| This dissertation addresses the conceptualization of memory in archaic Greek epic by demonstrating its social and ethical relevance.;Scholarship on memory in ancient Greece has focused on its role in granting access to what is outside present experience in ontological rather than merely temporal terms (Vernant 1965, Detienne 1973), in authoritative speech (Martin 1989), and in immortalizing humans with mimneskomai, 'remember', signaling the performance of epic (Moran 1975). It has also been shown to indicate the activation of the mind regarding present phenomena and undertaking action, not simply recalling the past or mental processes (Simondon 1982, Bakker 2002).;However, I argue that memory in archaic Greece does more: as it is conceptualized in Homeric epic, memory is fundamental to the maintenance and upholding of proper social and even cosmic order. The main contribution of my research is bringing to light this overlooked ethical aspect of memory in archaic Greece, understanding it as a fundamental regulating force in the present, not simply as an archive of the past. To this end, I trace the recurrent patterns in the employment of mimneskomai and cognate words in their context in the Homeric epics, drawing on Hesiod for further evidence. For example, one can appeal to memory to urge appropriate behavior upon another, and its absence or presence in a people explains the state of their society, as we learn from Mentor's comments on the disorder in Ithaca in Odyssey 2..;Furthermore, my research allows us to read the Odyssey, the text on which my dissertation focuses, in a new light, as we come to see the pivotal role of memory as a guide to the right path in its plot. Once we examine the memory, or lack thereof, of different characters, we are better able to understand their different outcomes: the suitors' doom, the success of Odysseus' household, even the final resolution of the animosity between the families of Odysseus and the slain suitors. The Odyssey also presents memory as the key to commemoration in such an epic: the good memory shown in proper conduct deserves praise and remembering in turn. |
