Homer's Allusive Art

Bruno Currie

Synthesizes incisive analytical discussion of fundamental issues in Homeric criticism with illuminating case studies
Offers rare breadth of coverage and comparison of poetic paradigms, ranging from Greek epic to Near Eastern and Latin poetry
Contains six appendices offering supporting materials which supplement and extend the main argument of the book

Homer's Allusive Art

Bruno Currie

Description

What kind of allusion is possible in a poetry derived from a centuries-long oral tradition, and what kind of oral-derived poetry are the Homeric epics? Comparison of Homeric epic with South Slavic heroic song has suggested certain types of answers to these questions, yet the South Slavic paradigm is neither straightforward in itself nor necessarily the only pertinent paradigm: Augustan Latin poetry uses many sophisticated and highly self-conscious techniques of allusion which can, this book contends, be suggestively paralleled in Homeric epic, and some of the same techniques of allusion can be found in Near Eastern poetry of the third and second millennia BC.

By attending to these various paradigms, this challenging study argues for a new understanding of Homeric allusion and its place in literary history, broaching the question of whether there can have been historical continuity in a poetics of allusion stretching from the Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh, via the Iliad and Odyssey, to the Aeneid and Metamorphoses, despite the enormous disparities of time and place and of language and culture, including those represented by the cuneiform tablet, the papyrus roll, and by an oral performance culture. The fundamental methodological problems are explored through a series of interlocking case studies, treating of how the Odyssey conceivably alludes to the Iliad and also to earlier poetry on Odysseus' homecoming, the Iliad to earlier poetry on the Ethiopian hero Memnon, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter to earlier poetry on Hades' abduction of Persephone, and early Greek epic to Mesopotamian mythological poetry, pre-eminently the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh.

Homer's Allusive Art

Bruno Currie

Frontmatter
List of tables
List of conventions and abbreviations
How to use this book
1. Homer and Allusive Art
2. The Homeric Epics and their Forerunners
3. The Archaic Hymns to Demeter
4. Pregnant Tears and Poetic Memory
5. Allusion in Greek and Near Eastern Mythological Poetry
I. A Greek transference: Aphrodite to Hera
II. A Sumerian-Akkadian-Greek transference: Inanna, Ishtar, Aphrodite
III. Mythological catalogues, seductions, plaints in heaven: typology or allusiona
IV. The question of awareness of Near Eastern sources
V. Consequences for Greek and Near Eastern poetry
6. Epilogue: Traditional Art and Allusive Art
Appendices
A. Proclus' Summaries of the Cyclical Epics
B. Translation of the Berlin Papyrus (Commentary on the Orphic Hymn to Demeter)
C. Allusive Doublets and Inconcinnities
D. Pindar, the Aethiopis, and Homer
E. Prospective Lamentation
F. Typologically Generated Repetition versus Specific Reprise
Endmatter
References
Index of passages
General index

Homer's Allusive Art

Bruno Currie

Author Information

Bruno Currie is Associate Professor in Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford and Monro Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Oriel College. His chief research interests are ancient Greek poetry (especially epic and lyric), ancient Greek religion, and the interaction between the two, and he is the author of several articles on these subjects. His other publications include Epic Interactions: Perspectives on Homer, Virgil, and the Epic Tradition Presented to Jasper Griffin by Former Pupils, as co-editor, and the authored monograph Pindar and the Cult of Heroes.

Homer's Allusive Art

Bruno Currie

Reviews and Awards

"Currie argues his case insistently and consistently, while at the same time being explicit throughout about the hypothetical nature of much of what he proposes â One does notneed to share Currie's conception of allusion in order to benefit from a book which isso full of interesting material - both Greek and Near Eastern - and bristles withso many sharp observations, striking comparisons, and thought-provoking reflections." -- Øivind Andersen, Gnomon

"In sum, this book is clearly the result of a very high level of detailed analysis ... it is undoubtedly a very useful addition to Homeric scholarship." --Catherine Rozier, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"Bruno Currie's book delves into this most significant debate in a systematic and thoughtful manner. It represents a major contribution and indispensable reading for all those interested in Homer and archaic Greek poetry at large ... a rewarding and thought-provoking book. Currie is commended for his sound methodology, his step-by-step unravelling of his thought as he directs his reader with admirable precision and help through labyrinthine turns of arguments difficult to grasp: a true sine qua non for all scholars interested in early Greek hexameter poetry." --Christos Tsagalis, Classical Journal Online

"This is a book to be enjoyed slowly and thoughtfully -- it is unusually user-friendly in its system of cross-referencing and in its overall readability, packed full of information and full supporting secondary and primary sources but always keeping the wood visible above the trees. The death of Martin West had left a gaping hole in this area of study -- I think that MLW now has a worthy successor to his crown." --John Godwin, Classics for All