Erwin Cook is the T. F. Murchison Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University, San Antonio Texas. He is currently editing the first four books of the Iliad for a complete new edition by the Fondazione Lorenzo Valla.
In a recent pair of articles, I argued that the Odyssey presents itself as the heroic analogue to... more In a recent pair of articles, I argued that the Odyssey presents itself as the heroic analogue to, or even substitute for, fertility myth. 1 The return of Odysseus thus heralds the return of prosperity to his kingdom in a manner functionally equivalent to the return of Persephone, and with her of life, to earth. The first article focused on a detailed comparison of the plots of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and the Odyssey 2 ; and the second on the relationship between withdrawal and return narratives and ring-composition. 3 In my analysis of ring-composition, I concluded that what began as a cognitive and functional pattern, organizing small-scale narrative structures, evolved into an aesthetic pattern, organizing large blocks of narrative, before finally becoming an ideological pattern, connecting the hero's return to the promise of renewal offered by fertility myth and cult. In the story of Persephone, the pattern of withdrawal, devastation, and return with renewal takes place in cyclical time. But I also suggested that the same pattern can be reimagined in linear time as a return of the past, and specifically the heroic age. 4 In what follows, I argue that the Odyssey involves just such a return, of the heroic age in linear time, and in two, complementary ways. My central claim is that epic performance is a kind of time travel that involves both the internal characters and the external audience. The idea of ''return'' has thus exerted a centripetal force on the narrative so that return is a narrative ring-structure, representing a spatial journey-pattern by the protagonist(s), which has assimilated to itself complementary, cyclical, and linear temporal processes. 5 Abetting this assimilation is the underlying idea that return brings with it renewal for the
The early German romantic philosophy of myth can help elucidate the nature of romanticism itself,... more The early German romantic philosophy of myth can help elucidate the nature of romanticism itself, which notoriously resists descriptive or theoretical definition. To be sure, myth is an equally problematic term, whose precise meaning varies among romantic philosophers, though its role in the romantic project remains usefully consistent: myth is offered as a solution to the crisis of modern alienation, or, more radically, to the crisis of the subject object dichotomy. The sources of this alienation are likewise varied but broadly coherent. I will mention those relevant to the task at hand. Given the intimate association between romantic philosophy and aesthetic theory, it is unsurprising that a central concern of romantic authors is a presumed diminution in the immediacy of experience and expression as a defining feature of the modern condition. Central to both issues is the problematic nature of language itself—a problem thought to be exacerbated by the development of rational and abstract thought—which imposes itself between us and the world about us, as the mental activity responding to sensory experience and communicating that response to others. By extension, the sentimental artist could also impose himself between objects and perceiving subjects. This problematic loss of immediacy was further exacerbated by Kant's first critique, with its foreclosure on human ability to directly experience things in themselves. 1 Mankind is thus trapped in the world of subjective phenomena conditioned by the a priori categories of understanding, and thereby separated by an unbridgeable gulf from an unknowable absolute.
A modified version of Marshall Sahlins's model of reciprocity, which maps the modes of reciprocit... more A modified version of Marshall Sahlins's model of reciprocity, which maps the modes of reciprocity across kinship distance, helps elucidate reciprocity in Homer. With important qualifications, Homeric reciprocity can also elucidate the social realities of Archaic Greece. There are three primary modes of Homeric reciprocity: general, or altruistic giving, balanced exchange, and negative taking. The model for general reciprocity is family relationships, and it characterizes a ruler's relationship with the community, where it masks the reality that the upward flow of chiefly tribute exceeds the downward flow of the ruler's largesse. Balanced reciprocity is practiced between peers within the same community: exchange items are notionally of equivalent value and the transaction is completed within a limited timeframe. Exchanges outside the community tend to be negative: 'stranger' is often synonymous with 'enemy'. Walter Donlan further distinguishes between balanced reciprocities that are compensatory, and tend to be (but are not always) negative, and positive compactual reciprocities such as guest-friendship (xenia). Significantly, compensatory reciprocity includes reciprocities that begin as negative, in which the victim is able to exact compensation (poinē) or revenge (tisis). In Homer, balanced reciprocity consists of seven primary ritual practices: marriage (gamos) and supplication (hiketeia) can be related to xenia, as can sacrifice (iera rezein), somewhat more distantly; ransom (apoina) is related to poinē and tisis. In addition to systematizing further and refining Sahlins's model, this paper shows that the plots of both Homeric epics are comprehensively structured by reciprocity.
