The poetics of supplication : Homer's Iliad and Odyssey / Kevin Crotty.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crotty, Kevin, 1948-

Series:

Myth and poetics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Homer--Criticism and interpretation.

Homer.

Epic poetry, Greek--History and criticism.

Epic poetry, Greek.

Rites and ceremonies in literature.

Rites and ceremonies--Greece.

Rites and ceremonies.

Criticism and interpretation.

Greece.

Sympathy in literature.

Oral tradition--Greece.

Oral tradition.

Grief in literature.

War in literature.

Physical Description:

xiii, 240 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, 1994.

Summary:

In this penetrating and compelling reinterpretation of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Kevin Crotty explores the connection between the "poetic" nature of supplication on the one hand, and, on the other, the importance of supplication in the structure and poetics of the two epics. The suppliant's attempt to rouse pity by calling to mind a vivid sense of grief, he says, is important for an understanding of the poems, which invite their audience to contemplate scenes of past grieving. A poetics of supplication, Crotty asserts, leads irresistibly to a poetics of the Homeric epic.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-225) and indexes.

ISBN:

0801429986

OCLC:

30511050