Victim of the Muses: Poet as Scapegoat, Warrior, and Hero in Greco-Roman and Indo-European Myth and HistoryCenter for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University, 2006 - 432 pages This book, which has relevance both for literary history and comparative religion, probes the narratives of poets who are exiled, tried or executed for their satire. Aesop, fabulist and riddle warrior, is assimilated to the pharmakos - the wretched human scapegoat who is expelled from the city or killed in response to a crisis - after satirizing the Delphians. Other prominent legendary and historical Greek and Roman poets, such as Archilochus, Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Tyrtaeus, Euripides, Socrates, Naevius, Cicero, Ovid, and Juvenal, are also considered in this context. In much the same way, Dumezil's Indo-European heroes, Starkathr and Suibhne, are both warrior-poets persecuted by patron deities. This book views the scapegoat as a group's dominant warrior, sent out to confront predators or besieging forces. Both poets and warriors specialize in madness and aggression, are necessary to society, yet dangerous to society. |
From inside the book
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Page 22
... offered by the lives of Archilochus and Hesiod argue that Aesop's poetic consecration is an ancient tradition - heroizing legends of the poets tend to accumulate around the their consecrations and deaths.19 If we accept that probability ...
... offered by the lives of Archilochus and Hesiod argue that Aesop's poetic consecration is an ancient tradition - heroizing legends of the poets tend to accumulate around the their consecrations and deaths.19 If we accept that probability ...
Page 24
... offering of Aesop as propitiation by the voice of the people ; the self - sacrifi- cial offering of Aesop ; his obtaining salvation for the city ; the hero cult offered to the poet at the very place where he had been expelled by the ...
... offering of Aesop as propitiation by the voice of the people ; the self - sacrifi- cial offering of Aesop ; his obtaining salvation for the city ; the hero cult offered to the poet at the very place where he had been expelled by the ...
Page 134
... offered sacrifices [ enēgizon ] and performed his plays there . " " Enagizō is a standard word used to denote sacrifices to the dead in cult , as opposed to divine sacrifices ; the importance of elaborate ritual connected with the ...
... offered sacrifices [ enēgizon ] and performed his plays there . " " Enagizō is a standard word used to denote sacrifices to the dead in cult , as opposed to divine sacrifices ; the importance of elaborate ritual connected with the ...
Contents
Poetry Politics Exile | 106 |
Faceless Exile | 114 |
Little Ugly | 130 |
Copyright | |
16 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
abuse According Aeschylus Aesop Alcaeus animal Apollo archaic Archilochus Aristophanes aspects associated Athenians attack battle becomes blame Burkert called cause Cicero close common comparable connected consecration contest cult curse death Delphi discussion divine Dumézil enemy Euripides example execution exile fable figure function further give given gods Greece Greek Heracles hero hero cult Hesiod Hipponax historical Homer important Indo-European interpretation Irish killed king later legend linked lives madness murder Muses myth Naevius Nagy notes Odin offers oracle Ovid parallel pattern Pausanias perhaps pharmakos Plato Plutarch poem poet poet's poetic poetry political possible praise punishment receives references ritual Roman sacred Sappho satire satirist scapegoat seems shame shows society Socrates Starkaðr stoning story suggests Suibhne tells theme tradition trans Tyrtaeus verbal victim violent Vita warrior West writes δὲ καὶ τὴν τὸν τοῦ