The Secondary Incipit of the Odyssey (Od. 9.39): Quotation, Translation, and Adaptation in the Ancient Reception of Homer.

Although recent scholarship has studied the incipit as a privileged intertextual locus in Latin poetry, the comparable role of work-internal beginnings in classical literature has been largely overlooked. This article argues that the opening sentence of Odysseus' Apologue functions as the Odyssey 's...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Classical Philology Vol. 117; no. 3; pp. 411 - 438
Autor principal: Cè, Massimo
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: University of Chicago Press Jul2022
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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Sumario:Although recent scholarship has studied the incipit as a privileged intertextual locus in Latin poetry, the comparable role of work-internal beginnings in classical literature has been largely overlooked. This article argues that the opening sentence of Odysseus' Apologue functions as the Odyssey 's secondary beginning from Odysseus' point of view—a role that ancient audiences of the poem recognized and developed. Specifically, I demonstrate that later Greek and Latin authors use the Odyssey 's secondary incipit to emphasize narratorial subjectivity and to mark new literary beginnings. Consequently, my research calls for a broader reconsideration of secondary incipits in Graeco-Roman literature.