Ventriloquising the Dead
Posted: Wed May 25, 2022 5:18 pm
The differentiation of the words of Jesus -(between those attributed to a terrestrial figure, those attributed to a risen/heavenly figure, and those of the latter transferred to the former)- is such a basic feature of NT and patristic studies that we perhaps become anaesthetised to it. A wake-up call is provided by this example from, so to speak, the other side of the street.
Considering the tomb in Thebes of the great poet Pindar, Pausanias retails the claim that a particular hymn then still extant was a 'posthumous' work, ie not a pseudepigraph as it was still authentically 'by' Pindar :
"It is also said that on reaching old age a vision came to him in a dream. As he slept Persephone stood by him and declared that she alone of the deities had not been honoured by Pindar with a hymn, but that Pindar would compose an ode to her also when he had come to her. Pindar died at once, before ten days had passed since the dream. But there was in Thebes an old woman related by birth to Pindar who had practised singing most of his odes. By her side in a dream stood Pindar, and sang a hymn to Persephone. Immediately on waking out of her sleep she wrote down all she had heard him singing in her dream. In this song, among the epithets he applies to Hades is 'golden-reined' - a clear reference to the rape of Persephone." (9.23, LCL tr.)
Considering the tomb in Thebes of the great poet Pindar, Pausanias retails the claim that a particular hymn then still extant was a 'posthumous' work, ie not a pseudepigraph as it was still authentically 'by' Pindar :
"It is also said that on reaching old age a vision came to him in a dream. As he slept Persephone stood by him and declared that she alone of the deities had not been honoured by Pindar with a hymn, but that Pindar would compose an ode to her also when he had come to her. Pindar died at once, before ten days had passed since the dream. But there was in Thebes an old woman related by birth to Pindar who had practised singing most of his odes. By her side in a dream stood Pindar, and sang a hymn to Persephone. Immediately on waking out of her sleep she wrote down all she had heard him singing in her dream. In this song, among the epithets he applies to Hades is 'golden-reined' - a clear reference to the rape of Persephone." (9.23, LCL tr.)