Homer’s Winged Words: The Evolution of Early Greek Epic Diction in the Light of Oral Theory

427 Pages·2009·3.051 MB·English

by  Steve Reece

Homer’s Winged Words
Mnemosyne
Supplements
Monographs on Greek and
Roman Language and Literature
Editorial Board
G.J. Boter
A. Chaniotis
K.M. Coleman
I.J.F. de Jong
P.H. Schrijvers
VOLUME 313
Homer’s Winged Words
Th e Evolution of Early Greek Epic Diction
in the Light of Oral Th eory
by
Steve Reece
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
Th is book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reece, Steve, 1959–
Homer’s winged words : the evolution of early Greek epic diction in the light of oral
theory / by Steve Reece.
p. cm. — (Mnemosyne supplements : monographs on Greek and Roman
language and literature ; v. 313)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17441-2 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Homer—Criticism and
interpretation. 2. Epic poetry, Greek—History and criticism. 3. Oral tradition—
Greece. I. Title. II. Series.
PA4037.R374 2009
883’.01—dc22
2009010950
ISSN 0169-8958
ISBN 978 90 04 17441 2
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I dedicate this work to my son Taylor Martin Reece and to my
daughter Hannah Christine Reece, who have demonstrated for me
in the laboratory of life many curious permutations of the English
language. Some have involved the shift ing of ambiguous word bound-
aries, resulting in curious English phrases not unlike the Homeric
phrases that are the subject of this work. I hope that the reader will
fi nd the following Homeric permutations both as entertaining and
thought-provoking as I found those of my children.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments .............................................................................. ix
PART ONE
CATEGORIES OF JUNCTURAL METANALYSIS
Chapter One Introduction ............................................................ 3
Chapter Two Junctural Metanalysis in Middle English ........... 15
Chapter Th ree Junctural Metanalysis in Homeric Greek ........ 27
Chapter Four Junctural Metanalysis in Homer Owing to
Nu-Ephelkystikon and Final Nu ................................................. 39
Chapter Five Junctural Metanalysis in Homer Owing to
Movable and Final Sigma ............................................................ 57
Chapter Six Junctural Metanalysis in Homer Owing to
Movable and Final Kappa ............................................................ 71
Chapter Seven Junctural Metanalysis in Homer Owing to
Vocal Elision .................................................................................. 79
Chapter Eight Junctural Metanalysis of Homeric Toponyms 163
PART TWO
INDIVIDUAL CASES OF JUNCTURAL METANALYSIS
Chapter Nine An Homeric Problem / An Aeschylean
Solution Ἄβιοι / Γάβιοι ............................................................... 195
Chapter Ten Whence the Selloi of Dodona? Σελλοί / Ἑλλοί ... 201
viii contents
Chapter Eleven A Peculiar Particle ταρ / ἄρ(᾿) ......................... 217
Chapter Twelve Folksy Th ersites φολκός / (ἐφ)ὁλκός .............. 231
Chapter Th irteen Epic Knees / Ep’ Icknees γνυ- / ἰγνυ- ......... 237
Chapter Fourteen Homeric Headdresses and Citadels
κατὰ κρῆθεν / κατ᾿ ἄκρης ............................................................ 249
Chapter Fift een Homer’s Asphodel Meadow ἀσφοδελός /
σφοδελός ......................................................................................... 261
Chapter Sixteen Th e Homeric and Mycenaean Bath
ἀσάμινθος / νασάμινθος .............................................................. 273
Chapter Seventeen Swift -Running Hermes σῶκος / ὠκύς ...... 281
Chapter Eighteen Homer’s Bridges of War πτολέμοιο
γέφυραι / πτολέμοιό γ᾿ ἔφυραι .................................................... 301
Chapter Nineteen Homer’s Winged and Wingless Words
πτερόεις / ἄπτερος ......................................................................... 315
Illustrations and Maps ...................................................................... 335
Appendices .......................................................................................... 345
Bibliography ........................................................................................ 361
Index Locorum ................................................................................... 383
Index Nominum ................................................................................ 401
Index Verborum ................................................................................ 407
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It took the Achaeans ten long years to conquer Troy, and it took
Odysseus another ten to make his way back home again. It has taken
me even longer to accomplish the much less heroic task of writing
this book.
I recall vividly when and where the project began: during a casual
conversation one late aft ernoon with a fellow graduate student in
the reading room of the UCLA Classics Department. We were puz-
zling over the word νήδυμος (nedumos), a common epithet for sleep
in Greek epic verse: did it mean ‘painless,’ as some of the lexica we
examined suggested, or ‘encompassing,’ or ‘inescapable,’ or ‘womb-
like,’ as others proposed? Or, as one lexicon hesitantly off ered, was
the adjective simply an odd form of the common adjective ἥδυμος
(hedumos), meaning ‘sweet,’ the initial ν- (n-) having been transferred
from a preceding word that ended in -ν (-n)? Th is made excellent sense
semantically, and a quick look at the phrases in which the epithet is
commonly found embedded in epic verse provided confi rmation: the
preceding word oft en ended with a dispensable -ν (-n). Th e formula
ἔχε νήδυμος ὕπνος (eche nedumos hupnos), for example, could easily
have resulted from a resegmentation of an earlier ἔχεν ἥδυμος ὕπνος
(echen hedumos hupnos) ‘sweet sleep took hold of so-and-so,’ with the
verb ending in a so-called ‘nu-ephelkystikon’ (movable nu). Our delib-
erations on the Homeric formula brought to my mind a query that a
youngster had once made aft er hearing a recitation of Psalm 23: “What
are nenemies, and why do they give us presents?” He had, of course,
misunderstood and resegmented the archaic phrase ‘the presence of
mine enemies.’ Th is comparison was illuminating, for it off ered us a
rare glimpse of the living, changing, and very human process that was
also responsible for the language of the Homeric epics, even though
we know them today largely as fi xed, canonical, and impersonal texts.
It was a memorable discovery, and I resolved to explore this process
further when I had time.
This project has followed me around ever since, like an always
steadfast and usually welcome companion, on my peregrinations from
California to Texas to Tennessee to Minnesota, with several detours