The Greek Epic Cycle and its Ancient Reception

The poems of the Epic Cycle are assumed to be the reworking of myths and narratives which had their roots in an oral tradition predating that of many of the myths and narratives which took their present form in the Iliad and the Odyssey. The remains of these texts allow us to investigate diachronic aspects of epic diction as well as the extent of variation within it on the part of individual authors - two of the most important questions in modern research on archaic epic. They also help to illuminate the early history of Greek mythology. Access to the poems, however, has been thwarted by their current fragmentary state. This volume provides the scholarly community and graduate students with a thorough critical foundation for reading and interpreting them.

Discusses in detail all the extant material (testimonia and fragments)
Examines the formation of and role played by the Epic Cycle
Investigates the reception and re-use of the Cyclic epics by Greek and Roman writers down to the end of the ancient world

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'The book is beautifully produced in CUP's attractive wide-margin format. The footnotes contain helpfully abundant cross-referencing of chapters … This is an excellent and important Companion that brings together, on an unprecedented scale for this material, clear and detailed summaries of the state of play in a notably complex field of scholarship.' Lyndsay Coo, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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Product details

Published: January 2019
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781108730266
Length: 692 pages
Dimensions: 245 × 189 × 34 mm
Weight: 1.3kg
Contains: 29 b/w illus. 1 table
Availability: Available

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Contents

Introduction: Kyklos, Epic Cycle, and Cyclic poetry Marco Fantuzzi and Christos Tsagalis
Part I. Approaches to the Epic Cycle:
1. Coming adrift: the limits of reconstruction of the Cyclic poems Jonathan Burgess
2. Oral traditions, written texts, and questions of authorship Gregory Nagy
3. The Epic Cycle and oral tradition John M. Foley and Justin Arft
4. The formation of the Epic Cycle Martin L. West
5. Motif- and source-research: neoanalysis, Homeric and cyclic epic Wolfgang Kullmann
6. Meta-cyclic epic and Homeric poetry Margalit Finkelberg
7. Language and meter of the Epic Cycle Alberto Bernabé
8. Narrative techniques in the Epic Cycle Antonios Rengakos
9. Wit and irony in the Epic Cycle David Konstan
10. The Trojan war in early Greek art Thomas H. Carpenter
Part II. Epics:
11. Theogony Gianbattista D'alessio
12. Oedipodea Ettore Cingano
13. Thebaid José B. Torres-Guerra
14. Epigonoi Ettore Cingano
15. Alcmeonis Andrea Debiasi
16. Cypria Bruno Currie
17. Aethiopis Antonios Rengakos
18. Ilias parva Adrian Kelly
19. Iliou persis Patrick Finglass
20. Nostoi Georg Danek
21. Telegony Christos Tsagalis
Part III. Fortune of the Epic Cycle:
22. The aesthetics of sequentiality and its discontents Marco Fantuzzi
23. The Epic Cycle, Stesichorus, and Ibycus Maria Noussia-Fantuzzi
24. Pindar's cycle Ian Rutherford
25. Tragedy and the Epic Cycle Alan Sommerstein
26. The Hellenistic reception of the Epic Cycle Evina Sistakou
27. Running rings round Troy: recycling the 'epic circle' in Hellenistic and Roman art Michael Squire
28. Virgil and the Epic Cycle Ursula Gärtner
29. Ovid and the Epic Cycle Gianpiero Rosati
30. Statius' Achilleid and the Cypria Charles McNelis
31. The Epic Cycle and the ancient novel David F. Elmer
32. The Epic Cycle and Imperial Greek epic Silvio Bär and Manuel Baumbach.

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Contributors

Marco Fantuzzi, Christos Tsagalis, Jonathan Burgess, Gregory Nagy, John M. Foley, Justin Arft, Martin L. West, Wolfgang Kullmann, Margalit Finkelberg, Alberto Bernabé, Antonios Rengakos, David Konstan, Thomas H. Carpenter, Gianbattista D'alessio, Ettore Cingano, José B. Torres-Guerra, Ettore Cingano, Andrea Debiasi, Bruno Currie, Adrian Kelly, Patrick Finglass, Georg Danek, Maria Noussia-Fantuzzi, Ian Rutherford, Alan Sommerstein, Evina Sistakou, Michael Squire, Ursula Gärtner, Gianpiero Rosati, Charles McNelis, David F. Elmer, Silvio Bär, Manuel Baumbach

Editors

Marco Fantuzzi , Columbia University, New York
Marco Fantuzzi teaches Greek Literature as Visiting Professor at Columbia University, New York, and at Università degli Studi di Macerata, Italy. His publications include Achilles in Love (2012), Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry (with R. Hunter, 2004), Ricerche su Apollonio Rodio: diacronie della dizione epica (1988), Bionis Smyrnaei Adonidis epitaphium (1985), Brill's Companion to Greek and Latin Pastoral (edited with T. Papanghelis, 2006), Struttura e storia dell'esametro greco (edited with R. Pretagostini, 1995–6) and forthcoming commentary on the Rhesus ascribed to Euripides. Among his present research interests are Greek tragedy, Hellenistic poetry, Greek and Latin metrics, and ancient literary criticism and scholarship.
Christos Tsagalis , University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Christos Tsagalis is Professor of Greek at the Aristotle University, Thessaloniki. His research interests encompass Homer, Hesiod, historiography, and the Greek epigram. His books include Epic Grief: Personal Laments in Homer's Iliad (2004), The Oral Palimpsest: Exploring Intertextuality in the Homeric Epics (2008), Inscribing Sorrow: Fourth-Century Attic Funerary Epigrams (2008) and From Listeners to Viewers: Space in the Iliad (2012), as well as articles on Homer, Hesiod, Bacchylides, Herodotus, and Xenophon. He has edited, among other volumes, Brill's Companion to Hesiod (with F. Montanari and A. Rengakos, 2009), Homeric Hypertextuality (2010), a special issue of the journal Trends in Classics, and Theban Resonances in Homeric Epic (2014), another special issue of the journal Trends in Classics.

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