Chronology, Dialect, and Style in Early Greek Hexameter Poetry

Abstract

This book analyses linguistic features typical of early Greek hexameter poetry and assesses how chronology, dialect, and/or style influences their distribution across the different authors and texts (Homer, Hesiod, and the Homeric Hymns). An introduction establishes the methodologies employed throughout the book. In Part 1, the book focusses primarily on thematic genitives, digamma (alongside resonant lengthening), thematic datives, and tmesis. Subsequently, each chapter discusses factors specific to each linguistic feature which could be determining how they are used across the texts, and it also investigates how likely chronology, dialect, or style are to be involved. In Part 2, the discussion turns to why different kinds of poetry might have different prehistories in the tradition, and how these different prehistories might have affected the language used to compose the texts. This is achieved through a study of the differences firstly between Homeric speech and narrative, and then in turn different sub-genres of hexameter poetry. The book concludes by arguing that all of chronology, dialect, and style are relevant factors in understanding why different texts/authors use the shared language differently, so much so that meaningful glottochronology is impossible to establish. It also argues that style is a much more important factor than has been recognized previously.