This thesis is a study of embedded song in ancient Greek narrative poetry. The introduction defines the terminology (embedded song is defined as the depiction of the performance of a poem within a larger poem, such as the songs of Demodocus in Homer’s Odyssey) and sets the study in the context of recent narratological work done by scholars of Classical literature. This section of the thesis also contains a brief discussion of embedded song in the Homeric epics, which will form the background of all later examples of the motif. Chapter 1 deals with embedded song in the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod’s Theogony. It is argued that the occurrence of embedded song across these poems indicates that the motif is a traditional feature of early Greek hexameter poetry, while the possibility of “inter-textual” allusion between these poems is considered, but finally dismissed. Chapter 2 focuses on Pindar, Bacchylides and Corinna, and explores how lyric poets use this motif in the various sub-genres of Greek lyric. In epinician poetry, it is argued that embedded song is used as a strategy of praise and also to boost the authority of the poet-narrator by association with the embedded performers, who can be seen to have in each case a particular source of authority distinct from that of the poet narrator. Chapter 3 considers the Hellenistic poets Apollonius Rhodius and Theocritus, and how their interest in depicting oral poetry meshes with their identity as literate and literary poets. Appendix I gives a list of all the examples of embedded song I have found in Greek poetry. Appendix II gives an account of Pindar’s Hymn to Zeus, a highly fragmentary poem which almost certainly contained an embedded song, analysing this as an example of the difficulties thrown up by lyric fragments for a study of embedded narratives.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the references to swords in key scenes in the Aeneid – particularly the scenes of Dido’s and Turnus’ death – in order to add new perspectives on these scenes and on the way in which they impact on the presentation of Aeneas’ Roman mission in the epic. In Chapter Two I attempt to provide an outline of the mission of Aeneas. I also investigate the manner in which Dido and Turnus may be considered to be opponents of Aeneas’ mission. In Chapter Three I investigate references to swords in select scenes in book four of the Aeneid. I highlight an ambiguity in the interpretation of the sword that Dido uses to commit suicide and I also provide a description of the sword as a weapon and its place in the epic. In Chapter Four I provide an analysis of the references to swords in Dido’s and Turnus’ death scenes alongside a number of other important scenes involving mention of swords. I preface my analyses of the references to swords that play a role in interpreting Dido and Turnus’ deaths with an outline of the reasons for the deaths of each of these figures. The additional references to swords that I use in this chapter are the references to the sword in the scene of Deiphobus’ death in book six and to the sword and Priam’s act of arming himself on the night on which Troy is destroyed. At the end of Chapter Four I look at parallels between Dido and Turnus and their relationship to the mission of Aeneas. At the end of this thesis I am able to conclude that an investigation and analysis of the references to swords in select scenes in the Aeneid adds to existing scholarship in Dido’s and Turnus’ death in the following way: a more detailed investigation of the role of swords in the interpretation of Dido’s death from an erotic perspective strengthens the existing notion in scholarship that Dido is an obstacle to the mission of Aeneas. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die verwysings na swaarde in kerntonele in die Aeneïs – hoofsaaklik die sterftonele van Dido en Turnus – met die oog daarop om addisionele perspektiewe te verskaf op hierdie tonele en die impak wat hulle het op die voorstelling van Aeneas se Romeinse missie in die epos. In hoofstuk twee poog ek om ’n oorsig te bied van Aeneas se Romeinse missie. Ek stel ook ondersoek in na die mate waartoe Dido en Turnus as teenstanders van Aeneas se Romeinse missie beskou kan word. In Hoofstuk Drie ondersoek ek die verwysings na swaarde in spesifieke tonele van boek vier van die Aeneïs. Ek verwys na ’n dubbelsinnigheid in die interpretasie van die swaard wat Dido gebruik om selfmoord te pleeg en verskaf ook ’n beskrywing van die swaard as ’n wapen en die gebruik daarvan in die epos. In Hoofstuk Vier verskaf ek ‘n ontleding van die verwysings na swaarde in Dido en Turnus se sterftonele saam met ’n aantal ander belangrike tonele met verwysings na swaarde. Ek lei