Signs of Orality: The Oral Tradition and Its Influence in the Greek and Roman World

288 Pages·1998·15.26 MB·English

by  E. Anne Mackay

SIGNS OF ORALITY
MNEMOSYNE
BIBLIOTHECA CLASSICA BATAVA
COLLEGERUNT
J.M. BREMER • L. F. JANSSEN · H. PINKSTER
H. W. PLEKET · C.J. RUIJGH • P.H. SCHRIJVERS
BIBLIOTHECAE FASCICULOS EDENDOS CURAVIT
C.J. RUIJGH, KLASSIEK SEMINARIUM, OUDE TURFMARKT 129, AMSTERDAM
SUPPLEMENTUM CENTESIMUM OCTOGESIMUM OCTAVUM
E. ANNE MACKAY (ED.)
SIGNS OF ORALITY
SIGNS OF ORALITY
THE ORAL TRADITION AND ITS INFLUENCE
IN THE GREEK AND ROMAN WORLD
EDITED BY
E. ANNE MACKAY
BRILL
LEIDEN · BOSTON · KOLN
1999
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Signs of orality : the oral tradition and its influence in the Greek
and Roman world / edited by E. Anne Mackay.
p. cm. - (Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava.
Supplementum, ISSN 0169-8958 ; 188)
Includes bibliographical references {p. ) and index.
ISBN 9004112731 (cloth : alk. paper)
I. Classical literature-History and criticism. 2. Language and
culture-Greece. 3. Language and culture-Rome. 4. Oral-formulaic
Analysis. 5. Oral tradition-Greece. 6. Oral tradition-Rome.
7. Greece-Civilization. 8. Rome-Civilization. 9. Homer-
-Technique. I. Mackay, E. Anne. II. Series.
PA3009.S55 1998
880' .09-dc2 l 98-41718
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek -CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
[Mnemosyne/ Supplementum)
Mnemosyne : bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum. - Leiden ;
Boston ; Koln : Brill
Friiher Schriftenreihe
Teilw. u.d.T.: Mnemosyne / Supplements
Reihe Supplementum zu: Mnemosyne
188. Signs of orality. - 1998
Signs of orality : the oral tradition and its influence in the Greek and
Roman world / ed. by Anne Mackay. - Leiden ; Boston ; Koln : Brill,
1998
(Mnemosyne : Supplementum ; 188)
ISBN 90--04-1 12 73 -1
ISSN O1 69-8958
ISBN 90 04 11273 I
© Copyright 1999 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
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PRINfED IN TIIE NETHERLANDS
CONTENTS
Preface . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . ... . .. .. . . . .. ... vii
List of Illustrations ......................................... .. ................... ................. ix
Introduction : What's in a Sign? .......................................................... ..
John Miles Foley
I. How Oral is Oral Composition? ... .. .. ............ .... .. .... .... .. .... .... .. .. .... 29
Egbert J. Bakker
II. Describing and Narrating in Homer's Iliad .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. . . .. . . . .. .. . .. . 49
Elizabeth Minchin
III. Ring-composition and Linearity in Homer.................................... 65
Stephen A. Nimis
IV. Odysseus' Evasiveness and the Audience oft he Odyssey 79
Ruth Scodel
V. Homer and Historical Memory .. . .. . .. ... . . .. . .. ... . .. . . . . ... . . . ... . ........ .... .. 95
Wolfgang Kullmann
VI. The Bystander at the Ringside. Ring-composition in Early
Greek Poetry and Vase-Painting ................................................ 115
Anne Mackay, Deirdre Harrison, Samantha Masters
VII. The Vase as Ventriloquist. Kalos-inscriptions and the Culture
ofF ame .......................................................................................... 143
Niall W. Slater
VIII. The Orality ofG reek Oratory .. . . . .. ... .. .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .... .. .... .... .. . . .... .. . 163
Michael Gagarin
IX. Dialogue and Orality in a Post-Platonic Age 181
Harold Tarrant
X. Virgil's Formularity and Pius Aeneas ................ ........................ 199
Merritt Sale
XI. Two Levels of Orality in the Genesis ofP liny's Panegyricus 221
Elaine Fantham
Notes on Contributors .......................................................................... 239
VJ CONTENTS
Bibliography .................................................................................... ..... 241
Index Locorum ..................................................................................... 253
General Index ........................................................................................ 257
PREFACE
The intention of this volume is to offer a critical examination of the per-
ceived interface between oral tradition and written literature in the an-
cient world. This reflects a current trend among oral theorists towards
challenging the construct of an oral tradition in counterpoise to subse-
