Preface by Harry Levin The term “literature,” presupposing the use of letters, assumes that verbal works of imagination are transmitted by means of writing and reading. The expression “oral literature” is obviously a contradiction in terms. Yet we live at a time when literacy itself has become so diluted that it can scarcely be invoked as an esthetic criterion. The Word as spoken… Read more
Introduction to the Second Edition by Stephen Mitchell and Gregory Nagy This new edition of The Singer of Tales marks the fortieth anniversary of the original publication of Albert B. Lord’s book (1960). The words of Lord, as well as the original pagination, have been preserved unchanged. Important new features, however, have been added. The first of these features involves the principal evidence that Lord… Read more
References Abbreviations ABV: Beazley, J. 1956. Attic Black-Figure Vase Painters. Oxford. BA: Nagy, G. 1999. The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry. Rev. ed. with new intro. Baltimore (available online). CPG: Leutsch, E. L. von, and F. G. Schneidewin, eds. 1839–1851. Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum. Göttingen. DELG: Chantraine, P. 2009. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots. Ed. J. Taillardat, O. Masson, and J.-L. Perpillou. With a… Read more
Core Vocabulary of Key Greek Words Depending on context, adjectives in -os (masculine), may be given with other endings: -ē (feminine), -on (neuter), -oi (masculine plural), -ai (feminine plural), -a (neuter plural). agathos ‘good, noble’ agōn, plural agōnes ‘coming together; competition (antagonism); ordeal (agony). agorā, plural agorai ‘public assembly, place of public assembly’ aidōs ‘shame, sense of shame; sense of respect for others; honorableness’ ainos ‘authoritative utterance for and by… Read more
Hour 24. The Hero as savior The meaning of sōzein and sōtēr 24§1. The key word for this hour is the verb sōzein, meaning ‘save (someone)’. Derived from this verb is the noun sōtēr, which means ‘savior’ in the sense of ‘one who brings (someone) back to safety’ or, mystically, ‘one who brings (someone) back to life’. We have already seen in Pausanias 8.44.4 (Hour 11 Text L) the feminine… Read more
Hour 23. The living word II: Socrates in Plato’s Phaedo The meaning of theōriā 23§1. My abbreviated translation of the noun theōriā is ‘sacred journey’. This noun is related to the noun theōros, referring to a person who is officially delegated to embark on such a sacred journey. I will translate this noun as ‘sacred delegate’. And I will translate the corresponding verb theōreîn this way: ‘to journey as a… Read more
Hour 22. The living word I: Socrates in Plato’s Apology of Socrates [[“It is, in short, music which observes neither end nor beginning, music with neither real climax nor real resolution …” – Glenn Gould 1956, concerning the Goldberg Variations of Johann Sebastian Bach (there are 32 of them: “Aria” plus 30 variations plus “Aria”)]] [[This epigraph is excluded from the printed version.]] The meaning of daimonion 22§1. The key… Read more
Hour 21: The hero’s agony in the Bacchae of Euripides The meaning of agōn 21§1. The key word for this hour is agōn, plural agōnes. In the Core Vocabulary, I give three basic definitions: (1) ‘coming together’, (2) ‘competition’ or antagonism, and (3) ‘ordeal’ or agony. Here I follow up on an earlier formulation I gave in Hour 8b§4, which I now divide into three parts: (1) The noun agōn… Read more
Hour 20. The hero as mirror of men’s and women’s experiences in the Hippolytus of Euripides The meaning of telos 20§1. The key word for this hour is telos, ‘end, ending, final moment; goal, completion, fulfillment; coming full circle, rounding out; successfully passing through an ordeal; initiation; ritual, rite’. We have already seen this word in many of the contexts that fit the translations that I give here (1§49, 5§119,… Read more
Hour 19. Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and heroic pollution The meaning of miasma 19§1. The key word for this hour is miasma, meaning ‘pollution, miasma’, a noun derived from the verb miainein, meaning ‘pollute’. In the last hour, we saw that Oedipus in the Oedipus at Colonus of Sophocles needed to perform libations to the Eumenides in order to free himself of pollution, which was preventing him from becoming the cult… Read more
