Series Foreword As he planned his famous study of the living tradition of oral epic singing in the Balkans in the 1930s, the prominent Harvard Classicist, Milman Parry, signaled the significance that the Old Norse field held in his mind when he noted that the results of his investigations would be of importance, not only for the study of Greek and South Slavic epic, but also for… Read more
Foreword Joseph Harris, Harvard University Interest in the individual myths and the mythic systems of the pre-Christian North has traveled a varied way through highs and lows since the seventeenth century. The twenty-first continues a period of intense scholarly interest since, perhaps, the 1960s and in this volume renews and modernizes the comparative (and reconstructive) view that has been one of the main approaches for many… Read more
Preface: Situating Old Norse Mythology in Comparative Contexts Pernille Hermann, Stephen Mitchell, and Jens Peter Schjødt The essays in this volume are centrally concerned with an all-too-apparent reality about the study of pagan religions in Europe, namely, that the study of any mythology, especially archaic and only haphazardly recorded mythologies, requires careful assessment of sources and the attempt to reconstruct the “system” which is understood to… Read more
Acknowledgements Publication of this volume was made possible by the generous support of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University, and the Ilex Foundation. The essays in this volume largely derive from presentations at the Aarhus Old Norse Mythology Conference held at Harvard University, 30 October–1 November 2013. The funding for the conference itself was provided by The Royal Gustav Adolf Academy, Uppsala; The Provostial Fund at Harvard University; and… Read more
Theocritean Pastoral: A Study in the Definition of Genre* A thesis presented by Amy Edith Johnson to the Department of Comparative Literature in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Comparative Literature, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 1, 1980. For Gregory Nagy and in memory of John H. Finley, Jr. What we have loved,… Read more
Introduction Theocritus (?300-260? B.C.), Hellenistic composer of epillia and idyllia, is uniquely distinguished in the history of Western literature as the identifiable originator of a major genre. ΑΡΤΕΜΙΔΩΡΟΥ ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΙΚΟΥἐπὶ τῇ ἀθροἰσει τῶν βουκολικῶν ποιημἀτων Βουκολικαὶ Μοῖσαι σποράδες ποκά, νῦν δ᾽ ἅμα πᾶσαι ἐντὶ μιᾶς μάνδρας, ἐντὶ μιᾶς ἀγέλας. “The bucolic Muses, once scattered, are now all of one flock,… Read more
Chapter 1. Idyll I: ΘΥΡΣΙΣ Η ΩΙΔΗ The measured repetitions of the initial verses of Theocritus’ Idyll I establish a pattern that characterizes bucolic poetry as thoroughly as the herds and herdsmen that are its literal subject. Repeated words and motifs, parallelism of phrasing and of actions, meticulous imitation, emulation, and recapitulation, facilitated by a standard vocabulary and store of fixed metaphors—these elements define the pastoral not… Read more
Chapter 2. Idyll 7: θΑΛΥΣΙΑ If the sweetness of Theocritean pastoral is elaborated in Idyll I, it is in Idyll VII, that its great complementary vision is articulated. Ἁδύ struck the opening and echoing note of I, which in VII is paralleled by the programmatic phrase Ἦς χρόνος; in Gow’s expressive colloquialism, “Time was.” Idyll I is all of the moment, saturated with present sensation and immediacy… Read more
Conclusion The power, therefore, of thus fully perceiving any natural object depends on our being able to group and fasten all our fancies about it as a centre, making a garland of thoughts for it in which each separate thought is subdued and shortened of its own strength, in order to fit it for harmony with others; the intensity of our enjoyment of the object… Read more
Select Bibliography Allen, T.W., ed. 1912. Homeri Opera V. Oxford. ———, ed. 1917. Homeri Opera III. 2nd ed. Oxford. ———, ed. 1919. Homeri Opera IV. 2nd ed. Oxford. Alpers, P. 1979. The Singer of the Eclogues: A Study of Virgilian Pastoral. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London. ———. 1972. “The Eclogue Tradition… Read more
