[Author]                      Critias Atheniensis (460-403 BC ca.)

[Work]                         Critias, fr. 3 Gent.-Pr. = fr. 5 West2

[Place of work]             Athens

[Source] Plut. Alc. 33, 1: τὸ μὲν οὖν ψήφισμα τῆς καθόδου πρότερον ἐκεκύρωτο Κριτίου τοῦ Καλλαίσχρου γράψαντος, ὡς αὐτὸς ἐν ταῖς Ἐλεγείαις πεποίηκεν ὑπομιμνήισκων τὸν Ἀλκιβιάδην τῆς χάριτος ἐν τούτοις· ‘γνώμη δ᾽ ἥ –– ἐπὶ τοῖσδεσι κεῖται’.

[Typology]                   Elegy

[Period]                       450–400 BC

[Text]

γνώμη δ᾽ ἥ σε κατήγαγ᾽, ἐγὼ ταύτην ἐν ἅπασιν

εἶπον καὶ γράψας τοὖργον ἔδρασα τόδε.

σφραγὶς δ᾽ ἡμετέρης γλώττης ἐπὶ τοίσδεσι κεῖται.

[Metrics]

Elegiac couplet

[Critical apparatus]

1 γνώμην N, probb. Valckner, Ziegler et West | δ᾽ om. N | ἥστε Y || 2 εἰπὼν Ziegler || 3 σφρηγὶς ci. Bethe ap. Diels | ἡμετέρας Cobet ap. Wilamowitz: -ης codd., probb. plurimi | γλώττης Y, probb. Diels, Diehl et alii

[Translation]

This proposal which restored you, I among all

delivered and wrote this, and then I accomplished this deed;

the seal of my tongue is set on these things (verses or words)

[Comment]

The fragment is an excerpt (at least one pentameter is missing) of a ‘political’ elegy by Critias, perhaps from a single composition dedicated to Alcibiades and datable to 408 BC (cf. fr. 2 Gent.-Pr. [= fr. 4 W.2]). It should be noted that in this fragment too the vindication of the political action promoted by Critias in the Athenian social and civil context is expressed in terms of primacy. A technical terminology is used, taken from Athenian legal usage, which describes the different phases for the proposal of repatriation (public oration, writing and execution). The σφραγὶς (v. 3) placed as a seal on Critias’ work could be both the vindication of his public oration and the production of the poetic verses.

[Reference Editions]      

B. GENTILI-C. PRATO (edd.), Poetae Elegiaci. Testimonia et fragmenta. Pars altera, Monachii et Lipsiae 20022; M.L. WEST (ed.), Iambi et Elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati. Editio altera atque emendata, II, Oxonii 19982; D.E. GERBER, Greek Elegiac Poetry, II, Cambridge (Mass.)-London 1999.

[Essential Bibliography]

U. BULTRIGHINI, “Maledetta democrazia”. Studi su Crizia , Alessandria 1999; G. BURZACCHINI, ‘Remarques sur quelques fragments élégiaques de Critias’, in J. Ivonneau (ed.), La Muse au long couteau. Critias, de la création littéraire au terrorisme d’état , Bordeaux 2018, 35-59; R. CADIOU, ‘Critias élégiaque’, BAGB 1, 1966, 121-123; F. CONDELLO, ‘Sul sigillo di Crizia (fr. 5 W.2 = 3 Gent.-Pr.2), QS 38/76, 2012, 165-185; A. GARZYA, ‘Osservazioni sulla lingua di Crizia’, Emerita 20, 1952, 402-412; A. IANNUCCI, La parola e l’azione. I frammenti simposiali di Crizia , Bologna 2002; W. LAPINI, ‘I frammenti alcibiadei di Crizia: Crizia amico di Alcibiade?’, Prometheus 21, 1995, 1-14 e 111-130; A. NICOLOSI, ‘La poesia delle origini e il desiderio di restaurazione politica: l’elegia di Crizia tra tradizione letteraria e contemporaneità’, RCCM 66/2, 2024, 457-464.

[Keywords]

Elegy, Critias, Alcibiades

[Anika Nicolosi]