Think of institutions and customs which have created … out of the enjoyment of anger[,] perpetual vengeance … Nietzsche In Aeschylus’ Suppliants, a particular kind of anger is identified through the use of formulaic language that directly continues Homeric usage in a way different in style from that of other… Read more
Metaphors, as we are increasingly reminded, really matter. [1] In this paper I would like to take seriously the metaphor that punningly underlies our conference title, The Homerizon. The notion of horizon requires us to think of perspective, and that, in turn, means we must… Read more
In recent years a number of Homerists have approached the so-called Homeric Question by investigating Homer as author and “inventor” of the poetic tradition that we know as the Iliad. [1] Graziosi turns this approach on its head and instead explores how the ancient Greeks… Read more
Dr. Rouse found his Aegean sailors still telling yarns from the Odyssey though time had worn out Odysseus’ name, down through O’ysseus, already latin Ulysses, to current Elias, identified with the prophet. [1] My title begins with a citation from Dante, quoted in the call… Read more
Αὐτὸ μὲν γὰρ διὰ τὴν τοῦ ποιητοῦ λογιότητα ἐκ μὴ ὄντος ἐστὶ τρόπον τινά, ἡ δὲ ἀληθὴς Τροία τῇ τοῦ χρόνου φορᾷ ἐκ τοῦ ὄντος ἦλθεν εἰς τὸ μηδέν, ἀφανισθεῖσα. Thanks to the poet’s eloquence, the Achaean Wall in some way is, having emerged out of nothing, while the real… Read more
I propose to describe a way to do research on Homer. The description includes more than just procedures. It also includes an account of the principles and assumptions behind them and examples of their use. It’s as well to state at the outset that the object of study for the… Read more
Setting the Stage In the seventeenth century the star of the once mighty Republic of Venice was waning. Although the state would survive until its capitulation to Napoleon in 1797 its glory days were over. [1] Several factors contributed to the state’s decline. In the… Read more
There has been a growing trend in Homeric studies to investigate the connections between Homeric epic and the so-called ‘Ancient Near East’. In this paper I reflect on the nature of this trend. What is at stake in reading a ‘Near Eastern’ Homer in the current political and cultural climate?… Read more
Based on what Armstrong and Dué, in the invitation to this conference, have termed the Wolfian paradigm of Homeric research and its intersection with the preoccupations of the Romantic period (ballads; nature; language; nation; nostalgia; modernity), this paper examines the role of Homer within the horizon of European Philhellenism (in… Read more
Epic, as a genre, is defined using many different criteria, from mode of discourse (although some epics are not predominantly narrative), length (though some epics are short), relationship to other genres (though not all epics incorporate minor genres), subject matter (though not all epics involve war or travel), theological framework… Read more
