Download The Raft of Odysseus: The Ethnographic Imagination of by Carol Dougherty PDF

By Carol Dougherty

The Raft of Odysseus appears on the interesting intersection of conventional delusion with an enthnographically-viewed Homeric global. Carol Dougherty argues that the resourcefulness of Odysseus as an adventurer on perilous seas served for example to Homer's society which additionally needed to alter in artistic how one can turbulent stipulations. the wonderful adventures of Odysseus act as a prism for the studies of Homer's personal listeners--traders, seafarers, storytellers, soldiers--and provide us a glimpse into their very own global of hopes and fears, 500 years after the Iliadic occasions have been imagined to have happened.

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Extra info for The Raft of Odysseus: The Ethnographic Imagination of Homer's Odyssey

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Hesiod says that he dedicated his prize to the Muses of Helicon in the place where they first launched his poetic career—he uses E7te(3r|aav here, a term that can describe embarking on a ship10—and this nautical image provides Hesiod with the transition back to his discussion of sailing: That is the extent of my experience with many-pegged ships, but I speak the mind of aegis-holding Zeus, for the Muses taught me to sing their divine song. (WD 66o-6z) In this concluding section, Hesiod once again conflates nautical and poetic skill.

42 One improvises from things that are close at hand, and an improvised ship is thus a raft. And so, in addition to its manner of construction, the two components—divine intervention and improvisation—that build Odysseus' raft coincide with the complementary aspects of oral poetic composition: familiarity with the poetic tradition often represented by the Muses and an ability to innovate within that tradition. 43 This twofold technique is perhaps best articulated by Phemius in his death-averting speech in Book 22 of the Odyssey, when he asks Odysseus not to kill him precisely because he is a poet: I am self-taught, and the god inspires me with all kinds of songs.

Aelian, Miscellany At the end of Book 5, Odysseus builds a raft to sail away from Calypso's island and return home to Ithaca. In addition to enabling Odysseus to continue his homeward journey, this raft helps articulate the figurative association of ships and seafaring with poetic activity in the Odyssey. On many occasions, ships— the manner of their construction and their ability to sail—represent the poetic process in Greek poetry, and the raft-building scene in Book 5 elaborates the terms and structure of this metaphor at work in the Odyssey.

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