Conflict and Consensus in Early Greek Hexameter Poetry

A fresh and wide-ranging exploration across the whole of early Greek hexameter poetry, focusing on issues of poetics and metapoetics.

Paola Bassino (Edited by), Lilah Grace Canevaro (Edited by), Barbara Graziosi (Edited by)

9781316625989, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 August 2021

238 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.358 kg

Achilles inflicts countless agonies on the Achaeans, although he is supposed to be fighting on their side. Odysseus' return causes civil strife on Ithaca. The Iliad and the Odyssey depict conflict where consensus should reign, as do the other major poems of the early Greek hexameter tradition: Hesiod's Theogony and the Homeric Hymns describe divine clashes that unbalance the cosmos; Hesiod's Works and Days stems from a quarrel between brothers. These early Greek poems generated consensus among audiences: the reason why they reached us is that people agreed on their value. This volume, accordingly, explores conflict and consensus from a dual perspective: as thematic concerns in the poems, and as forces shaping their early reception. It sheds new light on poetics and metapoetics, internal and external audiences, competition inside the narrative and competing narratives, local and Panhellenic traditions, narrative closure and the making of canonical literature.

Introduction
Part I. Gods: 1. Conflict, consensus and closure in Hesiod's Theogony and En?ma eliš Johannes Haubold
2. Divine conflict and the problem of Aphrodite Barbara Graziosi
3. Sparring partners: fraternal relations in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes Oliver Thomas
Part II. Heroes: 4. Achilles in control? Managing oneself and others in the funeral games Adrian Kelly
5. Uncertainty and the possibilities of violence: the quarrel in Odyssey 8 Jon Hesk
6. ???? ????????: archilochean Iambos and the Homeric poetics of conflict Donald Lavigne
7. Conflict and consensus in the epic cycle Jim Marks
Part III. Men: 8. Fraternal conflict in Hesiod's Works and Days Lilah Grace Canevaro
9. On constructive conflict and disruptive peace: the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi Paola Bassino.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Poetry [DC]