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It is now widely acknowledged that the Greek epic tradition, best known from Homer, dates back into the Mycenaean Age, and that certain aspects of epic language point to an origin for this type of verse before the date of the extant Linear B tablets. This thesis argues that not only is this so, but that indeed before the end of the Mycenaean Age epic verse was composed in a distinctive literary language characterized by the presence of alternative forms used for metrical convenience. Such alternatives included dialectal variants and forms which were retained in epic once obsolete in everyday speech. Thus epic language in the 2nd millennium already possessed some of the most distinctive characteristics manifest in its Homeric incarnation, namely the presence of doublets and the retention of archaisms. It is argued here that the most probable source for accretions to epic language was at all times the spoken language familiar to the poets of the tradition. There is reason to believe that certain archaic forms, attested only in epic and its imitators, were obsolete in spoken Greek before 1200 B.C.; by examining formulae containing such forms it is possible to determine the likely subject-matter of 2nd millennium epic. Such a linguistic analysis leads to the conclusion that much of the thematic content of Homeric epic corresponds to that of 2nd millennium epic. Non-Homeric early dactylic verse (e.g. the Hesiodic corpus) provides examples of both non-Homeric dialect forms and of archaisms unknown from Homer. This fact, it is argued, points to the conclusion that the 2nd millennium linguistic heritage of epic is evident also from these poems, and that they are not simply imitations of Homer, but independent representatives of the same poetic tradition whose roots lie in the 2nd millennium epic.

This study seeks to renew interest in the poetically constructed landscapes of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Far from existing as mere background to the epic, close investigation and analysis reveals the reflective relationship and mutually exerted force between landscape and narrative. Detailed readings show how the landscapes are created in order to reveal Ovid’s poetic programme, especially as concerns the intersection of genre; landscape descriptions are read as interpretive strategies for understanding the crossing of genres that comprise Ovid’s hyper-Alexandrian epic. I argue for this interest as indicated to the reader by three points of departure made by the poet that show up against the background of his interconnected patterning of narrations. These are choices demanding exegesis beyond mere recognition, and are designed to reveal a purposeful agenda that focuses attention upon the descriptions of the natural world. The first chapter explores the construction of Thessalian Tempe in Book 1, made prominent by Ovid’s mythological placement of Daphne as a Thessalian nymph. Tempe represents a landscape consequentially shaped by the narrative of Apollo and Daphne, memorialising topographically the intersection of the ‘high’ and ‘low’ genres of epic and elegy exemplified in their interaction. This narrative influence over the landscape is explored in this programmatic tale, and Tempe’s metapoetic construction is argued for using Callimachus’ Hymn to Delos as a poetic model, focusing on the figure of the Peneus common to both texts. The second chapter focuses on Helicon in Book 5, and examines the finely-drawn relationship between the contest songs and Helicon’s position as the contest prize across the complex layers of narrative space, demonstrating how the inspiratory springs of Helicon provide the narrative motivation for the contest songs and tracing the generic topography of Calliope’s song. The third chapter offers a new interpretation of Orpheus’ grove as an atmospheric doublet of the Underworld, examined through the patterning of meaning imposed by the dual meaning of umbra, and identifies Ovid’s transformation of a literary topos.

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This thesis is a study of the influence of cosmology on Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica, an epic hexameter poem written in Alexandria in the 3rd century BC. I examine ancient Greek ideas of cosmogony and cosmology, which range from the earliest extant Greek texts (Homer and Hesiod) to contemporaries of Apollonius (Aratus). My argument is that cosmology is deeply embedded in the text, and that Apollonius creates a nexus of cosmic intertexts which provides a scientific and intellectual backdrop against which the events of the narrative take place. The narrative’s events all occur within a cosmos, which is alluded to throughout the epic; the reader sees snap-shots of the development of this cosmos alongside the development of the Argo’s journey, which creates an analogous progression between the two. Particularly salient for this thesis is the connection to Empedoclean ideas of love and strife as cosmic forces, as these comprise two of the major themes of the narrative. Accordingly, a key point of contact between narrative and cosmology lies in these forces, as the narrator consciously recalls them and the cosmos they control in the process of weaving his narrative. The three passages I examine all focus on this cosmic system, as the cosmic backdrop evolves and changes alongside the narrative itself. The cosmic analogy, therefore, is not static but changes in line with the narrative. This study will form the only extended analysis of cosmology in the Argonautica. The influence of cosmological material on the text (within the wider issue of philosophical influence) has attracted marginal attention, scholars often noting some of the more overt connections without a great deal of analysis. Works that acknowledge the presence of cosmological material at sporadic points include: Fränkel (1968); Hunter (1989 and 1993), Clauss (1993 and 2000); Levin (1970 and 1971). More detailed studies of aspects of cosmological material in the Argonautica include: Bogue (1979); Nelis (1992); Kyriakou (1994); Pendergraft (1995); Murray (2014); Santamaría Álvarez (2014). These studies all confirm the importance of cosmological ideas on the text, but focus on a particular manifestation of these ideas. This thesis will build on these ideas in an attempt to create a cohesive study of cosmology throughout the narrative and consider how this material affects our reading of the narrative itself and its poetic agenda, along with how this use feeds into Apollonius’ poetic values and contemporary poetic trends in general. The thesis is divided into three main chapters, in which I examine three key passages of the Argonautica to make my argument. In Chapter One I examine Orpheus’ song (1.496-511), in which the cultic bard Orpheus calms a fight between two Argonauts by singing a cosmogony. The song establishes cosmic forces that run analogous to the forces at work in the narrative and demonstrates how the growing influence of love in the cosmos parallels the increased reliance on love for the success of the Argonauts’ mission. In Chapter Two I examine Jason’s cloak (1.721-767), a passage that comprises the only extended ecphrasis in the Argonautica. The images woven into his cloak continue the cosmic theme begun in the song of Orpheus, since they demonstrate the world in a later stage of development, as human and divine events unfold and time progresses towards the Argonauts’ contemporary world. In Chapter Three I examine Eros’ sphere (3.129-141), an intricate toy offered to him by Aphrodite in exchange for his shooting Medea with an arrow to make her fall in love with Jason. The ball’s shape and its details both suggest that what Eros holds in his hand is some sort of divine three-dimensional model of the universe. I have chosen these three passages because a cosmological mode of reading is particularly strong in them; they bring to the forefront the cosmological undertone which underlies the wider narrative. My conclusion is that the three passages are all connected throughout the narrative by their cosmic material, material which underscores the Argonauts’ narrative and facilitates them anchoring their time to the grand timeframe of the cosmos. Both cosmic and narrative events run concurrently, as the evolution of the cosmos from its origins to the Argonauts’ present day runs alongside the evolution of the narrative. This duality shows how the Argonautic poet employs cosmology and in doing so creates a continuous parallel narrative that runs throughout the text. Since he uses three connected parallel narratives (song, garment, and toy), the reflective capacity of the passages is not merely a one-off, but consecutive, as all three comprise different moments in the same cosmic scheme. The boundaries between parallel narrative and main narrative are thus broken down in the passages as the narrator establishes the idea that cosmology does not only run parallel to the events of the narrative, but prefigures them and enriches the reader’s understanding of the narrative world. In sum, the cosmic readings of the passages demonstrate that what the narrator is drawing the reader towards is a cosmic subtext that is unfixed and undergoes change.

