Homeric Epics Research Articles

Pelvic and lower extremity injuries in Homer's Iliad: a review of the literature.

The Iliad, composed approximately in the middle of the eighth century bc, constitutes the leading and oldest known example of heroic epic. The Homeric epic presents the conflicts that took place during the last year of the 10-year lasting Trojan War, offering a realistic description of battle wounds. We studied the text of The Iliad in ancient Greek and in the translations in modern Greek and English and searched for all recorded injuries to the pelvis and lower extremities. A total of 16 traumatic injuries of pelvis and lower extremities were described, including 7 fatal wounds, while in 9 cases, the outcome was unknown.The Iliad remains the oldest record of Greek medicine and a unique source of surgical history. To study the vividly reported events is a great experience, particularly for a surgeon.

Anthropological Encounters of a Semiotic Kind

This article prints for the first time two oral presentations occasioned by visits to Brandeis University by the medievalist Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak and the classicist Gregory Nagy. The path-breaking and authoritative papers and books by these two scholars provide key insights for anthropologists working from a semiotic perspective. Bedos-Rezak’s proposal that the practice of sealing documents in pre-scholastic France can be seen as evidence for a general semiotic ideology of the “imprint” raises the possibility that the systematicity of sign processes and corresponding metasemiotic discourses reflects esoteric attempts to conceal pragmatic variability in favour of nostalgic coherence. Similarly, Nagy’s insistence on the importance of the performance contexts for the shaping of the Homeric epics is grounded in the recognition that the semiotic ideology of radical “decentring” found in these texts masks the changing course of their actual pragmatic enactment.

The Host’s Dilemma: Game Theory and Homeric Hospitality

Abstract The Homeric hospitality system depicts extraordinary risk and trust. Although ethnographic comparisons with similar systems in contemporary non-industrialized societies lend some credence to these exchanges, some aspects appear implausible. Recent advances in game theory, which mathematically represents systems of cooperation, suggest that self-interested strangers (as are many of the characters depicted in Homeric hospitality scenes) can plausibly build cooperative communities with long-term viability. Recognizing such patterns of human competitive strategies in Homer adds support for the historicity of the relational aspects of the Homeric epics.

English Translations of Homeric Epic in Dactylic Hexameters

Après un préambule en hexamètres dactyliques anglais, le traducteur de l’Odyssée et de l’Iliade, épopées dont l’élaboration a accompagné sa vie et ses voyages, revient sur son parcours et sur sa méthode. Dans la tradition de Longfellow, dont les poèmes lui devinrent familiers dès ses 13 ans, il a façonné un hexamètre dactylique accentuel. Il a cherché à conserver d’authentiques spondées et une véritable force quantitative dans les syllabes de son vers. Mouvement, pauses, allitérations suivent autant que possible la marche du poème. Au-delà de la pulsation (beat), le traducteur a transposé les syntagmes homériques dans leur dimension répétitive de manière à rendre sensible la dimension orale et rituelle des poèmes. Il a visé un anglais littéraire, accessible à tous. Il a toutefois transcrit les noms propres, en les accentuant pour faciliter la lecture, plutôt que d’en donner des formes adaptées, excepté pour les noms les plus courants comme Achilles.

Illusions and Vanishing Acts: Homeric Recension, Athetesis, and Magic in P. Oxy 412 ( PGM XXIII)

