Chapter 3.TRANSITIONS FROM MYTH INTO
HISTORY I: THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CITY
- E.g., T. Harrison 2000a, 197 – 207.
- On modern distinctions between myth and history, see H. White 1978, 56 – 61,
83, 89, 103 – 4. - Ford 1992, 46: “What defines this ‘heroic’ poetry is time: these mortals are closer
and earlier to the powerful origins of the world order”; cf. 47 on the sense of stratifi-
cation within the “continuous sacred history”; also 148 – 49, 155; cf. Cobet 2002, 389.
See also the important discussion of this Homeric feature, and Virgil’s departures from
it, in Rossi 2003, 145 – 49. - Bellerophon, too, from an earlier generation, fought Amazons and the Chimaera
(6.179 – 86). On Homer’s exclusion of such material from the time frame of his narra-
tive, see Griffin 1977, 40 – 41; in general, on these stratifications in Homer, see Most
1997, 121 – 22. - Ford 1992, 46 – 47; Boardman 2002, 12 – 13.
- See the important discussion in Haubold 2002; note especially the parallel Greek
and Akkadian chart on p. 10 of that article. - R. L. Fowler 2000, xxviii: “The subject-matter of tragedy, almost without ex-
ception from the mythical period, implies incontrovertibly that the large body of tales
we call the Greek myths was indeed recognized as a distinct category of stories.” Cf.
E. Hall 1989, 66: “Greek visual arts, like the epics from which most tragic plots were
to be drawn, had previously confined themselves almost exclusively to the deeds of
gods and legendary heroes, which is proof in itself that the Greek could distinguish
myth from immediate recent history.” - E. Hall 1989, esp. 62 – 69; in general, on this dialectic, see S. P. Morris 1992, 271 –
- Frr. 10 – 18 West^2 ; on this Simonidean theme, see Boedeker 2001 and S. Horn-
blower 2001. - My thanks to David Lupher for drawing this point to my attention.
- Cf. Boedeker 2001, 159 – 60; S. Hornblower 2001, 137 – 40. Translating
memuqolovghtai as “mythologized” begs the question, no doubt; the Loeb translator
offers “found their way into poetry.” Yet the crucial insight remains, that what nor-
mally translates the dead into this special honorific status is time. Cf. Parker 1996, 226 –
27, on the way that “myth has become ‘ancient ’ ” by this period, citing Aeschines’ dis-
tinction between the “ancient myths” about Amphipolis from the time of the sons of
Theseus and “events that have occurred in our own time” (Aeschin. 2.31). - Osborne 1998, 176 – 84.
- See Erskine 2001, 72, for details.
- Boardman 1977.
notes to pages 69 – 72. 241