SponSoring the artS: melic perSpectiveS

This paper explores the melic poets’ take on art and its sponsors. Since much has been written on the relationship of epinician poets with their patrons, this paper broadens the focus of enquiry to include other melic genres and, in addition to the verbal, to look at the visual arts as well, i.e. melic representations of communities that sponsor songs and of communities or individuals that sponsor other art-forms such as sculpture, architecture, and precious objects. Taking as starting point Xenophon’s depiction of Simonides in Hiero, I discuss epigrams XXVII and XXVIII Page and relevant testimonia that show Simonides’ keen interest in Athenian dithyrambic contests; Bacchylides’ Ode 19, probably composed for the Great Dionysia; Pindar’s Pythian 7, Paean 8, and fragment 3 in conjunction with Homeric Hymn to Apollo 281-99, Herodotus 1.31, Cicero, De oratore 2. 86. 352-353, [Plutarch] Consolatio ad Apollonium, and Pausanias – all of which offer precious insights into Pindar’s views on sponsoring monumental sculpture and architecture; and Bacchylides’ description of the golden tripods that Hieron offered to Apollo in Ode 3. On the basis of this evidence I argue that whatever the nature and the range of remuneration of poets and artists may have been, melic rhetoric shows that it was the relationship of poets, artists and their sponsors with the gods that was ultimately at stake. This is why both the poetry and the traditions about Simonides, Pindar and Bacchylides privilege the divine favour that poets, artists and patrons alike either obtained or were hoping to obtain by offering masterpieces to the gods. KeYWorDS: Religious festivals; prize; dithyrambic contests; sponsorship; monumental sculpture; monumental architecture; remuneration; epinician patrons; Bacchylides; Pindar; Simonides; Apollo; Trophonius; Agamedes; Hieron. 10 Lucia Athanassaki Classica, e-ISSN 2176-6436, v. 31, n. 2, p. 9-29, 2018 PATROCINANDO AS ARTES: PERSPECTIVAS MÉLICAS reSUmo: Este artigo examina o ofício dos poetas mélicos e seus patrocinadores. Visto que muito já foi escrito sobre a relação entre os poetas de epinícios e seus patronos, este artigo amplia o foco da investigação para incluir outros gêneros mélicos e, além das artes verbais, examina também as artes visuais, isto é, representações mélicas de comunidades que patrocinam canções e de comunidades ou indivíduos que patrocinam outras formas de arte, tais como escultura, arquitetura e objetos preciosos. Tomando como ponto de partida a representação de Simônides feita por Xenofonte em Hiéron, discuto os epigramas XXVII e XXVIII Page, e testemunhos relevantes que mostram o grande interesse de Simônides pelas competições ditirâmbicas atenienses; a Ode 19 de Baquílides, provavelmente composta para as Grandes Dionísias; a Pítica 7, o Peã 8 e o fragmento 3 de Píndaro, junto com os Hinos homéricos a Apolo 281-99, Heródoto 1.31, Cícero, De Oratore 2. 86. 352-353, Consolatio ad Apollonium [Plutarco], e Pausânias – pois todos oferecem preciosos insights a respeito das visões de Píndaro acerca do patrocínio de obras de arquitetura e escultura monumentais; e a descrição por Baquílides das trípodes de ouro que Hiéron ofereceu a Apolo na Ode 3. Tomando como base essas evidências, sustento que, independentemente de qual possa ter sido a natureza e o alcance da remuneração dos poetas e dos artistas, a retórica mélica mostra que o que estava em jogo, em última instância, era a relação de poetas, artistas e seus patronos com os deuses. É por isso que tanto a poesia quanto as tradições sobre Simônides, Píndaro e Baquílides privilegiam o favor divino que poetas, artistas e patronos obtinham ou esperavam obter ao oferecer obras primas para os deuses. palavraS-chave: Festivais religiosos; prêmio; competições ditirâmbicas; patrocínio; escultura monumental; arquitetura monumental; remuneração; patronos de epinícios; Baquílides; Píndaro; Simônides; Apolo; Trofônio; Agamedes; Hiéron. This is a very special occasion for me. Before explaining the reason, I wish to express my warmest thanks to the Society of Brazilian Classical Studies for their invitation to this conference whose topic, ‘Arts, citizenship, and politics’, is very dear to me, as many of you know. I have thought a lot about art and politics in melic poetry, but there is one paper that I have published which combines all three. This paper is entitled ‘Dramatic and Political Perspectives on Archaic Sculptures. Bacchylides’ Fourth Dithyramb (c. 18) and the Athenian Treasury in Delphi’.1 I remember very vividly giving this paper in 2011 at the seminars on Ancient Greek Literature in Delphi to an engaged audience of Brazilian classicists. I don’t know if any of you who were there still remember this event, but I still remember the vivid and productive dialogue that followed my presentation. This is why the present occasion is very special: it gives me the incentive and the opportunity to develop my thoughts further by exploring a different aspect of this stimulating topic. 1 Athanassaki, 2016. 