Remerciez-le!

Remerciez @Admin pour avoir partagé cet document gratuitement, de la manière la plus simple, en partageant sur les réseaux sociaux.

Calvert Watkins The name of Meleager Seit den allerdings erst viel zu spät beka

Calvert Watkins The name of Meleager Seit den allerdings erst viel zu spät bekannt gewordenen Untersuchungen von Milman Parry (1928) sieht auch das Phänomen der epischen Dichtung anders aus. Ernst Risch (1973) I have set forth elsewhere the evidence for a common Indo-European ver- bal formula expressing the central act of an inherited theme, the serpent or dragon-slaying myth.1 The theme or semantic structure may be presented as HERO SLAY SERPENT (WEAPON) The formula which is the vehicle for this theme frequently exhibits marked word order (Verb-Object), and typically lacks an overt hero sub- ject. The marginal weapon is optional; thus the boxed HERO SLAY SERPENT (WEAPON) The 'purpose' of this central theme and its formulaic expression is pre- dication: it is a definition of the HERO. Compare Vedic ahann ahitn (RV I 32.1, etc.) 'he slew the serpent', νά- dhid vrtram vajrena (IV 17.3) 'he slew Vrtra with his cudgel', or Greek επεφνεν τε Γοργόνα (Pind. P. 10.46) 'he slew the Gorgon', κτεΐνε ... οφιν (Pind. P. 4.248) 'he killed the serpent', or Avestan yd janat azitn dahäkdm (Υ. 9.8) 'who slew Azi Dahäka', all with Verb-Object order. With unmarked Object-Verb order, note Vedic ... vajram ... yad ahim han 1 'How to kill a dragon in Indo-European,' Studies in memory of Warren Cowgill (1929-1985), Berlin [to appear]. See in much greater detail my book Aspects of Indo- European Poetics, currently in preparation. Brought to you by | Penn State - The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State - The Pennsylvania Authenticated | 172.16.1.226 Download Date | 7/1/12 7:35 PM The name of Meleager 321 (V 29.2) '... cudgel ... when he slew the serpent', or Avestan + vc&am1 ... yat azis dahäköjaini (Yt. 19.92) 'weapon ... when A.D. was slain', or Hit- tite illuyankan kuenta (KUB XVII 5 117) 'he slew the serpent', or Greek ενθα δράκαιναν/κτεΐνεν άνας, Διός υιός, από κρατεροιο βιοΐο (Η. Apoll. 300 f.) 'there the lord, son of Zeus, slew the she-dragon with his strong bow'. With nominalization of the verb, Old Norse orms einbani (Hym.22) 'the serpent's single bane', a kenning for the god Thor. The semantic constituents of the basic theme may undergo paradig- matic (commutational) variants: for the HERO's name there may appear an epithet (e.g., SLAYER); for SLAY we may find KILL, SMITE, OVER- COME, BEAT, etc.; for the SERPENT (ADVERSARY) we may find MONSTER, BEAST, but also HER0 2 or ANTI-HERO. The constituents may undergo syntagmatic variants: The Verb Phrase may be passivized as in Greek πέφαται ... Πάτροκλος (Ρ 689f.) 'slain is P.', Vedic hato rajä krminäm (AV II 32.4) 'slain is the king of the worms', Pahlavi kirm özat (Kärnämak IX) 'slew the dragon', historically 'anguis occisus'. HERO and ADVERSARY may switch grammatical roles, as in Greek τον ... πέφνεν ... δράκων (Bacchyl. 9.13) 'whom the dragon slew', or Hittite MUSilluyan- kas Ό\Μ-αη tarhta (KBo III 7 I 11) 'the serpent overcame the Storm God'. The WEAPON may be promoted to direct object and the ADVERSARY assigned a marginal role in the utterance as in Vedic jaki vddhar (IV 22.9, etc.), Avestan vadara ja&i (Y. 9.30), both 'strike the weapon'. The WEA- PON may also be promoted to grammatical subject of the verb SLAY or equivalent, as in Vedic so asya vdjro hdrito yd äyasdh ... tuddd ah im hdrisipro yd äyasdh (X 96.3-4) 'This is his golden yellow weapon, the brazen ... the golden yellow (weapon), the brazen, smote the serpent.' The Indo-European expressions for these semantic constituents can be reconstructed without difficulty. Basic to the theme is the Verb Phrase, the boxed formula above; basic to the Verb Phrase is the Verb, typically *gwhen-, *uedh-, *terh-2, *uag-, in Greek *dken- (κτεν-). It is characteristic that the same root may appear in different semantic slots, with the approp- riate derivational and inflexional morphology, as subject, verb, object, instrument: thus Vedic vrtra-ha, dhan ... vadhena (1.32.5), but also vadhit ... ghanena (I 33.4), both 'SLEW with the WEAPON'. These various phrases may legitimately be looked on as formulas in the sense of contemporary theory of oral or traditional literature. The varia- tions rung on them constitute a virtually limitless repository of literary expression in archaic Indo-European societies, and their careful study can 2 Corrected by my colleague Jochem Schindler from vaeSam, by anticipation of the fol- lowing word vaejö 'swinging.' Brought to you by | Penn State - The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State - The Pennsylvania Authenticated | 172.16.1.226 Download Date | 7/1/12 7:35 PM 322 Calvert Watkins cast light in unexpected places, and bring together under a single explana- tion a variety of seemingly unrelated, unconnected text passages. In Bacchylides' fifth victory ode, Herakles in Hades meets the shade of Meleager (68-70): ταισιν δέ μετέπρεπεν εϊδω- λον θρασυμέμνονος έγ- χεσπάλου Πορθανίδα 'Clear showed among them the shade of the brave spirited wielder of spears, (Meleager), descendant of Porthaon' Meleager is here the formulaically prototypical HERO, who μεταπρέπει by the spear like Hektor (Π 834-5), is θρασυμέμνων like Herakles (Ε 639, λ 267), and έγχέσπαλος like Ares (Ο 605), Polydamas (Ξ 449) and the nameless Trojan allies (B 131). On seeing and being addressed by Meleager, Herakles' reply is the recognition of a hero (86—9): "τις αθανάτων ή βροτων τοιούτον ερνος θρέψεν έν ποίαι χθονί; τις δ'εκτανεν;" "What god or man reared such a scion as this, and where? Who slew him?" He knows: marvelous birth, semi-devine lineage, and extraordinary death, a Heldentod, τις δ'εκτανεν is a formulaic topos: cf. πώς εθαν' Άτρείδης; (248), 'how was Agamemnon slain?,' τίνες Κύκνον, τίνες "Εκτορα πέφνον; (Pi., 1.5.30), 'who killed Kuknos, who Hector?' In the narration of Meleager's greatest exploit, killing the Calydonian boar, he and the other Aitolians are called by Bacchylides Έλλάνων άρισ- τοι 'best of the Hellenes' (111), a characteristic formulaic index of the HERO. 3 The formula is indexed by phonetic figures and homoioteleuton in the immediately following στασάμεθ' ένδυκέως/εξ άματα συν(ν)εχέως; note the iconic length of υ in the last. The monster boar is itself subject of the verb SLAY in Bacchylides 5, 115-6 ους κατέπεφνεν/σΰς 'whom the boar slew', with the reciprocal of the basic formula, as discussed above. 3 On the notion see G.Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans (Baltimore, 1979), passim, who happens not to note this passage, nor the recurrence of the figure outside Greece: Beowulf is also secg betste 'best of men' (947). Brought to you by | Penn State - The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State - The Pennsylvania Authenticated | 172.16.1.226 Download Date | 7/1/12 7:35 PM The name of Meleager 323 We find another formulaic Homeric reminiscence in a metrical feature of this ode of Bacchylides: the placement of the name in verse final posi- tion at the close of a dactylic unit, with muta cum liquida making position, in all three of its occurrences: 5.77 ψυχά προφάνη Μελεάγρου, 93 τον δε προσέφα Μελέαγρος, 171 ψυχά προσέφα Μελεά/γρου. While postverbal position is what we expect with such formulas intro- ducing quoted speech, Bacchylides' placement of the name echoes that of line-final Β 642, θάνε δε ξανθός Μελέαγρος, I 543 τον ... άπέκτεινεν Με- λέαγρος, or Hes. fr. 25.10 [... κρατερ]όν Μελέαγρον. It is probably signif- icant that once the line-final name is preceded by a verse with the line- final verb μέλει 'has as a care' (92-4) (( \ ο / τα δε που Παλλάδι ξανθαι μέλει." τον δέ προσέφα Μελέαγρος We would have an etymological figure, as well as an echoic link of ξαν- θαι μέλει to Homer's θάνε δέ ξανθός Μελέαγρος (Β 692) 'fair-haired Meleager died' and the phonetically related, common Homeric ξανθός Μενέλαος. Note finally that in the same victory ode the final exploit of 'spear- wielding' έγχέσπαλος Meleager, the slaying of his mother's brothers, also involves thrown weapons like spears: τυφλά δ εκ χειρών βέλη (132) 'bolts thrown blind from our hands.' The tale of Meleager is told by Phoinix to Achilles in the mission in Iliad nine, as an exemplum. Here as in Bacchylides we find the reciprocal of the basic formula, with the Calydonian boar as subject, this time of the exceedingly rare Greek reflex of *uedh-, the participle εθων.4 I 540 f. σΰν άγριον άργιοδόντα ... (note the phonetic figure indexing the name Μελέ- αγρος) / δ ς κακά πολλ' ερδεσκεν εθων Οίνηος άλωήν 'a wild boar white of tusk .../that wrought much ill, wasting the garden land of Ο.' I 543 con- tinues τον ... άπέκτεινεν Μελέαγρος 'him ... Meleager killed,' thus reestab- lishing the usual grammatical role of the constituents of the basic formula, but with the name of the H E R O in line-final position, and no mention of a WEAPON. The other Homeric occurrence of the ancient participle (/)έθων is in a simile in Iliad sixteen (Π 259 ff.), where the Myrmidons pouring forth into 4 This analysis of the word is rightly upheld by Manu Leumann, Horn. Wörter. Basel 1950, p. 212-3, with literature, and followed by Chantraine and Frisk. Note also H.Craig Melchert, uploads/Litterature/ c-watkins-the-name-of-meleager.pdf