DOCSLIB.ORG

1 Neglected Warnings in the Iliad: a Study In

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
1 Neglected Warnings in the Iliad: a Study In NEGLECTED WARNINGS IN THE ILIAD: A STUDY IN CHARACTERIZATION by W. Gerald Heverly B.A., Pennsylvania State University, 1984 M.A., University of Pittsburgh, 1998 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2013 1 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by W. Gerald Heverly It was defended on March 6, 2013 and approved by Dennis Looney, PhD, Professor, Department of French and Italian Andrew Miller, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Department of Classics Mae Smethurst, PhD, Professor, Department of Classics Dissertation Advisor: Edwin Floyd, PhD, Professor, Department of Classics ii Copyright © by W. Gerald Heverly 2013 iii NEGLECTED WARNINGS IN THE ILIAD: A STUDY IN CHARACTERIZATION W. Gerald Heverly, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2013 A neglected warning is a narrative sequence consisting of three moves: a credible warning is issued, the recipient disregards it, and he suffers some calamity as a result. Neglected warnings are common in folklore and literature. They have been studied closely in Herodotus, Thucydides, and Sophocles, but not in Homer. The little that has been said about neglected warnings in his poetry focuses on the recurring traits of warners and recipients and lacks consensus. Attempting to remedy the situation, this dissertation systematically investigates how the Iliad’s twelve neglected warnings help characterize members of both groups. Warners and recipients turn out to be distinct character types. All the examples feature a warner who is male, wise, old, actively benevolent, and sympathetic. Furthermore, warners are very often paternal or prophetic. Sometimes one or more attributes are insinuated by the poet rather than being literally true. Recipients, by contrast, are always young men who are selfishly ambitious, bold, and reckless. Thus, a strong contrast in characterization obtains across examples. In addition, Homer consistently pairs one warner with one recipient, and recipients frequently recover in some way from the disasters that they provoke. These conclusions augment or correct existing observations about the neglected warning pattern in Homer. The results also support a previously unsubstantiated claim that it derives from folklore. Specifically, the Iliad’s warners correspond to a stock character in folktales known as the Wise Old Man. For their part, neglectful recipients closely resemble the type of iv the disobedient hero, which occurs especially in cautionary tales. Some widely attested folktale plots are built around interaction between a Wise Old Man figure and a disobedient hero who experiences misfortune by disregarding the elder’s advice. The overall scenario may well have been incorporated into the Greek poetic tradition, serving as a basis for the standard features of neglected warnings in the Iliad. Directions for further research are suggested. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ...................................................................................................................................VII I. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 II. WARNINGS NEGLECTED BY AGAMEMNON .....................................................15 III. WARNINGS NEGLECTED BY ACHILLES …………………………………….....40 IV. WARNINGS NEGLECTED BY PATROCLUS…………………………………......63 V. WARNINGS NEGLECTED BY HECTOR ……………………………………..…..84 VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ………………………………………..……....105 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................121 vi PREFACE It is a pleasure to acknowledge the many people who helped make this dissertation possible. First, I wish to thank my supervisor, Professor Edwin Floyd, for his invaluable advice, kindness, and dedication to working with me remotely. I am grateful to the other members of my committee as well, Professors Dennis Looney, Andrew Miller, and Mae Smethurst. Their helpful suggestions and encouragement have meant much. Others at the University of Pittsburgh have also been generous with their time. They include Elizabeth Conforti, the Classics Department’s administrator; Professor D. Mark Possanza, chairman of the department during the final years of my studies; and Professors John Lyon and Bruce Venarde, each of whom discussed aspects of the project with me. In addition, I am indebted to a number of family members, friends, and colleagues. For their support I thank Walter, Myrtle, George, and Heather Heverly; my friends Fayçal Bouguir, Mary Catherine Johnsen, and Damien Scheuerman; and my colleagues Evelyn Ehrlich, Dawn Lawson, Andrew Lee, and Michael Stoller. Besides encouraging me, Susan Dudash, Diana Greene, Jeanne Krochalis, and John Tofanelli all served as valuable sounding boards from time to time. Most of the dissertation was researched and written during a year-long sabbatical. I am grateful to my employer, New York University, Division of Libraries, for that opportunity. vii I. INTRODUCTION A neglected warning is a narrative sequence consisting of three moves: a warning is issued, the recipient disregards it, and he suffers some sort of calamity as a result. Neglected warnings occur frequently in literature and folklore.1 A well-known example is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. As Vergil relates it, Orpheus is instructed not to look back at Eurydice while they make their way from the underworld. Overcome by passion, he forgets the warning, looks, and loses her forever.2 The Iliad has a dozen disregarded warnings. The aim of this dissertation is to study how they contribute to characterization. What traits of advisors do neglected warnings illuminate? What traits of recipients? Are the characteristics of each group similar across examples, or do they vary? These and related matters will be addressed. Before the investigation can begin, though, it is necessary to review scholarship about warnings in Homer, account for the selection of examples to be examined, and briefly discuss the values of Homeric society in relation to giving and receiving advice. An overview of the dissertation’s remaining chapters will complete this introduction. 