Destin des heros et dessein de zeus dans l'intrigue de l'iliade
Institution:
Lille 3Disciplines:
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Abstract EN:
This book proposes an interpretation of the plot of the homeric iliad. Conceding to the analysts that the development of the action does not display the kind of organic unity to which even the most sophisticated among the unitarians seemed unwilling to renounce, it undertakes to retrieve the purport of an oral composition whose power and beauty rest on its compositeness and artificiality - the product of a conscious and intellectual artistry. It builds on the researches of the so-called "oral poetry" school, but shifts its focus from the working of an oral tradition to the meaning of the particular work which has come down to us, in the selection, elaboration and careful assemblage of his themes homer - the implied author of the iliad - introjects in his story, through a network of allusions, thematic metonymies and "refigurations" (rather than imitations), the bulk of the legend of troy. His epic offers a condensed version of the end of the heroic age. The sufferings and deaths caused to the achaeans by achilles wrath lead to the death of hector and the fall of troy, but they also foreshadow and figure the fateful return of the conquerors to their fatherlands, just as patroclos' death foreshadows achilles', and the treacheries of bk iii and iv echo and repeat the rapt of helen. The wall or the achaeans takes its significance, highlighted by the prolepse at the beginning of bk xii, from the +design of zeus; introduced by homer in the proem both as a law governing the course of events and a principle for the interpretation or the narrative. The essential duplicity of this plan rules the game of the gods, bringing about the doom of the fated city when hector, their protector, becomes the bane of his people, equal to paris. The first day of the war (bk, ii to vii) sets the trap for men and gods (but zeus) alike. While the narrative of the chariots race (bk xxiii) mirrors the main events of the story and questions the formal and ethical norms of the epic genre.
Abstract FR:
On propose une interpretation de l'intrigue de l'///^. Le developpement de l'action ne presente pas l'unite organique, simple. Que l'on attendrait, et a laquelle les grands unitariens memes ne peuvent renoncer pour reconstruire le sens d'une composition une, forte d'etre artificielle et composite, c. -a-d, intellectuelle, on s'appuie sur les travaux qui ont etabli le caractere "oral" du poeme, mais on les utilise moins pour restituer le fonctionnement d'une tradition que pour interpreter le dessin particulier d'une oeuvre dans l'usage de ses themes, homere - le poete implique de l'iliade - introjette dans son oeuvre, par un reseau de metonymies thematiques, l'ensemble de la "matiere" de troie dont il explore le propos, construisant une representation paradigmatique de l'histoire humaine l' iliade conte en raccourci la fin de l'age des heros. Si tes desastres ou le ressentiment d'achille precipite les acheens amenent a leur tour la perte d'hector et celle de troie, ils "re- figurent" aussi par anticipation ceux qui attendent les vainqueurs sur les chemins du retour (la matiere des nostor), comme la mort de patrocle 're, figure" la mort d'achille et les chants iii et iv le rapt d'helene, on eclaire par ce biais la signification du rempart acheen et de la prolepse qui ouvre le xiieme chant. L'agencement du recit devoile le destin de la ville damnee, inscrit dans la lignee de ses rois, transformant hector, son protecteur, en son fleau (l'egal de paris), la presence d'enee s'explique. On examine la signification du "dessein" de zeus designe par homere comme instance regulatrice de l'histoire et principe de "lecture" du chant, et sa place dans 1 economie du jeu divin, et l'on avance, selon cette "ruse de la raison", une interpretation de l'enchainement des episodes de la premiere journee de combat (chants ii a vii). La course des chars, dans le chant xxi ii, tend a achille l'image speculaire du drame et offre au poete l'occasion de reflechir sur la tradition epique