For more than eighty years, following its initial discovery and publication, P. Oxy 412 has been included in collections of the so-called Greek magical papyri (Papyri Graecae magicae = PGM) (1) and suffered from the association. fragment itself consists of two columns. first constitutes forty-three lines of Homeric hexameter which reproduce a highly edited passage of Odyssey 11, including interpolations of both Iliadic lines and original composition, notably a ritual invocation to call on the dead. second column adds twenty-five lines of prose commentary. As a whole, the papyrus purports to be part of Julius Africanus's Kestoi, an encyclopedic work of the mid-third century CE that covered a great variety of different topics. (2) These topics included magic and ritual paraphernalia, (3) but also many other technical subjects such as architecture, medicine, veterinary science, engineering, pharmacology, agriculture, military tactics and weaponry, metrology, and dyes, (4) suggesting that the fragment need not be approached solely from the perspective of magic. Even when considering P. Oxy 412 in the context of the Kestoi, scholars have only recently shifted focus from the first part of the papyrus, indeed the only part included in the PGM collection. Despite Jean-Rene Vieillefond's (1970) contextualization of the papyrus within the extant Kestoi fragments, (5) before Martin Wallraff et al.'s carefully compiled edition of the Kestoi in 2012 the most recent edition of the papyrus was by Terence DuQuesne (1991), who focused almost exclusively on its supposed display of Egyptian mysticism. Francis C. R. Thee's (1984) study of the Kestoi fragments equally focuses on the issue of magic and, in a rare and significant literary treatment of the papyrus, Ahuvia Kahane (1997, 322) states conclusively: The 'logic of magic' is at the heart of P. Oxy. 412. What most voces [magicae] are to language [sc. senseless utterances which signify sounds rather than concepts], P. Oxy. 412 is to epic. Beyond the recent textual work of Jurgen Hammerstaedt (2009) and the contextualizing perspective of Wallraff et al. (2012), I contend that the relationship between P. Oxy 412 and Homeric epic is more sophisticated than earlier approaches have suggested. It deserves detailed attention not only from scholars interested in Africanus's Kestoi and ancient magic but also from those interested in ancient conceptions of Homer and textual-literary criticism. In the first section of this paper, I explore how the (pseudo-)scholarly frame that Africanus appends to his version of Odyssey 11 frames this and the standard Odyssey text as competing, parallel recensions of the same Homeric story. I argue that by inverting, revising, and extending the 'rules' of Hellenistic textual criticism, Africanus plays with the idea of what his text should be seen to represent, of what any text of the Odyssey should be seen to represent, and so restructures the reader's sense of epic textuality. use of 'magic' to highlight this is particularly pertinent, as I discuss in the subsequent section, since this context allows Africanus to establish a further tension between the inherited Hellenistic approach of textual delimitation and the freer, more fluid approach to Homeric textual material found in contemporary ritual practice. Rather than a passive response to Homer's changing position in the third century CE, therefore, I ultimately claim that P. Oxy 412 as a fragment of the Kestoi uses the changed position of Homer to both propose and demonstrate the impact of such a perspective on the very notion of what it means to read Homeric epic at that time. Edition as Illusion In the second column of P. Oxy 412, Africanus's subject matter shifts from a retelling of Odyssey 11.34-51 to something of an editorial commentary on that same passage. Although this part of the papyrus generally receives little discussion, it in fact provides a crucial framework for the text as a whole, guiding a reader's interpretation of the preceding verse passage. …

Anti-Colonial Metrics: Homeric Time in an Indian Prison, ca. 1909

Recent scholarship on Victorian poetry has drawn attention to the social meanings of meter, especially as a symbol of English national culture. This essay looks at the significance of AurobindoGhose (1872-1950) [Sri Aurobindo] within English metrical history. Ghose was a revolutionary for Indian self-rule and modern guru who began a Homeric epic in hexameters whilst in prison. By situating his creative and critical writings within nineteenth and early twentieth century debates on meter, I elaborate an aesthetic dimension of his assertively cosmopolitan and nonsecular politics. His generally overlooked case points towards a history that takes into greater account the contrapuntal metrics of colony and metropole.

Mapping Hubris: Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and Odysseus’ Apologoi

Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle is an apocalyptic story of scientific research gone awry following its divorce from ethics. John, Vonnegut’s protagonist and narrator, tells the story of how ‘pure research’ and hubristic technological development utterly destroy the world through unforeseen consequences. At its core, science fiction has always been a genre eminently concerned with the moral ambiguities created in the wake of speculative science. Even while looking temporally forward, these themes reach back to classical antiquity, and many of the genre’s formative works brim with classical allusion and intertext. In this essay, I examine a previously unexplored nexus between science fiction and the classics, which similarly summons Greek poetry in a critique of futuristic science. With this intertextual reading of Cat’s Cradle, I argue that the novel’s narrative is structured in part through the geography of Homer’s Odyssey and that Vonnegut offers a cautionary rereading of Homeric epic. Finally, I situate Vonnegut’s revaluation of the Odyssey in its broader context of post-World War II Homeric receptions, with particular attention given to Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s critical reading of Odysseus’ thirst for knowledge and enlightenment.

