Conclusion The study of Homeric poetry, Milman Parry and A. B. Lord have taught us, [1] must necessarily consider its performance, for it was in performance that it was orally composed. And yet the times between Hellenistic Greece and our own were bridged not by sound recordings of recitations but by written artifacts like papyri and codices. How then are we to reconstruct and… Read more
Appendix. The Origin of the Term hypokritēs If one accepts that the Panathenaia was reorganized ca. 560 BC—as seems likely not only from later reports but also from the material record of Athenian vases [1] —it is not unreasonable to assume that the rules instituted at the time for the rhapsodic competition may have sought deliberately to enhance the challenging artistry of hypoleptic performance. Read more
Bibliography Abramowicz, S. 1938. “De Homeri cum Hesiodo certamine.” Eos 39:477–492. Accame, S. 1963. “L’invocazione alla Musa e la ‘verità’ in Omero e in Esiodo.” Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica 91:257–281, 385–415. Adiego, I. J. 2007. The Carian Language. Leiden. Adkins, A. W. H. 1972. “Truth, ΚΟΣΜΟΣ, and ΑΡΕΤΗ in the Homeric Poems.” Classical Quarterly 22:5–18. … Read more
7. Homer the Rhapsode 7.1 Notional Fixity in Oral Poetry In his classic work The Singer of Tales, A. B. Lord opened a fascinating window into the mindset of the Southslavic oral poet. [1] During an interview between the singer Đemail Zogić and Nikola Vujnović, Parry’s assistant, the following exchange took place: [2] N[ikola]: [S]ome singers have… Read more
8. Hesiod the Rhapsode 8.1 Mantic Poetry 8.1.1 Hesiod’s Dichterweihe Hesiod’s Dichterweihe (Theogony 22–34) offers an alternative to the Homeric invocation of the Muses: αἵ νύ ποθ’ Ἡσίοδον καλὴν ἐδίδαξαν ἀοιδήν, ἄρνας ποιμαίνονθ’ Ἑλικῶνος ὕπο ζαθέοιο. τόνδε δέ με πρώτιστα θεαὶ πρὸς μῦθον ἔειπον,25 Μοῦσαι Ὀλυμπιάδες, κοῦραι Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο· … Read more
9. The Rhapsode in Classical Athens 9.1 Of Transcripts and Scripts “[T]he Druids had their own course of training, in which some pupils remained for up to twenty years, ‘so that they could learn by heart a vast number of verses which had not been committed to writing’.” [1] So wrote Friedrich August Wolf in his 1795 epoch-making Prolegomena to Homer, to… Read more
10. The Rhapsode in Performance In the previous chapters I examined the evolution of epic performance from the point of view of inspiration, authority and authorship, and the increasing adoption of scripted delivery. In this chapter I reconsider the diachrony of rhapsodic performance more narrowly through the meaning of ῥαψῳδός and the distinctive recompositional poetics of traditional rhapsodic delivery. 10.1 Understanding the Rhapsode The greatest hindrance… Read more
III.1 Introduction §1. A number of similarities and differences between Attic drama and other parts of our corpus has naturally given rise to research questions and approaches that both converge and diverge. Tragedy and comedy share with Homeric epic and Pindaric song their poetic form and an original performative and ritual context. Dating from the fifth century BCE, these texts are close in time to the work of Pindar as… Read more
Acknowledgments Parentibus carissimis José Miguel et María Agustina Like Homeric poetry, this book has benefited from the hands of many masters. It is a pleasure to acknowledge here the debts I have incurred while writing it. I am grateful to the departments of Classical Studies at Harvard University, the University of Oregon, and Duke University, and to the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C., where… Read more
Key to the Books of the Iliad and the Odyssey Α Iliad 1Β Iliad 2Γ Iliad 3Δ Iliad 4Ε Iliad 5Ζ Iliad 6Η Iliad 7Θ Iliad 8Ι Iliad 9Κ Iliad 10Λ Iliad 11Μ Iliad 12Ν Iliad 13Ξ Iliad 14Ο Iliad 15Π Iliad 16Ρ Iliad 17Σ Iliad 18Τ Iliad 19Υ Iliad 20Φ Iliad 21Χ Iliad 22Ψ Iliad 23Ω Iliad 24 … Read more
