Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Homer Greek language'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 123 p. : ill. Advisor: Brian D. Joseph, Greek and Latin Graduate Program. Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-123).

The broad objective of this dissertation is an interdisciplinary study uniting historical linguistics, classical philology, and comparative poetics in an attempt to investigate archaic Greek poetic texts from a diachronic perspective. This thesis consists of two parts. The first part, “Etymology and Poetics”, is devoted to several cases where scantiness of attestation and lack of semantic information render traditional philological methods of textual interpretation insufficient. In such cases, the meaning of a word has to be arrived at through linguistic analysis and verified through appeal to related poetic traditions, such as that of Indo-Iranian. Chapter 1 proposes a new interpretation for the enigmatic word ἀάατο̋, the Homeric epithet of the waters of the Styx, which is shown to have meant ‘sunless’. Chapter 2 deals with the word ἀριδείκετο̋, argued to mean ‘famous’: this solution finds support in the use of the root *dei̯k- in the poetic expression “to show forth praise”, found in Greek choral lyric and the Rigveda. Chapter 3 investigates the history of the verbs ἰάπτω ‘to harm’ and ἰάπτω ‘to send forth (to Hades)’. Chapter 4 improves the text of Pindar (O. 6.54), restoring a form ἀπειράτωι. Chapter 5 discusses the difficult word ἀμαυρό̋, establishing for it a meaning ‘weak’ and proposing a new etymology. Finally, Chapter 6 places Alc. 34 in the context of comparative mythology, with the object of reconstructing the history of the Lesbian lyric tradition. The second part, “Grammar of Poetry”, shifts the focus of the inquiry from comparative poetics to the language of early Greek poetry and its use. Chapter 7 addresses the problematic Homeric aorist infinitives in -έειν, showing how these artificial forms were created by allomorphic remodeling driven by metrical necessity; the problem is placed in the wider context of the debate about the transmission and development of Homeric epic diction. The metrical and linguistic facts relating to the distribution of infinitives are further discussed in Chapter 8, where it is argued that the unexpected Aeolic form νηφέμεν in Archil. 4 should be viewed as an intentional allusion to the epic tradition, specifically, the famous midsummer picnic scene in Hesiod.
Linguistics

Often praised for its sophistication in the narrator- and character-text, the Odyssey is regarded as the ultimate epic of a warrior’s much-troubled nostos. As a corollary of both its theme and the polytropia of the main hero, the poem explores extensively the motifs of secrecy and disguise. Apart from the lying tales of Odysseus, one important, albeit less obvious, example of the tendency to secrecy and disguise is the exchanges between the gods, which constitute a distinct group of speeches that have significant implications for the action of the poem. The aim of this dissertation is to study the divine dialogues of the Odyssey from the angle of communication and persuasion. Employing findings from narratology, discourse analysis, and oral poetics, and through close readings of the Homeric text, I argue that the overwhelming majority of these related passages have certain characteristics, whose common denominator is obliqueness. Apart from Helius’ appeal to Zeus (Chapter 2), distinctive in its own narratorial rendition, the rest of the dialogues, namely Hermes’ message-delivery to Calypso (Prologue), the two divine assemblies (Chapter 1), plus the exchanges of Zeus with Poseidon (Chapter 2) and Athena (Epilogue) conform to set patterns of communication. Within this framework, interlocutors strongly tend towards concealment and partiality. They make extensive use of conversational implicatures, shed light only on certain sides of the story while suppressing others, and present feigned or even exaggerated arguments in order to persuade their addressee. Direct confrontation is in principle avoided, and even when it does occur, it takes a rather oblique form. In this communicative scheme, the procedure of decision-making is not clear-cut, and the concept of persuasion is fluid and hidden behind the indirect and subtle dialogic process.

The following work consists of a careful analysis of the translation of the Iliad by Homer prepared by Melchiorre Cesarotti. Caught amidst the dilemma of loyalty to the original and the beauty of translation, Cesarotti decided to compose two versions: one in blank verses and the other in prose. This work is therefore none other than a comparison between Cesarotti's version in poetry and the version in prose.
The first part deals briefly with a few details on the criticism that Cesarotti's work raised.
The second part consists of the comparison work, which is subdivided in "Canti" (as Cesarotti's version in poetry) because the work proposes to compare the version in poetry to the version in prose and not vice-versa.
The last part examines the artistic value of Cesarotti's translations and the place they occupy in Europe in the eighteenth century.

