Homeric studies

Though Odysseus’ tales to Eumaios and Aninoos in Odyssey 14.199–359 and 17.417–44, respectively, are presented as fictional tales within Homer’s larger myth, some elements have striking analogs in Late Bronze–Early Iron Age reality.

This article examines these portions of the hero’s false ainoi within their fictive context for the purpose of identifying and evaluating those elements. Particular focus is given to Odysseus’ declaration that he led nine successful maritime raids prior to the Trojan War; to his twice–described ill–fated assault on Egypt; and to his claim not only to have been spared in the wake of that Egyptian raid, but to have spent a subsequent seven years in the land of the pharaohs, during which he gathered great wealth.

Through a comparative examination of literary and archaeological evidence from the Late Bronze–Early Iron transition in the Eastern Mediterranean, it is shown that these aspects of Odysseus’ stories are not only reflective of the historical reality surrounding the time in which the epic is set, but that Odysseus’ fictive experience is remarkably similar to that of one specific member of the ‘Sea Peoples’ groups best known from 19th and 20th dynasty Egyptian records: the ‘Sherden of the Sea.’

In this paper, I argue that the traditional narrative of Iphigenia's sacrifice lies allusively behind the opening scenes of the Iliad (1.8-487). Scholars have long suspected that this episode is evoked in Agamemnon's scathing rebuke of Calchas (1.105-8), but I contend that this is only one moment in a far more sustained allusive dialogue: both the debate over Chryseis and her eventual return to her father replay and rework the sacrifice story. The Iliad begins by recalling the start of the whole Trojan war. [See https://twitter.com/Nellenist/status/1517245751679762435 for a brief summary of key points and please contact me for a correctly paginated offprint.]

This article seeks to demonstrate how the myth of Troy is still relevant to modern-day European culture and identity, drawing on Gregor Feindt et al.’s concept of “entangled memory” as a theoretical foundation. In order to support this claim, it discusses Wolfgang Petersen’s movie Troy (2004), the successful exhibition Troy—Dream and Reality that opened in Germany in 2001; the heated debate sparked by this exhibition among German scholars; and the political discussion about Turkey’s unsuccessful application for membership in the European Union, in which references to Troy played a surprising role.

Spekali, #6

The present paper discusses Aristotle's "Poetics" in the light of one significant aspect of the Homeric innovation. Taking into account the given source and modern Homeric conceptions, the author of the paper classifies  the distinguishing criteria of the oral and written stages, which supposedly existed within the perennial process of the formation of the "Iliad". By way of illustration of the above-mentioned Book 9 of the "Iliad" is analyzed.

This paper sketches out a history of ancient and modern discussions on the aesthetic “imperfection” of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The views of, among others, Horace, Pseudo-Longinus, F.A. Wolf, F.W. Nietzsche will be examined, as well as more recent evaluations of the Homeric poems. A passing comment by U. Eco will also inspire some reflections

Spekali, #10
At 9.198 of the “Iliad”, Achilles greets, perhaps, only three ambassadors, or his friends, in the dual; however, at 9.204 the same greeting is repeated in the plural. In the process of interpretation of the issue several questions arose. In order to answer these questions, there is a need to reevaluate the whole embassy scene, but, again, from the Unitarian standpoint.

Traduzione letterale, interlineare dell'inizio del nono libro dell'Iliade, versi 1-113. Si tratta dell'assemblea greca che apre il libro, fino al termine del primo discorso di Nestore, in cui l'eroe suggerisce ad Agamennone, e all'assemblea riunita, di cercare un modo per convincere Achille deporre la sua ira e tornare a combattere.
La traduzione è accompagnata da note e commenti tratti, come sempre, dall'edizione commentata dell'Iliade di W. Leaf, e dal commentario edito da G. S. Kirk (per quest'ultimo, il commento è di B. Hainsworth).

