Metapoetry and Homer’s Helen
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17851/1983-3636.12.1.13-25Keywords:
Iliad, Helen, metapoetryAbstract
My aim is to discuss how Homer in the first third of the Iliad, in two scenes where Helen appears, makes use of what we may call a character’s “poetic awareness”, and try to understand what kind of effect is accomplished through this form of metapoetry when it is associated with the woman whose actions are the cause of the Trojan War. My main question is: why explore metapoetry in connection with Helen? What is its consequence? Why not do that with Hector, Priam or even Paris? I will concentrate shortly on two passages: the first one, when she weaves battles, in Book 3 (l. 125-128), and the other one, when she sees herself in songs still to appear, in Book 6 (l. 354-358). By focusing on these verses, I intent also to analyse Helen’s connection to Achilles, who is also important in the poem as long as the construction of an “epic in the mirror” is concerned.
References
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THALMANN, W. Conventions of form and thought in early Greek poetry. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1984.
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