Homer, Hesiod and the Hymns: Diachronic Development in Epic Diction

by Richard Janko

• ISBN13: 9780521035651
• ISBN10: 0521035651
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-03-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book investigates the history of the ancient Greek tradition of oral epic poetry which culminated in the Iliad and Odyssey. These masterpieces did not exhaust the tradition, and poems were composed in the same style for several generations afterwards. One group of such poems is the 'Homeric Hymns', ascribed to Homer in antiquity. In fact the origins of these Hymns are as mysterious as those of the Homeric epics themselves with little external evidence to assist. This book will be of interest to scholars concerned with Greek philology and dialects, Homeric epic and Greek literature of the Archaic period. It should also find readers amongst specialists in other oral poetries and those using computers in the Humanities.

Table of Contents

List of tables and figures

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction and methodology

The problem of oral compostion

Digamma, alternative morphs and other criteria

Diachronic and regional developments

Excurses: the date of Hesiod and the Lelantine War

The Hymn to Delian Apollo

The Hymn to Pythian Apollo

The Hymn to Hermes

The Hymn to Aphrodite

Other hymns

Conclusions

Appendices

Notes

Bibliography

Indices

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