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  1. Home
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  3. Homer's People
  • Cited by 67
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2014
Print publication year:
2000
Online ISBN:
9781107297975
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107297975
Subjects:
Classical Studies, Classical Studies (General), Classical Literature
Series:
Cambridge Classical Studies
Information

Book description

This book examines the role and character of Homer's people, laoi, in Homeric story-telling, arguing that Homeric poetry is crucially concerned with the people as a basis for communal life. Both The Iliad and The Odyssey are read as sustained meditations on the processes involved in protecting and destroying the people. The investigation draws on a wide range of approaches from formulaic analysis to the study of early performance contexts. From a close reading of the Homeric epics, Homer's people emerge as a community without effective social structures. When this is viewed from the perspective of Homeric performances in the polis, a contrast between Homer's laoi and the founding people of ritual emerges. While the former typically perish, the survival of the latter is secured by the establishment of successful institutions.

Reviews

Review of the hardback:‘… a very good book that breaks much new ground.’

Source: Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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