Adopting a debated variant, or a disputed interpretation of a word or substantial passage of Homer or other ancient texts that are used as mod els for the proposition of new texts, was a well-established practice for Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic poetae docti.1 What seems to be the nor mal emulative modification of the model by a new text, in a binary relation one to one, in many cases appears to acknowledge a third ele ment: the model's actual reception. When utilizing this technique, poets transformed the original text by inscribing in the new text the system of exegetical expectations that they met, and which they either endorsed or refused. Not many examples of this technique exist before the Hellenis tic age. Maybe these examples are lacking because the available evidence of interpretive activity concerned with pre-classical texts is not abundant in the classical age, and it is thus difficult to track its relevance in the creation of classical texts. The inclination towards this technique will also have increased, however, together with the poets' increased atten tion to philological doctrina as a vital ingredient of their works, and as a substantial part of their audience's expectations. One of the oldest sus tained examples of this technique of which we know, if the reading which I suggest is correct, comes from a tragedy of uncertain paternity, which has been dated to ages as different as the youth of Euripides, the late Euripides, or the 4th cent., and is, at least in its first part, a dramatization of the first part of fliad 10, the Doloneia.
Scholarly Panic: "panikos phobos", Homeric Philology, and thebeginning of the "Rhesus"
FANTUZZI, Marco
2011-01-01
Abstract
Adopting a debated variant, or a disputed interpretation of a word or substantial passage of Homer or other ancient texts that are used as mod els for the proposition of new texts, was a well-established practice for Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic poetae docti.1 What seems to be the nor mal emulative modification of the model by a new text, in a binary relation one to one, in many cases appears to acknowledge a third ele ment: the model's actual reception. When utilizing this technique, poets transformed the original text by inscribing in the new text the system of exegetical expectations that they met, and which they either endorsed or refused. Not many examples of this technique exist before the Hellenis tic age. Maybe these examples are lacking because the available evidence of interpretive activity concerned with pre-classical texts is not abundant in the classical age, and it is thus difficult to track its relevance in the creation of classical texts. The inclination towards this technique will also have increased, however, together with the poets' increased atten tion to philological doctrina as a vital ingredient of their works, and as a substantial part of their audience's expectations. One of the oldest sus tained examples of this technique of which we know, if the reading which I suggest is correct, comes from a tragedy of uncertain paternity, which has been dated to ages as different as the youth of Euripides, the late Euripides, or the 4th cent., and is, at least in its first part, a dramatization of the first part of fliad 10, the Doloneia.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
