kings

On a fable about the hawk as a strongman

2019.06.21 | By Gregory Nagy §0. In what is generally agreed to be the earliest attestation of a fable in Greek literature, we read about a hawk that has just captured another bird. The fable is embedded in the Hesiodic Works and Days, lines 202–212, where the captor is boastfully saying to his captive that he has the power to do anything with his prey. Since the hawk is a… Read more

A Failed Understudy for the Role of Chariot Fighter: the Case of Koiranos, the King Who Never Was

2015.05.15 | By Gregory Nagy In the posting for 2015.05.08, where I studied the athleticism of heroic chariot fighting, I highlighted the example of Mērionēs in Iliad 17, who fights on foot in a situation where we might have expected him to be doing something else, which is, to be driving the chariot of Idomeneus, king of all the Cretans who fought at Troy. In the posting for 2015.05.20, I… Read more