Schrödinger’s Mouse: Liminality and the ΛΙΜΝΗ in the Batrachomyomachia

Abstract

This article argues that the ambiguity over whether certain characters are alive or dead during the second half of the Batrachomyomachia is not only deliberate, as previous scholars have suggested, but part of a complex intertextual relationship with Iliad 21 and Achilles’ battle in the Scamander. It concludes by suggesting that the poet's decision to stage this new battle in a ƛίμνη, a pool or pond, helps to articulate the ideas of life, death and resurrection which characterize this section of the poem.