Gloria Huang
Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
ARTH 491-8 The visual culture of the prehistoric Aegean
Gloria Huang
[email protected]
1
Gloria Huang
Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
Introduction
Many scholars have investigated the relationship between the Homeric epics and the
Bronze Age Aegean, discussing such issues as the identification of specific sites as part of the
Homeric setting. This so-called “Homeric problem” has deep roots in the Aegean archaeological
data as a result of pioneers like Heinrich Schliemann, who treated the epics as treasure maps of a
sort. The drive to understand how these well-known poems actually related to the Greeks’ past is
particularly strong. One of the recent approaches discussed by Sarah Morris focuses on the
identification of what she terms “epic similes” in Aegean art as precursors to the epic narratives
in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Morris looks at how heroic formulae, like the lion hunt, chariot
scenes or feasting scenes are expressed visually and pinpoints them as direct precursors to the
themes present in the epics; she believes that Homeric epics as we know them develop when
those formulae are elaborated upon and given specific names 1 . In addition, she also suggests
that epic, or at least narrative poetry existed alongside the Theran frescoes because it is difficult
to imagine that the subject matter and execution of the naval frieze could have been conceived of
without an oral narrative tradition present as well.
While it is certainly helpful to identify commonly treated themes throughout Aegean
history, viewing these similes as links between the narrative forms is problematic. One must
consider the situations in which these themes and similes were used; both oral poetry and visual
art are performances that play out in very different ways. Comparisons of thematic groups in
poetry and the visual arts are difficult, since they are put together differently and serve different
functions. It is more likely that narrative in the visual arts and narrative in oral poetry of the time
were mutually linked, each influencing the other in terms of subject matter and iconography. Our
only evidence for oral poetry lies in the Homeric epics, which are far removed chronologically
from late Bronze Age art. It would be impossible to infer the syntactic and rhythmic structure of
these contemporary poems through the visual arts; we can only identify the presence of
narrativity and the strains of common iconic themes. Through examining how the differences in
performance come to bear on the way narrative is conveyed in each art form, I hope to illustrate
the pitfalls that come with any kind of scholarly investigation that looks at pre-historic Aegean
art as a direct precursor to the Homeric epics.
Epic Poetry and the Oral Society
Both the Iliad and the Odyssey are possibly the earliest transcriptions of orally
transmitted poetry in Greek times; they are a product of a long history of oral societies that
viewed the medium of writing as meant for bureaucratic purposes. For this reason, the epics had
their origins in the tradition of storytelling, in which a bard (who we know as Homer) recited the
poem to an audience using a vast pool of spoken formulae to structure the narrative. The poem,
therefore, is born from performance. The narrative quality of the poems is undeniable, as they
are composed through a particular arrangement of formulae around the bare facts of a story in a
1
Morris, Sarah P. “A Tale of Two Cities: The Miniature Frescoes from Thera and the Origins of Greek Poetry” in
American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 93, No. 4 (Oct., 1998), pg. 511-535
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Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
way that is engaging for the audience of the time. 2 In this method of storytelling, the bard’s own
skill at molding his memorized stock phrases around any particular subject becomes paramount.
Several elements of performance are particularly salient in comparison to our later
examination of the Theran wall paintings as an example of Bronze Age art. Firstly, we must
investigate the relationship between the artist, the work, and the audience in the overall narrative
experience. Secondly, we must also consider the function of stock phrases or themes in the
works. We may more closely evaluate the approach used by Morris and others through these
focus points.
The bard, during a performance, makes use of the stock phrases in his memory that
conform to meter and rhythm. These may be classified in groups: 1. noun-adjective combinations
(“bright eyed Pallas” 3 ), 2. repeated lines (“When young dawn with her rose-red fingers appeared
once more” 4 ), and 3. themes. Bowra suggests that these phrases help the bard in the task of oral
composition, as they most likely had to produce an essentially new song every time they
performed. This means that details such as the names of two people who are battling may vary,
but the structure of the battle is formed from the same phrases. As the bard performed for an
audience, he would also have to constantly gauge their interest levels and elaborate accordingly.
