The Mirror of Epic The Iliad and History In order to treat the Iliad as historical evidence one must first consider the interpretative implications of its performance as a historical event. Combining Bourdieu’s theory of practice with Baudrillard’s concept of symbolic exchange, Brown approaches the Iliad as the trace of a historically motivated speech act whose ritual function was to distil new social possibilities from the context of its performance. In its narrative performance the Iliad charts a passage from stasis to funerary agon giving shape to emergent discourses about value and subjectivity. In essence an aetiological narrative, whose performance realizes what it utters, the Iliad, Brown argues, stages the foundation of political society. The Mirror of Epic The Iliad and History _____________________________________ B.K.M. Brown First published in 2016 Copyright © B.K.M. Brown 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Academic Printing and Publishing Berrima Glen Berrima NSW 2577 Australia Email:
[email protected] Web: academicprintingandpublishing.com –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available from the National Library of Australia Title: The Mirror of Epic: The Iliad and History Author: B.K.M. Brown ISBN: ISBN: 978-0-9945418-2-6 (hardback) 978-0-9945418-3-3 (eBook) –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Cover images: Athenian red-figure stamnos, ca. 480 B.C. Attributed to the Triptolemos Painter. Courtesy Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig. Front cover: the embassy to Achilles. Back cover: warriors fighting over a dead ram. Cover design: Aurelian Tudorache Printed and bound in Australia by Ligare LTD, Sydney. This title is also available at academicprintingandpublishing.com For Kelly and Rayne toi`n qeoi`n CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xi Introduction. Before ‘Reality’: Worlds in Performance 1 PART ONE 1. gevra~: The Expression of Political Value in the Iliad 54 2. The Economy of Social Worth in the Iliad 1 102 3. Beyond the dasmos: Succession 144 4. Funeral Contests and the Beginnings of the Greek polis 190 PART TWO 5. ‘Worlds of Performance, Worlds in Performance’ 215 6. The ‘Oath of Achilles’: Symbolic Exchange in the Iliad and Beyond 269 Conclusion 358 Bibliography 364 Index of Names and Subjects 385 Index of Passages Cited 390 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS _____________________________________ This book took its shape and its questions from interpretat