11 sponsoring the arts: melic perspectives Classica, e-ISSN 2176-6436, v. 31, n. 2, p. 9-29, 2018 The aspect I wish to explore is the melic poets’ take on art and its sponsors. Since much has been written on the relationship of epinician poets with their patrons, I wish to broaden the focus of enquiry to include other melic genres and, in addition to the verbal, to look at the visual arts as well. Specifically, I shall briefly discuss representations of communities that sponsor songs and of communities or individuals that sponsor other art-forms such as sculpture, architecture, and precious objects.2 Concerning the status of individual sponsors, I shall look both at rulers and at private citizens. Owing to time and space considerations I can only discuss a few representative examples from the poetry of Simonides, Pindar and Bacchylides – all three sponsored by private citizens, monarchs, and communities – and the relevant ancient testimonia. I hope to show that simultaneous examination of sponsoring verbal and material arts can enrich our understanding of the ways in which poets saw their relationship with their sponsors. First, however, a very brief and selective summary of scholarly opinion on the poets’ remuneration by their sponsors is in order. According to Bruno Gentili it was the tyrants who set a mercenary pattern in their relations with poets such as Ibycus, Anacreon and Simonides.3 Leslie Kurke, whose influential study focuses on Pindar’s epinicians, has argued that Pindar uses the language of aristocratic gift exchange to describe his relations with his patrons, thus masking and therefore elevating the monetary transactions of poets and their patrons.4 More recently, Hayden Peliccia has called attention to the problematical value of paid praise, whereas Ewen Bowie has questioned the validity of a sharp distinction between moneyand gift-giving (μισθός vs. δῶρον or δωρεά).5 In what follows I shall explore the impact of the religious background on sponsorship by focusing on poetry mainly composed for competitions in the context of religious festivals and on art dedicated in the Panhellenic sanctuaries. I shall argue that whatever the nature and the range of remuneration of poets and artists may have been, melic rhetoric shows that it was the relationship of poets, artists and their sponsors with the gods that was ultimately at stake. This is why both the poetry and the traditions about Simonides, Pindar and Bacchylides privilege the divine favour that poets, artists and patrons alike either obtained or were hoping to obtain by offering masterpieces to the gods. I begin with Simonides, who in antiquity became notorious for his avarice. Although this is the verdict of posterity, it is clearly a one-sided picture, as we shall see. In a forthcoming paper I argue that in antiquity Simonides was also remembered as a great chorodidaskalos who won a great number of civic competitions all over Greece.6 I have discussed elsewhere Xenophon’s portrait of Simonides as chorodidaskalos in Hieron, an imaginary dialogue between 2 The fundamental study on sponsorship of poetry is Wilson, 2000. For epinician choregia see Currie, 2011. 3 Gentili, 1988, p. 160-66. For Gentili’s model see also Bowie, 2012, p. 83. 4 Kurke, 1991 5 Pelliccia, 2009; Bowie, 2012. For sponsorship of epinician choruses in different celebratory contexts see Currie, 2011. For patronage at Hieron’s court see also Morgan, 2015, chapter 3. 6 Athanassaki, forthcoming. 12 Lucia Athanassaki Classica, e-ISSN 2176-6436, v. 31, n. 2, p. 9-29, 2018 the poet and the Sicilian tyrant who was a famous patron of the arts. In Hieron Simonides, evidently inspired by his own experience, proposes choral competition as an ideal model of government and urges the bewildered tyrant to set up competitions in all civic activities for, in his view, the expense is negligible in comparison to the profit: εἰ δὲ φοβῇ, ὦ Ἱέρων, μὴ ἐν πολλοῖς ἄθλων προτιθεμένων πολλαὶ δαπάναι γίγνωνται, ἐννόησον ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμπορεύματα λυσιτελέστερα ἢ ὅσα ἄνθρωποι ἄθλων ὠνοῦνται. ὁρᾷς ἐν ἱππικοῖς καὶ γυμνικοῖς καὶ χορηγικοῖς ἀγῶσιν ὡς μικρὰ ἆθλα μεγάλας δαπάνας καὶ πολλοὺς πόνους καὶ πολλὰς ἐπιμελείας ἐξάγεται ἀνθρώπων; Xenophon, Hieron 9.117 In case you fear, Hiero, that the cost of offering prizes for many subjects may prove heavy, you should reflect that no commodities are more profitable than those that are bought for a prize. Think of the large sums that men are induced to spend on horse-races, gymnastic and choral competitions, and the long course of training and practice they undergo for the sake of a paltry prize. According to Simonides, as depicted by Xenophon, people value distinction much more than the effort and money required for success. This is why they are prepared to spare neither effort nor money in order to win distinction in the competitive games. Xenophon’s portrayal of Simonides is not very different from the picture that emerges from two epigrams to which we may now turn. Epigram XXVII has been dated by Denys Page and others to the Hellenistic period. From our point of view, it makes little difference if it is classical or Hellenistic epigram. What is important and astounding is the great number of choral competitions that Simonides entered and won: ἕξ ἐπὶ πεντήκοντα, Σιμωνίδη, ἤραο ταύρους καὶ τρίποδας πρὶν τόνδ’ ἀνθέμεναι πίνακα. τοσσάκι δ’ ἱμερόεντα διδαξάμενος χορὸν ἀνδρῶν εὐδόξου Νίκας ἀγλαὸν ἅρμ’ ἐπέβης.

