Appendix 1: Homeric scenes in which Zeus appears and references to his actions Citations include scenes in the main narrative, as well as scenes that, while outside the main narrative, impinge on it (such as the encounter between Helios and Zeus in Odyssey 12) or proceed directly from it (such as the destruction of the Greek fortifications predicted in Iliad 7 and 12). Not included are scenes… Read more
Appendix 2: Typology of Divine Councils in the Odyssey I have throughout this study referred to the five scenes in which Zeus has a speaking role in the Odyssey, in Books 1, 5, 12, 13 and 24, as “divine councils.” From the standpoint of the oral tradition in which the Homeric epics originated, these narrative settings can be described as “type-scenes.” This level of organization in Homeric… Read more
Bibliography Texts West, M., ed. 1998. Homerus Ilias Volumen Prius Rhapsodias I-XII Continens. Stuttgart and Leipzig. West, M., ed. 2000. Homerus Ilias Volumen Alterum Rhapsodias XIII-XXIV Continens. Munich and Leipzig. van Thiel, H., ed. 1991. Homeri Odyssea. Zurich and New York. Allen, T., ed. 1912. Homeri Opera V: Hymnos Cyclum Fragmenta Margiten Batrachomyomachiam… Read more
2. Helen’s Web: Time and Tableau in the Iliad [1] This paper was originally prepared for a panel on “Some Contemporary Approaches to the Homeric Poems.” [2] It describes a case in which contemporary critical theory, when combined with our knowledge of formulaic style, helps to interpret a problematic convention of the Iliad, namely, the suspension… Read more
3. Similes and Symbol in Odyssey v [1] Since antiquity, the Odyssey has invited symbolic interpretation. When Eustathius pronounces the poem an ethical allegory, and in that, more indicative than the Iliad of “Homeric power,” he echoes a tradition extending back through early Christian writers to the Allegoriae (Quaestiones Homericae) of Heraclitus. [2] Among modern critics, Charles… Read more
4. Odyssean Temporality: Many (Re)Turns [1] The wisdom of the text is self-destructive (art is true but truth kills itself), but this self-destruction is infinitely displaced in a series of successive rhetorical reversals which, by the endless repetition of the same figure, keep it suspended between truth and the death of truth. [2] … Read more
5. Helen’s “Good Drug” [1] I δύο τὰ πολλὰ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων. [2] Alcmaeon Were someone to formulate a Foucaultian epistêmê for archaic Greek thought, it might be some version of “polarity.” [3] To begin to study Greek is to learn of its pervasive… Read more
6. Sacred Apostrophe: Re-Presentation and Imitation in Homeric Hymn to Apollo and Homeric Hymn to Hermes [1] I. Genre and History From the beginning, the Homeric hymns mark both beginning and end. They come before the recitation of epic, but after Homeric epic has reached its peak. The evidence is scanty, but so far as we can tell, the works… Read more
7. Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite: Tradition and Rhetoric, Praise and Blame [1] I. Introduction The Homeric hymn is a traditional form of praise poetry. Employing traditional diction, theme, and structure, the hymn presents an epiphany of the god and an aetiology of his or her powers. [2] The traditional rhetoric of the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite… Read more
8. The (Re)Marriage of Penelope and Odysseus [1] In the (re)marriage of Odysseus and Penelope, the Odyssey initiates a dialogue with the Western traditions of architecture, gender, and philosophy. [2] Although defined conceptually by discourses “invented” as different from mythology, [3] these three modes function actively in Archaic Greek culture and thought. Read more
