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 54
... perhaps be identified with Apollo.62 If this association is correct , " Apollo , " through Corax , kills Archilochus , a poet whom he had patronized , 63 blames Corax for killing a sacred poet , and prescribes hero cult for the poet to ...
... perhaps be identified with Apollo.62 If this association is correct , " Apollo , " through Corax , kills Archilochus , a poet whom he had patronized , 63 blames Corax for killing a sacred poet , and prescribes hero cult for the poet to ...
Page 133
... perhaps , as in the case of Plato , his immediate students and friends - molded the life to the already existent myth ( s ) . It was a way of honoring the greatness of a poet , giving him the literary equivalent of hero cult ; or perhaps ...
... perhaps , as in the case of Plato , his immediate students and friends - molded the life to the already existent myth ( s ) . It was a way of honoring the greatness of a poet , giving him the literary equivalent of hero cult ; or perhaps ...
Page 292
... perhaps he was too ill to sail ; perhaps he had not totally given up trust in Octavian . He actually started a journey back to Rome , then returned to the coast , at Astura . From here he sailed to Caieta , where he owned some lands ...
... perhaps he was too ill to sail ; perhaps he had not totally given up trust in Octavian . He actually started a journey back to Rome , then returned to the coast , at Astura . From here he sailed to Caieta , where he owned some lands ...
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