Kunstsprache (Homer)

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Thomas McConnell (University of Oxford)

Ed. by Victoria Fendel, University of Oxford
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Eleni Bozia (University of Florida), Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Anca Dan (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL), Martine Diepenbroek (University of Johannesburg), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Victoria Fendel (University of Oxford), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University), Guendalina Daniela Maria Taietti (University of Liverpool)

Domains

Literary Theory/ Critical approach

Dates

Date of occurrence c.-900- c.-500

Places

Ancient Greece (Location)

Resources

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For a survey of different dialectal forms, see the entry

Literary Dialects

General Introduction

General Introduction

The language that makes up the Iliad and Odyssey – ancient Greek epic poems composed in hexameter and traditionally ascribed to a poet Homer – is a special variety of ancient Greek. This Greek was never used as a language for everyday communication, instead being a poetic language in which hexameter poetry was composed; the term conventionally used for this is the German word Dichtersprache, a “poetic language”. More specifically, however, this Greek is also an “artificial language”, the conventional term for which is the German Kunstsprache. The language of the Homeric poems is a Kunstsprache due to the fact that it is characterised by not only a mixture of

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4982 words

Citation: McConnell, Thomas. "Kunstsprache (Homer)". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 May 2025 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19785, accessed 17 July 2025.]