Morts, tombeaux et cultes des poètes grecs

The most famous poets of Ancient Greece have been honoured and worshipped throughout Antiquity. Our study of this cultural phenomenon relies on a new corpus of documents about Homer, Hesiod, Archilochus, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The traditional narratives about the poets draw a portrait of extraordinary men, who die in a violent or marvellous way, and deserve the attention of the community. The graves were the most important places to commemorate the dead poets, but various kinds of cults are also known, different from a poet to another, or from a period to another. Our study is an attempt to make clear the various attitudes of the ancient Greeks to their poets, but also to explain them, taking mostly into account the commentaries of the ancient authors. It appears that the place given to their works in the society, as a basement for culture and education, but also a certain type of patriotism, have deeply influenced the treatment of the ancient poets.