Chapter II: Performance and Prayer The Role of Difference The surprise of otherness is that moment whena new form of ignorance is suddenly activated as an imperative. Barbara Johnson, A World of Difference Performative language, the subject of J. Read more
Chapter III: Invocation and Entreaty The Difference Appears O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger; donot punish me in your wrathFor your arrows have already pierced me;and your hand presses hard againstme. Psalm 38 … Read more
Chapter IV: Epiphany The difference enacted So in a voice, so in a shapelesse flameAngells affect us oft, and worshipped bee John Donne, Aire and Angells The epiphany of Aphrodite, like the rest of the poem, has received a variety… Read more
Chapter V: The Descent of the Goddess The Apotheosis of Difference Ὣς ἔφασαν κοῦραι μεγάλου Διὸς ἀρτιέπειαι καί μοι σκῆπτρον ἔδον δάφνης ἐριθηλέος ὄζον δρέψασαι, θηητόν· ἐνέπνευσαν δέ μοι ἀυδὴν θέσπιν, ἵνα κλείοιμι τά τ᾽ ἐσσόμενα πρό τ᾽ ἐόντα… Hesiod, Theogony How… Read more
Works Cited Austin, J.L. 1955. How to Do Things with Words. Ed. J.O. Urmson and Marina Sbisà. 2nd ed. 1962. Cambridge, MA. Bowra, C.M. 1961. Greek Lyr ic Poetry From Alcman to Simonides. London. Burkert, Walter. 1979. Structure… Read more
Foreword Gregory Nagy Epic Singers and Oral Tradition, by Albert B. Lord, is a particularly distinguished entry in the Myth and Poetics series. My goal, as series editor, has been to encourage work that helps to integrate literary criticism with the approaches of anthropology and pays… Read more
Acknowledgments I thank the good friends and colleagues who urged me to publish a selection of my papers, especially most recently James Hankins, Richard Janko, and Jan Ziolkowski. I am also grateful to Gregory Nagy for encouragement and for accepting the volume into the series Myth and… Read more
Introduction [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 who need to look up references… Read more
1. Words Heard and Words Seen* It seems superfluous to remark that in the history of mankind words were heard before they were seen. For the majority of people, as a matter of fact, words still are heard rather than seen, and… Read more
2. Homer’s Originality: Oral Dictated Texts* In his impressive book Heroic Poetry, Sir Cecil M. Bowra places Homer “in the middle of an important change produced by the introduction of writing. ” “Behind him [Homer] lie centuries of oral performance, largely improvised,… Read more
