Theokritos' Idyll XXII : a sympathetic study
Date
1975
Authors
Kinchin, Perilla Kathleen Margaret
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Abstract
This thesis is fundamentally a literary commentary on Theokritos XXII, a hymn addressed to the Dioskouroi. A.S.F. Gow has suggested that the poem was perfunctorily put together in its present form from various pieces which Theokritos had written previously, and that the problems of the second half are attributable to carelessness. In order to refute the accusation of poor workmanship I treat the poem as a whole, working through it from beginning to end. The hymn falls clearly into four parts: 1) Prologue; 2) Polydeukes narrative;· 3) Kastor narrative; 4) Epilogue. One chapter is devoted to each.
The first chapter acts as a general prologue to the thesis. Examples from the Hymns of Kallimachos are used to illustrate the attractiveness of the genre to poets of his., school, as well as to. underline the literary disingenuousness of the Hellenistic use of traditional form-and the general amorality of their treatment of mythological material. In XXII Theokritos is using the elements of the genre as an effective frame for his small-scale Kallimachean poetry. His prologue serves a functional introductory purpose but is also developed in its own right. The storm-scene contains writing which is most polished and artful.
The second chapter treats Theokritos' attractive narrative of the boxing match between Polydeukes and Amykos. It is prefaced by a brief discussion of the relationship of this account to the story in Apollonios. No firm conclusions can be reached about chronology: I offer in passing the hypothesis that Theokritos' treatment came first, and that the related Id. XIII. was a retaliation against the version in Apolloriios' Argonautica. Comparison with Apollonios' more serious, epic account is used throughout the analysis of the episode to highlight the essential lightness of Theokritos' comic-dramatic treatment, _and his innovative and perfectly controlled narrative technique. Polydeukes is. a Kallimachean hero: his techne and polish triumph over uncouth brute force. The story presents what is fundamentally a humorous lesson in manners and should not be read too morally.
In the third chapter I attempt to combat the moral criticisms normally levelled at Theokritos' presentation of the Dioskouroi in his unusual version of the story of the Quarrel with the Apharidai. Lynkeus' long speech is a markedly rhetorical presentation of his case, and Kastor must have replied to it with some defence of the Dioskouroi' s behaviour. The beginning of his speech seems to have disappeared into a commonly accepted lacuna. The stylistic flatness of the narrative seems to me more worrisome: there is a marked difference in tone between this episode and the previous one. I suggest that the Kastor narrative is designed to balance the Polydeukes narrative closely and that they proceed from opposed 'premisses' - 'differentiation' in the first case and 'balance' in the second. Lynkeus and Kastor are evenly matched in word and deed. This shapes the narrative method applied to the Homeric-style duel.
The fourth chapter contends that the poem's epilogue contains not an extraordinary carelessness but an extraordinary deliberateness. There is no way round Theokritos' patently false statement that Homer honoured the Dioskouroi in the Iliad. Theokritos must be saying this in order to emphasise the very opposite: He is concerned at the close of his poem to distinguish himself clearly from Homer, thus underlining his Kallimachean allegiance. There are things about XXII which remain perplexing, but we can discern a guiding literary purpose throughout it.