What can be deduced about the way narrative meaning is negotiated and communicated
in the kind of oral society that the Homeric epics come from? In a narrative, events are ordered
in a very human timeline; the construction of a narrative is reflective of cultural values and
ideology because events are singled out and placed in a causational sequence. Cultural memory
is sequenced and understood through narratives. The significance of temporal organization in a
narrative is a result of the meaning attributed to each event that humans choose to include. 5 In
the case of the epics, where the historical Aegean is synthesized with myth, cultural memory
plays out in full force when different elements from the entire continuum of “the past” exist
alongside each other. References to bronze weapons coexist with references to iron agricultural
and industrial tools. 6 There was certainly never such a condition in Aegean history. It is possible
to conclude, therefore, that chronological accuracy was not important in the structuring of the
epic narrative. For this reason, efforts to identify the Mycenae of Agamemnon as portrayed in
the epics are already troubled. The cultural memory reflected in the epic narratives is a shifting
amalgam of images that has been passed down generations through continual poetic structuring.
The relevant question to ask in this case is whether the structure that we find in the epics is a
direct descendent of the structure seen in art pieces such as the Akrotiri frescoes from the Bronze
Age.
2
Bowra, C.M. “The Comparative Study of Homer”, in American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 54, No. 3, (Jul.Sept., 1950), pg. 185.
3
Fagles, Robert, trans., The Odyssey. New York: Penguin Group, 1996. pg. 105, ln. 422 These examples are pulled
in no particular order from the book to illustrate the groups discussed.
4
Ibid., pg. 191 ln. 1 Also appears on pg 221 ln. 344. This line is one of the most repeated epithets throughout the
epic, as it is used as an opener to lead into passages.
5
Bruner, Jerome. “The Narrative Construction of Reality” in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Autumn 1991) pg. 6
6
Snodgrass, A.M. “An Historical Homeric Society?” in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 94. (1974), pg. 122
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Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
Prehistoric Aegean visual art and Narrative
Studies on Aegean pictorial art have constantly battled with the question of how to
identify narrativity. There is a distinct lack of narrative text in Linear B, and text is rarely used
as an identifier for figures in art the way it is seen abundantly in narrative Classical pottery.
Because of this, there is very little to discuss on narrative art from the Bronze Age if one defines
narrative art as depictions of singular and significant events involving specific people. 7 In many
cases, such as with bull-leaping scenes (the Toreador fresco as an example) and hunting scenes
found across a variety of contexts, iconography prevails as a sort of generic indicator of loose
narrative. Bull-leaping scenes are common in Aegean art, and all aspects of its representation
from the young, lithe bodies of the bull leapers to the flying gallop pose of the bull are familiar
enough to remind viewers of the actual activity of bull-leaping. In other words, repeated
exposure to such themes aid in their interpretation as vague narratives because the iconographic
event becomes familiar to the viewer. Another potential form of narrative shows in ritual scenes
in which depictions of a procession or ceremony coupled with evocative gestures from the
figures may encourage the viewer to envision the ritual activity and reconstruct a simple
narrative from knowledge of that activity. Examples of this are found in the Sacred Grove fresco
from Knossos, the Xeste 3 frescoes on Akrotiri, or on painted Mycenaean larnakes. Gesture, in
particular, is often looked to as a story-telling component, since it suggests motivated action.
These examples, however, are not totally compelling narratives because of their lack of
sequential drive. 8 In the Sacred Grove fresco there is a large scope in the number of figures
represented and a spacious setting, but the lack of any indication of a preceding or successive
event/action locks the picture in one still moment. In her dissertation titled “The Question of
Narrative in Aegean Bronze Age Art”, Candace Cain identifies the miniature frieze from the
West House at Akrotiri (also often referred to as the naval frieze or the “flotilla” frieze) as a
striking exception from other contemporary art in terms of composition and subject. There is a
clear impulse towards successive events in the directional movement of the boats, as well as a
continued unified space (water, land, and even a river stemming from the ocean). Cain considers
this particular work instrumental in provoking many specialists to investigate narrative in other
Aegean art like those previously discussed. 9
The miniature naval frieze has been the subject of a great deal of scrutiny by scholars
focusing on its broad scope and descriptive style. Many have described the frieze as an example
of epic art, which is inextricably linked with the idea that the Homeric epics developed from
these works. The landscape in the frieze is drawn from a high and wide perspective, which
allows many subjects to be shown together. Certainly the broader scope of the visuals lends a
greater sense of magnitude to the scene shown, in terms of how many details are encompassed
within the frame of the painting. Whether or not the scene depicted qualifies as an epic or heroic
narrative is an issue up for debate, one that will not be discussed here for present purposes.
