Homeric Poetry Research Articles

Fat and Large Bodies in Homeric Poetry: Iros and Penelope

ABSTRACT: Unlike the fat body of Iros, παχύς bodies in Homeric poetry are powerful, attractive, and consistent with a non-gender- specific conception of the erotic. In Odyssey 18, Iros’ bulk belies his lack of strength, but Odysseus’ large frame, elsewhere described as παχύς, both promises and delivers effective action. A threat of castration distances Iros from the erotic; Odysseus enjoys sexual intimacy with several characters. Penelope exercises seductive charms over the suitors in book 18, shortly after being described as παχύς; the description of her “παχύς hand” at 21.6 suggests both bulk and strength.

Gli esametri olospondiaci nella poesia omerica

This contribution analyses the extremely rare occurrences in homeric poetry of wholly spondaic lines, a peculiar form of dactilic hexameter whose metra have their elementum biceps always realised by a long syllable. After examining controversial cases and stating their belonging to that category, it is worth wondering whether and when behind the use of so composed sequences of six spondees we can see the poet’s intention to give expressiveness to these lines and suggest or emphasize with them a solemn or slow rhythm, or the effort of an action.

Po drugiej stronie słowa: granice języka, który nie jest granicą świata

The presented text examines the limits and possibilities of the linguistic expression of the Inexpressible Being, i.e. Transcendence. The understanding of words, especially poetic ones, but also of all artistic forms, is conditioned by a specific system of language in which not only syntagmatic-declension relations are defined but also those that constitute the semantics itself. Meanwhile, on the example of Homeric poetry and the songs of Psalm 29, we examine how the word can be at the service of being. The author proves that such use of words not only disentangles them from the traditionally understood communication function but above all refers to the old oral traditions. He points to research on the origin of poetry in pre-literate cultures, where oral transmission was primary, and the poetic record was secondary - because it served only as a way of remembering the text and thus served a mnemonic function.

Paolo Odorico, ed. Études byzantines et post-byzantines, Nouvelle série, Tome II (IX), La culture écrite des périphéries byzantines du Moyen-Âge à l’époque moderne

Paolo Odorico, ed. <i>Études byzantines et post-byzantines, Nouvelle série, Tome II (IX), La culture écrite des périphéries byzantines du Moyen-Âge à l’époque moderne</i>

Concept of productive ambiguity with some examples from Iliad 2

The goal of this paper is to introduce and elucidate the concept of “productive ambiguity” for the study of Homeric poetry and other literary texts. After the introduction, I present a theoretical elucidation of the concept, starting from a general notion of ambiguity and identifying three features of productive ambiguity: its irresolvable character (no alternative can be ruled out on textual or linguistic grounds), its persistence (both alternatives are appropriate to the context and contribute to the interpretation of the text), and its productivity (the ambiguity itself contributes to the interpretation of the text). In the third section, I analyze four passages from Iliad 2: 2.73, 285, 340-9, and 807, studying in each the source of the ambiguity and demonstrating that it fulfills the three features to be considered productive.

The Cerebral Cortex and the Songs of Homer: When Neuroscience Meets History and Literature.

In this article we reconsider Homer's poetry in the light of modern achievements in neuroscience. This perspective offers some clues for examining specific patterns of brain functioning. Homer's epics, for instance, painted a synthetic picture of the human body, emphasizing some parts and neglecting others. This led to the formation of a body schema reminiscent of a homunculus, which we call the "Homeric homunculus." Both poems were largely the product of centuries of oral tradition, in which the prodigious memory of courtly rhapsodists was essential to the performance of the epics. The underlying cognitive functions required a close interplay of memory and language skills, supported by the musical and rhythmic cadence of Homeric verse.

Formular Mutation and the Oral Character of the Cyclic Thebaid

The disparate and fragmentary states of Cyclic poems make quantitative studies of their features impossible. However, qualitative methods exist for comparing the mobility of their formular language to that of known oral-derived epic. The common noun-epithet formulaic expressions in surviving fragments of the Cyclic Thebaid, when they do not appear verbatim in Homeric poetry, only vary along lines well-established in early epic tradition, not in other ways. This suggests a position for the Thebaid within the development of epic relatively close to that of the Homeric poems and not from a later stage either of literacy or of self-consciously archaizing orality.

