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Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments I am deeply grateful to all those who helped me produce The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, and I offer special thanks to the following: Erika Bainbridge, Natasha Bershadsky, Patrick Coleman, Maša Ćulumović, Jeffrey Emanuel, Claudia Filos, Alexander Forte, Douglas Frame, Richard Im, Rob Jenson, Kevin McGrath, Leonard Muellner, Anita Nikkanen, Jill Robbins, Sharmila Sen, William P. Sisler, Noel Spencer, Thomas Temple Wright, Christine Thorsteinsson, Valerie Woelfel. This… Read more

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Introduction

Introduction to the book [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.] The readings 00§1. The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours is… Read more

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Part I. Introduction to Homeric poetry

Introduction to Homeric poetry 0§1. Before I delve into the 24 hours of this book, I offer an introductory essay that is meant to familiarize the reader with Homeric poetry, which is the primary medium that I will be analyzing in the first 11 hours. 0§2. Homeric poetry is a cover term for two epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. The major part of this introduction will deal with the… Read more

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Part I. Hour 1. The Homeric Iliad and the glory of the unseasonal hero

Hour 1. The Homeric Iliad and the glory of the unseasonal hero The meaning of kleos 1§1. There are two key words for this hour. The first of the two is kleos, ‘glory, fame, that which is heard’; or, ‘the poem or song that conveys glory, fame, that which is heard’. We will turn to the second of the two words when we reach the paragraphs starting at §26. 1§2. Read more

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Part I. Hour 2. Achilles as epic hero and the idea of total recall in song

Hour 2. Achilles as epic hero and the idea of total recall in song The meaning of memnēmai 2§1. The key word for this hour is memnēmai, which means ‘I have total recall’ in special contexts and ‘I remember’ in ordinary contexts. The special contexts involve memory by way of song. I will get to the specifics later. Hour 2 Text A |527 I totally recall [ me-mnē-mai ]… Read more

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Part I. Hour 3. Achilles and the poetics of lament

Hour 3. Achilles and the poetics of lament The meaning of akhos and penthos 3§1. There are two key words for this hour, akhos and penthos, and the meaning of both words is ‘grief, sorrow; public expression of grief, sorrow, by way of lamentation or keening’. A man of constant sorrow 3§2. The word akhos is connected with the name of Achilles in the Iliad. And the meaning of the… Read more

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3. Homeric Echoes in Bihać

3. Homeric Echoes in Bihać* In the Milman Parry Collection of Oral-Traditional Literature in the Harvard University Library are a number of texts that tell of the return of a hero after a long captivity to find his wife about to marry again. [1] This basic Odyssean tale attracted Parry because of its similarity to the Homeric… Read more

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4. Avdo Međedović, Guslar

4. Avdo Međedović, Guslar* Demodocus, I praise you beyond all mortal men, whether your teacher was the muse, the child of Zeus, or was Apollo. —Homer, Odyssey 8.487-488 Avdo Međedović of the village of Obrov, a half-hour’s walk from Bijelo Polje in eastern Montenegro, died sometime during 1955 at the approximate age of eighty-five. It may well be… Read more

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5. Homer as an Oral-Traditional Poet

5. Homer as an Oral-Traditional Poet* Some misconceptions have arisen about the “oral theory” and about the quality of the Serbo-Croatian oral-traditional epic and its possible relevance to an understanding of the Homeric poems. They are the subject of this paper. Much of its burden is to demonstrate to the Homerist how the superb singer in the South Slavic tradition can make… Read more

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6. The Kalevala, the South Slavic Epics, and Homer

6. The Kalevala, the South Slavic Epics, and Homer* The differences among the three epic traditions represented in this chapter are great. The Kalevala is the last of a series of compilations made by Elias Lönnrot of shorter songs collected by himself and others from epic singers in various parts of Finland. The oral-traditional epics of the South Slavs are independent, individual… Read more