The Traditional Phrase in Homer

The Traditional Phrase in Homer PDF Author: Richard Sacks
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004078628
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study attempts to bridge the now classic gap between fixed form and functioning context which continues to limit our understanding of the Homeric phrase. The first part of the study uses the presence of Homeric phrases in other Greek poetry, especially the notoriously "Homeric" Theognis 237-254, to help identify potentially significant phrases. The second part considers the epithets of Hector, in an attempt to re-examine Parry's notion of traditional fixed epithets and their importance for understanding the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," The author offers original interpretations of the workings of the traditional phrase in Homer, and also of Theognis 237- 254 and of the "Iliad"'s much-debated characterization of Hector. Along the way, Sacks suggests how his method may help with other problems, including contested emendations in Homer, the relationship of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," and the relationship between epic and other genres. The central concern of the book, however, is the traditional artistry of Homer.

The Traditional Phrase in Homer

The Traditional Phrase in Homer PDF Author: Richard Sacks
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004078628
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study attempts to bridge the now classic gap between fixed form and functioning context which continues to limit our understanding of the Homeric phrase. The first part of the study uses the presence of Homeric phrases in other Greek poetry, especially the notoriously "Homeric" Theognis 237-254, to help identify potentially significant phrases. The second part considers the epithets of Hector, in an attempt to re-examine Parry's notion of traditional fixed epithets and their importance for understanding the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," The author offers original interpretations of the workings of the traditional phrase in Homer, and also of Theognis 237- 254 and of the "Iliad"'s much-debated characterization of Hector. Along the way, Sacks suggests how his method may help with other problems, including contested emendations in Homer, the relationship of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," and the relationship between epic and other genres. The central concern of the book, however, is the traditional artistry of Homer.

Homer’s Traditional Art

Homer’s Traditional Art PDF Author: John Miles Foley
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271072415
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 382

Get Book Here

Book Description
In recent decades, the evidence for an oral epic tradition in ancient Greece has grown enormously along with our ever-increasing awareness of worldwide oral traditions. John Foley here examines the artistic implications that oral tradition holds for the understanding of the Iliad and Odyssey in order to establish a context for their original performance and modern-day reception. In Homer's Traditional Art, Foley addresses three crucially interlocking areas that lead us to a fuller appreciation of the Homeric poems. He first explores the reality of Homer as their actual author, examining historical and comparative evidence to propose that "Homer" is a legendary and anthropomorphic figure rather than a real-life author. He next presents the poetic tradition as a specialized and highly resonant language bristling with idiomatic implication. Finally, he looks at Homer's overall artistic achievement, showing that it is best evaluated via a poetics aimed specifically at works that emerge from oral tradition. Along the way, Foley offers new perspectives on such topics as characterization and personal interaction in the epics, the nature of Penelope's heroism, the implications of feasting and lament, and the problematic ending of the Odyssey. His comparative references to the South Slavic oral epic open up new vistas on Homer's language, narrative patterning, and identity. Homer's Traditional Art represents a disentangling of the interwoven strands of orality, textuality, and verbal art. It shows how we can learn to appreciate how Homer's art succeeds not in spite of the oral tradition in which it was composed but rather through its unique agency.

Homer and Early Greek Epic

Homer and Early Greek Epic PDF Author: Margalit Finkelberg
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 311067145X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Get Book Here

Book Description
This collection includes thirty scholarly essays on Homer and Greek epic poetry published by Margalit Finkelberg over the past three decades. The topics discussed reflect the author’s research interests and represent the main directions of her contribution to Homeric studies: Homer's language and diction, archaic Greek epic tradition, Homer's world and values, transmission and reception of the Homeric poems. The book gives special emphasis to some of the central issues in contemporary Homeric scholarship, such as oral-formulaic theory and the role of the individual poet; Neoanalysis and the character of the relationship between Homer and the tradition about the Trojan War; the multi-layered texture of the Homeric poems; the Homeric Question; the canonic status of the Iliad and the Odyssey in antiquity and modernity. All the articles are revised and updated. The book addresses both scholars and advanced students of Classics, as well as non-specialists interested in the Homeric poems and their journey through centuries.

Reading Homer's Iliad

Reading Homer's Iliad PDF Author: Kostas Myrsiades
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1684484502
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book Here

Book Description
We still read Homer’s epic the Iliad two-and-one-half millennia since its emergence for the questions it poses and the answers it provides for our age, as viable today as they were in Homer’s own times. What is worth dying for? What is the meaning of honor and fame? What are the consequences of intense emotion and violence? What does recognition of one’s mortality teach? We also turn to Homer’s Iliad in the twenty-first century for the poet’s preoccupation with the essence of human life. His emphasis on human understanding of mortality, his celebration of the human mind, and his focus on human striving after consciousness and identity has led audiences to this epic generation after generation. This study is a book-by-book commentary on the epic’s 24 parts, meant to inform students new to the work. Endnotes clarify and elaborate on myths that Homer leaves unfinished, explain terms and phrases, and provide background information. The volume concludes with a general bibliography of work on the Iliad, in addition to bibliographies accompanying each book’s commentary.

