Chapters

Book Chapter

5. Language about Achilles: Linguistic Frame Theory and the Formula in Homeric Poetics, Charles Stocking

5. Language about Achilles: Linguistic Frame Theory and the Formula in Homeric Poetics Charles Stocking The Formula: Some Theoretical Considerations Few if any scholars today can deny that the formula is an essential feature of Homeric verse. G. S. Kirk says in the preface to his Iliad commentary: The whole question of the formular, conventional or traditional component in the Homeric language is extremely… Read more

Book Chapter

4. Some Refractions of Homeric Anger in Athenian Drama, T. R. Walsh

4. Some Refractions of Homeric Anger in Athenian Drama T. R. Walsh Think of institutions and customs which have created … out of the enjoyment of anger perpetual vengeance. Nietzsche 1997:27 In aeschylus’ Suppliants, a particular kind of anger is identified through formulaic language that directly continues Homeric usage. In this play, the noun κότος (‘anger’), when it indicates the anger… Read more

Book Chapter

3. The Places of Song in Aristophanes’ Birds, Dan Sofaer

The Places of Song in Aristophanes’ Birds Dan Sofaer Birds’ Ideal Music between Tradition and Utopia Scholars of Greek Old Comedy often treat comic lyric in a limited manner: meters are analyzed, the occasional allusion to Anacreon or Pindar is noted, the emotional effect of a song is surmised, but somehow these analyses rarely affect our reading of the play in its larger context. For… Read more

Book Chapter

2. Theoclymenus and the Poetics of Disbelief: Prophecy and Its Audience in the Odyssey, Jack Mitchell

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

Book Chapter

1. Signs, Omens, and Semiological Regimes in Early Islamic Texts, David Larsen

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

Book Chapter

Proöimion, Timothy Pepper

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

Book Chapter

Bibliography

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

Book Chapter

Appendix

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

Book Chapter

6. Competition in Wisdom

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

Book Chapter

5. Sages at the Games

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