Within the rich and vivid mythical excursus of Olympian 7, Pindar briefly tells the story of Athena's birth, describing her coming out from Zeus' head and the shout she gave after being born, which frightened Gaia and Uranus, gods of heaven and earth (ll. 35-38). In this paper, a new reading of Pindar's passage of Athena's birth is offered, highlighting his most significant aspects, and especially the compositional and eulogistic ones. Moreover, through a new interpretation of the last verse of the section, the paper attempts to bring out some narrative elements, generally neglected by scholars, which could be related to earlier mythographic traditions about Athena's birth: in particular, the detail of the reference to Gaia and Uranus could implicitly recall, through a deliberate reticence, the story of Zeus swallowing Metis, as told by Hesiod in the Theogony.
«Un brivido, per lei, prese il Cielo e la Madre Terra». La nascita di Atena in Pindaro (Ol. 7.35-38)
Presutti, T
2022-01-01
Abstract
Within the rich and vivid mythical excursus of Olympian 7, Pindar briefly tells the story of Athena's birth, describing her coming out from Zeus' head and the shout she gave after being born, which frightened Gaia and Uranus, gods of heaven and earth (ll. 35-38). In this paper, a new reading of Pindar's passage of Athena's birth is offered, highlighting his most significant aspects, and especially the compositional and eulogistic ones. Moreover, through a new interpretation of the last verse of the section, the paper attempts to bring out some narrative elements, generally neglected by scholars, which could be related to earlier mythographic traditions about Athena's birth: in particular, the detail of the reference to Gaia and Uranus could implicitly recall, through a deliberate reticence, the story of Zeus swallowing Metis, as told by Hesiod in the Theogony.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
