From Performance to Casket Copy
Comparing the Homeric Epics with the Tanakh as Scriptures
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v2i2.190Keywords:
Iliad, Odyssey, Homer, TanakhAbstract
Does the central role of the Iliad and the Odyssey in ancient Greek culture indicate that they functioned as scripture? Taking the role of the Tanakh in Jewish culture as the standard of comparison, this essay argues that, while the Tanakh and the epics functioned similarly as foundational texts in their respective cultures, the ways in which Homer was used in Hellenic culture differ markedly from the ways in which the Tanakh was used in ancient Jewish culture. The Homeric epics were primarily thought of as orally delivered or performed events throughout most of their history, only coming to be thought of as primarily written texts in the Hellenistic era and later, whereas almost from its origins the Tanakh commands and exemplifies a textcentered community in which that which is written is most important.
References
Primary Sources
Heraclitus. 2005. Homeric Problems. Trans. and ed. Donald A. Russell and David Konstan. Writings from the Greco-Roman World 14. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
Herodotus. 1952. The History. Trans. George Rawlins. Great Books of the Western World 6. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.
Homer. 1990. Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books.
———. 1996. Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books.
Josephus. 1926. Against Apion. Trans. H. St. J. Thackeray. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lycurgus. 1954. Against Leocrates. In Minor Attic Orators in Two Volumes, vol. 2. Trans. J. O. Burtt. In Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Plato. 1989a. Phaedrus. Trans. R. Hackforth. In Plato: Collected Dialogues, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, 475-525. Bollingen Series 71. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
———. 1989b. Republic. Trans. Paul Shorey. In Plato: Collected Dialogues, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, 575-844. Bollingen Series 71. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Plutarch. 1952. “Lycurgus” and “Alexander.” Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. Trans. John Dryden, 32-48, 540-76. Great Books of the Western World 14. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.
Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures. 1985. Trans. Jewish Publication Society.
Secondary Sources
Barton, Carlin A. 1993. The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Blum, Rudolf. 1991. Kallimachos: The Alexandrian Library and the Origins of Bibliography. Trans. H. H. Wellisch. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Borg, Meerten B. ter. 1998. “Canon and Social Control.” In van der Kooij and van der Toorn 1998, 411-23.
Childs, Brevard S. 1992. “The Problem of the Christian Bible.” In Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible, 55-69. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Cort, John E. 1992. “Svetambar Murtipujak: Jain Scripture in a Performative Context.” In Texts in Context: Traditional Hermeneutics in South Asia, ed. J. R. Timm, 171-94. Stonybrook: State University of New York Press.
Demand, Nancy. 1996. A History of Ancient Greece. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Dunstan, William E. 1998. The Ancient Near East. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Finley, M. I. 1954. The World of Odysseus. New York: New York Review Books, 1982.
Halbertal, Moshe. 1997. People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hettema, Theo L. 1998. “The Canon: Authority and Fascination.” In van der Kooij and van der Toorn 1998, 319-98.
Hunter, Richard. 2004. “Homer and Greek Literature.” In The Cambridge Companion to Homer, ed. Robert Fowler, 235-53. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521813026.015.
Klauck, Hans-Josef. 2003. The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions. Trans. Brian McNeil. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Lang, Bernhard. 1998. “The ‘Writings’: A Hellenistic Literary Canon in the Hebrew Bible.” In van der Kooij and van der Toorn 1998, 41-65.
Long, A. A. 1992. “Stoic Readings of Homer.” In Homer’s Ancient Readers: The Hermeneutic of Greek Epic’s Earliest Exegetes, ed. Robert Lamberton and John J. Keaney, 41-66. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Marty, Martin. 1982. “America’s Iconic Book.” In Humanizing America’s Iconic Book, 1-23. Chico, CA: Scholars Press.
Metzger, Bruce M., and Michael E. Coogan, eds. 1993. Oxford Companion to the Bible. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nagy, Gregory. 1995. “An Evolutionary Model for the Making of Homeric Poetry: Comparative Perspectives.” In The Ages of Homer, ed. Jane B. Carter and Sarah P. Morris, 163-79. Austin: University of Texas Press.
———. 1996a. “Aristarchus’ Quest for the Real Homer.” In Poetry as Performance: Homer and Beyond, 107-52. New York: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1996b. “Homer and the Evolution of a Homeric Text.” In Homeric Questions, 65-112. Austin: University of Texas Press.
———. 1996c. “Homer as ‘Scripture.’” In Poetry as Performance: Homer and Beyond, 187-206. New York: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2001. “Homeric Poetry and Problems of Multiformity: The ‘Panathenaic Bottleneck.’ ” Classical Philology 96(2): 109-19. doi:10.1086/449533.
Pfeiffer, Rudolf. 1968. History of Classical Scholarship: From the Beginnings to the End of the Hellenistic Age. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Rochberg-Halton, Francesca. 1984. “Canonicity in Cuneiform Texts.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 36: 27-144. doi:10.2307/1360053.
Sawyer, John F. A. 1999. Sacred Languages and Sacred Texts. New York: Routledge.
Sheppard, Gerald T. 1987. “Canon.” The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade, 3:62-69. New York: Macmillan.
Smith, Jonathan Z. 1982. “Sacred Persistence: Toward a Redescription of Canon.” In Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown, 36-52. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. 1998. “Canons, Catalogues and Classics.” In van der Kooij and van der Toorn 1998, 295-311.
Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. 1989. “Scripture as Form and Concept: Their Emergence for the Western World.” In Rethinking Scripture: Essays From a Comparative Perspective, ed. Miriam Levering, 29-57. Albany: SUNY Press.