Commenting on Homer

I first reflect generally on the aims, audiences, and pedagogical goals of my recently published commentary on Homer’s Iliad, book 1. Then I discuss several exemplary passages in order to illustrate in detail my methodological concerns and ways of reading Homeric poetry, with a particular focus on its traditional meter, language, and style and on the interpretive significance of the fulfillment or disappointment of listeners’ or readers’ expectations.

The article “Maxim Gorky as an Interpreter of Aristotle. Toward the Theory of Tragic Purification” written in 1929 by a A. A. Gruška a major Moscow Latinist and Wortphilologe of considerable renown writing, the last dean of the Department of History and Philology of Moscow State University, deserves the interest of scholars as a document of an era unhappy for

Matro of Pitane’s cento of Homeric verses, The Attic Dinner Party contains a puzzling episode in which the narrator throws sea-urchins, which he has apparently already eaten, among the feet of the slaves, where they clatter “where waves were washing the beach”. The slaves then draw out the spines “from the head”. Following Elena Ermolaeva’s comparison of Matro’s lines to the Unswept Floor mosaic, I suggest that his banquet took place in a normal dining room rather than on a beach or in a room with a window facing one. The floor of this room, being a pebble mosaic, could aptly be called a beach from which the slaves were washing the detritus of the meal, a procedure (as we know from Olynthus) the dining rooms of private houses were expressly designed to facilitate. This interpretation entails reading *λύματ᾽… κλύζεσκον for the manuscripts’ κύματ᾽… κλύζεσκε). The scribal alteration I postulate has the effect — unique in this poem, and therefore suspect — of reproducing an entire Homeric line unaltered. Lastly, the phrase “from the head” does not refer to whence the slaves are pulling the sea-urchin’s spines (for that will be from their own feet), but to where they came from in the first place: a sea-urchin’s head.

Who was buried with Nestor's Cup? Macroscopic and microscopic analyses of the cremated remains from Tomb 168 (second half of the 8th century BCE, Pithekoussai, Ischia Island, Italy).

Cremation 168 from the second half of the 8th century BCE (Pithekoussai’s necropolis, Ischia Island, Italy), better known as the Tomb of Nestor’s Cup, is widely considered as one of the most intriguing discoveries in the Mediterranean Pre-Classic archaeology. A drinking cup, from which the Tomb’s name derives, bears one of the earliest surviving examples of written Greek, representing the oldest Homeric poetry ever recovered. According to previous osteological analyses, the Cup is associated with the cremated remains of a juvenile, aged approximately 10–14 years at death. Since then, a vast body of literature has attempted to explain the unique association between the exceptionality of the grave good complex, the symposiac and erotic evocation of the Nestor’s Cup inscription with the young age of the individual buried with it. This paper reconsiders previous assessments of the remains by combining gross morphology with qualitative histology and histomorphometric analyses of the burnt bone fragments. This work reveals the commingled nature of the bone assemblage, identifying for the first time, more than one human individual mixed with faunal remains. These outcomes dramatically change previous reconstructions of the cremation deposit, rewriting the answer to the question: who was buried with Nestor’s Cup?.

Sounds like the Anthropocene: Alice Oswald’s water-stressed, Homeric verse

ABSTRACT Alice Oswald’s two books of Homeric verse, Memorial and Nobody, excavate the Iliad and the Odyssey, respectively, for sounds other than those man-glorifying songs of war and adventure made classical by literary tradition. They stress what Oswald calls the fluid, fleeting "livingness" of oral poetry that literary culture arguably deadens in its efforts to standardise and monumentalise Homer' s heroic narrative. To adjust the poetic balance between livingness and lastingness, Oswald distils Homer’s narrative to its evanescent and/or atmospheric elements and she foregrounds those diluvial clamours which repeatedly drown out the hero’s boasts and shouts, dampen his immortal aspirations and dissolve his bronze-clad psyche. This essay shows how Oswald’s recovery of Homer’s oral poetry in modern English verse concerns our approach to Anthropocene turbulence wherein we, her readers, might find ourselves adrift. It examines Oswald's strategy of stressing Homer’s aquatic fluency at the expense of his heroic-anthropocentric-narrative and in view of Anthropocene philosophy that calls for a shift from imperial, instrumental thinking about water as an exploitable global resource to empathic thinking with water as a companion, supra-human, species.

