6 Looking at Athens through the lyric lens
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Cecilia Nobili
Abstract
In the archaic age Athens had a rather different appearance from the one it was gradually to acquire over the course of the fifth century. As some recent studies on Athenian topography have shown, the main civic and religious spaces of the polis were located either on the Acropolis or in the area to the south-east, delimited by the river Ilissos. Located there were the Old Agora (with the city’s most important buildings), the temple of Zeus Olympios, the Delphinion, and the Pythion (the two major shrines of Apollo). Lyric poets, active between the end of the sixth century and the first half of the fifth, provide information on the archaic layout of the city and make implicit references to the monuments located in the Old Agora or on the banks of the Ilissos. Examples will be made particularly concerning the works of Solon and Bacchylides. The aim of this chapter is to detect the intervisual allusions to Athenian public spaces in the works of lyric poets, in order to create a sort of map of late-archaic Athens, highlighting the deep relationship between the poets and the city.
Abstract
In the archaic age Athens had a rather different appearance from the one it was gradually to acquire over the course of the fifth century. As some recent studies on Athenian topography have shown, the main civic and religious spaces of the polis were located either on the Acropolis or in the area to the south-east, delimited by the river Ilissos. Located there were the Old Agora (with the city’s most important buildings), the temple of Zeus Olympios, the Delphinion, and the Pythion (the two major shrines of Apollo). Lyric poets, active between the end of the sixth century and the first half of the fifth, provide information on the archaic layout of the city and make implicit references to the monuments located in the Old Agora or on the banks of the Ilissos. Examples will be made particularly concerning the works of Solon and Bacchylides. The aim of this chapter is to detect the intervisual allusions to Athenian public spaces in the works of lyric poets, in order to create a sort of map of late-archaic Athens, highlighting the deep relationship between the poets and the city.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
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Part I: In limine
- 1 À rebours: intervisuality from the Middle Ages to classical antiquity 15
- 2 From image to theatrical play in Aeschylus’ Oresteia 33
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Part II: Archaic and classical age
- 3 Homer and the art of cinematic warfare 81
- 4 Intervisuality in the Greek symposium 103
- 5 The protohistory of portraits in words and images (sixth–fifth century BCE): tyrants, poets, and artists 121
- 6 Looking at Athens through the lyric lens 149
- 7 The politics of intervisuality 171
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Part III: Hellenistic and imperial age
- 8 The goddess playing with gold 197
- 9 Intervisuality in declamation and sung poetry in imperial Greek cities 213
- 10 Intervisual allusions in Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 15 235
- 11 Was Philostratus the Elder an admirer of Ovidian enargeia? 255
- 12 ἐκ τῶν πινάκων. Aristaenetus’ intervisual allusions to Philostratus’ art gallery 283
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Part IV: Pointing to Rome
- 13 Ordering the res gestae: observations on the relationship between texts and images in Roman ‘historical’ representations 305
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Appendix
- List of contributors 335
- Index nominum et rerum notabilium 339
- Index locorum 345
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: In limine
- 1 À rebours: intervisuality from the Middle Ages to classical antiquity 15
- 2 From image to theatrical play in Aeschylus’ Oresteia 33
-
Part II: Archaic and classical age
- 3 Homer and the art of cinematic warfare 81
- 4 Intervisuality in the Greek symposium 103
- 5 The protohistory of portraits in words and images (sixth–fifth century BCE): tyrants, poets, and artists 121
- 6 Looking at Athens through the lyric lens 149
- 7 The politics of intervisuality 171
-
Part III: Hellenistic and imperial age
- 8 The goddess playing with gold 197
- 9 Intervisuality in declamation and sung poetry in imperial Greek cities 213
- 10 Intervisual allusions in Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 15 235
- 11 Was Philostratus the Elder an admirer of Ovidian enargeia? 255
- 12 ἐκ τῶν πινάκων. Aristaenetus’ intervisual allusions to Philostratus’ art gallery 283
-
Part IV: Pointing to Rome
- 13 Ordering the res gestae: observations on the relationship between texts and images in Roman ‘historical’ representations 305
-
Appendix
- List of contributors 335
- Index nominum et rerum notabilium 339
- Index locorum 345
