The Homeric Simile in Comparative Perspectives

Oral Traditions from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia

Bibliographic Data

ID9400978
AuthorsJonathan L Ready (corresponding author)
Year2017
Pages352
Publication date2017-11-22
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueHomeric Simile in Comparative Perspectives (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780198802556.001.0001
OpenAlexW4253225297
Open LibraryOL28640250M
ISBN9780198802556
LanguageEN
Citations received2

The Homeric Simile in Comparative Perspectives: Oral Traditions from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia investigates both the construction of the Homeric simile and the performance of Homeric poetry from neglected comparative perspectives. The first part considers similes in five modern oral poetries—Rajasthani epic, South Sumatran epic, Kyrgyz epic, Bosniac epic, and Najdi lyric poems from Saudi Arabia—and studies successful performances by still other verbal artists, such as Egyptian singers of epic, Turkish minstrels, and Chinese storytellers. In applying these findings to the Homeric epics, the second part offers a new take on how the Homeric poets put together their similes and alters our understanding of how the poets displayed their competence as performers of verbal art. Engaging intensively with a diverse array of scholarship from outside the field of classics, from folkloristics to cognitive linguistics, this book changes how we view not only a central feature of Homeric poetry but also the very nature of Homeric performance

Art · Comparative literature · EPIC · Linguistics · Literal and figurative language · Literature · Metaphor · Poetry · Scholarship · Simile · Turkish · Classical Antiquity Studies · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Philosophy · Figures of speech · Greek language · Greek language, grammar · Homer · Literary style · Oral tradition · Oral-formulaic analysis

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