Chapter 1. “Winged Words”: How We Came to Have Our Iliad Our Iliad consists—to quote a well-known Homeric formula—of “winged words” (ἔπεα πτερόεντα). An image in a Bronze Age fresco from Pylos suggests that as early as Mycenaean times, poetry in performance was conceived of as being in flight (Plate 1). [1] As we have seen, the nature of the Iliad—as a… Read more
Chapter 2. Sunt Aliquid Manes: Ancient Quotations of Homer A multitextual approach to Homeric epic acknowledges and even embraces an expected amount of variation between performances of oral poetry. Because this multiformity was generated within a system, the attested variations enable us to appreciate the poetry of the Homeric epics on more than just the level of a single performance. By adopting a multitextual approach, we can,… Read more
Chapter 3. “And Then an Amazon Came”: Homeric Papyri In the previous chapter we saw that the earliest witnesses to the text of the Iliad, in the form of early quotations, are multiform. Additional verses and variations within verses are not uncommon, and the attested variations are often of a demonstrably formulaic nature, by which I mean they are perfectly in keeping with what we know of… Read more
Chapter 4. The Lost Verses of the Iliad: Medieval Manuscripts and the Poetics of a Multiform Epic Tradition In this chapter we skip ahead many centuries, to the medieval manuscript tradition. The medieval manuscripts are our best source of information about the texts known to the Hellenistic scholars who were in charge of the library of Alexandria, including Zenodotus, Aristophanes of Byzantium, and Aristarchus. The scholia in… Read more
Conclusion. “In Appearance Like a God”: Textual Criticism and the Quest for the One True Homer Aristarchus athetized at least seven passages of three verses or more in Iliad 20 alone. Each athetesis gives us insight into an editor who was struggling to account for a mythological and poetic tradition that was multiform and at times contradictory. Some passages cause issues with narrative continuity, some passages Aristarchus… Read more
Plates Plate 1. A fresco from the so-called Palace of Nestor in Pylos suggests that as early as Mycenaean times, poetry in performance has been conceived of as being in flight. Drawing by Valerie Woelfel, after a reconstruction by Piet de Jong. Plate 2. Red-figure skyphos attributed to Macron (Louvre G146), depicting Agamemnon leading away Briseis (side A). Neither side A nor side B (Plate 3)… Read more
Bibliography Ahlberg-Cornell, G. 1992. Myth and Epos in Early Greek Art: Representation and Interpretation. Jonsered, Sweden. Alexiou, M. 1974. The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition. Cambridge. 2nd ed., Lanham, MD, 2002. Allan, W. 2005. “Arms and the Man: Euphorbus, Hector, and the Death of Patroclus.” Classical Quarterly 55:1–16. Allen, T. W. 1899. “On the… Read more
Foreword Richard P. Martin, Stanford University Warrior, hero, super-male—Achilles should not cry. Not, that is, in the contemporary understanding of the categories he seems to personify, categories that (one might at first assume) have always dominated the imagination of our cultural forefathers, from the earliest epics, through John Wayne westerns, to the latest Star Wars film, the protagonist of which, Luke Skywalker, was scornfully dubbed by… Read more
Translator’s Note: Truchement ≈ Caretaker Nicholas J. Snead I learned the term truchement as a first-year M.A. student studying French language and literature at the University of Virginia, where I had the wonderful good fortune to take a Balzac seminar with Peter Brooks, a visiting professor there that year. Truchement is an archaic French word meaning ‘translator’ or ‘interpreter.’ If you traveled to France today, it… Read more
Preface to the English Edition Hélène Monsacré When I wrote this book on Homer, thirty years ago, [1] I tried to grasp the ambiguities of a heroic character: brave, courageous, and yet sensitive. The greatest hero of all time, Achilles, has supernatural powers and fights with divine weapons, but he cries like a human. His tears do not, however, diminish… Read more