T his is a very special occasion for me. Before explaining the reason, I wish to express my warmest thanks to the Society of Brazilian Classical Studies for their invitation to this conference whose topic, 'Arts, citizenship, and politics', is very dear to me, as many of you know. I have thought a lot about art and politics in melic poetry, but there is one paper that I have published which combines all three. This paper is entitled 'Dramatic and Political Perspectives on Archaic Sculptures. Bacchylides ' Fourth Dithyramb (c. 18) and the Athenian Treasury in Delphi'. 1 I remember very vividly giving this paper in 2011 at the seminars on Ancient Greek Literature in Delphi to an engaged audience of Brazilian classicists. I don't know if any of you who were there still remember this event, but I still remember the vivid and productive dialogue that followed my presentation. This is why the present occasion is very special: it gives me the incentive and the opportunity to develop my thoughts further by exploring a different aspect of this stimulating topic.
The aspect I wish to explore is the melic poets' take on art and its sponsors. Since much has been written on the relationship of epinician poets with their patrons, I wish to broaden the focus of enquiry to include other melic genres and, in addition to the verbal, to look at the visual arts as well. Specifically, I shall briefly discuss representations of communities that sponsor songs and of communities or individuals that sponsor other art-forms such as sculpture, architecture, and precious objects. 2 Concerning the status of individual sponsors, I shall look both at rulers and at private citizens. Owing to time and space considerations I can only discuss a few representative examples from the poetry of Simonides, Pindar and Bacchylides -all three sponsored by private citizens, monarchs, and communities -and the relevant ancient testimonia. I hope to show that simultaneous examination of sponsoring verbal and material arts can enrich our understanding of the ways in which poets saw their relationship with their sponsors.
First, however, a very brief and selective summary of scholarly opinion on the poets' remuneration by their sponsors is in order. According to Bruno Gentili it was the tyrants who set a mercenary pattern in their relations with poets such as Ibycus, Anacreon and Simonides. 3 Leslie Kurke, whose influential study focuses on Pindar's epinicians, has argued that Pindar uses the language of aristocratic gift exchange to describe his relations with his patrons, thus masking and therefore elevating the monetary transactions of poets and their patrons. 4 More recently, Hayden Peliccia has called attention to the problematical value of paid praise, whereas Ewen Bowie has questioned the validity of a sharp distinction between money-and gift-giving (μισθός vs. δῶρον or δωρεά). 5 In what follows I shall explore the impact of the religious background on sponsorship by focusing on poetry mainly composed for competitions in the context of religious festivals and on art dedicated in the Panhellenic sanctuaries. I shall argue that whatever the nature and the range of remuneration of poets and artists may have been, melic rhetoric shows that it was the relationship of poets, artists and their sponsors with the gods that was ultimately at stake. This is why both the poetry and the traditions about Simonides, Pindar and Bacchylides privilege the divine favour that poets, artists and patrons alike either obtained or were hoping to obtain by offering masterpieces to the gods.
I begin with Simonides, who in antiquity became notorious for his avarice. Although this is the verdict of posterity, it is clearly a one-sided picture, as we shall see. In a forthcoming paper I argue that in antiquity Simonides was also remembered as a great chorodidaskalos who won a great number of civic competitions all over Greece. 6 I have discussed elsewhere Xenophon's portrait of Simonides as chorodidaskalos in Hieron, an imaginary dialogue between 2 The fundamental study on sponsorship of poetry is Wilson, 2000. For epinician choregia see Currie, 2011. 3 Gentili, 1988. For Gentili's model see also Bowie, 2012, p. 83. 4 Kurke, 19915 Pelliccia, 2009Bowie, 2012. For sponsorship of epinician choruses in different celebratory contexts see Currie, 2011. For patronage at Hieron's court see also Morgan, 2015, chapter 3. 6 Athanassaki, forthcoming. the poet and the Sicilian tyrant who was a famous patron of the arts. In Hieron Simonides, evidently inspired by his own experience, proposes choral competition as an ideal model of government and urges the bewildered tyrant to set up competitions in all civic activities for, in his view, the expense is negligible in comparison to the profit: εἰ δὲ φοβῇ, ὦ Ἱέρων, μὴ ἐν πολλοῖς ἄθλων προτιθεμένων πολλαὶ δαπάναι γίγνωνται, ἐννόησον ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμπορεύματα λυσιτελέστερα ἢ ὅσα ἄνθρωποι ἄθλων ὠνοῦνται. ὁρᾷς ἐν ἱππικοῖς καὶ γυμνικοῖς καὶ χορηγικοῖς ἀγῶσιν ὡς μικρὰ ἆθλα μεγάλας δαπάνας καὶ πολλοὺς πόνους καὶ πολλὰς ἐπιμελείας ἐξάγεται ἀνθρώπων; Xenophon, Hieron 9.11 7 In case you fear, Hiero, that the cost of offering prizes for many subjects may prove heavy, you should reflect that no commodities are more profitable than those that are bought for a prize. Think of the large sums that men are induced to spend on horse-races, gymnastic and choral competitions, and the long course of training and practice they undergo for the sake of a paltry prize.
According to Simonides, as depicted by Xenophon, people value distinction much more than the effort and money required for success. This is why they are prepared to spare neither effort nor money in order to win distinction in the competitive games. Xenophon's portrayal of Simonides is not very different from the picture that emerges from two epigrams to which we may now turn. Epigram XXVII has been dated by Denys Page and others to the Hellenistic period. From our point of view, it makes little difference if it is classical or Hellenistic epigram. What is important and astounding is the great number of choral competitions that Simonides entered and won: ἕξ ἐπὶ πεντήκοντα, Σιμωνίδη, ἤραο ταύρους καὶ τρίποδας πρὶν τόνδ' ἀνθέμεναι πίνακα. τοσσάκι δ' ἱμερόεντα διδαξάμενος χορὸν ἀνδρῶν εὐδόξου Νίκας ἀγλαὸν ἅρμ' ἐπέβης.