This study identifies and describes constituents, patterns and distribution of the system –or systems- of demonstratives of a representative selection of early Greek dialects, namely the “Arcado-Cyprian” group: Arcadian and Cyprian, including a short analysis of Pamphylian as well as a discussion of the particle νι/νυ and a brief note on Mycenaean; the “Aeolic” group: Lesbian, Boeotian and Thessalian; and a selection of West Greek dialects, including both “Doric” and “Northwest Greek” dialects: Elean, Cretan, Laconian, Cyrenaean and Theran. It also examines, describes and compares the syntactic functions and, where possible, pragmatic uses of the series of demonstratives in operation in the selected dialects, providing a classification capable of accounting for all uses cross-dialectically, as well as a succinct account of the evolution of the system of demonstratives from Indo-European to “Ancient Greek”. Additionally, it offers a glimpse of the way in which deixis and anaphora seem to have worked in early Greek dialectal inscriptions, addressing the issue of defining demonstrative pronouns, as well as deixis and anaphora in general terms. Finally, this thesis provides the basis for a cross-dialectal comparison of the structure and operation of the different systems of demonstratives, and corrects some general misconceptions about the scope, usage and inter-dialectal connections of some series of demonstratives, particularly with regard to Arcadian and Cyprian. The results of such a study might contribute towards the discussion of the classification and history of the evolution of early Greek dialects.

Cette étude explore l’ensemble des traductions de l’Odyssée d’Homère en langue française depuis la Renaissance jusqu’à nos jours. Elle participe à la constitution d’une histoire des traductions à partir du nouvel outillage technique et conceptuel offert par le numérique, qui permet d’envisager à nouveaux frais l’histoire des traductions d’un texte fondateur de la civilisation occidentale. Notre hypothèse, selon laquelle le tournant dans la manière de traduire Homère s’effectue entre la fin du XVIIIe siècle et le début du XIXe siècle en France, avec les progrès de l’archéologie et de la philologie, a pu être vérifiée tout au long de cette étude, grâce au programme que nous avons construit. Cette étude a donc pu retracer à la fois l’histoire des traductions de l’Odyssée et se rattacher à l’histoire plus large qu’est l’histoire des traductions. Notre étude a aussi pour but de rendre accessibles à tous les résultats que nous avons obtenus. Nous avons numérisé et rassemblé toutes les traductions de l’Odyssée en langue française dans un format XML enrichi. Nous avons traité 26 traductions de l’Odyssée, dont 23 sont intégrales. Hormis les textes sous droits, tous les textes sont en libre accès sous cette forme. L’outil numérique que nous avons créé de toutes pièces n’est pas seulement un instrument destiné à faciliter le travail du chercheur : il permet de trouver des phénomènes qui sont indécelables à l’œil nu, et d’obtenir des résultats qui ne peuvent pas, même avec la plus grande rigueur, être obtenus par un humain. Nous voyons ainsi la double fonction de l’outil informatique, qui sert à la fois d’outil de vérification et de découverte. D’une part, l’outil informatique permet de rendre vérifiable les intuitions de la philologie qui sont opérationnalisées et parfois visualisables de manière pédagogique. D’autre part, des phénomènes inattendus peuvent être rendus visibles par les expériences, comme des inflexions que la longue durée ou la quantité de textes auraient masquées
This study goes through the whole of the French translations of Homer’s Odyssey from the Renaissance up to the XXth century. It is a further step in the study of the history of translations, based on a new technical and conceptual tool, using a wide range of new techniques in the field of Digital Humanities, which should help us enhance research about such a major text in Western civilization. Our hypothesis is to locate the turning point in the ways to translate Homer at the end of the XVIIIth century in France, with progress made in archeology and philology, a hypothesis that has been verified throughout this study, thanks to the software we made. We have studied both the history of the translations of the Odyssey and a wider history, that is to say, history of translations in general. Our study also aimed at giving access to the wider public to the results we got. We digitized and gathered all the French translations of the Odyssey in an enriched XML format. We have dealt with 26 translations, within which 23 are complete. Except for copyrighted texts, all our texts are open source. The digital tool we made does not only exist to ease the scientific work, but it also allows us to see new phenomena that would be impossible to spot with a human eye, and obtain results that cannot, even with rigorous expertise, be obtained by a human. We see there the double function of a digital tool that can both confirm and help discover. Firstly, the tool can allow us to confirm philological intuitions that can be operationalized and visualized in pedagogical way. On the other hand, unexpected phenomena can be found and visualized, such as changes that might have been hidden due to the wide period studied or the quantity of texts analyzed

