Homeric Soundings : The Shaping of the Iliad

This book combines the exploration of the`ethics' of the Iliad with its poetic and narrative techniques, which extend all the way from touches of phrasing to the shaping of whole scenes and the interaction between scenes, often separated by thousands of lines. These two approaches to the Iliad - through `content' and through `form' - are found to be inextricably worked together, which is why the book consists of `soundings', or sample explorations, where larger arguments branch out from noticing details in the formation of particular passages. Homer was an archaic poet, and even if he could write he surely created the poems to be heard. Far from making all this intricate complexity, the discoveries of many rereadings, inapposite, this book maintains the contrary position: the kind of artistry uncovered, especially the long-distance interconnections, would be more rather than less accessible if perceived aurally. Furthermore, if the form and timing of the long sessions are arranged by the performer, then this opens up further opportunities for shapings, patterns that would be far more apparent when heard in real time than when inside the uniform format of printed pages. These `soundings' should interest those experienced in other literatures and cultures. All quotations of Greek are also given in translation.