Indo-European linguistics and classical philology
Ya. L. Zabudskaya V. V. Zeltchenko. «Poetics of titles» and the titles of Greek tragedies On the Meaning of ψῆφος in Magical Contexts (pp. 306–318)
Author
Ya. L. Zabudskaya V. V. Zeltchenko (Lomonosov Moscow State University Saint Petersburg State University)
Keywords\n Greek tragedies, «poetics of titles», sur-titles. ψῆφος, Greek magical papyri, Alexander Trallianus, computus digitorum
Pages\n 306–318
Summary\n
The traditional anthroponomical titles attached to Greek tragedies often contain quite blurred indication: the selected aspect of the myth is rare, the coincidence of names is rather misleading. The ‘sur-titles’ used to distinguish plays of the same name in most cases belong to the Hellenistic era and reflect the formula «a title is a reduced commentary». The variability of titles for a tragedy is a first step from automatic naming to the «poetics of titles» and is formed in the collision of the two discursive practices: theatrical staging in which the title should be informative as well as intriguing for spectator, and literary writing in which information is supplemented by requirements of accuracy. Found in several passages of magical texts, a phrase ‘κρατεῖν (κατέ- χειν,  πολύειν) τὴν ψῆφον’ followed with a number is discussed in the paper. It is argued that indicated with a number ψῆφος would hardly mean either a pebble or any other item; it should rather be understood as a ‘number represented on a hand while finger-reckoning’. R. Merkelbach was the first among scholars to explain one of these passages (PGM IV, 938) this way; however, his brief comment has not been decently recognized. Still, the concept could be reliably confirmed with lexical parallels provided by Greek texts which consider finger-counting that date back to Late Antiquity and Byzantine time.
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