Homeric studies

We have already been able to locate the Homeric Scylla and Charybdis at Cape Gallant (Cape Svyatoy Nos) on the Kola Peninsula, due to the mythological narratives perfectly coinciding with the real-world geographical features in the Far North of Europe (unlike in the Mediterranean reality). The adventures of Ulysses in the Odyssey, as many scholars and historians notice, bear clear morphological characteristics of the North Atlantic. This is apparently true also with respect to the Five Rivers of Hades, always considered as purely mythical, yet clearly identifiable on the Kola Peninsula.

Helen of Troy is arguably our most enduring cultural icon. She is also one of the most polarizing and least understood, with an unsurpassed ability to create controversy. Much has been written about her and even more has been said for the past two and a half millennia, but her nature remains elusive. This essay examines Helen’s history in literature within the context of Indo-European religion and Bronze Age history and by applying a multidisciplinary approach, suggests there may be parallel traditions about Helen which could account for the view she epitomizes the kalon kakon (beautiful evil).

My purpose is less to present conclusions than to stimulate discussion of different ways to explore Helen’s ambiguous character, in the hopes of bring her in to somewhat clearer light.

The Trojan War is one of our oldest and most debated traditions. The conflict’s historicity has become increasingly accepted, but its nature is poorly understood. This monograph suggests one issue may be the approach to both literary and historical analyses, which generally assume a basic outline for the Trojan War that is “taken for granted.” Performing an all-source analysis of the literature in the context of history from the Late Bronze Age to the Archaic period, I suggest taking this outline for granted may be an impediment to understanding the Trojan War literature and the history of the war itself.

When this assumption is challenged, the story of the historical Trojan War that emerges appears even more grand and more epic than the legend of the Trojan War we are familiar with.

A presente pesquisa tem como objeto de estudo a ocupação micênica na ilha de Creta no final da Idade do Bronze. Por meio da análise dos vasos com alça em estribo que portam inscrições pintadas em Linear B, procurou-se reconhecer padrões que apontassem para um controle continental da produção de óleo em Creta. Tem-se como pressuposto que as inscrições nos vasos pertencem à esfera administrativa micênica. Para tanto, a metodologia utilizada foi a seriação dos vasos tendo como critérios primeiramente a inscrição em si, em segundo lugar o contexto de achado, depois o local de produção e, por fim, os motivos decorativos. Os grupos estabelecidos apontaram para um fluxo do oeste de Creta, local de produção de grande parte dos vasos, para sítios específicos no continente, a saber, Tebas na Beócia e Tirinto na Argólida. Este quadro nos permite pensar que a ocupação micênica da ilha se insere em um contexto de gradual integração de redes produtivas e comerciais do Mediterrâneo. Neste processo redes locais seriam impulsionadas por grandes centros e se tornaram, por sua vez, centros que estimulariam redes mais periféricas. Dentro desse contexto a presença micênica em Creta relaciona-se não apenas ao controle das rotas comerciais, mas aos centros produtivos de bens para as indústrias e mercadorias para a exportação. Palavras-chave: Idade do Bronze. Creta micênica. Linear B. Vasos com alça em estribo.

«Trinkets», «knick-knacks», «toys», and «sandcastles» are among the most frequent modern translations of the Greek term 'athyrma' in its Homeric occurrences. The noun, glossed by Greek and Byzantine grammarians as an archaic synonym for 'paignion' («plaything»), has raised significant exegetical questions regarding its semantic value and the connotations it evokes in archaic Greek poetry. This study moves beyond the narrow scope of ‘one-to-one’ lexical equivalences with the term’s (para-)synonyms, offering instead a comprehensive analysis of the contexts in which the noun athyrma is used. In doing so, the study also engages with the etymological reflections provided by ancient Greek lexicographers and commentators on the Homeric text. Spanning a broad range of texts over an extended chronological period, from Sappho to Aelian, this research seeks to highlight a cultural representation of 'athyrma' that departs from the interpretations suggested by modern translations. The analyses presented here suggest that the term athyrma belongs to a cultural and semiotic network more closely aligned with categories such as ‘marvellous artefact’, ‘precious object’, and ‘captivating spectacle’.

This chapter concerns Anteror and Theano, secondary characters of the Iliad who play an important role in the Epic Cycle and the Suites of Homer, especially Dictys of Crete. The possibility that Antinor had plotted against Priam leads us to examine the traces in the Iliad of a political opposition to the dynasty in power.

