Paradigm and Discourse in Archaic Greek Poetry

This dissertation is a study in the style of paradeigmata ([Greek word omitted], mytho- logical exempla, exemplary tales) in Archaic Greek poetry and wisdom discourse. Part One comprises two corpus-based studies of Homeric poetry in terms of three linguistic features (discourse markers, relative clauses, and register); each of these studies is fol- lowed by a comparative study in Hesiodic poetry. Here I suggest that genealogical cata- logue poetry known from the Hesiodic tradition is an important traditional resource for these narratives. Part Two makes an analogous study of non-hexameter poetry from the Archaic Period as well as wisdom discourse attributed to Aesop and the Seven Sages. In these chapters I emphasize two strategies in particular: the creation and "mythologization" of authoritative personae, and the sociocultural import of the stylistic features of ge- nealogical catalogue in select Pindaric odes. Drawing on the findings of Part One and Part Two, the two studies in Part Three present readings of the Iliad and Odyssey through an analysis of how the linguistic features and themes of paradeigmata work at the level of poetic composition.