Orientador: Wilma Patricia Marzari Dinardo Maas / Banca: Guacira Marcondes Machado Leite / Banca: Paulo César Andrade da Silva / Resumo: O texto trata da análise do romance Jubiabá, de Jorge Amado, em seus elementos estruturais: o narrador, as personagens, o tempo e o espaço. Esses elementos são analisados segundo os estudos de teóricos, como Bakhtin, Benjamin, Antônio Cândido, Miécio Táti, entre outros. Da análise evidenciou-se a construção da obra em seus traços épicos e romancescos que a tornam expressão literária dentro do regionalismo brasileiro dos anos trinta do século XX. A narrativa de Jubiabá é composta de contos e lendas que fazem parte do imaginário do povo nordestino, além das histórias de marinheiros viajantes que levam uma vida de constantes perigos. Essas histórias educam a personagem Balduíno durante toda a primeira e segunda parte do romance. Os traços romanescos seguem paralelos aos traços épicos, sendo mais intensos na segunda e terceira parte do romance. Abordamos, também, os elementos tempo, espaço e personagem dentro do mesmo enfoque, que fazem do romance uma singular obra literária. / Abstract: This text is about the novel named Jubiabá by Jorge Amado in its structural elements: characters, time and space. These elements are analysed according to Bakhtin, Benjamin, Antonio Candido, Miércio Táti among others. The construction of the novel was evidenced in its epic and romanesque features which make it a literary expression within Brazilian regionalism of the 30s from the 20th century. The narrative is composed by short stories which integrates the imaginary thinking of the "nordestinos"as well as by the stories of sailors who have a life with constant risks. These stories educate the protagonist Balduíno during the first and second part of the novel. The romanesque features follow in parallel with the epic ones and become more intense in the second and in the third parts of the novel. / Mestre

This dissertation examines the relationship between sympotic and rhapsodic discourses and the Homeric epics and specifically considers how an understanding of sympotic discourse can affect an external audience’s perception of events within the narrative. Heroic feasting is examined and defined as an activity which signifies different attitudes and aesthetics than the symposium. Yet a case is made for the possibility that Greek people are practicing symposia at a time when rhapsodes – the creative composers-in-performance of the epics – would have been freely incorporating material from the contemporary world into their performances. This is a period of time extending over much of the 7th century, and perhaps even into some time before and after. I analyze both the symposium and rhapsodic performances as discourses, using literary, archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic evidence to define markers – certain signs, gestures, attitudes, accoutrement, and behavior specific to each – of each discourse. By treating the symposium and rhapsodic performances as discourses with their own markers, I establish a methodology with which to examine certain passages of the epics and the implicit meanings conveyed in them. Odysseus is thus shown to be manipulating sympotic discourse in the Phaeacian episodes of the Odyssey in order to win a favorable return home – at least as the contemporary external audience familiar with sympotic conventions of speaking and behaving would have understood it. Achilles too is treated, with specific reference to his behavior in the embassy scene of the Iliad. The sympotic discourse conveyed by the actions and attitudes of Achilles and Patroclus can be shown to communicate additional layers of meaning to the external audience and perhaps reference extra-Iliadic motifs concerning Achilles’ behavior at symposia. A proper understanding of rhapsodic and sympotic discourses within the epics not only contributes to a more nuanced understanding of character behavior within the epics and audiences’ perception of such behavior, but also challenges our understanding of the role of archaic social institutions such as the symposium within the epics.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 260-266).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 373-395). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.