Book contents
- Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture
- Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustration and Tables
- Places of Original Publication
- Preface
- Editions and Abbreviations
- Introduction to Volume 1: Greek Poetry before 400 BC
- 1 Early Greek Elegy, Symposium and Public Festival (1986)
- 2 One That Got Away: Archilochus frr. 188–92 and Horace Odes 1.4 and 5 (1987)
- 3 Miles ludens? The Problem of Martial Exhortation in Early Greek Elegy ()
- 4 Lies, Fiction and Slander in Early Greek Poetry (1993)
- 5 Greek Table-Talk before Plato (1993)
- 6 The Theognidea: a Step towards a Collection of Fragments? (1997)
- 7 Early Greek Iambic Poetry: the Importance of Narrative (2001)
- 8 Ancestors of Historiography in Early Greek Elegiac and Iambic Poetry? ()
- 9 Sympotic Praise (2002)
- 10 Early Expatriates: Displacement and Exile in Archaic Poetry ()
- 11 From Archaic Elegy to Hellenistic Sympotic Epigram? (2007)
- 12 Sex and Politics in Archilochus’ Poetry (2008)
- 13 Wandering Poets, Archaic Style (2009)
- 14 Epigram as Narration (2010)
- 15 Historical Narrative in Archaic and Early Classical Greek Elegy (2010)
- 16 Stobaeus and Early Greek Melic, Elegiac and Iambic Poetry (2010)
- 17 Marathon in Fifth-Century Epigram (2010)
- 18 The Trojan War in Early Greek Melic, Iambic and Elegiac Poetry (2010)
- 19 Performing and Re-performing Helen:Stesichorus’ Palinode (2010)
- 20 Simonides of Eretria (redivivus?) (2010)
- 21 Alcman’s First Partheneion and the Song the Sirens sang (2011)
- 22 An Early Chapter in the History of the Theognidea (2012)
- 23 Stesichorus and Ibycus: Plain Tales from the Western Front (2012)
- 24 Epinicians and ‘Patrons’ (2012)
- 25 Unnatural Selection: Expurgation of Greek Melic, Elegiac and Iambic Poetry (2012)
- 26 Marathon, the 1500 Days after: Culture and Politics (2013)
- 27 The Sympotic Tease (2013)
- 28 Rediscovering Sacadas (2014)
- 29 Stesichorus’ Geryoneis and Greeks in the West (2014)
- 30 Stesichorus at Athens (2015)
- 31 Cultic Contexts for Elegiac Performance? (2016)
- 32 Quo usque tandem? How long were Sympotic Songs? (2016)
- 33 How did Sappho’s Songs get into the Male Sympotic Repertoire? (2016)
- 34 The Performance Contexts of Trochaic Tetrameters Catalectic (2018)
- 35 Alcaeus’ stasiotica: Catullan and Horatian Readings (2019)
- 36 Reconfiguring Archilochus: How have Papyri and Inscriptions changed Perceptions of Archilochus’ Iambic and Elegiac Poetry? (2020)
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Index of Greek Terms
- General Index
7 - Early Greek Iambic Poetry: the Importance of Narrative (2001)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2021
- Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture
- Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustration and Tables
- Places of Original Publication
- Preface
- Editions and Abbreviations
- Introduction to Volume 1: Greek Poetry before 400 BC
- 1 Early Greek Elegy, Symposium and Public Festival (1986)
- 2 One That Got Away: Archilochus frr. 188–92 and Horace Odes 1.4 and 5 (1987)
- 3 Miles ludens? The Problem of Martial Exhortation in Early Greek Elegy ()
- 4 Lies, Fiction and Slander in Early Greek Poetry (1993)
- 5 Greek Table-Talk before Plato (1993)
- 6 The Theognidea: a Step towards a Collection of Fragments? (1997)
- 7 Early Greek Iambic Poetry: the Importance of Narrative (2001)
- 8 Ancestors of Historiography in Early Greek Elegiac and Iambic Poetry? ()
- 9 Sympotic Praise (2002)
- 10 Early Expatriates: Displacement and Exile in Archaic Poetry ()
- 11 From Archaic Elegy to Hellenistic Sympotic Epigram? (2007)
- 12 Sex and Politics in Archilochus’ Poetry (2008)
- 13 Wandering Poets, Archaic Style (2009)
- 14 Epigram as Narration (2010)
- 15 Historical Narrative in Archaic and Early Classical Greek Elegy (2010)
- 16 Stobaeus and Early Greek Melic, Elegiac and Iambic Poetry (2010)
- 17 Marathon in Fifth-Century Epigram (2010)
- 18 The Trojan War in Early Greek Melic, Iambic and Elegiac Poetry (2010)
- 19 Performing and Re-performing Helen:Stesichorus’ Palinode (2010)
- 20 Simonides of Eretria (redivivus?) (2010)
- 21 Alcman’s First Partheneion and the Song the Sirens sang (2011)
- 22 An Early Chapter in the History of the Theognidea (2012)
- 23 Stesichorus and Ibycus: Plain Tales from the Western Front (2012)
- 24 Epinicians and ‘Patrons’ (2012)
- 25 Unnatural Selection: Expurgation of Greek Melic, Elegiac and Iambic Poetry (2012)
- 26 Marathon, the 1500 Days after: Culture and Politics (2013)
- 27 The Sympotic Tease (2013)
- 28 Rediscovering Sacadas (2014)
- 29 Stesichorus’ Geryoneis and Greeks in the West (2014)
- 30 Stesichorus at Athens (2015)
- 31 Cultic Contexts for Elegiac Performance? (2016)
- 32 Quo usque tandem? How long were Sympotic Songs? (2016)
- 33 How did Sappho’s Songs get into the Male Sympotic Repertoire? (2016)
- 34 The Performance Contexts of Trochaic Tetrameters Catalectic (2018)
- 35 Alcaeus’ stasiotica: Catullan and Horatian Readings (2019)
- 36 Reconfiguring Archilochus: How have Papyri and Inscriptions changed Perceptions of Archilochus’ Iambic and Elegiac Poetry? (2020)
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Index of Greek Terms
- General Index
Summary
This chapter explores the relative importance of invective and narrative in the earliest surviving fragments of Greek iambic poetry, and argues that narrative may have been just as important as invective in defining the genre. In approaching this question it is important to remember that these surviving fragments are very unlikely to represent the beginnings of Greek iambic poetry.1 Whenever and wherever these beginnings may have been, they were almost certainly some time, perhaps many generations, before our first fragments, which date from around 650 BC. I am very sceptical about the possibility of constructing plausible hypotheses about the development of iambic poetry before the poems from which these fragments come. In them we find no trace that their composers, Archilochus of Paros and Semonides of Amorgos, are at an early stage in the development of the genre or in the handling of its metres – rather they display an assured skill in both respects.
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- Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture , pp. 151 - 176Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021