... PA4167.C58 1995 883'.01 dc20 95-9557 This book is a print-on-demand volume. It is m... more ... PA4167.C58 1995 883'.01 dc20 95-9557 This book is a print-on-demand volume. It is manufactured using toner in place of i Type and images may be less sharp than the material seen in traditionally printed Cornell University Press editions. Page 7. For Tanya: My Apologoi ...
Belief that the Homeric Phaeacians belong to the afterlife is old; but its supporters have always... more Belief that the Homeric Phaeacians belong to the afterlife is old; but its supporters have always found themselves in the minority. Friedrich Welcker, who first argued the point in 1833, held that the Phaeacians were ferrymen of the dead, and that Scheria was set in or near Elysium. 2 Wilamowitz accepted Welcker's identification of the Phaeacians, and maintained that Arete and Alcinous were modelled on the underworld rulers Persephone and Hades. 3 Rehearsal of the arguments advanced by these scholars reveals that the evidence has been incompletely and on occasion incorrectly applied; however, a modified version of their theory is still viable and can be used to resolve a number of traditional cruces in the interpretation.
I initially balked at the request to talk about the contemporary relevance of Homeric poetry. I d... more I initially balked at the request to talk about the contemporary relevance of Homeric poetry. I did so because I am of the camp that maintains great art does not need to be defended on these terms, which is to say its skill, beauty and profundity give it all the relevance it needs to be of lasting relevance. But I do recognize that my justification, which also keeps me from studying ancient graffiti and medieval doorknockers, assumes that at some level of remove there are enduring qualities to these works that do indeed, and will always, give them contemporary relevance. Instead of trying to sell the Iliad in these terms, however, I found I could do something more in the spirit of the original request and show how it allows us to see certain aspects of the contemporary world with almost shocking clarity. In particular, I will deal with the Iliad's unvarnished portrayal of the human will to power, the sociology of inner-city street gangs, and the psychological damage that warriors sometimes suffer on the battlefield.
The last quarter century of archa eological discoveries have significanlly emiched ami nuanced ou... more The last quarter century of archa eological discoveries have significanlly emiched ami nuanced our understand ing of interactions between the Greek world and the Lewnt dttring the Greek A.rchaic period ( nmventionally defined as 776-479 B.C.E.). They have also allowed us to construct an increasingly detailed model explaining the diffusion of knowledge from rvlcsopotamia to Greece at this time. In addition, advances in our understanding of oral cultures, and the role of oral narrative traditions \Vi thin them have cast valuable nc\V light on the ways in \vhich the Homeric epics appropriate, adapt, and pre serve cultural kuowledge. The palace of Alkinoos, de scribed in Book 7 of the Odysse')' , poses an interesting problem for archaeolop;ists and Homerists alike, in that it dcpans significantly from the generalized, or "formu laic," image of a Homeric palace and, moreover, de pans ERWI:--J COOK [1\JA 108 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND A direct path of communication leads from the palaces of the Assyrian kings to the emerging city states of mainland Greece, whether by way of Phoe nician intermediaries or the Greeks themselves.r' Phoenicia was uniquely positioned to play the role of cultural mediator: during much of the Greek Bronze Age, the cities that would eventually become the centers of Phoenician culture had already risen to prominence, and, consequently, found them selves caught in the crossfire between Egypt and the Hittite empire in their struggle for control of Syria-Palestine. Byblos enjoyed close relations with Eb r ypt throughout this period, and was a p1incipal supplier of timber from the Lebanon mountains. By the 18th Dynasty, shipwrights from the Lev-<�.nt were living in :Vtemphis, and over half a millennium later Herodotos refers to Tyrians living there.5 After the collapse of Mycenaean civilization and the Hittite empire at the end of the 13th century, Egypt and Assyria both entered a period of gradual decline from which Egypt never fully recovered: despite at tempts to reassert herself in the region during the reigns of the 22nd dynasty rulers Sheshonq I (945-924) and Osorkon I (924-889) and II (874-850), Egypt was unable to check the rise of Assyrian pow er and influence, which by the ninth century ex tended over the Levant, and which in the seventh century would culminate in successful campaigns against the Egyptian homeland itself un der Esar haddon ( 680-669) and Ash urbanipal ( 668-631 ) . ; Already in the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I ( 1115-1076) the principal cities of the Levant acknowl edged Assyrian dominance, hut it was not until Ashurnasirpal II (883-859) came to power that the Assyrians become a regular presence in the region.
