Prikhodko, E. V. HOMER IN THE POETRY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THE “GLORIOUS SOLYMOI”. Proceedings of Petrozavodsk State University. 2023;45(7):49–56. DOI: 10.15393/uchz.art.2023.957


Classical, Byzantine and Modern Greek Philology

HOMER IN THE POETRY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THE “GLORIOUS SOLYMOI”

Prikhodko
E. V. 		Lomonosov Moscow State University
Keywords:
Pisidia
Termessos
Solymoi
Homer
Hellenization
epitaph
Homeric formula
education in Roman province		 Summary: The inhabitants of Termessos, one of the three largest cities in Pisidia, considered themselves the descen- dants of the Solymoi twice mentioned by Homer. Following the conquests of Alexander the Great, Pisidia fell under the profound sway of Greek culture. Hellenization permeated every facet of the indigenous population’s existence, and by the time of the Roman Empire, there had developed a society, whose life combined the elements of local and Greek cultures. While the level of architectural Hellenization can be evaluated by the ruins of cities, it is more difficult to assess the level of literary education. There were no famous poets in Pisidia, and the literature of this region remains almost unexplored. The aim of the article is to ascertain the educational attainment of the urban elite in Termessos. This is achieved through the lexical and grammatical analysis of three randomly selected funerary inscriptions written in hexameter. The main educational texts were the poems of Homer, therefore, in the structure of each epitaph the author reveals all the elements that may indicate the acquaintance of Termessian poets with the Homeric verse: words belong- ing to the epic tradition, Homeric formulas, and grammatical forms characteristic of the epic. As a result, the author shows that 43.6% of the text of these epitaphs was borrowed from the epic tradition and concludes that the educated inhabitants of Termessos knew Homer’s poems well and even used his formula for their ethnic self-expression, proudly calling themselves the “glorious Solymoi”.



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