Oxford Readings in Homer's Iliad

by Cairns, Douglas L.

• ISBN13: 9780198721826
• ISBN10: 019872182X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-03-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This anthology makes accessible to the reader sixteen of the most important studies of Homer and the Iliad to appear in the last forty years. The essays, by leading Homeric scholars from Great Britain, the United States, and Europe, deal not only with the aesthetics and artistry of the Iliadas a poetic artefact, but with its historical context, its cultural background, and its ethical and political framework. Other major topics include the relation between the Iliad and other early epics (the Odyssey, the Epic Cycle), the interface between epic and other genres, such as tragedy, andthe complex interaction that exists between the Iliad and the wider traditions of oral poetry and mythical narrative in which it belongs.Two of the contributions have been translated especially for this volume; several have been thoroughly revised and updated, and others are provided with Addenda taking account of recent work in the field. In a detailed and wide-ranging introduction Douglas Cairns sets the contributions in thecontext of contemporary scholarship and explores significant connections between them. All Greek is translated and a glossary of transliterated Greek terms is provided.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	ix
Introduction	1	(56)
The Use and Abuse of Homer	57	(35)
Ian Morris
The Making of Homer in the Sixth Century BC: Rhapsodes versus Stesichorus	92	(25)
Walter Burkert
From the Iliad to the Odyssey	117	(30)
R. B. Rutherford
Do Homeric Heroes Make Real Decisions?	147	(23)
Richard Gaskin
Divine and Human Causation in Homeric Epic	170	(33)
Albin Lesky
Affronts and Quarrels in the Iliad	203	(17)
Douglas L. Cairns
Euboulia in the Iliad	220	(40)
Malcolm Schofield
Tragic Form and Feeling in the Iliad	260	(34)
R. B. Rutherford
Homer on Poetry and the Poetry of Homer	294	(17)
C. W. Macleod
A 'Beautiful Death' and the Disfigured Corpse in Homeric Epic	311	(31)
Jean-Pierre Vernant
The Shield of Achilles within the Iliad	342	(23)
Oliver Taplin
The Epic Cycle and the Uniqueness of Homer	365	(20)
Jasper Griffin
Past and Future in the Iliad	385	(24)
Wolfgang Kullmann
The Wrath of Thetis	409	(26)
Laura M. Slatkin
Mythological Paradeigma in the Iliad	435	(21)
M. M. Willcock
The Proem of the Iliad: Homer's Art	456	(22)
James Redfield
Iliad I. 366-92: A Mirror Story	478	(18)
Irene J. F. De Jong
Acknowledgements	496	(2)
Glossary	498