Building on numerous original close readings of works by Homer, Hesiod, and other ancient Greek poets, Richard P. Martin articulates a broad and precise poetics of archaic Greek verse. The ancient Greek hexameter poetry of such works as the Iliad and the Odyssey differ from most modern verbal art because it was composed for live, face-to-face performance, often in a competitive setting, before an audience well versed in mythological and ritual lore. The essays collected here span Martin’s acclaimed career and explore ways of reading this poetic heritage using principles and evidence from the comparative study of oral traditions, literary and speech-act theories, and the ethnographic record. Among topics analyzed in depth are the narrative structures of Homer’s epics, the Hesiodic Works and Days, and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo; the characterization of poetic and musical performers within the poems; the social context for verses ascribed to the legendary singer Orpheus; the significance of various rituals as stylized by poetic performances; and the interrelations, at the level of diction and theme, among the major genres of epic and hymn, as well as "genres of speaking" such as lament, praise, advice, and proverbial wisdom.
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Building on numerous original close readings of works by Homer, Hesiod, and other ancient Greek poets, Richard P. Martin articulates a broad and precise poetics of archaic Greek verse. The ancient Greek hexameter poetry of such works as the Iliad and the Odyssey differ from most modern verbal art because it was composed for live, face-to-face...
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Introduction Part I: Epic Genre and Technique 1. Epic as Genre 2. Similes and Performance 3. Formulas and Speeches: The Usefulness of Parry's Method 4. Wrapping Homer Up: Cohesion, Discourse, and Deviation in the Iliad Part II: Mythic Hymnists, Historical Performers 5. Apollo's Kithara and Poseidon's Crash-Test: Ritual and Contest in the Evolution of Greek Aesthetics 6. The Senses of an Ending: Myth, Ritual, and Poetic Exodia in Performance 7. Synchronic Aspects of Homeric Performance: The Evidence of the Hymn to Apollo 8. Rhapsodizing Orpheus 9. Golden Verses: Voice and Authority in the Tablets Part III: Hesiodic Constructions 10. Hesiod and the Didactic Double 11. Hesiod's Metanastic Poetics 12. Hesiod, Odysseus, and the Instruction of Princes 13. Pulp Epic: The Catalogue and the Shield Part IV: The Backward Look 14. Keens from the Absent Chorus: Troy to Ulster 15. Telemachus and the Last Hero Song 16. Until It Ends: Varieties of Iliadic Anticipation 17. Distant Landmarks: Homer and Hesiod
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"Martin’s book is a major collection from one of the most significant scholars of archaic poetry working in the past several decades. In this richly synoptic and synthetic meditation on the complex workings of archaic poetry, Martin builds on and brilliantly transfigures the implications of oral poetics for any study of archaic (and Hellenistic) poetry—and indeed for poetics as a whole."
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Martin’s book is a major collection from one of the most significant scholars of archaic poetry working in the past several decades. In this richly synoptic and synthetic meditation on the complex workings of archaic poetry, Martin builds on and brilliantly transfigures the implications of oral poetics for any study of archaic (and Hellenistic) poetry—and indeed for poetics as a whole.
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edited by Gregory Nagy and Leonard Muellner
Continuing the tradition of innovative scholarship published under the first Myth & Poetics series, Myth and Poetics II encourages books that will integrate literary criticism with anthropological approaches to mythology, paying special attention to problems concerning the nexus of ritual and myth. Books published in Myth & Poetics II are intended to illuminate diverse literary forms—epic and saga, folklore and poetry—encompassing both oral and written cultures. Please send inquiries to Gregory Nagy, Series Editor (gnagy@fas.harvard.edu) and Leonard Muellner, Associate Series Editor (muellner@chs.harvard.edu).
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781501713095
Publisert
2018
Utgiver
Vendor
Cornell University Press
Vekt
1361 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Dybde
41 mm
Aldersnivå
01, U, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet

Forfatter

Biographical note

Richard P. Martin is the Antony and Isabelle Raubitschek Professor of Classics at Stanford University. Among his many books are Classical Mythology and The Language of Heroes.