Divine phthonos in Pindar.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 112
Description: In chapter 2 I identify two such possible motivations of divine  phthonos: (c) maintaining justice; and (d) maintaining morality. In chapter 3 I identify another possible motivation: (e) maintaining diversity of opportunity, viz. in a competitive context granting success to one person means withholding success from another, and the gods do not allow the same individuals and families to win all contests. I allow (f) that there may be motivations for phthonos which I have not been able to identify, or which are inscrutable. Chapter 4 contains an in-depth study of the theme of divine phthonos in one Pindaric ode,  Isth. 7.Many of Pindar's epinician odes were commisioned by wealthy and prestigious patrons to celebrate victory in panhellenic contests. The odes include praise of the patron, mythological material, and prayers to the gods for continued good fortune. Some of these prayers are phrased as requests to avert divine  phthonos. Influential treatments of the concept assume that  phthon- words originally and basically conveyed "envy" and "jealousy". Accordingly, the ascription of phthonos  to the gods in the odes is sometimes understood as an element of primitive anthropomorphism in Pindar. But it has become common to see in the Pindaric idea of divine phthonos the ascription of a more principled response, not envy or jealousy in the common senses of those words, but rather the vigilance with which the gods protect their own status and prerogatives against human encroachments. Readers maintain that superlative human accomplishments, like those achieved by Pindar's patrons, lift mortals to god-like status, that such remarkably successful mortals run the risk of behaving more like gods than like humans, and that it is such presumptuous behaviour that invites the phthonos of the gods.Study of the early pre-Pindaric use of phthon- words carried out in chapter 1 suggests that phthon- words originally conveyed a reduction or diminution of a stream or supply to someone of something vital, beneficial, or desirable, hence a suspension of generosity, "withholding", "stinting", "begrudging". The ascription of  phthonos to the gods simply means that the gods may withhold blessings. The weakness of the traditional theories of divine phthonos outlined above lies in part in the fact that they unnecessarily limit the causes of divine withholding to: (a) envy and common jealousy; or else to (b) vigilance over prerogatives. But in principle such withholding or disallowing may be motivated by any number of reasons.
Notes: Adviser:  Malcolm Wallace.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 65-05, Section: A, page: 1767.