Preface by Harry Levin The term “literature,” presupposing the use of letters, assumes that verbal works of imagination are transmitted by means of writing and reading. The expression “oral literature” is obviously a contradiction in terms. Yet we live at a time when literacy itself has become so diluted […]
Introduction to the Second Edition by Stephen Mitchell and Gregory Nagy This new edition of The Singer of Tales marks the fortieth anniversary of the original publication of Albert B. Lord’s book (1960). The words of Lord, as well as the original pagination, have been preserved unchanged. Important new features, however, […]
References Abbreviations ABV: Beazley, J. 1956. Attic Black-Figure Vase Painters. Oxford. BA: Nagy, G. 1999. The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry. Rev. ed. with new intro. Baltimore (available online). CPG: Leutsch, E. L. von, and F. G. Schneidewin, eds. 1839–1851. Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum. Göttingen. DELG: Chantraine, P. 2009. Dictionnaire étymologique de la […]
Core Vocabulary of Key Greek Words Depending on context, adjectives in -os (masculine), may be given with other endings: -ē (feminine), -on (neuter), -oi (masculine plural), -ai (feminine plural), -a (neuter plural). agathos ‘good, noble’ agōn, plural agōnes ‘coming together; competition (antagonism); ordeal (agony). agorā, plural agorai ‘public assembly, place of public assembly’ aidōs ‘shame, […]
Hour 24. The Hero as savior The meaning of sōzein and sōtēr 24§1. The key word for this hour is the verb sōzein, meaning ‘save (someone)’. Derived from this verb is the noun sōtēr, which means ‘savior’ in the sense of ‘one who brings (someone) back to safety’ or, mystically, ‘one who brings (someone) back […]
Hour 23. The living word II: Socrates in Plato’s Phaedo The meaning of theōriā 23§1. My abbreviated translation of the noun theōriā is ‘sacred journey’. This noun is related to the noun theōros, referring to a person who is officially delegated to embark on such a sacred journey. I will translate this noun as ‘sacred […]
Hour 22. The living word I: Socrates in Plato’s Apology of Socrates [[“It is, in short, music which observes neither end nor beginning, music with neither real climax nor real resolution …” – Glenn Gould 1956, concerning the Goldberg Variations of Johann Sebastian Bach (there are 32 of them: “Aria” plus 30 variations plus “Aria”)]] […]
Hour 21: The hero’s agony in the Bacchae of Euripides The meaning of agōn 21§1. The key word for this hour is agōn, plural agōnes. In the Core Vocabulary, I give three basic definitions: (1) ‘coming together’, (2) ‘competition’ or antagonism, and (3) ‘ordeal’ or agony. Here I follow up on an earlier formulation I […]
Hour 20. The hero as mirror of men’s and women’s experiences in the Hippolytus of Euripides The meaning of telos 20§1. The key word for this hour is telos, ‘end, ending, final moment; goal, completion, fulfillment; coming full circle, rounding out; successfully passing through an ordeal; initiation; ritual, rite’. We have already seen this word […]
Hour 19. Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and heroic pollution The meaning of miasma 19§1. The key word for this hour is miasma, meaning ‘pollution, miasma’, a noun derived from the verb miainein, meaning ‘pollute’. In the last hour, we saw that Oedipus in the Oedipus at Colonus of Sophocles needed to perform libations to the Eumenides […]