Chapter 15. The Best of the Achaeans Confronts an Aeneid Tradition 15§1. Having finished with the diction surrounding the Thersites figure, we may now turn to another Iliadic passage, XX 246–256, which rivals the passage about Thersites in its wealth of information relating to the poetry of… Read more
Chapter 16. The Death of a Poet 16§1. In the story of Thersites, we have seen that the details told about him consistently reflect his function as poet of blame. [1] As it happens, even the story of his death reflects this… Read more
Chapter 17. On the Antagonism of God and Hero 17§1. Aside from the direct testimony of P.Oxy. 1800 and Aesop Vitae G+W 142 about a hero cult of Aesop, there is important indirect evidence for his actual function as cult hero. Again we turn to the parallelism… Read more
Chapter 18. On the Stories of a Poet’s Life 18§1. In the preceding chapters, I have argued that the generic warrior/poet, as therápōn of Ares/Muses, is implicitly worthy of becoming a cult hero after death. This in fact is the explicit message, I now submit, of the… Read more
Chapter 19. More on Strife and the Human Condition 19§1. The deaths of Aesop and Thersites result directly from their engaging in blame, [1] and the result of their deaths is purification. [2] It follows, then, that… Read more
Chapter 20. Achilles beyond the Iliad 20§1. Having just seen how the neîkos ‘quarrel’ between Hesiod and Perses (Works and Days 35) serves as the context for a grand definition of díkē by way of its opposition to húbris, [1] we return… Read more
Appendix. On the Forms Krataió– and Akhaió– A§1. Our point of departure is the verse-final form krataiís/Krátaiin in Odyssey xi 597/xii 124. [1] The conventional explanation, that we have here an id-stem feminine built from the adjective krataió-, is plagued with difficulties… Read more
Bibliography Adkins, A.W.H. 1960. Merit and Responsibility: A Study in Greek Values. Oxford. ———. 1969. “Threatening, Abusing, and Feeling Angry in the Homeric Poems.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 89: 7–21. Aitchison, J. M. 1964. “The Achaean Homeland: AXAIFIA… Read more
4. Introduction to the Discourse on the Miracle That Occurred in the Blachernae [Church]: A Novel Resolution of a Judicial Impasse 4.1. Psellos’ oration on the miracle at Blachernae is a command performance requested by the Emperor Michael VII Doukas in the summer of 1075 (5.29:752–757). Psellos… Read more
5. Discourse on the Miracle that Occurred in the Blachernae [Church] 5.1. The court that was constituted [at Blachernae] was not a civil [institution] for investigating matters of civil law, but the place of judgment that resulted from the action of the virginal Mother of God was… Read more
