back Mike Tueller I. The grave of a Homeric hero is marked by a σῆμα. Whatever its materials or construction, the purpose of a σῆμα is clear: to attract attention. This much we can discern from the word σῆμα itself, but Homer is sometimes even more clear. In the following passage Nestor does not use the word σῆμα, but clearly describes one when he speaks of a τύμβος: “ἀμφ᾽… Read more
back Timothy Power, Rutgers University, New Brunswick A strange bird indeed Even in the odd company of Imperial mythographers, paradoxographers, antiquarians, and literary revisionists, Ptolemy the Quail (Ptolemaios Chennos), an Alexandrian writing around the turn of the first into the second century CE, qualifies as a fringe figure. [1] While the Quail was certainly not the only author of his time (or earlier) to… Read more
back Susan T. Edmunds Introduction §1. In discussion of Homer and the lyric poets, Gregory Nagy has shown how “the idea of making song is expressed metaphorically through the idea of making fabric.” [1] The process of weaving would have been completely familiar to the average person in Greek antiquity, yet it is not generally familiar to us. We touch woven cloth almost constantly… Read more
back Karl Reichl who translates literally is a liar, one who embellishes is a blasphemer. Talmud (Kiddushim 49a/b) The learned rabbi to whom this saying in the Talmud is due was no doubt thinking of the Bible and not of the Homeric epics or any other epic poem. But what he says is also true of the translation of secular works. If one translates literally one misses to… Read more
back J.C.B. (Yiannis) Petropoulos, Democritean University of Thrace & CHS-Greece Given the special occasion for this collection of papers, I would like to preface mine with a few remarks—short reminiscences rather—that are necessarily (and a bit awkwardly) autobiographical. [1] I return to the fatefully formative year 1981, when I wrote my senior thesis at Harvard under Greg Nagy’s galvanizing guidance. This exercise concerned itself… Read more
back Archbishop Demetrios of America, Ph.D., Th.D. It is well known that the early Christian theologians lived in a state of considerable tension with respect to the pagan world around them. [1] On the one hand, they deplored the sensuality and violence of the dominant culture and religion; on the other hand, they admired the rational achievements, unique in the ancient world, of Hellenic… Read more
back Stephen Mitchell Introduction Several years ago, Gregory Nagy, referring to epic heroes from Greek, Indian, Hittite and other traditions, commented, “These constructs — let us call them simply ‘characters’ for the moment — are in some ways radically dissimilar from each other. Even within a single tradition like Homeric poetry, heroes like Achilles and Odysseus seem worlds apart. In other ways, however, ‘epic heroes’ are strikingly similar to… Read more
back Kevin McGrath I Kṛṣṇa in the epic Mahābhārata appears in the poem as a superhuman and heroic figure and as an intimate companion and charioteer of his friend Arjuna; nowhere else in the Mahābhārata is such a close and constant amity portrayed by the poets as with these two heroes. [1] The following is a study of the practical relationship that exists in… Read more
back Thomas R. Martin The greatest crisis in Alexander the Great’s military career came in late 326 BC on the western bank of the Hyphasis (Beas) River in northwestern India. Several months earlier, Alexander had won a great victory over the Indian king Porus. Recognizing his foe’s great valor and dignity even in defeat, Alexander made Porus his ally to support his plan to push his expedition on into… Read more
back Jennifer Kellogg In his 1963 acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, poet George Seferis commented upon a multi-faceted sense of connection that Homeric Greek offers to modern speakers of the language, saying: When I read in Homer the simple words “φάος ἠελίοιο” – today I would say “φως του ηλίου” (the sunlight) – I experience a familiarity that stems from a collective soul rather than from an intellectual… Read more
