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Homer the Preclassic considers the development of the Homeric poems-in particular the Iliad and Odyssey-during the time when they were still part of the oral tradition. Gregory Nagy traces the evolution of rival Homers" and the different versions of Homeric poetry in this pretextual period, reconstructed over a time frame extending back from the sixth century BCE to the Bronze Age. Accurate in their linguistic detail and surprising in their implications, Nagy's insights conjure the Greeks' nostalgia for the imagined epic space" of Troy and for the resonances and distortions this mythic past provided to the various Greek constituencies for whom the Homeric poems were so central and definitive.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
Part I. A Preclassical Homer from the Dark Age
1. Homer and the Athenian Empire
The Athenian Empire
Athens as Homer’s Imperial Metropolis
Homer the Ionian
Homer and the Panionian Festivals of Delos and Beyond
The Performance of Epic at the Panathenaia in the Era of the Peisistratidai: The Later Years
2. Homer outside His Poetry
Homer in the Life of Homer Traditions
The Making of Homeric Verse in the Life of Homer Traditions
Homer the Epigrammatist
Homer’s Reception in Performance
Homer as a Model Performer at Panhellenic Festivals
The Homeric Hymn to apollo as an Aetiology of Homeric Performance at the Delia
3. Homer and His Genealogy
The Homeridai of Chios
A Post-Athenocentric View of the Homeridai
The Performance of Epic at the Panathenaia in the Era of the Peisistratidai: The Earlier Years
The Homers ofThucydides and Herodotus
4. Homer in the Homeric Odyssey
The Festive Poetics of an Ongoing Humnos in odyssey viii
A Poetic Crisis at a Festival
An agon Between Demodokos and Odysseus
5. Iliadic Multiformities
The Transcendence of Zeus as Hymnic Subject
Older and Newer Versions of the iliad
An Inventory of Epic Forms
Acephalic and Nonacephalic Prooimia
Variations on the Plan of Zeus
The Sorrows of Andromache
Part II. A Preclassical Homer from the Bronze Age
6. Variations on a Theme of Homer Rival Datings of Homer
A Pre-Athenocentric Life of Homer
An Athenocentric Life of Homer
An Aeolian Dating of Homer
Homer the Aeolian
7. Conflicting Claims on Homer
The Tomb of Achilles and the Topography of the Troad
The Tomb of Achilles as a Landmark for the Festival of the Panathenaia
Two Tombs for Achilles
Rethinking the Trojan Past
Homer the Ionian Revisited
8. Homeric Variations on a Theme of empire
Four Festivals and Four Models of Empire
A Homeric Glimpse of an Ionian Festival
An Aeolic Phase of Homer
An Attic Phase of Homer
Ionic Koine and Aeolic Koine
Homer the Aeolian Revisited
A Homeric Glimpse of an Aeolian Festival
The Festive Poetics of Federal Politics
9. Further Variations on a Theme of Homer
Homer the Federal Hostage
Homeric Variability
The Peplos of Athena and the Poetics of Split Referencing
10. Homer and the Poetics of Variation
The Sorrows of Andromache Revisited
Pattern-weaving Back into the Bronze Age
A Final Retrospective: Andromache’s Last Look at Hector
Epilegomena: a Preclassical text of Homer in the Making
Reconstructing Homer Forward in Time
The Peisistratean Recension and Beyond
Asiatic and Helladic Receptions of Homer
A Spokesman for All Hellenes
Homer’s Split Personality
A Prototype for Homer, Hesiod, and Orpheus
Homeric Koine
Homerus Auctus
Hesiod as a Contemporary of Homer
Orpheus as a Precursor of Hesiod and Homer
Orpheus as a Neoteric
Orpheus in the Era of the Peisistratidai
Selective Adjustment of Repertoire
The Poetics and Politics of the Homerus Auctus
The Shield of Achilles and the Homerus Auctus
The Ideology of Cosmos and imperium in Homer?rough the Ages
The Ring of Minos as a Symbol of Cosmos and imperium
The Shield of Achilles as a Symbol of Cosmos and imperium
Ten Centuries of Homeric Transmission
Homer the Poet of Kings
From Homer the Preclassic to Homer the Classic
Bibliography
Index Locorum
About the author
Gregory Nagy is the Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies and the Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. This book is adapted from his 2002 Sather Lectures at the University of California, Berkeley.
Summary
Traces the evolution of rival "Homers" and the different versions of Homeric poetry in this pretextual period, reconstructed over a time frame extending back from the sixth century BCE to the Bronze Age.
Additional text
"Gregory Nagy, Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard University, is a one-person Homeric Studies institution. His remarkable achievement in this conveniently reissued work may most captivate and impress antiquarians in several subfields of Classics. . . . Scholars and students not only in literary studies but also in political history, religious studies, art history, and archaeology will learn from lots of ingeniously marshaled information and well-reasoned speculation regarding Aeolian, Ionian, and finally Athenian hero cult; about celebration of a nation’s heroic past and about cultural politics and agendas."
Report
Nagy's brilliant narrative marks the culmination of a lifetime spent investigating Homeric art, resulting in a highly variegated and hugely pleasurable book, fundamental for those who want to appreciate the beauties of epic." -Richard P. Martin, author of The Language of Heroes
