The tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the epic cycle
By: Jonathan S. Burgess.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Baltimore, Md
Language: eng
Number of pages: 295
Subjects: Homer -- Knowledge -- Troy (Extinct city); Homer -- Influence; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Trojan War -- Literature and the war; Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) -- History -- To 1500; Literature and history -- Greece; Lost literature -- Greece; Cycles (Literature); Troy (Extinct city) -- In literature
Description: "Much of our understanding of the mythological tradition surrounding the Trojan War comes from Homer. Although the Iliad and Odyssey describe only the last years of this conflict, for centuries these works have been the primary source for literary and scholarly inspiration. They have largely overshadowed other Trojan War narratives, particularly the poems collectively known as the Epic Cycle, which chronicle the whole conflict.

Although the Epic Cycle poems have long since been lost, references to them in the work of ancient writers abound, and their influence can be detected in the works of poets and artists of the time. In The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle, Jonathan Burgess challenges Homer's authority on the history and legends of the Trojan War, placing the Iliad and Odyssey in the larger, often overlooked context of the entire body of Greek epic poetry of the Archaic Age."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-277) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: ONE; title: The Epic Cycle and the Tradition of the Trojan War 7; title: Origins of the Cycle Poems; title: The Manufacture of the Epic Cycle; title: The "Cyclic" Tradition of the Trojan War; title: "Cyclic" Trojan War Images; title: Later Manifestations; title: TWO; title: Homer and the Tradition of the Trojan War 47; title: "Cyclic"Myth in the Homeric Poems; title: The Date of the Homeric Poems; title: Iliadic Images; title: Cyclops: Image and Folktale; title: Homeric Passages; title: THREE; title: The Epic Cycle and Homer 132; title: Cropping around the Homeric Poems; title: Extent of the Cycle Poems; title: Homeric Influence on the Epic Cycle?; title: Non-HomericAspects of the Epic Cycle.