Ransom, Revenge, and Heroic Identity in the Iliad (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521032780)

Wilson examines the nature of compensation--ransom and revenge--in the liad, offering a fundamentally new reading of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles. She presents a detailed anthropology of compensation in Homer, located in the wider context of agonistic exchange, to demonstrate how the struggle over definitions is a central feature of elite competition for status in the zero-sum and fluid ranking system of Homeric society. The study thus asserts the integral role of compensation in the traditional, cultural and poetic matrix of this foundational epic.

Author: Donna F. Wilson
ISBN-10: 0521032784
ISBN-13: 9780521032780
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 01/25/2007
Pages: 252
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.82lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.57d