Le Dictionnaire des hapax dans la poésie grecque archaïque, d'Homère à Eschyle vise à inventorier les hapax absolus (mots uniques) de la poésie archaïque. Chaque entrée du dictionnaire offre une traduction du lemme, son analyse morphologique et lexicale ainsi que sa situation en contexte, pour expliquer son sémantisme et son étiologie. Des remarques métriques viennent compléter ces explications. Ce dictionnaire peut servir de référence ouverte à tous ceux qui s’intéressent à la création lexicale de près ou de loin, à la fois pour des travaux stylistiques et métriques, mais aussi des travaux de traduction, de papyrologie ou d’épigraphie. Il représente un outil précieux pour favoriser la recherche sur la création lexicale pour tous les linguistes. Il peut être utile aux spécialistes de littérature dans toutes les langues car il constitue une base de travail pour une véritable réflexion sur la création poétique. Un volume de commentaire au dictionnaire, Hapax legomena dans la poésie archaïque, offre une définition précise et une réflexion sur la notion d’hapax absolu, une analyse des caractéristiques majeures de la création deshapax chez les auteurs archaïques, un inventaire thématique des principaux morphèmes préfixaux et suffixaux mais aussi des lexèmes les plus récurrents en composition. Enfin, la question de la réception des hapax en synchronie, par les spectateurs ou auditeurs anciens mais aussi par les scholiastes et lexicographes, comme en diachronie, à cause des difficultés d’interprétation de certaines leçons dans les manuscrits, est traitée
The Dictionary of hapax legomena in early Greek poetry, from Homer to Aeschylus, aims to inventory the absolute hapax unique words) in archaic poetry. Each entry in the dictionary offers a translation of the lemma, its morphological and lexical analysis as well as its situation in context, to explain its semantics and etiology. Metric remarks complete these explanations. This dictionary can serve as an open reference for all those interested in lexical creation from near and far, both for stylistic and metrical work, but also works of translation, papyrology or epigraphy. It is a valuable tool for promoting lexical creation research for all linguists. It can be useful to literary specialists in all languages as it provides a basis for a real reflection on poetic creation. A volume of commentary on the dictionary, Hapax legomena in early poetry, offers a precise definition and a reflection about the notion of absolute hapax, an analysis of the major features of hapax creation in archaic authors, a thematic inventory of the main prefix and suffixal morphemes, but also the most recurrent lexemes in composition. Finally, the question of the reception of the hapax is treated, first in synchrony, by the spectators or listeners but also by scholiasts and lexicographers, then in diachronic, because of the difficulties of interpretation of some lessons in the manuscripts

Dans ce travail, j’étudie les principes de l’ordre des mots en grec homérique. Comme en prose classique, le principe fondamental est que les constituants sont alignés en fonction de la structure informationnelle (SI) de l’énoncé, c’est-à-dire de l’expression des relations de topique et de focus. Les expressions topiques sont différenciées selon qu’elles sont ratifiées ou non. Quant au focus, deux constructions peuvent être identifiées : une construction à focus restreint, dans laquelle l’unique expression dans le focus est placée immédiatement avant le verbe, et une construction à focus large, où le verbe éventuellement suivi d’autres éléments constitue un domaine focal ; celui-ci peut recevoir une interprétation large ou restreinte sur son dernier élément. Après avoir décrit l’expression de la SI dans la clause et les contextes d’emploi des différentes constructions, on en explore les marges (positions pré- et postclausales), et on montre que la construction des interrogatives se fait à travers un enchâssement de propositions dotées d’une SI propre. La partition prosodique de l’énoncé, telle qu’elle se révèle à travers la position des postpositifs et des expressions de topique ratifié, est mise à profit dans la démonstration. Puis, après une étude de l’hyperbate en grec classique et homérique, je montre que la tmèse est, chez Homère, un procédé de pseudo-incorporation nominale. Enfin, cette étude linguistique sert de base à une réévaluation de l’enjambement chez Homère et à l’étude d’un trope de la poésie homérique (le σῆμα narratif), qui consiste à placer un mot (par exemple kalós ou stê/éstē) en position initiale dans le vers pour jalonner la progression du récit
In this thesis, I study the principles of word order in Homeric Greek. As it is the case in classical prose, the fundamental principle consists in aligning constituents according to the information structure (IS) of the utterance, i.e. the expression of topic and focus relations. Topic expressions differ in their ratification status. As for focus, two constructions may be identified : a narrow focus construction, where the only element in the focus is placed immediately before the verb, and a broad focus construction, where the verb, optionally followed by other focal elements, builds up a focus domain ; the construal of this domain may be broad or narrow on its last element. Having described the expression of IS in the clause and the various contexts in which the different constructions occur, I explore the margins of the clause (pre- and postclausal positions), and I show that questions embed propositions with their own IS. In the demonstration, I make use of the prosodic partitioning of the utterance, as indicated by the position of postpositives and ratified topic expressions. Then, after studying hyperbaton in Classical and Homeric Greek, I show that tmesis, in Homer, is a kind of pseudo noun incorporation. Finally, building on this linguistic study, I reevaluate Homeric enjambment and try to identify a trope of Homeric poetry (narrative σῆμα), whereby a word (like kalós or stê/éstē) is placed in initial position in the line in order to mark the progression of the narrative