Counselors, councilors and ambassadors are often complementary figures, but from Homeric Greece to classical Sparta we know of certain characters like the hero Odysseus or the Spartiate Lichas who perform all of these tasks (i.e. deliberating, deciding and delivering the decision) personally. Starting off with the analysis of the relevant literary sources, this paper proposes to address the following questions: what does the triple function of these figures imply for their respective duties? Can these cases be considered to be representative for Homeric Greece and Classical Sparta?

ECONOMY OF A HOMERIC BASILEUS

The article deals with the following questions: 1) basileus’ temenos, which is a land grant from the community, not conditional, but proprietary; 2) basileus’ household or oikos: size of estate, branches of economy, labour force; 3) secondary incomes and their sources (war, piracy, gift-exchange, trade, public affairs). It is the resources of the oikos (not the political power) that provide basileus with his high social position. The author states that basileis were neither kings, nor the ruling class of the community, but the higher rank of nobility.

These two works (authors henceforth M. and V.) 1 comprise very different, and differently rewarding, approaches to the translation of Homer. Both volumes provide engaging introductions, though M.'s is somewhat more impressionistic, and Graziosi naturally affords V.'s tome more scholarly weight. Both, too, have relatively extensive notes on the translation and some information about the text (V. chooses H. van Thiel, Homeri Ilias, Olms, Hildesheim 1996, M. prefers M. L. West, Homeri Ilias, Teubner, Stuttgart 1998-2000, as well as maps and guides for further reading, though V. has the decided advantage of an index of personal names.

This very short exegetical essay points out some Homeric echoes in Alcaeus’ Song 130 V. He laments his current situation that hinder him from the participation to the politikos bios, probably due to a temporary defeat of his hetaireia. Homeric linguistic-lexical features and allusions suggest that he wish to communicate to his listeners his identification with Achilles, who was also confined amongst girls on the island of Skyros. Just as failed Thetis’ attempt to impede Achilles to participate in the Trojan war and cover himself of glory in spite of death, in the same way this temporary hindrance will fail and Alcaeus will re-start fighting, covering himself of glory.

The transitional role played by the Phaeacians in The Odyssey has built into a kind of 'communis opinio' among Homeric scholars. Mixing divergent elements, these people seem to set a connection between Odysseus' previous adventures and his re-entering in Ithaca. His quick 3-day stay in this unknown land gives him the opportunity to recall his sufferings since he left Troy, and manages to build a relationship between narrator and audience that helps us understand not only Odysseus' character, but also the character of those who entertain him. I will focus on how Homer characterizes the Phaeacians as an 'intermediate' people, mixing opposite elements which are epitomized in their ability to sail.

El presente trabajo establece un vínculo entre filosofía y literatura, estudiando algunas consideraciones sobre la muerte que se presentan en La Ilíada y mostrando, principalmente, que la virtud y el carácter del guerrero se manifiesta diáfanamente en contraste con ella. Así pues, mostraré que el guerrero virtuoso, producto de su carácter esforzado y su conocimiento del ideal de hombre que es digno alcanzar, afronta su propia muerte no sólo con la tranquilidad que le otorga saber que ésta es un fenómeno más en la physis sino con la plena consciencia que frente a ella arriesga el más elevado tributo que puede ofrecer para alcanzar la virtud y la gloria; su propia vida.

This article rethinks the presence of the lion in Bronze Age Crete and its participation in poetic culture in the Aegean. In the absence of living lions on the island, representational embodiments were the basis of people's encounters with the species, and the peculiarities of these object-bodies powerfully contributed to the characterization of the beast. Throughout the Bronze Age, the vast majority of Cretan lion representations occurred in glyptic. Seals were worn on persons' bodies, consistently placing the leonine in direct relation to the human; this juxtaposition had both physical and cultural dimensions and was invigorated by the spatiotemporal dynamism of seal use. This paralleling of human and beast is considered in its lived context, including its likely relationship to oral traditions , especially the comparison formulated by similes. In the period from Middle Bronze III to Late Bronze II, after centuries of development in Crete, the lion's association with glyptic extended to the early Mycenaean mainland. This was a moment of intense intra-Aegean sharing that had linguistic, practical, and material dimensions and that likely saw the birth of the epic tradition. I argue that the beast's persistent position in glyptic contributed to the formulation of Aegean poetic culture, configuring a lasting but fluid parallel between lions and humans. https://www.ajaonline.org/article/4109

