“ηὔδα… πυγιστί”: Ambivalence in Archaic Iambic Invective

Abstract

This thesis offers a new approach to the debate surrounding the relationship between Archaic iambic invective poets and the conventional morality of their communities, through close readings of invective fragments from canonical iambic poets from the perspective of Bakhtinian and post-Bakhtinian theories of literary transgression and ambivalence. After a brief introduction (Chapter 1), Chapter 2 examines Archilochus’ Cologne epode and establishes that his poetic persona assumes a morally questionable position in service of a more effective invective narrative. Investigating fragments from Hipponax’s corpus through the lens of the literary grotesque, Chapter 3 argues for the centrality of the grotesque in the construction of Hipponax’s ambivalent poetic persona. Chapter 4 examines Semonides fr. 7 W, arguing that Semonides’ conventional iambic poetics situate his persona in an ambivalent position in relation to community morality. These investigations suggest that ambivalence is a fundamental characteristic of iambic invective, recontextualising the iambographer’s role in community negotiations of morality and justice.Nigel Burns, 202