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The typical and connotative character of Xeinoi situations across the Apologue: Three studies in repetition
This dissertation engages in a close reading and analysis of the Apologue of Homer's Odyssey; specifically, I am concerned with characterizing the nature of xeinoi situations or interactions in these books - that is, the relationship between the Ithacan travellers and the various inhabitants whom th...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Classical Studies
2017
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| _version_ | 1867613974038577152 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Williams, Hamish |
| author2 | Chandler, Clive |
| author_browse | Chandler, Clive Williams, Hamish |
| author_facet | Chandler, Clive Williams, Hamish |
| author_sort | Williams, Hamish |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | This dissertation engages in a close reading and analysis of the Apologue of Homer's Odyssey; specifically, I am concerned with characterizing the nature of xeinoi situations or interactions in these books - that is, the relationship between the Ithacan travellers and the various inhabitants whom they encounter in these four books. There is a significant amount of scholarship on the nature of these encounters in the Apologue, and as my first chapter explores, many of these are often hinged upon certain polarities: hospitality versus inhospitality, civilized versus savage, masculine versus feminine. My study is greatly indebted to these; however, this dissertation explores new avenues of interpreting these encounters. I have adopted an approach to the Odyssey, which is based upon the importance of repetitions and their connotations, what has been termed 'traditional referentiality'. The Homeric poems are defined by an aesthetic of repetition: certain 'units' (which may be isolated words, phrases, actions, scenes, etc.) are given prominence in the narrative through their frequency; when these units are examined with respect to their contexts, the particular units gain associative or 'connotative' meaning from their implementation. In my second, third, and fourth chapters, I explore how the xeinoi situations in the Apologue are pervaded by certain typical units - namely, (i) mountains, (ii) acts of eating, and (iii) acts of trickery - and then, importantly, how these units garner connotative senses of, respectively, (i) isolation, (ii) danger, and (iii) success, which characterize the relationships in these four books. While some of these typical units have received scholarly treatment in the Odyssey as a whole, their specific importance to the Apologue has not been studied extensively, nor have the connotative resonances of these repeated units been fully explored. The importance of these connotations is elaborated on in the conclusion, where I examine how the meaning derived from these xeinoi encounters interplays with the surrounding story of the Odyssey. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/24448 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:44:40.002Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateRange | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | Classical Studies |
| publisherStr | Classical Studies |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/24448 The typical and connotative character of Xeinoi situations across the Apologue: Three studies in repetition Williams, Hamish Chandler, Clive Classics This dissertation engages in a close reading and analysis of the Apologue of Homer's Odyssey; specifically, I am concerned with characterizing the nature of xeinoi situations or interactions in these books - that is, the relationship between the Ithacan travellers and the various inhabitants whom they encounter in these four books. There is a significant amount of scholarship on the nature of these encounters in the Apologue, and as my first chapter explores, many of these are often hinged upon certain polarities: hospitality versus inhospitality, civilized versus savage, masculine versus feminine. My study is greatly indebted to these; however, this dissertation explores new avenues of interpreting these encounters. I have adopted an approach to the Odyssey, which is based upon the importance of repetitions and their connotations, what has been termed 'traditional referentiality'. The Homeric poems are defined by an aesthetic of repetition: certain 'units' (which may be isolated words, phrases, actions, scenes, etc.) are given prominence in the narrative through their frequency; when these units are examined with respect to their contexts, the particular units gain associative or 'connotative' meaning from their implementation. In my second, third, and fourth chapters, I explore how the xeinoi situations in the Apologue are pervaded by certain typical units - namely, (i) mountains, (ii) acts of eating, and (iii) acts of trickery - and then, importantly, how these units garner connotative senses of, respectively, (i) isolation, (ii) danger, and (iii) success, which characterize the relationships in these four books. While some of these typical units have received scholarly treatment in the Odyssey as a whole, their specific importance to the Apologue has not been studied extensively, nor have the connotative resonances of these repeated units been fully explored. The importance of these connotations is elaborated on in the conclusion, where I examine how the meaning derived from these xeinoi encounters interplays with the surrounding story of the Odyssey. 2017-06-01T10:08:33Z 2017-06-01T10:08:33Z 2017 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24448 eng application/pdf Classical Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Classics Williams, Hamish The typical and connotative character of Xeinoi situations across the Apologue: Three studies in repetition |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | The typical and connotative character of Xeinoi situations across the Apologue: Three studies in repetition |
| title_full | The typical and connotative character of Xeinoi situations across the Apologue: Three studies in repetition |
| title_fullStr | The typical and connotative character of Xeinoi situations across the Apologue: Three studies in repetition |
| title_full_unstemmed | The typical and connotative character of Xeinoi situations across the Apologue: Three studies in repetition |
| title_short | The typical and connotative character of Xeinoi situations across the Apologue: Three studies in repetition |
| title_sort | typical and connotative character of xeinoi situations across the apologue three studies in repetition |
| topic | Classics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24448 |
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