The Center for Hellenic Studies

Iliad
Hellenic Studies Series

The Iliad and the Oral Epic Tradition

The Iliad reveals a traditional oral poetic style, but many researchers believe that the poem cannot be treated as solely a product of oral tradition. In The Iliad and the Oral Epic Tradition, Karol Zieliński argues that neither Homer’s unique artistry nor references to events known from other songs necessarily indicate the use of writing in its composition. The development of traditional oral cycles suggests that the Iliad is only one of many possible retellings of the… Read more

Hellenic Studies Series

Audible Punctuation: Performative Pause in Homeric Prosody

Audible Punctuation focuses on the pause in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, both as a compositional feature and as a performative aspect of delivery, arguing for the possibilities and limits of expressing phrases in performance. Ronald Blankenborg’s analysis of metrical, rhythmical, syntactical, and phonological phrasing shows that the text of the Homeric epic allows for different options for performative pause—a phonetic phenomenon evidenced by phonology. From the ubiquitous compositional pauses in sense and metrical surface structure, Audible… Read more

Online Event

Muse Lee

19 November 2021, 11:00 am ET

How do we sing Homer's immortal stories in this moment of isolation? Emerging writer Muse Lee answers this question with a dazzling project: Aristos: the Musical, a queer pop/rock adaptation of The Iliad produced remotely during the pandemic. Read more

Hellenic Studies Series

Demetrios of Scepsis and His Troikos Diakosmos: Ancient and Modern Readings of a Lost Contribution to Ancient Scholarship

Ancient scholarship had many faces, but most have faded away over time. Demetrios of Scepsis is one of the more shadowy of these lost figures, best known for his commentary on the Trojan Catalogue in Book 2 of the Iliad. Alexandra Trachsel’s work represents the first treatment dedicated to Demetrios of Scepsis in over a century. Because of the incomplete transmission of Demetrios’s work, Trachsel necessarily focuses on the way later readers… Read more

Curated Articles

Diomède et la détresse de Nestor

[UFMG] [This article was originally published in Phaos, volume 4, pp. 5-38 (2004). In this online version, the original page-numbers are indicated within braces (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{5|6}” indicates where p. 5 of the original article ends and p. 6 begins. ] Resumo: Os primeiros sinais explícitos na Ilíada do cumprimento da promessa de Zeus à Tétis – o raio lançado aos Aqueus e depois diante do carro… Read more

Curated Articles

Oral Traditions, Written Texts, and Questions of Authorship

[Originally published in The Greek Epic Cycle and its Ancient Reception: A Companion, ed. Marco Fantuzzi and Christos Tsagalis, 59-77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. In this online version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within curly brackets (“{“ and “}”). For example, {69|70} indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look… Read more

Curated Articles

L’áte dans l’Iliade (le cas Agamemnon)

Depto. de Letras Clássicas Faculdade de Letras Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais [This article was originally published 1998/1999 in Classica 11/12: 271-280. It is published here by permission of the editors. In this online version, the original page numbers are indicated within braces (“{“ and “}”). For example, “{271|272}” indicates where p. 271 of the original article ends and p. 272 begins.] pour Filomena Hirata RESUMO: Estudo breve sobre a… Read more

Curated Articles

L’échange des armures entre Diomède et Glaucos Iliade VI, 232-236)

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – Brasil Abstract: Commentary on an enigmatic scene of book VI of the Iliad: the exchange of Glaucos’ golden armour for Diomedes’ bronze armour. Discussion of this kind of gift and counter-gift (between xeînoi) in this Homeric poem, as well as of the motif that would cause Zeus to “take reason from Glaucos”, leading him to accept such an unfavourable and disproportionate exchange. Keywords: exchange;… Read more