14 pageireu )*. Однако значение этих терминов в линейном письме Б и у Гомеса расходится. Если в эпосе слова ат £ и по крайней мере иногда являются взаимозаменяемыми терминами для обозначения носителя верховной власти -"царя", причем наиболее часто для таких целей используется титул ftocfotebc; 2 , то в доку ментах линейного письма Б только wa na ka употребляется по отно шению к царю3 , тогда как qasireu обозначает лицо низшего ранга, связанного с распределением металла среди ремесленников и под властного дворцовой администрации. Вероятно, в лице qasireu м ы 1 В свое время Л.Палмер оспаривал идентичность терминов qasireu и ftattibevf, упирая на несоответствие значения этих СЛОВ. -Pa l m e r L.R. In terpretation of Mycenaean Greek Texts. Oxf., 1963, p. 422.

Achilles is a complex hero. His brief, brilliant life is sacrificed to avenge the death of his beloved friend. He is a consummate warrior, yet he is childlike in his rage; and outside the Homeric Iliad we learn that he was dressed as a girl to escape being sent to fight at Troy. Marta González González explores the many facets of this fascinating figure, deftly applying insights from modern theories, literary and psychological, to help bring him into focus. It is a pleasure to read. (- Professor David Konstan, New York University, USA)

Achilles is the quintessential Greek hero, but that does not mean that he is a conventional hero. His uniqueness is dictated by his birth, as the son of a sea goddess, and his education at the hands of a centaur. The hero’s exceptional nature also forms part of the tension that both unites and opposes him to Apollo.

Achilles presents the different episodes in the life of this hero conventionally, in chronological order, based primarily on the Greek sources: birth, education, deeds in Troy, death and subsequent destiny as a figure of worship. On the other hand, this study employs the hero Achilles to reflect on various issues, all of them crucial for historians of the Greek world: what it meant to be and become a man in ancient Greece, what a hero’s aretê consisted of, how the Greeks represented the concepts of friendship and camaraderie, what moved them to revenge or reconciliation, what hopes they harboured as they faced their fate, how they imagined something as difficult to conceive of as a human sacrifice, and how they developed their ideas about the afterlife and hero cult..

Esperimento di traduzione dell'Iliade di Omero. Libro secondo : Il sogno; La prova dell'esercito; Il Catalogo delle Navi; Il Catalogo Troiano.
Traduzione interlineare, con note grammaticali e vocabolario essenziale in linea.
La traduzione è accompagnata da tavole sinottiche e commenti.

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. Captain Ahab is no exception. Forget for a second Ahab's villainous qualities and look instead to the classical tradition. Shakespeare's Macbeth was not a very nice guy. Neither was Milton's Satan. Still, we find qualities within these antagonists that conform to ancient ideas of the epic and tragedy. Let us, then, look at Ahab in this same light. Ahab may be a monomaniac, but we still adore him despite all of his faults. Therefore, this essay explores the heroic qualities of Ahab which have made him into the American lit icon he is today.

Introduction of my master's degree thesis, whose purpose is to investigate the possible anatolian origin of the Greek epic poetry represented by the Homeric poems. Inside the Introduction I also offer my vision upon the Homeric question. Thanks to my mentors, professor A. Rodighiero and professor F. Giusfredi.

