Maddalena Scarperi, University of Pennsylvania
In this paper I propose a post-colonial reading of Bacchylides’ Epinikion 11. I argue that, when read through the lenses of post-colonial critical theory, this ode can be understood as an expression of the anxiety of the Metapontine elite to claim belonging to the panhellenic cultural world in response to the social encounters, métissage, and middle-ground negotiations attested archaeologically in the Greek poleis of Southern Italy. Revealing in this sense are the mythological materials chosen to celebrate the victor of this ode, Alexidamos of Metapontum. The poem opens by praising him for the victory he obtained in the boys’ wrestling competitions at Delphi (1-35) thanks to Artemis Hemera (37-39). The account of the origins of her cult in Metapontum occasions the telling of the story of the Proetides, doomed to wander in the woodlands of the Peloponnese for insulting Hera until their father founds the cult of Artemis Hemera in Arcadia (39-112). The ode closes by returning to Metapontum: the cult of Artemis Hemera, we are told, was brought there by Achaean heroes on their return journey from Troy (113-126).
The choice of mythological materials could be explained in connection with the religious context where the ode was perhaps performed (a local festival for Artemis, who had a rural sanctuary in Metapontum? Kowalzig 2007, 291-7), and/or in light of the efforts by some Greek apoikiai of the Ionian Gulf in the sixth-fifth c. BCE to manufacture an Achaean ethnic identity (Kowalzig 2007, 267-327). When approached from a post-colonial perspective, however, there is another dimension to the ode which becomes apparent. The poem weaves a dense web of myths networking Metapontum and the Greek mainland (Delphi, Olympia, Argos, Arcadia) or Metapontum and Troy (a founding myth for panhellenic identity) at the expense of references to myths rooted in the local landscape (cf. Bacchylides’ ep. 1). I argue against the notion that this is due to “the absence of local mythological material suitable for the occasion” (Sevieri 2007, 220). Rather, the erasure of the local mythical landscape results from the endeavors by the Metapontine elite to conceal the complexities of the local colonial context and promote an image of Metapontum as fully belonging to the Hellenic (or, in Homeric terms, Achaean) world. The same concern lies behind the “Achaean” variants of the local story of foundation (FGrHist555F13a), the participation of Metapontine athletes to panhellenic games, the rich donations to Delphi (Strabo 6.1.15, “golden harvest”), as well as the manipulation of the urban and rural landscape of Metapontum to conform to a Greek symbolic organization of space (Carter 2006). The poem belongs to a colonial discourse which provided a partial and biased representation of reality, downplaying the impact in Metapontum of centuries of social encounter with the indigenous populations, well attested in the archaeology. These erasures are, however, only partial: traces of this dynamic world survive even in the literary evidence, if only marginalized. One such case, here explored, is the name of Alexidamos’ father, Phaiskos (14).