Some Examples of Imitation in the Similes of Later Greek Epic

Abstract

It may be helpful to the non-specialist for me to make, by way of introduction, some general observations on the use of similes by the poets from whom my examples are taken. Already with the similes of the Iliad and the Odyssey it is apparent that we have to do both with a repertoire of themes that have become traditional and at the same time with a considerable number of verbal pictures which have the appearance of being the free invention of a particular poet. This situation remains broadly true of the similes of later Greek epic, but with the major difference that at least with several of the surviving poems from the Hellenistic period onwards the traditional becomes relatively much less prominent than the freely original, both in subject-matter and in form. However, a point that must be stressed at the outset is the sustained effectiveness of the Homeric similes as models and sources of inspiration. That Homeric dependence for subject-matter should be more prominent in the similes than in the narrative of later epics is only to be expected, except perhaps in such works as Quintus’ Posthomerica, where there is a close affinity with the narrative of the Homeric epics, and to a large extent dependence in formal expression goes together with thematic dependence.

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