Greek Epic Cycle

This M.A. dissertation concentrates on the lost archaic epic known as the Cypria, and aims to highlight its importance in the study of Near Eastern influences on Greek epic poetry. The comparative analysis focuses on two of this poem’s most characteristic narratives and their mythological parallels in Greek, Mesopotamian, Biblical, and Sanskrit literature: the presentation of the Trojan War as a plan of Zeus to ease human overpopulation and relieve the Earth of her excessive burden (Cypria, fr.1); and the lost episode of Iphigenia’s sacrifice by her father in Aulis. Both narratives constitute prominent examples of how this poem has served as a channel of transmission of various Near Eastern mythological motifs in the Greek epic cosmos. The traditional theory that the Cypria shall be attributed to a poet from Cyprus -a cultural milieu that exemplifies close contact and interaction between the Greeks and several near eastern civilizations (e.g. Phoenicians, Assyrians, and Egyptians)- can of course only strengthen such hypothesis, offering a strong logical and historical basis for the examination of the complex intercultural relations that connect the mythological traditions of the ancient world.

ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗ
Η παρούσα εργασία εξετάζει το χαμένο έργο του αρχαϊκού επικού κύκλου που είναι γνωστό με το όνομα Κύπρια, εστιάζοντας στη σημασία του ως προς την επαφή της ελληνικής μυθικής παράδοσης με την Ανατολή. Τόσο το απ. 1 των Κυπρίων, το οποίο παρουσιάζει τον Τρωϊκό Πόλεμο ως ένα καταστροφικό σχέδιο του Δία με απώτερο σκοπό την ανακούφιση της Γης από τον υπερπληθυσμό της ανθρωπότητας, όσο και το χαμένο επεισόδιο για τη θυσία της Ιφιγένειας στην Αυλίδα, αποτελούν χαρακτηριστικά παραδείγματα του τρόπου με τον οποίο το συγκεκριμένο έπος λειτούργησε ως δίαυλος για τη μετάδοση ανατολικών μυθολογικών διηγήσεων στον ελληνικό κόσμο. Η δεσπόζουσα υπόθεση για την προέλευση του επικού αυτού ποιήματος από την Κύπρο, ένα πολιτισμικό συγκείμενο που χαρακτηρίζεται από την έντονη αλληλεπίδραση του ελληνικού στοιχείου με διαφόρους πολιτισμούς της Ανατολικής Μεσογείου και της Μέσης Ανατολής, έρχεται φυσικά να προσφέρει μια ισχυρή λογική και ιστορική βάση στους συλλογισμούς που διατυπώνονται. Η συγκριτική εξέταση των δύο αυτών διηγήσεων και των παραλλήλων τους στα ελληνικά, μεσοποταμιακά, εβραϊκά, και σανσκριτικά κείμενα, είναι δυνατό να μας φέρει πιο κοντά στην κατανόηση των περίπλοκων μυθολογικών πλεγμάτων που συνέχουν τους αρχαίους πολιτισμούς της Ανατολικής Μεσογείου, καθώς και του ρόλου που διαδραματίζει η ιδιαίτερη γεωγραφική και πολιτισμική ταυτότητα της Κύπρου σε αυτήν την εξίσωση.

This contribution analyses the direct and implicit references to the cyclic epics included in Aristotle’s Poetics. Two basic motifs explaining his censure of this kind of poetry are identified: the cyclic epics employ an erroneous concept of the unity of the poetical work and direct speech only plays a minor role in comparison with Homer. It is discussed afterwards whether this critical judgment agrees with the evidence about the Cycle known from his testimonies and fragments. Two further references to the Cycle included in the Aristotelian Organon are then proposed and analysed. It is underlined that Aristotle, in spite of keeping silence about the Cycle in his Poetics, must have been aware that those poems were attributed to Homer in his own time. It is attempted to clarify, on the one hand, the reasons which explain this silence and why, on the other hand, Aristotle does not hesitate to recognize the Homeric authorship of a burlesque epic such as Margites.

The analysis of the fragments and testimonia of Aeschylus' Memnon tragedies and the comparison with the extant Aeschylean dramas allow us to develop some suggestions made by scholars regarding the characterization of the Ethiopian king. Memnon was probably presented as a Persian king coming from Susa, whose fate followed the dramatic pattern of the self-confident barbarian warrior who is eventually killed by an Achaean. Accordingly, the conflict between Ethiopians and Achaeans alluded to the one between Persians and Greeks, which was directly experienced by the 5th-century Athenian audience.

Übernahme - Auseinandersetzung - Weiterverarbeitung von Motiven aus Homer und dem Epischen Kyklos in der Aeneis des Augusteers Vergil aus Mantua.

Vergil sucht durchgängig in der Odyssee- wie Iliashälfte seiner Aeneis Berührung mit seinem Vorbild Homer wie Kontrast zugleich: Stationen der Odyssee, Bauteile der Ilias, Personen- und Handlungskonstellationen mit (mehr oder minder) unmittelbarem homerischen Hintergrund, um sie dann auf seine ganz eigene Weise zu gestalten.

The paper offers a critical discussion of the main textual problems of the fragment (esp. ll. 3, 4 s., 7), an analysis of the citation context both in Duris of Samos and in Athenaeus, and an overall interpretation of the text that reverses the canonical one established by Bowra (1957) and shared by the majority of scholars until today: instead of thinking that Duris manipulates Asius’ text to blame his fellow citizens, it is more likely that Athenaeus manipulates Duris; the fragment of Asius, for its part, seems to be pervaded by a certain irony towards the customs of the Samians, and characterized by a serio-comic tone that was perhaps typical of the poet, who cannot be placed with confidence in the full archaic age

This essay examines fragments of the Alcmeonis, an epic poem from the late archaic age, with the purpose of reconstructing some features of this work with particular reference to the main character Alcmeon. In many aspects, the story is similar to that of Orestes as reported by ancient authors. Both heroes were obliged to commit matricide, and both were obliged to leave their country and wander for a long time throughout Greece. The initial part of the study aims at reconstructing some moments from the story as it was probably narrated in the Alcmeonis, and proposes a comparison with the plot of the Epigoni. The latter part focuses on Alcmeon’s arrival in Acarnania and his settlement at the mouth of the Acheloos. Thucydides (II, 102, 5) relates a story of particular interest. The traditional topic of the quest for a new land is common to Orestes and Alcmeon, but Thucydides’ version, which was probably derived from the Alcmeonis through the mediation of a local storytelling, presents features which emphasize the intelligence of the character, and his capability in facing the risk of pollution.

This work examines the traditional language of the cyclical Thebais fragments by studying linguistic and formulaic data with a view towards establishing its chronology relative to the two great Homeric epics. From this analysis we conclude that 1) there is no definitive data to establish a post-Homeric character for the poem; 2) the concurrence of various non-probative data leads us to consider as more likely a post-Homeric date for the poem's written text; and 3) the poem's fragments show a language sufficiently traditional for us to conclude that its written transmission cannot have occurred very much later than Homer.

The famous scene of Achilles healing the wounded Patroclus was depicted by Sosias on the tondo of the cup now in Berlin (Antikensamm. F2278, BA 200108) around 500 B.C. Since this representation involves two main epic heroes and this episode is not narrated in any literary source known to us, its meaning has been much debated among scholars.
In contrast to the symbolic interpretation of this painting, that considers it as a tragic allusion to the fatal doom awaiting Patroclus, when Achilles will not be able to save him (e.g. Lowenstam 2008, 64-65; Junker 2012, 9-10), this paper will take into account the different mythical traditions behind Sosias’ composition in order to convey significant insights into the reception of the epic cycle in the 5th century.

*preview copy. Message me if you do not have institutional access.

