The Center for Hellenic Studies

Homer

Curated Articles

Diachronic Homer and a Cretan Odyssey

2017.06.10 [The online version of this presentation as published here on the website of the Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS), http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:Nagy.Diachronic_Homer_and_a_Cretan_Odyssey.2017, replicates the contents of another online version as published in Oral Tradition 31/1 (2017) 3–50. The proper URL citation for that version is  http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/31i/nagy. I am most grateful to the Editor of Oral Tradition for giving permission to the CHS to publish a replicated version. The differences… Read more

Curated Books

The Anger of Achilles: Mênis in Greek Epic

Leonard Muellner’s goal is to restore the Greek word for the anger of Achilles, menis, to its social, mythical, and poetic contexts. His point of departure is the anthropology of emotions. He believes that notions of anger vary between cultures and that the particular meaning of a word such as menis needs to emerge from a close study of Greek epic. Menis means more than an individual’s emotional response. On… Read more

Curated Articles

Homeric Echoes in Posidippus

[Originally published in 2004 as chapter 5, pp. 57–64, of Labored in Papyrus Leaves: Perspectives on an Epigram Collection Attributed to Posidippus (P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309), edited by B. Acosta-Hughes, E. Kosmetatou, and M. Baumbach. Hellenic Studies 2. Center for Hellenic Studies, 2004. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{57|58}” indicates where p. 57 of the… Read more

Curated Books

The meaning of Homeric εὔχομαι through its formulas

Eukhomai had been glossed traditionally as “pray, long for, wish for; vow, promise; boast, brag, vaunt; profess, declare.” Muellner’s approach is to make a systematic analysis of the constraints in which this word is used in Homeric texts—grammatical, stylistic, and contextual—and to compare them, keeping in mind the framework of traditional diction, in which “a traditional poet uses a repertoire of formulas and themes to express his meaning.” Second online edition… Read more

Curated Articles

A second look at a possible Mycenaean reflex in Homer: phorēnai

2015.03.01 Introduction The original version of this article, Nagy 1994-1995, “A Mycenaean reflex in Homer: phorēnai” (Nagy 1994-1995), was published in Minos 29-30 (1994-1995) 171-175. The new online version published here, Nagy 2015, is a second edition, and that is why it has a new title: “A second look at a possible Mycenaean reflex in Homer: phorēnai.” Part I replicates the content of the original text, except for corrections. Part… Read more

Curated Articles

Maneuvers in the Dark of Night: Iliad 10 in the Twenty-First Century

[This article was originally published in Homeric Contexts: Neoanalysis and the Interpretation of Oral Poetry (eds. F. Montanari, A. Rengakos, and C. Tsagalis) 165–173 (Walter de Gruyter, 2011).] In this paper I wish to suggest some of the possibilities offered by a new approach to interpreting Iliad 10, the so-called Doloneia. I have recently completed a series of essays and a commentary on Iliad 10 with my colleague Mary Ebbott (Dué and… Read more

Curated Articles

Review of Writing Homer. A study based on results from modern fieldwork, by Minna Skafte Jensen

Harvard University [This review of Writing Homer. A study based on results from modern fieldwork, by Minna Skafte Jensen (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab; The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2011. 440 S. 16 Abb. Scientia Danica. Series H, Humanistica, 8 vol. 4.) appeared in Gnomon 86 (2014) 97-101. The original pagination of the review will be indicated in this electronic version by way of brackets (“{” and “}”). For example,… Read more

Curated Articles

The Delian Maidens and their Relevance to Choral Mimesis in Classical Drama

[Originally published as Chapter 10 in Choral Mediations in Greek Tragedy, ed. R. Gagné and M. G. Hopman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 227-256. In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{227|228}” indicates where p. 227 of the printed version ends and p. 228 begins.] Introduction My focus is on the Delian Maidens, as represented in the… Read more

Curated Books

The Singer of Tales

This 40th anniversary edition of Albert Lord’s classic work includes a unique enhancement: the original audio recordings of all the passages of heroic songs quoted in the book; a video publication of the kinescopic filming of the most valued of the singers; and selected photographs taken during Milman Parry’s collecting trips in the Balkans.  Parry began recording and studying a live tradition of oral narrative poetry in order to find… Read more