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18 - Reverse order

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2009

René Nünlist
Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island
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Summary

The structural principle here called ‘reverse order’ is regularly referred to in ancient and modern scholarship on Homer, but there is no generally accepted term to designate it. ‘Reverse order’ describes the Homeric narrator's tendency to return first to the last of a series of two or more elements previously mentioned. Therefore, the structure of the principle can be represented as: A–B—B’–A’. To give an example:

τίς ταρ τῶν ὄχ᾽ ἄριστος ἔην, σύ μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα,

αὐτῶν (Α) ἠδ᾽ ἵππων (Β), οἳ ἅμ᾽ Ἀτρεΐδῃσιν ἕποντο.

ἵπποι (Β᾽) μὲν μέγ᾽ ἄρισται ἔσαν…[4 lines omitted]

ἀνδρῶν (Α᾽) αὖ μέγ᾽ ἄριστος ἔην …

(Il. 2.761–3, 768)

The horses, which are mentioned last, are taken up first, which is especially striking as one might expect precedence to be given to the human fighters. This Homeric structural principle was well known to Aristarchus, who referred to it with the phrase πρὸς τὸ δεύτερον πρότερον ἀπαντᾶν, for example in the scholion on the quoted passage.

ὅτι πρὸς τὸ δεύτερον πρότερον ἀπήντηκεν.

(schol. A Il. 2.763 Ariston.)

<The diple,> because he [sc. Homer] has taken up the second [i.e. the horses] first.

The extant corpus of scholia provides a remarkably high number of notes which comment on the principle. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that the scholia contain traces of a scholarly debate as to whether the principle is always adhered to or not.

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The Ancient Critic at Work
Terms and Concepts of Literary Criticism in Greek Scholia
, pp. 326 - 337
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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  • Reverse order
  • René Nünlist, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book: The Ancient Critic at Work
  • Online publication: 29 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511575891.019
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  • Reverse order
  • René Nünlist, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book: The Ancient Critic at Work
  • Online publication: 29 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511575891.019
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Reverse order
  • René Nünlist, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book: The Ancient Critic at Work
  • Online publication: 29 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511575891.019
Available formats
×