Homer and the Poetics of Gesture

ΟΜΗΡΟΣ & ΠΟΙΗΤΙΚΗ ΤΗΣ ΣΤΑΣΕΩΣ ΣΩΜΑΤΟΣ

https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2019/2019.09.52/

Alex C. Purves, Homer and the Poetics of Gesture. Oxford studies in late antiquity. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. xiii, 214. ISBN 9780190857929. $74.00.

Review by

Michel Briand

Στην συνέχεια (Συνήθεια, Χειρονομία και Ελευθερία, σελ. 13-17), μέσα από τις έννοιες του κινητικού αυθορμητισμού και του κιναισθητικού υποβάθρου, επιβεβαιώνουμε ότι οι λεκτικές και χειρονομιακές μορφές θεμελιώνουν τη δυναμική συνοχή του ποιήματος. Ένα τρίτο μέρος (Σώματα Εν Κινήσει, σελ. 17-26) επιχειρεί μια σύνθεση σχετικά με την εφεύρεση της κινούμενης εικόνας, στις αρχές του 20ου αιώνα, και την διαμόρφωση της χειρονομίας ως «φράση ή κύμα» (20). Οι φωτογραφίες της μετακίνησης των ζώων του Muybridge και αυτές του Marey συγκρίνονται με αρχαϊκές αγγειακές αναπαραστάσεις αθλητικών αγώνων ή πένθιμων τελετών, όπως στον Άτλαντα Μνημοσύνης του ιστορικού τέχνης Aby Warburg και του Pathosformeln του: αυτό το «εικονολογικό διάστημα» αντιπαραθέτει παραστάσεις από διάφορες περιόδους με την ίδια συναισθηματικά φορτισμένη χειρονομία.3 Αφού προηγηθεί ένα περίγραμμα του κεφαλαίου, σελ. 26-29, έρχεται το καταληκτικό μέρος της εισαγωγής (Ομηρικά Σώματα, σελ. 29-35), που διευρύνει την μελέτη του σώματος των ραψωδών ως μέσου μεταδόσεως μηνυμάτων / εννοιών / καταστάσεων, ιδιαίτερα με τον Ίωνα του Πλάτωνα.4 Οι χειρονομίες των ομηρικών χαρακτήρων ενεργοποιούν την «ενσάρκωσή» τους ή την «σωματποίηση» τους από τον ραψωδό (ενσάρκωση, όχι «αναπαράσταση», αναπαράσταση, σύμφωνα με την αντίθεση που διατύπωσε ο Purves, μάλλον για να διευκρινιστεί καλύτερα). Τέλος, ο Purves διαψεύδει τον Snell: το ομηρικό σώμα θα ήταν χωρίς κέντρο ή μέρη, που παρήχθησαν από τις κινήσεις των αρθρώσεων και όχι των οργάνων.5 Και η σύγχρονη σκέψη ενδιαφέρεται για παρόμοια αποτελέσματα, τονίζοντας το ίδιο το αίνιγμα της ζωντάνιας της χειρονομίας (ζωηρότητα της χειρονομίας, σελ. 35).

Then (Habit, Gesture, and Freedom, 13-17), through the notions of kinetic spontaneity and kinaesthetic background, we confirm that the verbal and gestural forms found the dynamic coherence of the poem. A third part (Bodies in Motion, 17-26) attempts a synthesis on the invention of the moving image, at the turn of the twentieth century, and the figuration of the gesture as “phrase or wave” (20). Muybridge’s photographs of animal locomotion and Marey’s are compared to archaic vascular representations of athletic races or mourning ceremonies, as in the art historian Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas and his Pathosformeln: this “iconology of intervals” juxtaposes representations from various periods of the same emotionally charged gesture.3 After a Chapter Outline, 26-29, comes the concluding part of the introduction (Homeric Bodies, 29-35), which broadens the study to the performing body of the rhapsodes, especially in Plato’s Ion.4 The gestures of the Homeric characters energize their “incarnation” or “embodying” by the rhapsode (embodiment, not “representation,” re-enactment, according to the opposition formulated by Purves, probably in need of more precision). Finally, Purves refutes Snell: the Homeric body would be without center or parts, produced by the movements of the joints rather than the organs.5 And contemporary thought is interested in similar effects, staging the very enigma of the liveliness of gesture (liveliness of gesture, 35).

Η ΕΙΚΟΝΑ (!!) ΤΗΣ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΙΝΗΣ ΨΥΧΗΣ [ΑΠΟ ΤΟΝ Esa Kirkkopelto ΜΕ ΒΑΣΗ ΤΗΝ ΠΕΡΙΓΡΑΦΗ ΤΗΣ ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑΣ (?)

https://journals.openedition.org/edl/7847?lang=en

Esa Kirkkopelto. 2024. "Monster and Khôra: Re-Imagining the Performing Body with Plato," Etudes des Lettres 324, pp. 107-128.

 

3. Michel Briand. “Paradoxes of Spectacular/Political Performativity: Dionysiac Dance in Classical Greek Theatre, Olivier Dubois’ Tragédie, the Femen’s Sextremist Protests, and Trajal Harrell’s Antigone SR“. In CORD Conference Proceedings, Cut and Paste: Dance Advocacy in the Age of Austerity, Cambridge UP, 2016, 27-37, et “Gestures of grieving and mourning: a transhistoric dance-scheme”. In Ken Pierce (ed.), Dance ACTions – Traditions and transformations., NOFOD/SDHS, Trondheim, 2013, 73-87. Sur Warburg et les notions de figure, schème, formule : Pour un atlas des Figures.