Melancolia e náusea: do destino enquanto fundamento do caráter trágico ao absurdo existencial

A partir da perspectiva intelectualista grega, na qual o dualismo entre corpo e alma requer o primado do discurso racional [lógos] em detrimento do páthos filosófico, busca-se com este artigo associar a noção de "desmedida" [hybris] com a noção de melancolia. Essa associação ganha ainda mais relevo, quando a aproximamos da interpretação de Simone Weil para o poema épico de Homero, a Ilíada. Se essa aproximação se justifica, então é patente a aproximação entre o caráter trágico que o destino adquire, na perspectiva clássica, e a noção de contingência enquanto fundamento do absurdo existencial, no pensamento existencialista.

Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation by Ruby Blondell (review)

Reviewed by: Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation by Ruby Blondell Norman Austin Ruby Blondell. Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. xviii + 289 pp. 18 black-and-white ills. Cloth, $29.95. This is a welcome study of the most charismatic and at the same time the most enigmatic character in all of Greek literature. We call this person Helen of Troy but we should more correctly call her Helen of Sparta, since Sparta was in fact her home. We could also call her Helen of Egypt since, according to one ancient story, she was never in Troy at all but was sequestered in Egypt while the Greeks and Trojans fought for ten years over her mere image (her eidōlon). This ambiguity about where Helen belonged is but the topmost layer of the aura of perplexity surrounding this famous persona. Blondell’s first chapter, “The Problem of Female Beauty,” gives us the social context in ancient Greece as a necessary introduction to Helen’s place in Greek literature. The problem of beauty versus character was deeply inscribed in the very definition of every female. Several strong women in ancient Greek myth represent the problem from one aspect or another, but Helen somehow embodies all various problems in a single person. In her second chapter, Blondell examines the mystery of Helen as the daughter of Zeus. Whether she was a human or a goddess is an issue never resolved. In fact, she was both. Helen seems to be the only figure in ancient Greek burdened with this dubious privilege. The inability of the Greek imagination to resolve this problem affects Helen with layer upon layer of duplicity. In the subsequent chapters, Blondell examines Helen’s place in the literary works of ancient Greece, with one chapter on the Iliad, one on the Odyssey, then a series of chapters on Helen in archaic lyric, in Aeschylus, Herodotus, Gorgias, Euripides, and finally in Isocrates. This is an excellent compilation of the various Helens into a single study, showing the perennial problem that Helen presented to the Greeks, in genre after genre, century after century. Probably readers will be most interested in Blondell’s two chapters on the Helen in the Homeric epics, since they focus on the Helen who has captured the imagination of generations of readers over many centuries. Blondell gives us a very supple reading of this Homeric Helen. The Helen of the Iliad and the Odyssey is a veritable kaleidoscope of personas. She makes several appearances in both poems, and other characters make pejorative allusions to her. Most of her appearances are in brief episodes and in every episode she seems a different person. We might suppose this was a synthetic persona compiled from several Helens and over several centuries in the oral culture. But so skillfully is this chameleon-like character fitted into the Homeric narratives that we are convinced that she is indeed one and the same person through all the paradoxes and contradictions that are made essential to her character. Blondell’s two chapters on Euripides’ representation of Helen may be the most interesting to readers after her chapters on Homer, since Euripides’ two plays, Trojan Women and Helen, are the only occasions after the epic when Helen is given her own voice. In the Iliad, whenever she speaks Helen excoriates herself. In Euripides’ Trojan Women, however, Helen is given to speak in her [End Page 285] own defense. The Trojan women—Hecuba, Cassandra, Andromache—are first given their voice to vent their hatred of Helen and then Helen herself appears to plead her case, nearly 900 lines into the play. Helen’s speech, addressed to her husband and countering all the arguments of the women, is staged as if she were the defendant in a court of law of fifth-century Athens. Her arguments, Blondell writes, are an “intellectually and morally vacuous tissue of sophistries” (195). Even so, the Trojan women’s charges against Helen cannot prevail against her charisma. Helen will be victorious, “not because of her sophistic arguments but in spite of them” (197). This play, she writes, “dramatizes the conquest of rational speech by the...

