Stylistic Analysis Of Partheneia

Fragments 22 and 26 CA come from Aristoxenus’ treatise upon meter. Parts of five columns are preserved in POxy XXXIV 2687. The subject of the second and the third columns (from where these fragments come from) is the occurrence in various meters of syncope. The scholiast uses as examples of this figure quotations from lyric poems. These fragments are examples of the occurrence of syncope in iambic meter.
Wilamowitz was the first to stress that the metric variation encountered in these fragments, is an indication of their later date. Fragment 22 CA is full of repetitions of b and l sounds (ποκίλων, ἄμβροτοι, λείμακες, βαθύσκιον, ἄλσος, ἁβροπαρθένους, ἀγκάλαις) and in fragment 26 CA there is a repletion of the word βᾶτε for emphasis and, probably,

In fragment 9 CA the net of self-references is very dense. The collective ‘I’ of the chorus (expressed in the first plural person) attempts to draw the attention, and even to guide the vision, of the audience (or of the imagined audience) to the maidens. The speaker provides details regarding the gender, the number and the age of the members of the chorus (ἐννέ’ ἐάσσα[ι παίσαι παρθενικαί), their attires and their accessories and tries to direct the sight of the addressee to them. Fragment 9 CA is a poetic composition rich in images that appeal to the senses (especially to the sense of vision). In fragment 26 CA, the speaker, who is probably a chorus of maidens, describes one girl who seems detached from the rest of the chorus (she is probably the chorus-leader) and gives orders to the rest of the maidens to take a position in order to perform the song. It also makes clear that one of the purposes of performing this song is to be seen by others (ὀρόμεναι). All three fragments describe the hic and nunc of the performance. The landscape and not the girls of the chorus is in the limelight in fragment 22 CA. The performance seems to take place in an idyllic landscape. Nevertheless, it is impossible not to notice that there is a sensual tone in the fragment. In addition to this, the phenomenon of choral

They use elements of the language of ‘classical’ epic and lyric and some linguistic neoterisms also used by late classical drama. Despite the fact that fragment 26 CA brings to mind Alcman’s partheneia and other partheneia, fragment 22 CA has associations with other poetic compositions in which loci amoeni are described. This fragment not only triggers associations with Alcman, but also with Sappho’s and Ibycus’ poetry. These bacchic maidens seem to sing a song not only in an idyllic, but also in a seemingly sacred place, away from the gaze of men. The landscape resembles that of Sappho’s 2 V: Sappho invokes Aphrodite to come from her temple in Crete, where there is a grove (χάριεν ἄλσος) with apple trees. This place is hidden by the roses (βρόδοισι δὲ παῖς ὁ χῶρος ἐσκίαστ’). Aphrodite’s temple seems to be located in a full-blossomed meadow (ἐν δὲ λείμων ἰππόβοτος τέθαλεν ἠρίνοισιν ἄνθεσιν). The speaker uses the same marker which is used in fragment 22 CA (ἔνθα δὴ) for the invocation of a god. Modern scholars have noticed the private character and the sensual tone of Sappho’s fragment. In Ibycus 286 PMG there is also a description of an unravished garden of maidens (Παρθένων κῆπος ἀκήρατος) where vine buds are growing under shadowy branches.
Although almost nothing final can be said regarding the exact date of the composition and the generic identity of these fragments,