Ce chapitre concerne Anténor et Théano, personnages secondaires de l'Iliade qui jouent un rôle important dans le Cycle épique et les Suites d'Homère, en particulier Dictys de Crète. La possibilité qu'Anténor ait ourdi un complot contre Priam nous amène à examiner les traces dans l'Iliade d'une opposition politique au pouvoir en place.

The third Hymn by Callimachus is a poem that has attracted less interest, compared to the rest of hymns, on the grounds of lack of cohesion and central concept. The poet narrates the wanderings of goddess Artemis during her youth and provides the reader with what seems to be a disoriented panorama of Greek cities on both sides of the Aegean. Towards the end, the poet describes an attack by Cimmerians to Artemis' legendary temple in Ephesus and the ensuing revenge of the goddess against their king. Callimachus concludes the 3 rd hymn with an apostrophe to Artemis, so that she accepts his poem as an offering. He finally addresses a warning to his audience to be respectful of her, lest they provoke her rage and retribution. Nevertheless, what is generally deemed to be the hymn's defect, that is, the accumulation of random place names, proves to be its strength. In this paper, we will argue that the hymn's mythical topography is carefully structured, so that it reflects the political and historical milieu of its time. Assuming that the book of Hymns consisted of six poems that Callimachus himself arranged to be read as a poetic complex, we further propose that the third hymn holds a programmatic place in it, since it implemented the literary program of Callimachus' court poetry: to create a new dynastic model that fused monarchy with the divine as well as to legitimize the political aspirations and agenda of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his sister and wife, the powerful queen of Thrace Arsinoe II, regarding Greece during the Chremonidean War.

This article explores the poetic legacy of Michael Longley (1939–2025), one of Ireland’s most celebrated poets, whose work spanned over half a century and played a pivotal role in the North of Ireland literary renaissance. Examining Longley’s influences, including his classical education and engagement with themes of nature, identity, and conflict, the article highlights how his poetry bridges personal and historical narratives. A close reading of Ceasefire, his seminal poem responding to the 1994 IRA armistice, illustrates Longley’s mastery in distilling Homeric themes of grief and reconciliation into the context of the Troubles. Through linguistic and structural analysis, the article demonstrates how Ceasefire embodies Longley’s poetic ethos—transforming epic storytelling into a meditation on humanity, loss, and the possibility of peace. By situating Longley’s work within Irish and global literary traditions, the article affirms his enduring significance in poetry and cultural memory.

Este artículo propone un análisis de la configuración de lo colectivo en las acciones que realizan los λαοί. Se compararán algunos símiles colectivos de Ilíada y de La Toma de Ilión para estudiar sus vehículos y tenores. Ellos permiten ver al bando aqueo como un conjunto homogéneo de guerreros. Dichas características se analizarán a partir del contenido temático, sintáctico y estructural de los símiles. Si bien la configuración de lo colectivo en los λαοί de cada obra no es análoga, sí es esperable que el análisis ilustre cómo el colectivo se configura como un conjunto de guerreros unificados en momentos críticos de la guerra.

The Birth of Tragedy is often considered as the first act of a ‘problematisation of science’ that, albeit in different terms and registers, was to characterise Friedrich Nietzsche’s works up until the end of his intellectual journey. Through an analysis of excerpts from two works of the early Basel period – namely the Antrittsvorlesung, On the Personality of Homer, and especially the notes for the Encyclopaedia of Classical Philology – this article challenges this traditional interpretation, arguing that the origins of this problematisation should be located elsewhere and slightly predated, and that the terms of its earlier development could shed important light on the form it assumed in The Birth of Tragedy and beyond. Privately published a few months after it was delivered in Basel as Homer and Classical Philology, Nietzsche’s inaugural lecture had thenceforth a relatively broad readership – an interest confirmed by the fact that, for instance, it was translated into English as early as in 1909. Conversely the Encyclopaedia, still readable in the German original and in French translation only, has received little attention until relatively recent years, despite its clear exposition of topics and problems that were to have remarkable resonance in The Birth of Tragedy, and although it represented one of Nietzsche’s main attempts to preserve a sense of continuity with the philological tradition. Starting from the definition of philology as an unorganische Aggregatzustand, and from the opposition and dialectic between science and aesthetics set up by this definition, the article proceeds with an analysis of the first sections of the Encyclopaedia – in which the priority of Hineinleben, conceived of as an ethical and epistemological aim in approaching antiquity, started to draw Nietzsche towards that disaffection for science that was to culminate a few months later in the Tragödienschrift. Relying in some instances on James Porter’s authoritative reading of these texts in his 2000 monograph on Nietzsche’s juvenilia, the paper discusses and draws on other commentaries of the Basler Vorlesungen such as Carlotta Santini and Federico Gerratana’s.