1 On neglected warnings in folklore, see Propp, Morphology of the Folktale, 26-28; Lüthi, European Folktale, 75-76; and Tatar, Off With Their Heads!, 22-42. On such episodes in drama, see Polti, Thirty- Six Dramatic Situations, 61-64. Although these writers use their own terms for the neglected warning sequence, all describe a narrative structure that amounts to the same thing. Given the overall familiarity of folklorists and literary scholars with disregarded warnings, it is surprising that nobody from either group has produced a general study of the topic. 2 Georgics 4.485-98. 1 Given the general frequency of neglected warnings, it is not surprising that they are well represented in Greek literature. Such warnings have, in fact, been the focus of investigation in several authors. Herodotus has attracted the most attention.3 The pattern has also been studied in Thucydides and Sophocles.4 When it comes to Homer, however, scholars have little to say about disregarded warnings, and they agree on even less. The most that the literature affords is brief remarks on selected warnings, in studies devoted to other matters. Nevertheless, the little that has been said is helpful background for the present study and will be now be summarized. Probably the first to comment explicitly on the neglected warning pattern in Homer is Bischoff. Although he is primarily concerned with the pattern’s manifestations in Herodotus, he devotes several pages to its Homeric antecedents. Bischoff recognizes that neglected warnings have their characteristic threefold structure in Homer. In addition, he generalizes that Homeric warners are wise elders, who are no longer able to fight, while those whom they caution are young, impulsive men.5 Unfortunately this account exaggerates. In the Iliad alone there are three counterexamples. Achilles, who is younger than Patroclus, warns his friend not to fight all the way to Troy. Patroclus does not heed the warning and is killed by Hector. Similarly, Poulydamas, who is the same age as Hector, warns the Trojan chief on two different occasions to retreat. Hector ignores the warning each time, and each time a massacre of the Trojans ensues. It is not always the case, then, that disregarded warners in Homer are literally older than those whom they caution, let alone elderly. 3 Highlights include Bischoff, Der Warner bei Herodot; Lattimore, “Wise Adviser in Herodotus”; and more recently Shapiro, Role of Advice in Herodotus’ “Histories.” 4 On neglected warnings in Thucydides, see Hunter, Thucydides the Artful Reporter, 123-48; Marinatos, “Nicias as a Wise Advisor”; and Pelling, “Thucydides' Archidamus and Herodotus' Artabanus.” Lardinois, “Traces of the Adviser Figure” discusses neglected warnings in Sophocles. 5 See Bischoff, Der Warner bei Herodot, 1-5. 2 Fenik is also aware of neglected warnings. In a chapter on divine anger in the Odyssey, he notes that Aegisthus, Odysseus’s crew, and the suitors all receive credible warnings that they neglect to their great detriment. For Fenik, the examples illustrate the “motif of wise advice disregarded.”6 What this expression designates, of course, is the neglected warning pattern. In addition to identifying its threefold structure, Fenik observes that
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Squeaky Wheels of New Zealand Cinema Brenda Allen* in Two Recent
    The Man Alone, the Black Sheep and the Bad Apple: Squeaky Wheels of New Zealand Cinema Brenda Allen* In two recent New Zealand films, Black Sheep (Jonathan King, 2006) and Eagle vs Shark (Taika Waititi, 2007), the now passé trope of the Man Alone is framed as a squeaky wheel in love with its own malfunction. In King’s horror-comedy, a reluctant hero, Henry, who is pathologically afraid of sheep, fights his older brother Angus, a mutant were-sheep, with the assistance of his eco-activist love interest, Experience. By the end of the adventure Henry, a de facto city boy, reconciles with the land of his settler forebears. Waititi’s romantic comedy presents a self-absorbed and unromantic hero, Jarrod, who struggles to shine in the shadow of his deceased brother, Gordon. Jarrod and his dysfunctional father, Jonah, find themselves and each other through the supportive example and family values of love interest Lily. In both films the heroes begin as dysfunctional “men alone” and female characters, together with renewed contact with the land of their family homes, prove crucial to their catharsis, an outcome that is often missing in more traditional treatments of the trope. The strategy for recuperating these men alone involves Antipodean Camp, a style of humour identified by Nick Perry in 1998 and characterised by excess, reversal and parody. Perhaps because they come almost a decade later, Eagle vs Shark and Black Sheep do not encode the “genuflections to European taste” Perry notes in his examples, and, unlike those films, Black Sheep and Eagle vs Shark are self-aware enough to play on double meanings that point to “any idea of culture, including a national culture, as artifice” (Perry 14).