Anthony Welch The Renaissance Epic and the Oral PastThe Renaissance Epic and the Oral Past. Anthony Welch. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. Pp. v+260.

<i>Anthony Welch</i> The Renaissance Epic and the Oral Past<i>The Renaissance Epic and the Oral Past</i>. Anthony Welch. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. Pp. v+260.

Homero: qual cultura? Que sociedade?

Desde as pesquisas arqueológicas realizadas por Heinrich Schliemann no final do século XIX um novo passado se desenhou para os épicos homéricos. Anteriormente considerados portadores de um conteúdo mitológico, após as descobertas arqueológicas que culminaram na definição de uma Idade do Bronze, eles passaram a ser vistos como uma fonte para tal período. Entretanto, essas mesmas pesquisas arqueológicas e ainda outras também revelaram as inconsistências dos épicos homéricos em relação a tal período e certa proximidade com a Idade do Ferro. O presente artigo tem como objetivo discorrer acerca dessas descobertas, percorrendo com o leitor os caminhos que conduziram os épicos de puro fruto da imaginação poética e mitológica para seu caráter de fonte histórica e, principalmente, questionar-se sobre a que sociedade e a que cultura remetem esses poemas.

“Translating” Homer and his epics in late imperial China: Christian missionaries’ perspectives

This paper discusses Homer as portrayed by Catholic and Protestant missionaries in late imperial China. Due to Jesuit opposition to pantheism, Homer’s name was omitted from most Jesuit writings of the Ming. However, one of Homer’s legends, retold in Plutrach’s Morlia, did appear in 1636 in one of Alfonso Vagnone’s Chinese chreiai. Here Homer is transliterated as Amoru (阿哩[嘿]汝), most likely following the Italian pronunciation of his name. Homer then reappeared in the early Qing: this time it was the French Jesuit Joseph de Prémare who referred to him and his epics. Prémare transliterated Homer as Hemole 何默樂, obviously modeling this pronunciation upon the Greek pronunciation of the bard’s name. Homer’s literary reputation suffered greatly from Prémare’s introduction, which presented the poet largely as a maker of superstition. The first Christian priest who treated Homer as the greatest poet in the West was Karl Friederich August Gützlaff, a German missionary who came to China in 1827. Gützlaff published a long article paraphrasing The Iliad in Dongxiyang kao meiyue tongjizhuan 東西洋考每月統紀傳 in 1837. Yet the most ambitious Protestant missionary to promote Homer was Joseph Edkins, an English priest who in 1857 not only wrote the first essay on Greek literature, with Homer as one of his heroes, but also published a biography of the epic poet in the same year in Liuhe cungtan 六合叢談. Edkins’ work discusses the life of Homer and his epics and even analyzes the prosody of Homer’s epics in Chinese. For Catholic missionaries in the transitional period between the Ming and the Qing, Homer was chiefly a poet who wrote allegorical stories. But for Protestant missionaries in the 19th century, Homer became a great epic poet. Edkins’ inclusion of Homer in a book about Greek history even demonstrates the perception that he was relevant to the political reforms of the Qing. For Edkins interpreted the Homeric epics as textbooks that taught oligarchy as an early form of democracy. Yet no matter how Homer’s role in traditional China changed, no missionary thought it appropriate to put his epics into Chinese. Gützlaff, in his China Opened, even suggests that due to rhetorical discrepancies, it would be “impracticable” to render Homer’s epics into Chinese. Before the Republican era, only retellings of Homeric stories such as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tanglewood Tales for Boys and Girls had been translated into Chinese. The translator of this book, a professor named M. E. Tsur at the “Higher Normal College, Tsinanfu,” however, was a Chinese rather than a Christian priest. No authentic translation of Homer, whether by Christian priests or by Chinese writers, existed at the turn of the 20th century.

