A History of Alcman’s Early Reception: Female-Voiced Nightingales
This book constructs a history of Alcman’s early reception from the Archaic times until the Hellenistic period, from the composition of his poetry until its first attested systematic edition, taking into consideration the existence of a tradition of partheneia and its implications. Can it be suggested that the emerging book culture killed the “song culture”? Was Alcman an archetypal prototype of an archaic genre (partheneia) and regarded as a historical figure? This book answers such questions, arguing that the tradition of partheneia was never powerful enough, especially outside Sparta, in order to completely absorb the poet.
Vasiliki Kousoulini received a PhD in Classics from the Department of Philology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. After the completion of her doctorate, she has worked as an Adjunct Lecturer at the Open University of Cyprus. Her research interests include archaic Greek epic and lyric poetry, Greek tragedy, Hellenistic literature, gender studies, and reception studies.
"Kousoulini makes a convincing case throughout for a broad analysis of the tradition of Alcman, as well as the need to study the reception of Alcman alongside the reception of the genre of the partheneion. In doing so, Kousoulini positions herself as providing an alternative paradigm for the so-called ‘Hellenisation’ of Alcman. The Hellenisation of Alcman is an uncertain phenomenon and involves not only the spread of Alcman’s songs (and, at some point, the written text of those songs) to places outside Sparta, but Alcman’s entry into a recognised Alexandrian canon of lyric poets."
- James Lloyd, University of Reading Bryn Mawr Classical Review, BMCR 2020.03.35
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