XXVII Page
Fifty-six bulls and tripods, Simonides, did you win before setting up this tablet; fifty six times after training the delightful chorus of men did you step aboard the glorious chariot of honoured Victory.

Syrianus 86
For Simonides was knowledgeable in all poetry and music, so that he won victories in the Athenian contests from his youth to the age of eighty, as the epigram shows …They say that after the victory he sailed to Hiero and died soon after in Sicily.
This is of course a late testimony, but the stories of Simonides' agonistic successes in Athens go back to the 5 th century. Aristophanes for instance, mentions Simonides' participation in public competitions, both in the Wasps and in the Birds. 8 Syrianus' testimony is extremely valuable for it shows that the memory of Simonides' agonistic success was preserved for ten centuries after his death. It also shows that city-sponsored competitions were as important to our poet at the age of eighty as Hiero's presumably much more lavish sponsorship and hospitality. 9 Bacchylides, probably Simonides' nephew, was also eager to participate in citysponsored events, as is obvious from the dithyrambs he composed for his fellow-Ceans and for the Athenians. I wish to start with a dithyramb that has received far less attention than the much discussed odes 17 and 18, for the Ceians and for the Athenians respectively: The context of the composition and performance of this dithyramb is unknown. Maehler has suggested the Great Dionysia, probably around 460 BCE. 11 I do not have time to discuss this dithyramb thoroughly, but the praise involved in the second person statement in l. 11, 'praiseworthy Cean mind', points to an agonistic context, even if Bacchylides did not compose the dithyramb for the Great Dionysia, but for another Athenian festival. As Kuiper pointed out long ago, the audience of the performance must have understood it as the Chorus' address to the poet. 12 If the context of this dithyramb was indeed agonistic, the choral address is a clever and subtle subterfuge whereby the poet urges his audience -through the Chorus -to appreciate the merits of his dithyramb and award him the prize. 13 This urge is much subtler than, but ultimately similar to, the comic choruses' praise of Aristophanes, for instance in the parabasis, for the same purpose. 14 Like Simonides, Bacchylides was also sponsored by Hieron and, like Simonides, he found irresistible public events that were sponsored by cities or communities. I shall come back to Bacchylides and Simonides after a quick look at Pindar. Like the two Ceian poets, Pindar also participated in city-sponsored events in his native Thebes, in Athens and elsewhere. I shall begin my discussion from the honours Pindar 10 The Greek quotations are taken from Maehler's edition, the English translations are those of Campbell, slightly adapted. 11 Maehler, 2004, p. 205. 12 Kuiper, 1928. 13 For the fierce competition among dithyrambic poets and among tribes see Ieranò, 2013, p. 373-80. 14 See for instance Aristophanes, Acharnians 626-58, Clouds 618-27. received from the Athenians for a famous dithyramb, frgs. 76 and 77, that he composed for them after the Persian wars. Let us look first at Isocrates' account in the Antidosis: Ἔτι δὲ δεινότερον, εἰ Πίνδαρον μὲν τὸν ποιητὴν οἱ πρὸ ἡμῶν γεγονότες ὑπὲρ ἑνὸς μόνον ῥήματος, ὅτι τὴν πόλιν ἔρεισμα τῆς Ἑλλάδος ὠνόμασεν, οὕτως ἐτίμησαν ὥστε καὶ πρόξενον ποιήσασθαι καὶ δωρεὰν μυρίας αὐτῷ δοῦναι δραχμὰς, ἐμοὶ δὲ πολὺ πλείω καὶ κάλλιον ἐγκεκωμιακότι καὶ τὴν πόλιν καὶ τοὺς προγόνους μηδ' ἀσφαλῶς ἐγγένοιτο καταβιῶναι τὸν ἐπίλοιπον χρόνον.
Isocrates, Antidosis 166 15 It would be even more absurd if, whereas Pindar, the poet, was so highly honored by our forefathers because of a single line of his in which he praises Athens as 'the bulwark of Hellas' that he was made proxenos and given a present of ten thousand drachmas, I, on the other hand, who have glorified Athens and our ancestors with much ampler and nobler encomiums, should not even be privileged to end my days in peace.
Pausanias 1.8.4 16 Near the statue of Demosthenes is a sanctuary of Ares, where are placed two statues of Aphrodite, one of Ares made by Alcamenes, and one of Athena made by a Parian whose name was Locrus. Here is also a statue of Enyo, made by the sons of Praxiteles. About the temple stand statues of Heracles, Theseus, Apollo binding his hair with a fillet, and statues of Calades who, as it is said, composed nomes for the Athenians, and of Pindar who received other rewards from the Athenians and the statue, because he praised them in a song he composed.