    [Show full text]
  • HOMERIC-ILIAD.Pdf
    Homeric Iliad Translated by Samuel Butler Revised by Soo-Young Kim, Kelly McCray, Gregory Nagy, and Timothy Power Contents Rhapsody 1 Rhapsody 2 Rhapsody 3 Rhapsody 4 Rhapsody 5 Rhapsody 6 Rhapsody 7 Rhapsody 8 Rhapsody 9 Rhapsody 10 Rhapsody 11 Rhapsody 12 Rhapsody 13 Rhapsody 14 Rhapsody 15 Rhapsody 16 Rhapsody 17 Rhapsody 18 Rhapsody 19 Rhapsody 20 Rhapsody 21 Rhapsody 22 Rhapsody 23 Rhapsody 24 Homeric Iliad Rhapsody 1 Translated by Samuel Butler Revised by Soo-Young Kim, Kelly McCray, Gregory Nagy, and Timothy Power [1] Anger [mēnis], goddess, sing it, of Achilles, son of Peleus— 2 disastrous [oulomenē] anger that made countless pains [algea] for the Achaeans, 3 and many steadfast lives [psūkhai] it drove down to Hādēs, 4 heroes’ lives, but their bodies it made prizes for dogs [5] and for all birds, and the Will of Zeus was reaching its fulfillment [telos]— 6 sing starting from the point where the two—I now see it—first had a falling out, engaging in strife [eris], 7 I mean, [Agamemnon] the son of Atreus, lord of men, and radiant Achilles. 8 So, which one of the gods was it who impelled the two to fight with each other in strife [eris]? 9 It was [Apollo] the son of Leto and of Zeus. For he [= Apollo], infuriated at the king [= Agamemnon], [10] caused an evil disease to arise throughout the mass of warriors, and the people were getting destroyed, because the son of Atreus had dishonored Khrysēs his priest. Now Khrysēs had come to the ships of the Achaeans to free his daughter, and had brought with him a great ransom [apoina]: moreover he bore in his hand the scepter of Apollo wreathed with a suppliant’s wreath [15] and he besought the Achaeans, but most of all the two sons of Atreus, who were their chiefs.
    [Show full text]
  • Warrior Vaunts in the Iliad
    250 Poulheria Kyriakou die bloße Rachehandlung ihm keine Befriedigung schaffen kann. Ihm fehlt die Erkenntnis der Beschaffenheit des Menschlichen, die größere Dauer und höheren Wert besitzt, als die bloße Rache- handlung. Es ist bezeichnend, daß Achilleus diese Wende nicht selbst durchführen kann, sondern daß sein Entschluß wieder als Ausfluß des göttlichen Willens dargeboten wird, wodurch der Weg zu einer echten Versöhnung geöffnet wird. Achilleus erfährt jetzt, was es heißt, hilfreich und edel zu handeln, nicht aber den Stolz auf die rein körperliche Gewalt als letztes Ziel ritterlichen Daseins an- zusehen. Es kann kein Zufall sein, daß die Ilias mit der feierlichen Beisetzung Hektors schließt, genau mit dem Akt, den Achilleus selbst vor dem Zweikampf höhnisch abgewiesen hatte. Es gibt also auch für das heroische Dasein eine Art der Auseinandersetzung, die das gemeinsame höhere Recht in Geltung läßt. Wollte Homer darauf hinweisen, daß er diese Art des Rittertums für die richtige hält? Bonn Hartmut Erbse WARRIOR VAUNTS IN THE ILIAD Warrior vaunts, the short speeches of triumph delivered over a vanquished dead or dying opponent, are peculiar to the Iliad and very rare in extant literature after Homer.1 These speeches have 1) In Od. 22 only the cowherd Philoetius vaunts over the suitor Ctesippus (287–91), ‘admonishing’ him not to boast in the future but to let the gods be the arbiters of his claims. A more conventional vaunt but over an unconventional ene- my is found in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (362–70), on which see the detailed discussion of A.M. Miller, From Delos to Delphi (Leiden 1986) 88–91.
