Character, Narrator, and Simile in the Iliad

ISBN: 0521190649

Author: Ready, Jonathan L.

Condition: New

Jonathan L. Ready offers the first comprehensive examination of Homers similes in the Iliad as arenas of heroic competition. This study concentrates primarily on similes spoken by Homeric characters. The first to offer a sustained exploration of such similes, Ready shows how characters are made to contest through and over simile not only with one another but also with the narrator. Ready investigates the narrators similes as well. He demonstrates that Homer amplifies the feat of a successful warrior by providing a competitive orientation to sequences of similes used to describe battle. He also offers a new interpretation of Homers extended similes as a means for the poet to imagine his characters as competitors for his attention. Throughout this study, Ready makes innovative use of approaches from both Homeric studies and narratology that have not yet been applied to the analysis of Homers similes.