Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Pastoral poetry, Greek History and criticism'

This thesis is concerned with the pseudo-Hesiodic Aspis, also known as the Scutum or Shield of Herakles (Heracles). It is divided into two halves: the Introduction, consisting of four chapters, is followed by detailed line-by-line commentary on a portion of the Greek text. Chapter I surveys the evidence for the poem's origins and dating before moving on to its scholarly reception since Wolf. It then argues that, for a proper understanding of the Aspis, the methodologies of oral poetics must be balanced with an awareness of its responses to fixed texts (in particular the Iliad). Chapter II examines the author as a poet within the oral tradition, focussing on: narrative style and structuring; type-scenes; similes; poetic ethos; the poem's position relative to the Hesiodic corpus; the use of formular language; and the growth of the poem in the author's hands. These problems are most fruitfully approached by taking account of the interplay of tradition on the one hand and of allusion to specific texts on the other. Wider points about the advanced stages of the oral tradition also emerge; in particular, from an analysis of narrative inconsistencies in the Aspis it is suggested that writing played a role in the poem's composition. Chapter III positions the poet within the literary tradition: his interactions with other songs and tales are sometimes sophisticated engagements of a kind more often detected in Hellenistic and Roman poetry. The presentation of the protagonist of the Aspis evinces the poet's skilful handling of myth, here manipulated for political purposes. Chapter III concludes with a survey of the poem's reception in early art and in literature up to Byzantine times. In Chapter IV the central section of the poem, the description of Herakles' shield (vv. 139-320), is examined in detail, both in relation to the Homeric Shield of Achilles and within the context of the Aspis. The second half of the thesis comprises a critical edition of and lemmatic commentary on vv. 139-237.

It is now widely acknowledged that the Greek epic tradition, best known from Homer, dates back into the Mycenaean Age, and that certain aspects of epic language point to an origin for this type of verse before the date of the extant Linear B tablets. This thesis argues that not only is this so, but that indeed before the end of the Mycenaean Age epic verse was composed in a distinctive literary language characterized by the presence of alternative forms used for metrical convenience. Such alternatives included dialectal variants and forms which were retained in epic once obsolete in everyday speech. Thus epic language in the 2nd millennium already possessed some of the most distinctive characteristics manifest in its Homeric incarnation, namely the presence of doublets and the retention of archaisms. It is argued here that the most probable source for accretions to epic language was at all times the spoken language familiar to the poets of the tradition. There is reason to believe that certain archaic forms, attested only in epic and its imitators, were obsolete in spoken Greek before 1200 B.C.; by examining formulae containing such forms it is possible to determine the likely subject-matter of 2nd millennium epic. Such a linguistic analysis leads to the conclusion that much of the thematic content of Homeric epic corresponds to that of 2nd millennium epic. Non-Homeric early dactylic verse (e.g. the Hesiodic corpus) provides examples of both non-Homeric dialect forms and of archaisms unknown from Homer. This fact, it is argued, points to the conclusion that the 2nd millennium linguistic heritage of epic is evident also from these poems, and that they are not simply imitations of Homer, but independent representatives of the same poetic tradition whose roots lie in the 2nd millennium epic.

This dissertation is a study of the rhetorical uses of evaluative language in Greek lyric and elegiac poetry and inscribed epigram of the period from the seventh to the fifth century B.C.E. The discussion focuses on the poets' evaluations of human worth in three areas, each of which forms a separate chapter: martial valour, the relationship between physical appearance and inner virtue, and political or social values. Within each chapter, particular aspects of the subject under discussion are treated under separate headings. Although the literary material has been treated in various ways in the past, the inclusion of inscribed epigram alongside the other literature in this case offers evidence from a related but distinct branch of poetic tradition for the development and expression of these values; divergences between the literary and the inscriptional tradition can be quite marked, as can the different approaches taken by poets of various genres within the literary material. The attempts of previous scholarship to define clear and consistent systems or codes of value represented in the poetry and to trace their development over this period have been generally unconvincing, but the poets' deployment of evaluative language does show some discernible patterns which appear to be related more to genre and poetic tradition than to the purely chronological processes of development that have been proposed by other scholars.

