Editing Alcman (section)

=== The First Partheneion ===

The type of songs Alcman composed most frequently appear to be hymns, ''partheneia'' (maiden-songs Greek {{lang|grc|παρθένος}} "maiden"), and ''prooimia'' (preludes to recitations of [[epic poetry]]).  Much of what little exists consists of scraps and fragments, difficult to categorize.
The most important fragment is the First Partheneion or Louvre-Partheneion, found in 1855 in [[Saqqara]] in Egypt by the French scholar [[Auguste Mariette]]. This Partheneion consists of 101 lines, of which more than 30 are severely damaged. It is very hard to say anything about this fragment, and scholars have debated ever since the discovery and publication about its content and the occasion on which this partheneion could have been performed.

The choral lyrics of Alcman were meant to be performed within the social, political, and religious context of [[Sparta]]. Most of the existing fragments are lines from ''partheneia''.  These hymns are sung by choruses of unmarried women, but it is unclear how the ''partheneia'' were performed. The Swiss scholar [[Claude Calame]] (1977) treats them as a type of drama by choruses of girls. He connects them with initiation rites.<ref>Calame, ''Les Chœurs de jeunes filles en Grèce archaïque'', 2 vols. (Rome:L'Ateneo and Bizzarri), 1977; translated as ''Choruses of Ancient Women in Greece: their morphology, religious roles and social functions'' (Lanham, MD:Rowman and Littlefield), 1996. In Spartan feminine liturgies, Calame detected [[initiation|initiative scenarios]] in rites of passage interpreted as survivals of [[Archaic Greece|archaic]] "tribal' initiations.</ref>

The girls express a deep affection for their chorus leader ([[coryphaeus]]):
{{cquote|For abundance of purple is not sufficient for protection, nor intricate snake of solid gold, no, nor Lydian headband, pride of dark-eyed girls, nor the hair of Nanno, nor again godlike Areta nor Thylacis and Cleësithera; nor will you go to Aenesimbrota's and say, 'If only Astaphis were mine, if only Philylla were to look my way and Damareta and lovely Ianthemis'; no, Hagesichora guards me.<ref>fr. 1, vv. 64–77; transl. Campbell. [[Gregory Hutchinson (academic)|Hutchinson]] and Stehle translate: wears me out (with love)</ref>}}
{{cquote|I were to see whether perchance she were to love me. If only she came nearer and took my soft hand, immediately I would become her suppliant.<ref>fr. 3, vv. 79–81; transl. Campbell.</ref>}}
Earlier research tended to overlook the erotic aspect of the love of the partheneions; thus, instead of the verb translated as "guards", {{lang|grc|τηρεῖ}}, at the end of the first quotation, the [[papyrus]] has in fact the more explicit {{lang|grc|τείρει}}, "wears me out (with love)". Calame states that this [[Homoeroticism|homoerotic love]], which is similar to the one found in the lyrics of the contemporaneous [[poet]] [[Sappho]], matches the [[Spartan pederasty|pederasty]] of the males and was an integrated part of the [[Initiation| initiation rites]].<ref>Calame 1977, vol. 2, pp. 86–97.</ref> At a much later period, but probably relying on older sources, Plutarch confirms that the Spartan women were engaged in such same sex relationships.<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Lycurgus'' 18.4.</ref> It remains open if the relationship also had a physical side and, if so, of what nature.

While not denying the erotic elements of the poem, contemporary classicist Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou has argued that the latter half of the first partheneion portrays Hagesichora critically and emphasizes her absence, rather than praising her and emphasizing her approval.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tsantsanoglou |first=Kyriakos |date=2012 |title=Of Golden Manes and Silvery Faces: The Partheneion 1 of Alcman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MNy7sNrZLUwC |location=Berlin |publisher=de Gruyter |pages=78–80 |isbn=978-3110292008 |access-date=2018-06-20 |archive-date=2024-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527124122/https://books.google.com/books?id=MNy7sNrZLUwC |url-status=live }}</ref> Tsantsanoglou's interpretation has not been met with mainstream acceptance in classical studies.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

Other scholars, among them Hutchinson and Stehle, see the First Partheneion as a song composed for a harvest ritual and not as a tribal initiation. Stehle argues that the maidens of the Partheneion carry a [[plough]] ({{lang|grc|φάρος}}, or, in the most translations, a robe, {{lang|grc|φᾶρος}}) for the goddess of Dawn (Orthria). This goddess of Dawn is honoured because of the qualities she has, especially in harvest time when the Greeks harvest during dawn ([[Hesiod]], Works and Days, ll. 575–580: "Dawn gives out a third share of the work [that is, harvesting]").<ref>Stehle 1997, p.80.</ref> The heat (embodied by the [[Sirius]]-star) is a threat for the dawn, so the chorus tries to defeat him.<ref>Stehle 1997, pp. 71–90</ref> In the meanwhile the chorus-members present themselves as women ready for marriage. Stehle doesn't agree with Calame about the initiation-rituals, but cannot ignore the 'erotic' language that the poem expresses.

Some scholars think that the chorus was divided in two halves, who would each have their own leader; at the beginning and close of their performance, the two halves performed as a single group, but during most of the performance, each half would compete with the other, claiming that their leader or favorite was the best of all the girls in [[Sparta]].  There is, however, little evidence that the chorus was in fact divided. The role of the other woman of Alcman's first partheneion, Aenesimbrota, is contested; some consider her indeed a competing chorus-leader,<ref>R.C. Kukula, ''Philologus'' 66, 202–230.</ref> others think that she was some sort of witch, who would supply the girls in love with magic love-elixirs like the ''pharmakeutria'' of [[Theocritus]]'s Second Idyll,<ref>M.L. West, ''Classical Quarterly'' 15 (1965) 199-200; M. Puelma, ''Museum Helveticum'' 43 (1977) 40–41</ref> and others again argue that she was the trainer of the chorus like Andaesistrota of [[Pindar]]'s Second Partheneion<ref>Calame 1977, vol. 2, pp. 95–97; G. Hinge [http://alkman.georgehinge.com/chorus.html Cultic persona] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060514171008/http://alkman.georgehinge.com/chorus.html |date=2006-05-14 }}</ref>