Refiguring Odysseus’ Apologue in Plato’s Protagoras

The common 4th century B.C. view according to which Homer was regarded as a poet and a wise man, the leading and most honorable, to the point of being considered “the educator of Greece” (Pl. Resp. 606e-607a), is strongly supported by the Pla-tonic dialogues. The works of Plato are the main available source to get to know not only the great pedagogical esteem for Homer, but also the several educational traditions that used or relied on Homeric poetry in Classical Athens. We are certainly used to thinking of Socrates as standing out for contesting or blaming such customs and methods provided by rhapsodes, sophists and common people (Pl. Resp.; Ion; Hp. mi.). But conversely, he is also often depicted quoting, alluding to or remaking on Homeric passages when presenting his own views. Socrates even claims to feel a certain friendship or reverence for the poet and declares to be charmed by contemplating things through him, whom he con-siders to be amongst the few deserving to be called “philosophers” (Pl. Resp. 595b; 607c-d; Phdr. 278b-279b). The puzzling twofold nature of the Socratic attitude towards Homer, coupled with the fact that Plato would become a figure as honored as the poet was, led ancient literary criticism to focus on the Platonic use and sharing of material and techniques proper to Homeric poetry. Works like those of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Maximus of Tyre, Longinus and above all Proclus, not only pointed out the philosopher’s debt to the poet, but even consid-ered him to be an admirer of the Homeric genius unlike anyone else, and whose emulation basically attempted to reach and out-perform the pedagogical power that the legendary poet had (Dion. Hal. Pomp. I, 13; Max. Tyr. Or. 26; [Longinus]; Subl. XIII, 2-3; Procl., In R. VI, 163.13-164.7; 202.7-205.23). With an analogous spirit, studies of contemporary Platonists suggest that the dialogues were shaped using the Homeric text, especially the Odyssey, as a template, and making Socrates ap-pear as going through equivalent experiences to those of Odys-seus’ “νόστος”. With respect to Protagoras, previous attempts focused on explicit references to books X and XI, placing the dispute with the sophist and the events at Callias’ house in the symbolic context of Odysseus’ encounter with Circe and the fol-lowing journey into the underworld. I attempt to bring that read-ing one step further, paying special attention to the narrated character and the dramatic context for the singing of those epi-sodes and the parallel ones in Protagoras. In first place, I consider the whole dialogue refiguring the epi-sode in the Odyssey that works as a dramatic frame for the sing-ing of Odysseus’ past adventures, the arrival at Phaeacia and the reception at Alcinous’ court. I regard Odysseus’ need to sing the Apologue as a call for hospitality to secure a safe passage home, working as a pattern for Socrates’ need of a tale at his own ap-pearance in Athens to fulfill and secure a philosophical education in the city. In second place, I take into consideration the metanar-rative dimension of such remaking. Since Socrates’ narration comes in response to a certain “Ὁμήρου ἐπαινέτης”, a “praiser of Homer” (Pl. Prt. 309b1), as Odysseus’ Apologue is to Demo-docus the “ἀοιδὸς”, I examine how the dialogue could evince a dispute for pedagogical primacy amongst the different narratives and uses of poetry in Athens, a dispute that the Platonic narrative would attempt to surpass precisely by imitating Homer.

SOLON WRITES BACK: ANOTHER READING OF DÍKĒ IN ANCIENT HELLENIC POETS

Departing from the idea of díkē [justice], present in Homeric poetry and the different perspectives developed in the poems attributed to Hesiod, I highlight some of the significant adjustments of that concept made by Solon in his historical context. In my discussion, I read some of his political poems – mainly frs. 4 and 36 W.2 –, focusing on his allusions to writing. My purpose is to suggest new ways of comprehending díkē in Solon’s poetry to reclaim his importance in the Hellenic tradition of thinking about justice and writing.

SOLON WRITES BACK: ANOTHER READING OF DÍKĒ IN ANCIENT HELLENIC POETS

Departing from the idea of díkē [justice], present in Homeric poetry and the different perspectives developed in the poems attributed to Hesiod, I highlight some of the significant adjustments of that concept made by Solon in his historical context. In my discussion, I read some of his political poems – mainly frs. 4 and 36 W.2 –, focusing on his allusions to writing. My purpose is to suggest new ways of comprehending díkē in Solon’s poetry to reclaim his importance in the Hellenic tradition of thinking about justice and writing.