This essay explores the death of Odysseus in the Telegony and Odyssey through the diction of agnoēsis (non-recognition) and anagnōrisis (recognition). Agnoēsis is a motif in the stories of both Telegonus and the death of Odysseus, allowing the Odyssey’s presentation of agnoēsis to reference the Telegony tradition. Moreover, the deadly consequences of agnoēsis are inimical to the Odyssey’s vision of Odysseus’s kleos, and Odysseus’s death in the Telegony results in an alternative vision of his immortality. Examination of these contrasts between traditions sheds light on how the Odyssey negotiated dissonant elements from the Telegony tradition to enhance its own meaning.

Lo studio dei poemi omerici rivela l'esistenza di molte incongruenze: in alcuni casi si tratta si tratta di incongruenze minori e di impatto esclusivamente locale - la ricomparsa in un libro successivo di un personaggio minore ucciso ed uscito di scena in un libro precedente, un guerriero che dovrebbe essere sul carro e si ritrova a combattere a terra pochi versi successivi, e così via -, mentre in altri casi si tratta di inconsistenze o anomalie strutturali di maggior peso. Eppure, nonostante queste anomalie, che sono presenti comunque nei poemi in numero sorprendentemente limitato data la loro estensione e la loro complessità, l'Iliade e l'Odissea offrono al lettore una sensazione di sostanziale unità.
Prendendo spunto da questo, i critici unitari e quelli analitici hanno cercato di dimostrare, rispettivamente, una singola paternità o una paternità multipla per i due poemi. La letteratura è sterminata. Propongo qui la traduzione il lingua italiana di tre capitoli del testo di G. S. Kirk, The Songs of Homer, Cambridge, 1962: si tratta dei capitoli 10 ('Structural Anomalies in the Iliad'), 11 ('Structural Anomalies in the Odyssey') e 12 ('The Overriding Unity').
La traduzione è interamente mia, quindi sono responsabile per ogni errore o non corretta interpretazione. La traduzione vuole solo essere uno strumento di lavoro, quindi in alcuni punti è un po' grezza. Ho riportato le note più importanti: il corpo completo delle note può essere ritrovato sul libro, che è disponibile in commercio. In ogni caso i tre capitoli qui tradotti contengono numerosi rimandi ad altri capitoli, per cui la lettura dell'intero testo rimane insostituibile.
Prendendo spunto da questo, i critici unitari e quelli analitici hanno cercato di dimostrare, rispettivamente, una singola paternità o una paternità multipla per i due poemi. La letteratura è sterminata. Propongo qui la traduzione il lingua italiana di tre capitoli del testo di G. S. Kirk, The Songs of Homer, Cambridge, 1962: si tratta dei capitoli 10 ('Structural Anomallies in the Iliad'), 11 ('Structural Anomalies in the Odyssey') e 12 ('The Overriding Unity').
La traduzione è interamente mia, quindi sono responsabile per ogni errore o non corretta interpretazione. La traduzione vuole solo essere uno strumento di lavoro, quindi in alcuni punti è un po' grezza. Ho riportato le note più importanti: il corpo completo delle note può essere ritrovato sul libro, che è disponibile in commercio. In ogni caso i tre capitoli qui tradotti contengono numerosi rimandi ad altri capitoli, per cui la lettura dell'intero testo rimane insostituibile.

Myth reigns in Troy, where literature inspires archaeology. The ever popular ‘story’ about the Trojan War is in fact a complex mosaic: a cycle of stories that have reached us from different sides and in various forms, throughout the ages. We cannot (or no longer) reconstruct a ‘standard version’. Instead, we are dealing with a very rich and colourful tradition: in (epic and other) literature from Homer onwards, the Trojan War is subject to continuous reception, reworking and renewal. From tragedy over manic Homer imitation towards playful prose summary… in our own century, the spear of Achilles has even been passed on to Brad Pitt. New versions appropriate the famous story and its characters in the most creative, sometimes plainly contradicting ways. This paper traces the episode of the wooden horse through eight literary narratives. It provides a reflection on the endless reception of Troy in the context of Latin and Greek literature, from Homer all the way to the Middle Ages (and beyond).

The author revises te evidence surrounding the identity of the author of the Cyclic Thebais. After examining the evidence for and against considering Homer as the poem's author, the author of the article presents a history of the ancient opinions concerning the authorship of the Thebais. Finally, the case of this poem is compared to that of the rest of the Epic Cycle, also often attributed to Homer.

L'articolo evidenzia come nei frammenti dei Cypria l'uso di alcune forme dell'imperfetto di εἰμί (ἦν, ἤην) sia concorde con gli sviluppi diacronici della lingua dell'epica arcaica e propone un'interpretazione linguistica a difesa della lezione ἤην tràdita in fr. 25.2 Bernabé; la ricostruzione è utile per la valutazione dell'origine e della diffusione di tale forma dell'imperfetto nell'epica arcaica come variante aedica artificiale.
|
The article shows that the use of some forms of the imperfect of εἰμί in the Cypria (ἦν, ἤην) is consistent with the diachronic development of the language of archaic Greek epic poetry. The author also upholds the linguistic plausibility of the form ἤην (Cypr. fr. 25.2 Bernabé) and explains it as an artificial aedic variant.

The aim of this paper is to explore the use of the word κύκλος and its derivatives
(κυκλικός, κύκλιος, κυκλικῶς) as literary terms for the description of the Epic Cycle. Given
the prominent meanings of the word in the Iliad (wheel, shield), it is suggested that the
description of the shield of Achilles (Iliad, Book 18) and the narrative about human ages
in Hesiod’s Works and Days constitute an early cyclic conception of the totality of
mythological tradition. The emphasis of classical period on the special properties of the
cycle is examined in association with Aristotle’s application of the word for the
characterization of epic poetry. The scope of the term in Hellenistic times is explored
with special interest for the poets and sagas to which it is ascribed. The confining of the
word by the school of Alexandria to the literary criticism of epic poetry as well as its
use for the description of linguistic and stylistic features of that poetry is discussed.
Finally, the reception of the Epic cycle in late antiquity is studied with relevance to the
endowment of the term with new connotations and the content of Epic Cycle which has
survived until now.

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are the only early Greek heroic epics to have survived the transition to writing, even though extant evidence indicates that they emerged from a thriving oral culture. Among the missing are the songs of Boeotian Thebes. Homer's Thebes examines moments in the Iliad and Odyssey where Theban characters and thematic engagements come to the fore. Rather than sifting through these appearances to reconstruct lost poems, Elton Barker and Joel Christensen argue that the Homeric poems borrow heroes from Thebes to address key ideas—about politics, time, and genre—that set out the unique superiority of these texts in performance. By using evidence from Hesiod and fragmentary sources attributed to Theban tradition, Barker and Christensen explore Homer's appropriation of Theban motifs of strife and distribution to promote his tale of the sack of Troy and the returns home. As Homer's Thebes shows, this Theban material sheds light on the exceptionality of t...

El tema, casi sin duda, más apasionante de la Mitología -y también el más complejo y rico en contenidos- es el de la Guerra de Troya, que hace patentes todos los horrores que irremediablemente se repiten en las guerras a lo largo de los siglos, sirviendo de ejemplo y prototipo mítico. ¡Un tema, por desgracia, siempre de actualidad! Pero el aspecto bélico no es el único ni siquiera predominante, sino que fundamentalmente aparece como fondo e hilo conductor de un copiosísimo conjunto de historias protagonizadas por personajes de todo tipo que se mueven en las situaciones más diversas y son impulsados por sentimientos y pasiones muy dispares: hombres al igual que dioses; varones y asimismo mujeres; los unos, por lo general, inmersos en su afán de lucha o del ejercicio del poder, mientras que las otras, en sus preocupaciones familiares. La autora nos ofrece en magnífica síntesis todos los episodios esenciales de este complejo contenido mítico, que ella modela de manera absolutamente personal y logra integrar en un todo coherente y lleno de atractivo. Recrea con la más viva fantasía y fuerza dramática tanto el mundo humano, realista, como el divino y prodigioso; tanto los momentos atroces como los delicados, románticos o deliciosamente mágicos. Nos mantiene en tensión, de principio a fin, en medio de esos ámbitos ancestrales a los que sabe trasladarnos, a la vez que nos los hace sentir cercanos.