    [Show full text]
  • Getting Acquainted with the Myths Search the GML Advanced
    Document belonging to the Greek Mythology Link, a web site created by Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology Characters • Places • Topics • Images • Bibliography • PDF Editions About • Copyright © 1997 Carlos Parada and Maicar Förlag. Getting acquainted with the myths Search the GML advanced Sections in this Page I. Getting acquainted with the myths II. Four "gateways" of mythology III. A strategy for reading the myths I. Getting acquainted with the myths What "getting acquainted" may mean We'll first try to clarify the meaning that the expression "getting acquainted" may have in this context: In a practical sense, I mean by "acquaintance" a general knowledge of the tales of mythology, including how they relate to each other. This concept includes neither analysis nor interpretation of the myths nor plunging too deep into one tale or another. In another sense, the expression "getting acquainted" has further implications that deserve elucidation: First of all, let us remember that we naturally investigate what we ignore, and not what we already know; accordingly, we set out to study the myths not because we feel we know them but because we feel we know nothing or very little about them. I mention this obvious circumstance because I believe that we should bear in mind that, in this respect, we are not in the same position as our remote ancestors, who may be assumed to have made their acquaintance with the myths more or less in the same way one learns one's mother tongue, and consequently did not have to study them in any way.
    [Show full text]
  • The Passing of the Mythicized Frontier Father Figure and Its Effect on The
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1991 The ap ssing of the mythicized frontier father figure and its effect on the son in Larry McMurtry's Horseman, Pass By Julie Marie Walbridge Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the American Literature Commons, and the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Walbridge, Julie Marie, "The asp sing of the mythicized frontier father figure and its effect on the son in Larry McMurtry's Horseman, Pass By" (1991). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 66. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/66 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The passing of the mythicized frontier father figure and its effect on the son in Larry McMurtry's Horseman, Pass By by Julie Marie Walbridge A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department: English Major: English (Literature) Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1991 ----------- ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE 7 CHAPTER TWO 1 5 CONCLUSION 38 WORKS CITED 42 WORKS CONSULTED 44 -------- -------· ------------ 1 INTRODUCTION For this thesis the term "frontier" means more than the definition of having no more than two non-Indian settlers per square mile (Turner 3).
    [Show full text]
  • Provided by the Internet Classics Archive. See Bottom for Copyright
    Provided by The Internet Classics Archive. See bottom for copyright. Available online at http://classics.mit.edu//Homer/iliad.html The Iliad By Homer Translated by Samuel Butler ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BOOK I Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another. And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was the son of Jove and Leto; for he was angry with the king and sent a pestilence upon the host to plague the people, because the son of Atreus had dishonoured Chryses his priest. Now Chryses had come to the ships of the Achaeans to free his daughter, and had brought with him a great ransom: moreover he bore in his hand the sceptre of Apollo wreathed with a suppliant's wreath and he besought the Achaeans, but most of all the two sons of Atreus, who were their chiefs. "Sons of Atreus," he cried, "and all other Achaeans, may the gods who dwell in Olympus grant you to sack the city of Priam, and to reach your homes in safety; but free my daughter, and accept a ransom for her, in reverence to Apollo, son of Jove." On this the rest of the Achaeans with one voice were for respecting the priest and taking the ransom that he offered; but not so Agamemnon, who spoke fiercely to him and sent him roughly away.
