Homeric Soundings: The Shaping of the Iliad

Abstract

This book combines the exploration of the ethics of the Iliad with its poetic and narrative techniques, which extend all the way from touches of phrasing to the shaping of whole scenes often separated by thousands of lines. these two approaches to the Iliad - through form and through content - are found to be inextricably worked together, which is why the book consists of soundingsor sample explorations, where larger arguments branch out from noticing details in the formaion of particualr passages. Homer was an archaic poet, and even if he could write he surely created the poems to be heard. It has generally been held that this rules our the possiblity of intricate complexities - the discoveries of many re-readings. This book maintains the contrary position: the kind of artistry uncovered, especially the long-distance interconnections, would be more rather than less accessible if perceived aurally. Furthermore, this then opens up further opportunities for shapings, patterns that would be more apparent when heard in real time than they are inside the uniform format of printed pages. These surroundings should interest those experienced in other literatures and cultures. All Greek quotations are also given in translation.