The Plutarchan Reception of the Choral Lyric
The Plutarchan Reception of the Choral Lyric
Abstract
Among the plethora of citations of different authors and genres that help to embellish Plutarch’s learned prose, passages by the choral poets Alcman, Stesichorus, Ibycus and Bacchylides make an interesting group, albeit far fewer than the citations of Pindar and Simonides, which have been dealt with extensively. This paper aims to highlight the modest but significant contribution Plutarch makes to the constitutio textus, reception history, and the very image of these important, but deficiently transmitted authors. At the same time, it addresses the form of the quotations, their distribution and function in the Plutarchan corpus, and their possible sources, including the school.