Introduction [[This volume is an electronic version of Homeric Questions, originally published in 1996 by the University of Texas Press. The original pagination of the printed version will be indicated in this electronic version inside pointed brackets (“{“ and “}”). For example, {6|7} indicates where p. 6 of the printed version ends and p. 7 begins.]] The title of this work is marked by the word… Read more
Chapter 1. Homer and Questions of Oral Poetry The term oral poetry may not fully capture the concept behind it, in view of the semantic difficulties conjured up by both individual words, oral and poetry. Still, the composite term oral poetry has a historical validity in that both Parry and Lord had used it to designate the overall concept that they were developing. I propose to continue… Read more
Chapter 2. An Evolutionary Model for the Making of Homeric Poetry The massive accumulation of new or newly-appreciated comparative evidence about the nature of epic in oral poetry demands application to the ongoing study of individual epic traditions. I propose here to apply some of this evidence, as collected over recent years by a broad variety of experts investigating a wide variety of societies in Eastern Europe,… Read more
Chapter 3. Homer and the Evolution of a Homeric Text In order to find a historical context for the writing down of the Homeric text, the most obvious strategy is to look for a stage in ancient Greek history when the technology of writing could produce a text, in manuscript form, that conferred a level of authority distinct from but equivalent to the authority conferred by an… Read more
Chapter 4. Myth as Exemplum in Homer There are questions about the Homeric parádeigma, which I translate for the moment by way of Latin exemplum ‘example’, following the lead of earlier inquiries. [1] In an influential article on the subject of mythological exemplum in Homer, Malcolm Willcock proposes that the contents of myths cited by Homeric characters, with reference to their own… Read more
Epilogue Throughout this work, the central aim was to reintroduce the vitality of performance, of oral tradition in general, to the conceptual framework of the Classics. This aim addresses the need to be vigilant over tradition itself, all tradition. Earlier, I had argued that the field of Classics, which lends itself to the empirical study of tradition, seems ideally suited to articulate the value of tradition in… Read more
Bibliography Adams, D. Q. 1987. “Hērōs and Hērā: Of Men and Heroes in Greek and Indo-European,” Glotta 65:171-178. Allen, T. W., ed. 1912. Homeri Opera V (Hymns, Cycle, fragments, etc.). Oxford. ———. 1924. Homer: The Origins and the Transmission. Oxford. Allen, W. S. 1987. Vox Graeca: The Pronunciation of Classical Greek. 3rd ed. Cambridge. Read more
ΤΑ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΑΣ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΙΚΑΣ ΕΠΑΡΧΙΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΟΥ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΥΣ ΔΥΟ ΠΡΩΤΟΥΣ ΑΙΩΝΑΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΡΑΒΟΚΡΑΤΙΑΣ (Ζ΄& Η΄) Διατριβὴ ἐπὶ διδακτορίᾳ ὑποβληθεῖσα εἰς τὴν Φιλοσοφικὴν Σχολὴν τοῦ Ἐθνικοῦ καὶ Καποδιστριακοῦ Πανεπιστημίου Ἀθηνῶν SOLIMAN SAMEH FAROUK ΕΘΝΙΚΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΚΑΠΟΔΙΣΤΡΙΑΚΟΝ ΠΑΝΕΠΙΣΤΗΜΙΟΝ ΑΘΗΝΩΝ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΚΗ ΣΧΟΛΗ ΤΜΗΜΑ ΦΙΛΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ ΤΟΜΕΥΣ ΤΗΣ ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΝΗΣ ΦΙΛΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΛΑΟΓΡΑΦΙΑΣ ΑΘΗΝΑ 2007 Καὶ λαβὼν ὁ γέρων τὸν καρπὸν αὐτοῦ,… Read more
ΠΡΟΛΟΓΟΣ Ἡ σίγησις πολλῶν παραδοσιακῶν λογοτεχνικῶν εἰδῶν προσδίδει εἰς τὸν ζ΄ καὶ η΄ αἰῶνα τὸν χαρακτηρισμὸν τῶν Σκοτεινῶν Αἰώνων (650-850), δηλ. αἰώνων διανοητικοῦ σκότους καὶ ἀπαιδευσίας τὴν ὁποίαν ὁ Ἑλληνικὸς Ἀνατολικὸς κόσμος ὑποτίθεται ὅτι ὑπέστη ὡς ὁμοίως ὁ Λατινικὸς Δυτικός. [1] Κατὰ τὴν κρίσιν τοῦ Κ. Demoen, δὲν παρατηρεῖται μόνον ἔλλειψις ἱστορικῶν πηγῶν κατὰ τὴν ἐν λόγῳ περίοδον, ἀλλὰ εἶναι ἐμφανὲς ὅτι… Read more
Notes Note 1 As argued in chapter 2, section 1, the context of the form neĩai in xi 114—a prophecy among the dead—indicates that this form originally meant “you will return from death.” If the form’s original meaning is in fact dependent upon the context, then the context itself must be highly traditional. Since the Nekyia as a whole has often been judged to be a… Read more
