Metalepsis and the Apostrophe of Heroes in Pindar

This chapter is an analysis of the metaleptic effect of apostrophe in narratives that are embedded in a lyric frame, using the example of the Pindaric epinician ode. In apostrophe, a narrator ‘turns away’ from his default addressee, but in contrast to epic, Pindaric lyric has many addressees: the chapter therefore begins with an analysis of the Pindaric ‘you’, a topic much less explored than the Pindaric ‘I’, and concludes that in an epinician ode the victor and his family are the default addressee. Turning to the three instances of narrative apostrophe in Pindaric myths, the chapter argues that, owing to the hymnic associations of early Greek apostrophe, these instances serve to anticipate a mythical (Pelops) or historical (Battus) character’s status as a hero enjoying hero cult. These apostrophes suggest the movement of a character into the world of the ode’s performance (epiphany) rather than the movement of the narrator and his narratee into the world of the mythical past (immersion or enargeia). The conclusion is drawn that whereas modern metalepsis usually has an illusion-breaking effect and is typically found in experimental texts, the narrative apostrophes in Pindar show that ancient metalepsis rather tends towards increasing the authority of the narrator and the ideological force of his tale.