Orality and Narration. Performance and Mythic-Ritual Poetics in the Ancient World: Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World, Vol. 12

by Anton Bierl (Other), David Bouvier (Other), Ombretta Cesca (Other)

Overview

Myths can be defined as traditional stories that societies pass on from generation to generation, constantly reinventing and reshaping them through oral, written or visual representations. Rituals and cults, on the other hand, are the festive celebrations that punctuate social life, providing the occasion for the community to perform and reflect on mythic stories or mimetic plays about or by gods and heroes. How do then the recent advances in narratology, sociolinguistics, and anthropology lead us to reconsider the complex relationships between myth and ritual in ancient traditional societies, both literate and non-literate? The papers in this groundbreaking volume explore and compare these dynamic interactions across diverse cultures, including archaic and classical Greece, the ancient Near East, and imperial Rome.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789004736900
Publisher:	Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/04/2025
Series:	Mnemosyne, Supplements , #495
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Anton Bierl, Ph.D. (Munich, 1990), Habil. (Leipzig, 1999), is Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Basel. He was Senior Fellow at Harvard’s CHS (2005-2011). He is director of Homer’s Iliad: The Basel Commentary and series-editor of MythosEikonPoiesis. His research interests include Homeric epic, drama, song and performance culture, the ancient novel, Greek myth and religion.

David Bouvier, Ph.D. (EHESS, 1984; University of Geneva, 1997), is Professor emeritus of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Lausanne. He has extensively published on Homeric poetry, Greek literature, and reception studies. He leads the digital project Iliadoscope.

Ombretta Cesca, Ph.D. (University of Lausanne, 2018) is Assistant Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Lausanne. Her research interests include Homeric poetry, media and communication in Ancient Greece, and the representation of gods in epic poems and Attic theater. Her scientific approach combines oral theory, narratology and history of ancient religions.

Contributors are: Dylan Bovet, Sandra Fleury, Jasper Gaunt, Claas Lattmann, Anna Lefteratou, Elizabeth Minchin, Gregory Nagy, Raymond F. Person, Jr., Ruth Scodel, Niall W. Slater.

Table of Contents

Preface
Contributors

Introduction
 Anton Bierl, David Bouvier and Ombretta Cesca

Part 1 Orality, Narration, and Performance in Poetry and Images

Memories Become Story: On the Poetics of Persuasion in Homer’s Iliad
 Elizabeth Minchin

Song 44 of Sappho as Shaped by Oral Traditions
 Gregory Nagy

“Modified Rapture!” In and Out of Orality in Staging Comedy
 Niall W. Slater

Between Symposium, Stage, and Papyrus: The Story of Kirke in Archaic Greek Art
 Jasper Gaunt

Part 2 Performance, Mythic-Ritual Poetics, and Writing

Writing the Unspeakable: How Did the Greeks Write about the Eleusinian Mysteries?
 Sandra Fleury

Between Athens and Delphi: The Performance and Poetics of the Delphic Hymns
 Claas Lattmann

Epitaph and Ritual
 Ruth Scodel

The Text, the Reader, and the Voice: Roman Mores in Verse Epitaphs
 Dylan Bovet

Part 3 Performance and Mythic-Ritual Poetics in Christian Texts

Multimodality and Metonymy: Deuteronomy as a Test Case
 Raymond F. Person Jr.

Jesus’ Baptism in the Scamander: Homeric Intertextuality and Christian Ritual in Eudocia’s Homeric Centos
 Anna Lefteratou

Index Locorum
Index of Subjects