In a recent pair of articles, I argued that the Odyssey presents itself as the heroic analogue to... more In a recent pair of articles, I argued that the Odyssey presents itself as the heroic analogue to, or even substitute for, fertility myth. 1 The return of Odysseus thus heralds the return of prosperity to his kingdom in a manner functionally equivalent to the return of Persephone, and with her of life, to earth. The first article focused on a detailed comparison of the plots of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and the Odyssey 2 ; and the second on the relationship between withdrawal and return narratives and ring-composition. 3 In my analysis of ring-composition, I concluded that what began as a cognitive and functional pattern, organizing small-scale narrative structures, evolved into an aesthetic pattern, organizing large blocks of narrative, before finally becoming an ideological pattern, connecting the hero's return to the promise of renewal offered by fertility myth and cult. In the story of Persephone, the pattern of withdrawal, devastation, and return with renewal takes place in cyclical time. But I also suggested that the same pattern can be reimagined in linear time as a return of the past, and specifically the heroic age. 4 In what follows, I argue that the Odyssey involves just such a return, of the heroic age in linear time, and in two, complementary ways. My central claim is that epic performance is a kind of time travel that involves both the internal characters and the external audience. The idea of ''return'' has thus exerted a centripetal force on the narrative so that return is a narrative ring-structure, representing a spatial journey-pattern by the protagonist(s), which has assimilated to itself complementary, cyclical, and linear temporal processes. 5 Abetting this assimilation is the underlying idea that return brings with it renewal for the
The early German romantic philosophy of myth can help elucidate the nature of romanticism itself,... more The early German romantic philosophy of myth can help elucidate the nature of romanticism itself, which notoriously resists descriptive or theoretical definition. To be sure, myth is an equally problematic term, whose precise meaning varies among romantic philosophers, though its role in the romantic project remains usefully consistent: myth is offered as a solution to the crisis of modern alienation, or, more radically, to the crisis of the subject object dichotomy. The sources of this alienation are likewise varied but broadly coherent. I will mention those relevant to the task at hand. Given the intimate association between romantic philosophy and aesthetic theory, it is unsurprising that a central concern of romantic authors is a presumed diminution in the immediacy of experience and expression as a defining feature of the modern condition. Central to both issues is the problematic nature of language itself—a problem thought to be exacerbated by the development of rational and abstract thought—which imposes itself between us and the world about us, as the mental activity responding to sensory experience and communicating that response to others. By extension, the sentimental artist could also impose himself between objects and perceiving subjects. This problematic loss of immediacy was further exacerbated by Kant's first critique, with its foreclosure on human ability to directly experience things in themselves. 1 Mankind is thus trapped in the world of subjective phenomena conditioned by the a priori categories of understanding, and thereby separated by an unbridgeable gulf from an unknowable absolute.
