3 Homer and the art of cinematic warfare
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George Alexander Gazis
Abstract
In this chapter it is argued that Homer’s descriptions of heroic duelling can be traced back to the early Mycenaean Palatial period. Mycenaean artists were keen to depict individual duels as opposed to large-scale skirmishes, something that likely reflects the human tendency of prioritising individual or subjective memory. Rather than focusing on the actual content of Homer’s descriptions or on the social and cultural reasons behind their selection, the paper asks what the visualisation of these events in the bard’s (and the audience’s) mind’s eye can tell us about Homeric poetry with respect to the audience’s expectations, and in light of what is arguably an intervisual continuity with the Mycenaean era that Homer claims to depict.
Abstract
In this chapter it is argued that Homer’s descriptions of heroic duelling can be traced back to the early Mycenaean Palatial period. Mycenaean artists were keen to depict individual duels as opposed to large-scale skirmishes, something that likely reflects the human tendency of prioritising individual or subjective memory. Rather than focusing on the actual content of Homer’s descriptions or on the social and cultural reasons behind their selection, the paper asks what the visualisation of these events in the bard’s (and the audience’s) mind’s eye can tell us about Homeric poetry with respect to the audience’s expectations, and in light of what is arguably an intervisual continuity with the Mycenaean era that Homer claims to depict.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: In limine
- 1 À rebours: intervisuality from the Middle Ages to classical antiquity 15
- 2 From image to theatrical play in Aeschylus’ Oresteia 33
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Part II: Archaic and classical age
- 3 Homer and the art of cinematic warfare 81
- 4 Intervisuality in the Greek symposium 103
- 5 The protohistory of portraits in words and images (sixth–fifth century BCE): tyrants, poets, and artists 121
- 6 Looking at Athens through the lyric lens 149
- 7 The politics of intervisuality 171
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Part III: Hellenistic and imperial age
- 8 The goddess playing with gold 197
- 9 Intervisuality in declamation and sung poetry in imperial Greek cities 213
- 10 Intervisual allusions in Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 15 235
- 11 Was Philostratus the Elder an admirer of Ovidian enargeia? 255
- 12 ἐκ τῶν πινάκων. Aristaenetus’ intervisual allusions to Philostratus’ art gallery 283
-
Part IV: Pointing to Rome
- 13 Ordering the res gestae: observations on the relationship between texts and images in Roman ‘historical’ representations 305
-
Appendix
- List of contributors 335
- Index nominum et rerum notabilium 339
- Index locorum 345
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: In limine
- 1 À rebours: intervisuality from the Middle Ages to classical antiquity 15
- 2 From image to theatrical play in Aeschylus’ Oresteia 33
-
Part II: Archaic and classical age
- 3 Homer and the art of cinematic warfare 81
- 4 Intervisuality in the Greek symposium 103
- 5 The protohistory of portraits in words and images (sixth–fifth century BCE): tyrants, poets, and artists 121
- 6 Looking at Athens through the lyric lens 149
- 7 The politics of intervisuality 171
-
Part III: Hellenistic and imperial age
- 8 The goddess playing with gold 197
- 9 Intervisuality in declamation and sung poetry in imperial Greek cities 213
- 10 Intervisual allusions in Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 15 235
- 11 Was Philostratus the Elder an admirer of Ovidian enargeia? 255
- 12 ἐκ τῶν πινάκων. Aristaenetus’ intervisual allusions to Philostratus’ art gallery 283
-
Part IV: Pointing to Rome
- 13 Ordering the res gestae: observations on the relationship between texts and images in Roman ‘historical’ representations 305
-
Appendix
- List of contributors 335
- Index nominum et rerum notabilium 339
- Index locorum 345
