7. The Metrical Context of Rig-Vedic śráva(s) ákṣitam and ákṣiti śrávas The general form of the Vedas is that of lyrical poetry. They contain the songs in which the first ancestors of the Hindu people, at the very dawn of their existence as a separate nation, while they were still only on the threshold of the great country which they were afterwards to fill with… Read more
8. An Inquiry into the Origins of Indic Trimeter Let us first survey the basic types of dimeter and trimeter which are formally comparable in Greek and Indic. In the case of dimeters, the correspondences are obvious, and the essentials have already been presented in the Introduction. The analogue of the Greek octosyllables ⏓ ⏓ ⏓ ⏓ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏓ (irregular… Read more
9. The Distribution of Rig-Vedic śrávas: An Intensive Correlation of Phraseology with Meter The usage of a word like śrávas in the Rig-Veda is subject to manifold constraints in matters of positioning and associations with other words. It now becomes imperative to examine such constraints in relation to meter and metrical origins. Beyond the immediate interest, the great advantage in such an examination is that we may… Read more
Epilogue: The Hidden Meaning of κλέοc ἄφθιτον and śráva(s) ákṣitam Having reconstructed a poetic expression which antedates even the meters in which it is preserved, we may well wonder about its traditional impact. What implicit message did the expression *klewos n̥dhgwhitom contain? What strength of heritage propelled it to survive in two such distantly related poetic systems as the Greek and the Indic? As I… Read more
Appendix A. μήδεα and ἄφθιτα μήδεα εἰδώc Within the framework of Homeric diction, the noun μήδεα can mean either ‘thoughts, schemes’ (as in Γ 202) or ‘genitals’ (as in σ 67). There are many typological parallels to such a semantic ambivalence in μήδεα. For example, Old High German gimaht may mean either ‘faculty’ or ‘genitals’. Notice too that the Greek word for ‘sexual coming of age’, ἥβη,… Read more
Appendix B. Dovetailing: Speculations on Mechanics and Origins Glyconics, among other Greek meters, ‘dovetail’ forward. [1] That is, the word-break at the end of one Glyconic can be skipped and transferred to the position after the first long/short (⏓) of a following Glyconic: regular pattern 1̄̆ 2̄̆ 3̄ 4̆ 5̆ 6̄ 7̆ 8̄̆||1̄̆ 2̄̆ 3̄ 4̆ 5̆ 6̄ 7̆ 8̄̆ … Read more
Selected Bibliography Albano-Leoni, F. 1968. “Su alcune corrispondenze formulari omerico-vediche.” Orientalia Suecana 17:137–154. Allen, A., and Frel, J. 1972. “A Date for Corinna.” Classical Journal 68:26–30. Allen, W. S. 1966. “Prosody and Prosodies in Greek.” Transactions of the Philological Society 1966:107–148. ———. 1967. “Correlations of Tone and Stress in Ancient Greek.” To Honor Roman… Read more
Vico’s Prescient Evolutionary Model for Homer Steven M. Berry Verisimilia namque vera inter et falsa sunt quasi media. “For indeed, probabilities [i.e., things that seem true] are midway, more or less, between true things and false things.” – Giambattista Vico, De nostri temporis Studiorum Ratione (1709) Tutte l’antiche storie profane hanno favolosi in princìpi. “All the profane stories of antiquity were… Read more
1. Prophet of Modern Oral-Evolutionary Theories In this essay, I shall be examining the cultural and historical theories of Giambattista Vico (1668–1744), as he applies them to Homer. I shall focus particularly on the daring arguments through which Vico constructs a detailed scientific answer to the so-called “Homeric Question.” He elaborates most fully upon this “revelation” in Book III of Principi di Scienza Nuova d’intorno alla comune… Read more
2. Vico’s Homeric Ékphrasis What, exactly, is Vico hoping to accomplish by including his perspective on the Homeric Question in his historical argument in the Scienza Nuova? At first blush, the subject of Homer does not fit that naturally within his greater forensic framework (cf. Aristotle’s ideal, as he expresses it in the opening of the Poetics, 1447a10: legômen … kata phusin, “let us discourse … in… Read more
