The Homeric Simile in Comparative Perspectives: Oral Traditions from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia

The Homeric Simile in Comparative Perspectives: Oral Traditions from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia investigates both the construction of the Homeric simile and the performance of Homeric poetry from neglected comparative perspectives, offering a revealing exploration of what made the epics such powerful examples of verbal artistry. Divided into two parts, the volume first considers similes in five modern-day oral poetries - Rajasthani epic, South Sumatran epic, Kyrgyz epic, Bosniac epic, and Najdi lyric poems from Saudi Arabia - and studies successful performances by still other verbal artists, such as Egyptian singers of epic, Turkish minstrels, and Chinese storytellers. By applying these findings to the Homeric epics, the second part presents a new take on how the Homeric poets put together their similes and alters our understanding of how the poets displayed their competence as performers of verbal art and interacted with their poetic peers and predecessors. Engaging intensively with a diverse array of scholarship from outside the field of classical studies, from folkloristics to cognitive linguistics, this truly interdisciplinary volume transforms how we view not only a central feature of Homeric poetry but also the very nature of Homeric performance.

Table of Contents:
Frontmatter List of Charts and Tables 0: Introduction 0.1. Precedents and Goals 0.2. Homer 0.3. Methods of Comparison 0.4. Sources of Modern-Day Material 0.4.1. Central Asia (Modern-Day Kyrgyzstan) 0.4.2. Rajasthan, India 0.4.3. South Sumatra, Indonesia 0.4.4. Former Yugoslavia 0.4.5. Najd Desert, Saudi Arabia 0.5. A Definition of a Simile 0.6. Summary of Chapters Part I: The Modern-Day Material 1: Formal Points of Contact with Homeric Similes 1.1. Length 1.2. Duration 1.3. Arrangement 1.3.1. Bosniac Epic 1.3.2. Kyrgyz Epic 1.3.3. South Sumatran Epic: Cik Ait's The Guritan of Radin Suane 1.3.4. Najdi Poetry 1.3.5. The Homeric Epics 1.4. Position Conclusion 2: The Spectrum of Distribution 2.1. Competence in Performance 2.2. Problems with the Terms Tradition and Innovation 2.3. The Spectrum of Distribution Defined 2.4. Ranging Across the Spectrum of Distribution 2.5. The Importance of Shared Elements 2.6. Similes and Competence Conclusion 3: Similes in Five Modern-Day Oral Poetries 3.1. The Epic of Pab?j? and The Guritan of Radin Suane 3.2. The Figurative Spectrum of Distribution 3.2.1. Kyrgyz Epic 3.2.2. Bosniac Epic 3.2.3. Najdi Poetry 3.3. Shared Vehicles and Their Tenors 3.3.1. Shared Vehicle, Customary Tenor (Shared Similes) 3.3.1.1. Bosniac Epic 3.3.1.2. Najdi Poetry 3.3.2. Shared Vehicle, Uncustomary Tenor 3.4. Idiolectal Similes and Their Tenors Conclusion Part II: Application to the Homeric Epics 4: Two Preliminary Points 4.1. The Vision of Poetic Competence in Archaic Greek Hexameter Poems 4.2. The Spectrum of Distribution and Previous Scholarship in Homeric Studies Conclusion 5: Shared Similes in the Homeric Epics 5.1. Verbatim Repetitions and Similar Long Vehicle Portions 5.2. The Scenario 5.2.1. Birds 5.2.2. Wild Fire 5.2.3. Celestial Phenomena (Stars, Lightning, and Rainbows) 5.2.4. Insects 5.2.5. Rivers 5.2.6. Trees 5.2.7. Wind 5.2.8. Waves 5.2.9. Lions 5.3. The Scenario and Frame Semantics 5.4. Shared Vehicle Portions and Their Tenors 5.4.1. Shared Vehicle Portion, Customary Tenor (Shared Similes) 5.4.2. Shared Vehicle Portion, Uncustomary Tenor Conclusion 6: Idiolectal Similes in the Homeric Epics 6.1. Unparalleled Vehicle, Unparalleled Tenor 6.2. Unparalleled Vehicle, Paralleled Tenor 6.2.1. The Iliad and the Odyssey Offer Parallels 6.2.2. The Iliad Only or the Odyssey Only Offer Parallels Conclusion 7: Conclusion Endmatter Works Cited Index

About the Author :
Jonathan L. Ready is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at Indiana University. He is the author of Character, Narrator, and Simile in the Iliad (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and of numerous articles on Homeric epic, as well as the co-editor of the forthcoming Homer in Performance: Rhapsodes, Narrators, and Characters (University of Texas Press, 2018) and the annual Yearbook of Ancient Greek Epic (Brill).

