Homer’s Iliad (eBook)

Katharina Wesselmann (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023
249 Seiten
De Gruyter (Verlag)
978-3-11-068795-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Since Ameis-Hentze-Cauer (1868-1913) no comprehensive, scholarly commentary of Homer's Iliad has been published in German. In the meantime considerable progress has been made in many traditional areas of Homeric studies (language, realia, structure etc.). In addition, generally acknowledged new fields such as narratology have been systematically studied. Furthermore, the knowledge of the Mycenaean language (Linear B) and oral poetry provide completely new possibilities of textual constitution and analysis. Using the old Ameis-Hentze-Cauer as a starting point, the new commentary reflects the current scholarship on Homer in a comprehensive way. As a new standard work, the 'Basel Commentary' of the Iliad has received considerable recognition among scholars worldwide. The fresh concept in terms of content and form serves the needs of different groups of users. The commentary primarily aims at students and academic teachers (at schools and universities), not only of Classics but also of cultural and literary studies as well as of humanities in general.

Katharina Wesselmann, Universität zu Kiel.

Textauszug

24 Rules Relating to Homeric Language (R)

The following compilation of the characteristics of Homeric language emphasizes its deviations from Attic grammar. Linguistic notes are included only exceptionally (but can be found in the ‘Grammar of Homeric Greek’ [G] in the Prolegomena volume; references to the relevant paragraphs of that chapter are here shown in the right margin).

R 1

Homeric language is an artificial language, characterized by:

G

1.1

meter (which can result in a variety of remodellings);

3

1.2

the technique of oral poetry (frequently repeated content is rendered in formulae, often with metrically different variants);

3

1.3

different dialects: Ionic is the basic dialect; interspersed are forms from other dialects, particularly Aeolic (so-called Aeolicisms) that often provide variants according to 1.1 and 1.2.

2

Phonology, meter, prosody

R 2

Sound change of ᾱ > η: In the Ionic dialect, old ᾱ has changed to η; in non-Attic Ionic (i.e. also in Homer), this occurs also after ε, ι, ρ (1.30: πάτρης).

5–8

When ᾱ is nonetheless found in Homer, it is generally:

2.1

‘late’, i.e. it developed after the Ionic-Attic sound change (1.3: ψυχάς);

2.2

or adopted from the Aeolic poetic tradition (1.1: θεά).

R 3

Vowel shortening: Long vowels (esp. η) before another vowel (esp. ο/ω/α) in medial position are frequently shortened, although not consistently (e.g. gen. pl. βασιλήων rather than the metrically impossible four-syllable -έων; the related phenomenon of quantitative metathesis [lengthening of a short second vowel] does often not occur [e.g. gen. sing. βασιλῆος rather than -έως]).

39 f.

R 4

Digamma (ϝ): The Ionic dialect of Homer no longer used the phoneme /w/ (like Engl. will). The phoneme is, however,

4.1

attested in Mycenaean, as well as in some dialects still in the alphabetic period (Mycenaean ko-wa /korwā/, Corinthian ϙόρϝα);

19

4.2

in part deducible etymologically (e.g. Homeric κούρη – with compensatory lengthening after the disappearance of the digamma – in contrast to Attic κόρη).

27

In addition, digamma can often be deduced in Homer on the basis of the meter; thus in the case of:

4.3

hiatus (see R 5) without elision (1.7: Ἀτρεΐδης τε (ϝ)άναξ);

22

4.4

hiatus without shortening of a long vowel at word end (1.321: τώ (ϝ)οι, cf. R 5.5);

21

4.5

a single consonant ‘making position’ (1.70: ὃς (ϝ)είδη).

24

4.6

Occasionally, digamma is no longer taken into account (1.21: υἱὸν ἑκηβόλον, originally ϝεκ-).

26

R 5

Hiatus: The clash of a vocalic word end with a vocalic word beginning (hiatus ‘gaping’) is avoided through:

5.1

elision: short vowels and -αι in endings of the middle voice are elided (1.14: στέμματ’ ἔχων; 1.117: βούλομ’ ἐγώ; 5.33: μάρνασθ’ ὁπποτέροισι), occasionally also -οι in μοι/σοι (1.170); hiatus that results from elision is left unchanged (1.2: ἄλγε’ ἔθηκεν);

30/37

5.2

ny ephelkystikon (movable ny): only after a short vowel (ε and ι), esp. dat. pl. -σι(ν); 3rd sing. impf./aor./perf. -ε(ν); 3rd sing. and pl. -σι(ν); the modal particle κε(ν); the suffix -φι(ν), cf. R 11.4; the suffix -θε(ν), cf. R 15.1. ny ephelkystikon also provides metrically convenient variants;

33

5.3

contraction across word boundaries (noted as crasis: τἄλλα, χἡμεῖς).

31

– Hiatus is admissible predominantly in the case of:

5.4

loss of digamma (cf. R 4.3);

34

5.5

so-called correption: a long vowel/diphthong at word end is shortened (1.17: Ἀτρεΐδαι τε καὶ ἄλλοι ἐϋκνήμιδες; 1.15 [with synizesis: R 7]: χρυσέ͜ῳ ἀνὰ σκήπτρῳ);

35

5.6

metrical caesura or more generally a semantic break;

36

5.7

after words ending in -ι and ‘small words’ such as πρό and ὅ.

37

R 6

Vocalic contraction (e.g. following the loss of intervocalic /w/ [digamma], /s/ or /j/) is frequently not carried out in Homeric Greek (1.74: κέλεαι [2nd sing. mid., instead of Attic -ῃ]; 1.103: μένεος [gen. sing., instead of -ους]).

43–45

R 7

Synizesis: Occasionally, two vowels are to be read as a single syllable, especially in the case of quantitative metathesis (1.1: Πηληϊάδε͜ω: R 3) but also in the gen. pl. -έ͜ων (synizesis is indicated by a sublinear curved line connecting the affected vowels, 1.18: θε͜οί.).

46

R 8

Diectasis: Contracted forms (e.g. ὁρῶντες) may be ‘stretched’ (ὁρόωντες); the metrically necessary prosodic shape of older uncontracted forms (*ὁράοντες, ⏖–⏑) is thus artificially reconstructed. Similarly, the aor. inf. -εῖν is written -έειν (rather than the older *-έεν).

48

R 9

Change in consonant quantity creates metrically convenient variants (which usually derive originally from different dialects: R 1.3):

9.1

τόσ(σ)ος, ποσ(σ)ί, Ὀδυσ(σ)εύς, ἔσ(σ)εσθαι, τελέσ(σ)αι; Ἀχιλ(λ)εύς; ὅπ(π)ως, etc.

17

9.2

Variation at word beginning creates similar flexibility in π(τ)όλεμος, π(τ)όλις.

18

R 10

Adaptation to the meter: Three (or more) short syllables in a row, or a single short between two longs (both metrically impossible), are avoided by:

49 f.

10.1

metrical lengthening (ᾱ᾿θάνατος, δῑογενής, οὔρεα rather than ὄρεα; μένεα πνείοντες rather than πνέ-);

10.2	changes in word formation (πολεμήϊος...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 27.4.2023
• Übersetzer: Benjamin Millis, Sara Strack
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: Homer • iliad • Ilias
• ISBN-10: 3-11-068795-X / 311068795X
• ISBN-13: 978-3-11-068795-8 / 9783110687958