Download The Iliad: Structure, Myth, and Meaning by Bruce Louden PDF
By Bruce Louden
Extending his certain research of Homeric epic to the Iliad, Bruce Louden, writer of The "Odyssey": constitution, Narration, and which means, back provides new techniques to figuring out the topics and tale of the poem. during this thought-provoking examine, he demonstrates how repeated narrative motifs argue for an multiplied figuring out of the constitution of epic poetry. First selecting the "subgenres" of delusion in the poem, he then reads those opposed to comparable mythologies of the close to East, constructing a context within which the poem will be extra safely interpreted.Louden starts off by way of concentrating on the ways that the Iliad's 3 events correspond with and touch upon one another. He bargains unique interpretations of many episodes, particularly in books three and seven, and makes new arguments approximately a few famous controversies (e.g., the duals in booklet 9), the Iliad's use of parody, the functionality of theomachy, and the prefiguring of Hektor as a sacrificial sufferer in books three and six. the second one a part of the ebook compares fourteen subgenres of fable within the Iliad to contemporaneous close to japanese traditions comparable to these of the previous testomony and of Ugaritic mythology. Louden concludes with a longer comparability of the Homeric Athena and Anat, a West Semitic goddess worshipped through the Phoenicians and Egyptians. Louden's leading edge strategy yields remarkable new insights into the formation and early literary contexts of Greek epic poetry. (Jan. 2008)
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Example text
258), although κλυτὰ in book 22 continues the implicit emphasis on how those same arms, divinely made, help signify Hektor’s death. 261–67), pointing to the atrocities he will soon commit on Hektor’s corpse. The motif is doubled, occurring a second time in Akhilleus’ sequence. Immediately after Hektor receives his fatal wound, but while he still has the strength to speak, he again requests honorable burial, repeating lines used in the book 7 challenge: but give my body back to be taken home, so the Trojans and the Trojans’ wives can give me my share of fire when I have died.
The Principal Narrative Pattern 33 b. His fear of shame counters their attempts at persuasion Hektor’s reaction to his closest female relatives’ (and Priam’s in book 22) pleas that he stay within the city is virtually the same in both sequences: he is unpersuaded (though ironically he will be persuaded by his brother, who is, in both sequences, a figure he should not trust): οὐδέ με πείσεις. you will not persuade me. 360) οὐδ᾿ Ἕκτορι θυμὸν ἔπειθον. and they did not persuade Hektor’s heart. 105; cf.
2, 18 ff, 122 ff, 136–38, 145–47, 184–93). 130). 141–43), serves as transition to the fight with Xanthos. While we can recognize the same basic motif in Akhilleus’ encounter with Xanthos, the heroic tenor of the episode is quite distinct from the clashes in book 5, which have a comic modality (discussed in chapter 6). The river is angered because Akhilleus has dammed his waters with Tro- The Principal Narrative Pattern 27 jan corpses. Initially, Akhilleus agrees to cease harming Xanthos’ waters, but vows to continue slaying Trojans.