The article examines again the few evidence regarding the Telegony, the last poem of the epic cycle, where the last episodes of Odysseus’ life were narrated. A very peculiar aspect of this poem is the strong interconnection between the myth- ical episodes and specific epicoric interests of different Greek regions, especially the Western ones. Moreover, the intersections between myth and regional contexts and histories may be also detected at an another level: the problematic evidence about the authorship and the title of the poem. In this perspective, indeed, the different titles and the attributions to authors, who had connections with different Greek areas, can be intended as the reflection of the complex process of formation and diffusion of the poem. The tale of the last adventures of Odysseus and of his offspring, then, can be considered an example of the close relationship between myth and history which could arise in epic poetry: a relationship which will be further developed during the Classical and Hellenistic age.

This article is a discussion and analysis of Aeschylus Agamemnon 104–05, with special reference to the epic models operating behind the typically Homeric enjambement  ἀνδρῶν / ἐκτελέων. The ἄνδρες should be understood as the Argive heroes of the expedition against Troy, and not as the sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus. This interpretation is supported by a number of examples taken from archaic and Hellenistic epic poems.

It is indisputable that nowadays there is a strong scholarly interest towards the concepts of cultural geography and landscape studies. This ''spatial turn'' within the humanities has also influenced classics. Many classical scholars have stressed the importance of landscapes for shaping an author's narrative, and they have applied spatial analysis on a wide variety of texts. Detailed descriptions of the landscape of Cyprus or simple references to it (usually as the birthplace of Aphrodite) appear in many archaic epic and lyric poems.1 In most of these poetic compositions Cyprus has erotic connotations. The land of Cyprus, the cradle of the goddess of love, is associated with Aphrodite's birth, with Aphrodite's toilette scene in Paphos (a motif that usually appears at the start of seduction narratives) or has other erotic connotations in archaic epic and lyric poetry. The very landscape of Cyprus is described in erotic terms. The aim of this paper is to examine how Cyprus appears both as space and place,2 what are the narratives which lie behind Cyprus' conception as an erotic landscape and what are the ideological stories behind the construction of this landscape. I suggest that Cyprus's landscape within this oral culture served as a heterotopia in Foucault's terms;3 as a place where the boundaries between the real and the imaginary and between the divine and the human where transcended.

This chapter offers an alternative to textualist models and the assumptions that underlie them by weighing other ways in which epic stories can relate to one another and by querying the very notion of an organized, integral cycle as customarily construed. We contend that the surviving texts—Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and all of the Cycle fragments and summaries—represent possible instances of the epic stories surrounding the Trojan War and related events, instances that at some point took shape as fixed and stable (even if partial) entities, but which once existed as malleable story-patterns that featured and fostered variation within limits. We ballast this proposal about the ancient Greek Epic Cycle by surveying several oral epic traditions from around the world that behave similarly, that is, which operate by generating instances that show primary allegiance to their tradition as a whole rather than to any other single story-performance in particular. We conclude that in oral-derived texts, interactions are much too complex, multi-directional, fluid and dynamic for a purely intertextual model to fully explain. Further, traditional referentiality and an absence of textual fixity—typical features of oral and oral-derived narratives —undercut the notion that the elements and patterns that constitute a tradition can migrate from one poem to the other by a simple transference of units. Within an oral traditional environment, the instances (the textual remnants) represent singular realizations generated from a multiform tradition.

