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
Acknowledgements Rhythm Without Beat originally appeared in 2014 as a preliminary study to my thesis Audible Punctuation: Performative Pause in Homeric Prosody, which was defended in 2015. Rhythm Without Beat started from the notion of poetically effective enjambment, and questions the relevance of the verse as the rhythmical, syntactical, and performative unity. It provides arguments and evidence against the widely accepted notion of the single verse as… Read more
Introduction: Sense, Syntax and Prosody What exactly did Homer leave behind? Was it a long series of hexameters? Yes and no. In writing, both the Iliad and the Odyssey appear as continuous repetitions of stichic verses. The epic narrative is cast in the hexametric mould: every single line fits one hexameter. The metrical shape of the hexameters varies, but all the verses of the Iliad and the… Read more
1. The Unit of Homeric Discourse: Enjambment, Special Speech and Metrically Defined Grammatisation 1.0 Introduction For the modern reader, the punctuation of a text furthers comprehension of its contents. In spoken language, the person speaking may use differences in intonation, tempo and articulatory prominence to further the audience’s comprehension of what is being said. Punctuation in printed texts mimics to a certain extent the purpose of… Read more
2. The Grammatical Clause in Homer 2.0 Introduction In chapter 1, I have discussed the problems concerning the various ways in which the syntax of Homeric discourse has been analysed by, among others, Chantraine, Bakker, and Clark. Discussing the descriptions of Homeric syntax also included dealing with the issue of enjambment in Homer, and the concept of grammatisation within metrical boundaries. Existing studies of Homeric discourse… Read more
3. Metrics and Phonology of Grammatical Clauses 3.0 Introduction The real compositional principle behind the verse-to-verse structure of both the Iliad and the Odyssey seems to be a progressive tendency that strings together a large and possibly infinite number of single-clause informational units. The progression results from continuation, itself due to transitional constituents with clear pragmatic value, but little semantic function. The grammatical clauses that this… Read more
