[[This article was originally published in 2012 in Gods and Religion in Hellenistic Poetry (edited by M. A. Harder, R. F. Regtuit, and G. C. Wakker) 131-162, Peeters Publishers: Leuven. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within braces in this electronic version: for example, {131|132} marks where p. 131 ends and p. 132 begins.]] The divinity of heroes, and the cult honors they received in the Greek world,… Read more
This is an electronic version of the printed version published 2011 in The Homeric Hymns: Interpretative Essays (edited by Andrew Faulkner) 280-333, Oxford University Press. The page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within braces in this electronic version: for example, {280|281} marks where p. 280 stops and p. 281 begins. Introduction It has been argued that Hesiodic poetry, like Homeric poetry, contains references to four aspects of oral poetry:… Read more
back Jeffrey P. Emanuel [1] Abstract Though Odysseus’ ainos in Odyssey xiv 199–359 is presented as a fictional tale within Homer’s larger myth, some elements have striking analogs in historical reality. This paper examines the “Cretan Lie” within its fictive Late Bronze–Early Iron Age context for the purpose of identifying and evaluating those elements that parallel historical reality, with a particular focus on three… Read more
[Forthcoming in Gemini and the Sacred: Twins and Twinship in Religion and Mythology, edited by Kimberley C. Patton (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).] Twinning in myth is a way to think about identity. As Douglas Frame shows in his essay, which is a twin to this one, mythical twins share one identity, but this identity is differentatiated. [1] That is, the fused identity of mythical twins… Read more
[Forthcoming in Gemini and the Sacred: Twins and Twinship in Religion and Mythology, edited by Kimberley C. Patton (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).] There are two forms of the Indo-European twin myth relevant to the story of Patroclus and Achilles in the Iliad. In one the twins remain together, in the other they separate. The Greek Dioscuri remain together, and the dynamic between them is the following: Castor, who is mortal,… Read more
CHS/DAI Joint Fellow La vexata quaestio dei confini demici Un interessante ed alquanto nutrito dibattito si è svolto ed è tuttora in corso nel tentativo di definire con maggior precisione quale fosse l’effettiva natura dei demi clistenici. L’opinione predominante è che, nel compiere la sua riorganizzazione politica dell’Attica, Clistene immaginò essenzialmente una divisione di tipo territoriale e di conseguenza creò i demi frazionando la regione in tante unità separate e… Read more
back Blaise, Michael, and Joseph Nagy Older brothers are usually cast as inconsequential foils or second-tier villains in the world of folktales. They fail where the youngest brother succeeds, and in their resentment of the latter’s success they may even go so far as to try to prevent that brother from reaching his “happily ever after.” The relationship between brothers in the realm of epic, on the other hand,… Read more
back Robin Olson This is an image of an original water color painting (11.5 inches x 14 inches) rendering a still life representation of the recipe. Read more
[This essay was originally published in 2000 in Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 64:7–28. The page numbers of the original publication have been placed within braces ‘{ }’, so that {7|8} indicates the page break between p. 7 and p. 8.] Ancient scholarship on the songs of Bacchylides, as revealed by the visual formatting of these songs in papyri, reveals much that has been neglected by modern Classical scholars. Most… Read more
