Rethinking Orality II: The Mechanisms of the Oral Communication System in the Case of the Archaic Epos

Rethinking Orality II: The Mechanisms of the Oral Communication System in the Case of the Archaic Epos 

Edited by: Andrea Ercolani and Laura Lulli

This is the second volume on the mechanisms of oral communication in ancient Greece, focused on epic poetry, a genre with deep roots in orality. Considering the critical debate about orality and its influence on the composition, diffusion and transmission of the archaic epic poems, the survey provides a reconsideration and a reassessment of the traces of orality in the archaic epic poetry, following their adaptation in the synchronic and diachronic changes of the communicative system. Combining the methods of cognitive science, and the historical and literary analysis of the texts, the research explores the complexity of the literary message of the Greek epic poetry, highlighting its position in a system of oral communication. The consideration of structural and formal aspects, i.e. the traces of orality in the narrative architecture, in the epic diction, in the meter and the formulaic system, as well as the vestiges of the mixture of orality and writing, allows to reconstruct a dynamic frame of communicative modalities which influenced and enriched the archaic epic poetry, providing it with expressive potentialities destined to a longlasting permanence in the history of the genre.

• Language: English
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Copyright year: 2022
• Audience: Scholars and students of Classical Studies, Greek Language and Literature, Linguistics, Cultural Studies and Media Theory
• Pages
  • Front matter: 10
  • Main content: 218
• Illustrations
  • Illustrations: 1
  • Coloured Illustrations: 4
  • Tables: 6
• Keywords: Transcodification; Translation Studies; orality; ancient communicative system; archaic Greek epic poetry; culture

eBook

• Published: June 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9783110751963

Hardcover

• Published: June 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9783110750744

 Frontmatter

Publicly Available

	I
Table of Contents Publicly Available

	V
Introduction: Orality and Epic Poetry. Old Questions and New Perspectives Andrea Ercolani and Laura Lulli Publicly Available

	VII
Mind-based Research Meets the Homeric Epics: Looking Again at Communicative Strategies in the Homeric Epics Elizabeth Minchin Open Access

	1
Interformulaic Homer: Evidence from the “Wild” Papyri Egbert J. Bakker Open Access

	19
Two Chronological Extremes of the Homeric Language: πρόφρασσα and εἶπα Albio Cesare Cassio Open Access

	41
Technologies of Orality: Formularity, Meter, and Kunstsprache in Homer Chiara Bozzone Open Access

	51
A Cyclic Theme in the Odyssey: The Oresteia in Zeus’ Speech (1, 28–43) Giampiero Scafoglio Open Access

	83
Audiences of the Prophecy of Tiresias in Odyssey Book XI Jonathan S. Burgess Open Access

	103
Traces of Orality in the Histories: The Homeric ‘Heritage’ in Herodotean Battles and Speeches Silvia Quadrelli Open Access

	117
Some Reflections on Orality and Epic Poetry in Ancient Literary Criticism Laura Lulli Open Access

	145
Homer and ‘the Elegists’: an Ancient Construction of Difference Richard Hunter Open Access

	165
Paradoxes of ‘Orality’: A Comparison between Homeric Oral Poetry and the Heroic and Courtly Epics in Middle High German Sonja Zeman Open Access

	177
Epos and Orality: Conclusive Remarks and Open Questions Franco Montanari Open Access

	207
Index Notable Things Open Access

	213
Index Discussed Passages Open Access

217

(Deutsch)