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5. The Traditional Characterization of Agamemnon

5. The Traditional Characterization of Agamemnon What has emerged from a consideration of Agamemnon’s appearances in person, name, or through retrospective narrative, is the tenor of his characterization in the Iliad and Odyssey. As I have noted throughout the foregoing chapters, Agamemnon’s involvement in other story patterns, such as that contained in the Odyssey, provides helpful background for understanding Agamemnon’s characterization in the Iliad. In this chapter,… Read more

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Appendix. Colometry and Formulae

Appendix. Colometry and Formulae Oral-traditional tale-telling includes embedded cues to the larger back stories that begin at the level of cola and formulae. They are the first level of consideration in any search for characterization in Homer. [1] In colometry, “words,” to borrow Foley’s description, from particles to longer lexical (i.e. formulaic) components, are preserved whole. [2]… Read more

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Bibliography

Bibliography Adkins, W. H. 1982. “Values, Goals, and Emotions in the Iliad.” Classical Philology 77:292–326. Alden, M. 2001. Homer Beside Himself: Para-narratives in the Iliad. Oxford. ———. 2012. “The Despised Migrant (Il. 9.648 = 16.59).” In Homeric Contexts: Neoanalysis and the Interpretation of Oral Poetry, ed. F. Montanari, A. Rengakos, and C. Tsagalis, 115–131. Berlin. … Read more

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Preface

Preface Elenei, soţiei mele scumpe But Athena daughter of Zeus made himTaller and broader to look at; and from his headShe sent down curly locks, like the flower of the hyacinth.As when some man pours gold around silver,A skilled man, whom Hephaestus and Pallas Athena taughtEvery kind of craft—he achieves graceful works—So she poured grace on his head and… Read more

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Introduction

Introduction The images of flowers, trees, and other plants that we find in the poetry of a given region represent particular responses to a particular flora with particular characteristics familiar to those who live in that region. Therefore, if we are to achieve a proper understanding of the operations of such images and of the ways in which they would have been received by audiences and readers,… Read more

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Part I. Flowers and Erotic Bodies

Part I. Flowers and Erotic Bodies Preamble The first part of this study focuses on vegetal images of the erotic or, more specifically, on associations of flowers and erotic bodies. Most of the surviving examples of floral images of the erotic in archaic Greek poetry are to be found in the corpus of Greek lyric; accordingly, I shall draw on that genre to set in relief… Read more

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4. The Living Instrument: Odyssey 13–15 in Performance

4. The Living Instrument: Odyssey 13–15 in Performance The actor … must make his own inner being ‘an instrument capable of playing any tune,’ as it is often put. Francis Fergusson, The Idea of a Theater, pp. 252–253 Turning our focus from the Iliad to the Odyssey, it seems plausible that the distinct virtue of the Odyssey in performance… Read more

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Conclusion

Conclusion Epic is not simply a stripped-down version of tragedy, some sort of primitive ancestor. Instead, the “half-acting” of epic creates an atopia—a placelessness, an uncanniness—in which the absent and the past take over the present, along multiple paths. The performance dynamic creates separate realms of action—present, past, divine, human, living, dead—on occasion layering these on top of one another. These boundaries, once in place, can be… Read more

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Appendix A. Rhapsodes in Vase Painting; Rhapsōidia

Appendix A. Rhapsodes in Vase Painting; Rhapsōidia Vase painting provides evidence for the nature of Homeric performance, though not as much as might be thought, and not in as much abundance as for other musical contests held at the Panathenaia. [1] The earliest depictions of performance on vases of Panathenaic shape pre-date Plato’s Ion by a century and a half, however, and… Read more

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Appendix B. The Homeric Performer, the Staff, and “Becoming the Character”

Appendix B. The Homeric Performer, the Staff, and “Becoming the Character” The “play” between bard and character, their inner dynamics, variations, attunements, narratological ensembles and assemblies, can be brought to life by looking at a series of objects that threads through both the Iliad and the Odyssey, consisting of scepter, spear, staff, sword, etc. Within the poems, the scepter signifies that the speaker holding it has the… Read more