Credible Impossibilities

In 'Credible Impossibilities', Ruth Scodell argues that Homer and Greek tragedy follow identifiable rules of plot coherence and motivation. It is misleading either to expect Greek literature to obey the norms of the realistic novel, or to ignore the authors' manifest desire to make their works believable for their audiences. Only rarely do Greek poets rely on the audience' s prior familiarity with the story to make a particular telling credible. Some kinds of inconsistency or irrationality are simply permitted; authors and audiences alike seem to have ignored them. The poets apologize for others or try to mitigate their effects. Sometimes authors draw attention to inconsistencies, inviting the audience to see them as meaningful. The tragedians' standards of causation and consistency depend a great deal on Homer, and in the late fifth century, under the influence of the critical study of Homer, both Euripides and Sophocles show a new concern for explaining small details of plot. The book should interest not only specialists, but anyone interested in the practical strategies of a literary tradition that is at once foreign and accessible to us. Table of Contents 1. Defining Credibility 2. Homeric Strategies 3. Homeric Chronology and Conventions of Inattention 4. Tragic Strategies 5. Inattention in Tragedy 6. Exploiting Prior Knowledge 7. Tragedians as Scrupulous Readers 8. Conclusions Bibliography Index of Passages General Index