis he had been simply die daimon of die Eleusinian proces sion, incompletely separated from the shout or song of the marchers (cf. Herod. 8. 65). See Reinach's article in R.-E., s.v. Iakchos.

page 56 note 4 Probably about 430. So Foucart, , Les Associations religieuses chez les Grecs (1873), p. 54,Google ScholarNilsson, , G.G.R., pp. 726–7.Google Scholar

page 56 note 5 The tide of the Greek Mother of die Gods (Paus. 3. 22. 4, Ar. Birds 746, Eur. Hel. 1320 [v. 1.]) was later passed to her Phrygian counterpart (Telestes Fr. 5, P.L.G. iii. 630,Google Scholar Apoll. Rhod. Argon. 1. 1119, Anth. Pal. 6. 173, 237). For die relation between die two goddesses see Rapp in Roscher, s.v. Kybele, p. 1659.

page 56 note 6 For die fusion of Cybele widi Rhea see Eur. Bacch. 1128, and for later examples with both Rhea and Ge see Rapp, , op. cit., pp. 1639, 1642.Google Scholar