The Stanzaic Architecture of Early Greek Elegy (review)
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Faraone's research in the area of early Greek elegy presented in this book, which is an extension of the approach to elegiac poetry worked out in a series of his earlier articles, revives Henri Weil's proposal, put forward almost a century and a half ago (1862), to treat a "strophic" construction as the original feature of these archaic compositions. A decisive advance over Weil's thesis about the strophic design of elegy is found here not simply in the substitution of the term "stanza" for Weil's "strophe" (which might have misleading, in this context, "triadic" connotations concerning choral poetry) or in the much greater number of analyzed texts, but first of all in bringing out the early elegists' technique of—let us call it—"five-couplet spans" and arguing that it was the main "intelligibility-granting" factor of the genre, referred to also by erudite imitators in the Hellenistic period.
The book reflects an appreciation of the conjunction of internal and external elements in detecting the generic identity of a group of literary products in the archaic period (which has become the communis opinio in modern studies). Faraone is correct in pointing out that archaic elegy achieved its generic character in connection with a set of primary elements operating at the functional level, which provided a base for the internal stylistic organization of particular examples of the genre, but in saying so he seems to retain a rather traditional stance and does not appear to reveal anything fundamentally new. What is more radical in his reevaluation of the nature of early elegy is the assumption that a "five-couplet stanza" constituted a unit of elegiac composition, individually marked by thematic or rhetorical coherence, which corresponded to the melodic unit of the instrumental rendition of the poem.
Faraone approaches his subject under six headings preceded by an "Introduction" (of which pages 5 to 7 are crucially important for the understanding of the concept of stanza used in this book) and followed by "Conclusions" and three appendices, in which he examines a number of further individual poems to illustrate his argument. The basis on which he differentiates the weight of his arguments arising from the analyses carried out in chapters 2 to 7 from that of those presented in the appendices is, however, deceptive. The readings of passages made in the appendices are offered, as Faraone apologetically notes (11), as suggestions for further study. Does this mean that the analyses given within the main chapters of the book are thought by the author to provide irrefutable arguments that close down debate on the discussed subject? However, he categorically refrains from such an attitude in his declaration in the "Conclusions" (163–64). [End Page 291]
The concept of stanza, understood as a "stopping place" and at the same time as a "room," borrowed from the Renaissance notion of this Italian word, perfectly suits Faraone's needs: it covers both the architectural components of "elegiac building" he is interested in, namely, the unit of five couplets ("room"), and the point(s) of contact between them ("stopping place"). It also neatly emphasizes the musicality of elegy.
Chapter 2, "Internal Structure," treats the "five-couplet stanza" as a freestanding and internally coherent poetic unit. Faraone shows how archaic elegists consistently organize their material within a stanza so as to produce effects of unity. Poetic devices such as ring-composition, catalogue, and priamel, already identified and discussed in detail as uncontroversially present features of archaic elegies by many scholars, have been reevaluated from the poetological position. Predictably, this interpretative shift results in new interpretations which, in turn, may inspire other scholars to reevaluate some of their views on elegiac poetry. It is, however, surprising that the author so fervently devalues the ancient textual tradition concerning the integrity of the transmitted fragments (i.e., that they belong to the same poem), as he did, e.g., in the case of Stobaeus's transmission of Mimnermus, fragment 2.
Chapter 3, "Composition," continues the treatment of...
