The Adaptation of Myth: Semele’s Story in Pindar, Euripides, and Hölderlin’s Poetry
Abstract
In the study of the reception and the interpretation of literary adaptations, myth represents a privileged example to analyse the rewriting of a narrative plot in chronologically distant literary systems, which employ different communicative strategies.
The semiotic components and structures of mythical narrative are continually reworked, depending on the historical period, the writing occasion, and the educational aims of the text. Every literary work that reshapes a myth, in the classical world as well as in modern literature, is itself an adaptation.
Taking Friedrich Hölderlin’s literary production as a model, it would be possible to outline the survival of Semele’s myth, from its classical sources – the works by Pindar and Euripides translated in German by the poet – to its mythological retelling in Hölderlin’s lyrical production. This reworking process implies multiple code switching, including linguistic adaptation (the translation from Greek to German), genre shift (from choral lyric and tragedy to the subjective poetry of the early nineteenth century), and communicative strategy shift (the orality of Greek civilisation as opposed to modern written literature). Through a comparative analysis of the texts, I will point out how Hölderlin, far from just borrowing the themes of the Greek sources, interpreted the spirit by which the ancient Greeks created variations of traditional tales. Rewriting a myth segment resulted in a fundamental innovation on the tradition: by retelling Semele’s story, Hölderlin lays the foundations of a new epiphanic poetry.
Downloads
References
Christen, Felix, Eine andere Sprache. Friedrich Hölderlins Große Pindar-Übertragung, Zürich, Engeler, 2007.
Cometa, Michele, Iduna. Mitologie della ragione, Palermo, Novecento, 1984.
Baeumer, Max Lorenz, “Dionysos und das Dionysische bei Hölderlin“, Hölderlin-Jahrbuch, 18 (1973-1974): 98-115.
Behre, Maria, „Des dunklen Lichts voll“. Hölderlins Mythokonzept Dionysos, München, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1987.
Benn, Maurice Bernard, Hölderlin and Pindar, The Hague, Mouton, 1962.
Beissner, Friedrich, Hölderlins Übersetzungen aus dem Griechischen, Stuttgart, Metzler,1933.
Bierl, Anton, Dionysos und die griechische Tragödie, Tübingen, Narr, 1991.
Böschenstein, Bernhard, “Die Bakchen des Euripides in der Umgestaltung Hölderlins und Kleists“, Aspekte der Goethezeit. Festschrift für Victor Lange, Ed. Stanley Corngold, Göttingen, 1977: 240-253.
Id., “Hölderlins Dionysoshymne «Wie wenn am Feiertage…»“, «Frucht des Gewitters». Zu Hölderlins Dionysos als Gott der Revolution, Frankfurt am Main, Insel, 1987: 14-36.
Burkert, Walter, Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual, Berkeley-Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1979, trad. it. Mito e rituale in Grecia, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1987.
Detienne, Marcel, L’invention de la mythologie, Paris, Gallimard, 1981, trad. it. L’invenzione della mitologia, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1983.
Di Benedetto, Vincenzo, Euripide: teatro e società, Torino, Einaudi, 1971.
Dodds, Eric Robertson, The Greek and Irrational, Berkeley-Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1951, trad. it. I greci e l’irrazionale, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1959.
Euripides, Bacchae, Ed. Eric Robertson Dodds, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1944.
Euripide, Le Baccanti, Ed. Giulio Guidorizzi, Venezia, Marsilio, 1989.
Id., Le Baccanti, Ed. Vincenzo Di Benedetto, Milano, Rizzoli, 2004.
Frank, Manfred, Der kommende Gott. Vorlesungen über die Neue Mythologie, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 1982, trad. it. Il dio a venire. Lezioni sulla nuova mitologia, Torino, Einaudi, 1994.
Freye, Northrop, “Littérature et mythe”, Poetique, 8 (1971): 489-514.
Gaier, Ulrich, “Hölderlin und Mythos“, Terror und Spiel. Probleme der Mythenrezeption,Ed. Manfred Fuhrmann, Poetik und Hermeneutik, München, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1971, IV.
Gentili, Bruno, Poesia e pubblico nella Grecia antica, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1984.
Harrison, Robin Burnett, Hölderlin and Greek Literature, Oxford, Claredon Press, 1975.
Heidegger, Martin, “Wie wenn am Feiertage…”, Erläuterungen zu Hölderlins Dichtung, Frankfurt am Main, Klostermann, 1951: 49-77, trad. it. La poesia di Hölderlin, Milano, Adelphi, 1988: 59-93.
Hellingrath, Friedrich Norbert, Pindarübertragungen von Hölderlin. Prolegomena zu einer Erstausgabe, Jena, Diederichs, 1911.
Hofmann, Gert, Dionysos Archemythos. Hölderlins transzendentale Poiesis, Tübingen-Basel, Francke, 1996.
Hölderlin, Friedrich, Sämtliche Werke (Stuttgarter Hölderlin-Ausgabe), Ed. Friedrich Beissner, Stuttgart, Cotta-Kohlhammer Verlag, 1946-1948, I (1-2).
Id., Sämtliche Werke (Stuttgarter Hölderlin-Ausgabe), Ed. Friedrich Beissner, Stuttgart, Cotta-Kohlhammer Verlag, 1952, V.
Id., Tutte le liriche, Ed. Luigi Reitani, Milano, Mondadori, 2001.