7
Cain, Candace Dawn. “The Question of Narrative in Aegean Bronze Age Art” (Ph.D diss., University of Toronto,
1997), pg. 157 Cain investigates the degree of specificity found in several commonly discussed examples of Aegean
Bronze Age art in order to understand how the notion of narrative art is usually brought up.
8
Cain, pg. 175 Cain also cites the example of the Isotopa ring in her discussion of ritual narratives, concluding that
the narrative value of these examples is low.
9
Ibid. pg. 177
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Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
Cain’s review of scholarship done on the miniature frieze elucidates two compelling
arguments represented by Televantou and Morgan. Televantou maintains that the frieze shows a
continuous narrative around all four walls of Room 5, beginning with west wall. Morgan does
not deem the frieze a true narrative and treats it thematically. The argument over narrativity
shows how each researcher has his or her own biases towards particular ways of viewing; there is
no easy answer based on the available evidence. However, Cain brings up the question of how
the frieze might have functioned in the oral society that produced it. One of the approaches to
the content of the frieze involves looking for parallels with the structure of epic poetry in the use
of parataxis, which structures a narrative through the juxtaposition of motifs instead of
continuous narration. 10 In this regard, the piece does not need a unifying idea because it is
composed in segments that are strung along one after another; this corresponds with the
construction of an oral narrative, in which the bard treats a scene as he arrives at it, expanding or
shortening his descriptive use of motifs in response to the mood of the audience.
The approach used by Morris in her examination of the West House frieze as proof of an
existing oral poetic tradition emphasizes parallels in composition and metaphoric content. Morris
lists the different motifs present in the frieze, likening them to motifs from the Homeric epics.
Some of the motifs outlined in her study include a gathering of old and young men, lions
roaming the plains, as well as epic episodes such as the drowning of a few men. Though these
comparisons fit neatly together when Morris draw upon specific passages from the epics, how
can we determine a link between their visual format and their oral format, aside from a simple
sharing of subject matter? One argument put forth earlier referenced the paratactical structure of
the frieze, which would account for the lack of specific figures to focus on throughout the whole
naval scene. Morris uses this concept to explain the lack of explicit narrative structure; she links
the sailing ships on the frieze to the catalogue of ships, which is a passage recounting the
captains and contingents of all the ships in a fleet that is inserted into the narration of the epic.
The passage is located in book 2 of the Iliad, with no lead-in or lead-out from the narrative. In
the Iliad, Homer breaks off the narrative to invoke the help of the muses (a phrase which
functions as a commonly used formula to lead into new passages) for the sole purpose of this
recitation. The poet, in this case, would have been displaying his systematic memorization of
names, an almost virtuoso display in oral culture. Morris posits that the ornamentation and detail
on the fresco ships, such as the motifs associated with specific boats and the people depicted on
them, would correspond with emblems detailing the origin of the boats from the catalogue.
Unlike the ships in the catalogue, however, these vessels are not simply inserted arbitrarily into
the context of the fresco; they are complemented by smaller, less detailed boats that are shown
docking at the ports. Furthermore, the actions of the figures in the city on the right acknowledge
the presence of the ships, running up and down the mountain as if to communicate to the people
in town.
There would be no need for a catalogue of ships in the context of the West House frieze,
as the format of the wall painting is meant to show the movement of the ships from one end to
another. The catalogue of ships is purely a display impressive performance by the bard who is
reciting it, which is a dimension wholly absent from narrative in a wall painting. It may be
helpful to study the ways pictorial content is combined with the physical presence and
experience of the art object.
10
Cain, pg. 188
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Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
The West House frieze and Performance
The issue of performance is also highly relevant when discussing the West House frieze
because it addresses the experiential component of the art piece. Performance can be explained
in terms of several factors; Mike Pearson suggests that performance is organized around the
variables of status, space, ostension, time, omission, narrative, behavior and choreography. 11
How can an actual work of art embedded within a fixed frame be considered as a performance
then? In Pearson’s example of funerary practices, in which the roles of spectators interact with
the display of the deceased’s body, he suggests that the physical trappings of the performance
space actually function as vehicles for meaningful experience on the part of the spectators.
Performance is born from the process of ostension (the display of certain objects such as the
body of the deceased to engage with the spectators) and how it aids the formation of narrative
within each viewer (in this case, the passing of the deceased person into something beyond this
world). This explanation of performance emphasizes the interaction of spectators with a staged
space; even in a situation where no person is in the role of a performer, a performance can be
realized through the actions of the spectators.