The period known as the Italian Renaissance witnessed a rebirth of Greek learning and, along with it, a renewed impetus to translate the two epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, attributed to Homer in antiquity. During the course of one century (1362-1460s) there were more than a dozen attempts to translate Homer from Greek into Latin. These Latin versions were the first to be printed in the fifteenth century and in turn offered a template for the first vernacular translations well into the seventeenth century. In addition to translation practice, humanists also began to develop increasingly more sophisticated ways of thinking about the task of the translator and thus did much to advance the field of translation theory. Despite this decisive contribution to the history of Homer's reception and interpretation, critical commentary on the period as a whole has been largely negative. The argument of this dissertation is that much of the scholarship on Homer's reception in the Renaissance is still beholden to aesthetic assumptions inherited from the period in question. Chief among them is the assumption that translation can only take place between two texts (source and target) and that one of the most important features of a good translation is its fidelity to the source text, whether that be in word or sense. Additionally, scholars often expect a translation to stand alone as a piece of literature in its own right. Many humanists of the day and scholars thereafter held Homeric translations up to these standards and judged them a "failure." By applying a historical-contextualist methodology, I put pressure on the "failure thesis" by arguing that there was never any consensus about the standards to which translators ought to hold themselves; these standards changed over time; and in many cases they were simply impossible to fulfill. These translations can be divided into three phases: Literal ("The Feather") (1362-1440s), Oratorical ("The Wing") (1438-1460s), and Verse translation ("The Flight") (1440s-1500).

The passages referring to Chryseis, the comparison with the sections on Briseis and some other epic pieces, reveal how these female characters were understood by the very early audience of Homer. Both of these young women constitute the root cause of Achilles’ mênis and consequently of the story line of the Iliad, which is basically related to the legal-religious aspects of the violation of the right over the war booty, involving both private and public implications. The whole of this conceptual apparatus is conveyed within the Homeric word lēḯs. They were «won with the spear», but they in turn conquered the heart of their masters, who wished them the role of ‘first lady’ of their own oíkos. Agamemnon’s words on Chryseis’ final destiny to the handloom were unequivocal for pre-archaic and archaic listeners: this was the activity of goddesses, princesses and queens, not the work of a slave woman. Homeric passages regarding Penelope, Helen, Calypso and Circe clearly explain this argument. This assumption matches Briseis’ words in her lament on Patroclus, when she declares Achilles’ decision to make her his wedded spouse coming back to Phthie. Another datum should be taken into consideration. The two maidens were seized by Achilles during the same raid in the region of classical Cilicia, which roughly corresponds to the Hurrian kingdom of Kizzuwatna in the 13th Century BC. Archeological evidence and the Ahhiyawa Text No. 27 A-B confirm Mycenaean activity in the area spanning Cilician shores and North-Syrian coasts. The transmission of mythological and religious elements from Hurrian traditions probably occurred in these environments and was merged into Hesiod’s epic in the 8th Century BC, when Hurrian and so ‘barbarian’ origin of these features was not understood anymore. The Cilician origin of the two girls and Andromache, the wife of the alter ego of Achilles, suggests that all these mythological women may be linked to reminiscences of Mycenaean frequentations in Syrian-Anatolian territories, and probably to legendary figures of Hurrian queens and princesses.

Questo volume – che contiene la traduzione interlineare commentata dei libri V-VIII dell’Iliade – è parte di un mio personale progetto di traduzione e pubblicazione dei due poemi omerici nella loro integralità. Il volume riunisce insieme tre elementi:
• il testo del poema omerico: ho adottato come riferimento l’edizione critica di D. B. Monro e T. W. Allen (1920);
• una traduzione interlineare rigorosamente letterale: ogni verso è seguito dalla sua traduzione letterale, ma dove il rigido rispetto di quest’alternanza minima poteva rendere difficile la comprensione del testo ho preferito raggruppare insieme due o tre versi e far seguire la traduzione dell’insieme;
• un esteso commentario: i commenti si basano principalmente su due classici commentari in lingua inglese, quello in due volumi di W. Leaf (1900 e 1902) e quello in sei volumi curato da G. S. Kirk (1985, 1990, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1993).
Non sono a conoscenza di un altro testo in lingua italiana in cui questi tre elementi siano riuniti insieme e con la medesima modalità. Non intendo rivendicare l’aver colmato alcuna lacuna: ho semplicemente voluto realizzare un utile strumento che potesse consentire al lettore appassionato di epica omerica di leggere il testo greco dei poemi, allo stesso tempo confrontandosi con una proposta di traduzione interlineare rigorosamente letterale ed approfondendo vari aspetti del testo con un esteso commentario. Il tutto avendo tra le mani un unico testo.

