Introduction: Between the omnipresent hero and the absent polis -- 1. Laoi in early Greek hexameter poetry. 'Shepherd of the people'. Privilege and obligation. An epic ideal. The failed ideal. Social structures. An incurable imbalance. Negative reciprocity. Society and the stone. 'The people of the Achaeans' -- 2. Homer's people. Laoi in the Iliad. Laoi in the Odyssey -- 3. Laos epic in performance. Some preliminary considerations. Homer's people outside Homer. Similarities. Differences. The founding people. Leos ritual. Ritual formulae. A festival of institutional progress. Laos epic in performance. App. A. Epic formulae -- App. B. Ritual formulae
Summary
"This book examines the role and character of Homer's people, laoi, in Homeric story-telling, arguing that Homeric poetry is crucially concerned with the people as a basis for communal life. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey are read as sustained meditations on the processes involved in protecting and destroying the people. The investigation draws on a wide range of approaches from formulaic analysis to the study of early performance contexts."--Jacket
Notes
Enlargement of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Cambridge University
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-217) and indexes