Frescoes, as art forms that occupy architectural space, create a physically engaging
experience for the viewer. In the case of the naval frieze in the West House, different scenes of
the one continuous narrative are seen as the viewer walks around the room; it is thought that the
frieze ran across the top of the room, above the areas where the Fisherman fresco and so-called
Priestess fresco are located. 12 There is a unity of style that connects them; the perspective and
other compositional elements are consistent. The performance aspect of the frieze is rooted in
active participation on the part of the viewer in drawing together a coherent story from the
images present in the room. When treating the art as performance one must consider the role of
the artist in constructing the piece with an audience in mind; the artist composes both the
elements within the frame of the fresco as well as the actual spatial layout of the piece in such a
way that his narrative intentions can be realized when the audience confronts it. The
organization of picture elements according to the long band style of the frieze clearly encourages
a horizontally moving view; as each portion of the picture is focused on, the viewer can establish
a sense of environment within the represented scene, and eventually actors. Narration is therefore
played out in this mental activity on the part of the viewer and the performance or the art piece is
realized. In other words, the composition within the picture frame relies on the active
involvement of the viewer in progressively digesting the continuous band of the frieze.
Morris’ treatment of the frieze singles out units of action or characters that relate to
generic poetic units. For example, she identifies the scenes of arrival and departure that are part
of a broader tradition of representation in maritime cultures, relating them to descriptions of
arrival and departure from the epics. The passage from the Odyssey that Morris uses to illustrate
the scene or arrival describes handsome harbors on each side of the city, a narrow causeway, and
an assembly place built from quarried stone. These elements can be seen in the South frieze
where many boats are heading, though there are also many specific details in the depiction of the
city and the boats around it that are no less important than those mentioned by Morris; for
11
Pearson, Mike. “Performance as Valuation: Early Bronze Age Burial as Theatrical Complexity', in The
Archaeology of Prestige and Wealth, vol. 730. D. Bailey (ed.), pp. 32-41. Oxford: BAR International Series. (1998)
12
Doumas, C., Alex Doumas (trans). “The Wall Paintings of Thera” Greece: Kapon Editions (1992). Article
accessed from The Thera Foundation <http://www.therafoundation.org/akrotiri/thewesthouse/thewesthouse>
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Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
instance, the reddish building by the mountain (Fig.1) is many stories tall, and it stands next to
the bay below a structure high on the mountain. 13 These descriptions are only meant to illustrate
how varied details can get; while both oral poetry and visual arts undoubtedly draw upon the
same tradition of maritime cultures, it would be difficult to identify a specific formula for the
generic port town. In fact, the other town seen in the South frieze appears very different, with no
impressive flight of stairs of communal square in the middle.
Accounts of arrivals by sea in the Homeric epics are most likely influenced by cultural
memory or imagery that comes out of years of naval activity, but the attention to detail
throughout the entire frieze suggests that there is a great emphasis on the skill of the painter in
rendering the shapes of the town, boats, and people in a visually coherent way. The painter’s
care to position the boats to that they do no overlap and the negotiation of the bird’s eye view
with the side view on the landscape versus the town buildings reveals a familiarity with the
technical ability to render the subjects in a long frieze format. We return to the role of the artist,
which can be compared with that of the poet or bard in oral composition; the artist is once
removed from the experience of his work by others, with only his technical skill in manipulating
perspective and landscape to use as a tool to aid the viewers’ comprehension of the overall scene.
Since the viewer is instrumental in the creation of narrative in the friezes, a certain
subjective and mutable process of interpretation is at work as well; the viewer’s own recognition
of familiar building structures, ships, or landscape are evocative descriptors that flesh out the
narrative. Going back to Pearson’s example of performance in funerary rites, the entire purpose
of the performance is to play out a narrative within each spectator that deals with the passage of
the deceased beyond the living realm. In the case of the frescoes, the narrative portrayed would
rely a great deal on the function of the room as a whole, as well as the identity of the viewer. As
there is still debate over the function of the room, it is entirely possible that the room housed
different kinds of rituals (whether secular or religious) depending on the occasion. In that case,
the frescoes would take on different meanings depending on the kind of activity going on in the
room. Although the cities and boats depicted in the frieze seem to be representative of generic
Just as the human body can perform its gender through representational style, (as
discussed by German in the article “Performance, Power, and the Art of the Aegean Bronze
Age” 14 ) the friezes can also perform a narrative through their formal construction. When the
artist painted the frieze, he would have had to consider the role of the composition in its specific
location in the room, and how the positioning of each visual component would be experienced by
the spectators. The spectator’s act of viewing the fresco, which may vary depending on the
circumstances that bring him or her to the room, then creates the meaningful narrative that
defines the purpose of the frieze. This narrative would not be fixed by any means, but actually
dependent on the circumstances surrounding the viewer’s experience.
