Book contents
- The Cambridge Guide to Homer
- The Cambridge Guide to Homer
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on the Contributors
- General Introduction
- Part I Homeric Song and Text
- Introduction
- Homeric Epic in Performance
- Homeric Poetics
- Homer in a World of Song
- Epic Traditions
- Mythic Background
- The Language of Homer
- From Song to Text
- Key Topics
- Part II Homeric World
- Part III Homer in the World
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Homer in a World of Song
from Part I - Homeric Song and Text
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2020
- The Cambridge Guide to Homer
- The Cambridge Guide to Homer
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on the Contributors
- General Introduction
- Part I Homeric Song and Text
- Introduction
- Homeric Epic in Performance
- Homeric Poetics
- Homer in a World of Song
- Epic Traditions
- Mythic Background
- The Language of Homer
- From Song to Text
- Key Topics
- Part II Homeric World
- Part III Homer in the World
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
The Iliad and Odyssey from their earliest stages coexisted with smaller performative genres, many involving music (hymns to humans or gods; tunes to accompany work) or music and dance together, as well as paraliterary “genres of speaking” that had neither musical accompaniment nor strict formal rules. A survey of Homeric allusions to, and embedding of, performance events finds them to be further marked by distantiation and imaginative stylization, thus complicating any mining of epic as an historical source for early song-making traditions.
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- The Cambridge Guide to Homer , pp. 36 - 48Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020