This thesis explores Pindar's relationship to his audiences. Part One demonstrates how his victory odes take into account an audience present at their premiere performance and also secondary audiences throughout space and time. It argues that getting the most out of the epinicians involves simultaneously assuming the perspectives of both their initial and subsequent audiences. Part Two describes how Pindar uses his audiences' knowledge of other lyric to situate his work both within an immanent poetic history and within a contemporary poetic culture. It sets out Pindar's vision of the literary world past and present and suggests how this framework shapes an audience's experience of his work. Part Three explains how Pindar's victory odes made lucid sense as linear unities to fifth-century Greeks imbued in the traditions of choral lyric. An annotated text shows how each sentence in the epinician corpus forms part of a coherent chain of rational discourse.

The Annales of the Roman poet, Quintus Ennius, was not an isolated example of an historical epic. Other poets before Ennius' time had written epics of various types, and different sorts of poems that dealt with historical or national material, and some of these influenced Ennius. This study will consider Ennius' relationship to the Homeric epics, and show how he imitated them in form and style. The writings of other Greek poets who preceded Ennius will be examined to determine whether they might also have influenced the Roman poet. The works of the two Roman poets who wrote before Ennius will be looked at, and some observations made about other historical materials that may have been available for the poet to use in his work. Finally, the place of Quintus Ennius and his Annales in the historiography of Rome will be discussed. The Annales seems to have been unique in that it was an epic poem which encompassed the whole history of the Roman people from the earliest times right down to the period in which the poet lived. Other poets before Ennius had dealt with some aspects of their cities' backgrounds, including mythological and legendary material. Ennius was the first to combine ancient legends and more recent history into one coherent epic poem, his Annales.
Arts, Faculty of
Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of
Graduate