Other forms of Aegean art and the epic simile
Other forms of art have been studied in a manner similar to Morris’ work with the West
House frescoes. The impulse to find hints of the Homeric environment inside Bronze Age
13
Morris, pg. 519
German, Senta. Performance, Power, and the Art of the Aegean Bronze Age. Hadrian: British Archaeological
Reports. (2005)
14
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Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
artifacts is strong, though still beset with problems when one considers the context that the art
was originally experienced in. Alynne Grace discusses the imagery found on various Bronze Age
seals, comparing the glyptic examples with passages of Homeric poetry. 15 Like Morris, Grace
takes the example of a single scene and relates it to a broader theme that is treated in epic poetry,
such as the image of a lion attacking its prey. The focus on identifying common imagery, in this
case, avoids addressing the question on how these icons would have been seen and experienced
through their specific mediums. Grace makes a suggestion that seals functioned for their owners
as epithets in epic poetry did for the characters they were linked to; in other words, the contents
of the seals were descriptive units that gain meaning when associated repeatedly with a specific
figure.
Pictorial sealings were meant to be seen by large numbers of people since they were a
method of attributing ownership and status to all kinds of objects. What dimensions of
performance did their use involve? As Grace has established, the seals were linked to one’s
persona within the social sphere, so that possessions could be claimed. In this respect, the seals
were a stylistic performance of social prominence, just as stylistic renderings of a woman’s body
performed her gender. 16 In addition, the imprints of the seals were used to attribute
administrative information to the objects they adorned. After the introduction of writing, sealings
also sometimes bore written information detailing the specific contents of the container. 17 In
some cases, the sealings dealt with quantities that were not directly represented by the objects
they sealed; some scholars contend that this means the sealings themselves were authoritative
documents independent of the importance of the objects they sealed.
What did the pictorial images contribute in this scenario? The concept of performance
can include the way one’s personal image is ordered within the social system. The establishment
and use of a uniform administrative system, therefore, could have elevated the iconography of
the seals to a higher degree of performance; that is, the seals performed on a mass, public level
that was connected with the palatial government. Therefore, descriptive or adjectival images on
the seals themselves work to associate culturally recognized motifs with socioeconomic
materials. Seals may fit into a role similar to the previously discussed iconographic works where
the familiarity of an icon helped determine a general narrative or theme that could be associated
with a particular person or object. This contrasts with the role of both oral poetry and the
miniature frescoes, which emphasize a sort of “spectatorial consciousness” 18 characteristic of
larger scale narrative. It would be difficult to evaluate the comparison of seals to epic similes
when they are not performed as part of a narrative, since similes work as basic units that make up
the flavor of the narrative composition.
The study of imagery on sealings and seals does reveal the tendency of familiar themes
and subjects to reappear across multiple contexts. As we have discussed so far, motifs such as
the lion as predator, warriors fighting beasts, chariot races, or even more simple imagery like
flying birds or dolphins show up on wall paintings, seals, and poetry. This should not be too
15
Grace, Alynne C. “Aegean Seals and Oral Literacy in Bronze Age Greece” (Master’s thesis, The State University
of New York at Buffalo, 2005)
16
German
17
Younger, John G. “Review Article: Seals and Sealing Practices: The Ancient Near East and Bronze Age Aegean”.
In American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 100, No. 1, (Jan. 1996), pg. 1
18
Cain, pg. 176 Cain references Winter in using this phrase to describe the kind of interaction between image text
and audience that requires less effort on the part of the audience to decipher the narrative.
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Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
surprising, given that the works of art that use these motifs come from the same culture and share
the same history. What is important to keep in mind is that motifs can be molded to represent
different things depending on the medium they are put into; this was seen in the connection
between seals and administrative authority. The image of dolphins jumping on a sealing could
be linked with the perseverance of Euryalos during a boxing match 19 , thus connecting tenacity
with ownership; on the other hand, the dolphins could be connected with the poetic description
of a seascape as in the text of the Shield of Herakles 20 . Whatever the medium, it may already be
difficult to judge what exactly the images stand for, making connections across media such as
those claimed by Grace and Morris very shaky.
