Vico’s Ring
281
wording his own writings (M. Lollini,
Il mito come precomprensione storica aperta
nella Scienza nuova di Giambattista Vico
, in «BCSV», XXVI-XXVII, 1996-1997,
pp. 29-53, p. 39; G. Nencioni,
Corso e ricorso linguistico nella Scienza nuova
, in
«BCSV», XIV-XV, 1984-1985, pp. 39-62; and especially Vico’s
Correzioni,
miglioramenti e aggiunte
(corrections, refinements, and additions) in turning the
1730 edition into the final 1744 edition of
Scienza nuova
, for which see G. Vi-
co,
La Scienza nuova. Le tre edizioni,
cit., p. 777).
567
Summarizing his observations in §§ 792-803, Chapter III on “The Age
of Homer”. E. H. Cline refers to various putative anachronisms on the basis
of current historical/archaeological knowledge: cremation rather than burial;
the characteristics of chariots and fighting tactics; individual duel and method
of marching; weapons and other artifacts (Id.,
The Trojan War: A Very Short
Introduction
, Oxford-New York, Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 45-49).
568
In Nuzzo’s words: «La scienza della storia può essere data perché quella
storia ha un “ordine” che può essere ricostruito […] con una “concatenata
serie di ragioni”, e l’ “interpretare”, l’esercizio ermeneutico esercitato anche
sui tempi più distanti e favolosi, può essere ricondotto e fondato ad un ordine
di necessità logiche […]» (Historical knowledge can be obtained since history
has an “order” that can be reconstructed […] with an “interconnected series
of explanations”, and the process of “interpretation”, the hermeneutical prac-
tice applied also to very distant and legendary times, can be attributed to, and
founded on, an order of logical necessity […])» (Id.,
Tra ordine della storia e sto-
ricità
, cit., p. 101).
569
See J. Bennet: «[…] we can go some way to explaining how some fea-
tures of the material world of the Bronze Age were preserved in Homeric po-
etry, while, […] social features – and many linguistic features – were systemat-
ically and subconsciously modernized through time» (Id.,
Homer and the Bronze
Age
, cit., p. 531); similarly, E. H. Cline: «Overall, the
Iliad
seems to be a com-
pilation of details and data spanning the full range of time from the Bronze
Age to the Iron Age. This may be expected, if changes and updates were con-
stantly being made to the poem as it was handed down over the centuries, in
order to keep it fresh and relevant». Cline’s view of underlying “historicality”
vs. pure “fictionality” characterizes the evidence as «uncertain» and “equivo-
cal”, however, does not dismiss it out of hand, for example, «whether the
Greek poems are a reflection of what seems to have been more than several
hundred years of on-again, off-again conflict between the Hittites and the
Ahhiyawans (Mycenaeans) – a telescoping of numerous events into a series of
epic poems about the “war to end all wars”. […] The lines between reality and
fantasy might be blurred, particularly when Zeus, Hera, and other gods be-
come involved in the war. And we might quibble about some of the details,