Rethinking Tradition Inheritance: Restoring the Individual

Abstract

Abstract: This essay is an attempt to address the phenomenon of “tradition inheritance” as a whole, but especially in the ancient world. It argues that typical, more conservative models of what individual authors can do with inherited traditions are profoundly shaped by outdated, Romantic visions of the nature of the relationship between a people and their traditions. It offers a new metaphor for thinking about this relationship, that of a “natural language,” which would help account for why many of the same stories and story elements do reappear time and time again without denying the individual creativity of authors who redeploy them in new stories. Above all, it insists on the importance of recognizing that even ancient authors were fully realized individuals, with their own idiosyncrasies, and explores the ramifications of that recognition.