my ontleding van die beskrywings van die swaarde wat ’n rol speel in die interpretasie van Dido en Turnus se sterftes in met ’n uiteensetting van die redes vir die dood van elk van hierdie figure. Die addisionele verwysings na swaarde wat ek in hierdie hoofstuk ontleed, is die verwysing na die swaard in die toneel van Deiphobus se dood in boek ses en die verwysing na die swaard in die toneel waar Priamus sy wapenrusting aantrek op Troje se laaste aand. Aan die einde van Hoofstuk Vier ondersoek ek die parallele tussen Dido en Turnus en hulle verhouding tot Aeneas se Romeinse missie. Hierdie tesis ondersoek die verwysings na swaarde in kerntonele in die Aeneïs – hoofsaaklik die sterftonele van Dido en Turnus – met die oog daarop om addisionele perspektiewe te verskaf op hierdie tonele en die impak wat hulle het op die voorstelling van Aeneas se Romeinse missie in die epos. In hoofstuk twee poog ek om ’n oorsig te bied van Aeneas se Romeinse missie. Ek stel ook ondersoek in na die mate waartoe Dido en Turnus as teenstanders van Aeneas se Romeinse missie beskou kan word. In Hoofstuk Drie ondersoek ek die verwysings na swaarde in spesifieke tonele van boek vier van die Aeneïs. Ek verwys na ’n dubbelsinnigheid in die interpretasie van die swaard wat Dido gebruik om selfmoord te pleeg en verskaf ook ’n beskrywing van die swaard as ’n wapen en die gebruik daarvan in die epos. In Hoofstuk Vier verskaf ek ‘n ontleding van die verwysings na swaarde in Dido en Turnus se sterftonele saam met ’n aantal ander belangrike tonele met verwysings na swaarde. Ek lei my ontleding van die beskrywings van die swaarde wat ’n rol speel in die interpretasie van Dido en Turnus se sterftes in met ’n uiteensetting van die redes vir die dood van elk van hierdie figure. Die addisionele verwysings na swaarde wat ek in hierdie hoofstuk ontleed, is die verwysing na die swaard in die toneel van Deiphobus se dood in boek ses en die verwysing na die swaard in die toneel waar Priamus sy wapenrusting aantrek op Troje se laaste aand. Aan die einde van Hoofstuk Vier ondersoek ek die parallele tussen Dido en Turnus en hulle verhouding tot Aeneas se Romeinse missie.

This report examines Porphyry’s De antro nympharum and its eclectic mixture of philosophy, allegory, and mysticism in the form of a Homeric commentary. The paper situates Porphyry’s commentary in the broader tradition of Homeric interpretation with special attention to Stoic exegesis and Platonic views on poetry and myth. It also contextualizes Porphyry’s philosophy in terms of the mystery cults, particularly Mithraism, that had grown very popular by Porphyry’s time. The paper argues that Porphyry devised a practice of reading intended to promote a level of philosophical contemplation beyond the level of rational discourse, in keeping with the Neoplatonic philosophy of his teacher, Plotinus, and that this practice is especially evident in the De antro nympharum. / text

This is a study of autobiographical letters written in the early 1950s by seven Swedish sailors. The letters were contributions to a project at the Nordiska Museet in Stockholm aiming to collect and publicize workers' autobiographical narratives. The aim of this thesis is to analyze how the sailors composed their narratives in dialogue not only with heroic epics and other oral and written literary traditions but also with folklore studies and with contemporary public conversations about Sweden. According to Bachtin, any given text must be understood as a dialogue with the entire history of literature and the analysis in this study shows that the sailors' narratives are composed according to the pattern of the returning Homeric hero: the hero by destiny, the hero by action, and the hero by tradition. In terms of contents the letters are centered on two major themes: the two world wars and the transformation of Sweden from a poor rural society into a modern well-fare state. These themes are dramatized in plots, test-conflicts, motifs, and motif-complexes (functions, motiphemes), well-known from oral traditions and classical drama. An experiment in which two of the letters are subjected to “ethnopoetic transcription” shows the nature and extent of the oral idiom used by the writers. Two other writers display their literary ambitions through an abundance of paraphrases and hidden quotations. For the museum staff, the sailors' contributions were problematic. The verbal artistry of the writers challenged assumptions that workers' life narratives should be “simple and ingenious descriptions” and transparent sources of ethnological data. Furthermore, the sailors' frankness about Sweden's and their own part in the world wars challenged the myth of the neutrality and peacefulness of the Swedish folkhem.