Little is known about Homer. Tradition tells us that he is the author of the epic Greek poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, which detail the mythic history of ancient Greece. These works, the oldest extant literature in the Western world, shaped Greek education, were recycled throughout the Roman Empire by way of Virgil’s Aeneid, and continue to be influential today as cultural touchstones (Enos 1996). In this entry, I detail Homer’s biography, the origins of his major texts, and lastly, the way rhetoricians have alternately excluded and included Homer in the rhetorical tradition.

Il sedicesimo libro segna il compimento dei disegni di Zeus: i Troiani riescono ad appiccare il fuoco alla prima delle navi greche (122-124). Achille consentirà al compagno Patroclo di unirsi ai combattimenti insieme ai suoi Mirmidoni, ma l'eroe verrà ucciso in questo stesso libro (827-828).
I versi 1-100, che propongo ora, vedono il breve dialogo iniziale tra Patroclo ed Achille: seguirà la scena di armamento di Patroclo, quindi quest'ultimo si unirà ai combattimenti.
Il testo greco di riferimento è quello di D.B. Monro e T.W. Allen. La traduzione è interlineare e letterale, arricchita da un dettagliato corpo di note selezionate principalmente dai commentari di W. Leaf e R. Janko.

Books 5-12 of Homer's 'Odyssey' can be read as a series of interlocking sets of adventures that comprise a neatly symmetrical overall structure. At the center of this pattern stands the passage known as the Nekyia (book 11), in which Odysseus journeys to the underworld. Moreover, these adventures can be understood as the record of a kind of psychic journey, universal in its import while also being specific to the ancient Greek culture that produced this poem

The article is presented here as reprinted in 'Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism', vol. 148 (available in 'Literature Criticism Online', spring 2019).

A new solution is offered to a difficulty posed by Homer’s Iliad: Hippothoos, the leader of Troy’s Pelasgian allies, fought against the Greeks and died far from his home in Larissa. However, soldiers from the distant Larissas familiar to us fought not for the Trojans but for the Greeks, if they fought at all. The approach herein is a thorough survey of 18 known and likely Larissa locations, considering Homeric, mythological, archaeological, and numismatic evidence. This survey is followed by a systematic evaluation with regard to seven criteria. It appears likely that there may be two widely-separated Larissas of Hippothoos and his Pelasgians. The Larissa of Iliad 17 is probably in the Greek homeland, most likely on the river Peneios in Thessaly. The Larissa of Iliad 2 may well be in the eastern Balkans. The Balkan location is probably on Thrake’s coast of the Sea of Marmara, perhaps at the west of Mygdonia. An alternative location is the west coast of the Black Sea, somewhere around Naulochos, Moisia where a little-known Larissa was mentioned by Strabo.

This volume is the edited collection of the papers from a conference we hosted in Oxford in 2017, drawing together specialists from the United Kingdom, continental Europe and the United States, to examine afresh the relationship between early Greece and the civilisations of the ancient Near East. This is one of the most controversial and rapidly developing research topics in Classics, and the aim of the conference was to bring together Classicists and non-Classicists in a truly interdisciplinary environment, in which specialists from several different fields could observe and draw upon one another’s discoveries and knowledge. It was the first time that all major scholars who have so far contributed to the debate were assembled at a conference, a fact that was reflected by large crowd of over seventy participants at the Ioannou Centre in Oxford, over two full days. Our hope was that the resulting interchange would reflect on the disparate methodologies which have developed in these distinct fields, and move towards a new consensus. In order to achieve this, we limited the papers to the presentation of narratives to do with the gods; this led to a clear cross-fertilisation between papers (both in the general discussion and in the presentations), and a movement away from a narrow concern with the question of direct influence towards a more truly comparative perspective, in which the individual dynamics of the Greek and Near Eastern traditions help to illuminate what is distinctive about each of them. This represents a paradigm shift in a field once concerned solely with collecting literary parallels and letting them ‘speak for themselves’ (in Martin West’s famous words), and this is one of the major reasons why we think the resulting volume will cohere both thematically and as articulating a crucial moment in the history of scholarship on this question.

