Description
Book SynopsisAchilles inflicts countless agonies on the Achaeans, although he is supposed to be fighting on their side. Odysseus'' return causes civil strife on Ithaca. The Iliad and the Odyssey depict conflict where consensus should reign, as do the other major poems of the early Greek hexameter tradition: Hesiod''s Theogony and the Homeric Hymns describe divine clashes that unbalance the cosmos; Hesiod''s Works and Days stems from a quarrel between brothers. These early Greek poems generated consensus among audiences: the reason why they reached us is that people agreed on their value. This volume, accordingly, explores conflict and consensus from a dual perspective: as thematic concerns in the poems, and as forces shaping their early reception. It sheds new light on poetics and metapoetics, internal and external audiences, competition inside the narrative and competing narratives, local and Panhellenic traditions, narrative closure and the making of canonical literature.
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Gods: 1. Conflict, consensus and closure in Hesiod's Theogony and Enūma eliš Johannes Haubold; 2. Divine conflict and the problem of Aphrodite Barbara Graziosi; 3. Sparring partners: fraternal relations in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes Oliver Thomas; Part II. Heroes: 4. Achilles in control? Managing oneself and others in the funeral games Adrian Kelly; 5. Uncertainty and the possibilities of violence: the quarrel in Odyssey 8 Jon Hesk; 6. ΙΡΟΣ ΙΑΜΒΙΚΟΣ: archilochean Iambos and the Homeric poetics of conflict Donald Lavigne; 7. Conflict and consensus in the epic cycle Jim Marks; Part III. Men: 8. Fraternal conflict in Hesiod's Works and Days Lilah Grace Canevaro; 9. On constructive conflict and disruptive peace: the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi Paola Bassino.
