American Journal of Philology

Researchers, this reviewer included, have lavished attention on the Homeric simile. Zanker gives Homeric metaphor the up-to-date, book-length treatment it deserves. His analytical tool of choice is conceptual metaphor theory. The use of conceptual metaphor theory in literary studies has been both fraught and productive. The essays gathered by editor Monica Fludernik in Beyond Cognitive Metaphor Theory: Perspectives on Literary Metaphor (London, 2011) showcase the points of agreement and dispute between linguists advocating for conceptual metaphor theory and literary types. Articles by classicists, such as Douglas Cairns, Alexander Forte, Fabian Horn, and Siobhan Privitera, deploy conceptual metaphor theory to interpret various elements of Homeric poetry, but Zanker puts the weight of a monograph behind the application of the approach in Homeric studies. Another recent monograph, William Brockliss's Homeric Imagery and the Natural Environment (Washington, D.C., 2019), acknowledges a debt to conceptual metaphor theory in the introduction but does not track down specific metaphors, many attested across cultures, in the way Zanker does.

Before discussing Zanker's book, I should present some essential components of the model of conceptual metaphor theory. AFFECTION IS WARMTH is a conceptual metaphor. WARMTH is the source domain, and AFFECTION is the target domain. (By convention, conceptual metaphors and their domains are given in small capital letters.) We use the more easily understood source to make sense of the less easily grasped target. Conceptual metaphors to a great extent stem from our shared bodily experiences. The number of source domains that point to a physical sensation or activity illuminates this fact: for instance, DESIRE IS HUNGER and SEEING IS TOUCHING. Yet, no one goes around proclaiming, "Affection is warmth" (although Patti Smith does sing, "Desire is hunger"). Rather, conceptual metaphors undergird our thinking and motivate linguistic expressions. AFFECTION IS WARMTH enables "They gave me a warm welcome" or "He took a while to warm up to me." ACHIEVING POWER IS MOVING UPWARDS can explain "She rose to power in a matter of months." PEOPLE ARE PLANTS could generate "His face withered over the decade." From this perspective, metaphors abound in our everyday conversations and judgments: we come at the world through metaphor, hence the title of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's seminal book, Metaphors We Live By (1980). A handy list of conceptual metaphors appears at https://metaphor.icsi.berkeley.edu/pub/en/index.php/Category:Metaphor. One can [End Page 665] also consult the METALUDE database: https://www.ln.edu.hk/lle/cwd/project01/web/introduction.html.

From the perspective of conceptual metaphor theory, then, the study of Homeric metaphor should go beyond both metaphorical expressions, such as "rosy-fingered dawn," that do not stem from a conceptual metaphor as well as vivid metaphors, such as "the sky trumpeted" (Iliad 21.388), that deflect our attention from the prevalence of metaphor in more run-of-the-mill formulations. Zanker queries the following target domains: TIME (in chapter 2); SPEECH (in chapter 3); and MIND, THOUGHT, INTENTION, and SELF (in chapter 4).

The introductory chapter offers a primer on conceptual metaphor theory. Particularly valuable is the placement of conceptual metaphor theory vis-à-vis the trendy (and more complicated) blending approach to metaphor and an assessment of some possible shortcomings in conceptual metaphor theory. Chapter 1 provides a nimble overview of ancient and modern studies of metaphor in the Homeric epics, noting anticipations of key aspects of conceptual metaphor theory in earlier studies and surveying applications of conceptual metaphor theory in more recent work in classical studies.

Chapter 2 explores instances of the conceptual metaphor TIME IS SPACE, documenting examples of TIME IS AN EGO MOVING ALONG A PATH (we move through time toward an event) and its inverse TIME IS AN OBJECT MOVING ALONG A PATH (time moves toward us) and exploring manifestations of SEQUENCE IS POSITION ON A PATH. The final substantive section of the chapter looks at a number of other metaphors for time, such as COMPLETION IS...