Poetics in Early Greek Epic

by Margalit Finkelberg

Homer and Hesiod are the earliest epic poets in Western literary tradition. Yet, while there are quite a few monographs addressing various aspects of the way they viewed their poetic art, no comprehensive treatment of their concept of poetry is available. The present book aims to fill this gap. Integrating under one cover all the major issues in the poetics of Homer, Hesiod, and the major Homeric Hymns, it offers a cohesive overview of the status quaestionis concerning what can be called the theory of poetry in early Greek epic. The book addresses such issues as self-representation of epic, the Muses and their relationship with the poet, the narrative voice and the way the idea of authorship is articulated, generic classifications within the domain of epic, allusion and intertextuality, the poets and their craft, performance and the audience response. The book will be of interest to advanced undergraduate students, postgraduate students, early career scholars and anyone with a general interest in the state of research in early Greek poetics.

200 pages, Paperback

Published December 31, 2020

About the author

Margalit Finkelberg is Professor of Classics at Tel Aviv University. Her publications include The Birth of Literary Fiction in Ancient Greece (1998), and Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition (2005).