In this article, I invite you to join a game in which we will treat the narrative world of Homer as a simulation-a computer game where you participate from a first-person perspective. Along the way, through this hopefully playful exploration, we will attempt to address-at least partially-a question that has puzzled us, lovers of Greek, since antiquity. This question revolves around the factors that determine word order in this beautiful language. 1 One key aspect of the issue can be framed as follows: why does the Greek equivalent of "right hand'' sometimes appear as a) δεξιὰ χείρ (lit. right hand) and at other times as b) χεὶρ δεξιά (lit. hand right)? Scholars have offered various answers to this question. Currently, it is widely accepted that the difference between a) and b) results from how Greek organizes information in a sentence, with certain parts given more saliency or importance than others. The properties of this information structure, particularly as they pertain to syntactic pairings of 1 For formal clarity, let me add that the issue discussed in this article pertains to the factors determining the word order within adjectively modified noun phrases in Homer. The proposed method of analysis of word order is the result of an original hypothesis that I am currently developing. adjectives and nouns (so-called noun phrases), dictate that the adjective appears first when it conveys information deemed more salient than that of the noun. This occurs, for example, when the adjective "right" is contrasted with "left" in the context. Conversely, when the noun comes first, it is assumed that either the noun carries especially important information, or the entire phrase is "neutral". 2 Linguists studying the information structure of Greek typically adopt either the perspective of a viewer observing states of affairs expressed in the sentence, or that of the author of the text formulating a linguistic utterance directed at the reader or listener -analogous to the speaker-addressee relationship. Such an approach, as is evident, does not entail a systematic analysis of the perspective and motivations intrinsic to the characters within the text. In the game I propose, you are expected to fully immerse yourself in the Homeric storyworld (because, after all, every literary endeavor should begin with Homer). You will become a full-fledged inhabitant of this world, "stepping into" the character whose perspective the narrative currently adopts. In other words, you will become the observer who perceives reality from the egocentric (or first-person) perspective. From this vantage point, you will obviously be unaware that you think and speak in hexameter or that you employ a formulaic style. Instead, you will notice, for instance, that your right hand is on your right side. This is not a trivial observation, because as a simultaneous recipient of the text, you are by no means obliged to adopt such an egocentric perspective when

The paper focuses on three passages where θέμις takes on three different meanings: Assembly law (Il. 9.33), legislative and judicial power (Il. 9.99), feudal obligation and service due (Il. 9.156). The linguistic and stylistic analysis points out the legal-religious implications tracing back to early epic traditions. The word θέμις conveys a conceptual notion related to the primitive Greek civilization and a less advanced legal and religious thought when compared to the Bronze Age Eastern cultures.

Il corso si propone di chiarire il legame effettivo tra i testi trasmessi e il lungo processo compositivo, attraverso il quale i canti di "Omero" sono nati e si sono sviluppati in differenti epoche e contesti storici. A tale scopo verranno prese in considerazione le componenti linguistiche da porre in relazione con lo sviluppo sincronico e diacronico delle tradizioni omeriche. L'attenzione verrà posta, in particolare, sulle tecniche di composizione orale, principalmente basate sull'utilizzo di singoli versi standard e di blocchi modulari di versi che ricorrono in maniera costante. Una conoscenza di base della lingua greca può essere utile, ma non indispensabile. Lezione 1: Introduzione: Storia della questione dai grammatici alessandrini a Milman Parry. La trasmissione del testo e la multitestualità di Omero Lezione 2: Elementi storici e interculturali nel contesto egeo-mediterraneo Lezione 3: Cenni di lingua omerica, storia e dialettologia della lingua greca Lezione 4: Cenni di lingua omerica, storia e dialettologia della lingua greca Lezione 5: Cenni di lingua omerica, storia e dialettologia della lingua greca Lezione 6: Analisi delle tecniche compositive: la composizione delle sezioni omeriche, blocchi modulari di versi, esametri indipendenti e interdipendenti Lezione 7: Analisi delle tecniche compositive: i gruppi di 7 versi nell'Iliade e nell'Odissea Lezione 8: Analisi delle tecniche compositive: i gruppi di 9 versi nell'Iliade e nell'Odissea Lezione 9: Analisi delle tecniche compositive: i gruppi di 10, 12, 14 versi nell'Iliade e nell'Odissea Lezione 10: Riflessioni finali a conclusione del corso: un'approssimativa stratigrafia del testo. Cosa è possibile e cosa non è possibile desumere da Omero Baldassarre Peruzzi (1481-1536): Apollo danza con le Muse