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2005
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the cosmological context of Pindar' s victory odes, and its importance for their encomiastic purpose. The introductory chapter deals with selected aspects of Pindaric scholarship in order to establish the usefulness of such an investigation. The first part of the study focuses on gnomai as a reflection of cosmological ideas. In Chapter 2 modem scholarship on the proverb and maxim, various ancient texts on gnomai and a number of references in Pindar are analysed in support of the contention that gnomai provide a legitimate basis for an overview of the cosmology revealed in Pindars poetry. The overview presented in Chapter 3 discusses three broad topics. The first concerns the elemental forces, fate, god and nature, the second deals with the human condition and the third considers man in society from the perspectives of the household and family relationships on the one hand and relationships outside the OtKOs on the other. The overview suggests that Pindar's work is founded on a mostly conventional outlook on man and his relationships with both extra-human powers and his fellow man. To complement the overview three epinikia, Olympian 12, Isthmian 4 and Olympian 13 are analysed in Chapter 4. They demonstrate how the complexity of an actual situation compels the poet to emphasise different aspects of the cosmology or even to suggest variations to accepted views. The analyses imply that presenting the cosmological context of a particular celebration in an appropriate way is part of the poet's task. This aspect is further investigated in Chapter 5, which looks at the role of the poet as mediator of cosmology. In some cases the poet demonstrates certain preferred attitudes which in tum presuppose particular cosmological convictions. In others this role involves changing the perspective on the circumstances or attributes of a victor or his family through a modification of cosmological principles. Different approaches to the same theme in different poems show the author Pindar shaping the narrator-poet to represent varying viewpoints in order to praise a specific victor in the manner most suitable to his wishes and circumstances. The fact that the poet's task includes situating the victory in its cosmological context means that the glorification of a victor includes presenting him as praiseworthy in terms of broader life issues, such as the role of the divine in human achievement, a man's attitude to success and his status in society. Pindar's use of cosmological themes in general speaks of pragmatism rather than conformity to and the consistent defense of a rigid framework of values. However, the prominence of cosmology in the odes and the sometimes very conspicuous role of the poet in communicating it also reveal Pindar's abiding interest in man and his position in the world
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die kosmologiese konteks van Pindaros se oorwinningsodes, en die belangrikheid daarvan vir die gedigte as prysliedere. Die inleidende hoofstuk behandel geselekteerde aspekte van Pindaros-navorsing om die nut van so 'n ondersoek te bepaal. Die eerste deel van die studie fokus op gnomai as 'n bron van kosmologiese idees. In hoofstuk 2 word moderne navorsing oor spreekwoorde en wysheidspreuke, verskeie antieke tekste oor gnomai en 'n aantal verwysings in Pindaros se werk ontleed ter ondersteuning van die stand punt dat gnornai 'n redelike grondslag bied vir 'n oorsig van die kosmologie wat in Pindaros se digkuns na vore kom. Die oorsig aangebied in hoofstuk 3 bespreek drie bree onderwerpe, eerstens die fundamentele magte, die noodlot, god en die natuur, tweedens die menslike toestand en derdens die mens in die samelewing uit die hoek van die huishouding en familieverhoudings enersyds en verhoudings buite die OtKOs ; andersyds. Die oorsig dui aan dat Pindaros se werk gebaseer is op 'n hoofsaaklik konvensionele uitkyk op die mens en sy verhoudings met beide buite-menslike magte en sy medemens. Ter aanvulling van die oorsig word drie oorwinningsodes, Olimpiese Ode 12, lsmiese Ode 4 en Olimpiese Ode 13 in hoofstuk 4 ontleed. Die ontledings toon aan hoe die kompleksiteit van 'n gegewe situasie die digter verplig om verskillende aspekte van die kosmologie te beklemtoon of selfs afwykings van aanvaarde menings voor te stel. Die ontledings impliseer dat dit deel van die digter se taak is om die kosmologiese konteks van 'n spesifieke viering op die gepaste wyse aan te bied. Hierdie aspek word verder ondersoek in hoofstuk 5, waarin die rol van die digter as bemiddelaar van kosmologie bekyk word. In sommige gevalle demonstreer die digter sekere voorkeurhoudings wat op hulle beurt spesifieke kosmologiese oortuigings veronderstel. In ander gevalle behels hierdie rol die verandering van die perspektief op die omstandighede of eienskappe van 'n oorwinnaar of sy familie deur die modifisering van kosmologiese beginsels. Verskillende benaderings tot dieselfde tema in verskillende gedigte wys hoe die outeur Pindaros die vertellerdigter vorm om wisselende standpunte te verteenwoordig sodat 'n spesifieke wenner op die mees geskikte manier in ooreenstemming met sy wense en omstandighede geprys kan word. Die feit dat die digter se taak die plasing van die oorwinning in sy kosmologiese konteks insluit, beteken dat die verheerliking van 'n wenner insluit dat hy voorgestel word as lofwaardig kragtens breer lewenskwessies, soos byvoorbeeld die rol van die goddelike in menslike prestasie, 'n mens se houding tot sukses en sy status in die gemeenskap. Oor die algemeen spreek Pindaros se gebruik van kosmologiese temas van pragmatisme eerder as onderwerping aan en die volgehoue verdediging van 'n rigiede stel waardes. Die belangrikheid van kosmologie in die odes en die soms besonder opvallende rol van die digter in die kommunikasie daarvan openbaar egter ook Pindaros se blywende belangstelling in die mens en sy plek in die wereld.

Since its earliest appearance, the word $ tau upsilon rho alpha nu nu acute iota varsigma$ referred to absolute rule obtained in defiance of any constitution that existed previously. In early Greek lyric poetry, tyranny is represented as a divine blessing, but one that meets with opposition against the tyrant and puzzlement at the behaviour of the gods. In Archilochus and elsewhere tyrannical ambition is termed eros. The common property that makes both tyranny and beauty objects of eros is luminosity: As the 'radiance' $ rm( lambda alpha mu pi rho acute o tau eta varsigma)$ of beauty is to the lover, so the 'splendour' $ rm( lambda alpha mu pi rho acute o tau eta varsigma)$ of tyranny is to the tyrannical "lover". The major symbol of tyrannical luminosity is gold. Conspicuous use of wealth and women contributed to the visibility of tyrannical splendour.

