Epigonoi: Sons of the Seven against Thebes (Part 3) - the Epic Cycle

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In this third video on the Epigonoi - the epic of the Sons of the Seven against Thebes. We consider the epic itself, and its place in the epic cycle.

Only a single line survives. Why do we have even that? Was the epic part of the epic cycle? Was the epic cycle even a thing? And what did Homer have to do with it all?

AI disclosure: some of the images in this video are AI-generated. Nothing else in this video is AI-generated.

00:01 - Introduction
00:34 - sources: where did the single line come from?
04:01 - first line breakdown
08:36 - authorship
10:49 - The epic cycle
12:53 - Homer versus the epic cycle
18:09 - Homer and the Peisistratids (especial credit to Nagy 2015)
19:19 - attribution of cyclic epics to Homer... and then not...
20:40 - further analysis of the Epigonoi
23:23 - making it up

Primary Sources:

- The contest of Homer and Hesiod
- Aristophanes, Peace
- Milton, Paradise Lost
- Homer, Iliad and Odyssey
- the Thebaid (fragment)
- the Epigonoi (fragment)
- Battle of the Frogs and Mice
- Hesiod, Theogony
- Virgil, the Aeneid
- Herodotos, Histories

Secondary Sources:
P. Bassino, the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi - a commentary
M. Davies (2014), the Theban Epics
M. Davies (1989), the Greek Epic Cycle
Fantuzzi and Tsagalis (eds) (2015), The Greek Epic Cycle and its Ancient Reception
E. Cingano (2015), the Epigonoi (in Fantuzzi and Tsagalis)
G. Nagy (2015), Oral Traditions, written texts and questions of authorship (in Fantuzzi and Tsagalis)
M.L. West (2013/2015), The formation of the Epic Cycle (in Fantuzzi and Tsagalis)

[Captions updated].
#greekmythology #ancientgreece #ancientgreek #literarycriticism #literature