Theban Walls in Homeric Epic

Theban Walls in Homeric Epic

γυναίων εἵνεκα δώρων: Interformularity and Intertraditionality in Theban and Homeric Epic

γυναίων εἵνεκα δώρων: Interformularity and Intertraditionality in Theban and Homeric Epic

Intertextual Density, Quantifying Imitation

Hypertextual imitation means that a hypotext serves as a model for a hypertext in substantial, both qualitative and quantitative, ways: text A in a sense generates text B with regard to motifs, plot, and/or characterization. Hypertextuality may range from surface-text copying to deep-level emulation. Identifying the latter holds considerable analytical and interpretational problems. The present article places under scrutiny Dennis R. MacDonald’s model of imitation and his thesis that the Gospel of Mark is emulating the Homeric epics. MacDonald presents an impressive number and range of parallels, but his hermeneutic concept of “bulk density” does not adequately address the critical quantitative issues at hand. Synoptic presentations of parallels should be used critically by weighing in quantitative parameters. An argument for imitation should not rely on a decontextualized bulk density. The article examines the parameter of intertextual density within a quantitative and qualitative framework. Some suggestions are offered on how to deal with textual similarities and differences in a systematic fashion. It is argued that “relative density” is a key component in determining imitation (hypertextuality) on the textual mid- and macrolevel.

Expressive Narration in Apollonius’ Argonautica

Expressive Narration in Apollonius’ Argonautica Deborah Beck More than any other poetic device, similes define the genre of classical epic, since they are virtually absent from other literary genres;1 and the lively vignettes presented by similes are often among the most highly visible and memorable parts of a particular poem. In any poem, whether oral or written, the work an audience has to do in order to figure out the connections between a simile and the narrative makes that narrative more significant and emotionally engaging for the audience because they must actively participate in making its meaning (Tannen 1989: 17). As Fowler says about ekphrasis, which closely resembles simile in this regard, “precisely because ekphrasis represents a pause at the level of narration and cannot be read functionally, the reader is possessed by a strong need to interpret” (1991, 27). Fowler’s phrasing here – “is possessed by a strong need” – exactly captures the allure that similes bring to the audience of a narrative.2 The richly layered allusions to earlier poetry [End Page 33] found in many similes in the Argonautica create a fertile field for this sort of reading. First, they open up a purely intellectual detective story: what is the antecedent(s) of the simile? This leads in turn to a much more wide-ranging emotional involvement with the narrative, because a simile in the Argonautica often shapes readers’ sympathies partly by evoking and reworking specific details from the narrative context(s) in which relevant antecedent(s) appear(s). Finally, on a literal level, similes in the Argonautica regularly illustrate the emotions of characters in the narrative. Indeed, they may appear alongside narrative techniques with expressive force, such as direct speech, which depict the emotions of characters in a complementary way. In this way, similes engage the readers’ own emotions, through both the process of interpretation and the particular understanding of the narrative that readers come up with by engaging in this interpretive process. Because such narrative techniques arouse readers’ feelings both through and about the reading process itself at least as much as about the characters, the intellectual dimensions of reading Apollonius has often overshadowed, not to say crowded out, its expressive force in critical assessments of the Argonautica.3 In recent years, in contrast, studies of Apollonius as a narrator have shown that his narrative persona does have an emotional dimension, mainly through systematic analysis of the [End Page 34] first-person references.4 In such a study, “expressive narration” essentially means “what does the narrator say in the first person that has emotional force?” This paper, in contrast, asks “how does the narrative of the Argonautica put together its epic building blocks – in particular, similes – to both create and depict emotions for its readers?” A group of similes and direct speeches in Argonautica 3, portraying the long-awaited moment when Jason and Medea finally meet face to face, shows this process at work in a particular clear and powerful way. All the features of similes described above work together in this scene to highlight the passionate waiting experienced by both the characters and readers, and to arouse in readers a paradoxical mixture of engagement with the story, through their own interpretive efforts to make sense of it, and an ironic distance from the characters, whose actions and choices are consistently (if indirectly) critiqued by the similes. This distance arises partly from differences between the narrative contexts of the antecedents of these similes and the narrative contexts in which they appear in the Argonautica: the context of a simile in Apollonius often differs from that of its antecedent(s) in such a way as to distance readers from the characters by giving them a poignantly and ironically different perspective about the events of the story. Such irony entails a paradoxical (and very Hellenistic) mixture of distance and engagement in the reader, which may easily be mistaken simply for distance by readers whose expectations regarding the expressive dimensions of epic poetry are shaped primarily by the heartfelt sympathy for and with its characters that Homeric epic excites.5 Moreover, similes consistently engage readers with questions about the nature of heroism in the Argonautica by juxtaposing various...

