Iliad p425 (Mertens-Pack 855.1; P. Berol. inv. 11911 + 17038 + 17048 + 21155) Text based on the edition of Bart Huelsenbeck and Alexander Loney, after the edition of H. Maehler; W. Müller; G. Poethke (1976) [1] The fragments of this early-third-century CE papyrus scroll found in Hermoupolis Magna in Egypt reside in the Königlischen Museum, Berlin and were joined and… Read more
Iliad p46 (Mertens-Pack 658; P. Cairo Maspero inv. 67172-4 + P. Berol. inv. 10570 + P. Strasb. inv. G 1654 + P. Rein. 2.70) Text based on the edition of Alexander Loney, after the edition of J.-L. Fournet (1999) [1] This papyrus codex from the sixth century CE exists in pieces belonging to four separate collections (the Cairo Museum in Egypt,… Read more
Venetus A (Marcianus Graecus Z. 454 [= 822]) Marcianus Gr. Z. 454 (= 822) is the earliest extant, complete manuscript of the Iliad, and it is the one on which modern printed texts are primarily based. (The few medieval manuscripts that predate it contain commentary and paraphrases or portions of the poem, but not a complete text.) It was hand copied and assembled by Byzantine Greek scribes… Read more
Part III. Inventions of Terpander 1. Terpander between Myth and History Any study of kitharôidia must reckon closely with Terpander of Lesbos. While figures such as Orpheus, Philammon, and Amphion were routinely put forward as exponents of citharodic music in the mythic illud tempus—as Wilamowitz put it, Orpheus was “nothing but a citharode retrojected into the Heroic Age”—Terpander emerges from the ancient sources as its true… Read more
Part IV. Panathenaic Kitharôida 1. Kitharôidia Comes to Athens By the beginning of the fifth century BCE, and probably still earlier, Athens had become a premier market for kitharôidia, its Panathenaic mousikoi agônes overshadowing the long-established regional contests at the Spartan Carneia and rivaling the international allure of the Pythian games at Delphi. The city’s emergence as a citharodic center had everything to do with the… Read more
Bibliography Aksik, I. 1971. “Recent Archaeological Research in Turkey.” Anatolian Studies 21:5–58. Alcock, S. 1994. “Nero at Play? The Emperor’s Grecian Odyssey.” In Elsner and Masters 1994:98–111. Alfieri, N. 1979. Spina. Museo Archeologico Nazionale de Ferrara I. Bologna. Allen, T. W. 1907. “The Homeridae.” Classical Quarterly 1:135–143. ———, ed. 1912. Read more
4. Some Refractions of Homeric Anger in Athenian Drama T. R. Walsh Think of institutions and customs which have created … out of the enjoyment of anger perpetual vengeance. Nietzsche 1997:27 In aeschylus’ Suppliants, a particular kind of anger is identified through formulaic language that directly continues Homeric usage. In this play, the noun κότος (‘anger’), when it indicates the anger… Read more
5. Language about Achilles: Linguistic Frame Theory and the Formula in Homeric Poetics Charles Stocking The Formula: Some Theoretical Considerations Few if any scholars today can deny that the formula is an essential feature of Homeric verse. G. S. Kirk says in the preface to his Iliad commentary: The whole question of the formular, conventional or traditional component in the Homeric language is extremely… Read more
6. Skillful Symposia: Odyssey ix, Archilochus Fr. 2 West, and the Οἶνος Ἰσµαρικός Timothy Pepper The Origins of Objects Though the names and origins of characters tend to receive much attention, the identities and origins of named objects often do not. A good case in point is οἶνος Ἰσμαρικός, ‘Ismaric wine’, which is mentioned by name only twice in extant ancient literature before the first… Read more
