Parodic inconsistency: some problems in theBatrakhomyomakhia

Kelly, Adrian

doi:10.1017/s0075426900002950

Cited by 20 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…5 The first article to engage fully with the BM on these terms was Vine (1986). Most (1993), Sens (2006) and Kelly (2009) and (2014) all continue and extend the same approach. Glei concludes that a deliberate reference to Homeric resurrections was probably beyond the BM poet's abilities ((1984) 176), but there is no reason why this should be so.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…14 Cf. Kelly (2009) This ongoing and apparently deliberate confusion over whether characters are alive or dead is not a feature of the Batrachomyomachia as a whole; it does not occur anywhere in the first 200 lines, where the poet has other jokes to tell. Yet within the space of 60 lines -between the trumpetblast which opens the hostilities at 200 and the arrival of Meridarpax, the mouse hero who turns the tide, at 260 -one major character is certainly resurrected; at least two others probably are; and a dead character is first of all subjected to attempted murder and then defended by a comrade who is himself supposed to be dead.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Schrödinger’s Mouse: Liminality and the ΛΙΜΝΗ in the Batrachomyomachia

Hosty¹

2017

J. Hell. Stud.

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This article argues that the ambiguity over whether certain characters are alive or dead during the second half of the Batrachomyomachia is not only deliberate, as previous scholars have suggested, but part of a complex intertextual relationship with Iliad 21 and Achilles’ battle in the Scamander. It concludes by suggesting that the poet's decision to stage this new battle in a ƛίμνη, a pool or pond, helps to articulate the ideas of life, death and resurrection which characterize this section of the poem.

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Schrödinger’s Mouse: Liminality and the ΛΙΜΝΗ in the Batrachomyomachia

Hosty¹

2017

J. Hell. Stud.

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“…The dating of neither text is certain, but several phenomena recommend this theory. Like the Galeomyomachia, the Batrachomyomachia is now typically considered a Hellenistic text, and some scholars have even argued that it must date to the Augustan period; 48 this range overlaps with that of the 44 On the Batrachomyomachia, see Ludwich 1896;Morenz 1954;Bliquez 1977;Wölke 1978;Glei 1984;Vine 1986;Fusillo 1988;Camerotto 1992;Most 1993;Scodel 2008;Bertolín Cebrián 2008: 95-118;Kelly 2009Kelly , 2014Hosty , 2017Hosty , 2020Hosty , 2021Sticker 2017;Christensen and Robinson 2018;Gäertner 2020, inter alia. 45 E.g., the Batrachomyomachia resists using whole lines from Homeric epic, which the Galeomyomachia does twice just in its surviving fragments (13,58).…”

Section: The Galeomyomachia's Literary Traditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…283 Kelly (2009) argues, for example, that some narrative inconsistencies found in the Batrachomyomachia − the reappearance of three previously-dead characters (e.g., Psicharpax, who dies at 86-99 and then reappears alive and well at 234-246); the drowning of an already-dead mouse (232); and a character who changes species from a frog (232-235) to a mouse (252-253) − are actually parodies of Homeric inconsistencies and demonstrate the poet's engagement with the debates around these inconsistencies found in Homeric scholarship. See also Most 1993: 37-38;Hosty 2017: 136.…”

Section: The Literary Landscapementioning

confidence: 99%

Studies in the Galeomyomachia: Reconstructing the War of the Weasel and Mice

Letteri

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In antiquity, there was a tradition of mock-epic which, as far as we can tell, mimicked the language, style, and type-scenes of Homeric epic, but took as its subject-matter conflicts between animals. Only two examples of this sub-genre have survived: the near-complete Batrachomyomachia, upon which most scholarship on animal mock-epic has focused, and 41 lines of an epic which once recounted the story of a war between a weasel and an army of mice (P.Mich.Inv. 6946). The surviving fragments of the Galeomyomachia, as it has now been dubbed, were published in 1983 by Hermann Schibli with an introduction and notes, but it has garnered little attention in scholarship since. The overarching claim of this thesis is, however, that the Galeomyomachia is a valuable addition to our understanding of mock-epic and, as such, worth more thorough examination than it has previously received. The majority of the Galeomyomachia’s narrative is lost to us, but the narrative preserved in its surviving fragments is remarkably clear. Accordingly, Studies in the Galeomyomachia: Reconstructing the War of the Weasel and Mice concerns the two scenes wherein the fragmentary nature of our text renders the narrative uncertain. In the first of these two ‘studies’, I argue that Hermes, who appears briefly in our surviving text, acts as a patron deity to the mice; in the second, I explore a scene in which a messenger, whose identity is not preserved, reports the death of a mouse-hero to his widow. Within each of these studies, I will also investigate how the Galeomyomachia draws on, invokes, and parodies Homeric epic and other mytho-poetic referents, as well as how it compares to other examples of animal literature and epic parody. In doing so, I will go some way towards both reconstructing the Galeomyomachia’s narrative and, in turn, demonstrating its place and significance within its literary tradition.

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Parody as a Sign of Generic Consciousness: Battle Descriptions in the Pseudo-Homeric Batrachomyomachia

Bauer

2020

Universal- Und Kulturhistorische Studien. Studies in Universal and Cultural History

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Parodic inconsistency: some problems in theBatrakhomyomakhia

Cited by 20 publications

References 7 publications

Schrödinger’s Mouse: Liminality and the ΛΙΜΝΗ in the Batrachomyomachia

Schrödinger’s Mouse: Liminality and the ΛΙΜΝΗ in the Batrachomyomachia

Studies in the Galeomyomachia: Reconstructing the War of the Weasel and Mice

Parody as a Sign of Generic Consciousness: Battle Descriptions in the Pseudo-Homeric Batrachomyomachia

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