    [Show full text]
  • Iliad Teacher Sample
    CONTENTS Teaching Guidelines ...................................................4 Appendix Book 1: The Anger of Achilles ...................................6 Genealogies ...............................................................57 Book 2: Before Battle ................................................8 Alternate Names in Homer’s Iliad ..............................58 Book 3: Dueling .........................................................10 The Friends and Foes of Homer’s Iliad ......................59 Book 4: From Truce to War ........................................12 Weaponry and Armor in Homer..................................61 Book 5: Diomed’s Day ...............................................14 Ship Terminology in Homer .......................................63 Book 6: Tides of War .................................................16 Character References in the Iliad ...............................65 Book 7: A Duel, a Truce, a Wall .................................18 Iliad Tests & Keys .....................................................67 Book 8: Zeus Takes Charge ........................................20 Book 9: Agamemnon’s Day ........................................22 Book 10: Spies ...........................................................24 Book 11: The Wounded ..............................................26 Book 12: Breach ........................................................28 Book 13: Tug of War ..................................................30 Book 14: Return to the Fray .......................................32
    [Show full text]
  • Homer and Greek Epic
    HomerHomer andand GreekGreek EpicEpic INTRODUCTION TO HOMERIC EPIC (CHAPTER 4.IV) • The Iliad, Books 23-24 • Overview of The Iliad, Books 23-24 • Analysis of Book 24: The Death-Journey of Priam •Grammar 4: Review of Parts of Speech: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns, Prepositions and Conjunctions HomerHomer andand GreekGreek EpicEpic INTRODUCTION TO HOMERIC EPIC (CHAPTER 4.IV) Overview of The Iliad, Book 23 • Achilles holds funeral games in honor of Patroclus • these games serve to reunite the Greeks and restore their sense of camaraderie • but the Greeks and Trojans are still at odds • Achilles still refuses to return Hector’s corpse to his family HomerHomer andand GreekGreek EpicEpic INTRODUCTION TO HOMERIC EPIC (CHAPTER 4.IV) Overview of The Iliad, Book 24 • Achilles’ anger is as yet unresolved • the gods decide he must return Hector’s body • Zeus sends Thetis to tell him to inform him of their decision • she finds Achilles sulking in his tent and he agrees to accept ransom for Hector’s body HomerHomer andand GreekGreek EpicEpic INTRODUCTION TO HOMERIC EPIC (CHAPTER 4.IV) Overview of The Iliad, Book 24 • the gods also send a messenger to Priam and tell him to take many expensive goods to Achilles as a ransom for Hector’s body • he sneaks into the Greek camp and meets with Achilles • Achilles accepts Priam’s offer of ransom and gives him Hector’s body HomerHomer andand GreekGreek EpicEpic INTRODUCTION TO HOMERIC EPIC (CHAPTER 4.IV) Overview of The Iliad, Book 24 • Achilles and Priam arrange an eleven-day moratorium on fighting
    [Show full text]
  • THE ARGONAUTIKA He'd Gone on His Vain Quest with Peirithoos: That Couple Would Have Made Their Task's Fulfillment Far Easier for Them All
    Book I Starting from you, Phoibos, the deeds ofthose old-time mortals I shall relute, who by way ofthe Black Sea's mouth and through the cobalt-dark rocks, at King Pelias 's commandment, in search of the Golden Fleece drove tight-thwarted Argo. For Pelias heard it voiced that in time thereafter a grim fate would await him, death at the prompting of the man he saw come, one-sandaled, from folk in the country: and not much later-in accordance with your word-Jason, fording on foot the Anauros's wintry waters, saved from the mud one sandal, but left the other stuck fast in the flooded estuary, pressed straight on to have his share in the sacred feast that Pelias was preparing for Poseidon his father, and the rest of the gods, though paying no heed to Pelasgian Hera. The moment Pelias saw him, he knew, and devised him a trial of most perilous seamanship, that in deep waters or away among foreign folk he might lose his homecoming. ,\row singers before 7ny time have recounted how the vessel was fashioned 4 Argos with the guidance of Athena. IW~cctIplan to do now is tell the name and farnib of each hero, describe their long voyage, all they accomplished in their wanderings: may the Muses inspire mnj sinpng! First in our record be Orpheus, whom famous Kalliope, after bedding Thracian Oikgros, bore, they tell us, 44 THE XRGONAUTIKA hard by Pimpleia's high rocky lookout: Orpheus, who's said to have charmed unshiftable upland boulders and the flow of rivers with the sound of his music.