A modified version of Marshall Sahlins's model of reciprocity, which maps the modes of reciprocit... more A modified version of Marshall Sahlins's model of reciprocity, which maps the modes of reciprocity across kinship distance, helps elucidate reciprocity in Homer. With important qualifications, Homeric reciprocity can also elucidate the social realities of Archaic Greece. There are three primary modes of Homeric reciprocity: general, or altruistic giving, balanced exchange, and negative taking. The model for general reciprocity is family relationships, and it characterizes a ruler's relationship with the community, where it masks the reality that the upward flow of chiefly tribute exceeds the downward flow of the ruler's largesse. Balanced reciprocity is practiced between peers within the same community: exchange items are notionally of equivalent value and the transaction is completed within a limited timeframe. Exchanges outside the community tend to be negative: 'stranger' is often synonymous with 'enemy'. Walter Donlan further distinguishes between balanced reciprocities that are compensatory, and tend to be (but are not always) negative, and positive compactual reciprocities such as guest-friendship (xenia). Significantly, compensatory reciprocity includes reciprocities that begin as negative, in which the victim is able to exact compensation (poinē) or revenge (tisis). In Homer, balanced reciprocity consists of seven primary ritual practices: marriage (gamos) and supplication (hiketeia) can be related to xenia, as can sacrifice (iera rezein), somewhat more distantly; ransom (apoina) is related to poinē and tisis. In addition to systematizing further and refining Sahlins's model, this paper shows that the plots of both Homeric epics are comprehensively structured by reciprocity.
... PA4167.C58 1995 883&#x27;.01 dc20 95-9557 This book is a print-on-demand volume. It is m... more ... PA4167.C58 1995 883&#x27;.01 dc20 95-9557 This book is a print-on-demand volume. It is manufactured using toner in place of i Type and images may be less sharp than the material seen in traditionally printed Cornell University Press editions. Page 7. For Tanya: My Apologoi ...
Belief that the Homeric Phaeacians belong to the afterlife is old; but its supporters have always... more Belief that the Homeric Phaeacians belong to the afterlife is old; but its supporters have always found themselves in the minority. Friedrich Welcker, who first argued the point in 1833, held that the Phaeacians were ferrymen of the dead, and that Scheria was set in or near Elysium. 2 Wilamowitz accepted Welcker's identification of the Phaeacians, and maintained that Arete and Alcinous were modelled on the underworld rulers Persephone and Hades. 3 Rehearsal of the arguments advanced by these scholars reveals that the evidence has been incompletely and on occasion incorrectly applied; however, a modified version of their theory is still viable and can be used to resolve a number of traditional cruces in the interpretation.
I initially balked at the request to talk about the contemporary relevance of Homeric poetry. I d... more I initially balked at the request to talk about the contemporary relevance of Homeric poetry. I did so because I am of the camp that maintains great art does not need to be defended on these terms, which is to say its skill, beauty and profundity give it all the relevance it needs to be of lasting relevance. But I do recognize that my justification, which also keeps me from studying ancient graffiti and medieval doorknockers, assumes that at some level of remove there are enduring qualities to these works that do indeed, and will always, give them contemporary relevance. Instead of trying to sell the Iliad in these terms, however, I found I could do something more in the spirit of the original request and show how it allows us to see certain aspects of the contemporary world with almost shocking clarity. In particular, I will deal with the Iliad's unvarnished portrayal of the human will to power, the sociology of inner-city street gangs, and the psychological damage that warriors sometimes suffer on the battlefield.
The last quarter century of archa eological discoveries have significanlly emiched ami nuanced ou... more The last quarter century of archa eological discoveries have significanlly emiched ami nuanced our understand ing of interactions between the Greek world and the Lewnt dttring the Greek A.rchaic period ( nmventionally defined as 776-479 B.C.E.). They have also allowed us to construct an increasingly detailed model explaining the diffusion of knowledge from rvlcsopotamia to Greece at this time. In addition, advances in our understanding of oral cultures, and the role of oral narrative traditions \Vi thin them have cast valuable nc\V light on the ways in \vhich the Homeric epics appropriate, adapt, and pre serve cultural kuowledge. The palace of Alkinoos, de scribed in Book 7 of the Odysse')' , poses an interesting problem for archaeolop;ists and Homerists alike, in that it dcpans significantly from the generalized, or "formu laic," image of a Homeric palace and, moreover, de pans ERWI:--J COOK [1\JA 108 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND A direct path of communication leads from the palaces of the Assyrian kings to the emerging city states of mainland Greece, whether by way of Phoe nician intermediaries or the Greeks themselves.r' Phoenicia was uniquely positioned to play the role of cultural mediator: during much of the Greek Bronze Age, the cities that would eventually become the centers of Phoenician culture had already risen to prominence, and, consequently, found them selves caught in the crossfire between Egypt and the Hittite empire in their struggle for control of Syria-Palestine. Byblos enjoyed close relations with Eb r ypt throughout this period, and was a p1incipal supplier of timber from the Lebanon mountains. By the 18th Dynasty, shipwrights from the Lev-<�.nt were living in :Vtemphis, and over half a millennium later Herodotos refers to Tyrians living there.5 After the collapse of Mycenaean civilization and the Hittite empire at the end of the 13th century, Egypt and Assyria both entered a period of gradual decline from which Egypt never fully recovered: despite at tempts to reassert herself in the region during the reigns of the 22nd dynasty rulers Sheshonq I (945-924) and Osorkon I (924-889) and II (874-850), Egypt was unable to check the rise of Assyrian pow er and influence, which by the ninth century ex tended over the Levant, and which in the seventh century would culminate in successful campaigns against the Egyptian homeland itself un der Esar haddon ( 680-669) and Ash urbanipal ( 668-631 ) . ; Already in the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I ( 1115-1076) the principal cities of the Levant acknowl edged Assyrian dominance, hut it was not until Ashurnasirpal II (883-859) came to power that the Assyrians become a regular presence in the region.
