Singing the Dead

This book outlines the evolution of Greek heroic epic from funeral laments and creates a model for epic evolution using Greek, other Indo-European, and non-Indo-European materials. Singing the Dead conceives the epic as a post-Mycenean phenomenon associated with the first migrations away from the ancestors' tombs to the Ionian coast. Physical separation from the tombs impelled the development of narration concerning the ancestors and the rite at the tomb was substituted by stories that eventually became epic.

Autorentext

The Author: Reyes Bertolín Cebrián studied classical philology at the University of Valencia (Spain) and received her Ph.D. in Indo-European linguistics from the University of Freiburg (Germany). Currently, she is Assistant Professor in the Department of Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Calgary (Canada).

Zusammenfassung
«Reyes Bertolín Cebrián presents a persuasive account of the origin of Greek epic with fascinating and far-reaching implications. This erudite study, which draws on an extensive repertoire of historical, archeological, comparative, and theoretical approaches, casts new light on such varied topics as ancient Greek funeral practices, ancestor cult and hero cult, gender and politics performance and genre, and the function of the Muse in epic. This is philology at its best.» (Matthew Clark, York University)
«This sweeping, original study reconstructs the prehistory of early Greek epic and traces its development through the Classical period, with special focus on the relationship between epic and other genres. Performance and ritual are stressed, and from this perspective new insights are gained about the origin and function of verse genres. Narratological and gender issues in particular are addressed in brilliant fashion. This thought-provoking examination, which reaches many counter-intuitive conclusions, is essential reading for anyone interested in early Greek verse.» (Jonathan Burgess, University of Toronto)