Reexamining the Lille Stesichorus: about the heban Version of Stesich. PMGF 222b * Roger Aluja Universitat de Barcelona roger.aluja@gmail.com Abstract: he aim of this paper is to examine how innovative or traditional Stesichorus was in the treatment of the heban myth. Stesichorus was very well-known in Antiquity for being at the same time a very innovative author (Stesich. PMGF 193, 16-18), and a very traditional one (Stesich. PMGF TB13). In studying how Stesichorus faced the literary tradition, how much traditional or innovative he was, I was eager to contribute to the study of the tension between tradition and innovation (or personal creativity, if it is preferred), and of the inlu- ence of the Himerian poet on later writers, mainly classical tragedians. In order to achieve this main goal, I centered my research on a relatively small corpus: the Stesichorean fragments which deal with the heban myths, among which there is the Lille Papyrus, the largest re- maining fragment of his poetry. Keywords: Stesichorus, Greek lyric poetry, heban myth. I focus my work on three diferent aspects: Tiresias’ prophecy, the fate and role of Oedipus, and the identity of the ῖ қ (232). Instead of basing the mythological reconstruction on external evidence, by comparing it to other literary works, I attempt a reconstruction based mainly on internal evidence. As a secondary aim, I would like to question somehow the methodological * he paper I am presenting here is the result of the research I have been working on in the frame- work of Master and PhD program, mainly the result of the research I did for my Master thesis (“Stesi- chorus: ѳҧ and πҟ. A study of tradition and innovation in Stesichorus through the treatment of the heban myths”), where I tried to study how innovative or traditional Stesichorus was in the treatment of the heban myth. My research is supported by the scholarship FPU 2009-2321 of the Ministerio de Educación of the Spanish Government, by the research project FFI 2009-13747 led by Jaume Pòrtulas (Universitat de Barcelona), and by the research group 2009 SGR 799 led by Xavier Riu (Universitat de Barcelona). For valuable suggestions and comments, I am grateful to Jaume Pòrtulas, Xavier Riu, Jesús Carruesco and Camillo Neri. All mistakes remain mine.