Our sources tell us very little about the event for which Pindar composed the famous dithyramb, but in this instance it is clear that his success went far beyond the actual victory in a competition, if we assume he composed the dithyramb for an agonistic event. 17 We do not know if Isocrates' figure is accurate, but 10000 drachmas is an awful lot of money. Ewen Bowie who, as some of you know, is keen on converting ancient to modern currencies , reckons that this must have been equivalent to $250.000, a quarter of a million dollars! But even if the figure is grossly exaggerated, there is no reason to doubt that the Athenians honored Pindar in his lifetime. With regard to the statue, Isocrates' silence suggests a later dedication, perhaps sometime in the Hellenistic period. 18 Pindar's participation in city-sponsored events in Athens in his own lifetime and his huge reputation after his death clearly facilitated a posthumous dedication that guaranteed the longevity of his fame in a city that, despite its political decline, remained one of the most important cultural centers in the ancient world.
Pindar's favourable reception in Athens sheds light on the long-term advantage communities have over individual sponsors, especially when these communities were important cultural centers. Pindar, like Simonides and Bacchylides, had all been sponsored by powerful tyrants and their milieu and had the opportunity to observe their fleeting power and influence. Simonides, for instance, was active in Athens long after Hipparchus' assassination and the fall of tyranny. Pindar talks about fair-weather friends in the Second Isthmian, an ode commemorating Theron's brother Xenocrates after his and probably Theron's death.
Although we know little about the dissemination of these great poets' compositions in the years following their death, our evidence suggests that Athens played an important role in its initial survival until its later canonization by the Alexandrian scholars. We have seen that Simonides was active in the Athenian cultural scene until the age of eighty. Bacchylides composed several dithyrambs for major Athenian festivals and probably belonged to Cimon's milieu. Pindar was a student of Lasus from Hermione at the beginning of the 5 th century and had close ties with the Alcmaeonids, who were famous for the brilliant restoration of the temple of Apollo in Delphi.
Pindar composed two odes featuring this Alcmaeonid temple, which offer us the opportunity to explore his take on sponsors of architecture and sculpture. I begin the Seventh Pythian which he composed for Megacles' chariot victory in 486: Κάλλιστον αἱ μεγαλοπόλιες Ἀθᾶναι προοίμιον Ἀλκμανιδᾶν εὐρυσθενεῖ γενεᾷ κρηπῖδ' ἀοιδᾶν ἵπποισι βαλέσθαι.
3/4 ἐπεὶ τίνα πάτραν, τίνα οἶκον ναίων ὀνυμάξεαι 5/6 ἐπιφανέστερον 7 Ἑλλάδι πυθέσθαι; 17 The date of composition is also uncertain. The end of the Persian wars is obviously the terminus post quem. The 470s seem to me the most probable period. See also Lavecchia, 2000, p. 279 with the references in notes 36 and 37. 18 The longevity of Pindar's fame is attested in a tradition preserved by Plutarch, Life of Alexander, 11 and Arrian, Anabasis I. 9. 10: after the conquest of Thebes, Alexander spared the relatives and house of Pindar. The great city of Athens is the fairest prelude to lay down as a foundation for songs to honour the mighty race of the Alcmaeonids for their horses. For what fatherland, what house can you inhabit and name with a more illustrious reputation in Hellas? None, for among all cities travels the report about Erechtheus' citizens, Apollo, who made your temple in divine Pytho splendid to behold. Five victories at the Isthmus prompt me, as does one outstanding at the Olympic festival of Zeus and two victories at Cirrha, belonging to your family and forebears. I rejoice greatly at your recent success, but this grieves me that envy requites noble deeds. Yet they say that in this way happiness which abides and flourishes brings a man now this, now that.
Here, Pindar gives a well-known story an unexpected and interesting turn: he attributes the restoration of the temple of Apollo to the Athenians at large. Yet as is clear from Herodotus and other sources, people in Athens and elsewhere knew that it was not the Athenians at large, but the Alcmaeonids, who undertook the restoration of the temple of Apollo in their attempt to win the favour of Delphi in their political struggles against the Pisistratids. 20 There is no reason to doubt that Pindar knew the story too. I have argued elsewhere that Pindar knowingly attributed the impressive restoration to the Athenians at large both because he wanted to ingratiate the ostracized Megacles with the Athenians, but also to preserve his own good relations with the Athenians. 21 The situation was obviously tricky: Pindar was a friend of Megacles and his family. During his sojourn in Athens in the first decade of the fifth century he had undoubtedly made many other friends in Athens too. At some point Megacles became persona non grata in Athens. Pindar on the other hand intended to participate in Athenian musical events, as is clear from the famous dithyramb which, as we have seen, postdates the ode for Megacles. The obvious choice was to come 19 All Pindaric quotations are taken from Snell- Maehler, 1987 andMaehler, 1989; The translations are those of Race, 1997a and 1997b slightly modified. 20 See Herodotus 5.62-63.1. 21   up with a balanced victory song for Megacles which gave the Athenians at large credit for the splendid temple of Apollo, a credit that they did not fully merit.
But Pindar's 'misattribution', as it were, probably springs from and is certainly compatible with the well-known epinician practice of distributing praise equally between the honorand, his family and his native city. If the native city can lay claims to an individual's athletic victory, it can also lay claim to a temple restoration such as the Alcmaeonid restoration. In the case of the temple of Apollo, the adjacent treasury of the Athenians, which was either being built or refurbished at the time of the performance of Pythian 7, could only strengthen the city's claim to the splendid restoration of the god's temple. 22 If we read the concluding gnomē of Pythian 7 with an eye to Megacles' ostracism, what Pindar seems to be saying is that Megacles' misfortune is temporary, for the good fortune of the family has very deep roots. When Megacles returns, what will matter in the democratic city will be Athens' strong ties with and presence in Delphi. Pindar had lived in Athens long enough to know that that was the most effective line of praise of the ostracized Megacles and his great family. 23 But there were other considerations, as we shall see in a moment.