Jiří Dynda Byliny of bogatyr Svyatogor: Structural and Comparative Analysis of Narrative (MA Thesis) Abstract This thesis is an analysis and interpretation of the thirty seven textual variants of the byliny of bogatyr Svyatogor. After the general introduction to the Russian folk epics and after the presentation of issues concerning the study of oral epic literature, author's own structural concept of myth and cultural representations is presented. In the central part the thesis attempts to apply these principles to the narrative of the byliny of Svyatogor and by means of a thorough analysis it indicates, which motives and their relations were fundamental for this narrative to make sense in the local context of bylinaic tradition. The thesis claims that these narratives primarily deal with the themes of the initiation of a young hero, the generation conflict and the transmission of a mentor's position to his apprentice (or, metaphorically, a father's position to his son). This hypothesis is subsequently tested via a two phased comparative analysis of the central motives and their clusters: Firstly, the comparison is made in the context of the bylinaic traditions per se and in the context of the ethnographic situation at the Russian North (internal comparison), and secondly, in the wider scope of the Eurasian...

The topic of the thesis is interpretation of a yakutian epic (olonkho) Modun Er Soghotox through the concept of J. Lotman's classifying boundaries. In the begining, the thesis is trying to put the olonkho into broader genre context of yakutian folklore. Formal aspect of the text is important for the definition of the genre, therefore the work attempts to describe some of the most common distinctive features, especially alliteration and paralelism. The second part tries to analyze the worlds of olonkho as the Lotman's semantic spaces. Each world keeps significantly different semantic environment. Crossing the boundaries between these spaces initiates the plot of olonkho. The last part is trying to understand the role of the hero in olonkho, mainly as the mediator between the semantic spaces.

- Hyperbole, Imagination and Tradition in Luigi Pulci's Morgante The epic Morgante, compiled at the end of the 15th century by the poet Luigi Pulci, stands at the turn of two historical eras. It is a meeting point of the Middle Ages and Renaissance with their literary influences and ideas. Also, it reflects the change in the development stages of the genre: from the period when the heroic narrative was declaimed by minstrels (joglars) on squares, this subject matter was gradually introduced into royal courts, where it was influenced by a more elevated culture. The main elements of this epic include the adoption of several literary traditions, the comic in many of its forms, and religion, all of which is underlined with the special imagination of the author together with allusions to his own life situation. Luigi Pulci adopted not only the tradition of the heroic matter full of typical medieval patterns (topoi) very popular in Italy at that time, but also the comic-realistic literary tradition of Tuscany, which provides his narrative with a different tone in many ways, and thus incorporates Morgante in a literary field different from the one which its predecessors were part of. Orlando is the most significant of these; it is a text that was used by Pulci as a direct inspiration for his work and most...