The Homeric Question: A Historical Sketch

Abstract The history of the Homeric Question stretches from antiquity to the present. I focus on its modern phase and its inauguration of the scientific study of Homeric poetry. The aim of this historical sketch is (a) to offer an up-to-date, concise, and critical presentation of the Homeric Question and (b) to review the main issues explored by the various schools of interpretation.

Iliad 13, Homer’s Cretan Heroes, and “Cretan Exceptionalism”

This paper uses the dialogue between the Cretan heroes Idomeneus and Meriones in Iliad 13 as a starting point for understanding Homeric conceptions of Crete. Depictions of Crete in Homeric poetry both responded to historical realia and produced an enduring image of Crete as a geographically marginalized yet mythopoetically important place.

Generating Metrically Accurate Homeric Poetry with Recurrent Neural Networks

We investigate the generation of metrically accurate Homeric poetry using recurrent neural networks (RNN). We assess two models: a basic encoder-decoder RNN and the hierarchical recurrent encoderdecoder model (HRED). We assess the quality of the generated lines of poetry using quantitative metrical analysis and expert evaluation. This evaluation reveals that while the basic encoder-decoder is able to capture complex poetic meter, it under performs in terms of semantic coherence. The HRED model, however, produces more semantically coherent lines of poetry but is unable to capture the meter. Our research highlights the importance of expert evaluation and suggests that future research should focus on encoder-decoder models that balance various types of input – both immediate and long-range.

Rhetoric in Homer?

This article discusses the possibility of exploring the field of rhetoric within the Homeric poems. Is it adequate to employ the term “rhetoric” in discussions of Homeric poetry? We contend, following Knudsen (2014), that yes, the Iliad and the Odyssey provide us with the earliest instances of rhetorical activity in Antiquity. Firstly, we address why some scholars disregard that possibility, then argue why we disagree with them. Finally, we apply the elements of our theoretical discussion to an analysis of Odysseus’ supplication to Nausicaa in Odyssey 6, focusing on: a) the introduction by the Homeric narrator with the terms kerdíon, kerdaléos, and meilíkhios; and b) Odysseus’ strategic speaking when trying to convince Nausicaa to provide him with clothes and information about the way to town.

Widowing the Streets of Troy (Il. 5.642): Notes on the Conceptual Basis of a Unique Metaphor in Homer'sIliad

AbstractThis article argues for an approach based on the cognitive linguistic theory of conceptual metaphors (CMT) by demonstrating its potential for the discussion and interpretation of Homeric metaphors. CMT provides a theoretical framework for analysing metaphors in a conceptual context, and even with unique, i.e. apparently non-formulaic, metaphors in Homeric poetry the possibility of a conceptual basis always needs to be considered for comprehensive study. Even unusual expressions such as the phrasing ofIl. 5.642, χήρωσɛ δ’ ἀγυιάς, where Heracles is said to have ‘widowed the streets’ of Troy can be related to other metaphors (esp. Τροίης ἱɛρὰ κρήδɛμνα inIl. 16.100, where the phrasing is formulaic) drawing on the same conceptualization ofthe city is a woman. This appears to be a contextually specified version of the personification of locations which not only provides the basis for poetic extensions but also has the potential to reflect back on the literal usage of certain salient terms and imbue them with particular, ominous meaning (such as κρήδɛμνον inIl. 22.470).

Avdo Međedović’s Post-Traditional Epics and Their Relevance to Homeric Studies

Abstract[Milman Parry established first that Homeric poetry was traditional, based on his studies of its formulae and language, and then that it was oral, based on his experience of recording south Slavic epic; he likened the unusually long epics of Avdo Međedović to those of Homer. Albert Lord put the two concepts together, holding that both south Slavic epic and Homeric poetry were oral-traditional and that all oral epic poetry, including that of Međedović, is traditional. However, the author’s investigations into the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature and his personal experience of collecting epics in Montenegro in 1989 prove that this is incorrect. The poems of Avdo Međedović do not conform to traditional uses of language, theme and story-patterns, but offer something new, of which other traditional singers disapproved, as their recorded conversations demonstrate. Similarly, by analogy, the epics of Homer differed from the traditional poems of the Epic Cycle, exactly as Aristotle indicates in the Poetics. Hence neither Međedović nor, by analogy, Homer were fully traditional poets, although they were oral poets; instead, they deliberately adapted the tradition so that the old stories were mixed and matched into much lengthier and more complex epics, which should be called post-traditional.]