PLEASE NOTE that this webinar will begin at 18:30 BST (= 13:30 EDT).

Prof. Egbert Bakker (Yale), ‘An Interformulaic Cyclops: Observations from the Cave’

'Odysseus recounts his encounter with the Cyclops making use of language that is used elsewhere in the poem, and in the wider epic tradition. This presentation will argue that this is not merely a matter of formulaic diction in an oral tradition; nor is it literary allusion by a literate poet. Rather, the orality of the fully developed Homeric tradition is based on a deep knowledge, shared between the performer and the audience, of the poem as a ‘work’ rather than an instantiation of an oral poem. This linguistic proficiency will allow the use of language that is meant to evoke other instances (or even the other instance) of a given phrase to convey formulaically encoded meaning.'

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This event is part of a series of free, online seminars on the topic of orality and early Greek epic, hosted by Frances Pickworth and Pantelis Michelakis at the University of Bristol. To find out more about the series, including other speakers, please visit the seminar homepage.

To attend this event or other seminars in the series, please register via Zoom. Registration is free. If you have any questions about the series or problems signing up, please email Frances Pickworth at f.pickworth@bristol.ac.uk.