We were pleased to welcome Casey Dué for the first in our series of Open House sessions for fall 2015, in which we discussed the Iliad and the Greek Bronze Age.
She introduces the topic as follows:
How old is the Iliad? The Trojan War has traditionally been dated since antiquity to about 1250 BCE, and the Iliad is usually dated five hundred years or more after that, but there are hints in the linguistic and archaeological record that something like our Iliad was being composed and performed centuries before 1250. In this Open House I will discuss what some of that evidence is and offer some general thoughts on what the implications are for our understanding of the “Homeric Question.”
The webcast was recorded and available for later viewing via the video frame below. View the list of forthcoming events and access a complete list of videos featuring previous Open House events on the Open House page.
Members can start and continue the conversation associated with this event in this Forum thread.
You may watch the video on our YouTube channel, or in the frame below:
Casey Dué was primarily drawing on the following three articles for the discussion, although it is not necessary to read them in order to watch the video:
- S. Morris, “A Tale of Two Cities: The Miniature Frescoes from Thera and the Origins of Greek Poetry.” American Journal of Archaeology 93 (1989)
- E. S. Sherratt, “‘Reading the Texts’: Archaeology and the Homeric Question.” Antiquity 64 (1990)
- Watkins, C. “The basic formula and the announcement of death.” How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics. New York, 1995
Also relevant is:
- Nagy, Gregory. Comparative Studies in Greek and Indic Meter. Cambridge, MA, 1974.
Also mentioned during the discussion:
- Deborah Beck, Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic
- Richard P. Martin, The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance
- Homer Multitext project: post on “The Catalogue of Ships“
Further resources:
Video on Ancient Greek Meter with Professor Leonard Muellner
Classical Inquiries includes two posts on the Theran frescoes:
- The idea of ‘finders keepers’ as a signature for two sea-empires
- Looking through rose-colored glasses while sailing on a sacred journey
Casey Dué
Casey Dué is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Houston. She holds a B.A. in Classics from Brown University, and an M.A. and Ph.D in Classical Philology from Harvard University. Her teaching and research interests include ancient Greek oral traditions, Homeric poetry, Greek tragedy, and textual criticism.
Publications, available online for free at CHS:
The Captive Woman’s Lament in Greek Tragedy
Homeric Variations on a Lament by Briseis
Iliad 10 and the Poetics of Ambush (with Mary Ebbott)
Photo credit: Olga Levaniouk: Lion Gate, Mycenae