Sacrilege: Myth as a Moral Paradigm Transgression against the divine is a central issue of the Histories and also of a large part of Greek literature. In asking what sacrilege means for Herodotus, we encounter a fundamental difficulty: he does not use an unambiguous terminology. Most translations tend to simplify, while in the original Greek there is a manifold vocabulary in the field of moral transgression, most… Read more
Madness—The Complexity of Morals in the Light of Myth and Cult So far, we have seen how mythical parallels function as a kind of commentary, marking sacrilege as such. Now we will have a look at a group of sacrilegious acts that are connected with madness. They, too, have parallels with mythical paradigms, but are also connected to a ritual phenomenon: cultic ecstasy—a dimension which makes the… Read more
Tricksters and Structure in Herodotus 1. Tricksters in Herodotus? Herodotus’ Histories are populated with highly intelligent characters often reaching their goals by means of cunning and deceit. In her influential 1987 study, Carolyn Dewald has identified “savants”, the wise advisers nobody listens to, as well as “tricksters”, who know more than others and act in unconventional and manipulative ways. These include Artemisia of Halicarnassus, who sinks… Read more
14. Pindar’s Homer §1. As a lyric poet who flourished in an age when emerging patterns of individual power within the Greek polis had already established corresponding patterns of individualism, marking the poet as well as the poet’s powerful patrons, Pindar was an author. [1] As a figure who served to connect the heroic past with the present, he was a master… Read more
Appendix: A Comparative Survey of Pindar’s Meters §1. In what follows, I offer a diachronic study of the two major types of meter inherited by Pindar, the so-called Aeolic and the dactylo-epitrite. My goal is to show the affinities between these meters in Greek song and the three major types of meter in Greek poetry, namely, the dactylic hexameter, the elegiac distich, and the iambic trimeter. Read more
Bibliography Alexiou, M. 1974. The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition. Cambridge. Allen, T. W., ed. 1912. Homeri Opera V (Hymns, Cycle, fragments, etc.). Oxford. ———. 1924. Homer: The Origins and the Transmission. Oxford. Allen, W. S. 1973. Accent and Rhythm. Prosodic Features of Latin and Greek: A Study in Theory and Reconstruction. Cambridge. … Read more
Acknowledgments I have received a great deal of support during the writing of this book. A University of Houston New Faculty Research Grant and a summer grant from the University of Houston Women’s Studies Program allowed me to complete the bulk of the research and writing, and a Center for Hellenic Studies fellowship supported me in the final stages. Portions of the book began as conference… Read more
[In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made elsewhere to the printed version of this book.] Introduction What a pitiful sorrow it would be to… Read more
Chapter 1. Men’s Songs and Women’s Songs Are the voices of women in men’s poetry representative of women’s independent song traditions? What role, if any, did women’s song traditions play in the shaping of men’s epic traditions (and later, tragedy)? In recent years scholars have begun to suggest that women’s lament traditions may have played a crucial role in the development of epic and tragedy, which were… Read more
Chapter 2. Identifying with the Enemy: Love, Loss, and Longing in the Persians of Aeschylus In the first two decades of the fifth century BC, the century in which Greek tragedy as we know it flourished, the Greeks were attacked twice by the vastly larger army and navy of the Persian Empire. Against all odds, they ultimately succeeded both times in fending them off. But the cost… Read more
