Three and then some: A typology of poetic enumeration in Greek and related Indo-European traditions

This thesis examines enumerative patterns attested in Greek poetry and several related literary traditions, their structure and commonly occurring stylistic devices, in order to establish a classification of poetic lists according to their length and typological characteristics. Chapter I explains the methodology and gives an overview of the literary traditions treated in subsequent chapters: Anatolian (Hittite), Old Irish, Old Persian and South Slavic.;Chapter 2 analyses a poetic genre known in Greek literature as the priamel. It identifies several different types, and argues that the priamel is an evaluative counterpart of shorter enumerative lists termed bounded sets, sharing with them a close typological relationship. After classification and definition of two types of poetic lists, a set and a series, chapter 2 adduces enumerative passages in other Indo-European literatures: it identifies structures akin to Greek priamels, devoting special attention to the stylistic device called Slavic Antithesis in South Slavic tradition.;Chapter 3 explores further the syntactic and pragmatic parallels between lists and priamels on the level of morphology and syntax, primarily through comparison of ordinal numbers modifying a last entry in a set and superlatives predominant in final sections of the priamel.;Chapter 4 analyses enumerative passages in the fragments of the Presocratic philosopher Empedocles, focusing primarily on bipartite noun-phrase figures. It looks at the text of Empedocles within the larger Indo-European context: it identifies a number of inherited Indo-European motifs and stylistic devices used by the poet and common to other related poetic traditions. It also argues for iconic representation of Empedocles' view of the world in his use of bipartite pairs.;Chapter 5 examines the structure of the Orphic hymns, primarily the syntax of enumerative patterns attested in them, including bipartite noun-phrases. After a survey of Hittite hymns and prayers and comparison of the Orphic hymns with those attested in Hittite, it establishes a series of structural parallels with Hittite prayers borrowed from foreign Near Eastern sources.