The volume serves two interconnected purposes. The first is that the book is an illustrative, handbook-like overview of the history and current state of the discussion, an aspect to be supported by an extensive Introduction to the volume, to be written by the editors. The second is that it offers new material and fresh approaches formulated by the leading scholars in the field. The volume will thus capture the state of the current discussion and shape the future debate. In keeping with the theme and discoveries of the conference, the chapters are not simply lists of parallels, but attempts to consider the processes of interaction and their significance for the texts being discussed.

The cast list of contributors is, as one should expect in a volume with this kind of ambition, international: Angus Bowie (Oxford), Yoram Cohen (Tel Aviv), Bruno Currie (Oxford), Andrew George (SOAS), Amir Gilan (Tel-Aviv), Johannes Haubold (Durham), Adrian Kelly (Oxford), Andre Lardinois (Nijmegen), Carolina Lopez-Ruiz (Ohio State), Christopher Metcalf (Oxford), Bernardo Petrella (Oxford), Fran Reynolds (Oxford), Ruth Scodel (Michigan), Robert Rollinger (Innsbruck), Ian Rutherford (Reading), Sylvie Vanséveren (Brussels), and Mark Weeden (SOAS).

Su amazon.it è ora disponibile la traduzione integrale del settimo libro dell'Iliade. Anche in quest'occasione voglio spendere qualche parola per presentare questo mio lavoro.
Il mio personale progetto è la traduzione integrale dei poemi omerici e la loro pubblicazione, libro dopo libro: l'intero progetto dovrebbe articolarsi su 3-4 anni (sono per ora disponibili i primi sette libri dell'Iliade).
La traduzione è rigorosamente letterale, interlineare al testo greco ed arricchita da numerose note. La necessità di accompagnare nel modo più stretto possibile la traduzione all'articolazione del testo greco rende la lettura poco agevole, ma lo scopo del mio lavoro non è offrire una nuova traduzione dei poemi omerici (ne esistono numerose ed eccellenti, a partire dall'ancora godibilissima traduzione dell'Iliade del Monti), ma mettere in condizione il lettore di gioire del testo omerico nella sua lingua originale.
Quanto alle note, esistono in circolazione autorevolissimi commentari ed edizioni annotate dell'Iliade: volendo dotare la mia edizione dei migliori commenti, ho scelto di utilizzare l'edizione dell'Iliade in due volumi di W. Leaf ed il commentario in sei volumi di G. S. Kirk. Nell'ambito delle loro note ho selezionato quelle maggiormente interessanti e le ho tradotte ed adattate alla mia edizione.
Il testo di tutti i volumi finora pubblicati è disponibile sia in versione cartacea che in versione eBook Kindle.

LANDSCHAFTEN TOR ZU ANDEREN WELTEN Deutsche und chinesische Archäologen erforschen Gesellschaften an der Seidenstraße ALLTAG ARCHÄOLOGIE SCHERBEN BRINGEN GLÜCK Wie in Pietrele Schicht um Schicht eine antike Gesellschaft zum Leben erweckt wird 1 • 2013 Archäologie Weltweit -Erster Jahrgang -Berlin, im Mai 2013 -DAI TITELTHEMA Die technischen, kulturellen und sozialen Wirkungen eines Elements ARCHÄOLOGIE DES WASSERS www.dainst.org Titelthema ab Seite 36 Abb.: LengyelToulouse Architekten auf der Grundlage eines 3D-Modells / DAI