مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Love Magic in Pindar: The Miraculous Deed of Aphrodite’s “Mad(dening) Bird” Iynx

Abstract :

This article aims to scrutinise an aspect of the extensive problematic on “love magic” starting from the Pindaric verses (Pin. Pyth. IV. 214-219) which are often discussed because of the ambiguity in his language and style. It is pointed out the another facet of the well known Iason-Medeia mythos in the epinician that was composed by Pindar for the victor of Pythian Games (462 BCE) Cyrenean Arcesilas. It is addressed only in Pindar in Archaic Greek Poetry, although the details of the this magic which is practiced with the bird named iynx was mentioned by Theocritus (Id. II. 17) in the late epoche. A detailed analysis on characteristic, function, and agents of this ritual demands a focus on a large spectrum from the main textual approach of philology to the data supplied by history of religion, from historical ornitology to archaeology. In conclusion, it will be endeavoured to clear some phases of the aforementioned ritual, to expose the historical development of the related magical practice and its instruments; and also to explore the relation between iynx and the idea of limit from magical practices to the cosmological speculations of Neo-Platonism.