Homeric Contexts: Neoanalysis and the Interpretation of Oral Poetry

Description

This volume aims at offering a critical reassessment of the progress made in Homeric research in recent years, focussing on its two main trends, Neonalysis and Oral Theory. Interpreting Homer in the 21st century asks for a holistic approach that allows us to reconsider some of our methodological tools and preconceptions concerning what we call Homeric poetry. The neoanalytical and oral 'booms', which have to a large extent influenced the way we see Homer today, may be re-evaluated if we are willing to endorse a more flexible approach to certain scholarly taboos pertaining to these two schools of interpretation. Song-traditions, formula, performance, multiformity on the one hand, and Motivforschung, Epic Cycle on the other, may not be so incompatible as we often tend to think. Introduction The Homeric Question Today Part I: Theoretical Issues Neoanalysis between Orality and Literacy: Some Remarks Concerning the Development of Greek Myths Including the Legend of the Capture of Troy Signs of Hero Cult in Homeric Poetry Oral Formulaic Theory and the Individual Poet Memory and Memories: Personal, Social, and Cultural Memory in the Poems of Homer Ἀρχοὺς αὖ νεῶν ἐρέω: A Programmatic Function of the Iliadic Catalogue of Ships Part II: Iliad The Despised Migrant (Il. 9.648 = 16.59) Orality, Fluid Textualization and Interweaving Themes. Some Remarks on the Doloneia: Magical Horses from Night to Light and Death to Life Maneuvers in the Dark of Night: Iliad 10 in the Twenty-First Century The Fate of Achilles in the Iliad Grieving Achilles The Mourning of Thetis: ‘Allusion’ and the Future in the Iliad Part III: Odyssey Belatedness in the Travels of Odysseus The Telemachy and the Cyclic Nostoi Deauthorizing the Epic Cycle: Odysseus’ False Tale to Eumaeus (Od. 14.199–359) Animal Similes in Odyssey 22 Οὐ χρώμεθα τοῖς ξενικοῖς ποιήμασιν: Questions about Evolution and Fluidity of the Odyssey Part IV: Language and Formulas Kypris, Kythereia and the Fifth Book of the Iliad Iterative and Syntactical Units: A Religious Gesture in the Iliad Epithets with Echoes: A Study on Formula-Narrative Interaction Part V: Homer and Beyond Homer ἀγωνιστής in Chalcis Hesiod and the Epic Cycle The Writing Down of the Oral Thebaid that Homer Knew: In the Footsteps of Wolfgang Kullmann Some Reflections on Alpamysh The Iliad, Gilgamesh, and Neoanalysis Bibliography List of Contributors Indices General Index Index of Ancient Names Index of Modern Names Index Locorum