Greek lyric poet, probably born in Sardis, Lydia. The first to write erotic poetry, he composed in Doric dialect the Parthenia (songs sung by choruses of virgins), bridal hymns, and verses in praise of love and wine.
Alcman (also Alkman, Greek Ἀλκμάν) (7th century BC) was an Ancient Greek choral lyric poet from Sparta.
Biography
Family
The name of Alcman's mother is not known but his father may have been named either Damas or Titarus.
Origin
Alcman's nationality was a matter of dispute even in ancient days. Antipater of Thessalonica wrote that poets have "many mothers" and that the continents of Europe and Asia both claimed Alcman as their son. Frequently assumed to have been born in Sardis, capital of ancient Lydia, the Suda claims that Alcman was actually a Laconian from Messoa. The compositeness of his dialect may have helped to maintain the uncertainty of his origins, but the many references to Lydian and Asian culture in Alcman's poetry must have played a considerable role in the tradition of Alcman's Lydian origin. Thus, Alcman claims he learned his skills from the "strident partridges" (caccabides), a bird native to Asia Minor and not naturally found in Greece. The ancient scholars seemed to have referred to one particular song, in which the chorus says:
"he was no rustic man, nor clumsy (not even in the view of unskilled men?) nor Thessalian by race nor an Erysichaean shepherd: he was from lofty Sardis."Yet, given that there was a discussion, it cannot have been certain who was the third person of this fragment.
Career
One tradition, going back to Aristotle, holds that Alcman came to Sparta as a slave to the family of Agesidas (= Hagesidamus?), by whom he was eventually emancipated because of his great skill.
A more romantic legend has it that when Sparta faced internal difficulties, the Delphic Oracle instructed them to find the greatest poet to sing for their city or they would be destroyed by civil strife. Alcman, being the greatest living poet, was thus brought to Sparta as an official singer for public rites and festivals. When Alcman attempted to experiment too extravagantly in his music, his Spartan hosts "arrested" his lyre and kept it in custody until he agreed to maintain a more conventional approach to his official songs, so as not to offend the Oracle or the gods.
Death
Aristotle reported that it was believed Alcman died from a pustulent infestation of lice (phthiriasis), but it may be a mistake for the philosopher Alcmaeon.
Text
Transmission
There were six books of Alcman's choral poetry in antiquity (ca. 50-60 hymns), but they were lost at the threshold of the Medieval Age, and Alcman was known only through fragmentary quotations in other Greek authors until the discovery of a papyrus in 1855 in a tomb near the second pyramid at Saqqâra in Egypt.
Dialect
Pausanias says that even though Alcman uses the Doric dialect, which is normally not particularly euphonous, it has not at all spoiled the beauty of his songs.
Alcman's songs were composed in the Greek Dorian dialect of Sparta (the so-called Laconian dialect). This is seen especially in the orthographic peculiarities of the fragments like α = η, ω = ου, η = ει, σ = θ, σδ = ζ, -οισα = -ουσα (the last two of which are not attested in Laconian itself, though) and the use of the Doric accentuation.
Apollonius Dyscolus describes Alcman as συνεχῶς αἰολίζων "constantly using the Aeolic dialect". Yet, many existing fragments display prosodic, morphological and phraseological features common to the Homeric language of Greek epic poetry.
The British philologist Denys Page comes to the following conclusion about Alcman's dialect in his influential monograph (1951):
"(i) that the dialect of the extant fragments of Alcman is basically and preponderantly the Laconian vernacular; (ii) that there is no sufficient reason for believing that this vernacular in Alcman was contaminated by features from any alien dialect except the Epic;In his dissertation on the dialect of Alcman (2001), the Danish philologist George Hinge reaches to the opposite conclusion: that Alcman composed in the same poetic language as Homer ("the common poetic language");
Metrical form
To judge from his larger fragments, Alcmans poetry was normally strophic: Different metres are combined into long stanzas (9-14 lines), which are repeted several times.
One popular metre is the dactylic tetrameter (in contrast to the dactylic hexameter of Homer and Hesiod).
Content
Girls' choruses and initiation
The type of songs Alcman composed most frequently appear to be hymns, partheneia (maiden-songs), and prooimia (preludes to recitations of epic poetry).
The choral lyrics of Alcman were meant to be performed within the social, political, and religious context of Sparta.
The girls express a deep affection for their chorus leader:
"For abundance of purple is not sufficient for protection, nor intricate snake of solid gold, no, nor Lydian headband, pride of dark-eyed girls, nor the hair of Nanno, nor again godlike Areta nor Thylacis and Cleësithera;Earlier research tended to overlook the erotic aspect of the love of the partheneions; Yet, the very fact that the love was codified by a man, Alcman, and even proclaimed during the festivals of the city, is a clear indication that the romantic feelings of the girls were not only tolerated silently, but even promoted loudly.
Some scholars think that the chorus was divided in two halves, who would each have their own leader; The role of the other woman of Alcman's first partheneion, Aenesimbrota, is contested; some consider her indeed a competing chorus-leader, others think that the was some sort of witch, who would supply the girls in love with magic love-elixirs like the pharmakeutria of Theocritus's Second Idyll, and others again argue that the she was the trainer of the chorus like Andaesistrota of Pindar's Second Partheneion
Other songs
Alcman probably composed choral songs for the initiation rites of Spartan boys as well. 200 BCE) says that songs of Alcman were performed during the Gymnopaedia festival (according to Athenaeus):
"The chorus-leaders carry [the Thyreatic crowns] in commemoration of the victory at Thyrea at the festival, when they are also celebrating the Gymnopaedia. they dance naked and sing the songs of Thaletas and Alcman and the paeans of Dionysodotus the Laconian."Praise for the gods, women, and the natural world
Regardless of the topic, Alcman's poetry has a clear, light, pleasant tone which ancient commentators have remarked upon.
Alcman's language is rich with visual description.
Geographic features get close attention: ravines, mountains, flowering forests at night, the quiet sound of water lapping over seaweed.
Literature
Texts and translations
Greek Lyric II: Anacreon, Anacreontea, Choral Lyric from Olympis to Alcman (Loeb Classical Library) translated by David A. Campbell (June 1989) Harvard University Press ISBN 0-674-99158-3 (Original Greek with facing page English translations, an excellent starting point for students with a serious interest in ancient lyric poetry. Nearly one third of the text is devoted to Alcman's work.) Sappho and the Greek Lyric Poets translated by Willis Barnstone, Schoken Books Inc., New York (paperback 1988) ISBN 0-8052-0831-3 (A collection of modern English translations suitable for a general audience, includes the entireity of Alcman's parthenion and 16 additional poetic fragments by him along with a brief history of the poet.) Alcman.
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