Semonides or Simonides? A Century-Long Controversy over the Authorship of a Greek Elegiac Fragment (Simonides, fr. 8 W. = frr. 19–20 W.2)

In Stobaeus’ Anthologium an elegiac poem having the lemma Σιμωνίδου (4.34.28) is quoted under the rubric περὶ τοῦ βίου, ὅτι βραχὺς καὶ εὐτελὴς καὶ φροντίδων ἀνάμεστος. The poem was included by West in the first edition of Iambi et elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati as fr. 8 by Simonides in the section dubia. This fragment has been assigned to many different poets, leading to a century-long authorship controversy. Iotacism caused the names of the two archaic Greek poets Semonides and Simonides to overlap. No distinction was made between them until the 19th century. Since the distinction in spelling was adopted, the fragment has been ascribed either to Semonides (Bergk, Wilamowitz, Jaeger) or to Simonides (Oates, whereas Fränkel e Lloyd Jones assume that it is an epitaph assigned to Simonides along with many others back in Antiquity) or to a poet contemporary to Simonides (West). In 1992 a papyrus (POxy 3965) was published that contains a few elegiac poems whose Simonidean authorship has been firmly established. They include a fragment that partially overlaps fr. 8 W, which seems to have settled the authorship controversy. The poem has been included accordingly as frr. 19 and 20 in the new edition by West, although some scholars still disagree. The history of this disputed elegiac fragment could serve as a starting point for some considerations about the issues related to the authorship and attribution of archaic Greek lyric fragments. In particular, criteria based on the topics dealt with in such poems, which are very often true literary topoi within the same poetic genre, and on the poetic style will be discussed. These aspects are very hard to assess considering the fragmentary nature of handed-down texts and the central role played by performance settings and occasions in archaic Greek poetry.