Acknowledgments This monograph, to put it simply, would not have been written without the precedent of Calvert Watkins’s work on Indo-European metrics. His field is linguistics, a discipline which I especially admire for the elegant precision that it can bring to literary studies. For my own approach… Read more
4. The Village of Avdemi: A Case Study in Wanton Women? [1] … cicadas acerrimi cantus esse et mulieres libidinis avidissimas virosque in coitum pigerrimos scripsere. … “they [sc. Hesiod and Alcaeus] have written that the cicada’s songs are… Read more
5. Enter the Cicada The list of creatures which populate demotic lore is considerable: we have already remarked the partridge and the swallow—just to mention two common birds. The cicada, also, is a striking creature which evokes multiple themes in Greek tradition. In fact, its piercing, persistent… Read more
6. Hesiod’s Festival Reconsidered Hesiod frames his bucolic scenario by means of vv. 571-581 and 597-608. First, then, we may examine vv. 571-581: ἀλλ’ ὁπότ’ ἂν φερέοικος ἀπὸ χθονὸς ἂμ φυτὰ βαίνη Πληιάδας φεύγων, τότε δὴ σκάφος οὐκέτι οἰνέων ἀλλ’ἅρπας τε χαρασσέμεναι… Read more
7. Towards a Conclusion: The Farmer and His Wife Only reapers, reaping early In among the bearded barley,Hear a song that echoes cheerly,From the river winding clearly … Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Lady of Shallot” Perhaps the most important fact to… Read more
Appendix 1. Commentary on WD 582-596 West’s indispensable comments ad loc. may be supplemented with a few remarks which I append here; a fuller discussion of textual points will be found in chs. 5 and 6. For a discussion of the correspondences of meter and phraseology between… Read more
Appendix 2. On Zephyros (WD 594) The detail of the west wind Zephyros seems to be well planned as it matches the atmosphere of relaxation and replenishment which WD foresees for this period. In Homer Zephyros can be beneficent towards crops. Odyssey 7.119-122 relates that the wind… Read more
Appendix 3. On the Fountain, Sexual Mischief, and the Migration of Reapers The fountain or well was one of the few places where a woman might encounter an unrelated man and consequently a likely locus for sexual mischief: see Richardson, pp. 179-180 on Homeric Hymn to Demeter… Read more
Appendix 4. Commentary on WD 448-452 Cf. West ad loc. Also cf.: 448. φράζεσθαι: infinitive as imperative = ‘heed’ as at WD 86 ἐφράσαθ’, ὥς·. φωνήν: the crane’s ‘voice’ is actually a strident “krooh” (Field guide, p. 101), or κλαγγή, cf. below on 449. Φωνή… Read more
Appendix 5. Commentary on WD 486-490 See West ad loc. Also cf.: 486. ἦμος: looks forward to τῆμος (488), cf. on 582, above (Appendix 1). κόκκυξ κοκκύζει: the noun κόκκυξ was derived by onomatopoeic reduplication, like τέττιξ (see on 582, above). Κοκκύζω is used of… Read more
