Title: Keeping one's identity, changing one's role: shifting speech and power dynamics in divine epic councils (Od. 1.26−95, 5.1−27 Il. 4.1−72 Arg. 3.1−113)
Source document: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2023, vol. 28, iss. 2, pp. 105-121
Extent
105-121
-
ISSN1803-7402 (print)2336-4424 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/GLB2023-2-7
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/digilib.79118
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 International
Rights access
open access
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Conversations can reveal the shifting nature of power relations between speaking characters. Especially in epic tradition, which includes a high proportion of speech and hence speech exchanges, the different characteristics of a character's speeches across similar scenes allow for different evaluations of their effect on the interlocutors. This paper focuses on the presentation of Athena's (and consequently her interlocutors') role in a number of divine councils (Iliad, Odyssey and Argonautica) by examining her words both in terms of the speech mode used and its particular style as well as the various types of power incorporated. Her repeated presence in councils shows her use of different speech elements in her talking through which she either foregrounds or challenges the type of power she possesses in her relations with others. These speech and power-related elements affect her characterisation and reveal her dynamic textual role across epics. Intertextual and intratextual links within epic tradition disclose more clearly the variability of relational speech and power patterns across a character's words and their consequences for the shaping of the speaking character's role in a given scene and across similar scenes within the epic genre, which retrospectively have an impact on the ultimate narrative end.
References
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[64] Winterbottom, M. (1989). Speaking of the Gods. Greece & Rome, 36(1), 33−41.
[65] Ziogas, I. (2015). The Poet as Prince: Author and Authority under Augustus. In H. Baltussen, & P. J. Davis (Eds.), The Art of Veiled Speech, Self-Censorship from Aristophanes to Hobbes (pp. 115−136). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
[2] Arlow, J. A. (1961). Silence and the Theory of Technique. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 9(1), 44−55.
[3] Avery, M. M. (1937). The Use of Direct Speech in Ovid's Metamorphoses (Dissertation). Chicago: University of Chicago.
[4] de Bakker, M., & de Jong, I. J. F. (2022). Narratological Theory on Speech. In Idem (Eds.), Speech in Ancient Greek Literature. Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative (Vol. 5; pp. 1−30). Leiden: Brill.
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[6] Baltussen, H., & Davis, P. J. (2015). Parrhesia, Free Speech, and Self-Censorship. In H. Baltussen, & P. J. Davis (Eds.), The Art of Veiled Speech, Self-Censorship from Aristophanes to Hobbes (pp. 1−17). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
[7] Basso, K. (1970). To Give up on Words: Silence in Western Apache Culture. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 26(3), 213−230.
[8] Beck, D. (2012). Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic. Austin: University of Texas Press.
[9] Berger, C. R. (2004). Speechlessness, Causal Attributions, Emotional Features and Social Consequences. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 23, 147−179.
[10] Bilmes, J. (1994). Constituting Silence: Life in the World of Total Meaning. Semiotica, 98, 73−87.
[11] Bonnet, C. (2017). Les dieux en assemblée. In G. Pironti, & C. Bonnet (Eds.), Les dieux d'Homère: polythéisme et poésie en Grèce ancienne (Kernos, Supplément, 31; pp. 87−112). Liège: Presses Universitaires de Liège.
[12] Bruneau, Th. J. (1973). Communicative Silences: Forms and Functions. Journal of Communication, 23, 17−46.
[13] Campbell, M. (1983). Studies in the Third Book of Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica. Hildesheim − Zürich − New York: Olms.
[14] Chafe, W. (1985). Some Reasons for Hesitating. In D. Tannen, & M. Saville-Troike (Eds.), Perspectives on Silence (pp. 77−89). Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Press.
[15] Ciani, M. (1987). The Silences of the Body, Defect and Absence of Voice in Hippocrates. In M. G. Ciani (Ed.), The Regions of Silence. Studies on the Difficulty of Communicating (pp. 147−160). Amsterdam: Brill.
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[17] Cuypers, M. (2003). Interactional Particles and Narrative Voice in Apollonius and Homer. In A. Harder, & M. Cuypers (Eds.), Caeculus, Papers on Mediterranean Archeology and Greek and Roman Studies: Beginning from Apollo, Studies in Apollonius Rhodius and the Argonautic Tradition (pp. 35−69). Belgium: Peeters Publishers.
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[19] Ephratt, M. (2008). The functions of silence. Journal of Pragmatics, 40, 1909−1938.
[20] Fantuzzi, M. (2001). Homeric' Formularity in the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes. In Th. D. Papanghelis, & A. Rengakos (Eds.), A Companion to Apollonius Rhodius (pp. 171−192). Leiden − Boston − Köln: Brill.
[21] Fantuzzi, M., & Hunter, R. (2004). Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[22] Feeney, D. (1992). Si licet et fas est: Ovid's Fasti and the Problem of Free Speech under the Principate. In A. Powell (Ed.), Roman Poetry and Propaganda in the Age of Augustus (pp. 1−25). London: Bristol Classical Press.
