Nigel Nicholson

POETS, DOCTORS, AND THE RHETORIC OF MONEY

OBJECTIVEGreek poets from the archaic and early classical periods frequently depicted doctors alongside political and military leaders and victorious sportsmen. The mythology of ancient physicians found in such sources may give us clues as to how doctors could be viewed and represented by other segments of society, then and now. METHODSPindars Third Pythian Ode from the first quarter of the 5th century BCE was investigated with reference to other classical sources to understand the contemporary portrayal of ancient physicians. RESULTSThe Greek hero Asclepius is often recognized as the mythical father of surgery. Pindars portrayal of Asclepius as a heroic but morally flawed physician and surgeon provides clues to the ambivalent role and identity of physicians in the late archaic period. In particular, the primacy of the moral framework surrounding different types of exchange in late archaic society is identified as a key factor influencing the perception of physicians, poets, and other professionals. CONCLUSIONThe portrayal of physicians in ancient poetry and sculpture may inform modern neurosurgery and organized medicine about strategies by which we may best serve our patients and elevate our profession.

Pindar, History, and Historicism*

Pindar’s odes should be promising terrain for the (not so) recent turn in literary studies from formalism to historicism. First, epinician poetry is clearly embedded in society, performed within a specific community on a specific and often dateable occasion,1 naming real individuals and addressing their concerns and those of their community. Second, because of this tight relation to contemporary interests, epinician is tightly connected to other cultural products and practices, such as dedications, vases, oral tradition, and religious rituals, and with these can be seen to structure a larger symbolic system of values and beliefs. Third—and in this respect epinician differs markedly from tragedy—it brings us into a lot of peripheral communities that are either little known or are illuminated only by the reflected light of Athens and Athenian interests, and thus challenges the dominant Athenian narratives that often determine our critical gaze. Finally, because epinician has always lacked the centrality of tragedy, in terms of both Greek imperial geography and modern critical practice, Pindar’s odes can more easily be seen to be in competition with other products, to be attempts to fix the truth, to be interventions in a cultural system, and not descriptions of it. The cultural systems they are part of thus stand revealed not as stable or singular systems, but sites of continual and varied contest over meaning and value.2 None of the books under review here claims to be New Historicist— indeed some or all might positively disclaim the title—but New Historicism offers a convenient framework with which to compare and examine them, since a central concern in all three books is the relationship between Pindar’s odes and their historical context. In many respects, the approaches taken by

When athletic victory and fatherhood did mix: The commemoration of Diagoras of Rhodes

The fame of the great boxer Diagoras of Rhodes was intimately, and uniquely, bound up with the fame of his children: for no other classical or archaic victor were his children so central to his own commemoration. This paper will explore that centrality, showing the extent to which Diagoras’ portrayal across all media — not only in epinician and sculptural dedications, but also in the oral tradition — was unique in emphasizing his status as a father, and seek to explain the choice. I will argue that the portrayal of Diagoras as a father, subject to the normal biological rhythms of life, signified a particular type of politics that favored networking and connections between cities, promoting, in particular, the synoecism of Rhodes’ three cities.

Introduction: Literary Theory and Graduate and Undergraduate Classics Curricula

This introduction reviews the goals of this collection of essays, before briefly addressing some major points of difference in approach among the various authors.