Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

vn] The Komos 257
The Komos, which thus sank to be a mere appendage, retained
even in historic times features which show that the personality of
the victor was not of primary importance. The elaborate Epinikian
ode of the Pindaric type was a late institution. The earlier
victors, like Epharmostos, were content with the threefold ringing
cry which began, ' Hail, King Herakles 1 .' Even when Pindar
brought the Ode of Victory to its perfection, the victor had still to
be satisfied with a personal reference at the beginning and the
end. The central portion of the typical Epinikion is occupied, not
with the victor's personality and achievements, but with the deeds
of his ancestors, those earlier manifestations of the Genius of his
house (Sal/xcov yeveOXios) who is reimbodied in each successive
generation. It is the daimon, incarnate for the moment in the
victor, who in a great number of Pindar's odes, is really the object
of praise and commemoration. In other odes the myth is devoted
to the institution or ordinance (Tetf/id?) of the rite itself. This, as
we shall see (p. 327), is the proper and original topic of the myth
in a hymn associated with ritual. In the development of the
Epinikian ode we may perhaps see an analogy to the development
of the drama, which starts from a ritual dithyramb containing
an ' aetiological ' myth, and later is infused with a new element of
saga-history borrowed from epic tradition 2 . In both cases the
hymn and the ritual myth come first ; the commemoration of
ancestors is a secondary importation.
We have spoken of the Olympic victor as the daimon of his
Year; we have seen him wreathed, and pelted with leaves 3
leading the song and dance of his attendants in the Komos
a Kouros at the head of his Kouretes. We have also found him
conceived as the reincarnation of the daimon of his house—the
Spirit of his dead ancestors, who, as Pindar 4 says, ' listening with
such consciousness as the dead may have, hear of his great
prowess, on which the delicate dew of song is shed, as of a glory
which is their own and which they share with their son.' Finally,
we may regard him also as representing the ' local hero,' be he
1 Pind. 01. ix. 1. Hesych. • rerpd/cw/xos /j.4\os tl gvv 6pxM €L Treironjuipoi' els
'Hpa/cXia iwivUiov.
2
3
See infra, p. 334.
Victors were also pelted with flowers and fruits, Plut. Symp. Qu. vni. 4. 723 c
Kal bodois Kai \vxvici.v, tviot. 8e /cat p.r)\oi.s kclI poials ffiaWov ws Ka\oh yepalpovres ael
rovs VLKTjcpdpovs.
4 Pyth. v. 98 ; cf. 01. vin. 14, Nem. rv. 85.
H.
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