Poetry in war and war in poetry [electronic resource] : the martial role of song and the aesthetic representation of war in ancient Greece.

9780599790919

2000

1 online resource (143 p.)

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This dissertation is a study of some aspects of the relationship between song and war in archaic and classical Greece. The first chapter examines the diachronically changing cultural conception of the relationship between song and war and its effect on mythological stories that involve a connection between those two spheres. These myths reflect a closer connection between song and war that obtains when the general cultural conception of the relationship is closer. The second chapter discusses the war dance, a type of choral performance which involves a close connection between song and war. An examination of some Iliadic passages explores Homer's familiarity with the war dance and provides more information about it. Further consideration of the war dance shows that it is at once an artistic representation of war as well as a preparation for war. A study of the contexts in which the war dance is employed sheds light on its function as an initiatory ceremony, and reveals that this role played by the war dance is reflected in myth. The third chapter explores the relationship of song and war in seventh-century Sparta. A close study of the available evidence attempts to provide for the shadowy Terpander a fuller biography than he has yet enjoyed. The simultaneous aesthetic and practical function of the verse of Tyrtaeus is investigated, and the connection of the poet Alcman to the genre of war poetry is examined. The fourth and final chapter examines the relationship between song and war on archaic Lesbos. Alcaeus, it is argued, is a traditional warrior-poet much like others discussed in this study, whereas Sappho's poetry reflects a distinctly feminine version of the masculine warrior-poet value system. Finally, reasons for the disappearance of the warrior-poet from Greek culture are discussed.

Books / Online / Dissertations & Theses

English

July 12, 2011

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2000.

Yale University.