Hübner, Kurt, Die Wahrheit des Mythos, München, CH Beck, 1985, trad. it. La verità del mito, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1990.
Hutcheon, Linda, A Theory of Adaptation, New York, Routledge, 2006.
Isler-Kerényi, Cornelia, “La madre di Dionysos. Iconografia dionisiaca VIII”, Annali dell’Istituto Orientale di Napoli di Archeologia e Storia antica, 4 Nuova Serie (1997): 87-103.
Jeanmaire, Henri, Dionysos. Histoire du culte de Bacchus, Paris, Payot, 1951, trad. it. Dioniso. Religione e cultura in Grecia, Torino, Einaudi, 1972.
Jürg Friedrich, Dicthung als »Gesang«. Hölderlins «Wie wenn am Feiertage» im Kontext der Schriften zur Philosophie und Poetik 1795-1802, München, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2007.
Kempter, Lothar, Hölderlin und die Mythologie, Horgen-Zürich-Leipzig, Münster Pr., 1929.
Kerényi, Károly, Dionysos. Urbild des unzerstörbaren Lebens, München-Wien, Langen-Müller 1976, trad. it. Dioniso. Archetipo della vita indistruttibile, Milano, Adelphi, 1992.
Id., “Miti sul concepimento di Dioniso”, Maia, 4.1 (1951): 1-13.
Kirk, Geoffrey Stephen, Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures, Berkeley-Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1970.
Lévi-Strauss, Myth and Meaning, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1978, trad. it. Mito e significato, Milano, Sellerio, 1988.
Maurer, Karl, “Die Anfänge von Hölderlins hymnischem Sprechen: die Hymne Wie wenn am Feiertage…“, »Es Bleibet aber ein Spur / doch eines Wortes«. Zur späten Hymnik und Tragödientheorie Friedrich Hölderlins, Eds. Christoph Jamme - Anja Lemke, München, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2004: 21-66.
Mommsen, Momme,“Dionysos in der Dichtung Hölderlins“, Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, 13 Nuova Serie (1963): 345-379.
Nestle, Wilhelm, Euripides, der Dichter der griechischen Aufklärung, Stuttgart, 1901.
Olivieri, Oretta, “Dioniso e sia madre Semele nelle tradizioni tebane”, Tra panellenismo e tradizioni locali: nuovi contributi, Eds. Antonio Aloni - Massimiliano Ornaghi, Messina, Dipartimento di scienze dell'antichità, 2011: 177-200.
Otto, Walter Friedrich, Teophania: der Geist der altgriechischen Religion, Hamburg, Rowohlt, 1956, trad. it. Teofania. Lo spirito della religione greca antica, Genova, Il Melangolo, 1996.
Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur Wallace, The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1946.
Id., The dramatic festivals of Athens, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1953.
Palmisciano, Riccardo, “È mai esistita la poesia popolare nella Grecia antica?”, Rysmos. Studi di poesia, metrica e musica greca offerti dagli allievi a Luigi Enrico Rossi per i suoi settant’anni, Ed. Roberto Nicolai, Roma, Quasar, 2003: 151-171.
Id., “Elementi popolari nella poesia corale. Il modo narrativo nel Ditirambo XVII di Bacchilide”, Seminari Romani, 10.1 (2007): 41-67.
Pindaro, Olimpiche, Ed. Luigi Lehnus, Milano, Garzanti, 1982.
Id., Le Pitiche, Eds. Bruno Gentili - Paola Angeli Bernardini - Ettore Cingano - Pietro Giannini, Milano, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, 1995.
Ryan, Lawrence, “Zur Frage des Mythischen bei Hölderlin“, Hölderlin ohne Mythos, Ed. Ingrid Riedel, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1973: 68-80.
Segal, Charles, Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides Bacchae, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1982.
Seifert, Albert, Untersuchungen zu Hölderlins Pindar-Rezeption, München, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1982.
Steiger, Emil, “Das Dunkle Licht“, Hölderlin. Beiträge zu seinen Verständnis in unserem Jahrhundert, Ed. Alfred Kelletat, Tübingen, Schriften der Hölderlin-Gesellschaft, 1961, III: 326-332.
Szondi, Peter, ”Überphilologische Erkenntnis”, Hölderlin-Studien, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp 1970: 9-34.
Vernant, Jean-Pierre, La mort dans les yeux, Paris, Hachette, 1985, trad. it. La morte negli occhi. Figure dell’altro nell’antica Grecia, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1987.
Vernant, Jean-Pierre - Vidal-Naquet, Pierre, Mythe et tragédie deux, Paris, Éditions La Découverte, 1986, trad. it. Mito e tragedia due. Da Edipo a Dioniso, Torino, Einaudi, 1991.
Verrall, Arthur W., Euripides the Rationalist, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1895.
Weisinger, Kenneth, “Hölderlin’s „Wie wenn am Feiertage“ and its Pindaric Model“, Monatshefte für deutschen Unterricht , 68.3 (1976): 257-269.
Wiesmann, Louis, Das Dionysische bei Hölderlin und in der deutschen Romantik, Basel, B. Schwabe-Verlag, 1948.
Zagari, Luciano, La città distrutta di Mnemosyne. Saggi sulla poesia di Friedrich Hölderlin, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 1999.
Id., Sistemi dell’immaginario nell’età di Goethe, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2004.
Zuntz, Günther, Über Hölderlins Pindar-Übersetzung, Marburg, Thiele und Schwarz, 1928.
Copyright Notice
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