Conclusion
The difference in how performance is structured in epic poetry compared to narrative art
is a vital distinction in regards to the question of whether poetic structure is reflected in visual
composition. The Homeric epics as experienced in its time by an audience listening to a bard
were constructed through a real-time activity in which the bard ordered stock phrases around the
events of a specific story. Similies and epithets functioned as building blocks that were very
familiar to the audience, strengthening their usefulness as anchor points that keep the pace of the
poem flowing and interest high. Their actual content did not necessarily contribute to the action
of the narrative, but instead evoked a sense of recognition from the audience that drew upon the
collective cultural memory.
In contrast to the oral epics, the art of the Bronze Age that deals with similarly large-scale
narrative used the building blocks of its subjects as spatially ordered segments that contributed to
the overall work by compelling the viewers towards movement across the rest of the frieze. The
viewer is in fact responsible for constructing the narrative through participating in the
performance of the art, unlike the audience of the bard; in oral poetry the bard is responsible for
arranging the lyric formulae to grasp his audience’s attention as he leads them through the
narrative. Through the example of the West House miniature friezes, we can see how the
audience was required to move throughout the room to view the entire pictorial sequence, while
the role of the room itself as a setting for some kind of social activity helped alter the framework
from which to approach the scenes in the friezes. This distinction makes it difficult to compare
the small components of each piece, for how can we compare the completely separate and
mobile units of oral stock phrases with the permanently positioned and specifically functional
pieces of visual characters? Narrative is constructed differently in these two cases.
The Homeric epic poetry and its chronological predecessor Bronze Age art undoubtedly
share a bond through the cultural memory. Morris’ identification of themes such as the lion hunt
as stock formulae carried down in history from the frescoes to the Homeric epics may be too
bold of a connection; instead, it may be more constructive to view these examples as images or
symbols that persisted in the collective memory through repeated treatment in various art forms.
As was mentioned earlier, the details in oral epics are never chronologically consistent because
19
Grace, pg. 16 the dolphin seal was grouped with other seals depicting fish, which Grace linked to the one passage
of the Iliad.
20
Morris, pg. 517 Morris actually uses this example to show a connection between the painted dolphins on the
fresco and poetry, which is also a claim that cannot ever be fully substantiated due to the variability of meaning in
these motifs.
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Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
of their function as representatives of a generic cultural past. Abundant evidence can also be
found for the presence of themes such as the hunt/chase of animals. While the persistence of this
kind of simile is certainly a testament to a shared cultural history, it must be kept in mind that the
specific use of the simile varies depending on the medium in which it appears.
Fig. 1 : Portion of the West House miniature frieze - South wall
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Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance
Bibliography
Bowra, C.M. “The Comparative Study of Homer”, in American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 54,
No. 3, (Jul.-Sept., 1950), pg. 184-192
Bruner, Jerome. “The Narrative Construction of Reality” in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18, No. 1
(Autumn 1991) pg. 1-21
Cain, Candace Dawn. “The Question of Narrative in Aegean Bronze Age Art” (Ph.D diss.,
University of Toronto, 1997)
Doumas, C., Alex Doumas (trans). “The Wall Paintings of Thera” Greece: Kapon Editions
(1992). Article accessed from The Thera Foundation
<http://www.therafoundation.org/akrotiri/thewesthouse/thewesthouse>
Fagles, Robert, trans., The Odyssey. New York: Penguin Group, 1996
German, Senta. Performance, Power, and the Art of the Aegean Bronze Age. Hadrian: British
Archaeological Reports. (2005)
Grace, Alynne C. “Aegean Seals and Oral Literacy in Bronze Age Greece” (Master’s thesis, The
State University of New York at Buffalo, 2005)
Morris, Sarah P. “A Tale of Two Cities: The Miniature Frescoes from Thera and the Origins of
Greek Poetry” in American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 93, No. 4 (Oct., 1998), pg. 511-535
Pearson, Mike. “Performance as Valuation: Early Bronze Age Burial as Theatrical Complexity',
in The Archaeology of Prestige and Wealth, vol. 730. D. Bailey (ed.), pg. 32-41. Oxford: BAR
International Series. (1998)
Snodgrass, A.M. “An Historical Homeric Society?” in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 94.
(1974), pg. 114-125
Younger, John G. “Review Article: Seals and Sealing Practices: The Ancient Near East and
Bronze Age Aegean”. In American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 100, No. 1, (Jan. 1996) pg.
176-179
11