This study advances and adds detail to our history of the reading of verse in England c.1350-1500. Scholarship has established major twelfth- and thirteenth-century changes in reading, and linked these changes to manuscripts containing the modern Middle English verse canon. Historians of early modern reading have also argued for distinctive changes in their own period. But the examination of reading between these two clusters of change has been limited. This study therefore asks how later medieval Middle English verse was read. The surviving copies of The Prick of Conscience and Speculum Vitae, two hugely successful religious instructional poems, form the primary body of evidence. This body is augmented by reference to hundreds of other manuscripts containing Middle English verse. Together, these can reveal much about what was normal and abnormal in reading. They are also an important part of the context for the reading of more canonical Middle English verse. Manuscript studies often proceeds through case studies of individual books and unusual evidence such as marginalia. This thesis turns to codicology to understand more widespread evidence for reading, combining qualitative case studies with quantitative techniques borrowed and developed from continental scholarship. The first chapter examines evidence of provenance, revealing that both The Prick of Conscience and Speculum Vitae were read by an impressive range of people and remained current into the sixteenth century. The second chapter considers the navigational aids used in copies of both poems. Reading in this period has been characterised as 'discontinuous', but it could be discontinuous in diverse ways, and readers also read continuously. The third chapter is a large-scale study of books' size and shape, showing how these features can reveal books' reading histories, sometimes in counterintuitive ways. The fourth chapter contends that readers in this period attended closely to rhyme and probably read for balanced rhyme structures. The fifth chapter uncovers the ways in which these poems were rewritten for new readers and investigates the composition of the Southern Recension of The Prick of Conscience, arguing that this new text was partly a formalist intervention. The conclusion summarises the new 'baseline' history of the reading of Middle English verse which is offered here, and gestures towards implications for our reading of the Middle English poems which are canonical today.

This thesis raises and explores questions concerning the popularity of the Homeric poems in ancient Greece. It asks why the Iliad and Odyssey held such continuing appeal among the Greeks of the Archaic and Classical age. Cultural products such as poetry cannot be separated from the sociopolitical conditions in which and for which they were originally composed and received. Working on the basis that the extent of Homer’s appeal was inspired and sustained by the peculiar and determining historical circumstances, I set out to explore the relation of the social, political and ethical conditions and values of Archaic and Classical Greece to those portrayed in the Homeric poems. The Greeks, at the time during which Homer was composing his poems, had begun to establish a new form of social organisation: the polis. By examining historical, literary and philosophical texts from the Archaic and Classical age, I explore the manner in which Greek society attempted to reorganise and reconstitute itself in a different way, developing original modes of social and political activity which the new needs and goals of their new social reality demanded. I then turn to examine Homer’s treatment of and response to this social context, and explore the various ways in which Homer was able to reinterpret and reinvent the inherited stories of adventure and warfare in order to compose poetry that not only looks back to the highly centralised and bureaucratic society of the Mycenaean world, but also looks forward, insistently so, to the urban reality of the present. I argue that Homer’s conflation of a remembered mythical age with the contemporary conditions and values of Archaic and Classical Greece aroused in his audiences a new perception and understanding of human existence in the altered sociopolitical conditions of the polis and, in so doing, ultimately contributed to the development of new ideas on the manner in which the Greeks could best live together in their new social world.

Orientador: Marcos Aurelio Pereira
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-13T02:58:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CarmoNeto_JulioMariado_M.pdf: 486382 bytes, checksum: d9bf65f7ed3fb8a498a9152496dd362b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009
Resumo: Este trabalho versa sobre o mito de Orfeu, narrado pelo poeta romano Ovídio em sua obra as Metamorfoses. Focamo-nos no aspecto artístico dessa personagem, que freqüentemente é considerada o poeta, cantor e músico arquetípico. A seção da obra em que ela se insere como voz predominante é o livro X, do qual também propomos uma tradução, em prosa, ao final da dissertação. Nossa leitura considerou também a forma como a mesma personagem é apresentada em outro poeta romano, Virgílio, na seção final da obra Geórgicas. Como Ovídio dialoga de perto com a versão de seu antecessor, tal consideração se nos mostrou inevitável. O objetivo final é perceber a importância de se levar em conta o aspecto artístico da personagem para entendê-la no contexto do livro X das Metamorfoses, no qual Orfeu desponta como figura principal e dominante.
Abstract: This is a work on the mith of Orpheus, as narrated by the roman poet Ovid in his master piece Metamorphoses. We have focused on the artistic aspects of this character, who is often considered the archetipical poet, musician and singer. It is the dominant voice of Book 10, of which we offer a translation, in prose, at the end of this dissertation. Our readings have also taken into consideration the way this character is presented in another ronam poet, Vergil, in the final section of his work The Georgics. Considering Ovid dialogs closely to his antecessor, such consideration has presented itself unavoidable. The final goal is to aprehend the importance of taking into consideration the artistic aspects of the character in order to understand it in context of Book 10 of Metamorphoses, where Orpheus is the main dominant figure.
Mestrado
Linguistica
Mestre em Linguística

