Homeric Stitchings: The Homeric Centos of the Empress Eudocia PDF
Preview Homeric Stitchings: The Homeric Centos of the Empress Eudocia
Homeric Stitchings Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches General Editor: Gregory Nagy, Harvard University Assistant Editor: Timothy Power, Harvard University On the front cover: A calendar frieze representing the Athenian months, reused in the Byzantine Church of the Little Metropolis in Athens. The cross is superimposed, obliterating Taurus of the Zodiac. The choice of this frieze for books in Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches reflects this series’ emphasis on the blending of the diverse heritages—Near Eastern, Classical, and Christian—in the Greek tradition. Drawing by Laurie Kain Hart, based on a photograph. Recent titles in the series are: The Wrath of Athena: Gods and Men in the Odyssey, Jenny Strauss Clay, University of Virginia Talking Trojan: Speech and Community in the Iliad, Hilary Mackie, Rice University Poet and Audience in the Argonautica of Apollonius, Robert V. Albis, The Hotchkiss School Theatrical Space and Historical Place in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus, Lowell Edmunds, Rutgers University Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece: Their Morphology, Religious Role, and Social Function, Claude Calame, University of Lausanne, Switzerland; translated by Derek Collins and Jane Orion Eurykleia and Her Successors: Female Figures of Authority in Greek Poetics, Helen Pournara Karydas, Boston Latin School and Harvard University Speech in Speech: Studies in Incorporated Oratio Recta in Attic Drama and Oratory, Victor Bers, Yale University Aegean Strategies: Studies of Culture and Environment on the European Fringe, P. Nick Kardulias, College of Wooster, and Mark T. Shutes, Youngstown State University Aglaia: The Poetry of Aleman, Sappho, Pindar, Bacchylides, and Corinna, Charles Segal, Harvard University Immortal Armor: The Concept of Alke in Archaic Greek Poetry, Derek Collins, University of Texas at Austin Homeric Stitchings: The Homeric Centos of the Empress Eudocia, M. D. Usher, Willamette University Homeric Stitchings The Homeric Centos of the Empress Eudocia M. D. Usher ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham " Boulder +» New York " Oxford ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 20706 12 Hid’s Copse Road Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 91], England Copyright © 1998 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Usher, Mark David, 1966 -- Homeric stitchings : the Homeric Centos of the Empress Eudocia / M.D. Usher. p. cm. — (Greek studies : interdisciplinary approaches) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8476-8999-9 (alk. paper). — ISBN 0-8476-9050-4 (pbk. : alk. paper 1. Eudocia, consort of Theodosius II, Emperor of the East, d. 460 — Criticism and interpretation, 2. Christian poetry, Greek — History and criticism. 3. Homer — Appreciation — Turkey — Istanbul. 4. Byzantine Empire — Intellectual life. 3. Oral tradition — Turkey — Istanbul. 6. Centos— History and criticism. 7. Oral—formulaic analysis. 8. Transmission of texts. 9. Literary form. I. Title. II. Series: Greek studies. PA3972. E862Z88 1998 881.01 — del 98-6369 CIP Printed in the United States of America Til eS The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI 239.48-1984. As a good house-wife out of divers fleeces weaves one peece of cloth ...1 have laboriously collected this Cento out of divers Writers. —Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Note on Citation Style Introduction Part One: Cento Contexts 1: Understanding the Homeric Centos 2: Eudocia Augusta: Reader-Rhapsode Part Two: Cento Poetics 3: Accommodations 4: Enjambement Part Three: Cento Semiotics and Aesthetics 5: Themes and Intertextuality 6: Composition by Theme 101 7: Themes from the Odyssey 113 8: Themes from the Iliad 131 References 147 Index 169 About the Author 175 Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches Foreword by Gregory Nagy, General Editor Building on the foundations of scholarship within the disciplines of philology, philosophy, history, and archaeology, this series spans the continuum of Greek traditions extending from the second millennium B.C.E. to the present, not just the Archaic and Classical periods. The aim is to enhance perspectives by applying various disciplines to problems that have in the past been treated as the exclusive concern of a single given discipline. Besides the crossing over of the older disciplines, as in the case of historical and literary studies, the series encourages the application of such newer ones as linguistics, sociology, anthropology, and comparative literature. It also encour- ages encounters with current trends in methodology, especially in the realm of literary theory. Homeric Stitchings: The Homeric Centos of the Empress Eudocia, by M. D. Usher, is a definitive study of the Homeric Centos, an epic-style biblical poem composed in the early fifth century C.E. by the Empress Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II. The building blocks of the Centos are verses taken directly from the /liad and Odyssey. Such versification, known by the technical designation of cento or “stitching,” has not until now received the attention it deserves. Previous scholarship has tended to underestimate the Homeric Centos and the form of the cento in general. Usher’s book forces a radical reassessment. Concentrating on the historical context of audience reception, Usher demonstrates the artistry and communicative power of the Homeric Centos. This poem, as Usher shows convincingly, was intended for performance before audiences who were intimately familiar with both Homer and the Bible. To say “familiar” may well be an understatement: the Homeric Centos presuppose a veritable x Foreword internalization of both Homer and the Bible for both the composer and the audience. In the case of Homer, the composer has internalized not only the themes of the Jliad and Odyssey but also—and this is essential—the formulaic system of Homeric poetry. Eudocia’s consummate understanding of both the mechanics and the esthetics of Homeric diction cannot be understood purely in terms of composition. Applying the techniques of formulaic analysis pioneered by Milman Parry and Albert Lord, Usher argues that the art of the Homeric Centos grew out of mnemonic traditions that perpetuated the actual performance of the Homeric poems. The reading of the Homeric Centos, in the culture of later antiquity, was merely the means toward the end of hearing them—the same way that audiences would hear the /liad and Odyssey at public per- formances. The Homeric Centos, like Homer, were meant to be heard. In the historical context of later antiquity, as Homeric Stitchings proves, it 1s essential to keep in mind the performative aspects of reading in general. The Homeric Centos of the Empress Eudocia bring to the fore the cultural synergism of reading and performing the Classics.
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