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Stesichorus and the epic tradition

University of British Columbia

In antiquity Stesichorus was labelled "Homeric" by the commentators, but his innovation in myth was also noted. Until the discovery of fragments of his poems among the papyri from Oxyrhynchus there was little material from which any conclusions could be reached regarding the poet's treatment of his inheritance from the epic tradition. In this dissertation,therefore , I have examined the new evidence from the papyri with a view to assessing the poet's reliance upon that tradition in both diction and content, and the extent to which he was innovative. The poet's language at a morphological level is seen to be almost identical to that of epic, whereas at the level of phonology the intrusion of a Western or "Doric" pronunciation has occurred. The poets adaptation of Homeric "formulae" reveals a prevalent tendency to avoid the repetition of phrases commonly found in the epic corpus by the introduction of new, unprecedented word-associations. In chapter VI a detailed examination of four of the fragments of four poems,(the Nostoi, the Sack of Troy, the Geryoneis and the Suotherae) indicates the ways in which the poet adapted thematic elements from the epic tradition, amalgamating epic with non-epic , conventional with original material. The second half of this dissertation is devoted to Stesichorus' treatment of the inherited body of Greek myth. In those poems in which the poet was concerned with the legends of mainland Greece, innovations appear , with the exception of the Palinode, not to alter the basic structure of the myths. However, there is evidence of the poet's interest in elaborating upon or inventing legends located in the Greek west, notably in poems relating the exploits of Heracles, but also in his orestela and Sack of Troy. In so doing the poet would create or give authority to a body of myths specifically relevant to his western audience.

Text

2010-03-06

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21634

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University of British Columbia

Graduate