1. Greek Speakers Greeks and Pelasgians In his narrative of Miltiades’ conquest of Lemnos (6.137–140), Herodotus begins by reporting how at that time Pelasgians were occupying the island. In the heroic age these Pelasgians used to live in Attica but the Athenians expelled them, “either justly… Read more
2. The Ethnographer and Foreign Languages Another histōr: Psammetichus and the origin of language One passage in the Histories appears to raise the anthropological problem of the beginning of human speech and therefore, potentially, of the origin of language differentiation. But it does so in an… Read more
3. Herodotos hermēneus Metalinguistic glosses Herodotus himself assumes the role of interpreter when he translates a foreign word into Greek or provides a native term. Aside from Psammetichus’ discovery that bekós is Phrygian for bread (2.2), all switches of the linguistic code in the Histories occur in… Read more
4. The Meaning of Language Difference On misunderstanding language difference In relation to the standards against which he measures himself, the histōr of the Histories possesses a multi-lingual competence that contrasts with the sense of strangeness most Greek-speakers experience when confronted with any barbarian speech. In… Read more
Bibliography Alty, J. 1982. “Dorians and Ionians.” JHS 102:1–14. Armayor, O. K. 1987. “Hecataeus’ Humor and Irony in Herodotus’ Narrative of Egypt.” AW 16:11–18. ———. 1978. “Herodotus’ Persian Vocabulary.” AW 1:4. Asad, T. 1986. Read more
Acknowledgments It is a pleasure to acknowledge the many people who have contributed in large and small ways to the development of this book. They are: Susanna Braund, Don Cameron, Jenny Strauss Clay, Erwin Cook, John Miles Foley, Andrew Ford, Michael Gagarin, Traianos Gagos, John Garcia, Simon Goldhill, Richard… Read more
Introduction: Toward an Understanding of Greek Poetic Contestation Denn weshalb soll Niemand der Beste sein? Weil damit der Wettkampf versiegen würde und der ewige Lebensgrund des hellenischen Staates gefährdet wäre. Why should no one be the best? Because then competition would end and the eternal… Read more
Part I. Dramatic Representations of Verse Competition ἀγὼν γὰρ ἄνδρας οὐ μένει λελειμμένους The contest does not wait for men left behind. Aeschylus, fr. 37 TGF 1. Stichomythia Our point of departure will be to survey a variety… Read more
2. The ἀντιλαβή and Aristophanes’ Frogs 1198–1248 Old Comedy furnishes us not only with parallel statements that seem to include virtual definitions of tragic stichomythia (as e.g. above, Clouds 1374–75 with Eumenides 586), but it also provides examples of “stichomythic” exchanges that would lose their point if… Read more
3. Stichomythia and σκώμματα: Euripides’ Cyclops, Aristophanes’ Wealth, and Plato’s Euthydemus One of the most interesting adaptations of stichomythia in satyr play and late Old Comedy is that its structure is deliberately made to incorporate ridicule and abuse. Something of the structural formalism of tragic stichomythia remains,… Read more
