Recherches sur l'ambiguite dans la poesie de pindare
Institution:
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Abstract EN:
The text of pindar's epinician odes occasionally reveals deliberate literal ambiguities in which the polysemy of certain particular words as well as the various possibilities of syntactic arrangement within one and the same poetic line have been exploited. These are objective ambiguities, consisting in the superimposition of two distinct meanings which, except in rare occurrences, can only be expressed in two different translations. Naturally inclined to use verbal puns or hidden meanings, to which he himself draws our attention, pindar was induced to this by a hermetic conception of language, itself possibly influenced by the oracles. The ambiguities appear in transitional passages and maxims, in which the context can no longer be trusted to suggest which sense may be assigned to polysemic terms. Their purpose is to conceal ideas that may be of interest to the recipient of the ode or connoisseurs in poetry, but are inappropriate in a text intended to serve as the medium of a musical and choreographic work performed in front of a large audience. The ambiguities quoted as examples express professional concerns (the problem of a fee is occasionally alluded to in a humorous manner), but other subjects also happen to be approached through the same device. Some of these ambiguities (pythian odes i,81 sq. And ix, 76 sq. ) are based on a syllepsis (in a rhetorical sense) of the everyday word kairos and the technical term kairos (i. E. Chainedspacing cord, which plays a vital part in warp-weighted loom weaving). In pindar (as well as in aeschylus, euripides and plato. . . ) other controversial uses of kairos are elucidated by hypothesizing a relationship with the technical term, which tends to confirm that the everyday word is in direct descent from it, with a change in accentuation.
Abstract FR:
Le texte des epinicies de pindare contient parfois des ambiguites litterales volontaires, ou sont exploitees la polysemie de certains mots et les diverses possibilites d'agencement syntaxique a l'interieur d'un meme vers. Il s'agit d'ambiguites objectives, consistant dans la superposition de deux sens distincts qui, sauf exception, ne peuvent etre exprimes que par deux traductions differentes. Naturellement enclin a user de jeux verbaux et de dissimulations sur lesquelles il attire lui-meme notre attention, pindare est influence ici par une conception hermetique du langage qui traduit peut-etre l'influence des oracles. Les ambiguites apparaissent dans les passages de transition et les maximes, ou le contexte n'assure plus la discrimination entre les divers sens des termes polysemiques. Elles ont pour but de dissimuler des idees interessantes pour le destinataire de l'ode ou les connaisseurs en poesie, mais irrecevables dans un texte compose pour servir de support a une representation musicale et choregraphique, donnee devant un vaste public. Les ambiguites citees comme exemples expriment des preoccupations professionnelles (le probleme du salaire est evoque parfois de facon humoristique), mais d'autres themes peuvent etre abordes par le meme procede. Certaines d'entre elles (pythiques i, 81 sq. Et ix, 76 sq. ) reposent sur une syllepse (au sens rhetorique) entre le mot usuel kairos et le terme technique kairos ("tresse regulatrice", qui joue un role capital dans le tissage sur metier vertical). Chez pindare (mais aussi eschyle, euripide et platon. . . ), d'autres emplois difficiles de kairos sont elucides par l'hypothese d'un rapport avec le terme technique, ce qui tend a confirmer que le mot usuel en est issu directement, avec changement d'accent.