“You Started the Dispute” – an Essential Argument in Controversies Typical of Oral Cultures and the Discoursive Blueprint of the "Iliad"

Autor

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-0319.27.02

Słowa kluczowe:

Iliada, Homer, dyskurs oralny, kultura egalitarna, Parys/Aleksander

Abstrakt

The paper argues that in the imagery found in the narrative context of the Iliad, the image of public debates is involved. Especially the argument “you started the dispute” is emphasized because it is connected with the concept of blame attributed to Paris and all the Trojans. Under the influence of such works like Graeber and Wengrow (2021), that shed a new light on the prehistory of mankind, I postulate a change in the paradigm of the interpretation of the Homeric world. I believe it would be much more comprehensible if interpreted as expressing egalitarian relations. After all, social and political circumstances described in the Iliad correspond to the phase in which hierarchy is only an increasing tendency. Comparisons drawn from other egalitarian cultures indicate how significant it is who started the dispute and how this argument can be cancelled. In the blueprint of the Iliad, however, Paris’ blame defines the meaning of the Trojan story and, therefore, the indictment that it was Alexander who started the dispute plays a paramount role.

Biogram autora

Karol Zieliński - Uniwersytet Wrocławski

Dr hab. prof. UWr. Karol Zieliński is a classical philologist and professor at the Institute of Classical, Mediterranean and Oriental Studies at the University of Wrocław, Poland. He is the head of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Relationship between Oral and Written Culture and editor-in-chief of “Quaestiones Oralitatis”, a journal that deals with the issues of orality and its relationships with literature. He specialises in Greek literature of the archaic period, especially with a view to its links with oral tradition. His publications include monographs: Słońce w rozpaczy. Liryka miłosna Safony w aspekcie oralności (The Sun in Despair: Sappho’ s Love Lyric Poetry in the Aspect of Orality, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego 2006), Worldview in Narrative and Non-narrative Expression: The Cognitive, Anthropological, and Literary Perspective (Harrassowitz Verlag 2021, co-editor) and The Iliad and the Oral Epic Tradition (Harvard University Press 2023).

 

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Opublikowane

2024-10-30 — zaktualizowane 2025-01-02

Wersje

Jak cytować

Zieliński, K. (2025). “You Started the Dispute” – an Essential Argument in Controversies Typical of Oral Cultures and the Discoursive Blueprint of the "Iliad". Collectanea Philologica, (27), 11–26. https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-0319.27.02 (Original work published 30 październik 2024)