quent written literature, and recognising that the oral traditional narra-
tive system continued to pervade potentially every form of cultural ex-
pression in the subsequent literate development of the society, wherever
written or other forms of text (such as vase-paintings) relate to tradi-
tional or traditionalised forms of verbal presentation. The chapters were
originally delivered as papers at a conference entitled Epos and Logos,
held at the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa in July 1996,1 The
title of the volume was inspired by John Miles Foley's keynote address
at the conference, "Reading between the signs: Homer and Oral Tradi-
tion", which explored the concept of the word sema (sign) in relation to
reception of the Homeric texts in particular and oral literature more gen-
erally.2 Epos and Logos was the second in what has become a biennial
series of orality conferences: the first, entitled Voice into Text, was or-
ganised by Ian Worthington at the University of Tasmania, Hobart,
Australia in July 1994,3 and the third, also under the title Epos and Lo-
gos, is to be hosted in July 1998 by Victoria University of Wellington,
New Zealand, with Janet Watson as organiser.
Throughout the volume, translations from Greek and Latin are the
authors' own unless otherwise indicated; while an attempt has been
made to standardise the spelling of Greek names in transliterated form,
the usual anomalies must be acknowledged in the interests of traditional
reference: some, like Sokrates, were hesitated over, Thoukydides was
rejected along with Aristoteles and Platon. Names of Greek works are
I For a report on this conference, see N. W. Slater in Gnomon 69.6 (1997), 571; ab-
stracts of all the papers delivered at the conference are published in Scholia. Natal Studies
in Classical Antiquity S (1996), 161-70, and may also be accessed electronically at
http://www.und.ac.z.a/und/classics/scholia/eposconf.html. The papers selected for this
volume have all been peer-refereed.
2 A detailed discussion is included in Foley (1999: Ch. I).
3 Selected proceedings of the Tasmania conference were published in Worthington
(1996).
VIII PREFACE
for the most part cited in the familiar Latin forms, following the Thesau-
rus Linguae Graecae (which indeed served as an invaluable reference
for texts). The two papers on Latin texts preserve their linguistic ambi-
ence by citing Greek names in Latinised forms.
I should like to acknowledge the assistance of a number of colleagues
and graduate students who helped in various ways with the production
of this volume: Chuck Chandler, William Dominik, Bill Henderson,
Dawie Kriel, Danie Lombard and Richard Whitaker; Jonathan Cole,
Tamaryn Pieterse and Adrian Ryan; and the members ofmy Department
in Durban, particularly Joy McGill. I am especially appreciative of the
on-going support and encouragement of my husband, Jurgen Lieskou-
nig, in this as in all my endeavours. For help in obtaining museum pho-
tographs and reproduction rights, special thanks are due to Joan Mertens
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; F. W. Hamdorf ofthe
Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, Munich; Alison Hol-
croft and Roslynne Bell of the James Logie Memorial Collection, Uni-
versity of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; Karen L. Otis of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Charles Kline of the University of Penn-
sylvania Museum; Francesco Buranelli of the Vatican Museum; Marga-
ret Legge of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and the staff
of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities and the Photo-
graphic Service of the British Museum. Acknowledgement must further
be made of a grant from the Centre for Science Development of the
Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa, which made possible
John Miles Foley's visit to South Africa; and generous funding from the
University Research Fund of the University of Natal met the various
costs associated with the editing process. Finally, all those who partici-
pated in the Epos and Logos (1996) conference, especially in the often
challenging discussions following the papers, made a contribution to the
general intellectual outcome of the conference, one that has been vari-
ously acknowledged by the contributors to this volume, and that is ap-
propriately brought into prominence here.