This thesis explores the forms and significance of dispute settlement by arbitration, or ‘δίκη’, in the Iliad. I take as my focus the ‘storm simile’ of Iliad XVI: 384-393, which describes Zeus’ theodical reaction to corruption within the δίκη-court, and the ‘shield trial’ of Iliad XVIII: 498-508, which presents a detailed picture of such a court in action, and compare the forms and conception of arbitration that emerge from these two ecphrastic passages with those found in the narrative body of the poem. Analysing the terminology and procedures associated with dispute settlement in the Iliad, I explore the evidence for the development of an ‘ideology of δίκη’, that valorises arbitrated settlement as a solution to conflict, and that identifies δίκη as a procedure and a civic institution with an objective standard of fairness: the foundation of a civic concept of ‘justice’. I argue that this ideology is fully articulated in the storm simile and the shield trial, as well as Hesiod’s Works and Days, but that it is also detectable in the narrative body of the Iliad. I further argue that the poet of the Iliad employs references to this ideology, through the narrative media of speech and ecphrasis, to prompt and direct his audience’s evaluation of the nature and outcome of the poem’s central conflict: the dispute of Achilles and Agamemnon.

This thesis applies to Archaic Greek literature the medievalist's concept of "women's songs," that is, love-poems given to a female persona and composed in a popular register. In the Greek context a distinct type can be recognised in poems of women's affections (not necessarily love-poems as such) composed in an ingenuous register and created for performance, choral or solo, within a women's thiasos. The poems studied are those of Sappho, along with the few surviving partheneia of Alcman and Pindar. The feminine is constructed, rather mechanically by Pindar, more subtly by the other two, from a combination of tender feeling, personal and natural beauty, and an artful artlessness.
It is not possible to reconstruct a paradigmatic thiasos which lies behind the women's songs, but certain characteristic features merge, especially the pervasiveness of homoerotic attachments and the combination of a personal, affective, with a social, religious function. In general, women's groups in ancient Greece must have served as a counterbalance to the prevailing male order. However, while some of the women's thiasoi provide a vehicle for the release of female aggression, the function of the present group is essentially harmonious and integrative.

M.A. (Greek)
The main purpose of this study has been to investigate the work of Greek poets in South Africa's Hellenic Diaspora from 1960 up to date, a period of a more voiummous artistic production due to the noticeable increase in the number of new Hellene immigrants and the innovative cultural atmosphere they brought along. Under this perspective, we examined the forces which led individuals to artistic creation with special focus on the relation between national identity and poetic production. Research has initially been based on poem collections, personal interviews as well as on newspaper articles, magazine publications and schedules of events which constitute our primary resources. In due course, lexicons and encyclopaedias were used to clarify terminology and semantics, as well as p!Cvious studies and relevant bibliography in order to prove, substantiate and enrich our present study. Implementation of quantitative and qualitative approaches with the use of questionnaires, interviews and data analysis rendered our project the following form: In the first chapter, Hellas is examined as the poets' country of origin in order to investigate the possible historic and literary influences carried over by the Greek poets to their new home. A history review of the period between the Second World War and 1974 was conducted examining the Hellenic socio-economic conditions predominant during the said period, which are likely to have led individuals into emigrating, as well as the post-war Hellenic literary development…

