古代文学における予示の技法について

Abstract

The last lines of quatrains of the Nibelungenlied often predict misfortunes of the characters or the tragic ending of the story. (ex. gr. I. 6 They....were served in high honour....till their dying day, when the enmity of two noble ladies was to bring them to a sad end. tr. by A. T. Hatto). In comparison with subtle foreshadowings in modern novels, the prediction in medieval epic is straightforward. Is this a characteristic of literature in its infancy or of orally performed narratives? Going back to ancient literature, we may find a variety of foreshadowing devices, some of which predict only the results of particular actions, while others foreshadow the denouement of the whole story. The devices of prediction consist of authorial comments, dreams, similes and patadigms of mythology, while the foreshadowing techniques include prologues of Euripidean tragedies, oracles, pictures, patterning and so-called ring-composition. In this paper a preliminary collection is made of the different devices as seen in Homer, Herodotus and the ancient novels, with a view to further analysis in the future.