4. Evolutionary Models Resist Literary Bias Something that has always struck me as I have studied Nagy’s work is how resistant many of his colleagues have been to what is perhaps the most important aspect of his model: namely, that it is faithful to the theories of his predecessor Albert Lord in treating the transmission of epic as a primarily creative rather than a simply mnemonic tekhnē,… Read more
5. Vico’s Homer Makes the Greco-Roman Continuum Possible If Vico’s program in the Scienza Nuova entails using iconography to divert pan-European discourse away from the Quarrel in order to proceed toward establishing an anti-Cartesian empirical model, what is the immediate target of his resulting new “ray”? Giuseppe Mazzotta gives this answer: “La discoverta del vero Omero” unfolds by telling about a deliberate reversal of the most… Read more
6. Is There a Latent Jurisprudential Paradigm in Vico’s Homer? Much Vico scholarship has been dedicated to analyzing Homer as ancillary to Vico’s larger purpose, and up to this point I have taken this perspective. But why not try a more oblique hermeneutical tack? Why not entertain the idea that Vico’s paradigm for Homer can be fruitfully explicated through his obsession to be recognized as a master-theorist… Read more
7. Two Conclusions Despite being a product of diachronic, Panhellenic dissemination, Homeric Greek, as an artificial literary language, is strikingly complex in the Russian Formalist sense of displaying literatur’nost’ (“literariness”). That is, both epics were “built” over the millennia through such devices as “the epic simile”; formulaic repetition (anaphora); foreshadowing; paranomasia (double entente); and on and on. These elements are normally thought of as applying to written… Read more
Acknowledgments During the gestation of this book, I have not lacked for support and material assistance from many people. My sincere thanks go to the following persons who have contributed to, corrected, and encouraged my work: Chris Dadian, Carol Dougherty, Judith Feher-Gurewitch, Carolyn Higbie, Stephanie Jamison, Claudine Kahan, Leslie Kurke, Françoise Létoublon, Hotze Mulder, Dan Petegorsky, Ian Rutherford, Richard Sacks, Rae Silberger, Charles Stewart, Douglas Stewart, Brent… Read more
Introduction: Approaching Anger [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 subject of the Iliad is the anger… Read more
1. Mênis and Cosmic Status in the Hierarchy of Peers A good place to begin reconstructing the meaning of mênis is not the beginning of the epic, which may be all too familiar for the perspective I wish to attain, but an extended passage from the middle of it. At the beginning of book 15 Zeus awakes from his seduction by Hera and finds the Trojans being… Read more
2. Mênis and the Social Order An irrevocable cosmic sanction that prohibits some from taking their superiors for equals and others from taking their equals for inferiors—this abstracted definition implies a rigid hierarchical structure and a predictable punitive response to violations of it that belie the richness and flexibility of Greek epic. There are indeed examples of such rigidity. For instance, there is no uncertainty whatever about… Read more
3. The Narrative Sequence of the Hesiodic Theogony The purpose of this chapter is to articulate the relationship between the Hesiodic Theogony and mênis, the starting point of the Homeric Iliad. The existence of a global relationship between these poetic traditions has already been postulated by Laura Slatkin, who has described its essential content. [1] Formal criteria also give us reasons to… Read more
4. The Mênis of Achilles and the First Book of the Iliad It is possible to foresee a sequel to the Theogony from within my metonymic analysis of its myth. [1] The stage has been set for another myth whose central theme is the mênis of Zeus. Neither the word mênis nor the proper use of the term are conceivable until the… Read more
