Down through the Gaping Hole—and up the Fig Tree

Tran, Han

doi:10.1353/hel.2015.0013

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 20 publications

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“…102 Richardson (1993 ad 22.145) draws a connection between the Iliad's ἐρινεός and Hektor's fate, and Tran (2015: 197-199) argues that this erineos marks a neutral space between the two armies and, in Iliad 22, "a physical boundary beyond which, the audience begins to feel, Hektor will not return". Reinhardt (1996: 102-104) sees the Odyssey's erineos as a feature handed down from an earlier mythical tradition; Tran (2015) argues that it is representative of the fertile and resilient side of Gaia's primordial force (199); Anghelina (2015) argues that the fact that it is a fig tree, rather than an olive tree, is symbolic primarily of "Athena's helplessness in front of Zeus' wrath" (14). escape to safety is five times associated with olive wood or the olive tree.…”

Section: Hermes and The Trasiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Studies in the Galeomyomachia: Reconstructing the War of the Weasel and Mice

Letteri

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<p><strong>In antiquity, there was a tradition of mock-epic which, as far as we can tell, mimicked the language, style, and type-scenes of Homeric epic, but took as its subject-matter conflicts between animals. Only two examples of this sub-genre have survived: the near-complete Batrachomyomachia, upon which most scholarship on animal mock-epic has focused, and 41 lines of an epic which once recounted the story of a war between a weasel and an army of mice (P.Mich.Inv. 6946). The surviving fragments of the Galeomyomachia, as it has now been dubbed, were published in 1983 by Hermann Schibli with an introduction and notes, but it has garnered little attention in scholarship since. The overarching claim of this thesis is, however, that the Galeomyomachia is a valuable addition to our understanding of mock-epic and, as such, worth more thorough examination than it has previously received. The majority of the Galeomyomachia’s narrative is lost to us, but the narrative preserved in its surviving fragments is remarkably clear. Accordingly, Studies in the Galeomyomachia: Reconstructing the War of the Weasel and Mice concerns the two scenes wherein the fragmentary nature of our text renders the narrative uncertain. In the first of these two ‘studies’, I argue that Hermes, who appears briefly in our surviving text, acts as a patron deity to the mice; in the second, I explore a scene in which a messenger, whose identity is not preserved, reports the death of a mouse-hero to his widow. Within each of these studies, I will also investigate how the Galeomyomachia draws on, invokes, and parodies Homeric epic and other mytho-poetic referents, as well as how it compares to other examples of animal literature and epic parody. In doing so, I will go some way towards both reconstructing the Galeomyomachia’s narrative and, in turn, demonstrating its place and significance within its literary tradition.</strong></p>

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Section: Hermes and The Trasiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Studies in the Galeomyomachia: Reconstructing the War of the Weasel and Mice

Letteri

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Homer's disembodied Siren, the missing player, or, what’s in Faux Rock?

Tran¹

2019

Classical Receptions Journal

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What are the Homeric Sirens? This article argues that the non-presence of these creatures’ bodies, which has, for the most part, eluded scrutiny, equates to an absence of their promised song. In place of a singing body, Homer’s audience is told only of hushing winds, an island, blooms and sailor bones. I suggest that this entangled presentation is clarified in Siren Serenade (2010), a sculpture by the American artist, Rachel Harrison. The installation, which features a purpose-built black rock, a satellite dish, and a vinyl record with absent turntable, captures both the Sirens’ disembodied voice and the emptiness of their claim. More intriguingly, it also recasts the rock, the Sirens’ island, as disrupting epic teleology, which correlates their home with death. Instead of an endpoint, the deadly island broadcasting the never-to-be-fulfilled promise can be re-read as fitting within a broader scale and as open to lithic ontology. I substantiate this proposition with insights from Jeffrey Cohen’s work on stone, and suggest that the Sirens’ promise of vast knowledge is death only if conceived from the standpoint of the epic hero’s apprehension of immortality through song. In a lithic timescale, the disembodied voice as rock is life, albeit experienced as ‘non-human’.

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Monstrous Disembodiment and Ontological Uncertainty in Charybdis

Denson

2023

Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural

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Charybdis is a well-known sea monster in both the ancient and modern imaginations resulting from her prominent appearance in the Odyssey. Yet, in contrast to her counterpart across the strait, Scylla, she has been overlooked by modern scholars, and few have examined what makes her monstrous in the first place. This article will argue that Charybdis should be understood as monstrous as a result of her lack of corporeality, which, in turn, also results in an ontological uncertainty about whether or not she is even a natural phenomenon or, rather, a supernatural monster. The type of fear and unease that Charybdis’s unique form of monstrosity exerts on humans can, then, be best described with reference to Mark Fisher’s concept of “the eerie” as a failure of presence where we expect it to be.

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Down through the Gaping Hole—and up the Fig Tree

Cited by 3 publications

References 20 publications

Studies in the Galeomyomachia: Reconstructing the War of the Weasel and Mice

Studies in the Galeomyomachia: Reconstructing the War of the Weasel and Mice

Homer's disembodied Siren, the missing player, or, what’s in Faux Rock?

Monstrous Disembodiment and Ontological Uncertainty in Charybdis

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