Victorious poet (inscribed “He is beautiful”) reciting (“As once in Tiryns…”) In Part 1 we looked at the role of aoidoi as depicted within epic poetry itself. Now we turn to later sources in which the word rhapsode comes into use. In that post, we touched on the performance of Achilles and Patroklos in relay. Gregory Nagy comments: 8§28…Homeric poetry was performed at the Panathenaia by rhapsōidoi, ‘rhapsodes’ … The… Read more
In a dialogue of Plato, Ion, the character Ion is a famous rhapsode. He is just coming back from a famous festival in Epidaurus where he performed Homeric poetry. [1] Plato’s dialogue dates from the late 5th century BCE [2], but it is not easy to find specific information about rhapsodes from the archaic period. The word rhapsōdos [ῥαψῳδός] itself is not used in Homeric or Hesiodic poetry. The word used… Read more
Dear H25 participants, Our next Book Club selection is Chapter 3, “Heroes as Performers,” of The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad, by Richard P. Martin. Our discussion will be held via Google+ Hangout on Wednesday, October 29, 2014 at 1:00 p.m EDT Please sign up for the Google+ hangout on the Forum thread. Happy Readings! Sarah & Janet Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new… Read more