Cette étude porte sur l'emploi d'adjectifs neutres en fonction adverbiale en grec ancien, sur un corpus constitué de l'ensemble de la poésie archaïque, d'Homère à Pindare. Les données recueillies ont été, autant que possible, confrontées aux données des auteurs classiques et des poètes alexandrins, et replacées dans la perspective de la linguistique indo-européenne. Une étude morphologique montre le caractère récent des adverbes en ως en grec homérique, alors que le neutre adverbial semble constituer un procédé d'adverbialisation ancien et courant. Un examen sémantique des neutres adverbiaux et des adverbes en ως fait apparaître que ces derniers présentent des traits sémantiques typiques d'une catégorie d'adverbes en cours de développement, puisqu'il s'agit presque exclusivement d'adverbes de manière, alors que les neutres adverbiaux apparaissent, chez Homère, dans presque toutes les catégories d'adverbes, ce qui est le propre d'un procédé d'adverbialisation qui a déjà connu une forte productivité. Enfin, une étude syntaxique souligne les limites de la thèse traditionnelle qui voit dans nombre d'adjectifs neutres employés comme adverbes des accusatifs d'objet interne : cette hypothèse ne tient pas compte de l'existence de nombreux neutres adverbiaux qui ne sauraient s'expliquer ainsi, et elle suppose que l'on ait pu substantiver sans restriction des adjectifs au neutre singulier, ce qui n'est pas le cas chez Homère. Cette étude syntaxique met enfin en lumière les étapes du développement des adverbes en ως : ceux-ci sont d'abord apparus dans des contextes où le sujet avait un contrôle sur l'action, ainsi que dans des contextes où l'adverbe est orienté vers le sujet
The object of this work is to describe and explain the use of neuter adjectives as adverbs in Ancient Greek. It is based on a corpus comprising all archaic Greek poetry, from Homer to Pindar. Whenever possible, this data is compared with the data of the Classical and Hellenistic periods, and put into an Indo-European perspective. The examination of the morphology of adverbs in archaic Greek shows that the adverbs in ως are a recent development in Homer, whereas adverbial neuters seem to have been the default way of deriving an adverb from an adjective shortly before the archaic period. The semantics of the adverbs in ως displays typical features of a relatively new adverbial formation: in Homer, the suffix ως is only found in adverbs expressing manner. On the other hand, neuter adjectives used as adverbs are found in almost every adverbial function, which is the expected behaviour of a very productive adverbial formation. Finally, a syntaxic study of the adjectives in archaic Greek shows that the use of neuter adjectives as adverbs cannot be explained as a special case of internal accusative: this hypothesis is unable to account for numerous neuter adjectives used as adverbs, and implies that neuter adjectives could be used as substantives in singular without any restriction, which is not the case in Homer. This syntaxic study also sheds light on the development of the adverbs in ως: they first appeared in contexts where the subject controlled the process, and in contexts where the adverb is subject-oriented

