Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the GreeksRohde, Erwin
Religion
Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the Greeks
Rohde, Erwin
Greece -- Religion
[2\3: That the translation of Amphiaraos in the form so frequently
repeated by later authors (clearly following an important and
influential original) appeared already in the Thebaïs of the epic
cycle is taken by Welcker for granted, _Ep. Cykl._ ii, 362, 66. The
view is intrinsically probable: but it can claim more definite
grounds. Pi., _O._ vi, 12-17, tells us that after Amphiaraos and his
team had been swallowed up by the earth, Adrastos, over the seven
funeral-pyres (which consumed the bodies of the Argives who had
fallen in battle, said ~pothe/ô stratia=s ophthalmo\n ema=s,
ampho/teron, ma/ntin t' agatho\n kai\ douri\ ma/rnasthai~. That this
famous lament was taken ~ek tê=s kuklikê=s Thêbaï/dos~, _fr._ 5
Kinkel, p. 12, is proved by the testimony of the ancient scholia on
~pothe/ô ktl.~, quoting Asklepiades. This means that in the Thebaïs
too, after the battle was over Amphiaraos was not to be found either
among the fallen or the survivors--was in fact translated. Pindar
must have taken not merely the words of the lament of Adrastos but
the whole situation that led up to these words, as he described it,
from the Thebaïs. (Bethe, _Theb. Held._ [1891], p. 58 f., 94 ff.,
claims to prove that Pindar took nothing but the words ~ampho/teron
ktl.~ from the Thebaïs which said nothing of the burial of these who
had fallen before Thebes, and that Pindar added this last on his own
account, _O._ vi, as well as _N._ ix, 25. But the "proofs" of this
view, in itself highly improbable, on closer examination come to
nothing.)--In the Odyssey it is said of Amph. ~_o/let'_ en
Thê/bê|si~ ~o~ 247; ~_tha/nen_ Amphia/raos~ 253. The expression "is
naturally to be understood as merely implying _disappearance_ from
the earth" says Welcker, _Ep. C._ ii, 366. All we can claim is that
the expression does not indeed _prevent_ us from assuming that the
story of the "disappearance" of Amph. was known also to the poet of
these lines. Thus in the _OC._ of Soph. Antigone says twice over
(ll. 1706, 1714) that Oedipus ~_e/thane_~, whereas he really was
like Amphiaraos translated alive (~a/skopoi pla/kes _e/marpsan_~
1681).]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account