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This essay traces expressions in which authors or narrators claim to or are said to kill a character, with the key question as to which ideas about storytelling the cases convey and how these ideas resemble or differ across different periods. Examples of the "poeta necans metalepsis" are found in ancient Greek literature all the way to the modern novel; however, they bear a remarkable variety of implications. Already in antiquity, we find a range of positive to outright derisory usages, which are united by the fact that they present killing as a natural and unquestioned task of authors, especially for epic poets. From the Renaissance onwards, the picture changes: Ariosto exposes the idea that a narrator should save rather than slay his characters, and in the past two centuries, narrators reflecting on their qualms about putting a character to death becomes all but the standard case. The essay works with case studies from different eras, with emphasis on early usages in antiquity, which are analyzed according to the principles of diachronic narratology. In this way, the essay sheds light not only on historical concepts of storytelling but also on the motif of death in literature, which, as is argued, is not a negation of life but rather supports and defends it in various ways, for the narrator, the audience, and the characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship has drawn a contrast between modern uses of metalepsis (illogical transgressions of narrative levels), which are frequently assigned comic effects, and their ancient counterparts, which are deemed more serious. This article argues that in the case of authorial metalepsis, a way of expression presenting the narrator as bringing about the effects he describes, the comic potential was already discovered in antiquity. Case studies from Aristophanes, Plato, Horace, Juvenal, Ovid, and Lucian demonstrate how ancient authors use authorial metalepsis to evoke paradoxical scenes of interaction across different levels of representation that support a mocking presentation of other authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lucian's work De historia conscribenda not only presents reflections on how one should or should not write history, but also illustrates possible ways to represent the authorial activity of a historian (i. e. how one writes 'metahistory'). In this, two basic forms can be distinguished, both of which can be understood from a narratological perspective as metalepses. In the first case, the historian is represented as the direct originator of the action; in the second he acts as a mere observer, but one who moves spatially in and with his action. Both forms of statement stand within traditions of motifs that can be traced from antiquity through to the modern era; yet Lucian nonetheless makes an innovative contribution by inscribing value judgements into the motifs. The result is the suggestion that the historian fulfils the role of observer, while the role of originator turns out to be more apt for the poet than for the historian. This permits far-reaching conclusions to be drawn about the conception of poetry and historiography as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a fresh perspective on the representation of the Muse(s) in Pindar. Two recent studies addressing this issue have argued for a clear distinction between the epinikia and the cult songs. This paper aims to reassess this approach and to offer a different perspective on the problem, focusing on the metaphors applied to the relationship with the Muse(s). While the image as drawn by Kantzios and Maslov emerges as simplistic, some of the metaphors can be linked to the given genre because they are based on analogies to the context of performance, which also enhance the cognitive effect of the poems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although using Homeric verses, the narrator of the Homeric Centos shows a markedly higher degree of inner involvement than the narrators of the Iliad and Odyssey. With this tendency, the Centos follow the development of the epic genre, in which overt narrating becomes more and more common after Homer. More specifically, the intrusions of the narrator into the narrative establish a link to Latin biblical epic, where similar phenomena can be found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]