Praeconia Maeonidae magni

This book addresses different episodes from the traditional biography of Homer, such as his consecration as a poet, his contest with Hesiod, and his death after losing a riddle contest. The main emphasis is on the ongoing study of the “Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi,” which here is interpreted as a retelling of the Troy saga in the spirit of the sophists, and is hypothetically assigned to Gorgias of Leontini, as is the story of the blinding and the consecration of Homer as a poet at the grave of Achilles (according to testimony from the “Vita Romana” and the Plato scholia of Hermias of Alexandria). These stories are, on the basis of international parallels—especially from northwestern Europe in the Middle Ages—interpreted as a version of a myth of the island of Lesbos from the 6th c. BC. The book also includes an appendix dealing with the episode of Homer’s poetic consecration in the “Silvae” of Angelo Poliziano, and in a painting of Pietro Testa, both of which represent valuable evidence for the reception of an unjustly forgotten episode in the life of Homer.