"Reading" Greek Death

Author: Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198150695
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
This book offers a series of in-depth studies of the beliefs, attitudes, and rituals surrounding death in ancient Greece, from the Minoan and Mycenean period to the end of the classical age. Drawing on a wide range of evidence--from literary texts, to inscriptions, to images in art--Sourvinou-Inwood sheds light on many key, still problematic, aspects of Greek life, myth, and literature. She also looks at the problem of "reading" this material within the context of our own culturally-determined beliefs.

"Reading" Greek Death

Author: Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198150695
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 516

Get Book

Book Description
This book offers a series of in-depth studies of the beliefs, attitudes, and rituals surrounding death in ancient Greece, from the Minoan and Mycenean period to the end of the classical age. Drawing on a wide range of evidence--from literary texts, to inscriptions, to images in art--Sourvinou-Inwood sheds light on many key, still problematic, aspects of Greek life, myth, and literature. She also looks at the problem of "reading" this material within the context of our own culturally-determined beliefs.

Death in the Greek World

Death in the Greek World PDF Author: Maria Serena Mirto
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780806141879
Category : Death in literature
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Examines ancient Greek conceptions of death and the afterlife In our contemporary Western society, death has become taboo. Despite its inevitability, we focus on maintaining youthfulness and well-being, while fearing death's intrusion in our daily activities. In contrast, observes Maria Serena Mirto, the ancient Greeks embraced death more openly and effectively, developing a variety of rituals to help them grieve the dead and, in the process, alleviate anxiety and suffering. In this fascinating book, Mirto examines conceptions of death and the afterlife in the ancient Greek world, revealing few similarities-and many differences-between ancient and modern ways of approaching death. Exploring the cultural and religious foundations underlying Greek burial rites and customs, Mirto traces the evolution of these practices during the archaic and classical periods. She explains the relationship between the living and the dead as reflected in grave markers, epitaphs, and burial offerings and discusses the social and political dimensions of burial and lamentation. She also describes shifting beliefs about life after death, showing how concepts of immortality, depicted so memorably in Homer's epics, began to change during the classical period. Death in the Greek World straddles the boundary between literary and religious imagination and synthesizes observations from archaeology, visual art, philosophy, politics, and law. The author places particular emphasis on Homer's epics, the first literary testimony of an understanding of death in ancient Greece. And because these stories are still so central to Western culture, her discussion casts new light on elements we thought we had already understood. Originally written and published in Italian, this English-language translation of Death in the Greek World includes the most recent scholarship on newly discovered texts and objects, and engages the latest theoretical perspectives on the gendered roles of men and women as agents of mourning. The volume also features a new section dealing with hero cults and a new appendix outlining fundamental developments in modern studies of death in the ancient Greek world. Volume 44 in the Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture Maria Serena Mirto is Associate Professor of Classical Philology, Department of Classics, University of Pisa, Italy. A. M. Osborne holds an MA in Modern and Medieval Languages from the University of Cambridge, and an MA with distinction in Literary Translation from the University of East Anglia. A resident of the United Kingdom, she currently translates both academic and literary texts.

Lucian, on the Death of Peregrinus

Lucian, on the Death of Peregrinus PDF Author: C. T. Hadavas
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781500303099
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Lucian's On the Death of Peregrinus is an excellent text for students who have completed the first year of college-level Ancient Greek or its equivalent. Its length is relatively short, its syntax is generally straightforward, and its narrative is inherently interesting, for it recounts the life of a man who was so determined to establish a new religious cult to himself that he committed suicide at the Olympic Games in 165 CE by self-immolation. Lucian, an eyewitness to this event, depicts Peregrinus as a glory-obsessed impostor who began his career as an adulterer, pederast, and parricide before becoming a leader of the Christian Church, a Cynic philosopher, and an aspiring “divine guardian of the night.” Also of interest to readers today is that Lucian's text contains some of the earliest and most interesting comments made by a member of the Greco-Roman educated elite concerning Jesus and the Christians of the 2nd century CE.This edition includes detailed grammatical, syntactical, literary, historical, and cultural notes. Complete vocabulary is provided for each section of the text, with a glossary of all words at the end.

