Poetry in Place: Genres and Regional Traditions in Archaic Greek Poetry of Aegean Anatolia

In this dissertation I apply new genre frameworks to a set of Archaic poetic texts—the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Hipponax’s parodic prayers, and Sappho—to situate them within local historical traditions. In Chapter 1 argue that a formal analysis of the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite which distinguishes between hymnic and narrative elements allows us to identify the second part of the poem as a local epic narrative; I then show that this local epic is making use of Troadic traditions concerning the genealogy of the royal family of Troy. In Chapter 2 I turn to the poet Hipponax, specifically to those fragments in which he calls upon various gods to render him aid (frr. 3a, 32, 36, 38, 40). I argue that applying the framework of parody to these prayers, and reading them alongside the figure and fables of Aesop, brings Hipponax into focus as a social critic of wealth disparity, whose targets are Ephesian and Lydian aristocrats. Finally, in Chapter 3 I read Sappho through the lens of lament, and demonstrate that some of Sappho’s poetry is complementary and responsive to lament as we find in the Iliad. I conclude that this poetic relationship between Sappho and the Iliad can be accounted for by their shared landscape: Lesbos and the Troad were home to two cognate traditions which developed in dialogue with each other. Taken together, these chapters make the case that we cannot understand the Archaic Greek poetry of Aegean Anatolia without attention to the literary forms and local commitments which were the concerns of its composers and first audiences.