Chengzhi Zhang (University of California, Los Angeles)
This paper examines the use of the Mycenaean titular term ra-wa-ke-ta ‘leader of the people’ (spelling lāwāgetās, continued mainly as Dor. λᾱγέτᾱς) in post-Mycenaean Greek literature, demonstrating the textual and semantic diachrony of this culturally important term through close reading of its occurrences in early lyrics (Ibycus and Pindar) and Athenian tragedy (Sophocles) in comparison with its original attestation in the Linear B materials. I argue that there is a semantic shift of the word lāwāgetās from its administrative and militaristic denotation as shown in the palace documents to being chiefly used as an epithet for mythical and heroic figures by later authors, especially in the mythological narratives in Pindar’s epinician odes.
The scholarly discussions surrounding this term have so far mainly focused on its controversial etymology (Szemerényi 1972: 302-317, Lindgren 1973: 126-130, Nikoloudis 2006: 225-232) and on describing its status vis-à-vis other power terms such as the wanax within the Mycenaean political structure (Palaima 1992, 2002, 2006, Wyatt 1994). Building on earlier analysis of this term in the Mycenaean contexts, this paper aims to fill the gap by providing a close philological study of the lāwāgetās in the classical period to show, as an example of many such lexical items, the path of the semantic development (and, in some respect, continuity) of a Mycenaean word into later literature.
My analysis starts with the discussion of the peculiar absence of this word in Homer and early epics, for which I argue that the metrical incompatibility in most case forms should be viewed as the main reason (thus in agreement with Hajnal 1998), although it is also possible that the word is not part of the epic diction to begin with. The earliest attestation of lāwāgetās in historical Greek is from Ibycus S166. I argue that the fragmented sequence λαγε- in line 15 could originally be λαγέ[ταις] agreeing with and serving as an epithet of the preceding word Tυνδαριδ[αι]cι referring to the mythical brothers Castor and Pollux. The bulk of the attestations of λᾱγέτᾱς are found in Pindar (four times in O.1.89, P. 3.85, 4.107, and 10.31). I will demonstrate that the word is again chiefly used to refer to distant legendary figures (including Pelops, Aeolus, and Perseus) and carries a strong mythological and heroic connotation. In one passage (P. 3.85) the term is juxtaposed with τύραννος and describes the contemporary ruler Hieron, suggesting its old usage as a power term is still preserved to some extent. The word is further attested in Sophocles fr.221 (Eurypylus) where the form λαγέτ[α] is used in the vocative case next to γύναι (referring to Astyoche, mother of Eurypylus), making it a noteworthy instance where the title is applied to a female character, showing another divergence from its Mycenaean usage. I will conclude the discussion with a brief look at what traces of λᾱγέτᾱς are preserved in names and lexicography (including Hesychius) before it finally disappeared in the extant Greek materials.