Chapter 13. The “New Sappho” Reconsidered in the Light of the Athenian Reception of Sappho Gregory Nagy The text of the “New Sappho,” found in a Cologne papyrus dated to the third century BCE (P.Köln inv. 21351 + 21376), is different from a later text of Sappho, found in an Oxyrhynchus papyrus dated to the second or third century CE (P.Oxy. 1787). In the two papyri,… Read more
About the Contributors DEBORAH BOEDEKER, Professor of Classics at Brown University, works mainly on archaic and classical Greek poetry, historiography, and religion. Her publications include Aphrodite’s Entry into Greek Epic; Descent from Heaven: Images of Dew in Greek Poetry and Religion; and essays on Herodotus, lyric poetry, Athenian religion, Simonides, tragedy, and traditions about the Persian Wars. She has edited and co-edited a number of volumes, including… Read more
Author’s Preface The on-line publication date for this book is 2008, since it was “born digital” in that year on the website of the Center for Hellenic Studies. The print publication date is 2009. In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70… Read more
Prolegomena: A classical text of Homer in the making Pⓢ1. The Homeric Koine P§1 Homer the Classic centers on ancient concepts of Homer as the author of a body of poetry that we know as the Iliad and Odyssey. This body of poetry, this corpus, became a classical text, but it started as something else. That something, as I have argued in earlier projects, is oral… Read more
Chapter One. Homer the Classic in the Age of Virgil 1ⓢ1.An esthetics of rigidity 1§1 The poetry of Virgil, I take it as a given, rivals that of Homer. Historically, Virgil the Classic even displaced Homer the Classic in the Latin culture of the Roman empire (though not in the Greek) – already in the age of Virgil. But the question is: what is it exactly… Read more
Part 5. Pylos Chapter 12. Iliad 11 and the Location of Homeric Pylos {647|651} §5.1 In Iliad 11 Nestor tells how he first became a horseman when he defeated the enemy Epeians in battle: entering the battle on foot he immediately slew the leader of the Epeian horsemen, seized his chariot, and like a dark whirlwind drove it straight through the enemy, slaying the double occupants… Read more
Chapter 13. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo and the Text of Iliad 11 {671|673} §5.12 The controversy over Pylos, whether or not it was in Elis, centered on Telemachus’s voyage home from Pylos to Ithaca in Odyssey 15. After bidding farewell to Nestor’s son Peisistratos and taking on board the seer Theoklymenos, Telemachus sets sail from Pylos; as they sail north along the coast the sun sets… Read more
Chapter 14. The Text of Iliad 11 in the Fifth Century BC {716|719} §5.39 There was a controversy in the late seventh and early sixth centuries BC as to the location of Homeric Pylos, whether north or south of the Alpheios River, and the battleground for this controversy was Odyssey 15, and also Iliad 7; this brings us back to the real question: could such a controversy… Read more
Endnotes, Part 5 EN5.1 (Endnote to n5.1) {746|747} In Nestor’s story in Iliad 11, when he routs the Epeians and the Pylians turn for home, the language imitates the language used of the turning point in a chariot race, as exemplified in the chariot race of Iliad 23. But there is a difference between the two passages in that the passage of Iliad 23 occurs after… Read more
Conclusion {780|781} Starting from an Indo-European comparison the foregoing study has followed out the consequences of that comparison for the Homeric poems, including a reconstruction of the circumstances in which the poems were first composed on a monumental scale. To reach this point in the argument the role of the Homeric Phaeacians has been the bridge, and to understand the Phaeacians Nestor has been the key. Nestor’s… Read more