In the first millennium BCE, which is the era when alphabetic writing was developed by Greek-speaking people, starting in the eighth century BCE, there is evidence for a wide range of dialects, which can be divided roughly into four groups: (1) Arcado-Cypriote, (2) Aeolic, (3) Ionic, and (4) Doric or "West Greek." But my focus here is on an earlier time, the late second millennium BCE. There is evidence for the existence of these same four dialectal divisions even in this earlier time. The primary evidence can be found in the texts of clay tablets written in the so-called Linear B script." article/gregory-nagy-observations-ongreek-dialects-in-the-late-secondmillennium-bce/

AND BUILDING BIOGRAPHIES * Homer and Heinrich (and Wilhelm, of course) "The Megaron lies directly in the axis of the court. The vestibule is formed of two columns and two parastades or antae. Three folding-doors, side by side, lead into the antechamber, and from thence by a large door we come to the chief hall. Four pillars supported the roof of this huge room; a large circle in the middle of the hall probably indicates the situation of the hearth." 1 Few would presumably fault the clarity with which Wilhelm Dörpfeld set out, in Heinrich Schliemann's 1885 publication of their excavations at Tiryns (Pl. CXXVIa), the basic characteristics of the central suite of rooms in the palace they had uncovered: axiality, the court in front, the vestibule (nowadays more typically called the 'porch'), antechamber (now more commonly designated the 'vestibule') and the main hall with its columns and circular hearth. Also, his statement that "[m]ost probably the ground-plan of the megaron at Tiryns was a typical one, occurring in an identical manner in many heroic palaces" 2 was to prove impressively prescient, considering the remarkable (and oftremarked-upon) uniformity of the architectural cores of, in order of their discovery, the palatial establishments of Tiryns, Mycenae and Pylos. 3 The identification of the Tiryns palace as 'heroic' and a forteriori the associated borrowing of the Homeric term 'megaron' to designate its central group of rooms are, of course, a different matter. While Dörpfeld stated that the poet's description of the palace of Alcinous (Hom. Od. 6, 303-309) in particular "agrees very well with the arrangement of the megaron at Tiryns", 4 the selectiveness and in part liberal * For both the invitation to an inspiring meeting and their patience with me as an author, my thanks go to the organizers of the Oristano conference and editors of this volume. I would also like to express my gratitude to

1.-Premessa Un documento manoscritto finora ignoto alla comunità scientifica porta nuovi contributi alla conoscenza della produzione artistica di Gabriele Dara Junior (1826-1885). Custodito sino ad oggi presso la famiglia Dara, il manoscritto faceva parte in origine di un archivio ben più ampio di quello sopravvissuto ai continui smembramenti a cui fu sottoposto, probabilmente ben prima degli anni '50 del Novecento 1 . 1 Questo è quanto si può ragionevolmente dedurre dal resoconto dei viaggi compiuti da Giuseppe Gangale al fine di reperire documenti linguistici presso le comunità albanesi d'Italia e, in particolare, di Calabria e di Sicilia. Stando ai dati riportati nei verbali consegnati all' Amministrazione della Biblioteca Reale di Copenaghen, che su richiesta degli illustri linguisti danesi Holger Pedersen e Louis Hjemslev finanziò l'iniziativa di costituire un fondo di manoscritti albanesi, Gangale compì ben quattro "viaggi" (rejse) negli anni 1956-58, 1968, 1969, 1971. A tutt'oggi, tuttavia, soltanto del primo è stato possibile ricostruire le fasi e di ognuna individuare il materiale reperito in Calabria e in Sicilia grazie ad una relazione, allegata al prospetto, controfirmata da Hjemslev e consultabile nel Dipartimento dei manoscritti, dov'è materialmente custodito l'Albansk Samling. Tra i materiali che Gangale recuperò dall'aprile del 1956 e al gennaio 1959 figurano manoscritti provenienti dalla famiglia Dara residente a Palazzo Adriano, come si può agevolmente costatare dal seguente schema riepilogativo: rejse III 4 aprile -16 maggio 1957 store dele af G. Dara's originalmanuskript til digtet "Bala" 1) s. 1-14 2) bl. 1-18 (undragen bl. 6) 3) bl. 1-35 + brev fra G.

Song lyrics function in James Joyce’s Ulysses like any other literary and cultural allusion. However, in the musical episode of Ulysses, “Sirens”, lyrics may function as music as well. In the episode, where songs are performed by characters and, de facto, by the narrative itself, musical allusions are evoked in the readers’ mind, enriching their experience of the episode. The following question may arise then: how can the Sirens’ songs be translated for a target reader who is not familiar with the music or words of the songs mentioned? Addressing foundational word and music studies research and recent research on the translation of musical texts, this article investigates how lyrics alluded to in “Sirens” perform a musical role in the episode. Through the study of the Italian and Finnish (re)translations of the episode, it examines the creative options for translators of song lyrics in musico-literary texts.