""This contribution deals with the circumstances in which the Homeric Thebais was written down in archaic Greece. It continues a previous work (J. B. Torres, La Tebaida homérica como fuente de Ilíada y Odisea  [The Homeric Thebais as a Source for the Iliad and the Odyssey], Madrid, 1995) in which neoanalytical theory and methodology was were used in order to clarify if whether the Homeric Thebais should be counted among the so-called “sources” of the Iliad and Odyssey. The 1995 book tried to combine Neoanalysis and Oralismus and spoke of an oral Thebais whose motifs ‘Homer’ could have had in mind when composing his own epics. However, this work did not answer an important a further question: how and why did the oral Thebais receive a written form? Now it will be triedI will attempt to offer an answer for this topic. A recent article by Wolfgang Kullmann (“Poesie, Mythos und Realität im Schiffskatalog der Ilias”, Hermes 137 [2009], 1-20) has encouraged the redaction writing of this study in an unexpected way.
The work of Kullmann discusses the Catalogue of Ships included in the second book of the Iliad. It explains why the names of the heroes cited in the Catalogue do not reflect the political situation presupposed in other parts of the poem and have, instead of it, a distinctive Panhellenic flavour. On the other hand, the article remembers reminds us that the Iliad contains a passage (XI 698 ff.) which seems to allude to the Olympic Games as they were celebrated since beginning in 680 b. C. W. Kullmann suggests that the Iiliadic Catalogue par excellence is actually a catalogue of participants in the Olympic Games, an administrative list secondarily later adapted and included in the Iliad.
In the present work it is accepted that there is a relation between a Panhellenic competition like the Olympic Games and the last steps in the process of elaboration of the Iliad. The question is then: could the case of the Homeric Thebais have been similar? In order to clarify this point it is needed to review what we know about the contents of the Thebais. Iconographical arguments are employed to show that this poem must have told recounted the fatidic death of the young Opheltes (Archemoros), an event which mythically explained the foundation of the Nemean Games. On the other hand it is known (cf. Herodot V 67) that Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon, had expelled the Theban epics from his city because they celebrated, in his opinion, the Argive monarchy he hated, and that the foundation (or reorganisation) of the Nemean Games in 573 b. C. took place in political opposition to Cleisthenes and with the assistance of Argos (cf. A. Griffin, Sikyon, Oxford, 1982, 50-51). So it is tempting to see the organisation of the Nemean Games as the occasion in whichof writing down the Homeric Thebais, a Theban epic which talked about the mythical foundation of this competition (according to the reconstruction), was written down. Moreover, external proofs endorse the theory, as for example the iconographical evidence which indicates an increasing interest on in the Theban saga in the Peloponnese in the second quarter of the sixth century b. C.: the proximity to the textual fixation of a major epic like the Thebais is a good explanation for this new interest on in the mythological theme.
In 1995 (cf. Torres, La Tebaida homérica...) it wasI tried to explain the relation between the Thebais and the Homeric major epics as a case of influence between oral poems which were fixed by writing at a later date, the Iliad possibly in the first half of seventh century b. C. Now a precise date is also offered for the writing down of the Thebais. The poem should have received its definitive form in 573 b. C. because of political interests, in a way well attested in other oral traditions, and within a Panhellenic context, similar to the context in which the Iliad (and perhaps the whole Cyclic Epic) may have been fixed.
""

KYKLOS 2021
Are you a graduate student (working on any MA, MPhil, PhD program) or an early career scholar (7 year from the reception of your PhD) working on any aspect on the reception of the Greek epic cycle? Are you interested in participating in an online international dialog / conference hosted by the Centre for Hellenic Studies with a 15-minute paper resulting in the online publication of your revised contribution at the Kyklos@Classics@? For more details about the Kyklos program see: https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5188.kyklos-classics-landing
Please, send an abstract of no more than 300 words to karakantza@upatras.gr and jonathan.burgess@utoronto.ca by 21st of February 2021. Announcement of accepted contributions by 28th of March. Online conference scheduled for the 30th of June 2021.