Helen and the Palinode

Abstract

And when he had completed the poem known as the Palinode, he immediately regained his sight. poem was famous in Plato's time and bore a famous name: it was called the (rjV KLXOU/v./uv IlaXwqg~iav). Isocrates (Hel. 64) has no other testimony to give: he has a similar story and describes the poem in the same phrase. All our later witnesses, and they are many, bear out the earliest pair in what they say, and until the other day no modern writer has doubted that there was one Palinode of indeed one Palinode, Palinode.2 So far as we can tell, the very word was first used of this poem and took from it what is characteristic in its colour and connotation. This was not, as we know, the only poem in which an ancient poet recanted his telling of a myth. But it was the only poem that was known by the title or name of The Palinode. To speak 1For the earliest discussions of the Palinode, cf. Bergk, PLG43. 214-219. More recent publications include: A. von Premerstein, Ueber den Mythos in Euripides' Helene, Philologus 55 (1896) 634-653; E. Preuss, De Euripidis Helena (Leipzig 1911) 48-50; U. Mancuso, lirica classica greca in Sicilia e nella Magna Grecia (Pisa 1912) 189-206; J. Viirtheim, Stesichoros' Fragmente und Biographie (Leyden 1919) 64-72; V. Pisani, Elena e l'EIAQAON RFIC 56 (1928) 476-499; M. Becker, Helena, ihr Wesen und ihre Wandlungen (Leipzig, Strassburg, Ziirich 1939) 74-80; D. Brunnhofer, Helena (Aarau 1941) 61-66; H. Gregoire, L. MWridier, F. Chapouthier (edd.), Euripide 5 (Paris 1950) 23-36 (by Gregoire); L. B. Ghali-Kahil, Les enlvements et le retour d'Hillne (Ec. Franc. d'Ath. Tray. et Mem. 10; Paris 1955) 39-41, 285-290; M. Detienne, La 1kgende pythagoricienne d'H6l1ne, Rev. de l'Hist. des Religions 152 (1957) 129-152; J. Alsina Clota, La Helena y la Palinodia de Estesicoro, Estudios Cldsicos 4 (1957) 157-175; G. Vallet, Rhigion et Zancle (in BEFAR 189; Paris 1958) 273-277; J. Schwartz, Pseudo-Hesiodeia (Leyden 1960) 552-555; C. M. Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry2 (Oxford 1961) 107-112 and The Two Palinodes of Stesichorus, CR n.s. 13 (1963) 245-252; D. Page in Ox. Pap. 29 (London 1963) 35-37; M. Doria, Le due Palinodie di Stesicoro, PP 18 (1963) 81-93 (with a full bibliography); F. Sisti Le due Palinodie di Stesicoro, Stud. Urb. 39 n.s. B 1 (1965) 301-313; A. M. Dale (ed.), Euripides: Helen (Oxford 1967) xvii-xxiv. 2For lists of the ancient authorities, cf. D. L. Page, Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford 1962) 104-105 and Bergk, PLG4 3. 217-219.

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