Sendo o curta com uma das gags impossíveis mais famosas de Buster Keaton, The Playhouse (1921) trabalha com a relação existente entre o mundo onírico e a realidade, iniciando com um sonho da personagem de Keaton em que ele interpreta todos os papéis de um espetáculo, de atores e membros da orquestra aos espectadores da apresentação. Em seguida, acompanhamos Keaton em seu dia de trabalho após ser despertado pelo chefe, e vemos que diversos elementos de seu sonho ainda estão presentes na realidade desse faz-tudo do teatro. Lançado no segundo ano de trabalho de Keaton como diretor de suas próprias obras, o curta coloca como tema central a questão do trabalho no teatro e no cinema, apresentando diferentes possibilidades e experimentações no campo social e cinematográfico. Deste modo, esta dissertação propõe uma análise acerca da construção dessa temática no curta, refletindo sobre os escritos de Walter Benjamin e Michael Löwy sobre a relação entre o cinema, a comédia muda norte-americana em especial o trabalho de Keaton e uma crítica feita à sociedade capitalista industrial; e a teoria de Bertolt Brecht sobre o teatro épico. / As the short movie that holds one of the most famous impossible gags made by Buster Keaton, The Playhouse (1921) works with the relation between the oneiric world and reality, beginning with a sequence dreamed by Keaton\'s character in which he plays all the roles in the spectacle, from actors and musicians in an orchestra to the spectators of the show. After this dream, we follow Keaton during his day at work since the moment he was woken up by his boss and we notice that various elements of his dream are still present in the reality of this handyman from the theater. Released in the second year of Keaton\'s work as a director of his own films, this short movie presents as its main theme the working world in the theater and the cinema, putting forward different possibilities and experimentations in the social and cinematographic fields. Therefore, the following master\'s dissertation brings an analysis of the way this theme is presented in the short movie, considering the writings of Walter Benjamin and Michael Löwy about the relation between cinema, American silent comedy - especially Buster Keaton\'s work - and the criticism of capitalistic industrial society; and Bertolt Brecht\'s theory about epic theater.

Entre os séculos III e IV d.C., no Período Imperial, Quinto de Esmirna compôs uma epopeia posteriormente intitulada Pós-Homéricas. Dentre as quatorzes partes que compõem o poema, os Livros V (O julgamento das armas) e XII (O cavalo de madeira) enaltecem a atuação da μῆτις em relação ao ambiente bélico, bem como exibem a depreciação acerca de seu modo de operação. Entretanto, ela se revela como uma habilidade vantajosa aos guerreiros por seu caráter múltiplo, capaz de mudar situações, sair de impasses e assegurar o sucesso àquele que for mais πολύμητις nas interações sociais e estratégicas. Desse modo, Odisseu torna-se um líder vital para que a guerra troiana chegue ao fim e, essencialmente, garante a vitória ao exército aqueu. Nesse sentindo, o trabalho pretende examinar o quanto a μῆτις e o herói astucioso são componentes imprescindíveis para o curso das ações. Ademais, a tradução dos Livros V e XII complementam o estudo e promovem o conhecimento sobre parte da obra. / Between the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D., during the Empire Period, Quintus of Smyrna composed an epic poem later called Posthomerica. Among the fourteen parts that compose the poem, Books V (The judgement of the arms) and XII (The wooden horse) praise the action of μῆτις in the war environment, while also depreciating its modus operandi. However, μῆτις reveals itself as an advantageous skill for warriors due to its varied character, capable of changing situations, escape impasses, and assure the success of the one who is better πολύμητις in the social and strategic interactions. Thus, Odysseus becomes an essential leader for the Trojan War to meet its end and is the primary responsible for the Achaean armys victory. In this sense, this study aims to examine how μῆτις and the astute hero are indispensable for the course of actions throughout the poem. Furthermore, the translations of Books V and XII complement the study and foster knowledge on part of the poem.