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4. Le dialogue empathique performance/public pourrait être approfondi { The empathetic dialogue between performance and audience could be deepened : Ο διάλογος παραστάσεως/κοινού θα μπορούσε να εμβαθύνει την συναισθηματική ταύτιση ή συντονισμό}: A. P. David. The Dance of the Muses. Choral Theory and Ancient Greek Poetics. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007 { https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2007/2007.04.46/ }; Pierre Destrée & Fritz-Gregor Herrmann (eds.). 2011. Plato and the Poets. Leiden: Brill, 2011; Anastasia-Erasmia Peponi. Frontiers of Pleasure: Models of Aesthetic Response in Archaic and Classical Greek Thought. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012.

https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2007/2007.04.46/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276374794_A_P_David_The_Dance_of_the_Muses_Choral_theory_and_ancient_Greek_poetics

5. Guillemette Bolens. La logique du Corps articulaire. Les articulations du corps humain dans la littérature occidentale. Rennes: PU de Rennes, 2000.

https://www.academia.edu/87664690/The_missing_link_Writing_in_West_Anatolia_during_the_Late_Bronze_Age?uc-g-sw=8491430

Waal, W. 2022. “The missing link? Writing in West Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age,” in The Political Geography of Western Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age. Proceedings of the EEA Conference Bern, 7 September 2019, ed. I. Hajnal, E. Zangger, J. Kelder, Budapest, pp. 229-270.

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/740925/pdf

Tsagalis, C. 2019. Rev. of A. C. Purves, Homer and the Poetics of Gesture, in Classical World 113 (1), pp. 116-117.

10.1353/clw.2019.0070

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Gesture in Homer has been studied before. D. Lateiner's Sardonic Smile: Non-Verbal Behavior in Homeric Epic (Ann Arbor 1995), to state one well-known book, explores the "silent language" of characters, especially in the Odyssey, bringing into the limelight the wealth of body-language and non-verbal forms of communication employed in Homeric epic. Purves' book goes a step further, and indeed an important step it is. By arguing that gestures in Homeric epic "function simultaneously as kinetic reflexes for the hero and aesthetic reflexes for the poet," Purves shows that body-language operates on both the individual and the generic level. The author seeks to identify underlying patterns of kinetic behavior that behave more or less like verbal formulas. They, too, are marked by the tension between what is expected according to an epic "kinetic grammar" and the divergence or aberration from that norm. This interpretive course allows Purves to trace a sort of "kinetic interaction" between the gestures of given characters either within the same Homeric epic or across the Iliad and the Odyssey. Although I would have liked to see this method applied to some important gesture-oriented moments in the Epic Cycle (moments that resonate in Homeric epic as well), I can say up front that Purves has succeeded in opening new perspectives on a "kinetic set of patterns," i.e., a sub-category of a "grammar of space," which is systematically employed throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey.

I will now focus on three chief examples of Purves' analysis, which is structured as a horizontal study of five distinct forms of kinetic behavior (corresponding to individual chapters of her book): falling, running, leaping, standing, and reaching.

Whereas "falling" for mortals signifies death, a standard motif in a principally martial epic like the Iliad, "falling" for gods pertains to their active involvement in the plot, when they descend from their divine abode and mingle with humans. In this light, "falling" has a stereotypical function within the Iliad. At the same time, "divine falling" acquires a special function, which displays a level of sophistication that marks the Iliad as the celebrated epic it has always been. The gods' knees may collapse (so Hephaestus in Books 1 and 18, Ares in Books 5 and 21, Aphrodite in Book 21),1 but since death is not a narrative option for them, the Iliad exploits the one possibility that keeps alive [End Page 116] their potential to fall. Zeus, the one god who never appears on the battlefield of Troy, threatens to hurl all the gods who disobey him into Tartarus (8.13); he tosses Ate by the hair (19.130-131); he tries to throw out Hypnos (14.258); and he reminds Hera that he had hung her from on high, with anvils on her feet and unbreakable bonds around her hands (15.18-21). Purves has built a strong case for the co-existence within the Iliad of a system used for mortal and divine "falling," as well as a transgression of this system by means of a curtailed falling, i.e., divine suspension.

Achilles' stillness for two thirds of the Iliad is counterbalanced by his quickness of movement in the last, climactic third. This is the part of the poem where he becomes "swift-footed Achilles" (πόδας ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεύς). Purves observes that Achilles' running in this last third takes the form of chasing: first, he chases the panic-stricken Trojans, then Agenor, and finally Hector himself, who is "shackled by fate" (Iliad 22.5). The contrast between running and standing still will soon give way to Achilles' all too real chase of Hector around the walls of Troy. Purves shows that "the kinetic aspects" of this part of the poem, culminating in the dramatic duel between Achilles and Hector, have been prepared by means of a "kinetic recall" of Iliad 6,2 where Hector is again found at the Scaean Gates, his brother Paris joining him as they march into battle, after Andromache has expressed her fear that he might not return alive. This is not, as Purves rightly notes, just a case of scene-mirroring; it is a theme synchronized with the unraveling of the larger Iliadic...