Homer and the Sacred CityThe importance of the polis in Homeric literature is most evident in the Iliad, a poem concerned in large measure with the holy city of Troy. Stephen Scully here deepens our understanding of both the poetic and the social significance of the city in Homer through a close analysis of the poem's formulaic language. Drawing on scholarship in literary studies, archaeology, and comparative religion, Scully demonstrates that it is the urban setting of the Iliad, as well as the collision of the individual fates of its characters, which generates its most profound tragic themes. |
Contents
The Sacred Polis | 16 |
The Walled Polis | 41 |
The People of the Polis | 54 |
Copyright | |
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Achaeans Achilles acropolis Aegean Agamemnon agora aipus Ancient Andromache Apollo astu Athena Babylon basileus Book built Burkert called sacred catalogues Chapter citadel city wall city-state city's context cult Culture Dark Age defense deity describes divine eighth century epic epithets Epithets in Homer Eridu Esagila Esharra euktimenon example father fight formulaic gates goddess gods Greece Hattusas Hekabe Hektor Helen hero heroic Hesiod hieros Hittite holy Homeric polis human humankind Hymn Iliad Ionian Ithaca king Kyklopes magical mortal Mycenae Mycenaean myth narrative nature Odyssey oikoi oikos Old Smyrna Olympian palace Paris Patroklos phrase poem poleis polin polis polis in Homer political Poseidon Priam Priamoio ptoliethron Pylos reference sacred city sacred Ilios sanctity sanctuary says Scheria settlements Skamandros Smyrna social steep suggests Sumerian Thebes tion tower tradition trans Troad Trojans Trōōn Troy Troy's tutelary urban verb walled cities well-founded well-walled women York Zeus