Homer's people
epic poetry and social formation
- ISBN: 9780521066419
- Editorial: Cambridge University Press
- Fecha de la edición: 2008
- Lugar de la edición: Cambridge. Reino Unido
- Colección: Cambridge Classical Studies
- Encuadernación: Rústica
- Medidas: 24 cm
- Nº Pág.: 260
- Idiomas: Inglés
This book examines the role and character of Homer's people, laoi, in Homeric story-telling, arguing that Homeric poetry is crucially concerned with the people as a basis for communal life. Both The Iliad and The Odyssey are read as sustained meditations on the processes involved in protecting and destroying the people. The investigation draws on a wide range of approaches from formulaic analysis to the study of early performance contexts. From a close reading of the Homeric epics, Homer's people emerge as a community without effective social structures. When this is viewed from the perspective of Homeric performances in the polis, a contrast between Homer's laoi and the founding people of ritual emerges. While the former typically perish, the survival of the latter is secured by the establishment of successful institutions.