Comment dire le désir érotique et ses concrétisations ? Des épopées homériques aux odes de Pindare, de la cosmogonie hésiodique à l’invective moraliste et à la passion des lyriques, la présente étude passe au crible l’ensemble des textes grecs de la période archaïque pour éclairer ce phénomène linguistique. Le désir et la sexualité sont traités comme une langue à part, au sein du grec, convoquant un lexique, une syntaxe et une stylistique spécifiques. Le lexique détoure les mots de la langue commune et bâtit les concepts du désir dans une chronologie particulière, détaillant ce que le français construit souvent comme synonymes. Le désir se fait force implacable et artefact magique redoutable. La syntaxe de l’union et de la procréation – au cœur de l’élaboration des généalogies, notamment – se déploie sous de fortes contraintes. Elle oscille entre le frein de la bienséance – érotisme perçu comme inconvenant, alors qu’il joue un rôle incontournable dans la construction des personnages et la structuration de l’univers – et l’excès obscène qui le change en arme morale. Difficile à dire, l’érotisme s’énonce à demi-mot, ou mots grossis, dans un système complexe de conventions. Sa stylistique, enfin, lui donne corps : elle le dessine comme un objet palpable, proche des parures travaillées et des amulettes, lui donnant matière et éclat ; elle le met en scène, surtout dans la nature, qui reflète en profondeur ses ambivalences, entre fascination et danger. Les métaphores érotiques et sexuelles convoquent paysages, plantes et animaux pour ancrer l’homme et son désir dans le monde. La grammaire du désir est un mécanisme complexe qui joue de connivence et questionne la nature humaine
How to express erotic desire and its success? From Homeric epics to Pindar’s odes, from Hesiod’s cosmogony to the harsh moral invective, and the passion of lyrics poets, this study examines all the linguistic material from the archaic period to show that process. Desire and sexuality are considered an idiom of their own, within ancient Greek, using their own words, syntax and stylistics. Their words dwell in those of the common tongue and build concepts of desire inside a specific timeline. French is often blind to such a differentiation. Desire turns into an overpowering force and a formidable magical artefact. The syntax of sexual congress and procreation – at the heart of genealogies – thrives through strong constraints, such as decency – and, although eroticism is fundamental in building characters or structuring the world, it is seen as inappropriate – and obscene excess, while fighting for morality. Eroticism is hard to express: it uses the implicit or the caricature, and follows complex conventions. Its stylistics, at last, words its embodiment: desire becomes an object one can touch, wear like an amulet or an ornament, and see, thanks to its glow and material. It is staged, especially in nature, because it reflects its inner ambivalence, between fascination and danger. Erotic and sexual metaphors call out landscapes, plants, and animals, in order to insert desiring human beings into the world. The grammar of desire forms a complex mechanism based on complicity and the questioning human nature

This thesis investigates reflexivity in ancient Greek literature and philosophy from Homer to Plato. It contends that ancient Greek culture developed a notion of personhood that was characteristically reflexive, and that this was linked to a linguistic development of specialized reflexive pronouns, which are the words for 'self'.

The Greeks and Romans were acquainted with dark skinned people from Africa from an early stage. It has been generally accepted that such people were referred to as aithiopias; by the Greeks, and modem commentators have accepted the term to be a synonym of the English term 'Negro' . Such an assumption ignores the wide variety of connotations associated with the terms aithiops and aithiopia. Furthermore, the trend in scholarship in the field of race relations in antiquity has been to study the interaction between Greeks and foreigners based on implicit, and often invalid, theory. The aim of this study is to examine the uses of the terms aithiops and aithiopia in the context of Greek ideology. Previous studies in the field have employed naive semiological approaches to the issue of racism in Greece and Rome, whereby references to Negroes have simply been weighed up in order to determine the extent of negative attitude toward Negroes in antiquity. In this regard, the following study departs radically from the approaches of its predecessors in that, although it is not intended as a narrow linguistic study of the terms aithiops and aithiopia, the focus of the examination concerns the semantics of these terms and the connotations thereof. Through an analysis of these terms in their ideological context, not only do we gain an insight into the processes which underlie Greek perceptions of group boundaries, but we may gain a deeper understanding of our own perceptions of race and racism. The study is confined to pre-Hellenistic literature (although later works are often used to illuminate Classical and Archaic passages) since it was the perceptions of the authors from this period which shaped the ideas of subsequent authors. In addition, during the Hellenistic period, the focus of Greek literary activity shifted from Athens to Alexandria, allowing Hellenistic authors far more contact with Negroes than was enjoyed by their predecessors. For the purpose of this study, Lycophron's Alexandria has been assumed to be the last pre-Hellenistic work, although this point may be debatable.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1997.