Review :
This thoughtprovoking and carefully produced book will be fruitful reading for Homerists...R's recasting of the importance of tradition in the light of the composer's agency demands very serious consideration." Ready has written a learned and thought-provoking book. I highly recommend it. This useful and learned book employs documented performances of oral traditions, and scholarly analyses thereof, to theorize the performative import of the Homeric simile. . . . The strengths of this book are Ready's expansive command of both folkloristics and Homeric scholarship, and his thoughtful adjudication of competing scholarly positions. . . . This is an impressive book that develops new areas of research for Homeric studies. If, by some peculiar and fortunate happenstance, someone asks you if comparative evidence from oral traditions is useful in thinking about the Homeric simile, answer in the affirmative and direct that person to this book. Jonathan L. Ready's work is an interesting and important contribution to oral theory and the study of Homeric similes. Ready has done us a great service by evaluating Homeric skill and technique within the context of a vast array of modern oral parallels. His many quotations from other epics and from scholars on those epics will enrich and expand our own vocabulary when discussing Homer artistry. Particularly important is Ready's emphasis on the value of shared elements in oral performance and in the construction of similes. Jonathan Ready has been building a reputation for insightful and thorough work on Homeric poetry and the oral poetry it reflects through extensive comparison with more recent traditions. With The Homeric Simile in Comparative Perspective: Oral Traditions from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia, Jonathan Ready launches a new strand of comparative poetics that complements and extends OFT [Oral Formulaic Theory] through exploration of the rhetorical device of the simile. Ready's immensely erudite monograph (the bibliography contains around 700 items) caters for a wide audience... the intellectual rigor that characterizes the book from beginning to end makes it a model of comparative scholarship. Occasionally one might miss the exciting critical readings of Homeric similes that abounded in Ready's previous book, but the wide-ranging focus of the discussion, the author's deep familiarity with the state-of-the-art scholarship, his keen and insightful engagement with the critical traditions of several disciplines, and the abundance of new perspectives proposed amply compensate readers. The Homeric Simile in Comparative Perspectives will be a starting point and an indispensable source for anyone interested in ancient and modern oral poetries, the Homeric similes, comparative methods, or any combination of these. Jonathan Ready, a classicist, embraces folklore studies with a convert's zeal in this unusual hybrid volume focused on an intriguing device of Homeric craftsmanship . . . a paradigm for meticulous philological work on the epics, as well as a deeply researched, provocative attempt to integrate comparative studies. [Jonathan Ready] has already established his reputation as a specialist in the study of Homeric similes with innovative theoretical approaches with his 2014 book Character, Narrator, and Simile in the Iliad. Now he tops it with this new monograph which not only draws on his expertise in the Homeric simile, but also deploys an impressive range of comparative material from across the world ... This book will prove a stimulating read for any Homerists and those interested in comparative approaches to literature. Jonathan Ready's new book focuses the power of the comparative method on the Homeric simile, undeniably one of the most expressive and evocative aspects of Homeric poetry. Situating similes within an ecology of shared and singular motifs, Ready provides a new understanding of the nature of artistry in a traditional medium. Richly studded with gems collected from many of the world's finest traditions of oral poetry, his book enables the similes of the Homeric poems to shine in their full splendor as virtuosic displays of artistic mastery. Readers will learn much from Ready's magisterial explorations. With a discerning ear and a deft hand, Jonathan Ready orchestrates harmonious analyses of epic similes out of a seeming Babel of comparative materials. Scholarship on diverse oral epic traditions worldwide should take note of the intensity and rigor with which The Homeric Simile in Comparative Perspectives constructs a highly formal yet adaptable model of artistic competence in performance.