Publication Date:
2011
Short description:
Il paradosso del mentitore: ambigue fortune di Ditti e Darete / Prosperi, Valentina. - (2011), pp. 41-56.
abstract:
The Liar's Paradox: the ambiguous aftermath of Dictys and Dares.
Once ancient Greek had become a dead language, the memory of the events in the history of Troy - endowed from the Middle Ages onwards with key dynastic significance - was kept alive and nourished in Western Europe thanks to two Latin texts, translations of two supposed chronicles from the frontline of the Trojan War. Whatever their authors' motives might have been, the venture was enormously successful, bestowing upon the two so-called witnesses - Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian - the authority of historians, an authority that placed them on a higher plane than the poet (and thus confabulator) Homer. Even Humanism was unable to unravel completely the imposture surrounding Dictys and Dares, which found itself from that moment on validated by an abundant and secular flowering of artistic and literary works. The analysis of the changing status of both texts, which fluctuated between fiction and history, in the ayes of their illustrious readers raises a number of interesting questions regarding the degree of historical consciousness during the Renaissance period.
Once ancient Greek had become a dead language, the memory of the events in the history of Troy - endowed from the Middle Ages onwards with key dynastic significance - was kept alive and nourished in Western Europe thanks to two Latin texts, translations of two supposed chronicles from the frontline of the Trojan War. Whatever their authors' motives might have been, the venture was enormously successful, bestowing upon the two so-called witnesses - Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian - the authority of historians, an authority that placed them on a higher plane than the poet (and thus confabulator) Homer. Even Humanism was unable to unravel completely the imposture surrounding Dictys and Dares, which found itself from that moment on validated by an abundant and secular flowering of artistic and literary works. The analysis of the changing status of both texts, which fluctuated between fiction and history, in the ayes of their illustrious readers raises a number of interesting questions regarding the degree of historical consciousness during the Renaissance period.
Iris type:
2.1 Contributo in volume (Capitolo o Saggio)
Keywords:
Omero; Dictys; Dares; Guerra di Troia; Homerus; War of Troy
List of contributors:
Prosperi, Valentina
Book title:
Homère à la Renaissance. Mythe et transfigurations