Part I. Preface The challenge to define as fully as possible the cultural environment in which a work of literature was produced presents itself with every examination of an ancient text. In the case of the extraordinarily complex phenomenon of Attic drama the task is perhaps facilitated by the survival of more complete documentation about the conditions, if not of its genesis, at least of its evolution… Read more
Part I. Chapter 1. The Helplessness of Thetis In a key passage in Book 1 of the Iliad Achilles, in order to obtain from Zeus the favor that will determine the trajectory of the plot, invokes not Athena or Hera, those powerful, inveterate pro-Greeks, but his mother. The Iliad’s presentation of Thetis, as we recall, is of a subsidiary deity who is characterized by helplessness and by impotent grief. Her… Read more
Part I. Chapter 2. The Power of Thetis Τhe most startling silence in the voluble divine community of the Iliad is the absence of any reproach made to Thetis for her drastic intervention in the war. What accounts for Thetis’s compelling influence over Zeus and, equally puzzling, for her freedom from recrimination or retaliation by the other Olympians? From the standpoint of characterization, of course, for Zeus to accede to… Read more
Part I. Chapter 3. The Wrath of Thetis An inconsolable mother, unable to save her only child—Thetis is the paradigm for the image of bereavement conjured up with the fall of each young warrior for whom the poem reports that the moment of his death leaves his anguished parents forlorn. Shaped by allusion to her mythology, however—its resonance augmented, as we shall see, through various forms of… Read more
Part I. Chapter 4. Allusion and Interpretation To the Iliad’s modern audiences, compelled by the urgent momentum of the poem’s action and absorbed in the inexorability of its progress and the frontal intensity of its character portrayals, the epic’s digressions from the imperative of its plot can seem to be a perplexing distraction, and its texture of oblique allusion and elliptical reference, of glancing, arcane hint and… Read more
Part II. Chapter 1. Theban Traces at Troy [1] Our understanding of the subtlety and scope of allusion as a feature of the poetics of early Greek epic has been greatly augmented in recent years by a number of valuable studies on the intricate narrative relationship between the Iliad and Odyssey, and more generally among hexameter poems of the Archaic period. Read more
Part 3: The Use and Abuse of Signs 3.1 The Manipulation of Signs in Herodotus’ Histories 3.1.1 Introduction Herodotus’ Histories contain many examples of figures who by a certain ingenuity and cunning manage to turn an unfavorable situation to their own advantage. [1] These figures have in common an ability to think quickly and to outwit others, and they make use… Read more
Appendix: The Formality Hypothesis A tradition stretching back to antiquity categorizes the earliest preserved Attic oratory as “dignified,” “formal,” or “austere.” [1] In The Evolution of Greek Prose Style Dover offers the most precise analysis of this feature and seeks to explain it as a continuation of the traditional style of public speaking at Athens, the only area that has provided specimens… Read more
Bibliography Aly, W. 1969. Volksmärchen, Sage und Novelle bei Herodot und seinen Zeitgenossen. Göttingen. Armayor, O. K. 1978. “Herodotus’ Persian Vocabulary.” Ancient World 1:147–156. Asheri, D. 1989. Erodoto. Le Storie. Libro I . La Lidia e la Persia. Milan. ———. 1990. Erodoto. Le Storie. Libro III. La Persia. Milan. Asheri,… Read more