Este ensaio estuda a invenção retórico-poética do poema épico Vila Rica, lido como uma composição que emula o costume da escrita das epopéias gregas, latinas e modernas, especialmente a Farsália de Lucano e a Henriade de Voltaire, atualizando, pelo intermédio do pensamento das preceptivas de Francisco José Freire, filtradas pela postura crítica de Voltaire, que deprecia a importância de muitas regras convenientes ao decoro do gênero épico. A epopéia de Cláudio Manuel da Costa é entendida como um exercício prático de poesia, orientado para o ensinamento da instrução moral e para a admiração do deleite poético, retratadas na atitude ideal do chefe militar português de uma encenação da história da pacificação das terras mineiras, produzindo uma gênese mítica heróica para a pátria mineira, buscando a perpetuação da memória na posteridade, seguindo o exemplo da poesia épica retratada no mundo hispano-colonial, no chamado Siglo de oro, que encena a descoberta e a pacificação das colônias pelos europeus, aplicando um estilo sublime na reinvenção de uma ação entendida como heróica. Ao realizar este movimento, permanecendo inédito por muito tempo, e pouco divulgado por séculos, o poema Vila Rica agrega uma fortuna crítica que se divide entre a apologia e o vitupério do texto, que representa o topos do utópico, na medida em que a paisagem retratada difere evidentemente daquela encontrada na Arcádia e nas margens do rio Mondego, mais adequadas à figuração do exemplar locus amoenus, da poesia idílica de Teócrito. Ao mesmo tempo, realiza a mitificação da história pela superposição de diversos fatos históricos, apresentados no Fundamento Histórico, encenados como tópicos da morte e do amor, orientando e evidenciando o caráter de valorização da glória dos feitos dos representados do reino português num herói portador da perfecta eloquentia, contra um suposto domínio da lei natural pelos nativos do Estado do Brasil, reinventando a história na agregação de uma glória poética a ser reconhecida ou inventada numa sociedade hierárquica que encena a si mesma num teatro de imagens e discursos. Exclui-se a subjetividade de um sujeito em conflito consigo próprio pela melancolia da paisagem rochosa, buscando-se a glória, além da tradição, demonstrando a honra da moral católica da sociedade colonial luso-brasileira no empenho da elucidação da história. / This essay studies the rhetorical-poetical invention of the epic poem Vila Rica, read as a composition that emulates the written custom of the greek, latim and modern epics, especially the Pharsalia of Lucan and the Henriade of Voltaire, bringing up to date, by the intermediacy of the thought of Francisco José Freire\'s precepts, filtered by the critical position of Voltaire, that depreciates the importance of many convenient rules to the decorum on the epic genus. The epic of Cláudio Manuel da Costa is understood as a practical exercise of poetry, guided by the teaching of a moral instruction and in favor of the admiration of a poetical delight, portrayed in the ideal attitude of the Portuguese military head as a representation of the mining lands pacification\'s history, producing a mythical heroic source for the mining country, searching the upholding of the memory in the posterity, following the example of the epic poetry portrayed in the Hispanic-colonial world, in the so called Siglo de oro, that represents the discovery and the pacification of colonies by Europeans, applying a sublime style in the re-invention of an action understood as heroic. When carrying through this movement, remaining unknown for a long time, and little divulged for centuries, the poem Vila Rica supports a critical history that is divided between praise and vituperation of the text, which represents the topos of utopian, taking into account that the portrayed landscape differs evidently from that one joined in the Arcadia and in the edges of the Mondego river, adjusted to the picture of the pattern locus amoenus, of the idyllic poetry of Theocritus. At the same time, it carries through turning the History into a myth, by the overlapping of various historical events, presented in the Fundamento Histórico, figured as topics of the death and of love, guiding and evidencing the estimation\'s character on the glory of the Portuguese kingdom\'s representatives\' actions in a hero carrying a perfecta eloquentia, against a belief in the natural law\'s domain on the State of Brazil\'s natives, re-inventing History in the aggregation of a recognized poetical glory, or to be invented in a hierarchic society that stages itself in a theater of images and speeches. It is abstained the subjectivity of a being in conflict with himself caused by the melancholy of the rocky landscape, searching the glory, further than tradition, demonstrating the moralistic catholic\'s honor in the Portuguese-Brazilian colonial\'s society, persistencing in the explanation of History.