著者

松平 千秋

出版者

日本西洋古典学会

雑誌

西洋古典學研究 (ISSN:04479114)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.10, pp.39-48, 1962-03-31

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At the beginning of the Iliad Bk 2, Zeus sends his messenger Dream to Agamemnon with the false message that, if the war should be resumed, the Greeks would beat the Trojans Agamemnon, determined to rearm his soldiers, summons, prior to the general assembly, a council of the leading generals, and requests their cooperation in carrying out his plan, which is summarized in ll 72-5 At the assembly, however, his plan proves to be a sheer failure, as soon as the proposal of retirement is made, the army rush to their camps to make preparations for their return home The confusion is so disastrous, that, but for Hera's intervention, the retirement of the Greek army would be realized 'contrary to fate' (υπερμορα) Evidently it is not Zeus but Agamemnon himself, who is responsible for this confusion, because the idea of "tempting" the soldiers was not involved in Zeus' plan How, then, does such a strange idea, which seems to serve only as a cause for troubles, occur to Agamemnon ? The present author thinks that the clue to the solution of this question is to be sought in ll 72-5 Let us start our discussion from the following two points (1) What is in this context the meaning of the phrase η θεμιζ εστι (73) ? (2) What is the object of ερητυειν (75) ? 1) After having examined several views set forth hitherto by modern critics, the author concludes that the scholiast's interpretation (Scholia A ad loc) best suits the context He says that the King tries to test the army κατα τι παλαιον εθοζ, with the intention of knowing whether they are going to fight voluntarily or reluctantly, compelled by force, for, the scholiast continues, the King knows that the Greeks had been discouraged by the long war, by the plague, and moreover by Achilles' withdrawal from the battle-line We do not know, it must be confessed, what precedents the poet had in mind when he said η θεμιζ εστι, i e κατα τι παλαιον εθοζ. We must assume, however, that there were examples so familiar to the poet and his audience alike that it was hardly necessary for the poet to add further comments on the topic We moderns could easily collect a dozen similar examples from various times and places 11) With regard to the second point, the author again takes sides with the ancient critic (Scholia B ad loc ), who takes sue (sc Agamemnon) ταυτα λεγοντα as the object of ερητυειν, not εκεινουζ (sc 'Αχαιουζ) φευγονταζ, as did Leaf et alii Interpreted on this line, Agamemnon's plan was to stage a sham fight between the chieftains and himself, and thus to lead the debate toward his intended conclusion It is true that his plan did not succeed at the first assembly, Agamemnon may be blamed for his miscalculation of the low morale of his army But let us here turn our attention to the reopened assembly, and we shall see how smoothly, after the Thersites-scene, of course, everything proceeds, almost (not exactly, indeed) as the King had intended Agamemnon had been no fool His plan, though checked for a while, proves a success after all Certainly there are some exaggerations in the narrative from Agamemnon's "Temptation" up to the "Thersites-scene" One may even call it a trick on the poet's part Probably the poet thought that a detailed narrative to such an extent was necessary in order to make the audience realize how low the army's morale was and how difficult a task it was to make this resume warfare But it must be admitted on the other hand that the emphasis, perhaps over-strong, on this aspect has mainly been responsible for causing various misunderstandings, especially among modern critics The present writer suggests that the Temptation passage including the Thersites-scene may be called a "detachable" part of the poem By "detachable" the author means no "interpolation" in the Analyst's sense, but rather a section which the rhapsode, at discretion, could have, if not entirely omitted, at least cut to the minimum The text of the Iliad, as well as the Odyssey, represents the fullest version of the poem, collated probably in Athens in the sixth century, as is generally assumed The recitation of the whole poem may have taken place occasionally, e g at the Panathenaic Festivals But surely in most cases, it was recited on a far smaller scale, and, on such occasions, it must have been the normal practice of the rhapsode, to skip over or to abreviate non-essential (episodic) parts of the story The present writer imagines that the Homeric poems were, at least before their text was finally established in Athens, in a rather fluid condition, so that the rhapsode was given a considerable liberty in handling the text This article is not intended, of course, to draw too broad a conclusion from a single passage of the Iliad, but the author does hope that this is at least one of those cases which justify more or less his own point of view on the nature of ancient Greek poetry

