The Birth of the Author in Ancient Greece

Silas M. Peterson (University of New Mexico)

In “Death of the Author”, Roland Barthes surmises that the author, a modern figure, “emerged” in the Middle Ages.  In light of classical literary history, however, the Middle Ages birth of the author may more accurately be designated a “resurrection,” for an earlier birth seems to have occurred, in Greece at least, sometime prior to the fifth century.  In Homer and Hesiod, the poetic invocation of the muse(s) reveals an idea of the poet very different from the seventh- and sixth-century lyric poets and the fifth-century tragedians.  Homer the poet, for example, was regarded not so much as the “composer” of his material, but honored as the singer of a common mythical, social, linguistic, and historical heritage.  With the rise of the lyric poets, the poet’s personal experience became inseparable from the topic and writing of the work; while by the time of tragedy’s maturity, the identification of author and work was secure enough to warrant the presentation of literary prizes to the author-in-flesh.

I intend to explore this idea of the birth of the author in Greek literature and its speculative relationship to the question of Greek individuality and will as explored in the work of Bruno Snell, Albin Lesky, Jean-Pierre Vernant, and Pierre Vidal-Nacquet.  With reference to their work and readings from epic, lyric and tragedy, I hope to propose answers to such questions as:  What are the functions of the poet-author in epic, lyric and tragedy?  How does Hesiod’s invocation of the muses (Theogony 22-35), for example, exhibit the relationship between pre-classical poet and his material?  How does Homer’s portrayal of Demodokos in Book VIII of the Odyssey lend to and complicate this discussion?  How do these relationships between the epic poet and his poem differ from the relationship between the lyric poet and his poem, and the tragic poet and his drama?  And finally, what role does innovation play in the emergence of the author?