From Homer To Tragedy

The role of poetic allusion in classical Greek poetry, to Homer especially, has often largely been neglected or even almost totally ignored. This book, first published in 1990, clarifies the place of Homer in Greek education, as well as adding to the interpretation of many important tragedies. Focussing on the dramatic masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and how these writers imitated and alluded to other poetry, the author reveals the immense dependence on Homer which can be seen throughout the corpus of Attic tragedy. It is argued that the practice of the art of allusion indicates certain conventions in fifth-century Athenian education, and perhaps also suggests something in the way of public, political, and historical self-awareness. Invaluable to anyone interested in the reception of Homer in the classical age, and to students of comparative literature and linguistic theory.

The role of poetic allusion in classical Greek poetry, to Homer especially, has often largely been neglected or even almost totally ignored. This book, first published in 1990, clarifies the place of Homer in Greek education, as well as adding to the interpretation of many important tragedies. Focussing on the dramatic masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and how these writers imitated and alluded to other poetry, the author reveals the immense dependence on Homer which can be seen throughout the corpus of Attic tragedy. It is argued that the practice of the art of allusion indicates certain conventions in fifth-century Athenian education, and perhaps also suggests something in the way of public, political, and historical self-awareness. Invaluable to anyone interested in the reception of Homer in the classical age, and to students of comparative literature and linguistic theory.

Andrew Ford here addresses, in a manner both engaging and richly informed, the perennial questions of what poetry is, how it came to be, and what it is for. Focusing on the critical moment in Western literature when the heroic tales of the Greek oral tradition began to be preserved in writing, he examines these questions in the light of Homeric poetry. Through fresh readings of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and referring to other early epics as well, Ford deepens our understanding of what poetry was at a time before written texts, before a developed sense of authorship, and before the existence of institutionalized criticism. Placing what is known about Homer's art in the wider context of Homer's world, Ford traces the effects of the oral tradition upon the development of the epic and addresses such issues as the sources of the poet's inspiration and the generic constraints upon epic composition. After exploring Homer's poetic vocabulary and his fictional and mythical representations of the art of singing, Ford reconstructs an idea of poetry much different from that put forth by previous interpreters. Arguing that Homer grounds his project in religious rather than literary or historical terms, he concludes that archaic poetry claims to give a uniquely transparent and immediate rendering of the past. Homer: The Poetry of the Past will be stimulating and enjoyable reading for anyone interested in the traditions of poetry, as well as for students and scholars in the fields of classics, literary theory and literary history, and intellectual history.

This book studies the social and ethical formation of certain youthful figures in Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides ; The book proposes a new template for heroic education, established by the Iliadic Achilles ; By showing how Sophocles and Euripides vary the Homeric template, the book also draws attention to an unexplored facet of epic's influence on tragedy ; Offers a contemporary perspective on education, derived from Greek epic and tragedy -

This book uses Greek poetry and Plato's philosophy to explain the appeal of tragedy and explore the non-cognitive value of aesthetic engagement.

How were the Greeks of the sixth century BC able to invent philosophy and tragedy? In this book Richard Seaford argues that a large part of the answer can be found in another momentous development, the invention and rapid spread of coinage, which produced the first ever thoroughly monetised society. By transforming social relations monetisation contributed to the ideas of the universe as an impersonal system, fundamental to Presocratic philosophy, and of the individual alienated from his own kin and from the gods, as found in tragedy.

THE Department of Classical Philology of Columbia University has approved this monograph as a contribution to knowledge worthy of publication. We are happy to agree, and we hope that Mr. Messer will be able to fulfill his promise of further contributions to his chosen subject. He was led to the study of the dreams in Greek literature by the discovery -- which every serious student of Latin literature will make -- that without Greek you cannot get far into Latin; for he first set out to investigate Roman dreams (see "Mnemosyne," 45, 78-92). His present work is really introductory to a more general study of the ancient dream, especially as portrayed in Latin literature. It deals particularly with the dreams in Homer, Hesiod, and the Tragedians, (I) as a part of the machinery, a motive force in the development of action, narrative, plot, and (2) as artistic ends in themselves, more or less complete, more or less refined, more or less natural or artificial. The author has collected, for his own purposes, all dreams and references to dreams that he can find in Greek or Latin literature down to the second century A.D., and his footnotes give proof of his wide reading and of the intrinsic interest of his materials. His style is somewhat inelegant, and his arrangement unattractive. His method is to plough solemnly through the whole field, noting and discussing each dream as it appears. Accordingly there is too much repetition, and a bewildering abundance of cross-references. If only he had added a short chapter summarizing his results, his work would have been more likely to be recognised for what it is -- a very sound and useful piece of not particularly inspired research. That the author is no mere compiler is shown by many touches of just literary appreciation. He is at his best in pointing out that Penelope's dream of geese and eagle (Odyssey XIX.) is unlike other dreams in Homer, an allegorical vision which demands interpretation, "a new departure for the epic, and a model for the allegorical dreams of tragedy.' The second part, in which the eagle returns and announces him as Odysseus, is in the manner of the older type, the objective dream which tells its own tale without any mystery; and this addition, Mr. Messer thinks, is an indication that the poet felt uneasy about the introduction of the new technique (pp. 33-4). Excellent, again, is the remark (p. 57) that 'the immediate source of the dream in tragedy is to be found not in religion and cult, but in the literature.' So is the discussion (p. 81 ff.) of the dream in Sophocles' "Electra," where the old literary motif is adapted, not so much for its mechanical effect upon the plot as for its value as a means and an excuse for the portrayal of character. Finally, the description of the dream in Euripides' "Iphigenia in Tauris" as approximating to 'the highly chiseled miniatures in which the Alexandrian period delights, ' strikes me as just and illuminating. Where Mr. Messer sticks to the literature and his own commonsense, his work is sound and useful. Sometimes, unfortunately, he is led, like most of us, into the dangerous by-paths of cult-conjecture....--"The Classical Review," Volume 33