As Homer remains an indispensable figure in the canons of world literature, interpreting the Homeric text is a challenging and high stakes enterprise. There are untold numbers of variations, imitations, alternate translations, and adaptations of the Iliad and Odyssey, making it difficult to establish what, exactly, the epics were. Gregory Nagy's essays have one central aim: to show how the text and language of Homer derive from an oral poetic system. In Homeric studies, there has been an ongoing debate centering on different ways to establish the text of Homer and the different ways to...
As Homer remains an indispensable figure in the canons of world literature, interpreting the Homeric text is a challenging and high stakes enterprise....
The "Homeric Question" has vexed Classicists for generations. Was the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey a single individual who created the poems at a particular moment in history? Or does the name "Homer" hide the shaping influence of the epic tradition during a long period of oral composition and transmission?
In this innovative investigation, Gregory Nagy applies the insights of comparative linguistics and anthropology to offer a new historical model for understanding how, when, where, and why the...
Winner, A Choice Outstanding Academic Book
The "Homeric Question" has vexed Classicists for generations. Was the author of the I...
This collection of critical writings on Greek literature traces the Greek roots of all major literary genres - epic, lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, history, oratory, and philosophy. With articles by noted scholars including Albert Bates Lord, Milman Parry, Diskin Clay, and Walter Burkert, this seven volume set covers Greek literature from the 6th century to the Byzantine era.
This collection of critical writings on Greek literature traces the Greek roots of all major literary genres - epic, lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, hi...
This book is a comparative study of oral poetics in literate cultures, focusing on the problems of textual fluidity in the transmission of Homeric poetry over half a millennium, from the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods of ancient Greece. It stresses the role of performance and the performer in the re-creative process of composition-in-performance. It addresses questions of authority and authorship in the making of oral poetry, and it examines the efforts of ancient scholars to edit a definitive text of the "real" Homer.
This book is a comparative study of oral poetics in literate cultures, focusing on the problems of textual fluidity in the transmission of Homeric poe...
The festival of the Panathenaia, held in Athens every summer to celebrate the birthday of the city's goddess, Athena, was the setting for performances of the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey by professional reciters or rhapsodes. The works of Plato are our main surviving source of information about these performances. Through his references, a crucial phase in the history of the Homeric tradition can be reconstructed. Through Plato's eyes, the staging of Homer in classical Athens can once again becomed
The festival of the Panathenaia, held in Athens every summer to celebrate the birthday of the city's goddess, Athena, was the setting for performances...
From Cinderella to The Boy Who Cried Wolf to The Dragon Slayer to the Judgment of Solomon, certain legends, myths, and folktales are part of the oral tradition in countries around the world. In addition to their pervasiveness, these stories show an...
From Cinderella to The Boy Who Cried Wolf to The Dragon Slayer to the Judgment of Solomon, certain legends, myths, and folktales are part of the oral ...
Nagy challenges the widely held view that the development of lyric poetry in Greece represents the rise of individual innovation over collective tradition. Arguing that Greek lyric represents a tradition in its own right, Nagy shows how the form of Greek epic is in fact a differentiation of forms found in Greek lyric. Throughout, he progressively broadens the definition of lyric to the point where it becomes the basis for defining epic, rather than the other way around.
Nagy challenges the widely held view that the development of lyric poetry in Greece represents the rise of individual innovation over collective tr...
Despite widespread interest in the Greek hero as a cult figure, little was written about the relationship between the cult practices and the portrayals of the hero in poetry. The first edition of The Best of the Achaeans bridged that gap, raising new questions about what could be known or conjectured about Greek heroes. In this revised edition, which features a new preface by the author, Gregory Nagy reconsiders his conclusions in the light of the subsequent debate and resumes his discussion of the special status of heroes in ancient Greek life and poetry. His book remains an...
Despite widespread interest in the Greek hero as a cult figure, little was written about the relationship between the cult practices and the portra...
This carefully selected collection of critical writings on Greek literature traces the Greek roots of all major literary genres-epic, lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, history, oratory, and philosophy. With articles by noted scholars including Albert Bates Lord, Milman Parry, Diskin Clay, and Walter Burkert, this nine volume set covers Greek literature from 6th century BC to the Byzantine era.
This carefully selected collection of critical writings on Greek literature traces the Greek roots of all major literary genres-epic, lyric poetry, tr...
