A Great Wave against the Stream
Water Imagery in Iliadic Battle Scenes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9291272 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan Fenno (corresponding author), Jonathan Brian Fenno |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 126 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 475-504 |
| Publication date | 2005-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The American Journal of Philology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9475 • E-ISSN: 1086-3168 |
| Publisher | Johns Hopkins University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/ajp.2006.0005 |
| OpenAlex | W2127643534 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 13 |
This article investigates the figurative role of water in martial similes, metaphors, and personifications in the Iliad. Such imagery, it is argued, is generally informed by a thematic association of Greeks and their camp with the sea, and Trojans and their territory with rivers; as heroes sound and move like waves and streams, bodies of water become sympathetically animated warriors, and gods of sea and river rush into battle. The conclusion is that an ancient antithesis between saltwater and freshwater lends the Iliad a sense of unity in setting and plot and endows heroic action with greater cosmic and theological significance
Action (physics · Ancient history · Antithesis · Apollo · Art · Battle · Greeks · Linguistics · Literal and figurative language · Literature · Physics · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Architectural Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.58 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2014 - 2025 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |