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

Abstract

<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>