Pindar's Homer: The Lyric Possession of An Epic Past

by Gregory Nagy

Overview

Nagy challenges the widely held view that the development of lyric poetry in Greece represents the rise of individual innovation over collective tradition. Arguing that Greek lyric represents a tradition in its own right, Nagy shows how the form of Greek epic is in fact a differentiation of forms found in Greek lyric. Throughout, he progressively broadens the definition of lyric to the point where it becomes the basis for defining epic, rather than the other way around.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801848476
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/01/1994
Series:	Softshell Books
Edition description:	Softshell Books Edition
Pages:	414
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gregory Nagy is Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. His books include Pindar's Homer: The Lyric Possession of an Epic Past, also available from Johns Hopkins.

Editorial Reviews

An original and substantial contribution. This is Nagy at his best, in full control of the primary and secondary material, helping us see it in a new and revealing light.
—Michael N. Nagler, University of California, Berkeley

A fascinating book by a bold and learned scholar, displaying an impressive breadth of knowledge, interest, and reading . . . One admires the way Nagy gathers together strands of information usually examined in isolation and spins them into a coherent and persuasively presented argument.
—American Journal of Philology

From the Publisher

A fascinating book by a bold and learned scholar, displaying an impressive breadth of knowledge, interest, and reading . . . One admires the way Nagy gathers together strands of information usually examined in isolation and spins them into a coherent and persuasively presented argument.

American Journal of Philology

An original and substantial contribution. This is Nagy at his best, in full control of the primary and secondary material, helping us see it in a new and revealing light.

Michael N. Nagler