We may now turn to the Eighth Paean, narrating the story of the four temples at Delphi and possibly composed either for the inauguration of the Alcmaeonid temple in the end of the sixth century or for a later celebratory occasion. 24 It is a great pity that this song-dance has been so badly preserved. We do not know who commissioned the paean and who performed it. In light of Pindar's ties with the Alcmaeonids it is reasonable to assume that the powerful family commissioned the ode to be performed by an Athenian chorus. Certainty is of course impossible, but the Alcmaeonids had every reason to commission a song commemorating their brilliant achievement As we have just seen, in the Seventh Pythian Pindar extolled the brilliant restoration and attributed it to the Athenians at large. By the same token, the chorus performing the Eighth Paean must have represented not the Alcmaeonids but the whole city. In this song Pindar narrated the story of the previous four temples at Delphi and probably concluded with mention of the fifth: the first was built from laurel leaves brought from Tempe; the second, built from beeswax by bees, was sent by Apollo to the Hyperboreans; the third was the work of Athena and Hephaestus; the fourth was the temple built by Trophonius and Agamedes. 25 The fifth was the Alcmaeonid temple. Only the story of the third temple is preserved. The third temple of Apollo is an imaginative combination of the verbal and the visual, the animate and the inanimate: it is a temple with a robotic chorus, the Kēlēdones, whose songs are so enchanting that the theoroi forget their families, stay and die in Delphi. For this reason Athena and Hephaestus decide to bury this temple: 22 See Neer, 2004;Athanassaki, 2011. 23 I discuss Pindar's praise strategy in detail in Athanassaki, 2011. 24  But of the other, what arrangement was shown by the all-fashioning skills of Hephaestus and Athena? The walls were of bronze and bronze columns stood in support, and above the pediment sang six golden Charmers. But the children of Kronos split open the earth with a thunderbolt and buried that most holy of all works, in astonishment at the sweet voice because strangers were perishing away from their children and wives as they suspended their hearts on the honey-minded song the man-releasing contrivance (?) of undamaged …to the virgin… and Pallas put (enchantment?) into their voice and Mnemosyne declared to them all the things that are and happened before… What I find fascinating about this temple-description is the unique combination of chorality, architecture and sculpture, all three in one. 26 It is also worth noting that Pindar describes this curious artifact as the 'most holy of all works'. Unfortunately, the lines concerning the fourth and the fifth temple have been lost, but [Plutarch] preserves Pindar's take on the builders of the fourth temple, the architects Trophonius and Agamedes, to whom we may now turn: καὶ περὶ Ἀγαμήδους δὲ καὶ Τροφωνίου φησὶ Πίνδαρος τὸν νεὼν τὸν ἐν Δελφοῖς οἰκοδομήσαντας αἰτεῖν παρὰ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος μισθόν, τὸν δ᾿ αὐτοῖς ἐπαγγείλασθαι εἰς Classica, e-ISSN 2176-6436, v. 31, n. 2, p. 9-29, 2018 ἑβδόμην ἡμέραν ἀποδώσειν, ἐν τοσούτῳ δ᾿ εὐωχεῖσθαι παρακελεύσασθαι· τοὺς δὲ ποιήσαντας τὸ προσταχθὲν τῇ ἑβδόμῃ νυκτὶ κατακοιμηθέντας τελευτῆσαι.
[Plutarch] Consol. Apoll. 14. 109A 27 = Pindar, fragment 3 And of Agamedes and Trophonius Pindar says that after building the temple in Delphi they asked for their wages from Apollo, who promised to pay them on the seventh day and encouraged them to feast in the meantime. They did what they were ordered, and on the seventh night, after going to sleep, they died. Fragment 3 is usually linked with fragment 2, an Isthmian ode for the boxer Casmylus of Rhodes, which is preserved by Lucian (dial. mort. 10). 28 Ian Rutherford suggests that, 'it is also possible that an allusion to Apollo's deadly reward provided a somber conclusion to Pindar's Paian on the Delphic temples'. 29 The state of Paean 8 does not allow certainty, but the Pindaric take on Trophonius and Agamedes offers a precious insight into the melic poets' perspective on the politics of sponsorship. The great architects Trophonius and Agamedes think that they accomplished their project and must be rewarded. But they think in human terms. This is why they ask for their misthos. The god Apollo, who is cast here in the role of the sponsor of his own temple, also thinks that the two architects must be rewarded. Unlike the architects, however, he is thinking in divine terms. This is why he offers them seven days of merriment and then death, presumably at a relatively young age. If μισθός was the term Pindar used, he engaged in a clever rhetorical play on misthos by showing the superiority of Apollo's immaterial reward to the material recompense that Trophonius and Agamedes probably had in mind. But whether Pindar used μισθός or a synonym, it seems that more was at stake in this instance too.
Pausanias 9.37.5-7 30 [5] Trophonius is said to have been a son of Apollo, not of Erginus. This I am inclined to believe, as does everyone who has gone to Trophonius to inquire of his oracle. They say that these, when they grew up, proved clever at building sanctuaries for the gods and palaces for men. For they built the temple for Apollo at Delphi and the treasury for Hyrieus. One of the stones in it they made so that they could take it away from the outside. So they kept on removing something from the store. Hyrieus was dumbfounded when he saw keys and seals untampered with, while the treasure kept on getting less.
