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Donum natalicium

Patterns of Transmission: Mothers and Daughters in the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature

back Aida Vidan, Harvard University From the time of the Homeric epics down to the period when Milman Parry and Albert Lord discovered “new Homers” such as Avdo Međedović in the Slavic part of the Balkans, the epic tradition has captivated the attention of both scholars and audiences. By contrast, shorter lyric songs and ballads from the same region traditionally performed by women (and sometimes simply called “women’s songs,”… Read more

Donum natalicium

Virgil’s Erato and the Fate of Aeneas

back Michael B. Sullivan I. STATUS QUAESTIONIS So much has been written about Virgil’s invocation of Erato at Aeneid 7.37-45 that one is tempted to call on the Muse for assistance with the catalogue. [1] Mynors’ text of the controversial passage runs as follows [2] : Nunc age, qui reges, Erato, quae tempora, rerum quis Latio antiquo fuerit status,… Read more

Donum natalicium

The Song Flowing in my Veins: A Note on Choral Voice

back Anastasia-Erasmia Peponi, Stanford University I. This note is inspired by an anonymous comment on a song, both the comment and the song being readily found on YouTube. [1] The fuller version of the comment runs this way: “The voices of the singer and the choir flow in my veins.” I wish to discuss briefly the voices of the singer and choir that deeply moved… Read more

Donum natalicium

Remarks on Gregory Nagy at age 70

back Laszlo Nagy Contemplating my father at age 70, I think to him when he was my age, 35, thirty-five years ago. This means I find myself in the odd situation of contemplating him when he was my age at my birth. I am reminded already then of his having a newborn son, something that I lack at the moment, realizing that I will be 70 without a 35… Read more

Donum natalicium

Finismundo: The Last Voyage (Finismundo: A Última Viagem)

back Andrea Kouklanakis akouklan@fas.harvard.edu Abstract Finismundo: A Última Viagem (1990), written by the Brazilian poet Haroldo de Campos, uses Odysseus’ shipwreck as its foundational theme. In the Odyssey the question surrounding Odysseus’ death is articulated in ambiguous terms in book XI. Tiresias tells Odysseus that the hero will not meet death at sea (thánatos ex halós,v 134),if he propitiates Poseidon with sacrifices. Haroldo de Campos uses the phrase thánatos… Read more

Donum natalicium

Les Grecs en Amazonie. Un aller-retour de Claude Lévi-Strauss

back Marcel Detienne Des Grecs donc, parmi les Amérindiens, Indigènes ou natives, les Amérindiens font encore partie de certains paysages du Brésil. Malgré les conquêtes, les entreprises coloniales, ils n’ont pas le même statut que les Indiens d’Amérique du Nord. Car le Nord refuse, aujourd’hui encore, d’entendre parler d’autochtones : trop dangereux ; il refuse, comme la France où les droits des peuples autochtones ne sont toujours pas reconnus : chacun comprend… Read more

Donum natalicium

Homer and the Aegean Prehistorian

back Anthony Snodgrass With academic subjects as with people, many a close and intimate relationship can become cool and distant. It may even be broken off altogether, and replaced by a different relationship. In the case of academic disciplines, such a transfer of affections can lead to a radical and positive transformation of a subject, even when this also means the virtual disappearance of its older configuration. My offering… Read more

Donum natalicium

Le nom de Diomède

back Philippe ROUSSEAU Université Charles de Gaulle – Lille 3 UMR 8163 «Savoirs, Textes, Langage» Dans une démonstration qui a fait date Gregory Nagy, analysant à la suite de L. Palmer l’étymologie la plus probable du nom d’Achille comme une forme abrégée d’un nom *Akhí-lawos « dont le laos est en proie à l’akhos », écrit : « Plausible as it is, however, this reconstruction will not carry conviction unless we can be… Read more

Donum natalicium

2 ou 3 choses que je sais de l’Iliade

back Natasha Bershadsky {1. The rain/opening credits [1] } Sheets and sheets of rain pouring over the Trojan plain. The rain falling on some dilapidated mudbrick structures. Zoom: the mudbrick slowly melting under the rain. Back to the broader view: now streams of water are surging everywhere. The flood carries big stones, logs, pieces of armor, turning and tumbling in the water. [2]… Read more