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
All the poems of Catullus and Tibullus and the first three books of Horace's Odes are investigated tor structures of parallelism and inverse paralelism (chiasmus) and thus the extent to which these devices were used is determined. Such structures are demonstrated for the first time for several poems. Sometimes additions or modifications are made to the structural analyses of other scholars, and sometimes their findings are confirmed. The notion that inverse parallelism was seldom used by Roman authors is dispelled. The freedom with which these devices were used, resulting in a great variety of deviations from strictly symmetrical structures, is demonstrated Both common and idiosyncratic features in the use of the devices by the three authors are shown. Several poems of each author are discussed to illustrate that the demonstration of a structure of parallelism or inverse parallelism is in itself an interpretative act, which can at the same time serve as a basis for further interpretation. In particular it is shown that structures of inverse parallelism often, if not always, iconically reflect the meaning of the poem (hence the title of the thesis) This ability or structures of inverse parallelism to reflect the meaning of the poem may partly account for the fact that they are used more frequently than are structures of parallelism. In the poems discussed structures of inverse parallelism iconically reflect the ideas of reversal, cyclical movement, non-progression/deadlock, balance and/or contrast and enclosure, as well as combinations of the above, such as a spiral (both progression and non-progression) or the combination of reversal and nonprogression. Continuity between the structural methods of Greek and Roman authors is demonstrated, and a theoretical framework is provided, which answers the questions how such structures can be determined, and what purposes, both practical and poetic, they serve. A literary-critical awareness of inverse parallelism in Antiquity is demonstrated. St. Augustine, especially, has a fairly developed theoretical frame of reference on the subject, in his De Genest ad Litteram
Andrew Chakane 2019

The hypothesis that the Homeric epics are the products of a formulaic mode of composition characteristic of an oral tradition has for the iast fifty years dominated Homeric research. The theories of Milman Parry and his followers have undoubtedly expanded our understanding of some of the processes which make composition possible. But these same theories, in arguing for a text produced by a tradition, and not by a creative poet, have frustrated the scholar who wishes to come to terms with the epics as great works in themselves, as compositions which have long had the capacity to exci te and involve their audiences. As a corrective, therefore, to Parry's influence, which scarcely permits us to go beyond a text-based analysis of Homer's verses, I propose that we consider the poems from another perspective. This is a perspective suggested by recent work in several disciplines - in cognitive science, psychology, and sociolinguistics - in which stories have been examined not as text per se , but as the products of an activity which might be described as mind-based and audience-orientated. Cognitive psychology offers us a theoretical framework within which we can reconstruct the processes by which a poet composes his story, even as he performs. A study of the pragmatics of storytelling, on the other hand, allows us to appreciate story as a medium of communication in which the storyteller, at every stage of composition, and in order to serve his own purposes, is responsive to the needs and expectations of his audience. I attempt to demonstrate how these theories about stories and the shaping of stories enhance our appreciation not only of the processes by which the Homeric epics might have been composed but also of the action described within the storyworlds which they evoke. My aim is not to overturn current views of Homer; rather, I shall suggest that, in the light of so much empirical work on narrative, it is possible today to rationalize and synthesize them in the interests of a more coherent understanding of these great poems. I shall suggest that many of the features of the Homeric epics (such as foreshadowing and the repetition of type-scenes, or the irony which we find throughout the Odyssey) may be described and explained in terms both of the cognitive processes which have been activated and of the social interaction itself, the focus of which for the moment is the storytelling; and that most of these are common to storytelling practice as we know it today. My principal objective, however, has been to use these new theories to structure a careful re-reading of the epics, to explore certain passages afresh, and to throw further light on the techniques of a fine storyteller who understands his craft.

The name ‘Simonides’ has long been associated with the Persian Wars. More specifically, Simonides is famous in large part because of his commemoration of the Persian War dead in the form of epigrams. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a set of four of the most famous and most distinctively ‘Simonidean’ poems to the end of delineating their stylistic deviations from conventional epitaphic speech. This paper argues that the specific ways in which Simonides departs from the conventions of epigrammatic language serve to convey a distinctively democratic ethos. This ethos is clear in that Simonides’ epigrams privilege the mass efforts of the collective, and do not praise any particular individuals over another. Moreover, that these poems do not include the sort of identifying details that we would normally expect to find in epigrams anticipates a readership that is uniformly knowledgeable about the events of the Persian Wars. This represents another facet of the egalitarian ethos evident in this group of epigrams, as Simonides treats his readers as equally aware of the events of the Persian Wars. Thus, Simonides assumes a unified, panhellenic identity that characterizes both the subjects of his poems as well as his readers: they are all part of the same entity that defeated the Persians. Simultaneously, however, Simonides, or at the very least, the Simonidean name, achieves his own kleos as an individual poet through his distinctive commemorations of the Persian War dead. With these poems comes the emergence of a Simonidean poetic persona that renders the poet’s voice unique because of the way in which Simonides diverges from epigrammatic convention. The allotment of immortal kleos both to the anonymous, undifferentiated masses of Persian War dead and to the name ‘Simonides’ reflects two distinctive ideologies, the latter archaic and the former classical. My reading of these epigrams thus demonstrates how the commemoration of the Persian Wars is poised between two different eras and two different ideologies.
text

