Palamedes

The Victim and the Hero of Letters

Elia, Marinova

Lucida intervalla

35

1

11

1450-6645

http://emu.f.bg.ac.rs/lucidaintervalla/issues/35(2007-1).pdfhttp://emu.f.bg.ac.rs/lucidaintervalla/issues/35(2007-1).pdf

2007-2020/04/16/10:30:53

The ancient interpretations of Palamedes’ life and death convey an old intuition that letters may be a dangerous gift, a destructive power which may cause damage or death to the inventor, or even create confrontation with the community. The mythical figure of Palamedes, a hero absent in the Iliad, attracted the attention of several genres and époques because of his important inventions and his tragic death. This paper is a kind of diachronic portrait of the πρῶτος εὑρετής, recognized subsequently as a victim or a hero of the letters.

Attic tragedy, Cyclic poems, Function of letters, Greek myths about the origins of the alphabet, Palamedes, Sophistics