Just as the story of an epic poem is woven from characters and plot, so too the individual similes within an epic create a unique simile world. Like any other story, it is peopled by individual characters, happenings, and experiences, such as the shepherd and his flocks, a storm at sea, or predators hunting prey. The simile world that complements the epic mythological story is re-imagined afresh in relation to the themes of each epic poem. As Deborah Beck argues in this stimulating book, over time a simile world takes shape across many poems composed over many centuries. This evolving landscape resembles the epic story world of battles, voyages, and heroes that comes into being through relationships among different epic poems. Epic narrative is woven from a warp of the mythological story world and a weft of the simile world. They are partners in creating the fabric of epic poetry.
DEBORAH BECK is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Texas, Austin. She is the author of Homeric Conversation (2005) and Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic (2012). She is also the producer of 'Musings in Greek Literature,' a podcast featuring the work of advanced Greek students reading ancient Greek poetry at the University of Texas at Austin.
1. Homer Odyssey: heroism, home, and family; 2. Homer Iliad: leadership and loss; 3. Apollonius Argonautica: gender, emotion, and the limits of human skill; 4. Vergil Aeneid: rage and isolation; 5. Ovid Metamorphoses: stories of Eros and Epic.
'Overall, a very novel book on a major theme, which allows a synthetic look at a trait of the epic genre that counts for much in its poetic success, in its continuity and its renewals. I recommend reading it in its entirety to specialists, but also to all those interested in ancient literature.' Françoise Létoublon, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
