Part I. Princeps Citharoedus 1. Setting the Scene: A Citharode in Naples He made his performance debut at Naples, and, even though the theater was rocked with a sudden earthquake, he did not cease singing until he had finished the nomos that he had begun. In the same city he sang frequently over the course of several days. Even when he took a short… Read more
Part II. Anabolê, Prooimion, Nomos: Form and Content of Citharodic Songs 1. Prelude/Anabolê In their descriptions of Nero’s performance in Naples, neither Tacitus nor Suetonius says anything about an instrumental lead-in, but a prelude to the song proper, typically called the anabolê, was a standard element of citharodic performance, and so would most likely have been performed by Nero in Naples. The proto-citharodic Homeric bards Demodocus… Read more
4. Itinerant Sophoi One of the most distinctive features of the sophists is their itinerant status, and it will be the focus of this chapter. [1] We shall start by reviewing the evidence of the sophists’ travel to understand better its scope and character. We shall then explore the theme of travel in our sources on other practitioners of wisdom, prior to or… Read more
5. Sages at the Games In one of the stranger accounts of sophists at work, we hear how Hippias of Elis made a conspicuous appearance at Olympia. In the words of Plato (Hippias Minor 368b-e): This passage perfectly illustrates the strangeness of the material on the sophists, and it also draws attention to how little we know about the performance context of their activities. It thus invites us to… Read more
6. Competition in Wisdom The aim of this chapter is to examine in closer detail the elements of competition involved in the ancient Greek wisdom tradition. [1] This aspect of Greek intellectual life is particularly relevant since there is in our material a close affiliation on the part of sophoi with the Panhellenic games, the sites of competition par excellence. [2]… Read more
Apendix. Primary Sources for the Sophists It would be difficult to regard the story of the tripod as legend, since it seems to have been invented simply as an illustration of a type of wisdom. Still, it remains a legend because of the recognizable persistence of certain traditional ideas or images, and because of the mythological basis it retains (more or less faithfully, depending on the authors). Without such… Read more
Bibliography Adcock, F. E. 1927. “Literary Tradition and Early Greek Code-Makers.” Cambridge Historical Journal 2:95–109. Adkins, A. W. H. 1973. “ἀρετή, τέχνη, Democracy and Sophists: Protagoras 316b–328d.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 93:3–12. Anderson, W. D. 1966. Ethos and Education in Greek Music. Cambridge, MA. Andrewes, A. 1938. “Eunomia.” Classical Quarterly 32:89–102. … Read more
Proöimion Timothy Pepper Not unlike ancient Greek hymns, Α Californian Hymn to Homer begins with the origins of its subject: the contributors to this volume first came together for a seminar given by Gregory Nagy during his Sather Professorship at the University of California at Berkeley in the spring of 2002. The essays here grew from our collaboration in that seminar, our discussions of Nagy’s Sather… Read more
1. Signs, Omens, and Semiological Regimes in Early Islamic Texts David Larsen In his 1983 article “Sêma and Nóēsis: The Hero’s Tomb and the ‘Reading’ of Symbols in Homer and Hesiod,” Gregory Nagy describes one of the channels through which communication between gods and mortals takes place in the Homeric poems: For example, there is the sêma sent by Zeus to the Achaeans, as reported… Read more
2. Theoclymenus and the Poetics of Disbelief: Prophecy and Its Audience in the Odyssey Jack Mitchell In this essay I will reconsider the role of Theoclymenus, soothsayer (mantis) of the Odyssey, in the light of current ideas about performance in Homer. I hope to retrieve Theoclymenus from relative obscurity by showing that he functions, at the heart of the Odyssey and especially at a crucial juncture,… Read more
