Tales of Heroes

Tales of Heroes

The Origins of the Homeric Texts

Ione Mylonas Shear

Pages/Illustr. xiv+356 p. (150 illustrations, plans)

Clothbound

Status: In Print- Available

ISBN: 0-89241-537-1

A massive, extensively illustrated work constituting a rich survey and synthesis of scholarship on the Homeric question.Dr. Shear demonstrates that the origins of the tales, which later came to be known as the Iliad and the Odyssey, are to be found in the Bronze Age. She re-examines the ancient references to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey giving us a new understanding of the circumstances which led to the transcription of the texts we have today.Tales of Heroes provides new insights into the many questions raised by specialists, including(a) a new interpretation of architectural terms that have long frustrated both ancient commentators and modern philologists; (b) a new understanding of the battle tactics used on the field of Troy;(c) a discussion of the kind of ships used in the epics and explains how Polyphemus twice missed the steering oar of Odysseus’ escaping ship;(d) a new understanding of the society represented by the epics and the role of women in that society.The ancient references to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey have led Dr. Shear,• to explain why the text is so long that it cannot be recited in one day. • to solve the dilemma of the missing digamma and the reflections of the Attic dialect in the existing texts. • to explain textual problems that have long baffled commentators, such as the Catalogue of Horses, enthusiastically introduced in Book 2 of the Iliad, only to be dropped after a mere nineteen lines of verse, or the double arrival of Telemachos at the beginning of Book 4 of the Odyssey. • to explain the importance of Ajax both in Athenian vase painting of the late archaic period and in the text we have today, although his importance is not apparent in other parts of the epic cycle.The book is produced in a large format 9 x 12 inches (23 x 30.5 cm), is lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings, plans, tables, and includes footnotes, bibliography and extensive indices.

Our Price: $80.00

Tales of Heroes

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