Metageneric Excursions in Early Greek Epic

Study of the Homeric scholia has recently shifted from purely textual matters to their use in reconstructing lost chapters in the history of ancient literary criticism (Dickie 19-20). My paper addresses one area in which the scholia reveal a more nuanced criticism than their abbreviated form at first suggests, that of character (ethos) and characterization (cf. Richardson 272-75, Nünlist 2009: 246-54).

Scholars have long recognized that Odysseus’ wanderings culminate in his reestablishment of order in Ithaca according to traditional notions of elite power (e.g. Foley 2004). Burgeoning work in the field of social history shows that economic, social, and familial relationships intersect in a society’s animal management strategies (Howe 2008). No scholar has yet combined these approaches to assess Odysseus’ leadership in terms of the way he interacts with herds and herdsmen throughout the epic.

“τίς πόθεν εἰς ἀνδρῶν . . . ;” (“What man are you and whence?”). This seemingly innocuous question (recurring seven times in the Odyssey) may initially appear unremarkable because of its natural position in the guest-host type-scene, a context discussed extensively in scholarship (Goldhill 1991, Reece 1993, de Jong 2001, Louden 1999, Fenik 1974).

This paper argues that there is a strong and deliberate generic relationship between archaic didactic hexameter, as exemplified by Hesiod's Works and Days, and the oracular hexameter poetry attributed to the Pythia in Herodotus' Histories. For much of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the corpus of oracular poetry was mired in debates about authenticity between positivist historians, as exemplified in the seminal collections of Parke and Fontenrose. Recently, scholars have begun to ask more generative questions about the poem.

Since West’s monograph (1985), and as a result of new papyrological discoveries, there has been a growing interest among scholars towards the Catalogue of Women (e.g. Hunter 2005). However, the origin of this poem ascribed to Hesiod remains controversial. Some scholars have recently pointed out that both the poem’s contents and language (at least in its final version) ultimately reflect a Northwestern milieu (Fowler 1998, Hirschberger 2004, Cassio 2009).