Rethinking Medieval Translation. Ethics, Politics, Theory ed. by Emma Campbell and Robert Mills (review)

Reviewed by: Rethinking Medieval Translation. Ethics, Politics, Theory ed. by Emma Campbell and Robert Mills Michèle Goyens Emma Campbell and Robert Mills, eds., Rethinking Medieval Translation. Ethics, Politics, Theory. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2012. Pp. 304. isbn: 978–1–84384–329–0. $99. The editors of this volume have gathered twelve contributions on medieval translation with the overall aim of taking the current ideas on medieval translation theory and practice a step further, especially with respect to ethical and political dimensions. In their introduction, they discuss the objectives of the collection, and show the important and necessary interaction between medieval studies and translation studies. As they state, ‘[given] the centrality of ethical and political issues both to the medieval notion of translatio and to recent discussions of translations in contemporary [End Page 112] translation studies, this is one area where the interface between modern theory and research on medieval translation is—and might continue to be—enormously productive’ (2). Especially, the editors draw attention to the importance of the emergence of postcolonial criticism as a specific field of literary and cultural analysis, inspired by the work of Jacques Derrida, Lawrence Venuti and Antoine Berman, and exploring the translator’s role with respect to cultural dominance. In other words, the volume wants to examine the ability of translation ‘to negotiate cultural and linguistic difference’ (4) and to give a more nuanced perspective on the limits but also the possibilities of approaches to medieval translation that explore these issues. The question of difference is tackled in several ways: how must contemporary reflections on ethical and political issues of translation be adapted when applied to medieval translation? How does the concept of relevance in translation work in the light of the medieval translatio as non-textual, non-linguistic transfer? Related to that are the themes of (in)hospitality, the attitude of the translator toward his sources, and possible conflict situations. After the introduction, which also provides an interesting and useful overview of today’s knowledge on medieval translation, making suggestions with respect to possible mutual interests of medieval and modern translation studies, the first four essays all deal with the ethics and politics of translatio studii. Marilynn Desmond studies the encounters of Leonzio Pilatus (14th c.), who translated Homeric epics from Greek to Latin, with Petrarch and Boccaccio, leading to discussions on issues of language, identity, and difference. Miranda Griffin analyzes the way in which the Ovide moralisé translates, but also transforms, Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Drawing on Derrida’s theory on the limits of translation, the author shows how the translator of the Ovide moralisé is ‘treading a fine line’ (60) with respect to Christian faith and figures of sacred bodies. Translations of Latin histories into Middle French prose, and more specifically ethical aspects in the translation and interpretation of the episode on Lucretia’s rape and suicide in Simon de Hesdin’s translation of Valerius Maximus, are at the center of Catherine Léglu’s essay. Noah Guynn investigates the festive drama in the transmission of Aristotle during medieval religious holidays, exploring translational, aesthetic, and performance issues with respect to katharsis. Rutebeuf’s Miracle de Théophile is the subject of Emma Campbell’s essay, that investigates ethical issues in Rutebeuf’s translatio, and more specifically the ways in which it is implicated in divine and diabolical relations, but also the relations between the audience and the divine. The sacred is also at stake in Robert Mills’ contribution on ‘invisible’ translation and language difference in translations of the legend of Thomas Becket’s parents, and above all his ‘heathen’ mother, taking into account postmedieval versions and visual representations. Zrinka Stahuljak turns to historiography in her essay on medieval ‘fixers,’ i.e. ‘mediators, go-betweens endowed with multiple linguistic, social, cultural, topographic, etc., skills’ (147), like Pierre Dubois, Jean Froissart, Guillaume de Machaut, and their fidelity. Jane Gilbert analyzes the task of the Dérimeur, who translates into prose older French verse; the author proposes a comparison between Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Task of the Translator’ (1921) and fifteenth-century prosifications, which leads to interesting views on both [End Page 113] Benjamin’s political theology and on the late medieval perception...

