Book contents
- Achilles beside Gilgamesh
- Achilles beside Gilgamesh
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Additional material
- Preface
- Diagrams
- Figures
- Abbreviations
- Sources for primary texts
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Divinity, humanity and wisdom
- 3 Gilgamesh and glory
- 4 Gilgamesh confronts death
- 5 Interlude on Homer and the Muse
- 6 The race of half-gods
- 7 The plan of Zeus
- 8 The coming of Achilles
- 9 The strife of the Iliad
- 10 Achilles looks inward
- 11 The death of the friend
- 12 Achilles responds
- 13 From lamentation to vengeance
- 14 Achilles like a lion
- 15 Mortality and wisdom
- 16 The truths of lamentation
- Conclusion The slender-winged fly
- Bibliography
- Index of Passages Cited
- General Index
5 - Interlude on Homer and the Muse
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2019
- Achilles beside Gilgamesh
- Achilles beside Gilgamesh
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Additional material
- Preface
- Diagrams
- Figures
- Abbreviations
- Sources for primary texts
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Divinity, humanity and wisdom
- 3 Gilgamesh and glory
- 4 Gilgamesh confronts death
- 5 Interlude on Homer and the Muse
- 6 The race of half-gods
- 7 The plan of Zeus
- 8 The coming of Achilles
- 9 The strife of the Iliad
- 10 Achilles looks inward
- 11 The death of the friend
- 12 Achilles responds
- 13 From lamentation to vengeance
- 14 Achilles like a lion
- 15 Mortality and wisdom
- 16 The truths of lamentation
- Conclusion The slender-winged fly
- Bibliography
- Index of Passages Cited
- General Index
Summary
For Mesopotamian literature there are few clues to the relationship between the scribal world of written transmission and the realities of composition, performance and public reception (see above, pp. 000–000). The same question about Archaic Greek poetry finds far stronger materials for an answer, and any study of the Iliad or Odyssey depends on one’s working hypothesis for the interpretation of various different kinds of evidence for the relationship between Homeric words and the identity of the creative agency behind them. In this chapter I will sketch one possible assessment of that relationship, in order to prepare for the close reading of the Iliad that will follow.
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- Achilles beside GilgameshMortality and Wisdom in Early Epic Poetry, pp. 115 - 130Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019