[23] Foley, J. (1995). Sixteen Moments of Silence in Homer. Quaderni Urbinati de Cultura Classica, 50(2), 7−26.
[24] Fränkel, H. (1975). Early Greek poetry and philosophy, A history of Greek epic, lyric, and prose to the middle of the fifth century (transl. M. Hadas & J. Willis). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
[25] Garson, R. W. (1972). Homeric Echoes in Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica. Classical Philology, 67(1), 1−9.
[26] Gaunt, D. M. (1972). Argo and the Gods in Apollonius Rhodius. Greece & Rome, 19(2), 117−126.
[27] Goldman-Eisler, F. (1958). The Predictability of Words in Context and the Length of Pauses in Speech. Language and Speech, 1, 95−99.
[28] Hawkins, P. R. (1971). The Syntactic Location of Hesitation Pauses. Language and Speech, 14, 277−288.
[29] Heilmann, L. (1956). Silere − Tacere. Nota lessicale. Quaderni dell'Istituto di Glottologia della Università di Bologna, 1, 5−16.
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[31] Highet, G. (1972). The speeches in Vergil's Aeneid. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
[32] Hunter, R. L. (1989). Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, Book 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[33] Hunter, R. L. (1993). The Argonautica of Apollonius, Literary Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[34] Itakura, H. (2001). Describing Conversational Dominance. Journal of Pragmatics, 33, 1859−1880.
[35] Jaworski, A. (1993). The Power of Silence, Social and Pragmatic Perspectives. London − New Delhi: SAGE Publications.
[36] Jensen, J. V. (1973). Communicative Functions of Silence. A Review of General Semantics, 30(3), 249−257.
[37] Jones, P. (1988). The Kleos of Telemachus: Odyssey 1.95. American Journal of Philology, 109(4), 496−506.
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[46] McNeill, R. L. B. (2010). Cum tacent, clamant: The Pragmatics of Silence in Catullus. Classical Philology, 105, 69−82.
[47] Momigliano, A. (1942). Freedom of Speech in the Roman Republic by Laura Robinson. Journal of Roman Studies, 32, 120−124.
[48] Mortley, R. (1986). From Word to Silence, 1: The Rise and Fall of Logos. Bonn: Hanstein.
[49] Nishimura-Jensen, J. (1998). The Poetics of Aethalides: Silence and Poikilia in Apollonius' Argonautica. Classical Quarterly, 48(2), 456−469.
[50] Philips, S. U. (1985). Interaction Structured Through Talk and Interaction Structured Through 'Silence'. In D. Tannen, & M. Saville-Troike (Eds.), Perspectives on Silence (pp. 205−213). Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Press.
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[52] Pisano, C. (2019). Questione d'autorità. Un' antropologia della leadership nella cultura greca. Bologna: Il Mulino.
[53] Rengakos, A. (2001). Apollonius Rhodius as a Homeric Scholar. In Th. D. Papanghelis, & A. Rengakos (Eds.), A Companion to Apollonius Rhodius (pp. 193−216). Leiden − Boston − Köln: Brill.
[54] Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Silence: Cultural Aspects. In P. Asher, & R. E. Simpson (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (pp. 379−381). Oxford: Elsevier.
[55] Scarpi, P. (1987). The Eloquence of Silence, Aspects of a Power without Words. In M. G. Ciani (Ed.), The Regions of Silence. Studies on the Difficulty of Communicating (pp. 21−40). Amsterdam: Brill.
[56] Schön, A. (1987). Silence in the Myth, Psychoanalytical Observations. In M. G. Ciani (Ed.), The Regions of Silence. Studies on the Difficulty of Communicating (pp. 7−18). Amsterdam: Brill.
[57] Scollon, R. (1985). The Machine Stops: Silence in the Metaphor of Malfunction. In D. Tannen, & M. Saville-Troike (Eds.), Perspectives on Silence (pp. 22−30). Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Press.
[58] Syme, R. (1986). The Augustan Aristocracy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[59] Tannen, D. (1985). Silence: Anything but. In D. Tannen, & M. Saville-Troike (Eds.), Perspectives on Silence (pp. 93−111). Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Press.
[60] Tannen, D., & Saville-Troike, M. (Eds.). (1985). Perspectives on Silence. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Press.
[61] Thalmann, W. (1985a). Speech and Silence in the 'Oresteia' 2. Phoenix, 39(3), 221−237.
[62] Thalmann, W. (1985b). Speech and Silence in the 'Oresteia' 1: 'Agamemnon' 1025−1029. Phoenix, 39(2), 99−118.
[63] West, S., Heubeck, A., & Hainsworth, J. B. (1990). A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey, 1: Introduction and Books I−VIII (transl. M. Καίσαρ). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[64] Winterbottom, M. (1989). Speaking of the Gods. Greece & Rome, 36(1), 33−41.
[65] Ziogas, I. (2015). The Poet as Prince: Author and Authority under Augustus. In H. Baltussen, & P. J. Davis (Eds.), The Art of Veiled Speech, Self-Censorship from Aristophanes to Hobbes (pp. 115−136). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.