Anne Mackay
Durban, June 1998
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Chapter 6 (Plates after p. 142)
Plate 1 Theseus and the Minotaur: obverse, London, British Mu-
sewn 1842.3-14.3 (B 205), Group E. Photograph courtesy
of the Trustees of the British Musewn.
Plate 2 Theseus and the Minotaur: obverse, New York 56.171.12,
Group E. Photograph courtesy of the Metropolitan Mu-
sewn of Art, New York. Fletcher Fund, 1956.
Plate 3 Frontal chariot: reverse, New York 56.171.12, Group E.
Photograph courtesy of the Metropolitan Musewn of Art,
New York. Fletcher Fund, 1956.
Plate 4 Wedding chariot: obverse, Christchurch 43/57, Painter of
the Vatican Mourner. Photograph courtesy of the James
Logie Memorial Collection, University of Canterbury,
Christchurch, New Zealand.
Plate 5 Herakles, Deianeira and Nettos: reverse, Christchurch
43/57, Painter of the Vatican Mourner. Photograph cour-
tesy of the James Logie Memorial Collection, University
of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Plate 6 Departure of a warrior: reverse, Boston 1970.8, Painter of
the Vatican Mourner. Photograph courtesy of the Musewn
of Fine Arts, Boston. William E. Nickerson Fund No. 2.
Plate 7 Achilleus' ambush of Troilos: obverse, Boston 1970.8,
Painter of the Vatican Mourner. Photograph courtesy of
the Musewn of Fine Arts, Boston. William E. Nickerson
Fund No. 2.
Plate 8 Menelaos' recovery of Helen: reverse, Vatican 16589
(formerly 350), Painter of the Vatican Mourner. Photo-
graph courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, by kind permission of the Vatican Musewns.
Plate 9 Woman mourning over fallen warrior: obverse, Vatican
16589 (formerly 350), Painter of the Vatican Mourner.
Photograph courtesy of the Metropolitan Musewn of Art,
New York, by kind permission of the Vatican Musewns.
X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate 10 Harnessing a chariot (1): reverse, Boston 89.273, Exekias.
Photograph courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Purchased by contribution.
Plate 11 Harnessing a chariot (2): obverse, Boston 89.273, Exekias.
Photograph courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Purchased by contribution.
Plate 12 The Dioskouroi: obverse, Vatican 344, signed by Exekias.
Photograph courtesy of the Rinner Fotoarchiv, Munich, by
kind permission of the Vatican Museums.
Plate 13 Dionysos' boat: eye-cup interior, Munich 2044, signed by
Exekias. Photograph courtesy of the Staatliche Antiken-
sammlungen und Glyptothek, Munich.
Plate 14 Death of Antilochos: reverse, Philadelphia 3442, Exekias.
Photograph courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania
Museum (Neg.# S8 2758).
Plate 15 Death of Achilleus: obverse, Philadelphia 3442, Exekias.
Photograph courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania
Museum (Neg. # S8 2758).
Chapter 7
Figure 1, p. 146 Alkaios and Sappho: Munich 2416, Brygos Painter.
Drawing after Lissarague (1990: fig. 95).
Figure 2, p. 146 Symposiast: Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, B 3, Epiktetos.
Drawing after Lissarague (1990: fig. 3).
Figure 3, p. 147 Dolphin-riders: New York L.1979.17.1 (Schimmel),
Oltos. Drawing after Lissarague (1990: fig. 88).
Figure 4, p. 148 Reclining singer: Louvre G 30, Euphronios. Drawing
after Lissarague ( 1990: fig. 103 ).
Figure 5, p. 149 Symposiast: Florence 3949, Brygos Painter. Drawing
after Lissarague (1990: fig. 99).
Figure 6, p. 153 Inscription: Leningrad inv. 1412 (210 [St 216). Draw-
ing after Lissarague ( 1990: fig. 4 7F).
Figure 7, p. 156 Inscription: Rhodes 10527, potted by Eucheiros.
Drawing after Lissarague (1990: fig. 47H).
Plate 16, facing p. 143 White-ground lekythos with stoichedon inscrip-
tion: Melbourne D93/1971, Achilles Painter. Photograph
courtesy National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Felton
Bequest 1971.