Lying and Poetry from Homer to Pindar: Falsehood and Deception in Archaic Greek Poetics (Michigan Monographs in Classical Antiquity)

The topic of truth and falsehood in the ancient world has always attracted attention, especially recently. Louise Pratt’s book appeared in the same year as Lies and Fiction in the Ancient World, the collected papers from a University of Exeter colloquium that she acknowledges but was not able to cite. 1 The last 30 years have seen classical scholars move from conceiving the archaic Greek poet as a “master of truth” to speculating whether it may not be more accurate to picture him as a master of fiction. P.’s study examines whether poets in the 8th-5th centuries share Nabokov’s perception that the liar and the poet have an innate affinity. Her answer to this question is yes: the analogy between poets and trickster figures suggests that lying, as an expression of imaginative power and inventiveness, might serve as an early model of fiction. P. hopes to “establish that the way reflection on truth and lies is formulated in archaic poetry leaves room for archaic appreciation of fictional narrative” (p. 7). The larger portion of the book deals with the evidence from Homer, Hesiod, and the Homeric Hymns, but there are also smaller forays in epinician “truth” and various critiques of poetic deception from the presocratics down to Plato. 1. Aletheia And Poetry: Iliad 2.484-87 And Odyssey 8.487-91 As Models Of Archaic Narrative -- 2. Odysseus And Other Tricksters: Lying Kata Kosmon -- 3. Other Models Of Archaic Narrative And Poetic Truth: Hesiod's Etetuma, Lies Like Truths, And Other Aenigmata -- 4. Truth And Lies In Epinician -- 5. Lying Not Well: Other Critiques Of The Tradition. Louise H. Pratt. Originally Presented As The Author's Thesis (doctoral)--university Of Michigan, 1988. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Acknowledgments 6 Contents 8 Introduction 10 1. Aletheia and Poetry: Iliad 2.484-87 and Odyssey 8.487-91 as Models of Archaic Narrative 20 2. Odysseus and Other Tricksters: Lying Kata Kosmon 64 3. Other Models of Archaic Narrative and Poetic Truth: Hesiod’s Etetuma, Lies Like Truths, and Other Aenigmata 104 Epilogue 166 Bibliography 168 General Index 176 Index Locorum 182 Index of Scholars 188 A suggestive study of an elemental aspect of fiction