Vassar College Digital Window @ Vassar Senior Capstone Projects 2013 The Original Storyteller: an Exploration of the Metanarrative Frame in Homer Madeleine G. Beitz
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalwindow.vassar.edu/senior_capstone Recommended Citation Beitz, Madeleine G., "The Original Storyteller: an Exploration of the Metanarrative Frame in Homer" (2013). Senior Capstone Projects. 170. http://digitalwindow.vassar.edu/senior_capstone/170 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Window @ Vassar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of Digital Window @ Vassar. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE ORGINAL STORYTELLER: AN EXPLORATION OF THE METANARATIVE FRAME IN HOMER MADELEINE GRIGG BEITZ DEPARTMENT OF GREEK AND ROMAN STUDIES ADVISED BY RACHEL FRIEDMAN MAY 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………PAGE 3 CHAPTER 1: TELEMACHUS……………………………………...…….PAGE 5 CHAPTER 2: ACHILLES…………………………………………….....PAGE 22 CHAPTER 3: HECTOR………………………………………………….PAGE 40 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………..PAGE 50 2 Stories played a uniquely important role in ancient culture. Poetry, songs, and paradigms acted as living myths that had a function far beyond entertainment. They tied individuals together through a communal experience the perpetuated the values of the community. The most elevated form of story telling was epic poetry, which was performed orally by bards all over Hellas. The Odyssey and The Iliad have survived as some of the only remaining examples of this epic poetry. The primary function of most epic poems, including these two, was to sing the kleos of famous men. Kleos (κλέος) comes from the verb κλύω meaning to hear.