1. Tradition and change in antiquity μή μ᾽ ἄκλαυτον ἄθαπτον ἰὼν ὄπιθεν καταλείπειν,νοσφισθείς, μή τοί τι θεῶν μήνιμα γένωμαι. Od. 11.72-3 Don’t abandon me, don’t leave me behind, unwept and unburied,lest I become a visitation upon you from the gods. The first soul to greet Odysseus on his visit […]
Problems and method The lament for the dead is essentially functional. It is only one part of a complex tradition of ritual customs and beliefs. To understand the nature of its development in Greek tradition, and to determine the extent of its continuity from ancient to modern times, it must therefore be […]
Preface My purpose in this book is to study the ritual lament as it evolved and developed throughout Greek tradition, indicating how poets of different ages were able to draw on a common fund of ideas, themes and formulae, frequently investing an old and well-established convention with a new significance and contributing […]
Introduction to the Second Edition Margaret Alexiou’s The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition, first published in 1974, has long since been established as a classic in several fields. Even in the wake of a large number of studies on Greek lament since then, Alexiou’s book remains what it was at its original […]
Foreword The timing could not be more perfect (téleios). It is a privilege, honor, and joy for me to welcome the second English edition of my Ritual Lament. A privilege above all else because two outstanding young scholars, Panagiotis Roilos and Dimitrios Yatromanolakis, have given freely of their expertise to bring about […]
List of Works Consulted Carpenter, Rhys. Folk Tale, Fiction, and Saga in the Homeric Epics. Berkeley, 1956. Dow, Sterling. “The Greeks in the Bronze Age,” in The Language and Background of Homer, ed. G. S. Kirk. Cambridge, 1964, 140–173. Frisk, Hjalmar. Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg, […]
IV. Crete and Naxos Although the Cypriote, Delian, and Argive variants are set apart from the Cretan and Naxian by virtue of their mention of Aphrodite, a single salient feature, which occurs in at least one variant from each locality, draws all the different versions together: the death of Ariadne. Assuredly, the […]
III. Delos, Cyprus, and Argos After consideration of the major variants of the Ariadne-Theseus myth, the next step must be a division on the basis of content. The last three sets discussed, those of Cyprus, Delos, and Argos, all contain one particular element absent from the Cretan and Naxian variants: a reference, […]
II. The Variants of the Myth The variant accounts of the abduction by Theseus of Ariadne, daughter of the Cretan king·Minos, at first appear to be not only numerous but confusing as well. The oral tradition has been in this case most prolific. Indeed, Plutarch was prompted to write: Πολλοὶ δὲ […]
I. Introduction The many facets of the Ariadne-figure have long been the subject of classical scholarship. The peculiar cultic customs surrounding the goddess have been assiduously interpreted, in part successfully and in part unsuccessfully. Her relation to the figure of Dionysus has been explored in hopes of proving the Mycenaean origins of […]