Lycophron's Alexandra and the poetics of the sacred and occult

Death of Priam, by Jules Lefebvre, 1861, via Beaux-Arts de Paris (detail)

Lycophron is subject to multiple shadows, many specialists consider his texts obscure, while others classify them as pieces of extreme complexity but also beauty. His poetic and academic work developed during the third century BC, and his main contribution, the most important but unfortunately also the only one preserved in its entirety, is Alexandra, a poem that, due to its unique format, constantly creates debate and speculation.¹

All will I tell truly that thou askest from the utter beginning, and if the tale be prolonged, forgive me, master. For not quietly as of old did the maiden loose the varied voice of her oracles, but poured forth a weird confused cry, and uttered wild words from her bay-chewing mouth, imitating the speech of the dark Sphinx. Thereof what in heart and memory I hold, hear thou, O King, and, pondering with wise mind, wind and pursue the obscure paths of her riddles, whereso a clear track guides by a straight way through things wrapped in darkness. And I, cutting the utter bounding thread, will trace her paths of devious speech, striking the starting-point like winged runner.

There are many fragmentary texts attributed to Lycophron, but the only complete one is precisely this very special piece that works as a prophetic recitation, perhaps a fortune teller's own song that unquestionably unites the poetic with the sacred. The obvious intention of making it’s reading something suitable only for well-versed, educated people with enormous historical and poetic background is demonstrated in the vocabulary and style that is always difficult in addition to the number of episodes narrated and the constant use of allegories, references; mythological and poetic, almost mystical keys.² It has an extensive and delicate use of paraphrases and allegories to designate gods, heroes and classic episodes of mythological heritage.

It is in itself an epic, poetic, prophetic text; Alexandra creates a thread that unites an entire cosmos in a single prophecy. Lycophron presents a text that is too long, an intention of tragedy with an excessively complex and oracular language, although masterful, also encrypted and baroque.

Alexandra presents a challenge to the reader, it is impossible to understand it if you have not read, with a close reading, all the previous works from the long and complex Ancient Greek tradition. Cassandra's language is mythical, complicated, we can perhaps see in it the author's intention to place her at the level of a Pythia, an oracle in the flesh. Not everyone is expected to understand these words, only those who know them by heart.

Already in the Suda Lycophron is referred to as a dark, difficult poet. His text seems to be the incarnation of a mystery that does not seek to be solved, something that aims to hide rather than reveal. The entire poem is difficult to access, it mixes Greek scholarly with Latinized forms, and words and phrases borrowed from other works and places, resulting in a reading that, although beautiful, can be too dark, and full of symbolism. The symmetry that Lycophron used is magnificent, his poem begins and ends with Cassandra as the protagonist, first singing everyone's fate, finally lamenting the meaninglessness of her prophecies thanks to Apollo's punishment. Cassandra is not only the sacred voice, the connecting thread from the gods to mortals, a Bacchic figure; she is also the language of the muses, she is an incarnation of poetry.

This text is not only a prophecy, is a song, a lament, a moment for the reader to approach all these sacred and complicated notions through poetry and performance. While reading we have a constant feeling of sorrow, the lamentation is always in Cassandra's words and works as a reminder of the fatal fate of mortals, but especially as a reminder of the power of gods, rituals, and omens.

Vale (farewell) by Arthur Hacker, detail

The complexity of the text perhaps suggests the author's intention to challenge the psyche of the listener and reader, rather than telling stories, he interweaves them and generates questions, new hidden destinies. It is also important the constant mixture of lament and song that this text offers, although it belongs to the period after the great epics, its content always wants to echo the oral and religious culture, still present and alive.

I mourn, twice and three times for thee who lookest again to the battle of the spear and the harrying of thy halls and the destroying fire. I mourn for thee, my country, and for the grave of Atlas’ daughter’s diver son, who of old in a stitched vessel, like an Istrian fish-creel with four legs, sheathed his body in a leathern sack and, all alone, swam like a petrel of Rheithymnia, leaving Zerynthos, cave of the goddess to whom dogs are slain, even Saos, the strong foundation of the Cyrbantes, what time the plashing rain of Zeus laid waste with deluge all the earth. And their towers were hurled to the ground, and the people set themselves to swim, seeing their final doom before their eyes. And on oat and acorn and the sweet grape browsed the whales and the dolphins and the seals that are fain of the beds of mortal men.

We can also thank Lycophron for giving the world very interesting variants of fundamental characters for the heroic cult and the culture of Greek song, such as Akilleus and Helen. In the Alexandra, these two figures find a happy marriage on the white island after death, perhaps the only source in which Achilles stops being the eternal bridegroom.³ In this sense perhaps Lycophron wanted to embody poetry and truth in Cassandra, even in himself, demonstrating the power of the song, the word and the poet. The connections that result from the cult of song, history and tragedy create an interesting dialogue about the heritage of Greek epic and written tradition. This work tells us everything that happened during the Trojan War, the destiny, glory and death of the heroes, highlighting the fundamental nature of suffering and worship for Greek literature and culture. It is also notable that the writer reconfigures the image of the main heroes, in many providing new versions, extending already known stories, making them more intimate.⁴

Alexandra must be understood within the context of the library of Alexandria, with Lycophron involved in a circle of scholars and thinkers far above the common, a use of the word with a clear intention of metamorphosis, a difficulty that is justified if it is understood within the search to connect his Alexandra with all the previous epic cult, perhaps with the intention of turning his text into a key, imperishable piece. Not only does it talk about Troy, it also shapes the strength of the West and the East, the prophecy becomes the protagonist of a truth that the poet and the muses give to the public.

Alexandra's verbal and thematic structure is by far one of the most powerful and curious of the Hellenistic period.

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1. His figure is described as one of the best Hellenist poets, sophists and thinkers despite the complex and ostentatious nature of his piece Alexandra. Peter Marshall Fraser and Simon Hornblower.

2. Simon Hornblower y Antony Spawforth, The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization (Oxford University Press, 2003)

3. Alexandra's reading in Spanish of the Gredos edition varies from the perceptions obtained from reading the Loeb edition in English. A. W. Mair, Lycophron (London: Loeb Classical Library vol 129, 1921)

4. Thomas J. Nelson y Katherines Molesworth, “Tragic noise and rhetorial frigidity in Lycophron’s Alexandra”, The classical quarterly vol 71, issue 1 (2021)

Lycophron extracts: Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron. Aratus. Translated by Mair, A. W. & G. R. Loeb Classical Library Volume 129. London: William Heinemann, 1921.