Corinna and the Daughters of Asopus

Corinna and the Daughters of Asopus Jennifer Larson Kent State University Recently, the question of Corinna’s date has been raised yet again by Andrew Stewart, who observes that Tatian’s list of statues of the female poets, including one of Corinna by the fourthcentury sculptor Silanion, is supported by archaeological evidence . In his Oratio ad Graecos (33–4), the Christian apologist Tatian provides a list of thirty-six statues and their sculptors that, in his opinion, demonstrates the moral inferiority of the pagan Greeks. Art historians have long suspected that these statues , especially the fourteen female subjects whomTatian groups together at the beginning of chapter 33, once stood in the area of Pompey’s theater at Rome. Literary historians, on the other hand, have followed Kalkmann’s 1887 essay in arguing that Tatian’s list is a complete fabrication, in spite of his claim to have seen the statues first-hand.1 In 1972, however, Coarelli published a statue base from the theater complex, inscribed with the title “Mystis” and the name of the artist, Aristodotos. This corresponded exactly to one of Tatian’s statues. But because neither Mystis nor her sculptor were known from other sources, editors ofTatian, includingWhittaker (1982) and Marcovich (1995), have emended the manuscript reading of Mystis to Nossis, ignoring Coarelli’s discovery. They 1 Stewart; Kalkmann. Page, West, and Campbell follow Kalkmann. Opinion on Corinna’s date is still divided in spite of many ingenious arguments on both sides. Segal and Stewart contain reviews of the literature from the literary-critical and art-historical perspectives up to the mid-1990’s; see also the bibliographical article in Gerber (1996) 152–62. Citations of Corinna in this paper are from Campbell; those of Hesiod are from Solmsen, Merkelbach and West, and the Pindaric text is from Snell and Maehler.The author is grateful for the comments and bibliography provided by Syllecta Classica’s anonymous referee. 48 SYLLECTA CLASSICA based this emendation on Kalkmann’s assumption that Tatian was listing statues of female poets including the nine whom Antipater ofThessalonica enumerated (AP 9.26) in analogy with the nine Muses. Tatian, then, not satisfied with the canonical nine female poets, whom he considered clear examples of female immorality, allegedly fabricated for good measure a further four female poets of whom no other sources knew.2 This indeed would constitute grounds for declaring the entire list an imaginative exercise. ButTatian clearly did not have the canonical nine female poets in mind, for he left out Nossis. Instead, female poets and courtesans are listed together indiscriminately, which was entirely Tatian’s point (he emphasizes that Sappho was a guvnaion pornikovn and an ejrwtomanhv3). Coarelli suggests that the combination of courtesans and female poets fits the site very well because the temple of Venus Victrix was a part of the theater complex.4 This does not clear up all the problems with Tatian’s list, but it certainly revives the possibility that Silanion sculpted a Corinna in the fourth century, flying in the face of the strong opinions expressed by many critics in favor of a thirdcentury date for Corinna. It is no longer feasible to ignore the iconographical argument simply on the grounds that “Tatian is notoriously untrustworthy.”5 One of the arguments favoring a late date is that Corinna’s genealogical material and regionalism are characteristic of a Hellenistic author. According to Segal, “this interest in relating large numbers of rather recondite local myths of foundations and genealogies seems more appropriate to Hellenistic 2 Kalkmann 505–07. 3 Tatian chh. 33-34. 4 Coarelli, also cited by Palumbo Stracca. Bernard devotes a lengthy appendix (97–118) to the rehabilitation of Tatian’s list and deals with the objections of Page.The Compiègne statuette may be a copy of Silanion’s Corinna portrait and possesses fourth-century style clothing. For discussion, see Allen and Frel; Richter 156; Bernard 47, 50–52, fig. 9; West (1990); Stewart 279 fig. 4. On the statues in Pompey’s portico, see also Kuttner. 5 West (1990) 557. LARSON: CORINNA AND THE DAUGHTERS 49 taste.”6 West asserts that Corinna’s “self-conscious regionalism ” is a late characteristic.7 In view of...