Part II. Chapter 2. Les Amis Mortels [1] Battle in the Iliad is far from wordless carnage, resonating only with the sound of armor clashing. The general description of the poem’s first military encounter begins strikingly by contrasting the eerie silence of the Greek troops with the heteroglossia of the Trojans. But once the battle is joined: ἔνθα δ’ ἅμ’ οἰμωγή… Read more
Part II. Chapter 3. Composition by Theme and the Mêtis of the Odyssey Why is the narrative structure of the Odyssey so complicated? Although the plot of the poem is perfectly straightforward—Aristotle observed that it was the imitation of a single action—nevertheless the ordering of its narrative is elaborately nonlinear. The Iliad gets under way with a question from which ensues a linear, chronological account of the… Read more
Part II. Chapter 4. Genre and Generation in the Odyssey In recent years, much brilliant and invaluable work elucidating Greek myths has been done by Jean-Pierre Vernant and Marcel Detienne, [1] who have looked across texts and across historical periods in order to discern and retrieve a given myth’s dispersed but essential components, which, seen in their relation to each other, yield… Read more
Part II. Chapter 5. The Poetics of Exchange in the Iliad [1] ξένια γὰρ Ἄρεος τραύματα, φόνοι —scholia Sophocles Electra 96 Τhe far-reaching implications of Marcel Mauss’s Essai sur le Don, [2] much admired by ethnographers and anthropological theorists, have contributed greatly to our grasp of how thoroughly a code of reciprocity,… Read more
Part II. Chapter 6. Measuring Authority, Authoritative Measures: Hesiod’s Works and Days [1] Observe due measure: and best in all things is the right time and right amount. [2] Hesiod, Works and Days 694 Ἥλιος οὐχ ὑπερβήσεται μέτρα· εἰ δὲ μή, Ἐρινύες μιν Δίκης ἐπίκουροι ἐξευρήσουσιν… Heraclitus fr. 94D-K … Read more
Part II. Chapter 7. Remembering Nicole Loraux Remembering Athens [1] I wish this morning to offer a few remarks on method and memory, topics that this anthology asks us to recall and rethink. In the course of these remarks I wish as well to recall explicitly the work of our co-editor Nicole Loraux, whose astonishing series of books and essays—along with those of her colleagues J.-P. Read more
[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 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made elsewhere to the printed version of this book.] Foreword This book by Professor Petropoulos is a veritable… Read more
1. Kleos and Oral History “Es Tagträumt in mir.” Ernst Bloch, Das Prinzip Hoffnung ‘αὐτὰρ ἐγὼν Ἰθάκην ἐσελεύσομαι, ὄφρα οἱ υἱὸνμᾶλλον ἐποτρύνω, καί οἱ μένος ἐν φρεσὶ θείω,εἰς ἀγορὴν καλέσαντα κάρη κομόωντας Ἀχαιοὺςπᾶσι μνηστήρεσσιν ἀπειπέμεν, οἵ τέ οἱ αἰεὶμῆλ’ ἁδινὰ σφάζουσι καὶ εἰλίποδας ἕλικας βοῦς.πέμψω δ’ ἐς Σπάρτην τε καὶ ἐς Πύλον ἠμαθόεντα,νόστον πευσόμενον πατρὸς… Read more
2. Kleos and Oral News ‘ἐγὼ μὲν ἐξ ἐμοῦ τε κοὐκ ἄλλης σαφῆσημεῖ’ ἰδοῦσα τῷδε πιστεύω λόγῳ.’ Sophokles Elektra 885–886 Both oral history and oral tradition spring from orally transmitted messages, [1] or, to use a Homeric term, ἔπεα (literally, ‘words’). [2] As J. Vansina’s now famous analysis shows,… Read more
3. Kleos and Social Identity ‘ὦ πάτερ, ἦ τοι σεῖο μέγα κλέος αἰὲν ἄκουον,χεῖράς τ’ αἰχμητὴν ἔμεναι καὶ ἐπίφρονα βουλήν.’ Odyssey 16.241–242 “Father, truly I used to hear of your great reputation (kleos),that you were warlike with your hands and wise in counsel.” Ἐνὶ οἴκῳ ‘At Home’ In Odyssey 1.345–359, after Mentes’ departure the Little… Read more