    [Show full text]
  • Dares Phrygius' De Excidio Trojae Historia: Philological Commentary and Translation
    Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte Dares Phrygius' De Excidio Trojae Historia: Philological Commentary and Translation Jonathan Cornil Scriptie voorgedragen tot het bekomen van de graad van Master in de Taal- en letterkunde (Latijn – Engels) 2011-2012 Promotor: Prof. Dr. W. Verbaal ii Table of Contents Table of Contents iii Foreword v Introduction vii Chapter I. De Excidio Trojae Historia: Philological and Historical Comments 1 A. Dares and His Historia: Shrouded in Mystery 2 1. Who Was ‘Dares the Phrygian’? 2 2. The Role of Cornelius Nepos 6 3. Time of Origin and Literary Environment 9 4. Analysing the Formal Characteristics 11 B. Dares as an Example of ‘Rewriting’ 15 1. Homeric Criticism and the Trojan Legacy in the Middle Ages 15 2. Dares’ Problematic Connection with Dictys Cretensis 20 3. Comments on the ‘Lost Greek Original’ 27 4. Conclusion 31 Chapter II. Translations 33 A. Translating Dares: Frustra Laborat, Qui Omnibus Placere Studet 34 1. Investigating DETH’s Style 34 2. My Own Translations: a Brief Comparison 39 3. A Concise Analysis of R.M. Frazer’s Translation 42 B. Translation I 50 C. Translation II 73 D. Notes 94 Bibliography 95 Appendix: the Latin DETH 99 iii iv Foreword About two years ago, I happened to be researching Cornelius Nepos’ biography of Miltiades as part of an assignment for a class devoted to the study of translating Greek and Latin texts. After heaping together everything I could find about him in the library, I came to the conclusion that I still needed more information. So I decided to embrace my identity as a loyal member of the ‘Internet generation’ and began my virtual journey through the World Wide Web in search of articles on Nepos.
    [Show full text]
  • The Consolations of Death in Ancient Greek Literature
    $B 44 125 The Consolations of Death In Ancient Greek Literature By SISTER MARY EVARISTUS, MA. of THE SISTERS OF CHABITY, HALIFAX, N. S. A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Catholic Sisters College of the Catholic University of America in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/consolationsofdeOOmorarich The Consolations of Death In Ancient Greek Literature SISTER MARY EVARISTUS, M.A. of THE SISTERS OF CHARITY, HALIFAX, N. S. A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Catholic Sisters College of the Cathoh University of America in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy NA.ICXAI SA'.TAL PICS' 'MC , WA'iUNOTON, D. C. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction 7 CHAPTER I The Inevitableness of Death 10 Universality of death a motive for consolation. Views of death in Homer. Homeric epithets for death. No power can ward off death. Consolation afforded by the thought that it cannot come before the appointed time. Inevitableness of death as depicted in the Lyric Poets, * Tragedians, Plato, Lysias, Apollonius Rhodius, ps.- Plutarch, Plutarch. CHAPTER II Others Have Had to Die 19 Treatment of t&kos in Homer, ov <roi /xopoj. Tragic Poets, Plutarch, ps.-Plutarch. Examples of those who have borne sufferings nobly. Extension of t&kos. Even better men have died. CHAPTER III Death the Payment of a Debt to Nature 26 Should not complain when loan is claimed. Simonides of Ceos. Euripides. Plato. ps.-Plutarch. CHAPTER IV Death Not to be Regarded as Unexpected 28 Nothing ought to appear unexpected.
    [Show full text]
  • Inventory of Dual Forms in the Iliad
    Carolin Hahnemann, Professor of Classics, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH 43022, USA [email protected] INVENTORY OF DUAL FORMS IN THE ILIAD This table follows the text of West’s Teubner edition; only occasionally does it record a dual reading reported in the critical apparatus. Since my primary interests concerns the different types of referents that take dual forms, in the fourth column after the name of the speaker (in capital letters) I distinguish the following types: Abstract Concepts Measure Objects Bodypart Nature Animal Persons Within the last group I have tentatively sought to establish the following subgroups: Sexual Couple Parent and Child Sibling Pair Equals in Action General Collective Many entries contain additional notes. Regarding these it is important to know that I started to add the label “formula” only late; hence it is very often missing. By “necessary dual” I mean forms for which no plural alternative exists such as the numeral. I can see two kinds of additional information that would help to provide a more well-rounded picture of the use of the dual in the Iliad. (1) Morphological analysis of each dual form would show the spread of dual forms according to part of speech as well as case, gender and declension for nouns and person, tense, mood, voice for verbs. (2) Tracking of the sequence of dual and plural per passage would give a sense of high versus low incidence of dual forms and also show whether dual forms gravitate toward are particular position within the passage such as its beginning or end. It is my hope that the table may prove useful to other scholars and will gladly provide microsoft versions for anybody who would like to adapt or build on the existing material as part of his or her own investigation (see email address in header).
    [Show full text]