"New direction in Graeco-Roman Mythography: text, contexts and

intertexts"

8th Celtic conference in Classics

University of Edinburgh (25-28 June 2014)

Paper proposal: Epic exegesis in Early Greek Mythography

Die gehen ganz, oder doch in erster linie, auf die epischen
Dichter1: this was the comment of JACOBY for one the most important passages of ancient
Greek mythography, Hecataeus' first fragment. This paper aims to discuss the connection
between three of the earliest Greek mythographers (Hecataeus, Acusilaos, Pherecydes of
Athens, included in FOWLER's EGM) and epic poetry (precisely heroic narrative hexametric
poetry, which means especially Homer, Hesiod and the Epic Cycle). With the expression
epic exegesis I mean the analysis of mentions or comments about characters, toponyms,
episodes or specific lines taken by epic tradition. These references can be both direct (the
epic source is clearly mentioned) or indirect (for example when it is mentioned an ancient
place that is only present in the epic poetry and nowhere else).

This field of research lacks an evidence for systematic study: of course, there are
important works that provides interesting suggestion, such as a book by B. GRAZIOSI
Inventing Homer: the Early Reception of Epic (2002) and one by E. PALLANTZA (Der
Troische Krieg in der nachhomerischen Literatur bis zum 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr, 2005)
about the reception of the war of Troy. For this topic it is now fundamental EGM's second
volume (Early Greek Mythography. Volume 2: Commentary), published in December 2013.

In my opinion, ancient Greek mythographers inherited the role of rhapsodes:

Homeridai might be expected to have a tradition about interpretation and definitely must
have had ideas about accentuation and obsolete words. As a matter of the fact, early
mythographers lacked official documents for their reconstruction of the ancient ages (the
use of images, inscriptions and monuments was quite infrequent) and epic tradition was
almost the only source to turn to. This relationship will be investigated to show specific
features of three authors: Hecataeus' "selection of the right variant", Acusilaos' problematic
connection with Hesiod, Pherecydes' attempt to merge different traditions together.

These issues represent an ideal starting point to analyse ancient mythography as a

specific genre, in relation with its authoritative ancestor, the epic tradition.

Ilaria Andolfi

PhD Candidate "Sapienza" Universit di Roma

1 JACOBY FGrHist I., Komm. 19572 pag. 535.