The politics and poetics of salvation communication strategies in PIndar, Empedocles and the Getty Hexameters

Abstract – This paper investigates some key discursive strategies adopted in the Getty Hexameters, comparing and contrasting them with previous poetic promises of salvation in Pindar and Empedocles. It focuses first on the so-called Ephesia Grammata, pointing out elements of contact with Pindar’s Olympian II. It then explores the diferences in the articulation of the poetic voices in Pindar, Empedocles and the Getty Hexameters, with particular attention to their political implications. The last two parts focus on the public, collective and political dimension of the ‘incantatory’ performances envisaged in the Getty Hexameters, highlighting crucial similarities with the strategy of persuasion through continuous self-enchantment devised for the civic community in Plato’s Laws. The article also examines issues of textual reconstructions of relevant passages of the Hexameters.