From Aristotle onwards, the Homeric narrator has been praised for the restrained way in which he provides commentary to his audience. But there are occasions when the poet-narrator intrudes overtly as when he makes a direct address to - or apostrophe of - one of the characters in the epic. Scholars have advanced various hypotheses to explain the function and effect of narratorial apostrophe in Homer. This study aims to determine whether one evaluation is valid for all narratorial apostrophes of character in the Iliad. I test the current evaluations of these apostrophes in three case studies. According to the character-based evaluation, the Homeric narrator uses apostrophe to model sympathy and pity for a character to elicit a similar emotional response in the audience. According to the structure-based evaluation, apostrophes mark critical turning points in the story. Most scholarship has focussed on the recipients of multiple apostrophes, Menelaos and Patroklos, but I pay equal attention to a third group of apparently miscellaneous apostrophes. My approach relies on a close reading of each apostrophe in its event-sequence, and I draw on elements of structural narratology and Labov and Waletzky's model of the components of narrative. I also examine the synergy between apostrophes and other forms of narratorial intrusion. Although the contribution of the character-based approach to our understanding of Homeric apostrophe in the Iliad is well-recognized, I propose that it is limited in scope. I demonstrate the new insights that are offered by a structure-based interpretation in which the apostrophes of character are examined against Labov and Waletzky's model. What emerges are the different yet complementary insights afforded by a close reading of the apostrophic event-sequences, and an appreciation of the rewarding synergy that can be observed in the poet-narrator's character-based and structure-based strategies.

This thesis examines the influence of Parthenius' doctrine of erotika pathemata on the Neoteric epyllion. His influence on Cinna has been readily acknowledged, but except for a few incidental and tentative references, little has been made of his role in determining important features of Neoteric poetry; in fact, many Leading scholars in the field fail even to mention him. A survey of the evolution of the epyllion in the Hellenistic world shows a radical transformation of the Callimachean type by Euphorion and Parthenius", in the late Alexandrian era. It is clearly the late Alexandrian epyllion that became popular with the Neoterics, as the relevant works of Catullus and, what can be conjectured about the nature of the lost Neatenc epyllia suggest. There is a marked bias towards tragic love-stories, sensational and bizarre, often metamorphic and with ample scope for emotional analysis and a subjective treatment. These features closely parallel the tenor of Parthenius', summary of 36 love-stories in the Erotika Pathemata, his only wholly extant work. While the collection was dedicated to Comelius Gallus well after most of the Neoteric epyllia were written, it is safe to assume that Parthenius preached his doctrine from the time of his arrival at Rome, as his widely acknowledged influence on Cinna's Zmyrna, perhaps the first Latin epyllion, seems to suggest. This thesis cannot pretend to defend Ross' extravagant claim that "without Parthenius' timely arrival there could have been no New Poetry"; but it can attempt to illuminate Parthenius' central role in establishing the nature of the Neoteric epyllion. This study has been undertaken, then, in the belief that Parthenius' influence on the Neoterics and on the creation of a new genre at Rome warrants closer scrutiny than has so far been attempted. Thus, it seeks to provide an alternate basis for the analysis of poems like 63 and 64, and heralds a possible shift from the emphasis on the autobiographical approach, which, though undoubtedly valid, has been belaboured in recent years to the point of excess. Abbreviated title: Erocika Pathemata and the Neoteric Epyllion.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Durban-Westville, 1996.

This report examines Porphyry’s De antro nympharum and its eclectic mixture of philosophy, allegory, and mysticism in the form of a Homeric commentary. The paper situates Porphyry’s commentary in the broader tradition of Homeric interpretation with special attention to Stoic exegesis and Platonic views on poetry and myth. It also contextualizes Porphyry’s philosophy in terms of the mystery cults, particularly Mithraism, that had grown very popular by Porphyry’s time. The paper argues that Porphyry devised a practice of reading intended to promote a level of philosophical contemplation beyond the level of rational discourse, in keeping with the Neoplatonic philosophy of his teacher, Plotinus, and that this practice is especially evident in the De antro nympharum.
text