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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… Read more