Homer's Winged Words

Homer's Winged Words PDF Author: Steve Reece
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047427874
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Get Book Here

Book Description
For over 2500 years many of the most learned scholars of the Greek language have concerned themselves with the topic of etymology. The most productive source of difficult, even inexplicable, words was Homer’s 28,000 verses of epic poetry. Steve Reece proposes an approach to elucidating the meanings of some of these difficult words that finds its inspiration primarily in Milman Parry’s oral-formulaic theory. He proposes that during the long period of oral transmission acoustic uncertainties, especially regarding word boundaries, were continually occurring: a bard uttered one collocation of words, but his audience thought it heard another. The consequent resegmentation of words and phrases is the probable cause of some of the etymologically inexplicable words in our Homeric texts.

Toward the Characterization of Helen in Homer

Toward the Characterization of Helen in Homer PDF Author: Lowell Edmunds
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110626128
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 183

Get Book Here

Book Description
This monograph lays the groundwork for a new approach of the characterization of the Homeric Helen, focusing on how she is addressed and named in the Iliad and the Odyssey and especially on her epithets. Her social identity in Troy and in Sparta emerges in the words used to address and name her. Her epithets, most of them referring to her beauty or her kinship with Zeus and coming mainly from the narrator, make her the counterpart of the heroes.

Homer’s Traditional Art

Homer’s Traditional Art PDF Author: John Miles Foley
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271072393
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 390

Get Book Here

Book Description
In recent decades, the evidence for an oral epic tradition in ancient Greece has grown enormously along with our ever-increasing awareness of worldwide oral traditions. John Foley here examines the artistic implications that oral tradition holds for the understanding of the Iliad and Odyssey in order to establish a context for their original performance and modern-day reception. In Homer's Traditional Art, Foley addresses three crucially interlocking areas that lead us to a fuller appreciation of the Homeric poems. He first explores the reality of Homer as their actual author, examining historical and comparative evidence to propose that "Homer" is a legendary and anthropomorphic figure rather than a real-life author. He next presents the poetic tradition as a specialized and highly resonant language bristling with idiomatic implication. Finally, he looks at Homer's overall artistic achievement, showing that it is best evaluated via a poetics aimed specifically at works that emerge from oral tradition. Along the way, Foley offers new perspectives on such topics as characterization and personal interaction in the epics, the nature of Penelope's heroism, the implications of feasting and lament, and the problematic ending of the Odyssey. His comparative references to the South Slavic oral epic open up new vistas on Homer's language, narrative patterning, and identity. Homer's Traditional Art represents a disentangling of the interwoven strands of orality, textuality, and verbal art. It shows how we can learn to appreciate how Homer's art succeeds not in spite of the oral tradition in which it was composed but rather through its unique agency.

Harvard studies in classical philology

Harvard studies in classical philology PDF Author:
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674379183
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 434

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Cambridge Companion to Homer

The Cambridge Companion to Homer PDF Author: Robert Louis Fowler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521012461
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to Homer is a guide to the essential aspects of Homeric criticism and scholarship, including the reception of the poems in ancient and modern times. Written by an international team of scholars, it is intended to be the first port of call for students at all levels, with introductions to important subjects and suggestions for further exploration. Alongside traditional topics like the Homeric Question, the divine apparatus of the poems, the formulae, the characters and the archaeological background, there are detailed discussions of similes, speeches, the poet as story-teller and the genre of epic both within Greece and worldwide. The reception chapters include assessments of ancient Greek and Roman readings as well as selected modern interpretations from the eighteenth century to the present day. Chapters on Homer in English translation and Homer in the history of ideas round out the collection.

Homer's Allusive Art

Homer's Allusive Art PDF Author: Bruno Currie
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191081507
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Get Book Here

Book Description
What kind of allusion is possible in a poetry derived from a centuries-long oral tradition, and what kind of oral-derived poetry are the Homeric epics? Comparison of Homeric epic with South Slavic heroic song has suggested certain types of answers to these questions, yet the South Slavic paradigm is neither straightforward in itself nor necessarily the only pertinent paradigm: Augustan Latin poetry uses many sophisticated and highly self-conscious techniques of allusion which can, this book contends, be suggestively paralleled in Homeric epic, and some of the same techniques of allusion can be found in Near Eastern poetry of the third and second millennia BC. By attending to these various paradigms, this challenging study argues for a new understanding of Homeric allusion and its place in literary history, broaching the question of whether there can have been historical continuity in a poetics of allusion stretching from the Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh, via the Iliad and Odyssey, to the Aeneid and Metamorphoses, despite the enormous disparities of time and place and of language and culture, including those represented by the cuneiform tablet, the papyrus roll, and by an oral performance culture. The fundamental methodological problems are explored through a series of interlocking case studies, treating of how the Odyssey conceivably alludes to the Iliad and also to earlier poetry on Odysseus' homecoming, the Iliad to earlier poetry on the Ethiopian hero Memnon, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter to earlier poetry on Hades' abduction of Persephone, and early Greek epic to Mesopotamian mythological poetry, pre-eminently the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh.