1840—
Letter to Caroline Sturgis
p124read
“Here are Chapman and Tennyson, and Mr E's letter which give me tomorrow.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
Iliad (Homer)
Folklore & Mythology Book
Documented in Fuller’s letters, books, journals, notebooks, manuscripts
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Related
- Entities
- Odysseus (Ulysses)
- Authors
- Homer · George Chapman
Representative documentary evidence
1842—
Letter to William H. Channing(?)
p80read
“his, like mine, is the Ulysses of the Odyssey, with his deep romance of wisdom, and not the worldling of the Iliad”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. III. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.
1843—
Ganymede to His Eagle
p1analyzed · readManuscript page
“Upon the rocky mountain stood the boy, / A goblet of pure water in his hand [...] I've filled the vase which our Olympian king / Upon my care for his sole use bestowed [...] Thy fellow bondsman in a royal cause [...] Which binds our dim fates to the throne of Jove.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Ganymede to His Eagle." Boston Public Library Archives & Special Collections; MS Am. 1450; Box: 3, Folder: 134.
Inferred Identification rationale not yet recorded.
1843—
Summer on the Lakes, in 1843
analyzed · read4 selected passages
“They cannot reef and brace other than in a Homeric dialect”
Inferred Homeric dialect' is a direct allusion to Homer's elevated and precise epic diction.
“which feat our charioteer performed with an air not unlike that of Rhesus, had he but been as suitably furnished with chariot and steeds!”
Inferred Fuller names 'Rhesus' as a figure of a dashing charioteer without citing a textual source; the reference draws on Iliad Book 10 and/or Euripides' tragedy Rhesus. Rhesus was a mythological king of Thrace and ally of Troy in the Iliad (Book 10), famous for his magnificent white horses and golden armor.
The allusion is to the classical tradition, principally Homer's Iliad 10.435-514 or the tragedy Rhesus attributed to Euripides.
“Here I thought of, or rather saw, what the Greek expresses under the form of Jove's darling, Ganymede, and the following stanzas took form.”
Inferred Fuller explicitly names Ganymede as the Greek mythological figure inspiring her poem 'Ganymede to His Eagle.' She identifies him as 'Jove's darling.' The myth appears first in Homer's Iliad and was also extensively in Pindar, Virgil, and other classical authors.
“The scene in which he appears, accompanied by his wife?who seems to have gone hand in hand with him in this matter?lays down all his best things in a heap, in the middle of the hall, as a ransom for the captive, and his little, quiet speech, are as good as the Iliad.”
Fuller, Margaret. Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1844.
1845—
New-York Daily Tribune
“Alfieri and Cellini” · 1845quoted · read2 selected passages
“This sort of man is the modern Achilles, "the tamer of horses.”
Inferred The source is inferred from the quoted phrase; it is uncertain whether Fuller is quoting Homer precisely or using a proverbial Homeric tag.
“In Greek, Homer is a book for a boy; must you give him Plato because it is harder?”
Inferred Fuller recommends "Homer" as suitable reading for a boy, contrasting it with Plato's perceived difficulty, which suggests her familiarity with Homeric texts, though she does not specify either the Iliad or the Odyssey.
Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860.
1845—
Woman in the Nineteenth Century
p198-199analyzed · read
“The Andromache here is just as lovely as that of the Iliad. To her child whom they are about to murder, the same that was frightened at the "glittering plume.”
Fuller, Margaret. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1845.
Inferred Iliad referenced via Andromache and the 'glittering plume' scene; Hector and Achilles compared. Named explicitly as 'the Iliad.' The 'glittering plume' is from Iliad Book 6 (Andromache-Hector farewell scene, where baby Astyanax is frightened by Hector's helmet).
1846—
Papers on Literature and Art
p158quoted · read
“as Menelaus to his kingly brother, "Shall my affairs / Go pleasantly, while thine are full of woe!”
Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.
Inferred Identification rationale not yet recorded.
Lines attributed to Menelaus speaking to Agamemnon, 'Shall my affairs / Go pleasantly, while thine are full of woe?' — closest source is Homer's Iliad or a Greek tragedy.
1849—
L-2 [Letter 845, August 1849, To Horace Greeley]
quoted
“you are resigned; you make holy profit of it; the spear has entered and forced out the heart's blood, the pure ichor follows.”
L-2 [Letter 845, August 1849, To Horace Greeley]
1849—
Journal 1847–1849
p47mentionedManuscript page
“Il resto aspetta a Dio e alla virtù dell'esempio che Omero ci dà. [The rest belongs to God and to the virtue of the example that Homer gives us.]”
Fuller, Margaret. "Journal 1847–1849." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (94); Box 4.
Inferred The specific Homeric work is not identified; both the Iliad and the Odyssey are possible referents.
The name 'Omero' (Homer) appears in Mazzini's letter transcribed by Fuller; Mazzini invokes 'la virtù dell'esempio che Omero ci dà' ('the virtue of the example that Homer gives us'). This is a reference by another author (Mazzini) within a document Fuller transcribed and included in her journal. Referenced by another author: Homer ('Omero') is invoked by Giuseppe Mazzini in his letter to the President of the Roman Constituent Assembly (dated Florence, 25 February 1849), which Fuller transcribed in full in her journal (pp. 46–48).
1859—
B-1-30 [Thanksgiving] p243
quoted
“It is this spirit that makes the old man to be revered as a Nestor, rather than put aside like a worn-out garment.”
B-1-30 [Thanksgiving] p243
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
n.d.—
On Friendship
quotedManuscript page
“in the figures on antique gems and bas-reliefs of meetings between the gods, it is yours I find, by far they present me another with the fall flower of being rather than grow together.”
Fuller, Margaret. "On Friendship." Unbound pages, undated. Boston Public Library Archives & Special Collections; MS Am. 1450; Box: 2, Folder: 96.
n.d.—
Notebook 1842
p28mentionedManuscript page
“In one of the manuscripts which was in / the hands of the interpreters when I was / at Pompeii, the author indulges in the / speculation that all the Homeric / personages were allegorical — that / Agamemnon was the ether, Achilles the / sun, Helen the earth, Paris the air, / Hector the moon &c”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notebook 1842." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (90); Box 6.
Inferred The title is inferred as the Iliad because all named characters (Agamemnon, Achilles, Helen, Paris, Hector) are figures of the Iliad.