
Achilles Unbound
Multiformity and Tradition in the Homeric Epics
Casey Due(Author)
Harvard University, Center for Hellenic Studies (Publisher)
Published on 1. March 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
228 pages
978-0-674-98736-4 (ISBN)
Description
Though Achilles the character is bound by fate and by narrative tradition, Achilles's poem, the Iliad, was never fixed and monolithic in antiquity-it was multiform. And the wider epic tradition, from which the Iliad emerged, was yet more multiform. In Achilles Unbound, Casey Due, building on nearly twenty years of work as coeditor of the Homer Multitext (www.homermultitext.org), explores both the traditionality and multiformity of the Iliad in a way that gives us a greater appreciation of the epic that has been handed down to us.
Due argues that the attested multiforms of the Iliad-in ancient quotations, on papyrus, and in the scholia of medieval manuscripts-give us glimpses of the very long history of the text, access to even earlier Iliads, and a greater awareness of the mechanisms by which such a remarkable poem could be composed in performance. Using methodologies grounded in an understanding of Homeric poetry as a system, Achilles Unbound argues for nothing short of a paradigm shift in our approach to the Homeric epics, one that embraces their long evolution and the totality of the world of epic song, in which each performance was newly composed and received by its audience.
Due argues that the attested multiforms of the Iliad-in ancient quotations, on papyrus, and in the scholia of medieval manuscripts-give us glimpses of the very long history of the text, access to even earlier Iliads, and a greater awareness of the mechanisms by which such a remarkable poem could be composed in performance. Using methodologies grounded in an understanding of Homeric poetry as a system, Achilles Unbound argues for nothing short of a paradigm shift in our approach to the Homeric epics, one that embraces their long evolution and the totality of the world of epic song, in which each performance was newly composed and received by its audience.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
8 color illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-674-98736-4 (9780674987364)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Casey Due is Professor and Director of Classical Studies at the University of Houston.