Who Killed Homer?

Who Killed Homer? PDF Author: Victor Davis Hanson
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1893554260
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
With advice and informative readings of the great Greek texts, this title shows how we might save classics and the Greeks. It is suitable for those who agree that knowledge of classics acquaints us with the beauty and perils of our own culture.

Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry

Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry PDF Author: Emily Vermeule
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520034051
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
The ancient Greeks devoted a significant portion of their poetic and artistic energy to exploring themes of death. Vermeule examines the facts and fictions of Greek death, including burial and mourning, visions of the underworld, souls and ghosts, the value of heroic death in battle, the quest for immortality, the linked powers of death, sleep, and love, and more.

The Harp of Death

The Harp of Death PDF Author: Lucy Coats
Publisher: Orion Children's Books
ISBN: 9781444000726
Category : Children's stories
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Meet the Snake Giants, Atalanta, Ixion and Orpheus in the book of Greek beasts and heroes.

Reading Greek

Reading Greek PDF Author: Joint Association of Classical Teachers. Greek Course
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521698510
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 29

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Book Description
Second edition of best-selling one-year introductory course in ancient Greek for students and adults. This volume contains a narrative adapted entirely from ancient authors in order to encourage students rapidly to develop their reading skills. The texts and numerous illustrations also provide a good introduction to Greek culture.

The Classical Greek Reader

The Classical Greek Reader PDF Author: Kenneth John Atchity
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195123034
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
The wonders of the Greek world are presented in a modern, accessible manner, perfect for those looking to refresh their acquaintance with the classics and for those who have yet to explore the exciting intellectual energy of ancient Greece. Atchity focuses not only on the big names but also on the less-familiar voices--the women, doctors, storytellers, herbalists, and romance writers of the time. 43 photos.

Hades Speaks!

Hades Speaks! PDF Author: Vicky Alvear Shecter
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press
ISBN: 1629792810
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
Hades, god of the dead, welcomes readers on a dangerous tour of his underworld kingdom, filled with monsters, furies, giants, and vampire demons. Along the way, he reveals ancient death rites and sinister curses, tells hair-raising stories, and cracks jokes to die for. With his witty voice and ghoulish sense of humor, Hades is the perfect guide through this fresh and imaginative work of nonfiction that reads like a novel. Includes a glossary, bibliography, and index.

Thinking of Death in Plato's Euthydemus

Thinking of Death in Plato's Euthydemus PDF Author: Gwenda-lin Grewal
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192849573
Category : Death
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Thinking of Death places Plato's Euthydemus among the dialogues that surround the trial and death of Socrates. A premonition of philosophy's fate arrives in the form of Socrates' encounter with the two-headed sophist pair, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, who appear as if they are the ghost of the Socrates of Aristophanes' Thinkery. The pair vacillate between choral ode and rhapsody, as Plato vacillates between referring to them in the dual and plural number in Greek. Gwenda-lin Grewal's close reading explores how the structure of the dialogue and the pair's back-and-forth arguments bear a striking resemblance to thinking itself: in its immersive remove from reality, thinking simulates death even as it cannot conceive of its possibility. Euthydemus and Dionysodorus take this to an extreme, and so emerge as the philosophical dream and sophistic nightmare of being disembodied from substance. The Euthydemus is haunted by philosophy's tenuous relationship to political life. This is played out in the narration through Crito's implied criticism of Socrates-the phantom image of the Athenian laws-and in the drama itself, which appears to take place in Hades. Thinking of death thus brings with it a lurid parody of the death of thinking: the farce of perfect philosophy that bears the gravity of the city's sophistry. Grewal also provides a new translation of the Euthydemus that pays careful attention to grammatical ambiguities, nuances, and wit in ways that substantially expand the reader's access to the dialogue's mysteries.