Homer between History and Fiction in Imperial Greek LiteratureDid Homer tell the 'truth' about the Trojan War? If so, how much, and if not, why not? The issue was hardly academic to the Greeks living under the Roman Empire, given the centrality of both Homer, the father of Greek culture, and the Trojan War, the event that inaugurated Greek history, to conceptions of Imperial Hellenism. This book examines four Greek texts of the Imperial period that address the topic - Strabo's Geography, Dio of Prusa's Trojan Oration, Lucian's novella True Stories, and Philostratus' fictional dialogue Heroicus - and shows how their imaginative explorations of Homer and his relationship to history raise important questions about the nature of poetry and fiction, the identity and intentions of Homer himself, and the significance of the heroic past and Homeric authority in Imperial Greek culture. |
Common terms and phrases
Achilles ancient Apollonius argument asserts audience authority believe claims Ctesias depicted dialogue Dictys Dio’s discussion doxa Egyptian priest episode Eratosthenes example eyewitness fact false fantastic FGrH fiction geography ghost Greek Greek culture Grossardt 2006 Hecataeus Hector Helen Hellenistic Heracles Herodotus heroes heroic age heroic past historian historiographical Homer’s account Homer’s historical Homer’s knowledge Homeric criticism Homeric poetry Homeric scholarship Iambulus Iliad Imperial Greek implausible interpretation invented íOmhrov Island kaª Kindstrand 1973 learned liar lies literary Lucian Menelaus mentioned mythic myths narrative narrator Odysseus oÉd oÉk Palamedes passage perª Phaeacian Philostratus Phoenician Plato poems poet poet’s poetic Polybius pr¼v problem Protesilaus Ptolemy question readers reality reference refutation reliability rhetorical scholia Second Sophistic speech sqai Stesichorus Strabo t¼n tän tell things Thucydides to±v toÆv toÓ tradition Trojan Oration Trojan War True Stories truth vine dresser Whitmarsh