References 1. Edited works of Michael Psellos Dennis, G. 1994. Michaelis Pselli Orationes forenses et acta. Stuttgart. Duffy, J. 1992. Michaelis Pselli Philosophica minora I. Stuttgart. Fisher, E. 1994. Michaelis Pselli Orationes hagiographicae. Stuttgart. … Read more
Acknowledgments to the 1979 Edition It took a long time to write this book, and I now have anxieties about whether I can recall the names of all those who have given advice along the way. The list that I offer here may be incomplete, and I… Read more
Foreword to the 1999 Second Edition F§1. The Best of the Achaeans is intended for both non-specialists and specialists in Homer and in other forms of archaic Greek poetry. [1] More generally, it is for non-Classicists as well as Classicists (that is,… Read more
Introduction. A Word on Assumptions, Methods, Results [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… Read more
Chapter 1. The First Song of Demodokos 1§1. Homeric Epos has the power not only to define the hero but to articulate this very power. In my search for evidence in support of such a claim—and this search will extend throughout my presentation—I will of course have… Read more
Chapter 2. The Best of the Achaeans 2§1. It is an overall Iliadic theme that Achilles is “best of the Achaeans,” as I will now try to show. [1] The title is hotly contested. The central grievance of Achilles in the Iliad… Read more
Chapter 3. A Conflict between Odysseus and Achilles in the Iliad 3§1. As we have already seen, some experts argue that the quarrel of Achilles and Odysseus in Odyssey viii is a pastiche actually based on the opening of our Iliad, where Achilles and Agamemnon have their… Read more
Chapter 4. The Death of Achilles and a Festival at Delphi 4§1. The quarrel between Achilles and Odysseus in the first song of Demodokos, viii 72–82, dramatizes the antithesis of two inherited central themes built into the Iliad and the Odyssey, namely, the qualifications of Achilles and… Read more
Chapter 5. The Name of Achilles 5§1. The theme of pêma ‘pain, grief’ as we find it in the first song of Demodokos (Odyssey viii 81) seems to be recapitulated in the very name of Achilles. As we consult Pierre Chantraine’s etymological dictionary of Greek under the… Read more
Chapter 6. Lamentation and the Hero 6§1. The social dimensions of the actual word ákhos ‘grief’ have so far been explored mainly in terms of its thematic relationship with the concept of lāós ‘host of fighting men’ in epic diction. The time has now come to explore… Read more