In a recent pair of articles I argued that the Odyssey presents itself as the heroic analogue to,... more In a recent pair of articles I argued that the Odyssey presents itself as the heroic analogue to, or even substitute for, fertility myth. 1 The return of Odysseus thus heralds the return of prosperity to his kingdom in a manner functionally equivalent to the return of Persephone, and with her of life, to earth. The first paper focused on a detailed comparison of the plots of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and the Odyssey; 2 and the second on the relationship between withdrawal and return narratives and ring-composition. 3 In my analysis of ring-composition, I concluded that what began as a cognitive and functional pattern, organizing small-scale narrative structures, evolved into an aesthetic pattern, organizing large blocks of narrative, before finally becoming an ideological pattern, connecting the hero's return to the promise of renewal offered by fertility myth and cult. In the story of Persephone, the pattern of withdrawal, devastation, and return with renewal takes place in cyclical time. But, I also suggested that the same pattern can be re-imagined in linear time as a return of the past, and specifically the heroic age. 4 In what follows, I argue that the Odyssey involves just such a return, of the heroic age in linear time, and in two, complementary ways. My central claim is that epic performance is a kind of time travel that involves both the internal characters and the external audience. The idea of 'return' has thus exerted a centripetal force on the narrative so that return is a narrative ring-structure, representing a spatial journey-pattern by the protagonist(s), that has assimilated to itself complementary, cyclical and linear temporal processes. Abetting this assimilation is the underlying idea that return brings with it renewal for the community; and that the returning hero is thereby assimilated to the function of a returning Persephone is further abetted by the status of both as chthonic deities.
The early German romantic philosophy of myth can help elucidate the nature of romanticism itself,... more The early German romantic philosophy of myth can help elucidate the nature of romanticism itself, which notoriously resists descriptive or theoretical definition. To be sure, myth is an equally problematic term, whose precise meaning varies among romantic philosophers, though its role in the romantic project remains usefully consistent: myth is offered as a solution to the crisis of modern alienation, or, more radically, to the crisis of the subject object dichotomy. The sources of this alienation are likewise varied but broadly coherent. I will mention those relevant to the task at hand. Given the intimate association between romantic philosophy and aesthetic theory, it is unsurprising that a central concern of romantic authors is a presumed diminution in the immediacy of experience and expression as a defining feature of the modern condition. Central to both issues is the problematic nature of language itself—a problem thought to be exacerbated by the development of rational and abstract thought—which imposes itself between us and the world about us, as the mental activity responding to sensory experience and communicating that response to others. By extension, the sentimental artist could also impose himself between objects and perceiving subjects. This problematic loss of immediacy was further exacerbated by Kant's first critique, with its foreclosure on human ability to directly experience things in themselves. 1 Mankind is thus trapped in the world of subjective phenomena conditioned by the a priori categories of understanding, and thereby separated by an unbridgeable gulf from an unknowable absolute.
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