[6] So he set over the vessels, in which were his silver and gold, snares or other contrivance, to arrest any who should enter and lay hands on the treasure. Agamedes entered and was kept fast in the trap, but Trophonius cut off his head, lest when day came his brother should be tortured, and he himself be informed of as being concerned in the crime.
[7] The earth opened and swallowed up Trophonius at the point in the grove at Lebadeia where is what is called the pit of Agamedes, with a slab beside it.
Ηomeric Ηymn to Αpollo 281-99 34 From there you rushed speedily on up towards the ridge, and you arrived at Crisa, under snowy Parnassus, a west-facing spur with the cliff hanging over it and a hollow, rugged glen extending below. There the lord Phoibos Apollo decided to make his lovely temple, and he said: 'Here I am minded to make my beautiful temple as an oracle for humankind, who will ever come in crowds bringing me perfect hecatombs, both those who live in the fertile Peloponnese and those who live in the Mainland and the seagirt islands, wishing to consult me; and I would dispense unerring counsel to them all, issuing oracles in my rich temple.' So saying, Phoibos Apollo laid out his foundations in broad and very long, unbroken lines. Upon them Trophonios and Agamedes, the sons of Erginus, favorites of the immortal gods, laid a stone floor; and about it the teeming peoples built the temple with blocks set in place, to be a theme of song for ever.
It is worth noting that the Homeric Hymn is totally silent concerning the other commissions that Trophonius and Agamedes had. The assertion that they were dear to gods (φίλοι ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν) would show the way to Pindar who, I think, wished to exclude the possibility that the architects of Apollo's temple would act as common robbers both in the Isthmian fragment and in all likelihood in the Eighth Paean. This is why he capitalized on the gods' affection for the architects by resorting to the belief that premature death is the gods' reward for mortal piety. The additional advantage of setting their death shortly after the completion of Apollo's fourth temple was that it did not leave time for their subsequent far less honourable activities.
[Plutarch] Consolatio ad Apollonium 109ab Classica, e-ISSN 2176-6436, v. 31, n. 2, p. 9-29, 2018 It is said that when Pindar himself gave instructions to those who were sent from the Boeotians to the place of god to inquire of the God 'what is best for mankind' the prophetess answered that he knew the answer, if the story about Trophonius and Agamedes was his; but if he wished to learn by experience, it would be soon clear to him. And following this inquiry Pindar inferred that he should expect his death; and after a little while he died.
The phrase εἴ γε τὰ γραφέντα περὶ Τροφωνίου καὶ Ἀγαμήδους ἐκείνου ἐστίν may imply that posterity considered Pindar's story his own improvement on the tradition. But even if Pindar simply privileged an already existing, but less known, tradition, the point of the story is that the construction of a temple is ultimately a priceless act of piety as is the reward mortals can expect from the gods for pious behaviour.
In the complex nexus of sponsors and sponsorship the gods are known both to punish the impious and reward the pious. The famous story of the punishment of the Scopads and of Simonides' rescue by the gods is perhaps the most eloquent example: Dicunt enim cum cenaret Crannone in Thessalia Simonides apud Scopam fortunatum hominem et nobilem cecinissetque id carmen quod in eum scripsisset, in quo multa ornandi causa poetarum more in Castorem scripta et Pollucem fuissent, nimis illum sordide Simonidi dixisse se dimidium eius ei quod pactus esset pro illo carmine daturum: reliquum a suis Tyndaridis quos aeque laudasset peteret si ei videretur. Paulo post esse ferunt nuntiatum Simonidi ut prodiret: iuvenes stare ad ianuam duos quosdam qui eum magnopere evocarent; surrexisse illum, prodisse, vidisse neminem; hoc interim spatio conclave illud ubi epularetur Scopas concidisse; ea ruina ipsum cum cognatis oppressum suis interiisse; Cicero, de oratore 2. 86. 352-353 35 The moral of the story could not be clearer. Simonides was rescued by the Dioscuri for his piety, but Scopas was not, for he committed an act of hybris when he asked Simonides to go get half of the fee from the Dioscuri, because he had praised them as much as Scopas himself. 36 The similarities and the differences between the Simonidean story and Pindar's version of Trophonius and Agamedes are instructive. It worth noting that Simonides' patron and the architects of Apollo's fourth temple hold the gods financially responsible for the praise and the temples they are offered. To put it differently, they treat gods like mortals. This is especially clear in the case of Scopas who suggests that he splits the cost with the Dioscuri! Trophonius and Agamedes are not nearly as crude, but their attitude towards Apollo is not impeccable, for they should know that gods were above the financial transactions of mortals. As has already been mentioned, Pindar revised an unflattering picture of the legendary architects, as he did in other similar cases, for instance in the story of Pelops in the First Olympian. In both cases, however, the revision was not seamless.
What these stories tell us is the cardinal importance of the religious context of architecture, sculpture and melic poetry alike. There is, of course, no doubt that construction and sculptural decorations of temples and sanctuaries involved great expenses that were undertaken by individuals or families or communities. The same is true for musical events, especially choral performances. But the artifact itself, be it a temple, a statue, a song or a dance-song, was above all a gift to the gods who were believed to have power to give mortals what money could not buy. Gods could bestow on mortals good fortune (eudaimonia) that sometimes entailed an untimely death and they could bestow health (hygieia).