著者

ヘロドトス[著] 松平千秋訳

出版者

岩波書店

巻号頁・発行日

2007

著者

松平 千秋

出版者

日本西洋古典学会

雑誌

西洋古典学研究 (ISSN:04479114)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.29, pp.109-112, 1981

著者

松平 千秋

出版者

日本西洋古典学会

雑誌

西洋古典学研究 (ISSN:04479114)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.17, pp.136-138, 1969-03-25 (Released:2017-05-23)

著者

松平 千秋

出版者

京都産業大学

雑誌

京都産業大学国際言語科学研究所所報 (ISSN:03891739)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.3, no.2, pp.76-81, 1982-03

著者

松平 千秋

出版者

京都産業大学

雑誌

京都産業大学国際言語科学研究所所報 (ISSN:03891739)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.7, no.2, pp.5-18, 1986-03

著者

松平 千秋

出版者

日光東照宮

雑誌

大日光

巻号頁・発行日

no.72, pp.58-61, 2002-03

著者

松平 千秋

出版者

天理大学出版部

雑誌

ビブリア 天理図書館報 (ISSN:00060860)

巻号頁・発行日

no.9, pp.2-6, 1957-10

著者

松平 千秋

出版者

学術雑誌目次速報データベース由来

雑誌

古代文化 (ISSN:00459232)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.38, no.8, pp.40-45, 1986

著者

松平 千秋

出版者

日光東照宮

雑誌

大日光

巻号頁・発行日

no.85, pp.98-105, 2015-08

著者

松平 千秋

出版者

京都大学

巻号頁・発行日

1962

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博士論文

著者

松平 千秋

出版者

日本西洋古典学会

雑誌

西洋古典学研究 (ISSN:04479114)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.23, pp.167-169, 1975-03-29 (Released:2017-05-23)

著者

松平 千秋

出版者

日本西洋古典学会

雑誌

西洋古典學研究 (ISSN:04479114)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.16, pp.1-12, 1968-03-30

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In the Aeschylean "Persae", Xerxes is contrasted, in a most simplified way, to Darius, his father. He is a fool, or at least a very thoughtless young man, who, by his reckless attempt to subdue Greece, has endangered the safety of the kingdom, which his predecessors, with Darius at their head, had laborously built up, guided by laudable foresight. The same person, as described by Herodotus in his Histories, can, however, hardly be done away with so easily. That Xerxes was endowed with royal dignity as well as lordly generosity, is well illustrated by episodes in the Histories: he is not inferior to his predecessor in this respect. What separates him from Darius, is the lack of firm mind and resolute will, while these are the very characteristics that principally made out the greatness of Cyrus and Darius. Xerxes was, unlike Cambyses who had a born inclination to insanity, a man of perfect normality. But the two shared the same fate to be heirs to their great predecessors, Xerxes to Darius, Cambyses to Cyrus. Both of them painfully felt their obligations to cope with their predecessors or even to surpass them in merits. However, they lacked the firmness of mind, which was most essential to actualize this ideal; hence their frustration. The way Herodotus presents us Xerxes in VII 187, with description of his physical characteristics, is most impressive and dramatic too, reminding us of the scene in the τειχοσκοπια, where Agamemnon is shown to Priamus by Helen. The lordly figure of the Great King, with his immense host behind him, is really that of a tragic hero, who proudly stands on the summit of happiness, not knowing what fate awaits him at the next moment. Does then Xerxes in fact deserve the name of a tragic hero? Perhaps in the modern, sentimental sense of the word, but surely not in its true sense. The present writer believes that Herodotus was well aware of it. In that he nevertheless dared to stage Xerxes as a tragic hero, one might discover some ironical implications of the author. It is indeed a typical tragic situation that Xerses is placed in. But it seems as if the main concern of the author lies not so much in the fate of Xerxes as in his character itself. Tradition assigns Sophocles, among the tragic poets, the nearest place to our author. It is a pity, however, that no record has been preserved concerning the contact which might have existed between Herodotus and Euripides.