The epic poetry of Homer is considered a classic example of oral poetry. However, the term "oral poetry" is ambiguous in literary history. It encompasses the oral recitation of memorized verse as well as the production of a stand-up performance during oral recitation that adheres solely to predetermined thematic structures or material. In the latter case of direct oral production, the poet must necessarily adhere to the guidelines that apply to the production of natural language. From a discourse-pragmatic point of view, these are, for example, the organization of speech into clear 'idea units' and 'intonational units' – which, according to current research, applies to Homeric poetry. A further requirement can be added from a syntactic point of view: In the case of extemporaneous production, the poetic performance must in any case respect the phase boundaries that, according to generative ideas, control the output of natural language. Samples from the Iliad prove that Homeric verse fully meets this requirement. This supports the view that Homeric poetry can be described as oral in a narrow sense.

C hi fu Omero per i Greci e chi è per noi? Cos'è davvero l'Odissea? L'agile volume di Bernhard Zimmermann si rivolge a un pubblico non specialistico, offrendo un'introduzione sintetica e accessibile alla figura di Omero e alle caratteristiche della narrazione nell'Odissea, che emerge al tempo stesso come specchio del suo tempo e come modello per l'arte di raccontare di ogni tempo. Dopo alcune riflessioni introduttive ('Der göttliche Homer', 9-12) sul valore esemplare del 'divino Omero' presso gli antichi -una fortuna senza paragoni che ne fa il poeta per eccellenza e che è proseguita in età moderna -l'autore propone una breve rassegna ('Homerische Fragen', 13-30) dei problemi fondamentali della filologia omerica, dalle origini a oggi: i discussi dati biografici tramandati dagli antichi su Omero; la plausibile datazione dei poemi, da porre, soprattutto in base alla presenza di riferimenti omerici nella letteratura greca arcaica, alla prima metà del vii sec. a.C.; l'uso della scrittura nella fissazione dell'Iliade e dell'Odissea nelle forme in cui le conosciamo; la stratificazione della lingua omerica, la formularità e la struttura dell'esametro: la questione omerica; il ruolo dei poemi nello sviluppo degli studi filologici e letterari sull'antichità. Poste queste premesse, l'autore si addentra nella narrazione odissiaca. Nel terzo capitolo ('Die Odyssee -Geschichten von Odysseus', 31-67) egli ricostruisce la 'biografia mitica' del personaggio di Odisseo, attingendo alle informazioni contenute nei poemi omerici e nel ciclo epico per quanto riguarda gli episodi della vita precedente e successiva rispetto a quanto narrato nell'Odissea, e riassumendo le vicende del poema libro per libro. Il quarto capitolo ('Struktur, Narrative Technik, Motive und Poetik', 68-105) è incentrato sulla costruzione della narrazione dell'Odissea. Vi viene descritta analiticamente la struttura del poema e proposto uno schema delle unità

Este artigo discute o ensaio "L'Iliade ou le poème de la force" de Simone Weil (1940-1941) como um exemplo de recepção da Ilíada de Homero. Parte-se de sua ideia central que então é explorada numa leitura atenta de algumas de suas passagens, com destaque para a forma como Weil traduz as citações homéricas. Embora o ensaio, da parte de helenistas, tenha muitas vezes recebido elogios ou, mais comumente, críticas, poucas vezes foi objeto de uma discussão focada nos estudos homéricos. Pretende-se mostrar que a composição de Weil, pelo seu caráter radical, inovador e esteticamente cativante contribui para um diálogo com o poema antigo. Talvez nenhum outro autor tenha defendido da forma aguda como o faz Weil que, muito mais que um elogio do heroísmo marcial, a Ilíada é antes e paradoxalmente um documento que reflete a barbárie.

A 7th-century b.c. cup from the sanctuary of Kommos in Crete presents what
may be the most complex and multifigured scene on a Cretan ceramic vessel of
any period, and it has long puzzled scholars. Based on a recent reexamination
of the cup, the present study offers original insights into its fabric, its technique
of manufacture, and especially its iconography. Through this examination, an
identification of episodes from the Trojan War is proposed, the relevance of this
imagery to the cultural context of production and consumption is explained,
and this interpretation is situated within the debate over the identification of
myth and ritual in Cretan art of the early 1st millennium b.c.