My last example illustrates the close connection between art sponsorhip and the human belief in the god's power to bestow health. Unlike all previous examples, the sponsor is a monarch, Hieron of Syracuse, who has had the lion's share of the encomiastic songs that Pindar and Bacchylides composed. We know from Pausanias that both Hieron and Gelon were great supporters of the visual arts: Gelon, Hieron's brother, had dedicated a chariot at Olympia in 488 (5.23.6). 37 By the time of his chariot victory at Olympia, Hieron had already dedicated three helmets from the spoils of his victory over the Etruscans at Cumae (474 BCE). Given their many and impressive dedications at Olympia, it is at first sight odd that in an ode celebrating Hieron's Olympic victory in 468 BCE Bacchylides, mentions only one of Hieron's offerings which was not dedicated at Olympia, however, but at Delphi: Hieron's dedication that the poet singles out for mention is the artfully-wrought golden tripods that were placed in front of Apollo's temple in Delphi. But why does Bacchylides mention only the golden tripods that the Sicilian tyrant offered Apollo? Bacchylides' choice makes perfect sense, if we take into account Hieron's circumstances and the poet's agenda. At the time of his Olympic victory, Hieron was already ill and died a year later in 467 BCE. In the Third Pythian, which cannot be securely dated, but belongs in the early 460s as well, Pindar states that if Chiron were alive, he would persuade him to provide a healer, a son of Apollo or of Zeus, who could cure the feverish illnesses of good men (63-67). Bacchylides, I suggest, thought along similar lines and remembered the valuable gift that Hieron had offered Apollo. Once Apollo came into the picture, it was easy to come up with a celebrated paradigm, the story of Croesus, whom Apollo saved as a reward for his piety and generosity to the god's sanctuary. The parallelism between the fabulous generosity of Croesus and Hieron could not be more overt: Nothing that the planning of the gods brings about is past belief: Delos-born Apollo carried the old man then to the Hyperboreans and settled him there with his slim-ankled daughters by reason of his piety, since he had sent up to holy Pytho greater gifts than any other mortal. But of all men who dwell in Greece there is none, illustrious Hiero, who will be ready to claim that he sent more gold to Loxias than you.
What the Bacchylidean song shows is that, from a melic perspective, the most important aspect of sponsorship of the arts is that they are part of the do ut des principle, because they are not simply artifacts, they are brilliant gifts that mortals give to the gods. This is true both for the verbal and the visual arts that we have discussed. And because they are gifts to the gods, the financial aspect is immaterial, not because it did not exist or people did not care about it but because, when it came to the gods, no expense was big enough.

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The stories we have discussed show that in daily life poets, sculptors, architects and their sponsors adopted or/and were perceived to adopt mundane attitudes to the arts and the great expenses involved. Yet Xenophon's imaginary dialogue between Hieron I and Simonides shows that financial profit was neither the sole nor the most important consideration. We have seen that Simonides, usually depicted as intent on financial gain, was also famous for his keen interest and great success in dithyrambic competitions. Similarly Pindar was composing for monarchs and other magnates without losing sight of the importance of civic commissions. The famous dithyramb which secured him eternal fame and huge financial profit could have initially been composed for one of the great festivals, for instance the Panathenaea or the Great Dionysia. In such a scenario all that Pindar could hope for was the prize which he must have won. Although our sources are not explicit, the dithyramb must have made such a great and lasting impression that the Athenians decided to bestow additional honours on the poet at a later stage. Simonides, Pindar and Bacchylides did not snub tyrants and other magnates, but they had been around long enough to know that monarchic power was fragile and transitory and that the same was true for the honours bestowed by monarchs. The sheer volume of their hymnic production indicates that they must have recognized the far greater prestige that victory in Panhellenic competitions carried.
We have seen that financial gain and prestige were secondary to the divine favour that mortals were hoping to obtain through participation in athletic and musical competitions and the subsequent dedications. The story of Scopas shows that not all mortals were keen to honour the gods, but his attitude to the gods was the exception, not the rule. Lavish praise in songs and material dedications in the Panhellenic sanctuaries by individuals and communities show that no effort or money was spared when it came to honour the gods. Bacchylides' puts it in a nutshell when he links his epinician song with Hieron's golden dedication to Apollo: θεὸν θ[εό]ν τις/ ἀγλαϊζέθὠ γὰρ ἄριστος ὄλβων (3,(21)(22). And although it would be impossible to escape anybody's notice that Hieron's tripods were costly as was, of course, the restoration of Apollo's temple, the melic poets adopted a lofty rhetoric that shifted the focus from the balance-sheet to the piety of mortals and the divine pleasure that it was meant to cause. Bacchylides' take on Croesus' and Hieron's generosity in Ode 3 offers an explanation: the cost was negligible in comparison to the divine favour the gifts of mortals could elicit, which in extremis could save one's life.
Mutatis mutandis the poets had a similar attitude. Like their sponsors, they too were eager to please the gods by participating and winning in all sorts of festivals. Simonides, for instance, honoured the gods by training choruses at the age of eighty. Pindar's and Bacchylides' hymnic production points in the same direction. The prize was simultaneously a public acknowledgment of their excellence and the proof that, regardless of the nature of remuneration, they had offered the gods the best gifts they could. That was important, because like their sponsors, poets were also mortal.