HOMERIC CONCERNS: A METAPOETIC READING OF LUCRETIUS,DE RERUM NATURA2.1–19

Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventise terra magnum alterius spectare laborem;non quia vexari quemquamst iucunda voluptas,sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suave est.suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri 5per campos instructa tua sine parte pericli.sed nil dulcius est, bene quam munita tenereedita doctrina sapientum templa serena,despicere unde queas alios passimque videreerrare atque viam palantis quaerere vitae, 10certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate,noctes atque dies niti praestante laboread summas emergere opes rerumque potiri.o miseras hominum mentes, o pectora caeca!qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis 15degitur hoc aevi quodcumquest! nonne viderenil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi utquicorpore seiunctus dolor absit, mensque fruaturiucundo sensu cura semota metuque?(Lucr. 2.1–19)It is pleasant, when the winds stir up the waters on the great sea,to watch the great struggle of another from land;not because it is a great pleasure that anyone be troubled,but because it is pleasant to observe the troubles you yourself lack.It is also pleasant to watch the great contests of war 5spread out over the plains without taking any part in the danger.But nothing is more pleasing than to hold lofty yet calm templesthat are well defended by the teachings of wise men,from which you can look down and see others everywherego astray and wander while seeking the path of their life, 10competing in wits and contending over their nobility;throughout nights and days they strive with outstanding labourto come out at the peak of riches and have power over everything.O wretched minds of men, O blind hearts!In what shadows of life and in how many dangers 15is this bit of life, whatever it may be, being spent by you! Do you not seethat nature barks for nothing other than this – thatgrief be separated from the body and far away, and that the mind enjoypleasant feelings cut off from anxiety and fear?Epicurus' advice to his young friend Pythocles to ‘flee all education, raising up the top sail’ (παιδείαν δὲ πᾶσαν, μακάριε, ϕεῦγε τἀκάτιον ἀράμενος, Diog.Laert. 10.6 = Epicurus fr. 163 Us.) contains an allusion to Circe's advice to Odysseus inOdyssey12.37–58. For much of the Greek (and Roman) world, education was based on the Homeric epics, and thus Epicurus' statement represents a complicated position towards Homer in particular and poetry in general. Epicurean philosophy rejects poetry because it is misleading about the gods and the nature of the soul, but Epicurus and his followers, most notably Philodemus and Lucretius, engage in poetic allusion and even the composition of poetry. Much work has been done on allusions to poetry in all three writers, but I hope here to bring out a heretofore unnoticed poetic allusion at the start ofDe rerum naturaBook 2, in which Lucretius makes a programmatic statement about not only his philosophy, but also his poetry and its place in the poetic tradition.

Athens, Thrace, and the shaping of Athenian leadership

From the mid-sixth to the mid-fourth century BCE a nexus of connections to Thrace defined the careers of several of Athens' most prominent figures, including Pisistratus, Miltiades, Alcibiades and Iphicrates. This book explores the importance of Thrace to these individuals and its resulting significance in the political, cultural and social history of Athens. Thrace was vitally important for Athens thanks to its natural resources and access to strategic waterways, which were essential to a maritime empire, and connections to the area conferred wealth and military influence on certain Athenians and offered them a refuge if they faced political persecution at home. However, Thrace's importance to prominent individuals transcended politics: its culture was also an important draw. Thrace was a world free of Athenian political, social and cultural constraints – one that bore a striking resemblance to the world of Homeric epic.

The philosopher Hobbes as the poet Homer

Until recently Hobbes's translations of Homer have received little attention. That he made some effort to make the epics conform to his political doctrines has been established. The argument here is that the translations as a whole are informed by his conception of philosophy and his sense of the philosopher's responsibility. The oversimplification of his understanding of philosophy has itself helped isolate his Homer from the rest of his work. To recognize that Hobbes's Homeric epics were the work of a philosopher does something to explain the hostility they generated, and the need to translate Homer afresh.