The article shows that in the Archaic period the Greeks did not possess a term equivalent to Classical ποιητής ““poet-composer.”” The principal meaning of the word άοιδός, often claimed to correspond to ποιητής and modern English poet , was ““tuneful”” (adj.) or ““singer”” (subst.). The secondary meaning ““poet working in the hexameter medium”” is limited to the post-Iliadic hexameter corpus. It is furthermore possible to show that the simplex άοιδός was backderived from a compound. More specifically, following Hermann Koller, I propose that the secondary meaning, being an epic innovation, developed from the compound *θeσπιαοιδός ““singer of things divine,”” whereas the primary meaning ““singer”” may go back to έπαοιδός, which later acquired the specialized meaning ““singer of incantations.””

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/CA.2009.28.1.1

Euripides: Trojan Women

The Semantics of άοιδός and Related Compounds: Towards a Historical Poetics of Solo Performance in Archaic Greece

Our world seems to be globalizing, yet in practice, it is marked more than ever by what Tania Murray Li calls "a conjuncture of belonging." The notion of autochthony plays a special role in this obsession with belonging as some sort of primordial claim: How can one belong more than if one is born from the soil itself? Since the 1990s, the notion has played a key role in politics in several parts of Africa. Yet, its spread has now become truly global. Comparisons with other parts of the world show that this notion retains its apparently "natural" self-evidence and, hence, its mobilizing force, in very different contexts. This article focuses on the notion of autochthony and its ambiguous implications for citizenship and exclusion. The classical example of Athens from the fifth century BC is of particular interest since it was the very cradle of autochthony thinking, yet it also highlights autochthony's inherent ambiguities that haunt the world today.

/pdf/autochthony-citizenship-and-exclusion-paradoxes-in-the-27dyiqr36f.pdf

Autochthony, Citizenship, and Exclusion - Paradoxes in the Politics of Belonging in Africa and Europe

Greek I. Author/Genre 220 II. Beginner's Books 233 III. Grammars and Grammatical Aids 234 IV. Readers 235 V. Composition 235 VI. Dictionaries and Word Lists 236 VII. New Testament 236 Latin I. Author/Genre 239 II. Beginner's Books 251 III. Grammars and Grammatical Aids 256 IV. Readers 256 V. Composition 260 VI. Dictionaries and Word Lists 260 VII. Later Latin 261 Pedagogical Texts ..263 Language Books . .263 Epigraphy, Paleography, Papyrology . .267

Textbooks in Greek and Latin

Euripides' Troades was a work not much studied until the end of World War II. Since then the play, and in particular the part played by Helen and the debate concerning her accountability for her elopement and its consequences, have not ceased to attract scholarly attention. The recent interest in the rhetoric of this agon has thrown additional light on the entire scene, the third and last episode of the play. The debate is occasioned by Menelaus’ announcement (873–5) that the men who captured his runaway wife handed her over to him for execution—or, should he so choose, to take her back home. In the first speech (914–65) Helen tries to persuade Menelaus that she cannot justly be punished with death for having served as the tool of a most powerful goddess. Hecuba, in her answering speech (969–1032), strives to discredit Helen in order to prevent her reinstatement and oblige Menelaus to carry out the death sentence. In this paper I would like to draw further attention to some of Hecuba's arguments. Assuming general acquaintance with current readings of the agon, I shall start with a section-by-section discussion of the old queen's speech and its immediate effect, with an emphasis on significant motifs. Certain further implications will be pointed out at the end of the paper.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S000983880003192X

Creative rhetoric in Euripides’ Troades: some notes on Hecuba's speech

This book examines the physical presentation of the heroic world in tragedy, in short the ‘tragic world’. This presentation includes the landscape, buildings, and objects of this world, and aims to provide a clearer understanding of how the classical Greeks presented their ‘distant past’, the so-called epoch to which the heroic world belongs. The focus on the presentation of two cities in many tragedies rather than on the complete heroic world of a single tragedy makes it possible to discern general tendencies in the tragic genre as a whole.

/pdf/tragic-troy-and-athens-heroic-space-in-attic-drama-244wm6azwi.pdf

Euripides: Trojan Women

Citations

The Semantics of άοιδός and Related Compounds: Towards a Historical Poetics of Solo Performance in Archaic Greece

Autochthony, Citizenship, and Exclusion - Paradoxes in the Politics of Belonging in Africa and Europe

Textbooks in Greek and Latin

Creative rhetoric in Euripides’ Troades: some notes on Hecuba's speech

Tragic Troy and Athens: heroic space in Attic drama