Neglected Warnings in the Iliad: A Study in CharacterizationHeverly, W. Gerald (2013) Neglected Warnings in the Iliad: A Study in Characterization. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)
AbstractNEGLECTED WARNINGS IN THE ILIAD: A STUDY IN CHARACTERIZATION W. Gerald Heverly, PhD A neglected warning is a narrative sequence consisting of three moves: a credible warning is issued, the recipient disregards it, and he suffers some calamity as a result. Neglected warnings are common in folklore and literature. They have been studied closely in Herodotus, Thucydides, and Sophocles, but not in Homer. The little that has been said about neglected warnings in his poetry focuses on the recurring traits of warners and recipients and lacks consensus. Attempting to remedy the situation, this dissertation systematically investigates how the Iliad’s twelve neglected warnings help characterize members of both groups. Warners and recipients turn out to be distinct character types. All the examples feature a warner who is male, wise, old, actively benevolent, and sympathetic. Furthermore, warners are very often paternal or prophetic. Sometimes one or more attributes are insinuated by the poet rather than being literally true. Recipients, by contrast, are always young men who are selfishly ambitious, bold, and reckless. Thus, a strong contrast in characterization obtains across examples. In addition, Homer consistently pairs one warner with one recipient, and recipients frequently recover in some way from the disasters that they provoke. These conclusions augment or correct existing observations about the neglected warning pattern in Homer. The results also support a previously unsubstantiated claim that it derives from folklore. Specifically, the Iliad’s warners correspond to a stock character in folktales known as the Wise Old Man. For their part, neglectful recipients closely resemble the type of the disobedient hero, which occurs especially in cautionary tales. Some widely attested folktale plots are built around interaction between a Wise Old Man figure and a disobedient hero who experiences misfortune by disregarding the elder’s advice. The overall scenario may well have been incorporated into the Greek poetic tradition, serving as a basis for the standard features of neglected warnings in the Iliad. Directions for further research are suggested. Share
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