Geoffrey S. Kirk > Quotes

“Nowadays interest in the classical rhetorical figures is often slight, and the majority of Homer's readers are more likely to note (in the speeches of Akhilleus, for example) the intense dramatic effects produced by enjambment, emphatic positioning of words, and variation in the length of the cola, and the almost invariable presence of ring composition in a speech of any length. To these features little attention was paid in antiquity. But the rhetorical figures which were so important to the ancients also appear in abundance in Homer's poetry, and to listeners in particular (the sound-effects which many of them produce add a great deal to its power. In this, as in so much else, Homer was the teacher of the ancient world.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary: Volume 5: Books 17-20

“It is a remarkable paradox that nearly every important event in the Iliad is the doing of a god, and that one can give a clear account of the poem's entire action with no reference to the gods at all.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary, Volume 4: Books 13-16

“The purpose of a simile is to encourage the listener's imagination by likening something in the narrative of the heroic past to something which is directly within his own experience; and so the majority of Homeric similes are drawn from everyday life. This means, that they, like Akhilleus' shield, give us a view of the world lying beyond the war, the world that existed in the poet's own day and long after him.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary: Volume 5: Books 17-20

“It is surely more likely that the composer of the Odyssey had the end of the Iliad especially in mind, whether or not both poems are by the same author. It is, however, tempting to go a step further, and to see the similarities as due to the fact that when Homer gave the end of the Iliad the form it has, the Odyssey was already taking shape in his mind: i.e. not only is a single poet the composer of both, but their composition actually overlapped to some extent. Thus we find that not only does the Iliad itself form a great and complex ring-structure, whose end echoes and resolves the themes of its beginning, but it is also inseparably linked or dovetailed thematically with the Odyssey, as if the two works could really almost be regarded as one great epic continuum, stretching from the Wrath of Akhilleus to the safe homecoming and triumph of the last of the heroes, Odysseus.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary: Volume 6: Books 21-24

“The efforts to trace formal rhetorical devices back to Homer produced results conveniently available in the work known as De Vita et Poesi Homeri, which has come down to us among Plutarch's Moralia. The author sets out to prove that essentially everything in the form and content of literature, as well as in philosophical thought, was anticipated by Homer: figures of speech, adaptations of regular grammatical usage, figures of thought, styles of rhetoric, types of speech, and much else. The treatise lists about thirty-eight figures of speech and thought (there is some overlap between the two), and provides Homeric examples of each. It is significant that with a few exceptions (falling in the areas of military strategy and other practical aspects of culture) the author achieves his purpose without undue strain: all the figures identified by later teachers of rhetoric do occur in Homer, and the study testifies to the richness of the decorative features of Homeric style. This richness need not, of course, be the product of a sophisticated m d highly developed literary style, still less of a formal rhetorical teaching, and many of the figures are natural features of speech, found in the ordinary discourse of uneducated people. However, the frequency and variety of their occurrence within the conventional epic diction suggests that in this respect, as in all others, Homer is both making the fullest use of techniques developed by his predecessors and surpassing their achievement.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary: Volume 5: Books 17-20

“Again, Homer has clarified the world-view of his tradition, to stress that, when life is gone, it is gone for ever. The paradoxical result is that, precisely by widening the chasm between mortal and immortal, Homer exalts the dignity and responsibility of human beings, placed between god and beast and potentially sharing the natures of both. We may attain divine achievements, with the aid of the gods themselves, but not a divine existence. The here and now, for all the prevalence of adversity over happiness, is the only life we have, and we must make the best of it.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary, Volume 4: Books 13-16

“Stripped to its essence the creed of heroism is that the fame of great deeds defeats death. Loss of life is compensated by honour received and fame to come.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary, Volume 3: Books 9-12

“The efforts to trace formal rhetorical devices back to Homer produced results conveniently available in the work known as De Vita et Poesi Homeri, which has come down to us among Plutarch's Moralia. The author sets out to prove that essentially everything in the form and content of literature, as well as in philosophical thought, was anticipated by Homer: figures of speech, adaptations of regular grammatical usage, figures of thought, styles of rhetoric, types of speech, and much else. The treatise lists about thirty-eight figures of speech and thought (there is some overlap between the two), and provides Homeric examples of each. It is significant that with a few exceptions (falling in the areas of military strategy and other practical aspects of culture) the author achieves his purpose without undue strain: all the figures identified by later teachers of rhetoric do occur in Homer, and the study testifies to the richness of the decorative features of Homeric style. This richness need not, of course, be the product of a sophisticated and highly developed literary style, still less of a formal rhetorical teaching, and many of the figures are natural features of speech, found in the ordinary discourse of uneducated people. However, the frequency and variety of their occurrence within the conventional epic diction suggests that in this respect, as in all others, Homer is both making the fullest use of techniques developed by his predecessors and surpassing their achievement.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary: Volume 5: Books 17-20

“These ways of looking at events were clearly part of common belief, but Homer exploits them for literary effect; both ineluctable fate and unpredictable divine intervention reinforce the sense of man as a plaything at the mercy of mightier powers. But the conclusion drawn from this is far from a negative or passive one; we must win honour within the limits set for us by our existence within a cosmos which is basically well-ordered, however hard that order may be to discern. When Odysseus is reduced to beggary, he does not lower his moral standards; when Akhilleus faces the inevitability of death, he is still determined to die gloriously. Homer adapts for his own poetic and moral ends ways of thinking which are potentially contradictory, refining the myths and world-view of his tradition. All his art is mobilized to stress the need for intelligence, courage and moral responsibility in the face of a dangerous universe, wherein mankind has an insignificant and yet paramount role. It is this attitude which makes the Homeric poems so sublimely and archetypally humane.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary, Volume 4: Books 13-16

“Like the dying Roland Akhilleus has his vision (and ours) widened as he makes peace with his soul. At first Roland cannot bear the thought that his sword will fall into another's hands - as in the Iliad the loss of weapons is the ultimate disgrace. Then he reflects that he holds the sword not for his own glory but for that of Charlemagne, finally that the sword, whose pommel contains holy relics, is a symbol of his faith. So Roland dies not cursing his conquerors in heroic style but as a Christian confessing his sins to God. That is the sort of vision an epic poet should have. With Priam kneeling before him Akhilleus too realizes that heroism is not enough. The conclusion of his dictum [A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much] (9-320) is not that he should do more killing but that he should recognize that all men suffer the same troubles and the same end - that is, that he should shed tears for the nature of things. Accordingly he bows to the will of Zeus, who offers him a new honour (24.110) which victors and defeated can both share.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary, Volume 3: Books 9-12