Ulrich, Eugene. 1999. “The Bible in the Making.” In The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible, 17-33. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Van der Kooij, A., and K. van der Toorn. 1998. Canonization and Decanonization. Leiden: Brill.
Wood, Michael. 1985. In Search of the Trojan War. New York: Facts on File.
———, ed. 2003. African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures. New York: Continuum.
Heraclitus. 2005. Homeric Problems. Trans. and ed. Donald A. Russell and David Konstan. Writings from the Greco-Roman World 14. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
Herodotus. 1952. The History. Trans. George Rawlins. Great Books of the Western World 6. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.
Homer. 1990. Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books.
———. 1996. Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books.
Josephus. 1926. Against Apion. Trans. H. St. J. Thackeray. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lycurgus. 1954. Against Leocrates. In Minor Attic Orators in Two Volumes, vol. 2. Trans. J. O. Burtt. In Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Plato. 1989a. Phaedrus. Trans. R. Hackforth. In Plato: Collected Dialogues, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, 475-525. Bollingen Series 71. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
———. 1989b. Republic. Trans. Paul Shorey. In Plato: Collected Dialogues, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, 575-844. Bollingen Series 71. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Plutarch. 1952. “Lycurgus” and “Alexander.” Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. Trans. John Dryden, 32-48, 540-76. Great Books of the Western World 14. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.
Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures. 1985. Trans. Jewish Publication Society.
Secondary Sources
Barton, Carlin A. 1993. The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Blum, Rudolf. 1991. Kallimachos: The Alexandrian Library and the Origins of Bibliography. Trans. H. H. Wellisch. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Borg, Meerten B. ter. 1998. “Canon and Social Control.” In van der Kooij and van der Toorn 1998, 411-23.
Childs, Brevard S. 1992. “The Problem of the Christian Bible.” In Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible, 55-69. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Cort, John E. 1992. “Svetambar Murtipujak: Jain Scripture in a Performative Context.” In Texts in Context: Traditional Hermeneutics in South Asia, ed. J. R. Timm, 171-94. Stonybrook: State University of New York Press.
Demand, Nancy. 1996. A History of Ancient Greece. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Dunstan, William E. 1998. The Ancient Near East. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Finley, M. I. 1954. The World of Odysseus. New York: New York Review Books, 1982.
Halbertal, Moshe. 1997. People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hettema, Theo L. 1998. “The Canon: Authority and Fascination.” In van der Kooij and van der Toorn 1998, 319-98.
Hunter, Richard. 2004. “Homer and Greek Literature.” In The Cambridge Companion to Homer, ed. Robert Fowler, 235-53. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521813026.015.
Klauck, Hans-Josef. 2003. The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions. Trans. Brian McNeil. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Lang, Bernhard. 1998. “The ‘Writings’: A Hellenistic Literary Canon in the Hebrew Bible.” In van der Kooij and van der Toorn 1998, 41-65.
Long, A. A. 1992. “Stoic Readings of Homer.” In Homer’s Ancient Readers: The Hermeneutic of Greek Epic’s Earliest Exegetes, ed. Robert Lamberton and John J. Keaney, 41-66. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Marty, Martin. 1982. “America’s Iconic Book.” In Humanizing America’s Iconic Book, 1-23. Chico, CA: Scholars Press.
Metzger, Bruce M., and Michael E. Coogan, eds. 1993. Oxford Companion to the Bible. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nagy, Gregory. 1995. “An Evolutionary Model for the Making of Homeric Poetry: Comparative Perspectives.” In The Ages of Homer, ed. Jane B. Carter and Sarah P. Morris, 163-79. Austin: University of Texas Press.
———. 1996a. “Aristarchus’ Quest for the Real Homer.” In Poetry as Performance: Homer and Beyond, 107-52. New York: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1996b. “Homer and the Evolution of a Homeric Text.” In Homeric Questions, 65-112. Austin: University of Texas Press.
———. 1996c. “Homer as ‘Scripture.’” In Poetry as Performance: Homer and Beyond, 187-206. New York: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2001. “Homeric Poetry and Problems of Multiformity: The ‘Panathenaic Bottleneck.’ ” Classical Philology 96(2): 109-19. doi:10.1086/449533.
Pfeiffer, Rudolf. 1968. History of Classical Scholarship: From the Beginnings to the End of the Hellenistic Age. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Rochberg-Halton, Francesca. 1984. “Canonicity in Cuneiform Texts.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 36: 27-144. doi:10.2307/1360053.
Sawyer, John F. A. 1999. Sacred Languages and Sacred Texts. New York: Routledge.
Sheppard, Gerald T. 1987. “Canon.” The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade, 3:62-69. New York: Macmillan.
Smith, Jonathan Z. 1982. “Sacred Persistence: Toward a Redescription of Canon.” In Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown, 36-52. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. 1998. “Canons, Catalogues and Classics.” In van der Kooij and van der Toorn 1998, 295-311.
Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. 1989. “Scripture as Form and Concept: Their Emergence for the Western World.” In Rethinking Scripture: Essays From a Comparative Perspective, ed. Miriam Levering, 29-57. Albany: SUNY Press.
Ulrich, Eugene. 1999. “The Bible in the Making.” In The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible, 17-33. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Van der Kooij, A., and K. van der Toorn. 1998. Canonization and Decanonization. Leiden: Brill.
Wood, Michael. 1985. In Search of the Trojan War. New York: Facts on File.
———, ed. 2003. African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures. New York: Continuum.
Published
2008-03-14
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Waldron, C. M. (2008). From Performance to Casket Copy: Comparing the Homeric Epics with the Tanakh as Scriptures. Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, 2(2-3), 190-208. https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v2i2.190
